Feudalism and Medieval Knights

Feudalism

We will look at the the church in another chapter. For the moment , let's examine the lords. It's important to remember that in the Middle Ages there was no strong central government to protect the kingdom, collect taxes and judge criminals. It took centuries for these to appear and only in the 16^th century did strong kings who were able to do those jobs emerge. So who did this work for most of the Middle Ages? Well, it was the lords.

A lord of a manor held a village , had a manor house or a castle, if he was powerful, some fields and woods around it , and a village where his peasants lived and worked the land . He collected taxes and tried and punished criminals in his court. All this put together was called his manor but the lord did not own it. He held it because another, greater lord had handed it over to him. The lesser lord was called the vassal of the greater one and this land which had been handed to him was called a fief.

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