Feudal Lord Research Paper

The Feudal Lords
1. Make a LIST of the members of the feudal hierarchy. You can omit the church for now as we will look at that in later classes. For each person in your list, note down whom they obeyed and what duties or obligations each of them had to fulfill. Peasant: Each belonged to a parish and a manor, and had to attend the parish church. Peasants obeyed the lord of the manor. The peasants paid the lord for their land by working for him and giving him some of their crops and animals.
They were not allowed to leave the manor without the lord’s permission.
Lord of the Manor: The lord of the manor held all of the land in the manor. It was the lord’s duty to protect his people in war and in peace. The lord held the manor court to settle disputes between villagers. Important lords and
kings had the rights to hang wrongdoers. The manors were owned by kings, earls, bishops or monasteries. These lords employed bailiffs to take care of it.
Vassals: Lords who swore fealty to serve the lords above them who gave them land. Land held on these conditions were known as fiefs. These lords paid for their fiefs by bringing military assistance (e.g horsemen or knights) for the more powerful lords.
Lords of Vassals: The lords of the vassals provided protection and land for their vassals in return for their fealty. There was a time limit on the service vassals owed each year.
Knights: Special expensive soldiers who served under their lords. They were valued over regular foot soldiers and fought for their lords. Their daughters often were wed with those of barons, who were of the same hierarchal status as lords. 2. In what ways does this system differ so radically from the world we live in today? Note down your ideas.
Feudalism differs radically from the world we live in today because in our present world, lower class citizens are not directly bound to citizens of higher classes, and are instead bound by desire for money in order to survive. No people are directly inferior to other people, although because of differences in social and economic status, some people do have power over others. Not many people’s promises could be trusted like those of the knights, and there is no direct loyalty or unspoken obligation to serve through owing between someone and another. There is not as much trust involved in business.
The Church and the People
1. What is the role of the parish priest? The bishop? The archbishop? The Pope?
The parish priest would be the only educated person in the village, so he would give his help and advice, as well as christening, marrying, visiting and burying citizens of its village. He would also try to make citizens the friends of God.
The bishop would look after parish priests by watching over and appointing new ones, and were divided into bishoprics, each of which ruling over all of the priests, monks and nuns. The bishop also held a court for churchmen committing crimes, and watched over the cathedral, which were the main churches of the bishopric. The archbishop watched over each group of bishops, listened to the appeals of the people. The Pope was the head of the entire Western Church, ruling it on the behalf of God. The Pope inherited the first Pope’s powers, listening to the appeals of the people and conveying messages on God’s behalf to the laymen.
2. Why do you think the church had its own courts?
The church probably had its own courts because the problems dealing with the church were much different than the troubles afflicting the laymen. The people of the church held great power over laymen, even tough warriors and soldiers, because of the fear of going to hell and the wish to go to heaven. In order to keep the peace and keep everything fair between the laymen, a complex structure dealing with the people of the churches would be vital, so each leader of each social class in the church system would be ideal and just. Also, they would have to make sure everything in the church was in perfect order, or else they may be faced with the wrath of God.
The church had the most power over the people, like a government, and if that government was weak or had problems, there would be grave trouble among the society as well as in the eyes of God.
3. Why was there a potential rivalry between a king and the Pope?
There was a potential rivalry between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope. The Holy Roman Emperor believed that he was equal to the Pope as a servant in God. The Pope then argued that the chief king in Christendom was just as important of a servant of God as the Pope, so he wanted the Emperor’s crown, even though God had given him different duties, or else the Emperor would not have God’s blessing. The Pope won most of these arguments.
4. How did the feudal system and church hierarchy complement each other? How were they in conflict?
The feudal system complemented each other because the feudal system made it so that the social status of the laymen were all under the people of the church. The churchmen held the most power, and because the church acted as a government, and because the lords were directly under the bishops, the work of the laymen contributed to
the improvement of the church. With the work of the laymen, the church developed, and with the development of the church, the productivity and living conditions of the laymen increased in turn. They were in conflict because the monks and nuns and workers in the church became isolated and separated from the laymen, which created a rift.