European Middle Ages,

500-1200

Previewing Main Ideas

EMPIRE BUILDING In western Europe, the Roman Empire had broken into
many small kingdoms. During the Middle Ages, Charlemagne and Otto the
Great tried to revive the idea of empire. Both allied with the Church.
Geography Study the maps. What were the six major kingdoms in western
Europe about A.D. 500?

POWER AND AUTHORITY Weak rulers and the decline of central authority
led to a feudal system in which local lords with large estates assumed power.
This led to struggles over power with the Church.
Geography Study the time line and the map. The ruler of what kingdom
was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III?

RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL SYSTEMS During the Middle Ages, the Church
was a unifying force. It shaped peoples beliefs and guided their daily lives.
Most Europeans at this time shared a common bond of faith.
Geography Find Rome, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, on the
map. In what kingdom was it located after the fall of the Roman Empire
in A.D. 476?

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Interactive Visuals Research Links Maps
Interactive Primary Sources Internet Activities Test Practice
Primary Sources Current Events
Chapter Quiz

350
 What freedoms would you
give up for protection?
You are living in the countryside of western Europe during the 1100s. Like
about 90 percent of the population, you are a peasant working the land. Your
familys hut is located in a small village on your lords estate. The lord provides
all your basic needs, including housing, food, and protection. Especially
important is his protection from invaders who repeatedly strike Europe.

1 For safety, peasants

retreat behind the
castle walls during
attacks.

2 Peasants owe
their lord two or
three days labor
every week farming
his land.

3 This peasant feels

that the right to stay
on his lords land is
more important than
his freedom to leave.

4 Peasants cannot marry

without their lords
consent.

EXAM I N I NG the ISSU ES

What is secure about your world?

How is your life limited?
As a class, discuss these questions. In your discussion, think about
other people who have limited power over their lives. As you read
about the lot of European peasants in this chapter, see how their living
arrangements determine their role in society and shape their beliefs.

352 Chapter 13
 2

Feudalism in Europe
MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW TERMS & NAMES

POWER AND AUTHORITY The rights and duties of feudal lord serf
Feudalism, a political and relationships helped shape fief manor
economic system based on todays forms of representative vassal tithe
land-holding and protective government. knight
alliances, emerges in Europe.

SETTING THE STAGE After the Treaty of Verdun, Charlemagnes three feud-
ing grandsons broke up the kingdom even further. Part of this territory also
became a battleground as new waves of invaders attacked Europe. The political
turmoil and constant warfare led to the rise of European feudalism, which, as you
read in Chapter 2, is a political and economic system based on land ownership
and personal loyalty.

TAKING NOTES Invaders Attack Western Europe

Analyzing Causes and
Recognizing Effects Use
From about 800 to 1000, invasions destroyed the Carolingian Empire. Muslim
a web diagram to show invaders from the south seized Sicily and raided Italy. In 846, they sacked Rome.
the causes and effects Magyar invaders struck from the east. Like the earlier Huns and Avars, they
of feudalism. terrorized Germany and Italy. And from the north came the fearsome Vikings.
The Vikings Invade from the North The Vikings set sail from Scandinavia
Cause Cause (SKANduhNAYveeuh), a wintry, wooded region in Northern Europe. (The
region is now the countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.) The Vikings, also
Feudalism
called Northmen or Norsemen, were a Germanic people. They worshiped warlike
Effect Effect gods and took pride in nicknames like Eric Bloodaxe and Thorfinn Skullsplitter.
The Vikings carried out their raids with terrifying speed. Clutching swords
and heavy wooden shields, these helmeted seafarers beached their ships, struck
quickly, and then moved out to sea again. They were gone before locals could
mount a defense. Viking warships were awe-inspiring. The largest of these long
ships held 300 warriors, who took turns rowing the ships 72 oars. The prow of
each ship swept grandly upward, often ending with the carved head of a sea mon-
ster. A ship might weigh 20 tons when fully loaded. Yet, it could sail in a mere A sketch of a
three feet of water. Rowing up shallow creeks, the Vikings looted inland villages Viking longboat
and monasteries.

