Feudalism in Europe

 Slide 1:

1. from 800 to 1000 thanks to the Treaty of Verdun, invasions destroyed the Carolingan Empire
2. Muslims invaded and seized sicily and raided italy
3. 846 they sacked rome
4. Magyar invaders struck from the east, they terrorized germany and italy
5. and from the north came the vikings

Slide 2:

1. Vikings came from scandinavia, a wintery and heavily wooded region in northern Europe. countries are now denmark, norway and sweden.
2. they were also called norsemen (northmen) and were germanic
3. worshipped war like gods and had nicknames like Eric Bloodaxe and Thorfinn Skullsplitter
4. carried swords and wooden shields

Slide 3:

1. They would beach their ship, strike, then move out to sea again
2. gone before locals could mount a defense (early day blitzkrieg)
3. ships held 300 warriors, who took turns rowing 73 oars
4. brow of the ship swept upward and had a head of a sea monster
5. ship weighed 20 tons fully loaded
6. could sail in 3 ft of water, allowed them to row up shallow creeks to loot inland villages and monasteries

Slide 4:

1. vikings were also traders, farmers and explores
2. ventured into russia, into the north atlantic, and even across the atlantic
3. Leif Eric reached North America around 1000, 500 years before Columbus.
4. vikings gradually accepted Christianity and they stopped raiding monasteries.
5. climate also warmed made farming easier in scandinavia, as a result fewer became viking warriors

Slide 5:

1. Magyars, a group of nomadic people, attacked from the east (now known as Hungary)
2. were great on horses and attacked western europe in the late 800s, attacking isolated villages and monasteries
3. overran northern italy and reached as far as Rhineland and Burgundy.
4. they did not settle conquered land. Took captives to sell as slaves

Slide 6:

1. muslims struck from the south launching from north africa and invading through italy and spain.
2. muslims plan was to conquer and settle in europe in the 600s and 700s
3. in the 800s and 900s it was to plunder.
4. were excellent sailors and could attacked settlements on the atlantic and mediterranean coasts
5. struck as far inland as switzerland

Slide 7:

1. The invasions by the vikings, magyars and muslims caused widespread panic and suffering.
2. Most western european lived in constant danger
3. Kings could not effectively defend their lands from invasion.
4. As a result people no longer looked to central rulers for security and instead turned to local rulers who had their own armies

Slide 8:

1. 911, two former enemies faced each other in a peace ceremony
2. Rollo was head of the Viking army. Rollo had been plundering the rich Seine (Sayn) river valley for years
3. Charles the simple was king of France, but didn't have much power.
4. He gave the viking king a huge piece of French territory (normandy) in return Rollo pledged loyalty to the king

Slide 9:

1.  Invasions were the worst from 850-950 and deals similar to Charles and Rollo’s sprang up all over Europe.
2. System of governing and landowning, called feudalism emerged in europe
3. Feudalism is a political and economic system based on land ownership and personal loyalty.
4. A similar system happened in China during the Zhou Dyntasy, 11th century B.C. until 256 B.C.
5. Feudalism also happens in japan 1192 ad to 19th century

Slide 10:

1.  Feudal system was based on rights and obligations
2. In exchange for military protection and other services, a lord or landowner, granted land called a fief
3. Person receiving a fief was called a vassal
4. Charles the simple was the lord and rollo the vassal.
5. Feudalism depend on the control of what? Land
6. Thank the lord, he gave me a fief and now I’m a vassal

Slide 11:

Structure of feudal society was like a pyramid

• Peak reigned the king
• Most powerful vassals: wealthy landowners such as nobles and bishops
• Knights:mounted horsemen who pledged to defend their lords lands in exchange for fiefs
• Base of pyramid were landless peasants who worked the fields

Slide 12: 

1. In the feudal system status determined a person’s prestige and power
2. People were in three groups according to medieval writers:
3. Those who fought (nobles and knights), those who prayed (men and women of the church) and those who worked (peasants)
4. Social class was usually inherited

Slide 13:

1. Vast majority of people were peasants.
2. Most peasants were serfs
3. Serfs were people who could not lawfully leave the place where they were born
4. Bound to the land, serfs were not slaves. their lords could not sell or buy them, but their labor belonged to the lord

Slide 14:

1. Manor is the lord's estate
2. Manor system was the basic economic arrangement
3. Lord provided serfs with housing, farmland, and protection from bandits
4. In return the serfs tended the lord’s lands, cared for his animals, and performed other tasks to maintain the estate.

Slide 15:

1. Peasant women shared in the farm work with their husbands.
2. All peasants, free or ser, owed the lord certain duties
3. Included a few days of labor each week and a certain portion of their grain.

Slide 16: 

1. Peasant rarely traveled further than 25 miles from their own manor
2. Manor usually only covered a few square miles of land, typically consisted of the lord’s manor house, a church and workshops.
3. 15 to 30 families lived in the village on a manor.
4. Fields, pastures and woodlands surrounded the village
5. Sometimes a stream wound through the manor, which provided fish
6. Mill was also on the stream

Slide 17:

1. Manor was largely self sufficient
2. Serfs and peasants raised or produced nearly everything they and their lord needed for daily life
3. Cheese, milk, cloth, crops, leather goods and lumber
4. Outside purchases were salt, iron and millstone (stones to grind flour)

Slide 18:

1.  Crops grown included wheat, rye, barley, and oats
2. Veggies like peas, beans, onion and beets.

Slide 19: 

1. Peasants paid a high price.
2. Paid a tax on all grain ground in the lords mill.
3. Attempting to avoid taxes by baking bread elsewhere was a crime.
4. Peasants paid a tax on marriage. weddings could take place only with the lords consent.
5. Families also owed the church a tithe or church tax, which was 1/10th their income.  

Slide 20:

1. Serfs lived in crowded cottages, close to their neighbors and they only had one or two rooms
2. If you had two, one was the main room and used for cooking eating and household activities, second was the bedroom
3. Peasants made their dirt floor houses warm by bringing pigs inside
4. At night family would pile straw up and sleep on it (which is usually filled with bugs)

Slide 21: 

1. Peasants diet mainly consisted of vegetables, brown bread, grain, cheese and soup
2. Most serfs thought life meant mostly work
3. Lives revolved around raising crops and livestock, then taking care of home and family
4. When children were old enough they would join their family in the fields

Slide 22:

1. Many children did not survive to adulthood
2. Illness and malnutrition were constant afflictions for medieval peasants
3. Life expectancy was 35 years old
4. Serfs accept their lot in life as part of the Church’s teachings.
5. Believed god determined a person’s place in society