Feudalism's Demise, Pansy!
http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/endmiddle/feudal.html
http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/mmarkowski/212/8/longb.html
It can be argued that the end of feudalism came about in the late Middle Ages. The rise of the merchant middle class helped to shape this. Due to this the “feudal obligations of lord and vassal were…replaced by contractual agreements based on payments of money.” This was as a direct result of the social fluidity brought about by the merchant class.
Another factor in this was the rise of superior military technology. The feudal lords typically rode into battle as knights. With the advent of something like the longbow, invented in about the 12th-century, “a heavily-armored, mounted knight (who had to be trained some 5-10 years at great expense) could be beaten by a peasant with a strong arm and six weeks' training.” This allowed for more centralized control by the monarch. As with our central government these kings would allow for more local rule than with a lord for each fife. All the while the lords,
“remained ensconced in their estates, and in a way of life that was dying out. Perhaps it was pride, isolationism, conservatism, or the feudal psychology of remaining free 'lords of their own castles' that hindered them from seeing that technology and social relationships were passing them by.”
And therein lies the root of the problem with feudal lords, they tried to maintain the status quo sans any change at all. This is an unrealistic worldview at best and at worst lunacy. For this reason, the feudal lords never saw the changes coming to their societies that would eventually overthrow them.
http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/mmarkowski/212/8/longb.html
It can be argued that the end of feudalism came about in the late Middle Ages. The rise of the merchant middle class helped to shape this. Due to this the “feudal obligations of lord and vassal were…replaced by contractual agreements based on payments of money.” This was as a direct result of the social fluidity brought about by the merchant class.
Another factor in this was the rise of superior military technology. The feudal lords typically rode into battle as knights. With the advent of something like the longbow, invented in about the 12th-century, “a heavily-armored, mounted knight (who had to be trained some 5-10 years at great expense) could be beaten by a peasant with a strong arm and six weeks' training.” This allowed for more centralized control by the monarch. As with our central government these kings would allow for more local rule than with a lord for each fife. All the while the lords,
“remained ensconced in their estates, and in a way of life that was dying out. Perhaps it was pride, isolationism, conservatism, or the feudal psychology of remaining free 'lords of their own castles' that hindered them from seeing that technology and social relationships were passing them by.”
And therein lies the root of the problem with feudal lords, they tried to maintain the status quo sans any change at all. This is an unrealistic worldview at best and at worst lunacy. For this reason, the feudal lords never saw the changes coming to their societies that would eventually overthrow them.
posted by Anonymous at
09:59
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