Feudal Manor Project

The Feudal Manor

The Manor:

Economics:

• based around the villages
• meadow land for personal plots
• arable land for farming
• was a local economy; most items produced in the estate
• women baked and brewed ale for market while men worked fields
• very little surplus after rent and tithes paid
• system of deffered payments; people borrowed and lent to each other like a bank
• credit wothiness was extremely important
• it was a money economy but there was very little coin, even in the 17th century

Politics:

• self-sufficient community
• large manors could have thousands of acres with more than 50 families living there
• small manors usually covered about 100 acres and had 10-12 families living on it
• people concregated into 1-room dirt floor huts
• lord owned a third to half of the arable land and it was worked about 3 times a week by the serfs. In return they were assigned their own land.
• there were no fences, so animals roamed free
• serfs owed part of produce to lord
• had a manor house, church, workshops, the mill, cottages, and farmland

Feudalism:

The Lords:

• served under the king
• title was given at birth or by the kings appointance
• ruled the manor
• owned a large amount of land
• payed by serfs

The dominant social system in medeval Europe that evolved in the 8th and 9th centuries. Vassals (serfs) were protected and maintained by their lords but had to pay fees and fight in wars

The Bishops:

• was appointed by the pope, local monarchs, and lords
• appointed and supervised the local priests in region to a certain degree
• was in head authority of church
• they owed allegiance to the ops which owed their allegiance to the churches central authority

Knighthood:

Serfdom:

• the majority of the people were serfs
• worked the farms of lords for protection and justice by the lord with some retribution
• had to give up some of their produce to pay rents, fees for animal grazing and milling, and provided service to lord
• they were not slaves and had the essential ownership of their home as long as debts were payed. Property was also passed down by inheritance
• religion was extremely important to them
• they rarely left the villages
• had and extremly difficult life; productivity was low due to inadequet tools, which led to the invention of the moldboard, 3-field system, and new collars for horses preventing choking

• they were appointed by lords and kings
• it was a full time occupation; served in wars and in exchange were given land
• chivalry was important; had devotion to the feudal lord and lady
• went through training process, starting as a page --> squire--> knight
• the 2nd and 3rd sons of lords were often sent to ther manors to become knights because they would not inherit anything from the manor
• did tournaments, which were sessions of combat training with spectators
• used stirrups and saddle to ride safely with heavier weapons on horseback