358 Chapter 13
 Invasions in Europe, 7001000
0 500 Miles
To Iceland
58
W N 0 1,000 Kilometers
24

SCANDINAVIA
V o l g a R.

North
Sea W. D

a
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50 IRELAND R.
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Dn
ENGLAND R US S IA

iepe
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Vol
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ien
ATLAN TIC S
16

Paris e R.

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R. CAR

y
O CEAN ne Ca
nd

ine
a n ube PA

D
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42
IA
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FRANCE ALPS
.

Se
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a
.
RE
NE Genoa
ES Pisa
Sea
Black
CALIPHATE
OF CRDOVA Corsica Rome Viking invasion routes
Constantinople
Viking areas
Sardinia Muslim invasion routes
BYZANTINE EMPIRE Muslim areas
34
N Magyar invasion routes
Sicily

48E
Magyar areas
16E

32E
24E
0
8W

8E

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER: Interpreting Maps

1. Location What lands did the Vikings raid?
2. Movement Why were the Viking, Magyar, and Muslim invasions so threatening to Europe?

The Vikings were not only warriors but also traders, farmers, and explorers.
They ventured far beyond western Europe. Vikings journeyed down rivers into the
heart of Russia, to Constantinople, and even across the icy waters of the North
Atlantic. A Viking explorer named Leif (leef) Ericson reached North America
around 1000, almost 500 years before Columbus. About the same time, the Viking
reign of terror in Europe faded away. As Vikings gradually accepted Christianity,
they stopped raiding monasteries. Also, a warming trend in Europes climate made
farming easier in Scandinavia. As a result, fewer Scandinavians adopted the sea-
faring life of Viking warriors.
Magyars and Muslims Attack from the East and South As Viking invasions
declined, Europe became the target of new assaults. The Magyars, a group of
nomadic people, attacked from the east, from what is now Hungary. Superb horse-
men, the Magyars swept across the plains of the Danube River and invaded west-
ern Europe in the late 800s. They attacked isolated villages and monasteries. They
overran northern Italy and reached as far west as the Rhineland and Burgundy. The
Magyars did not settle conquered land. Instead, they took captives to sell as slaves.
The Muslims struck from the south. They began their encroachments from their
strongholds in North Africa, invading through what are now Italy and Spain. In the
600s and 700s, the Muslim plan was to conquer and settle in Europe. By the 800s
and 900s, their goal was also to plunder. Because the Muslims were expert seafar-
ers, they were able to attack settlements on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts.
They also struck as far inland as Switzerland.
The invasions by Vikings, Magyars, and Muslims caused widespread disorder
and suffering. Most western Europeans lived in constant danger. Kings could not
European Middle Ages 359
 effectively defend their lands from invasion. As a result, people no longer looked
to a central ruler for security. Instead, many turned to local rulers who had their Recognizing
own armies. Any leader who could fight the invaders gained followers and politi- Effects
cal strength. What was the
impact of Viking,
Magyar, and
A New Social Order: Feudalism Muslim invasions
In 911, two former enemies faced each other in a peace ceremony. Rollo was the on medieval
Europe?
head of a Viking army. Rollo and his men had been plundering the rich Seine (sayn)
River valley for years. Charles the Simple was the king of France but held little
power. Charles granted the Viking leader a huge piece of French territory. It
became known as Northmens land, or Normandy. In return, Rollo swore a pledge
of loyalty to the king.
Feudalism Structures Society The worst years of the invaders attacks spanned
roughly 850 to 950. During this time, rulers and warriors like Charles and Rollo made
similar agreements in many parts of Europe. The system of governing and landhold-
ing, called feudalism, had emerged in Europe. A similar feudal system existed in
China under the Zhou Dynasty, which ruled from around the 11th century B.C. until
256 B.C. Feudalism in Japan began in A.D. 1192 and ended in the 19th century.
The feudal system was based on rights and obligations. In exchange for military
protection and other services, a lord, or landowner, granted land called a fief.The
person receiving a fief was called a vassal. Charles the Simple, the lord, and Rollo,
the vassal, showed how this two-sided bargain worked. Feudalism depended on the
control of land.
The Feudal Pyramid The structure of feudal society was much like a pyramid. At
the peak reigned the king. Next came the most powerful vassalswealthy
landowners such as nobles and bishops. Serving beneath these vassals were
knights. Knights were mounted horsemen who pledged to defend their lords lands
in exchange for fiefs. At the base of the pyramid were landless peasants who toiled
in the fields. (See Analyzing Key Concepts on next page.)
Vocabulary
Social Classes Are Well Defined In the feudal system, status determined a per- Status is social
sons prestige and power. Medieval writers classified people into three groups: ranking.
those who fought (nobles and knights), those who prayed (men and women of the
Church), and those who worked (the peasants). Social class was usually inherited.
In Europe in the Middle Ages, the vast majority of people were peasants. Most
peasants were serfs. Serfs were people who could not lawfully leave the place where
they were born. Though bound to the land, serfs were not slaves. Their lords could
not sell or buy them. But what their labor produced belonged to the lord.

