2.01 Medieval Hierarchy

Big Ideas

1. Why was the Middle Ages period once referred to as the "Dark Ages"? 2. What is the system of manorialism and how did it develop in medieval Europe? 3. What was the social hierarchy in the feudal system? Describe each class. 4. How could a man or woman improve his or her social status? 5. What are the three orders of medieval society? Describe each. 6. What was the relationship between the Church and feudal states?

Knights

As a knight, you are part of the warrior class. You protect the king's land and fight in his wars. Don't worry though, you get land as a reward for faithful service and loyalty (of course, along with paying taxes to the king and 10% of your income to the Church).

Nobles

As a noble, you receive your land as a grant from the king in exchange for loyalty and taxes. But how do you get money to pay these taxes? Simple! Grant some of your land to lesser lords and vassals in exchange for loyalty and taxes. You may have to fight other nobles for prominence or land, and, like the king, you also give 10% of your income to the Church.

Peasants

As a serf, you work hard. It is your job to perform the labor required to keep the feudal system functioning. Feeling pressured? You should, as you are a valuable source of income for your lord. The lord controls everything you do. But don't worry, he also protects you in case any pesky invaders come around. Oh, and don't forget, you also need to give 10% of any food or supplies you receive to the Church.

King

At the top was the king. In the early Middle Ages, the king was not actually very powerful. People were used to the protection of the Roman Empire, and now, as king, you have to find a way to protect your lands on your own. So, you grant large amounts of land to the nobility. In return, they provide knights in your service. Later, you gain more power as Europe begins to organize itself into modern nation-states. Even as king, loyalty (and at least 10% of your income) was owed to God and the Church.

cathedrals:

Christian churches that contain the seat of a bishop, this serving as the central church of a diosese

Tithing

Imagine a medieval cathedral, with soaring ceilings and huge stained glass windows. In an era when most homes were built with mud and straw, and even castles were more modest and functional than imagined today, cathedrals and other churches were built to last. Using quality materials and sometimes requiring hundreds of years of labor, the construction of a medieval cathedral was an extremely expensive endeavor. These efforts were only possible because the Church was very wealthy, due in part to the practice of tithing. All Christians, be they lords or serfs, owed 10 percent of their income to the Church each year. For serfs, the tithe took the form of seeds, crops, or livestock. These items were used to feed village priests and vicars and to sustain the lower clergy. Lords and kings tithed gold and other wealth to the Church. Another source of wealth was the Crusades. These holy wars brought gold, treasure, and innovations into Western Christendom. People living during the Middle Ages also had to pay for ceremonial practices, such as baptisms and burials, which brought money to the Church. In addition, the Church did not have to pay any taxes to the government. This saved the Church a lot of money every year. The wealth of the Church was reflected in the architecture. The cathedrals and monasteries of the time demonstrated the Church's riches.

Women in the Middle Ages

Imagine a world where women have very little opportunity to change their position in society. In fact, women in the Middle Ages of all social levels had few opportunities for education or advancement. They had only two real options available to them: marriage or the Church. Becoming a nun in the Church would sometimes allow a girl to receive a limited education. But most women had to marry to change or maintain their social standing. A single woman's position was tied to her father's; a married woman's position was tied to her husband's. In order to attract a good husband, a girl's parents would offer a dowry, consisting of money or property. When a girl married, her husband received her dowry. Although the money involved in a woman's dowry came with her into a marriage, it was not her own money and she herself could not inherit from her parents. According to the system of primogeniture, in which firstborn sons inherited title and property, even firstborn daughters of wealthy nobles had to marry to secure their position.

Structure of Feudal Society

In the United States today, most people like to claim that they are part of the "middle class." This label is so common that many people who are either in higher or lower classes still use the label "middle class." This desire to claim to be part of the middle class demonstrates how important this idea is in America today. This was not the case in medieval Europe. In the feudal structure, there was no middle class. The upper class consisted of wealthy, powerful people and the lower class included citizens like impoverished farmers working someone else's land. There was no middle ground. Yet the social classes were not rigid. This means that if someone worked hard to earn enough money or power, he or she could advance to the upper class. However, this transition was very unlikely. In American politics today, some people talk about how the wealthiest one percent of Americans possesses an ever-increasing percentage of the nation's wealth. But in medieval Europe, the wealthiest percentage of the population owned 100 percent of the land and wealth. Can you image how different life would be for you if this were the case now? To better understand how the feudal structure worked, imagine medieval Europe as a pyramid. At the very top of the pyramid is the king, a monarch who inherited ultimate control over the lands of his kingdom. Just one step below the king was the nobility, including lords or barons, who were granted large areas of land to control as they wished. In return, the nobles were expected to pay taxes to the king and to provide knights who would fight in the king's military. Each noble had in his service a number of vassals, who pledged fealty to their lord. The vassals were obliged to protect the lord's lands. Many vassals were knights, members of a trained warrior class, who also served in the king's army in international wars. In return for his allegiance, a vassal was granted a tract of land called a fief, which he could use as he saw fit. It is a common mistake to assume that all lords were powerful and all vassals were not powerful. In reality, there was a wide spectrum of power in this system. Any one man might be the vassal of one lord while he himself was lord to several of his own vassals. Power was relative, dependent on the size of an individual's manor and army.

