- THE ORIGINS OF FEUDALISM
THE INVASIONS OF THE 9 TH CENTURY
After the collapse of the Carolingian Empire, Europe was divided into many small kingdoms. In the 9th century Europe faced great insecurity as a result of a new wave of invasions.
These were similar to the earlier Germanic attacks on the late Roman Empire.:
- The Vikings were from Scandinavia.viking expeditions conquered territories in Britain, France and southern Italy.
There were also Viking expeditions to Russia, Sicily and many other parts of Europe.
- The Normans in north – west France were descendants of the Scandinavian Vikings.
- The Hungarians came from western Asia. They attacked many parts of Europe before they finally settled in Eastern Europe. They were also known as the Magyars.
- Muslim raiders, based in North Africa, were a threat along the Mediterranean coast.
THE RISE OF FEUDAL LORDS
This wave of attacks weakened Royal authority. As the kings could not guarantee security they turned to nobles and church leaders for support. These feudal lords were granted geat estates. Regional power bécame concentrated in their hands. They had their own castles and personal armies.
At first, Royal grants of land were supposed to be for only a limited time, but they rapidly bécame permanent and hereditary. At the same time, the lords could offer military protection. This strengthened their power over the local population. The peasants who accepted this protection had to work fo the nobles.
A new type of rural society now developed that had its earliest origins in late Roman times. The coloni, who had worked on Roman villas, bécame serfs who worked for a single lord and were tied to the same piece of land.
THE NATURE OF FEUDALISM
Feudalism was th social, economic and political system that emerged in Europe in the 9 th century. Unde this set of customs, a lord granted a fief, or land, to his vassals in return for services and loyalty. The people who accepted these obligations were called vassals.
The King hiself was a great feudal lord who granted fiefs to leading nobles. In eturn, these lords paid homage to the King and promised him loyalty and military assistance when he needed it.
But these nobles also granted smaller fiefs to the knights who became their vasals. So vassalage bécame a network of strong personal ties across society. A knight might receive fiefs from various lords.
In practice, many feudal lords were entirely independent of Royal authority, and ruled their fiefs as if they were monarchs.
FEUDAL MONARCHIES
Feudal kings had Little effective authority because most of their territories were granted to feudal lords. They received income from their own lands, and collected taxes from a few towns.. they also had courts. But they only had full control over their own lands, and they had no direct power in the fiefs that were held by their vassals.
In wartime, a feudal monarch asked nobles to fight with their prívate armies and he might also callo n the Church for assistance. In theory, the kings and his leading vassals were all united by their feudal allegiances. But in practice there was continuous fighting between monarchs and their vassals, as well as between nobles.
- FEUDAL SOCIETY
THE THREE ESTATES
In early Medieval society each person belonged to one of three groups, or estates:
- The nobility had a military role. They were supposed to defend the opulation.
- The clergy were those who belonged to the Church. Priests and monks prayed and led a spiritual life.
- The third estate consisted mainly of peasants. Later on, increasing numbers of merchants and crafstmen also belonged to this estate.
Only the clergy were not born into an estate. The nobility and clergy had many privileges, for example, they held oficial positions and they did not pay taxes.
THE NOBILITY
Feudal nobles were dedicated o warfare. They were given military training as Young boys and carried on their military activity throughout their adult lives. By fighting in wars, they could acquire more land and greater wealth.
The upper nobility owned large fiefs and lived in castles where they were surrounded by knights. Serfs and free peasants worked for them. These leading nobles acquired hereditary titles such as Dukes, Marquess and Count. But beneath them, the knights often had Little wealth except for their horses and weapons.
THE CLERGY
The clergy played a key role in feudal society because religion was such an important part of everyone’s lives. Unlike most people in Medieval society they received an education, and they directed religious practice.
Church leaders, such as bishops, nearly always came from noble families. As well as being spiritual leaders, they were important feudal lords because the Church owned many great estates. Some churchmen were royal advisers. However, at a lower level, priests, monks and nuns led much simpler lives.
THE PEASANTS
The peasants made up the great majority of the population and lived in very harsh conditions. There were two categories:
- Free peasants. Sometimes owned small plots of land. They usually lived in villages and were free to move around or get married,
- Serfs. They were completely subject to their feudal lords. They were born, lived and died on the same piece of land.
