Despite the fact that they made most of the population in the Middle Ages, they had to maintain the rest of the stratums (clergy and aristocracy). Serf worked in order to maintain the clergy and the aristocracy, since in a feudal society they were at the lowest stratum. This way guaranteed better farmings for the land was not over-exploited. One year wheat was cultivated, the following year cereal. Triennial rotation was introduced: the surface of the land was divided in three parts and the cultivations were rotating. The nobility owned the land and they did not trust in newness, so the new agricultural techniques did not come until the end of XI century. The agriculture was at a very early stage and it was focused on the immediate supplying. It was based on the agriculture and the 90% of the farming were cereals. Peasants lives in the Middle Ages was very hard. This reciprocal relationship was profitable for the noble man, who apart from taking a superior position, he also exerted a socially accepted coercion.
In exchange, the noble provided a military protection. The vassal paid a rent to the noble who owned the land. The vassal received a little portion of land in which he cultivated in order to supply himself.
GOOD DEFINITION OF FEUDALISM IN THE MIDDLE AGES FREE
Peasants were subjected to the nobles, who occupied a middle position in the society and exerted power with autonomy and independence.Īfter a period of wars and a insecure and unstable atmosphere, free man had to be subjected to the noble man who ruled the land in which they lived, establishing a vassalage relationship.
The King or the Emperor was the pinnacle of power whereas the peasants were at the bottom. It was based on the descentralization of power. Feudalism was the leading political system in Western Europe in the Middle Ages.
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