Vassals were responsible for the land appointed to them by the king. Sometimes knights were vassals but also did not have to be. Vassals also provided equipment for knights. Serfs who occupied a plot of land were required to work for the lord of the manor who owned that land.
A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support by knights in exchange for certain privileges, usually including land held as a tenant or fief. Paying taxes The one thing the peasant had to do in Medieval England was to pay out money in taxes or rent. He had to pay rent for his land to his lord; he had to pay a tax to the church called a tithe.
Peasants also had to work for free on church land. Most peasants at this time only had an income of about one groat per week. The technical drawings of late-medieval artist-engineers Guido da Vigevano and Villard de Honnecourt can be viewed as forerunners of later Renaissance works by people like Taccola or da Vinci. European output of printed books c.
A book is defined as printed matter containing more than 49 pages. A precursor to Renaissance art can be seen in the early 14th century works of Giotto. Giotto was the first painter since antiquity to attempt the representation of a three-dimensional reality, and to endow his characters with true human emotions.
The most important developments, however, came in 15th-century Florence. The affluence of the merchant class allowed extensive patronage of the arts, and foremost among the patrons were the Medici. There were several important technical innovations in visual arts, like the principle of linear perspective found in the work of Masaccio and later described by Brunelleschi. Greater realism was also achieved through the scientific study of anatomy, championed by artists like Donatello.
This can be seen particularly well in his sculptures, inspired by the study of classical models. In northern European countries, Gothic architecture remained the norm, and the Gothic cathedral was further embellished. In Italy, on the other hand, architecture took a different direction, also inspired by classical ideals.
In one structure, two of the most influential architectural designs in the world. The most important development of late medieval literature was the ascendancy of the vernacular languages. The vernacular had been in use in England since the 8th century and in France since the 11th century. The most popular genres of written works had been the chanson de geste, troubadour lyrics, and romantic epics, or the romance.
Though Italy was later in evolving a native literature in the vernacular language, it was here that the most important developments of the period were to come. Another promoter of the Italian language was Boccaccio with his Decameron. The application of the vernacular did not entail a rejection of Latin, and both Dante and Boccaccio wrote prolifically in Latin as well as Italian, as would Petrarch later whose Canzoniere also promoted the vernacular and is considered the first modern lyric poetry collection.
Together these three poets established the Tuscan dialect as the norm for the modern Italian language. The Black Death was an infamous pandemic of bubonic plague and one of the most devastating pandemics in human history.
In the Late Middle Ages — Europe experienced the most deadly disease outbreak in history when the Black Death, the infamous pandemic of bubonic plague, hit in The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75— million people and peaking in Europe in the years — The Black Death is thought to have originated in the arid plains of Central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road, reaching the Crimea by It was most likely carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships.
Mongol dominance of Eurasian trade routes enabled safe passage through more secured trade routes. Goods were not the only thing being traded; disease also was passed between cultures. From Central Asia the Black Death was carried east and west along the Silk Road by Mongol armies and traders making use of the opportunities of free passage within the Mongol Empire offered by the Pax Mongolica. In the autumn of , plague broke out among the besiegers and then penetrated into the town.
When spring arrived, the Italian merchants fled on their ships, unknowingly carrying the Black Death. The plague initially spread to humans near the Black Sea and then outwards to the rest of Europe as a result of people fleeing from one area to another.
While Europe was devastated by the disease, the rest of the world fared much better. In India, populations rose from 91 million in , to 97 million in , to million in Sub-Saharan Africa also remained largely unaffected by the plagues.
The most infamous symptom of bubonic plague is an infection of the lymph glands, which become swollen and painful and are known as buboes. Buboes associated with the bubonic plague are commonly found in the armpits, groin, and neck region. Gangrene of the fingers, toes, lips, and nose is another common symptom. Medieval doctors thought the plague was created by air corrupted by humid weather, decaying unburied bodies, and fumes produced by poor sanitation.
The recommended treatment for the plague was a good diet, rest, and relocating to a non-infected environment so the individual could get access to clean air. This did help, but not for the reasons the doctors of the time thought. In actuality, because they recommended moving away from unsanitary conditions, people were, in effect, getting away from the rodents that harbored the fleas carrying the infection. The masks were designed to protect them from putrid air, which was seen as the cause of infection.
The thought the only way to be rid of the plague was to be forgiven by God. The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social, and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. Christians accused Jews of poisoning public water supplies in an effort to ruin European civilization.
The spreading of this rumor led to complete destruction of entire Jewish towns, but it was caused simply by suspicion on the part of the Christians, who noticed that the Jews had lost fewer lives in the Plague due to their hygienic practices. In February , 2, Jews were murdered in Strasbourg. In August of the same year, the Jewish communities of Mainz and Cologne were exterminated.
