CHAPTER 6.2 Class NotesFeudalism

I. FEUDALISMA. After Charlemagne’s empire fell,

landowning nobles became more powerful, and peasants looked to nobles for protection. Under the system known as feudalism, landowning nobles governed and protected the people in return for services, such as serving as a soldier or farming the nobles’ land.

B. Nobles were both lords and vassals. A vassal was a noble who served a lord of a higher rank. A vassal showed his loyalty by serving in his lord’s army, and the lord granted the vassal land in exchange. The land granted to a vassal was called a fief (FEEF). Vassals governed their own fiefs.

C. Knights were vassals who fought in war on horseback. They wore coats of armor called mail.

D. If a nobleman went off to war his wife or daughter would manage the manor.

E. Most peasants were serfs, which meant they could not leave the manor, own property, or marry without the lord’s approval. Lords had a duty to protect serfs.

MANOR HOUSES OF EUROPE

F. To gain freedom, a serf could run away and remain in town for a year. Then he or she would be considered free. By the end of the Middle Ages, many serfs could buy their freedom.

G. New technology increased crop production in the Middle Ages:

wheeled plow

horse collar

water and wind mills

crop rotation

II. LIFE IN FEUDAL EUROPE

A. Knights followed rules called the code of Chivalry.

B. The code required knights to be brave, obey their lords, show respect to women of nobility, and honor and help the church.

C. A castle was the center of the manor. Castles had two parts: a human-made or natural steep hill called a motte, with an open space called a bailey next to the motte. The central building of the castle, called the keep, was built on the motte.

Motte and Bailey Castle

WINDSOR CASTLE (Motte and Bailey castle)

D. The castle keep contained a basement, kitchens, stables, a great hall, chapels, toilets, and bedrooms.

E. Peasants lived in simple cottages with walls of plastered clay and thatched roofs. Cottages of poor peasants had one room: better cottages had separate rooms for cooking and sleeping

F. Peasants worked hard in the fields year-round. They did not work on Catholic feast days, about 50 days a year.

G. Peasant women had to work the fields and raise children.

H. Bread was a basic staple of the peasant diet. Peasants also ate vegetables, milk, nuts, and fruit.

III. TRADE AND CITIES

A. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, almost all trade ended. Most people did not leave their villages.

B. Feudalism and technology helped promote trade. Increased trade made towns larger, and several cities, such as Venice in Italy and towns in Flanders, which is today a part of Belgium, became wealthy. Northern European merchants trade with Asian merchants in trade fairs.

C. In the early Middle Ages, people bartered, but later, people began using money again.

D. Often, towns were under the control of the lords. In exchange for taxes, the lords granted townspeople basic rights, such as the freedom to buy and sell property and serve in the army.

E. Eventually, towns set up their own governments, with elected members of city councils. Members of wealthy families were usually able to control elections.

F. Guilds, or business groups, were established by the craftspeople. Guilds set standards for quality in products, determined how many products would be sold, set prices for products, and decided who would enter the trade.

G. A child of 10 could become an apprentice. Apprentices learned a trade from a master craftsperson. An apprentice eventually became a journeyman and then a master.

Medieval guild badge

Mr. Mispagel’s Top 10Castles

Favorite castles that I have visited

10. Cashel Castle - Cashel, Ireland

9. Beaumaris Castle - Beaumaris,Wales

8. Tantallon - North Berwick, Scotland

7. Conwy Castle - Conwy, Wales

6. Caerlaverock Castle - Dumfries, Scotland

5.Segovia Castle - Segovia, Spain

4. Eileen Donan Castle - Kyle of Localash, Scotland

3. Campbell Castle - Dollar, Scotland

2.Olite Castle - Olite, Spain

1. Windsor Castle - Windsor, England

CASTLE DRAWING CONTEST

Find one medieval castle – research it and write a page summary about it and that will be the castle you will draw in our castle drawing contest.