Social Mobility for Men

Options for social mobility in the Middle Ages were limited. If you were born a serf, you were likely to die a serf. But if you were lucky enough to be born a noble, then you had a few more options available. As explained in the previous screen, villeins were tied to the land. If the son of a serf were to aspire to become a blacksmith, he would have to buy his freedom from the lord. This was nearly impossible, however, as serfs did not receive wages. A free tenant farmer had more freedom, but he had to work very hard to make his land produce enough to both feed his family and pay his rent. The firstborn son of a landed noble had the best prospects. Under a system called primogeniture, land and titles were inherited by the eldest son (or other male heir). Primogeniture continued to exist in parts of Europe into the 20th century. An eldest son needed only to wait for his father to die in order to come into his property or fortune. Younger sons of nobles had to find their own ways to gain land. One option was joining the military. Young boys also trained as squires, assisting knights. If a boy succeeded in becoming a knight, he could hope to win a fortune in foreign wars or crusades and purchase his own land. A knight could also rise in power in the military until he was granted land or title. Another option for younger sons was apprenticeship. Boys would train and often live with a master of a trade, such as a carpenter, blacksmith, or cobbler. When he finished his apprenticeship, a new tradesman could practice his craft and earn a living. If he was successful in his trade, he could take on apprentices himself. Finally, men could join the Church as priests or monks. Clergymen enjoyed respect and special status. Bishops and abbots generally came from the nobility, and they had comfortable lives. Peasants who entered the Church worked as village priests and were often wage earners, conducting services for a fee.

Chruch

The Church is the center of all medieval life and considered by most to be the highest authority. As a monk or nun, you live in a monastery or convent and share everything with your fellow monks and nuns. You never marry, and you devote your entire life to service of God and the Church. The income received from kings, nobles, knights, and peasants supports you, and you receive a detailed education in literature, art, and music.

What Were the Middle Ages?

The history of Europe had a similar period. For Europeans, the decline of the Roman Empire in the fifth century was the end of an era of innovation and protection. One thousand years later, Europe began another era of achievement, known as the Renaissance. But what happened in between? Did time just stop? Did people just wait around for the next great era? As strange as it sounds, at one time people actually thought the answer to these questions was "yes." Because of this, the centuries between the decline of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Renaissance were once known as the Dark Ages. This time period is considered dark because only a limited written record survived to shine light on the time bridging the two better documented eras of the Romans and the Renaissance. First, true Christianity was distorted so the light of the glorious gospel and its transforming power was not adequately shaping the affairs and times of man. Also, only a limited written record survived to shine light on the time bridging the two better-documented eras of the Romans and the Renaissance. The Renaissance thinkers wanted to draw a clear connection between their own time and the great learning of Ancient Greece and Rome. To do this, they had to ignore the long period of time that fell in between. Today, we understand a lot more about the practices and achievements of this period, and it is no longer considered appropriate to call it the Dark Ages. Instead, we call the fifth to 15th centuries the Middle Ages or the Medieval period. As you'll discover in this lesson, time certainly didn't stop. In fact, there was quite a lot going on at this time.

Those Who Work: The Serfs

The king, his nobles, and their vassals were a small subset of the medieval population, and they lived lives of relative comfort. The rest of the rural medieval population consisted primarily of serfs. But not all serfs were equal. Some serfs were freemen who rented land from a lord as tenants. They paid for the use of the lord's land, but otherwise were not bound to the land or obligated to any other duties. The majority of serfs, however, were villeins. They received a small parcel of land but did not own it. A family of serfs worked land on behalf of their lord. Some were sharecroppers, owing most of their produce to the lord as a fee for use of the land. Others spent half the week working lands for the lord and the other half of the week tending to their own small farms to feed their families. Villeins had very little freedom. Their legal status was roughly equivalent to that of a slave. A villein did not receive wages. He had to ask his lord for permission to marry or to travel, and he was subject to the lord's laws and taxes. Unlike the enslaved people of other eras, including the Roman Empire and the American South, a villein could not be bought and sold between lords. However, the villein was legally little more than property. If the entire estate was sold, the villeins went with it. Although life was hard for serfs, nobles generally ensured that their serfs would be able to survive. Serfs were a valuable source of labor and income for their lords, and it was in a lord's best interest to keep his serfs happy and healthy. The most unstable positions were held by landless peasants. Although a serf did not own land, he could inherit land from a villein or become a lord's tenant. If he did not have such an arrangement, he was forced to travel between the villages of the landed villeins in search of work.

