Feudal Society During The Early Middle Ages

During the early Middle Ages, there became a time when the weaker strived for protection from the stronger. This caused a feudal society, which relates to the social, political, military, and economic system developed in this moment of disintegration. A feudal society is started when either a predominant prince or lord is in control and the highest virtues are those of mutual trust, loyalty, and devotion. In addition, what these people needed the most was the confidence that others could be counted on in drastic circumstances.
In this feudal society, there were two head organizations, the vassalage and the fief. In the vassalage, you were to swear fealty, or promise to abstain from taking certain actions that could threaten the lord, as well as doing anything upon his request. In exchange, the lord would assure that no harm would come to the vassal and to stand as his advocate in court. Overall, this relationship through the lord and vassal was solely trust. After fealty was sworn, the lord provided physical maintenance in the form of a fief. A fief was the physical or material ability to fulfill the vassal’s military and other obligations. Often, feudalism could lead to a tricky relationship if one person was a vassal to more than one lord.
On the other hand, there was also a relationship between the manor and serfdom created in areas where feudalism didn’t take place.
The manors were village farms usually owned by a local landlord. Peasants would then come and work for the lord as farmers and in exchange, the lord was to give small plots of land and tenements. Some peasants who worked for the lord were free and had their own private land in which was only theirs. Yet there were also peasants who came to work for the lord without any land and became unfree serfs. These serfs were responsible for several days of labor as well as dues payed to their lord. However, many serfs were unsatisfied and as a result, there were many
escapes.
By the late tenth century, the population was rapidly increasing resulting in the rebirth of old Roman towns and numerous new towns. This great increase in people was a significant event for the rebirth of the community. The merchants created new market towns centered around the old Roman towns. With the huge quantity of citizens, this generated tons of money for the merchants which posed as a threat to political and social order. As a result, the common people adored the merchants and attracted ambitious peasants who broke from slavery and found new work.
Even though feudalism and the growth of towns worked very well separately, in my opinion I don’t think they would work well together. I believe this because when the towns grew, money was used more, making the nobles appear not as powerful since their main source of money was from land and trade. In addition, there was a larger class of merchants who wanted a self-governing government, in which traders and craftsmen determined policy. Overall, I think the development of more and more cities would make it harder to support feudalism, mostly because of how the people responded to it.