FEUDALISM is a disputed term. Not used at the time. It was invented by jurists in the Renaissance to describe the property laws and customs of the middle ages. A fief, or feudum, was land held by a man from his lord, in return for which he was to provide him with knight services and/or financial payments. Marx contrasted it to capitalism in the widest sense of that word so he inflated the term to mean the political, social, economic, and cultural system of Medieval Europe. A economic system governed not by market relationships but by custom and force. Marx and Smith both saw it as an economy and society marked by poverty, exploitation, and inequality. Squashes manorialism, feudalism, Christianity all together. What historians usually mean when the talk about FEUDALISM is aSET OF POLITICAL AND MILITARY RELATIONSHIPS that dominated most of Medieval Europe in the absence of a strong central power, either the Roman Empire or a European kingdom. Two big stages in the Political history of Europe during the Middle AgesFEUDALISM1. Decentralization c. 476, brief respite in 800, biggest around 1000. This is where the real power over anything lay in the hands of the lords of the manor. The influence of any power in the hierarchy over the other was minimal, and getting less. There were some kings, such as in France, but they were simply one lord among many, the guy at the top. 2. Centralization c. 1000-1200Things will change. PHASE 1: At its heart, feudalism is about one simple relationship.LORD to VASSALThis was a mutual relationship between honorable, free men. It was not a position of servitude, but more like a contract. When a Freeman shall do Homage to his Lord of whom he holds in Chief, he shall hold his hands together between the hands of his Lord, and shall say thus: "I become your Man from this day forth, for life, for member, and for worldly honor, and shall [owe] you Faith for the Lands that I hold of you; saving the Faith that I owe...