Manors: The Economic Side of Feudalism

The manor was the lords estate. During the Middle Ages, the manor system was
the basic economic arrangement. The manor system rested on a set of rights and
obligations between a lord and his serfs. The lord provided the serfs with housing,
farmland, and protection from bandits. In return, serfs tended the lords lands,
cared for his animals, and performed other tasks to maintain the estate. Peasant
women shared in the farm work with their husbands. All peasants, whether free or
serf, owed the lord certain duties. These included at least a few days of labor each
week and a certain portion of their grain.
A Self-Contained World Peasants rarely traveled more than 25 miles from their
own manor. By standing in the center of a plowed field, they could see their entire
world at a glance. A manor usually covered only a few square miles of land. It

360 Chapter 13
 Feudalism FEUDAL FACTS AND
FIGURES
Feudalism was a political system in which nobles were granted the use of
land that legally belonged to the king. In return, the nobles agreed to give In the 14th century, before the
bubonic plague struck, the
their loyalty and military services to the king. Feudalism developed not only population of France was
in Europe but also in countries like Japan. probably between 10 and 21
million people.

European Feudalism King In feudal times, the building of

a cathedral took between 50 to
150 years.

In feudal times, dukedoms

were large estates ruled by a
Church Noble duke. In 1216, the Duke of
Official Anjou had 34 knights, the
Duke of Brittany had 36
knights, and the Count of
Flanders had 47 knights.
Knights Knights In the 14th century, the nobility
in France made up about 1
percent of the population.

The word feudalism comes

from the Latin word feudum,
meaning fief.
The Japanese word daimyo
Peasants Peasants comes from the words dai,
meaning large, and myo
(shorten from myoden),
meaning name-land or
private land.

Emperor * SOURCES: A Distant Mirror by Barbara

Tuchman; Encyclopaedia Britannica
Japanese Feudalism

Daimyo Daimyo

Samurai Samurai

Artisans

Peasants
1. Comparing What are the similarities
between feudalism in Europe and
feudalism in Japan?
See Skillbuilder Handbook, Page R7.

2. Forming and Supporting Opinions

Merchants
Today, does the United States have a
RESEARCH LINKS For more on system of social classes? Support
feudalism, go to classzone.com your answer with evidence.

361
 The Medieval Manor
The medieval manor varied in size. The
illustration to the right is a plan of a typical
English manor.

