1. Feudalism Pyramid of Power Manoralism
Year 8 European Medieval History
Duffy Stirling: Teachers Pay Teachers

2. The Feudal Pyramid of Power

3. Government in England before 1066
The Roman Empire had a central government. After Rome fell, Europe had dozens of little kingdoms.
Lots of fighting between Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
Lots of attacks from Vikings, Magyars (from East Asia) and Muslims.
A new way evolved ...
Explain what a central government is.

4. Feudalism
Feudalism was the political and military system of the Middle Ages.
In a feudal society, land is exchanged for military service and loyalty.
The ownership of land was the basis or power.

5. Why Land?
Why was land so important? Why did everyone want it? One word:
MONEY!
In the Middle Ages, as now, owning land is a great form of revenue and POWER!
If you controlled land, you controlled the people who lived on it.
You could take a cut of the produce (crops and livestock) of the land.
You also charged rent to the tenants: farmers, craftsmen etc.
More on ‘rent’ and ‘taxes’ later.

6. The Feudal Pyramid of Power
A way to think about how the Feudalism works is to imagine a triangle or pyramid.
The higher up the pyramid, the more power you had.
But your power was supported by the levels below you.

7. 1066
Before the Battle of Hastings, England was ruled by Anglo-Saxon kings.
When William I conquered England, he changed how it was governed.

8. At the top As a conquering King, William ‘owned’ everything.
He could not manage all of it himself: he delegated control to his nobility.
Depending on how loyal they’d been, William allocated control of parcels of land to the nobles who fought for him.

9. Feudal Pyramid of Power
LAND
and control over the people who lived there
MONARCH
NOBILITY
1: As Monarch, the King was the top of the pyramid: he owned land.
He could allocate land, and control of the people who lived on the land to:
2: the nobility. These were important families, believed to be of important birth OR having shown incredible loyalty to the King.
Feudal Pyramid of Power

10. Nobility Barons, Earls and Dukes.
Men who had fought alongside the King were ‘rewarded’ with land.
In return, these nobles had to
swear an oath of loyalty to the King
collect taxes
provide soldiers when the King requires them

11. Feudal Pyramid of Power
LAND
and control over the people who lived there
MONEY (TAX) AND KNIGHTS
MONARCH
NOBILITY
1: As Monarch, the King was the top of the pyramid: he owned land.
He could allocate land, and control of the people who lived on the land to:
2: the nobility. These were important families, believed to be of important birth OR having shown incredible loyalty to the King.
Feudal Pyramid of Power

12. Knights: Soldiers of the Middle Ages
Nobles needed trained soldiers to defend castles and to send to fight the King’s wars when required.
Knights were the most important, highly skilled soldiers.
Mounted knights in heavy armor were the best defenders.

13. Knights BUT being a Knight is expensive: weapons, armor, horses.
A Noble would pay his knights with land.
The land given to a knight in exchange for service was called a fief.
Knights who accepted a fief from a Lord was a vassal.
A vassal swore an oath of fealty (loyalty) to their lord and would fight for him when required.

14. Feudal Pyramid of Power
LAND
and control over the people who lived there
MONEY (TAX) AND KNIGHTS
MONARCH
LOYALTY, PROTECTION and MILITARY SERVICE
LAND (fief)
NOBILITY
KNIGHTS VASSALS
Feudal Pyramid of Power

15. The Commoners Then there was everyone else.
In the time of William I, the Knights and Lords were all Norman French.
With control of land came control of the Anglo-Saxons (English) who lived there.

16. Serfs A serf was a labourer who was “bound to the land.”
They worked the land (farmed) for the Lord and his Vassals, paying dues (food, services and money) in return for the use of the land.
They could not leave their lord’s land without permission.
A serf was not a slave because he could not be sold, but a serf was not free because he could not leave.
They also needed permission to marry.

17. Feudal Pyramid of Power
LAND
and the people who lived there
MONEY (TAX) AND KNIGHTS
MONARCH
LOYALTY, PROTECTION and MILITARY SERVICE
LAND (fief)
NOBILITY
LAND
and protection
FOOD AND SERVICES
KNIGHTS VASSALS
PEASANTS SERFS
Note that the serfs were provided with land, but did not own it. They paid ‘rent’. Also, they expected ‘protection’.
Emphasise that in the beginning the Nobility and Vassals were mostly Norman French, and the peasants/serfs English. This formed the foundation for the levels of formality of our language (French-origin words are considered more elegant and formal; Anglo-Saxon origin words more conversational and informal) as well as British class structures which continue in Australia.
Feudal Pyramid of Power

18. Merchants and Craftsmen
Merchants and craftsmen (blacksmiths, tailors, bakers, thatchers and so on) could perform their trade in exchange for goods, services or money.
They had more freedom than serfs.
With the rise of towns, they would rent their house or workshop from the Lord.
Some freemen could rent land from the Lord to farm.

19. Feudal Pyramid of Power
LAND
and the people who lived there
MONEY (TAX) AND KNIGHTS
MONARCH
LOYALTY, PROTECTION and MILITARY SERVICE
LAND (fief)
NOBILITY
LAND
and protection
FOOD AND SERVICES
KNIGHTS VASSALS
MERCHANTS
FARMERS CRAFTSMEN
PEASANTS SERFS
Feudal Pyramid of Power

20. The Church The Catholic Church was very powerful in Medieval England.
The King may have been ruler of England but he feared the Church and the Pope.
The King allocated 25% of available land for Church use.
The King was considered to be on the throne because of ‘divine right’ – i.e. that God put him there.
If the King went against the wishes of the Pope, or the rules of Catholicism, he could be excommunicated.
What is the implication of the Church having control over 25% of the land.
Explain what it means to be excommunicated.

