The events which led to the decline of the feudal system. The emergence of the Medieval Feudal System of the Middle Ages affected all spheres of Medieval society: a land-based economy, the judicial system and the rights of the feudal lords under the feudal system and the lack of rights for the serfs and peasants.

The pyramid of power which was the Feudal system ran to a strict 'pecking' order - during the Medieval period of the Middle Ages everyone knew their place. Life lived under the Medieval Feudal System, or Feudalism, demanded that everyone owed allegiance to the King and their immediate superior.įeudalism had a dramatic effect on England and Europe during the Middle Ages. King William the Conqueror used the concept of feudalism to reward his Norman supporters for their help in the conquest of England. The system and structure of feudalism had been well established in Europe for some time and the Normans imposed feudalism in England.įeudalism was based on the exchange of land for military Use of the terms associated with feudum to denote the essential characteristics of the early Middle Ages has invested the fief with exaggerated prominence and placed undue emphasis on the importance of a special mode of land tenure to the detriment of other, more significant aspects of social, economic, and political life.Feudalism in England was established by William the Conqueror and the Normans following the defeat of the English Anglo Saxons at They were derived from the Latin words feudum (“fief”) and feodalitas (services connected with the fief), both of which were used during the Middle Ages and later to refer to a form of property holding. The expressions féodalité and feudal system were coined by the beginning of the 17th century, and the English words feudality and feudalism (as well as feudal pyramid) were in use by the end of the 18th century. They refer to what those who invented them perceived as the most significant and distinctive characteristics of the early and central Middle Ages. Feudalism and the related term feudal system are labels invented long after the period to which they were applied. Feudalism, also called feudal system or feudality, French féodalité, historiographic construct designating the social, economic, and political conditions in western Europe during the early Middle Ages, the long stretch of time between the 5th and 12th centuries.

Feudalism pyramid