1 Manor House
The dwelling place of the lord and his
family and their servants

2 Village Church
Site of both religious services and
public meetings

3 Peasant Cottages
Where the peasants lived

4 Lords Demesne
Fields owned by the lord and worked
by the peasants

5 Peasant Crofts
Gardens that belonged to the peasants

6 Mill
Water-powered mill for grinding grain

7 Common Pasture
Common area for grazing animals

8 Woodland
Forests provided wood for fuel.

typically consisted of the lords manor house, a church, and workshops. Generally,
15 to 30 families lived in the village on a manor. Fields, pastures, and woodlands
surrounded the village. Sometimes a stream wound through the manor. Streams
and ponds provided fish, which served as an important source of food. The mill for
grinding the grain was often located on the stream.
The manor was largely a self-sufficient community. The serfs and peasants
raised or produced nearly everything that they and their lord needed for daily life
crops, milk and cheese, fuel, cloth, leather goods, and lumber. The only outside
purchases were salt, iron, and a few unusual objects such as millstones. These were
huge stones used to grind flour. Crops grown on the manor usually included grains,
such as wheat, rye, barley, and oats, and vegetables, such as peas, beans, onions, Analyzing Causes
and beets. How might the
decline of trade
The Harshness of Manor Life For the privilege of living on the lords land, peas-
during the early
ants paid a high price. They paid a tax on all grain ground in the lords mill. Any Middle Ages have
attempt to avoid taxes by baking bread elsewhere was treated as a crime. Peasants contributed to the
also paid a tax on marriage. Weddings could take place only with the lords self-sufficiency of
the manor system?
362 Chapter 13
 consent. After all these payments to the lord, peasant families owed the village
priest a tithe, or church tax. A tithe represented one-tenth of their income.
Serfs lived in crowded cottages, close to their neighbors. The cottages had only
one or two rooms. If there were two rooms, the main room was used for cooking,
eating, and household activities. The second was the family bedroom. Peasants
warmed their dirt-floor houses by bringing pigs inside. At night, the family hud-
dled on a pile of straw that often crawled with insects. Peasants simple diet con-
sisted mainly of vegetables, coarse brown bread, grain, cheese, and soup.
Piers Plowman, written by William Langland in 1362, reveals the hard life of
English peasants:

PRIMARY SOURCE
Analyzing Primary What by spinning they save, they spend it in house-hire,
Sources Both in milk and in meal to make a mess of porridge,
What problems To cheer up their children who chafe for their food,
did peasant families And they themselves suffer surely much hunger
face? And woe in the winter, with waking at nights
And rising to rock an oft restless cradle.
WILLIAM LANGLAND, Piers Plowman
This 14th century
For most serfs, both men and women, life was work and more work. Their days drawing shows two
revolved around raising crops and livestock and taking care of home and family. As men flailing corn.
soon as children were old enough, they were put to work in the fields or in the home.
Many children did not survive to adulthood. Illness and malnutrition were constant
afflictions for medieval peasants. Average life expectancy was about 35 years. And
during that short lifetime, most peasants never traveled more than 25 miles from
their homes.
Yet, despite the hardships they endured, serfs accepted their lot in life as part of
the Churchs teachings. They, like most Christians during medieval times, believed
that God determined a persons place in society.

SECTION 2 ASSESSMENT

TERMS & NAMES 1. For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.
lord fief vassal knight serf manor tithe

USING YOUR NOTES MAIN IDEAS CRITICAL THINKING & WRITING

2. What is the main reason 3. What groups invaded Europe in 6. COMPARING How were the Vikings different from earlier
feudalism developed? Explain. the 800s? Germanic groups that invaded Europe?
4. What obligations did a peasant 7. MAKING INFERENCES How was a manor largely self-
have to the lord of the manor? sufficient both militarily and economically during the early
Cause Cause 5. What were the three social Middle Ages?
classes of the feudal system? 8. DRAWING CONCLUSIONS What benefits do you think a
Feudalism medieval manor provided to the serfs who lived there?
9. WRITING ACTIVITY POWER AND AUTHORITY Draw up a
Effect Effect contract between a lord and a vassal, such as a knight, or
between the lord of a manor and a serf. Include the
responsibilities, obligations, and rights of each party.

CONNECT TO TODAY WRITING A NEWS ARTICLE

Research modern marauders, who, like the Vikings of history, are involved in
piracy on the seas. Write a brief news article describing their activities.

European Middle Ages 363

 Get Ready! for Social Studies World History

the sick, provided jobs for workers, taught the

uneducated, and offered a place of refuge in times
of trouble.
In addition to monasteries, grand cathedrals
began to rise around Europefor example, Chartres
(SHART) and Notre Dame (NOH truh DAHM) in
France and Salisbury (SAWLZ buhr ee) in England.
Also on the religious front, this was the period in
which Christianity split into two divisions. Western
Christians had both kings and popes. The western
Christians would eventually call themselves Roman
Catholics. Eastern Christians, centered on Constan-
tinople, recognized their emperor as leader of both
state and church. They called themselves Eastern
Orthodox.