- FEUDAL NOBILITY
KNIGHTS
The prestige of the feudal nobility was base don its role as a warrior elite. Knights fought on horseback using weapons such as laces and shields. Young boys received a long military training over many years. First, they began service as a page at the age of about eight. When they reached the age of fifteen or sixteen they bécame a squire a the service of a knight. At this stage, they learned how to use weapons and behave like knighs. Finally, they were made knights in a special ceremony.
In wartime, the nobles helped the king by providing militay assistance. They calle don the knights who were their vassals and created prívate armies. In peacetime, knights still practised their military skills. They went hunting and fought against each other in tournaments.
CASTLES
The size of a Medieval castle reflected the importance of its feudal lord. At first, castles were often small wooden constructions, but during the Middle Ages they evolved into huge Stone complexes designed for siege warfare. All the inhabitants of the fief could take refuge in it in wartime.
Castles were surrounded by defensive walls and ditches, called moats, that were filled with water. A great tower , or keep, was the nobles’ place of residence, as feasts took place in its banqueting hall. Tournaments were held in the central courtyard.
NOBLEWOMEN
Women did not have many legal rights in the Middle Ages even if they belonged to the nobility.people thought that a woman’s main role was to have children and continue the familiy lne. Women usually had many children, but some of these died in childhood.
Marriages were planned in order to strengthen the links between leading familiies and were often arranged when the future husband and wife were only children. The girls’s family had to provide a dowry, wich was the property or goods given to the husband at the time of the marriage. A noble marriage was celebrated by several days of feasting.
In general, noblewomen were better educated than their husbands, who only knew about warfae.Girls were sometimes sent to other families to learn social skills, music, dancing and riding. They bécame skilled at making clothes, and they learned about household management.
Medieval ideals were very different from the reality of everyday life. Travelling singers, called troubadours, idealised ladies in their songs. Knights were at the service of ladis, according to the ideal of courtly love, which was celebrated in literatura from the 12 th century onwards.
- FEUDAL ECONOMY
THE MANORIAL SYSTEM
The feudal economy was basically rural. There were only a few cities, with small populations. There was Little trade so the economy was self-sufficient. This meant that people lived from what they produced.
The system that regulated the relations between lords and peasants was called the manorial system, or manorialism. A manor was the feudal lord’s fief:
- The demesne was the land and resources of the manor that the feudal lordkept for his own use. It included both his castle, or manor house, and its surrounding land as well as farm houses, mills, wine and oil presses, Woods and grazing land for livestock.
- The feudal lord alsogranted small plots of land to free peasants that they farmed for themselves. However, they were required to give him part of their harvest as taxes and they had to work on his demesne.
Feudal lords exercised full authority on their manors:
- They administered justice.
- They also took decisions about the prívate lives of their serfs. For example, serfs needed permission to get married.
- Free peasants had to pray special charges to use the mill, oven and presses.
- There were tolls, or taxes, on merchnts and other travellers who crossed through their land and over their bridges.
AGRICULTURE
Work on the land was very hard. Medieval peasants could omly use basic agricultural tolos, such as scythes and ploughs.
They did not have fertilisers so they practised two – year rotation. Each year they only grew crops on half of their land and left the other half fallow. This gave the land time to recover its fertility, but as a result agricultural production was very low. The main crops were cereals for making bread.
As wel as agriculture, they had livestock. This provided meat and milk as well leather and wool to make clothes. They also used animals for transport and to pull ploughs.
There was some progress in 10 th century Europe. New areas were turned into agricultural land and improvements were made to agricultural tolos like the plough.
Mills were used to grind cereals. As result of these innovations,more food was available and population began to grow.
- THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Catholism was the only recognised Chrisian religion in Medieval Europe. In Rome, the Pope was head of the whole Catholic Church as well as the ruler of the Papal States. He had great influence as the spiritual leder of Catholic Christianity.
One way in which the Pope exercised this authority was through excommunication, when he excluded a person from membership of the Curch. If the Pope excommunicated a king he would lose much of his authority over his subjects. The Church acquired great wealth through the tithe, which was a special tax that required peasants to give the Church one tenth of their production.
Religion greatly affected the lives of everyone in the Middle Ages. Christian ceremonias accompanied births, marriages and funerals. There were religious festivals throughout the year.
THE CRUSADES
The crusades were a series of military expeditions led by monarchs and nobles, usually at the request of the Pope. They aimed to take control of the Holy Land from the Muslims. Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade in 1095, and many people enthusiastically joined it. They attached a cross to their clothing (the word “crusade”comes from “cross”).
