Feudalism Tuesday 3/25/14 AGENDA: 1.Journal 2.Feudalism Notes (#39) 3.Pop VOCAB quiz (#38) 4.Feudal Story (#40) 5.BINDER CHECK!!!

Journal 3/26 (block2) Journal: What are some characteristics of the Early Middle Ages? – What main empire influenced them? – What religion did they begin to adopt? – From what tribes did they inherit their customs?

Early Middle Ages Nomadic and semi-nomadic groups, such as the Angles and Saxons, Vikings, Magyars, and Muslims raided throughout Europe, increasing instability. Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, only the Frankish kingdom provided any sort of stability.

The Angles and Saxons invaded modern England and established several small kingdoms around 500 AD. The Angles and Saxons

The Vikings The Vikings were a Germanic group who lived around the fjords of Scandinavia. –Fjord – a narrow bay with steep sides, created by a glacier.

The weather was cold and farming difficult, so Vikings raided neighboring areas for food and wealth.

Vikings Vikings used their longships to conquer their neighbors The ships were strong enough to travel on the ocean, but shallow enough to travel up rivers. 9

The Vikings also traded along the rivers throughout Europe, traveling as far as Russia, Constantinople and Italy.

Vikings Viking groups also colonized Iceland, Greenland and North America (briefly). Gradually, Vikings converted to Christianity and the global temperature increased, allowing for more farming. These events caused a decline in Viking raids by around the year 1200.

Magyars The Magyars were a nomadic group who moved from Central Asia to present day Hungary in Eastern Europe. The Magyars were excellent horsemen who raided isolated villages and captured slaves. They did not establish permanent settlements.

Muslims Even though the Muslims were defeated at the Battle of Tours in 732 AD, they continued to raid Mediterranean islands and the Southern coast of Europe. The Mediterranean Sea became a “Muslim lake” until the 1500s

Feudalism Fearing the invasion from barbarian tribes, many people agreed to protection arrangements with landowners – this system was called feudalism –Feudalism – a social and economic system in the Middle Ages where the king and nobles were at the top, knights in the middle and peasant farmers at the bottom.

Villages Each medieval village was mostly Self-sufficient They farmed their own food, chopped their own firewood, quarried their own stones, etc. –Self-sufficient - not requiring aid from anyone else

Lords A wealthy landowner (lord) would grant land (a fief) to lower class people (vassals). The vassals would farm the land and give a portion of their crops to the lord in exchange for protection.

The lord controlled the land, made decisions for the people and lived in a large manor house.

Larger manors built castles to defend against raids and neighboring land-owners.

As castles grew in size and strength, vassals began to depend more on the lord for protection, which strengthened the feudal system.

Knights Knights were full-time warriors hired by the lord to help protect the villages. They would lead the army in times of war.

Knights Knights were loyal only to their lord and received special favors, like land ownership and titles, in exchange. Knights only made up a small part of the army in times of war. –Horses, armor and weapons were expensive to buy and maintain.

Tournaments and games like jousting and sword fighting were used to train knights.

Vassals The vassals had few rights and were dependent on the lord for protection and land. –Vassal – someone who received land grants from a lord. Many vassals were serfs. –Serf – People who could not lawfully leave the place they were born and were forced to work on that land

Serfs had few rights. –They had to farm the lord’s land or give him a share of their crops. –They had to pay taxes to grind grain. –Marriages had to be approved by the lord (and were then taxed).

Serfs In times of war, serfs were expected to perform military service for the landowner. –They were given basic training and equipment. Most serfs lived, worked and died within 25 miles of where they were born. Most were illiterate. Life was short and hard for serfs (average life expectancy was years). About 1/3 of children died.

Serfs To help explain the hard nature of life and give them hope for the future, most serfs turned to the Christian church. The feudal villages were organized by social class, with the lord living away from the vassals.

Social classes were very clearly defined. People never married out of their social class.

Most people accepted their class in life because of their strong Christian belief that God had put them in that social class for a reason.