The Norman Conquest

In England, King Edward the Confessor promised
that on his death the throne would go to the French
duke William of Normandy, but when Edward died,
the English nobles didnt want William to rule them.
They offered the throne to Harold, the earl of Wes-
sex. William was furious and crossed the English
Channel from France with an army. The Normans
and the English clashed at the Battle of Hastings,
one of the most decisive battles in history. Williams
troops killed Harold and defeated the English.
William, now called William the Conqueror, soon
controlled all of England. The year was 1066.
The Normans brought a new way of life to En-
glandfeudalism.
The Feudal System
In feudalism, all land and property belonged to the
king. He allowed nobles (lords) to own large es-
tates known as manors. In return, the nobles,
called vassals, paid taxes to the king and raised
armies to defend him from enemies. The soldiers in
these armies were knights, and they received land
or other benefits for their services. In battle, these
knights wore chain-metal or steel armor to protect
themselves. The manors were worked by peasants
called serfs, who were considered nothing more
than a lords property.
Feudal life took place in and around castles
elaborate (but drafty) homes for lords and vassals.
These constructions also acted as fortresses. Out-
A knight in armor
side the castle walls, towns grew up. In this castle
culture, the lords and knights were supposed to act
gallantly. Their code of behavior was called chivalry.
The Magna Carta
Richard the Lionhearted was a member of a dy-
nasty of English kings named Plantagenet (plan
TA juh nut). After his death in 1199, his brother
John came to the throne. John was a mean-
tempered tyrant. He placed heavy taxes on his
nobles, who then rebelled. They wrote up a docu-
ment containing sixty-three demands that would
limit the power of English kings from that point
forward. The document is the Magna Carta, or
great charter. On June 15, 1215, in a meadow
called Runnymede, the nobles forced King John
to put his seal on their charter.
The Magna Carta was the first great declaration
of human rights in western Europe and the begin-
ning of the parliamentary system of government

