Medieval Europe: Society, Feudalism, and Christianity
The Early Middle Ages
Charlemagne
Crowned king of the Franks in 768, Charlemagne built a Christian state. The Frankish kingdom became the largest in Europe, and Charlemagne was crowned emperor by the Pope, marking a moment of political unification in Western Europe. However, the empire was short-lived, dividing into three kingdoms upon Charlemagne’s death.
Viking Invasions
Western Europe faced invasions from Vikings and Muslims. Between the 8th and 10th centuries, Vikings and Normans, originating from Northern Europe, conquered territories across the continent. Initially focused on sacking coastal villages and monasteries, these expeditions evolved into full-scale invasions, resulting in the conquest of England, Ireland, Normandy, Southern Italy, and Sicily.
Rural Society and Economy
A Rural Society
Medieval society was predominantly rural. Despite a high birth rate (40 children per 1000 people), the death rate was equally high, limiting population growth.
Agricultural Economics
Southern Europe continued to practice the Mediterranean trilogy of cereals, vineyards, and olive groves. Farmers practiced subsistence agriculture, meaning poor harvests led to frequent famines. The practice of fallow further limited agricultural output.
Feudalism
Feudalism defined the organization of power and society in the Middle Ages. Kings, lacking the resources to govern alone, relied on nobles and ecclesiastics. Through pacts of fealty, nobles and ecclesiastics provided tribute, allegiance, counsel, and military aid in exchange for estates (fiefs). This system created a hierarchy of lords and vassals.
Social Structure
Feudal lords held significant power within their domains, dictating laws, administering justice, and collecting taxes from the peasants who worked the land. The lord’s castle or monastery served as the central hub. Manorial lands, the most fertile, were cultivated by villagers. Tenancies and scattered holdings were granted to farmers in exchange for annual payments. Mills, blacksmiths, taverns, ovens, meadows, and forests were also under the lord’s control, with peasants paying for their use.
Feudal Servitudes
In addition to taxes and labor, peasants were obligated to provide services to their lord, such as maintaining the castle and working in the mill or blacksmith. Serfs, tied to the land, faced the harshest burdens, their status hereditary. Semi-free peasants also endured various obligations.
Medieval Society and Christianity
Social Classes
Medieval society was divided into three unequal classes: the nobility, the clergy, and the peasantry. The privileged nobility and clergy, a minority, held political power and lived off the taxes and labor of the peasantry, who lacked privileges and political power.
Christian Society
Christian beliefs about the afterlife, heaven, and hell shaped medieval society. Heresy, any deviation from established doctrines, was persecuted by both kings and the Pope through the Inquisition. Pilgrimages to shrines and holy sites became common. The Church was organized into dioceses led by bishops, who answered to the Pope. Monasteries and convents, housing members of religious orders, spread across Europe.