The Feudal System (Edexcel GCSE History)

How did the Feudal System Change England? - Summary

The feudal system created important social changes in England in the eleventh century. It increased the power of the king. William created a system that meant all of his subjects had to show loyalty to gain access to land. In the eleventh century, land equalled power and wealth. The financial success of a person depended on their actions towards William and their lord.

Feudalism also changed how different social classes interacted with each other. Ceorls became nearly extinct in this system. Tenants-in-chief and under-tenants made peasants entirely dependent on their local lord. Local lords also insisted upon more work from peasants. They raised the amount of resources a peasant had to grow to keep working on the land. This increased resentment between peasants and the upper classes. 

William replaced thegns with under-tenants. This class were vassals of the tenants-in-chief and lacked the powers that thegns held in the Anglo-Saxon system. This reinforced the dominance of the Normans and reduced the threat of rebellion from the class.

What is the Feudal System?

Why did William the Conqueror introduce the feudal system?

• To reduce the cost of an army

  • Maintaining an army was expensive because a monarch had to:

    • Pay soldiers a wage

    • Feed men and horses

    • Maintain and buy weapons

• The feudal system meant the responsibility to look after soldiers was on the under-tenants

  • Under-tenants gained land called fiefs

    • Fiefs required under-tenants to provide knights with the right armour and equipment to complete their duty

  • Knights gave the king 40 days of unpaid service a year

    • Tenants-in-chief ensured that knights had money at this time

• The feudal system only worked if everyone in the system met their obligations

  • For example, an under-tenant had to provide ten knights to the king. The tenant-in-chief would provide ten pieces of land for the knights to use

The Feudal Hierarchy under William the Conqueror

• William designed the feudal system so he had the most power

  • Tenants-in-chief and under-tenants swore an oath of loyalty to William 

  • Those higher up in the feudal system held people below them accountable for resources and money

  • The peasants, who did the majority of the manual labour, had very little power

The Feudal System & Tenants-in-Chief

The Feudal System & Knights

• Historians estimate that there were 6,000 knights in Norman England

• Knights had a varying degree of land and power

  • Some knights had the same amount of land as a peasant farmer

  • Other knights were powerful, highly trained nobles

    • Tenants-in-chief saw some knights as capable enough to lead other knights into battle and sit on the royal court

How did Feudalism Affect Landholding in Norman England?

• In Normandy, passing landholdings onto heirs was common practice

• William's feudal system made fundamental changes to how people gained land

  • The Anglo-Saxon system was very confusing

  • William realised that controlling land allocation gave him a lot of power

How could Someone Gain Landholdings in the Feudal System?

Relief

• When a landholder died, his heir had to pay a king money for the right to use the land

  • This is called a relief

• William used reliefs to reward loyalty

  • A faithful follower of the king paid a small relief for land

  • William threatened disruptive lords with a large relief payment that their heirs would have to pay for their land

• Reliefs made William a lot of money

  • Normans expected their heirs to inherit their land to increase their family's power

    • As a result, Normans paid the relief amount to retain their land

  • Some followers did not believe that it was right for the king to profit from land with relief payments

Homage

• Homage is a public demonstration of loyalty to a person of power

• William insisted that a tenant-in-chief had to prove their loyalty to him

• A homage ceremony involved:

  • Bowing before William 

  • Placing his hands between the king's

  • Declaring:

• Touching the Bible and promising to always be loyal to the king

• Tenants-in-chief organised similar services for under-tenants who inherited land

Labour Service

• Peasants gained land by providing manual labour to their lord

  • They could use this land to feed themselves as well as the lord

  • Peasants living in towns had to provide labour services for land out of the town

• Labour service could involve:

  • Looking after the land by ploughing, planting crops or harvesting

  • Providing the lord with a certain amount of produce each year

How could Someone Lose Landholdings in the Feudal System?

• A land-user may not fulfil their obligations such as:

  • Not providing knights for the king

  • Not paying tax for the land

  • Going against their act of homage

  • Not providing their labour service

• William could force the forfeiture of the land

  • This meant that the landholder had to return the land to the king or tenant-in-chief

  • William used this method to transfer Anglo-Saxon land to Norman followers