During the First Crusade, the Christians conquered Jerusalem and other territories. But many more expeditions were needed over the following two centuries to defend or reconquer the región after the Muslims had won victories. The Christians lost their very last piece of land in 1291.
THE ORGANISATION OF THE CHURCH
The Church was divided into two branches:
- The secular clergy. They were the members of the Church who directed religious services for the rest of society. They were organised into a hierarchy in which archbishops and bishops were the church leaders and parish priests worked at a local level. Each area was called a diocese.
- The regular clergy. They were members of religious orders, who lived in separate communities. Each religious order had to follow its own rule, which established what its members did.
THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS
Many different religious orders were created during the Middle Ages, including the Order of Saint Benedict, which was founded inthe 6th century. The Rule of Saint Benedict had great influence on later religious orders.
Some orders, like the Order of Cluny and the Cistercians became very influential in the Middle Ages and their Abbots were even advisers to kings. However, much later orders, like the Franciscans, required their members to go out and live alongside the population in poverty.
Monks lived in monasteries, where they dedicated their lives to prayer and meditation. They played an impotant role in the survival of classical cultura by copying manuscripts. They were sometimes also teachers of theology, botany and farm management.
- ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE
THE ROMANESQUE STYLE
Romanesque architecture spread through Europe during the 11 th century. This made it the first genuinely international style to develop since the end of the Roman Empire. As its name suggests, the Romanesque style was strongly influence by Rome’s cultural heritage. It first developed in regions, such as Italy, France and Spain, that had once been part of the Roman Empire.
The purpose of Romanesque art and architecture was essentially religious. This was reflected in the shape of churches, which always had the form of a cross. Symbolism was very important: all aspects of a building were significant, including its shape, materials and colour.
Churches, cathedrals and monasteries were the greatest achievements of Romanesque architecture. Sculptures and paintings were created as decoration for these buildings, and not as separate art.
ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE
Romanesque architecture made use of the semi-circular Roman arch, and buildings were constructed with heavy stone. Their walls were very thick and solid and they only had a few small Windows.
The vault was one of the most significant features of Romanesque architecture. The barrel vault was an arched surface, shaped like a very long half barrel, that crossed a building from one end to the other. Buildings were supported by columns.
Romanesque buildings had very heavy Stone roofs. Supporting buttresses were built against their walls to prevent them from being pushed outwards.
ROMANESQUE CHURCHES
Cathedrals and churches were built in the shape of a cross, following the model of a Roman basilica. But their lenght varied greatly. In Italy, for example, they were short T-shaped buildings. They sometimes had a separate bell tower, but largr churches on the Iberian Peninsula often had two towers.
The central nave of the catedral or church was the long arm of their cross shape. This was separated from the side aísles by a row of columns supporting arches. The transept was the shorter arm of the cross.
A semi-circular apse was generally found at the Eastern end of the church. Opposite it, at the other end of the building, there was a façade with a large portal.
- ROMANESQUE ART
ROMANESQUE ART
Romanesque sculpture and painting were used to decorate churches, cathedrals and monasteries. They had a strongly religious and educational purpose.
Most people could not read or write, so paintings and sculptures helped them to understand the main ideas of Christianity.
Romanesque art was not realistic. It reflected Medieval ideas about hierarchy so that main religious figures, or kings, looked much bigger than everyone else. It used symbolism to represent ideas in such a clear way that everyone could understand them, so it was never posible, for example, to confuse Good and Evil. It also used very bright colours, although today these have often faded.
ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE
Many of the finest Romanesque sculptures decorated the façades of churches, especially the tympanum, which was the top of the portal. This represented subjects like the Last Judgement in a series of horizontal scenes that colud be “read” like a story (almost in the same way as today we read comic strips).
The capitals at the top of columns in churches had decorative patterns, as well as representations of religious subjects and scenes from daily life.
Wooden carvings were displayed above the altars. The two main subjects were the Crucifixion and the Virgin and Child.
ROMANESQUE PAINTING
Like sculptures, the main location for Romanesque paintings was inside cathedrals, churches and monasteries.
They were painted in very bright colours and thick lines emphasised people’s outlines. They were shown with no perspective on a flat background.
Romanesque paintings represented religious subjects:
There were several types of painting:
- Mural paintings, depicting religious subjects, were prominently displayed on the half-dome of the apse.
- Panels decoratd altars. Altarpieces were frames that stood on, or just behind, the altar.
- Stained glass windows decorated cathedrals, although not many exmples have survived from this period.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario