History and social change

The origins of medieval feudalism must be looked for in the kingdom of the Merovingian Franks , and more particularly in the centre of the kingdom between the Loire and the Rhine

The peculiarities of the social relations of the society of those days possess well-marked features , defined as key features of feudalism and may be summarized as follows (Ganshof ,

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1 ) a development pushed to extremes of the element of personal dependence in society , with a specialized military class occupying the higher levels in the social scale

2 ) an extreme

subdivision of the rights of real property

3 ) a graded system of rights over land created by this subdivision and corresponding in broad outline to the grades of personal dependence just referred to

Further on the origin and the development of these features shall briefly examine will be briefly examined . Under the Merovingians , Gaul was rarely united or at peace , and it frequently lapsed into a state of almost complete anarchy . The main cause of this , a cause which was renewed every few years , lay in the family feuds occasioned by the custom which required that on the death of a king his inheritance should be divided between his sons . But even apart from the permanent political struggle for power , the state was quite unable to maintain the public peace or secure the safety of its inhabitants . Its structure was too primitive , the officials in its service too few in number and too unreliable , for it to carry out successfully this elementary function of government . Such a society formed an ideal medium for the growth of bodies of retainers , and particularly of bodies of armed retainers Those who felt the need of protection would look for it to their more powerful neighbours , and such protection would involve in return the acceptance of some form of service

The magnates on their side , whether from a desire to play a conspicuous part in political affairs or from the hope of profiting by the political dis and of establishing or increasing their own power and wealth needed the services of men who were personally to them and whom they could use in private warfare . The most general custom was that by which a free man placed himself under the protection and at the service of another free man , while maintaining his own free status Contemporaries called such persons ingenui in obsequio , free men in dependence (Ganshof ,

. 4 .Thus , it can be asserted that the basic feature of feudal society was the social system based on the obligations of obedience and service - mainly military service - on the part of a free man (the vassal ) towards another free man (the lord , and the obligations of protection and maintenance on the part of the lord with regard to his vassal (Ganshof ,

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In a society in which agriculture was the chief form of economic activity and the most important source of wealth , it might often be convenient to bestow on the vassal...