The feudal system; a system by which the holding of estates in land is made dependent upon an obligation to render military service to the king or feudal superior; feudal principles and usages.
A system of political organization based on the homage and service of a vassal to his lord in return for land held in fee, protection or patronage.
Political and economic system in which a king or queen shared power with the nobility who required services from the common people in return for allowing them to use the noble's land.
Social class system based on heredity in which land owners (kings and nobles) held supreme power. Land was farmed by tenants who usually paid a fee for its use.
Tiered class system of medieval Europe in which land owned by someone of higher status was lived on and worked by someone of lower status in return for loyal service. The monarch was at the top of the pyramid, the peasants at the bottom. Feudalism began on the Continent as far back as the 8th century as a means of ensuring protection for powerful rulers against other powerful rulers. During the Middle Ages, certain provinces or countries recognised other kings as their feudal overlords.
the social system that developed in Europe in the 8th C; vassals were protected by lords who they had to serve in war
A system for organizing and governing society based on land and service; found in Europe in the Middle Ages.
Political and military system of government based on the granting of land in return for loyalty, military assistance, and services.
A mode of agricultural production in which peasants worked for landowners, or lords, in return for debt forgiveness, food, and governmental responsibilities such as military protection. The lords or landowners constitute the upper class, or aristocracy, but at the top of the hierarchy was the monarch who controlled the government and the granting of fiefs, or tracts of land.
Any system that resembles the one used in the middle ages, where the people provided labour and military service to a lord in return for the use of his land. A form of contractual servitude.
a term used by historians to describe the way that medieval society was organised.
(n.) -- a political and economic system prevalent in Europe from 900 to about 1600 A.D. based on homage, military allegiance, and tradition, not market mechanisms; a stage of history, or economic system, preceding capitalism in which a hereditary landed aristocracy ruled. Marx, Manifesto, (10).
The system of governing whereby semiautonomous landed nobility have certain well defined responsibilities to the king, in return for the use of grants of land (fiefs) exploited with the labor of a semi-free peasantry (serfs). (MEDIEV-L. Medieval Terms) Medieval social and political system by which the lord-vassal relationship was defined. (Gies, Frances and Joseph. Life in a Medieval Village, 244)
A system of ruling (practiced in Europe from roughly the 9th to 15th centuries) that puts the power into the hands of major landowners (i.e. lords) who rule over the tenants (vassals) of the land, who must pay the landowners to live and work on that land.
FĂ©odalisme System of governing whereby semi-autonomous landed nobility had certain well defined responsibilities to the King, in return for the use of grants of land (fiefs) exploited with the labour of a semi-free peasantry (serfs).
The social organization created during the Middle Ages by exchanging grants of land or fiefs in return for formal oaths of allegiance and promises of loyal service; typical of Zhou dynasty; greater lords provided protection and aid to lesser lords in return for military service. (p. 380)
Feudalism refers to a general set of reciprocal legal and military obligations among the warrior nobility of Europe during the Middle Ages, revolving around the three key concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs.