When feudalism first began, a kinght's feif might be an award of armor, weapons, clothing, horses, or food. Later the fief became a parcel of land that the knight could live on as long as he continued to fight for his king.
A kingdom might be split up into about 50 fiefs. A knight had power over everyone who lived on his land. He could sell or trade the things the peasants grew on his land. This "chief knight" was later called a lord. The richest lords were called barons.
Sometimes a baron's land was too large to manage, so he would divide it into smaller sections on which other knights could live and farm. These knights would then swear an oath of loyalty to the lord who gave them the land. The knights living under the lord were later called dukes, earls, or counts, depending on how much land they owned. Other people who lived on the knight's land included bailifs, villiens and, at the bottom of the heap, serfs.
To understand the way medieval society worked, let's start with serfs, who were at the bottom of the feudal social pyramid.
Serfs were like slaves, toiling away for the lord, duke, or count. They worked from dawn to dusk, and received no money for their work. Serfs were not allowed to leave the lord's land. They could only become free by escaping capture for one year and a day. Serfs did receive food, clothing, and a small hut for themselves and their families. They also were promised protection during wards and invasions.
Slightly above the serfs in power were the villeins, free men who controlled very small plots of land. They could sell the things they grew, but could not sell the land itself. Villeins had to make payments to their lords in crops, animals, and anything else they produced.
Commoners were slightly better off than the villeins. This group included merchants who ran businesses in the community and servants who worked in the local castle or manor. The merchants worked near the castle or in the town and paid rent and taxes to the king. Castle servants did chores such as cleaning, cooking, making repairs, and other tasks. They were paid for their work in money, food, and clothing.
A bailiff worked directly for the lord, collecting rent, taxes, and fines, and finding people to serve on juries. A bailiff could also serve as a judge for the commoners. On just about the same level as a bailiff was the viscount, an assistant to a count or countess. He managed all the people on the fief, their jobs, and the many problems that the counts and countesses did not have time for.
The counts answered to the dukes and the dukes answered to the barons. All the people "above" the merchants (not including Church officials) were called nobility.
from Kings, Queens, Castles, and Crusades: Life in the Middle Ages by Zelma Kallay
Did you know??
The word fee comes from the Latin word for "payment", feudum. In England and France the word for "fee" was fief.
Castles
Castles are scattered all over Europe and the Middle East. They were built from about A.D. 1000 to 1500. They were a protection in war time but also were like miniature cities because it took a lot of people to run a castle.
Castles were the business center and bank for the whole region. People would bring presents to the lord. Peasants paid taxes in produce, cows, chickens, pigs, as well as money. The bailiff looked after the land and collected these "taxes". It all went to the castle.
When the lord of the castle was gone, the steward was in charge. Everyone answered to him.
The solar was the private living room for the lord's family. It was big and spacious, with tapestries to keep the room warm and a large hearth for a fire. Most people lived in crowded rooms, but there was plenty of room in the solar, which would have been at the top of a castle. Even in the richest castles, there would not have been much furniture. Beds were the larges and most expensive pieces of castle furniture. Curtains were hung around to keep out the cold.
Castles would have their own chapels. Since most people could not read or write, there would be paintings on the walls and windows depicting different stories from the Bible. Religion was very important in castle life. The lord and his family would attend a daily service.
Where were the toilets? They were built into the castle's outer walls, in small rooms called garderobes. People believed that the smell from toilets protected clothes from moths and bugs. This is why the toilet was called the garderobe. Ew! It comes from the French garder (to keep) and robe (dress). The toilets emptied straight into the moat or into pits that were emptied by cleaners called gongfermors (gong farmers).
Would you want to be a gong farmer?
Let's see. You would inspect the castle toilets. That doesn't sound too bad. You would clear away rubbish and clean the moat. Remember, the toilets could empty directly into the moat! Once a week, you clean the toilet pits. It was dirty, and really smelly. But somebody had to do it. Most of the people will stay far away from you because you smell so bad.
Defending the castle!!
To prepare for a siege, the defenders built wooden galleries that jutted out from the castle walls. They could drip rocks and boiling oil from these platforms onto the enemies below. Wet leather hides were draped over these wooden fortifications so that the enemy could not set fire to them.
| Portcullis |
Everyone in the castle had to help in the preparations if a siege was expected. Trees and houses near the castle were cut down so that the enemy would find no cover or shelter. Ponds and wells were poisoned. Farmland was scorched, leaving nothing for the enemy to eat.
The most dangerous enemy of the besieged castle were hunger and thirst. If you didn't have enough supplies in your castle, you were in trouble.
One way an enemy would attack would be to dig tunnels under the castle. King John of England did this to Rochester Castle in 1215. They built a tunnel underneath, smeared the wooden props with the fat of forty pigs and then set it on fire. It caused an entire tower of the castle to collapse!
| The tower on the left at Rochester castle was rebuilt after it collapsed in 1215. Notice it is rounder than the tower on the right. |
Soldiers would also bombard a castle using a trebuchet, a really big catapult. They would also use a giant crossbow, called a ballistas. With catapults, they would fling all sorts of nasty stuff at a castle; plague-ridden rotting corpses, severed heads, and other yucky things.
| trebuchet |
There were lots of ways people would defend and attack castles, but you didn't want to lose if you lived in a castle. Once a castle would fall, troops would rush in and sack the city. They would burst into houses and rooms looking for gold and treasure. They would kill prisoners and pillage, taking stuff by force.
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