Those Who Fight: The Knights

The knight in shining armor is one of the most enduring images of the Middle Ages. Perhaps you have seen movies about knights in the past, or maybe you read fairy tales about knights as a young child. The Western imagination is full of noble knights, protecting fair maidens and promoting the glory of their king and God. This version of knighthood is romanticized, but knights were in fact a major part of medieval society. Military service was the primary form of occupation for men above the status of serf. Knights had to provide their own equipment, including armor, a horse, a sword, a helmet, and a shield. This was expensive and prohibited men of lower classes from becoming full knights. The process of becoming a knight was long. A young boy would enter into training as a page, assisting his father or other knights. In adolescence, the boy would become a squire, bearing weapons for a professional knight. When the young man had proven himself and had amassed the funds necessary to purchase his equipment, he would be knighted. Sometimes this involved great ceremony. One common method for a young man to become a knight is the accolade, in which the lord taps the new knight on the shoulder with the flat of a sword. Today, we also use the phrase "bestowing accolades" to mean honoring or rewarding a person's achievements. Have you ever heard someone say, "Chivalry is dead"? When someone says this, he or she means that some men have stopped behaving in a way that shows the utmost respect to women. This was not the case for medieval knights. Knights followed a code of conduct called chivalry that dictated honorable behavior for a warrior. Over the course of the Middle Ages, this code also came to be associated with Christianity. The ideal knightly behavior included protecting and respecting the Church, respecting one's lord, and helping the weak and the poor. In the late Middle Ages, knighthood faded in importance. When previously a minimum number of days in a lord's service (usually 40) sufficed as a knight's payment for his lands, longer Crusades and foreign wars required extended terms of service. Sometimes, lords forced their vassals to be dubbed knights. But by the end of the Middle Ages, the bulk of the military consisted of mercenary soldiers, or warriors for hire, with the minority of knights now an officer class. In the modern era, knighthood has became a symbol of an idealized past. The conferring of knighthoods remains a practice of monarchies today, although it long ago shed its Christian and military associations—now, knighthood is an honor that a monarch can bestow at will. View the slideshow to explore the idea of knighthood through the centuries.

Feudal Construction

The people who lived in medieval Europe did not describe their land-use system as feudalism. In fact, the word "feudalism" did not enter the English language until relatively recently. Today, we use the term to describe the system of land use common in medieval Europe. In this system, powerful noblemen controlled the land and exchanged protection for the labor or service of their subjects. The word feudalism is derived from the Latin feudum, or "fief." Fiefs were tracts of land that powerful people leased to less powerful people. These land grants were the foundation of the rural medieval social structure. A fief was not just land, however. Fiefs functioned like small villages. A fief included a manor or castle at the center, smaller homes for the laborers who lived there, land for farming, woods, and streams for fishing. Fiefs were similar to plantations found in the American South during the period of slavery. Plantations centered on the owner's home, or the main house, and smaller living areas were set aside for the slaves living on the plantation. Land on the plantation was set aside for farming and raising animals. While plantations and fiefs had some differences, comparing the two social structures may help you imagine what fiefs were like. It is important to note that the modern idea of feudalism is a historical construction. In the Middle Ages, no lord ever sat at a round table and proposed that all the people in the land adopt a system called feudalism. There was no standard system at all. Every fief represented a contract between individuals, with plenty of inconsistencies and exceptions. The fief became the focal point for personal identity. Here is another example of how the Fall created social classes. Owners of the land had more freedom and money. Serfs were bound to work the land and reap few benefits from the land. Believers in Christ recognize that the world is not their home, and they are heirs to a heavenly home no matter how the world attempts to classify them. Historians in the 16th and 17th centuries were the first people to describe medieval land use as feudalism. These historians were influenced by contemporary scientific efforts to organize the natural world. Historians focused on common trends in the political arrangements of the Middle Ages. They developed the concept of feudalism and applied it to the Middle Ages after the fact. It is important to remember that people have different motivations for organizing history.

Those Who Pray: The Church

While a powerful king was at the top of the social hierarchy, with all the lords and nobles as his vassals, the Middle Ages were a deeply religious period. In the Christian hierarchy, even a king was not the highest authority. A king held his lands as vassal to God. A king owed fealty to God just as the king's lords owed fealty to him. At this time, the Catholic Church was the only church in Western Europe. The pope, at the Vatican in Rome, was the highest member of the Church. Because it was believed that God spoke through the pope, his authority was higher than that of kings. There were many kings of varying degrees of power, but there was one pope and, in theory, he ruled over them all. For much of the Middle Ages, most kings and emperors were crowned by the pope. In practice, the relationship between the Church and the budding states was more complicated. The Church was extremely wealthy, far wealthier than most kingdoms. But kingdoms supplied armies for the Church's crusades. The power dynamic between the Church and the kings shifted over the course of the Crusades. And just as the power of kings varied over the centuries, so too did the power of the papacy. There were long periods of the Middle Ages when the ruling families of Rome battled constantly over control of the corrupt papacy. For much of the Middle Ages, people who called themselves Christians had lost their way. Many churches and leaders during this era were not only altering the true gospel message and withholding Scripture from the average person, but they were also identifying themselves more with money than anything else. Matthew 6:24 states that it is not possible to serve both God and money. Moving further away from God and closer to money, churchmen became corrupt and self-serving. Within the Church there were other hierarchies. The Church included the clergy, people such as priests and monks who had devoted their lives to the Church, and the laity, or ordinary baptized Christians. Some members of the clergy were more powerful than others. Directly beneath the pope were the cardinals, archbishops, and bishops. These were powerful positions for educated men, who were generally born into nobility. Men of more modest backgrounds became priests, whose authority extended only to their parish. Other men and women lived as monks and nuns in monastic communities, separated from the secular world. Monasteries and convents represented another new form of land use in the Middle Ages. While manorialism emphasized private land, monks and nuns held their land and property communally, sharing it for the use of the entire order. This is similar to the practice of maintaining open fields in manorial villages. In short, the Church controlled every aspect of life during this period. Everyone in the population believed in God and Christian ideals and held the Church and its leaders in high regard.

From Cities to Farms (to Cities Again)

With the decline of the Roman Empire came the deurbanization of Europe. Former Roman ports and trading hubs decreased in importance. Without the protection of the Romans, urban hubs became more vulnerable to attacks by Vikings, Magyars, and marauders. People spread out. Some people moved to the countryside and focused on agriculture. Small, independent economies arose, centered on large agricultural manors. This system was controlled by powerful warrior landlords, who built small armies to protect the manor. Landlords also leased out land in exchange for loyalty. Under this system, called manorialism, peasants farmed assigned strips of land in large common fields shared by the entire village. Most agricultural land was farmed according to the three-field system. This system was an innovation of the Middle Ages in which one-third of the farmland was left fallow, or unplanted, each season. The remaining fields were split between early and late crops, resulting in two harvests. This helped prevent famine by ensuring a back-up crop in case one harvest failed. Over the course of the Middle Ages, rural population growth called for common strips of land to be combined into larger private farms. Landless people moved to cities in search of work and trade. In the wake of the Crusades, global trade was reintroduced, prompting the growth of a lingua franca, or a common language used for international business. Cities began to grow once more, and the manorial system slowly transformed into modern capitalism.

marauders:

a band of outlaws that raids and attacks villages in search of valuables

chivalry:

a code of conduct for knights, that dedicated honorable behavior

primogeniture:

a system under which land and titles were inherited by the eldest son (or other male heir)

fealty:

allegiance

capitalism:

an economic and political system in which private citizens and businesses, not the government, control the means of production in that country

three-field system:

an innovation of the Middle Ages in which 1/3 of the farmland was left fallow, or unplanted, each season

deurbanization:

decrease in the urban population as result of economic or social changes

tenants:

freemen who rented land from a lord

nobility:

lords or barons, who were granted large areas of land to control as they wished

knights:

members of a trained warrior class

dowry:

money or property offered to the potential husband of a daughter

serf:

peasants who worked on a lord's land

clergy:

people like priests and monks who have devoted their lived to the Church

vicars:

representatives of a bishop

sharecroppers:

serfs who owed most of their produce to the lord as a fee for use of the land

villein:

serfs who worked land on behalf of their lord

manoralism:

the system under which a peasant was made entirely dependent on the land and his lord

apprenticeship:

the training of boys by a master of a trade, such as a carpenter, blacksmith, or cobbler

vassals:

those who leased land from the lord and pledged fealty

romanticized:

to describe or portray in a romantic, not realistic, manner

fief:

tracts of land that powerful people leased to less powerful people

mercenary:

warriors for hire

squires:

young noblemen serving as an attendant to a knight before becoming a knight themselves