64
 The Development
of Feudalism
A system of lords and vassals spread
throughout Europe after the collapse of the
Carolingian Empire.
HISTORY & YOU What do you think of when you
hear the term knight? Learn about the social order
of feudalism.
The Vikings and other invaders posed a
large threat to the safety of people through-
out Europe. Rulers found it more and more
difficult to defend their subjects as central-
ized governments such as the Carolingian
Empire were torn apart.
Thus, people began to turn to local
landed aristocrats, or nobles, to protect
them. To survive, it became important to
find a powerful lord who could offer pro-
tection in return for service. This led to a
new political and social order known as
feudalism.
Knights and Vassals
At the heart of feudalism was the idea of
vassalage. In Germanic society, warriors
swore an oath of loyalty to their leaders
and fought in battles for them. The leaders,
in turn, took care of the warriors needs.
By the eighth century, a man who served a
lord in a military capacity was known as a
vassal.
The Frankish army had originally con-
sisted of foot soldiers dressed in coats of
mail (armor made of metal links or plates)
and armed with swords. Horsemen had
been throwers of spears. In the eighth cen-
tury, however, larger horses and the stir-
rup were introduced. Now, horsemen were
armored in coats of mail (the larger horses
could carry the weight). They wielded long
lances that enabled them to act as battering
rams (the stirrups kept them on their
horses). For almost five hundred years,
warfare in Europe was dominated by heav-
ily armored cavalry, or knights, as they
came to be called. The knights had great
social prestige and formed the backbone of
the European aristocracy.
It was expensive to have a horse, armor,
and weapons. It also took more time and
310 SECTION 2 Feudalism
practice to learn to use these instruments
skillfully. With the breakdown of royal
governments, the more powerful nobles
took control of large areas of land. When
these lords wanted men to fight for them,
they granted each vassal a piece of land
that supported the vassal and his family.
In the society of the Early Middle Ages,
where there was little trade and wealth
was based primarily on land, land was the
most important gift a lord could give to a
vassal.
The Feudal Contract
In feudal society, having loyalty to ones
lord was the chief virtue. The relationship
between lord and vassal was made official
by a public ceremony. To become a vassal,
a man performed an act of homage to his
lord:
PRIMARY SOURCE
The man should put his hands together as a
sign of humility, and place them between the two
hands of his lord as a token that he vows
everything to him and promises faith to him; and
the lord should receive him and promise to keep
faith with him. Then the man should say: Sir, I
enter your homage and faith and become your
man by mouth and hands [that is, by taking the
oath and placing his hands between those of the
lord], and I swear and promise to keep faith and
loyalty to you against all others.
A Source Book for Medieval History
By the ninth century, the grant of land
made to a vassal had become known as a
fief (FEEF). Vassals who held fiefs came to
hold political authority within them. As
the Carolingian world fell apart, the num-
ber of separate, powerful lords and vassals
increased. Instead of a single government,
many different people were responsible
for keeping order.
Feudalism became increasingly compli-
cated. The vassals of a king, who were
great lords, might also have vassals who
would owe them military service in return
for a grant of land taken from their estates.
Those vassals, in turn, might likewise have
vassals. At that level, the vassals would be
simple knights with barely enough land to
provide income for their equipment.
 The lord-vassal relationship bound
together greater and lesser landowners. It
was an honorable relationship between
free men and implied no sense of servi-
tude. Feudalism came to be characterized
by a set of unwritten rulesknown as the
feudal contractthat determined the rela-
tionship between a lord and his vassal. The
major obligation of a vassal to his lord was
to perform military service, usually about
40 days a year.
When summoned, a vassal had to appear
at his lords court to give advice. Vassals
were responsible for making payments to
the lord on certain occasions, for example,
the knighting of the lords eldest son or
marriage of his eldest daughter.
Under the feudal contract, the lord also
had responsibilities to his vassals. Of
course, he supported a vassal by granting
him land but he also had to protect his vas-
sal by defending him militarily or by tak-
ing his side in a dispute.
Reading Check Explaining Why was land the
most important gift a lord could give a vassal?
Feudalism
The Feudal System
King
Great Lords
Less Powerful Lords
Simple Knights
Peasants/Serfs
Feudal Society
Men and women of the nobility were
guided by a code of ethical behavior and societys
expectations of their roles.
HISTORY & YOU How do sports provide people
with an outlet? Read how tournaments provided an
outlet for knights.
Feudal society was built around a cul-
ture of warfare as vassals prepared to fight
for their lords when called upon. However,
such a society also needed to find ways to
prevent conflicts and violence from tearing
the society apart.
Nobility and Chivalry
In the Middle Ages, European society,
like Japanese society during the same
period, was dominated by men whose
chief concern was warfare. Like the Japa-
nese samurai, many European nobles
loved war. As one nobleman wrote in a
poem on the subject:
From roughly 800 to 1500, the social system of
feudalism provided security for most of Europe.
Feudalism involved a complex web of obligations for
people at all levels of society.
Kings awarded tracts of land, called fiefs, to nobles.
As vassals to the king, nobles pledged their loyalty and
promised military services as a knight. Wealthier nobles
subdivided their land into fiefs for lesser nobles and
thus had vassals of their own. Peasants and serfs were
not a formal part of feudalism. They were tied to the
land. For them, the feudal order meant security.
1. Comparing and Contrasting How did
the obligations of the serfs differ from
those of lords and knights?
2. Evaluating What does the chart reveal
about feudal values?
 Medieval Castle

Feasts were held

People could retreat to in the great hall.
the well-defended keep
in case of attack.
The bailey was a
fenced enclosure of
land or courtyard.

The barbican was

a walled defense
used to protect the
castle gatehouse.

The drawbridge could

be raised to prevent
The portcullis was moved up
and down to open or close the
entrance to the barbican.
entry to the castle.
Early castles were
surrounded by a moat
or water-filled ditch.
By the end of the twelfth century, a castles
keep was the strongest part of the castle, but
people lived, entertained, worshiped, and
conducted business in smaller buildings on
the bailey.
1. Making Inferences Which structures in a
late medieval castle helped to protect the
castle from invaders?
2. Drawing Conclusions Why might a cas-
tle include its own offices, stables, kitchen,
and chapel?

