Transcript Feudalism and Manorialism

Feudalism and Manorialism
Warm-up
Write a one paragraph summary
explaining which parts (3-5) of the castle
you think provided the best defense
during a siege and why you think they
were effective.
Serf Packet
• Read together
– Double entry journal
• I am Poem
– I am (2 special characteristics you have)
– I wonder (something of curiosity)
– I hear (an imaginary sound)
– I see (an imaginary sight)
– I feel (use you senses to describe an emotion or
physical reality.
– I want (an actual desire)
– I am (the first line of the poem repeated)
Manorial System
• Nobles would get a fief from the monarch.
• This fief and the area around it were used to
create manors.
• The Manor System is referred to as Manorialism.
It shaped the economy of much of Europe.
• For safety and defense, people in the Middle Ages
formed small communities around a central lord or
master.
• Most people (lords and serfs) lived on a manor,
which consisted of the castle, the church, the
village, and the surrounding farm land.
• These manors were isolated, with occasional visits
from peddlers, pilgrims on their way to the
Crusades, or soldiers from other fiefdoms.
• Ideally a manor was located along a stream or
river.
Manorial System
• People who lived on manors needed
to produce everything they needed,
including food, clothing, and shelter.
• In return for being able to work the
land, the peasants gave the lord some
of their crops (taxes) and helped to
farm his land.
Land was often divided into three large fields for growing
grain. Only two of the three fields were planted at one time.
The third field could lie fallow, or unplanted, for a season to
regain its fertility.
Peasant Life
• Peasants worked hard labor jobs and were
heavily taxed
• Children were welcomed as a source of farm
labor.
• The peasants were not free
• They could not leave the manor without
permission.
• They were not allowed to hunt on the lord’s
land so they rarely ate meat.
• Serfs had short life expectancies due to
disease, starvation, and frequent warfare.
Peasant Life
KNIGHTs
• Their role on the manor was to protect
their lord, enforce lord’s laws, and
protect the residence of the manor in
case of attack (this includes the serfs).
Noble Life
• Lords assumed the roles of judges in
carrying out the laws of the manor.
• The lord spent most of his day
managing and organizing his manor.
• Castle was his home and center of
business in the manor.
• Marriage was viewed as a way to
advance one's fortune and acquire
status and land.
Law and Justice
A feudal trial was decided one of three ways:
1. Trial by battle- could be a duel between accuser and
accused (or their representatives) in which the outcome
determined innocence or guilt.
Feudal justice
• Compurgation- oath taking. Trusted people
swore that the person they represented was
telling the truth.
• Trial by ordeal- must survive an ordeal (i.e.
carry a piece of hot iron, plunge his hand in a
pot of boiling water, or survive extended
immersion in cold water) If you live or heal
quickly you’re innocent…
Role of Women
• Women's rights regarding legal property were limited.
– A woman might have had fiefs in her dowry.
However, when she married, her husband gained
control over her dowry.
– performed household tasks such as cooking,
baking bread, sewing, weaving, and spinning.
– Other jobs medieval women might have included
merchants, apothecaries, field workers and
midwives.
• Middle or upper class women may have learned
writing, playing musical instruments, dancing, and
painting.
• Others became nuns and devoted their lives to God
and spiritual matters.
Role of Women
• Joan of Arc- French
peasant's daughter
who heard voices
telling her to protect
France against the
English invasion. She
dressed in armor and
led her troops to victory
in the early fifteenth
century. "The Maid of
Orleans" as she was
known, was later
burned as a witch.