The Feudal System

An Overview of the Feudal System in Medieval Times

Introduction

Dates are in red.

Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.

Headlines are in brown.

References and citations are in turquoise.

Contextual history is in purple.

Pyramidal structure of land ownership

In the Feudal System all land was considered to be owned by the Crown and sub-let to the Barons and through them to their knights and tenants.

Similarly the Crown had Rights to charge the Barons arbitrary amounts and Fines, which seem to have been based purely on the King’s financial requirements at the time.

Barons, like the de Brus, Stutevilles or Mowbrays had to pay a large sum on their succession, at which time they had to swear “fealty” to the monarch. They had to serve in the King’s forces or pay a fine instead – “scutage” etc.

The Barons in turn had to find what amounted to Royal Taxes by making similar charges of their knights and tenants in the form of Rent and various fines and charges in their own local Courts and Markets etc.

There was clearly much scope for abuse and consequent grievance by those who had to pay which at times led to open revolt.

The lives of the serfs

Villagers lives were controlled by the Lord of the Manor. They could not leave. They had unfenced strips of land to feed their families, but had to work the Lord’s demesne on certain days.

They had to pay the Church a tenth of their meagre produce. They had to pay the Lord a fine to marry – the “merchet”. In some parts the Lord even had the droit de seigneur, a right to be the first to have sex with the young brides of their tenants.

On the peasant’s death the Lord had the right (the heriot) to take the family’s best beast.

Justice was usually the law of the strongest.

Hunting and hawking were the preserve of the Lord. The villager, living in a wooden shed with an earthen floor and his cow and pig living alongside, went after rabbits and any kind of bird.

Later Restrictions

The Act of Settlement 1662 attempted to prevent anyone from settling elsewhere than their place of birth. Privileged people were excepted. It was intended mainly to prevent paupers moving to be maintained by a Parish other than their own, as each Parish had to collect a Poor Rate to maintain their own. Removal orders were made returning people to their own Parish right up to the 1840s and the start of the Workhouse. Money was sent from one Parish to another to pay for the upkeep and funerals etc of paupers and chasing maintenance for bastards.

To help raise over a million pounds for the Royal Household a Hearth Tax was imposed in 1662, whereby each household was compelled to pay 2 shillings per annum for every fireplace that they owned.