Church lands and buildings were unaffected, but there were too few priests left to maintain the old schedule of services. Over half the parish priests, who gave the final sacraments to the dying, died themselves. The church moved to recruit replacements, but the process took time. New colleges were opened at established universities, and the training process sped up. The shortage of priests opened new opportunities for lay women to assume more extensive and important service roles in local parishes.
Flagellantism was a 13th and 14th centuries movement involving radicals in the Catholic Church. It began as a militant pilgrimage and was later condemned by the Catholic Church as heretical. The peak of the activity was during the Black Death. Flagellant groups spontaneously arose across Northern and Central Europe in , except in England. They established their camps in fields near towns and held their rituals twice a day.
The followers would fall to their knees and scourge themselves, gesturing with their free hands to indicate their sin and striking themselves rhythmically to songs, known as Geisslerlieder , until blood flowed.
Sometimes the blood was soaked up by rags and treated as a holy relic. Some towns began to notice that sometimes Flagellants brought plague to towns where it had not yet surfaced. Therefore, later they were denied entry.
The flagellants responded with increased physical penance. The Black Death had a profound impact on art and literature. After , European culture in general turned very morbid. The common mood was one of pessimism, and contemporary art turned dark with representations of death. La Danse Macabre , or the dance of death, was a contemporary allegory, expressed as art, drama, and printed work. It consisted of the personified Death leading a row of dancing figures from all walks of life to the grave—typically with an emperor, king, pope, monk, youngster, and beautiful girl, all in skeleton-state.
Such works of art were produced under the impact of the Black Death, reminding people of how fragile their lives and how vain the glories of earthly life were. The great population loss wrought by the plague brought favorable results to the surviving peasants in England and Western Europe.
Feudalism never recovered. Land was plentiful, wages high, and serfdom had all but disappeared. It was possible to move about and rise higher in life. The Black Death encouraged innovation of labor-saving technologies, leading to higher productivity. There was a shift from grain farming to animal husbandry. Grain farming was very labor-intensive, but animal husbandry needed only a shepherd, a few dogs, and pastureland. Since the plague left vast areas of farmland untended, they were made available for pasture and thus put more meat on the market; the consumption of meat and dairy products went up, as did the export of beef and butter from the Low Countries, Scandinavia, and northern Germany.
However, the upper classes often attempted to stop these changes, initially in Western Europe, and more forcefully and successfully in Eastern Europe, by instituting sumptuary laws. These regulated what people particularly of the peasant class could wear so that nobles could ensure that peasants did not begin to dress and act as higher class members with their increased wealth.
Another tactic was to fix prices and wages so that peasants could not demand more with increasing value. In England, the Statute of Labourers of was enforced, meaning no peasant could ask for more wages than they had in Plague brought an eventual end of serfdom in Western Europe.
The manorial system was already in trouble, but the Black Death assured its demise throughout much of Western and Central Europe by Severe depopulation and migration of people from village to cities caused an acute shortage of agricultural laborers. In England, more than villages were deserted between and Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. The Middle Ages in Europe. Search for:. Medieval Life Feudalism Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that was determined by the ownership of land.
Learning Objectives Recall the structure of the feudal state and the responsibilities and obligations of each level of society. Feudalism in England determined the structure of society around relationships derived from the holding and leasing of land, or fiefs.
In England, the feudal pyramid was made up of the king at the top with the nobles, knights, and vassals below him. Before a lord could grant land to a tenant he would have to make him a vassal at a formal ceremony. This ceremony bound the lord and vassal in a contract. While modern writers such as Marx point out the negative qualities of feudalism, such as the exploitation and lack of social mobility for the peasants, the French historian Marc Bloch contends that peasants were part of the feudal relationship; while the vassals performed military service in exchange for the fief, the peasants performed physical labour in return for protection, thereby gaining some benefit despite their limited freedom.
Key Terms mesne tenant : A lord in the feudal system who had vassals who held land from him, but who was himself the vassal of a higher lord. Learning Objectives Illustrate the hierarchy of the manor system by describing the roles of lords, villeins, and serfs. Key Takeaways Key Points The lord of a manor was supported by his land holdings and contributions from the peasant population. Serfs who occupied land belonging to the lord were required to work the land, and in return received certain entitlements.
Introduction: Context and Definition of a Serf A serf is a worker bound to a certain piece of land called a fief who is loyal to a vassal lord or noble above him, usually called a lord. Serfs are tied to the land they work, perform the same menial tasks each day, and receive little or no benefit for their labors. Under the feudal contract, the lord had the duty to provide the fief for his vassal, to protect him, and to do him justice in his court.
The vassal owed fealty to his lord. Feudalism in 12th-century England was among the better structured and established systems in Europe at the time. The noble that owned the land had the power to make laws and the people obeyed them. Peasants had no say in government. You are commenting using your Twitter account.
You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Serfs, on the other hand, were bowed down by lifelong, undischargeable obligations. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading Next Article Jaguars and Schools.
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