PRIMARY SOURCE Great lords and ordinary knights came

And well I like to hear the call of
Help and see the wounded fall,
Loudly for mercy praying,
And see the dead, both great and small,
Pierced by sharp spearheads one and all.
Sources of the Western Tradition, vol. 1
The nobles were the kings, dukes, counts,
barons, and even bishops and archbishops
who had large landed estates. Their land-
holdings gave them considerable political
power in medieval society. They formed
an aristocracy, or nobility, that consisted of
people who held political, economic, and
social power.
to form a common group within the aris-
tocracy. They were all warriors, and the
institution of knighthood united them all.
However, there were also social divisions
among them based on extremes of wealth
and landholdings.
Trained to be warriors but with no adult
responsibilities, young knights had little to
do but fight. In the twelfth century,
tournamentscontests where knights
could demonstrate their fighting skills
began to appear. By the late twelfth cen-
tury, the joustindividual combat between
two knightshad become the main part of
the tournament.

312 SECTION 2 Feudalism

 Knights saw tournaments as an excellent way to train
for war. One knight expressed it in these words: A knight
cannot distinguish himself in war if he has not trained for
it in tourneys.
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, under the influ-
ence of the Catholic Church, there gradually evolved
among the nobility an ideal of civilized behavior, called
chivalry. Chivalry was a code of ethics that knights were
supposed to uphold. In addition to their oath to defend
the Church and defenseless people, knights were expected
to treat captives as honored guests instead of putting them
in dungeons. In terms of the treatment of women, chivalry
put the aristocratic woman on a pedestal. A knight was to
treat her with tenderness and respect.
Chivalry also implied that knights should fight only for
glory and not for material rewards. Of course, this ideal
was not always followed.
Aristocratic Womens Roles
Although women could legally hold property, most
remained under the control of menof their fathers until
they married and of their husbands after they married.
Still, aristocratic women had many opportunities to play
important roles.
Because the lord was often away at war or court, the
lady of the castle had to manage the estate. Households
could include large numbers of officials and servants, so
this was no small responsibility. Care of the financial
accounts alone took considerable knowledge. The lady of
the castle was also responsible for overseeing the food
supply and maintaining all the other supplies needed for
the smooth operation of the household.
Women were expected to be subservient to their hus-
bands, but there were many strong women who advised,
and even dominated, their husbands. Perhaps the most
famous of these was Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor was
one of the most remarkable personalities of twelfth-cen-
tury Europe. Heiress to the duchy of Aquitaine in south-
western France, she was married at the age of 15 to King
Louis VII of France. The marriage was not a happy one,
and Louis had their marriage annulled. Eleanor married
again, only eight weeks later, to Duke Henry of Normandy,
who soon became King Henry II of England.
Henry II and Eleanor had a stormy relationship. She
spent much time abroad in her native Aquitaine, where
she created a brilliant court dedicated to cultural activities.
She and Henry had eight children (five were sons). Two of
her sonsRichard and Johnbecame kings of England.
As Eleanor aged, she continued to travel to arrange
royal and noble weddings and to manage her estates.
She lived until her eighties, dying in 1204 in an abbey.
Reading Check Summarizing List three features of chivalry.
Vocabulary
1. Explain the significance of: Magyars,
Hungary, Vikings, enabled, Normandy,
feudalism, vassal, knight, fief, feudal
contract, contract, tournament, chivalry,
Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Main Ideas
2. Explain how Frankish traditions weakened
the Carolingian Empire following
Charlemagnes death.
3. Describe the benefits granted a vassal
under feudalism. What was a vassals
primary obligation to his lord?
4. List the invasions that besieged the
Carolingian Empire throughout the ninth
and tenth centuries.
Critical Thinking
5. The BIG Idea Summarize What
factors helped feudalism develop in
western Europe throughout the ninth and
tenth centuries?
6. Contrasting Information Use a table like
the one below to list the differences
between the social order of feudalism and
empires.
Feudalism Empires
7. Analyzing Visuals Analyze the cast on
page 312. What does its structure reveal
about medieval life?
Writing About History
8. Descriptive Writing Describe a twelfth-
century tournament, using details to create
vivid images. Use your local library or the
Internet to supplement the text information.
What questions would you ask about
tournaments, knights, and jousting?
(ISTORY /.,).%
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