Public Powerand Private Relationships 2/12/07 12:56 PM

Fedualism starts to develop which describes a system of relationships in the

world of the dark age that is defined
•loyalty is gained through personal relationships
•Fideles a relationship of faithfulness, the most wealthy or powerful
person will obtain more power through other people lower than him
(vassals and lords which promise aide to the king)
oeither through fighting or kidnapping or capture during war
your vassals are responsible for raising your ransom
owhat you fgot from your lord was land or Fief, technically your
lord still owns it, he is just loaning it out
oyour lord will represent you in legal preceedings
othe fief is designed to give enough enough wealth not to have
to work
obut the vassal wants to provide for his children
owhat happens usually is when one member of the original
relationship dies then a surviving member would become the
vassal
•one of the thing about this set of relationships is that its never
satisfying and fundamentally flawed
•gradually what we see is that the land is th property of the vassal and
transfers just like regular property
•there are people who are vassals to one person and lords to another
opeople chose to be vassals to more than one lord in order o get
more land, this is obviously flawed because of conflicts of
interest
oLiege lords diminish the system
•AS more order is imposed this becomes less and less satisfying
•kings do not necessarily benefit from this system of lords and vassals,
it is just necessary
Three orders (estates) you are born into the characteristics that make you a
certain class (except the clergy) its not strictly measured by wealth. It is
what you do for society
•clergy responsible for praying for society, they rely upon god daily for
some sense of stability. In midevial Europe means that failure to
abide to the one way of Christianity means disaster for the entirety
of society they are absolutely essential the clergy do not pay taxes
•Aristocracy.Nobility- to fight for society and keep them safe. They also
do not pay taxes
•Peasantry-responsible for feeding society
Alll of these orders are bound by this mutual dependency. It is closed. And
they do not value equality. Everyone has something to contribute
most of the peasants at this time are free (at the end of the Carolingian
empire)
•over time they are goig to become increasingly dependant and
become bound to the land (serfdom)
•serfs are not owned to their person, they are tied to the land
•the landlord has thre right to make the law under his land
•over time the serfs would owe more and more to their landlord.
•you'd have t use your landlord's utilities
if you lived in a village or city, the church was the literal and figurative
center of life
•frequently the priest was the only educated person in the village
•the church is a landowner ad a taxing authority
tithing by the church
•10% of earnings req’d by the church
•in some places the church owns as much as a 1/3 to half the land
which makes them more money as landlords
•the conditions of serfdom are not less severe if the church owns the
land
A lot of this organization is designed to give people soldiers when they are
going into battle and its defined by chaos and violence
they turn to two things
•the peace of god
ono man in the counties or bishop should seize anything
oif you were exommmunicated there was a path in order to
regain favor ith the church
othe peace of god limits the violenc but it is not a fully satisfying
solution
oand the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truce_of_God
owarriors are prohibited from fighting on all holy days
oalso you were prohibited on Thursday Friday Saturday and
Sunday
•because they dont want the batteling to destroy their land
Regional Kings
English: Alfred of Wessex (871-899)
•wants to protect his people from the Danes, he levies a tax and uses
the money gained to build a navy and is able to protect the people
from the dansh invasions
•alfred and other people are going to use this against him
•peole who come after alfred kick the danes outbecause they finally
have the authority
•by this time we have a somewhat clear monarachy
•subdivisions in the country fo administrative purposes
 •powerful people in england swore fealty to the king
French: Hugh Capet (987-996)
•The people elect him and he prevents civil war
•he is annointed with holy oil because he is divinely chosen
•represents the unity under charlemagne
•he also is going to make sure that people in northern france will
swear fealty to him
•he will gain a lot of authority
2/12/07 12:56 PM
2/12/07 12:56 PM