21. Feudal Pyramid of Power
LAND
and the people who lived there
MONEY (TAX) AND KNIGHTS
MONARCH
LOYALTY, PROTECTION and MILITARY SERVICE
LAND (fief)
NOBILITY
LAND
and protection
FOOD AND SERVICES
KNIGHTS VASSALS
MERCHANTS
FARMERS CRAFTSMEN
PEASANTS SERFS
It could be said that God and the Church were above the Monarch on the pyramid of power.
Feudal Pyramid of Power

22. Domesday Book
William I commissioned a census (or stocktake) of his ‘possessions’ so he knew how much he owned (so he could tax everyone!)
This is known as the ‘Domesday Book’.
Every acre of land, forest, person and livestock in is recorded in the book.

23. Manorialism

24. The ‘Manor’
When I think of ‘manor’ I think of a big grand house, something like this:
But in Medieval England, a ‘manor’ was more like a large estate, town or village. A ‘manor house’ would be in the centre of the estate, like this one in Gloucestershire. It would be where the Lord or Vassal would live.

25. PEASANTS and CRAFTSMEN HOUSING and WORKSHOPS
Manor
Remember: a fief was all of a Lord’s land. The manor was the part of the fief where the peasants farmed and lived.
MANOR HOUSE
MANOR CHURCH
PEASANTS and CRAFTSMEN HOUSING and WORKSHOPS
Point out the different parts of the manor, particularly the township, church.

26. Manorialism Manorialism was the economic system of the Middle Ages.
These days our economic system is called ‘Capitalism’.
Manorialism is a self-sufficient economy; this means that everything that is necessary for life was created on the manor.
Point out the different parts of the manor, particularly the township, church.

27. Manor What does a Medieval person need for everyday life?
Ask students to record their answers on their worksheets, or ask students to provide answers.

28. Manor
Everything the peasants needed for everyday life was catered for on the manor. Peasants generally lived their whole lives on the manor, rarely going any further than the neighbouring manor.
Point out the Mill, the Church, the fields and meadows.

29. Manor
Each manor included fortified manor house for the noble family, and a village for peasants, serfs.
Some people were ‘freemen’ who rented land from lord.
Others included landowning peasants, and skilled workers like blacksmiths, millers.
The Church provided a priest for the people’s spiritual needs. He lived in the Parsonnage.
Point out the Mill, the Church, the fields and meadows.

30. Manor Colour in your map of a Manor.
Match the colours you use to the legend.

31. A Peasant’s Life
It is the custom in England, as with other countries, for the nobility to have great power over the common people, who are serfs. This means that they are bound by law and custom to plough the field of their masters, harvest the corn, gather it into barns, and thresh and winnow the grain; they must also mow and carry home the hay, cut and collect wood, and perform all manner of tasks of this kind. Jean Froissart, 1395
A peasant’s life was hard. Not only did they work their own land to grow enough food for their families to survive, but they were also required to work the Lord’s land and to work the Church’s land.

32. Housing and Living Conditions
The King lived in large fortified castles (and later palaces).
The Nobility and Knights lived in smaller fortified castles and manor houses made mostly of stone.
The peasants, however, lived in ‘cruick shacks’ made of wood and mud and with dirt floors. Often the family would share their small huts with their animals (to keep them safe and warm, given they were extremely valuable).

33. Everyday Life
It would be unlikely that a peasant would ever be ‘clean’: often they wore the same clothing everyday, and washed only hands and face. They were heavily taxed: they paid rent to their Lord as well as tithes (compulsory donations) to the Church. What was left over was supposed to feed the family. As the land became overfarmed (soil exhaustion), there were increasing famines.

34. Strip Farming
Rather than farming square plots like we do today, medieval farmers planted in ‘strips’. Every few ‘strips’ would be farmed for the Lord or the Church.
They practiced crop rotation, where fields would be left fallow every other season to allow the ground to recover.
Many Lords hired a reeve, a kind of manager who would keep an eye on the dastardly peasants to make sure they didn’t steal or be lazy.
In the Manor diagram, the orange coloured strips would be set aside for the Lord.

35. Work that needed to be done
JANUARY
mending and making tools, repairing fences
FEBRUARY
carting manure and marl
MARCH
ploughing and spreading manure
APRIL
spring sowing of seeds, harrowing
MAY
digging ditches, first ploughing of fallow fields
JUNE
hay making, second ploughing of fallow field, sheep-shearing
JULY
hay making, sheep-shearing, weeding of crops
AUGUST
Harvesting
SEPTEMBER
threshing, ploughing and pruning fruit trees
OCTOBER
Last ploughing of the year
NOVEMBER
collecting acorns for pigs
DECEMBER
Mending and making tools, killing animals
Hard Work
Medieval peasants had a hard life. There was always work to be done.
Fill in the jobs that were required in different months on your ‘Medieval Peasant’s Calendar’.
OR You could draw symbols which represent the jobs that needed doing.
Australian students will need to be reminded that England is in the Northern Hemisphere and that the seasons are reversed.

36. The Breakdown of Feudalism
The Feudal system began to break down due to increasing starvation due to overfarming and inflation (rising prices leading to higher taxes and therefore more poverty)
All of these factors led to unsuccessful peasant rebellions, particularly the English Peasant Revolt of 1381.
Finally, the Black Death (1347 onwards) wiped out two thirds of the population: suddenly labour was valuable and peasants could bargain for a better deal.

37. Appendix

38. Feudal Pyramid of Power
LAND
and the people who lived there
MONEY (TAX) AND KNIGHTS
MONARCH
LOYALTY, PROTECTION and MILITARY SERVICE
LAND (fief)
NOBILITY
LAND
and protection
FOOD AND SERVICES
KNIGHTS VASSALS
MERCHANTS
FARMERS CRAFTSMEN
PEASANTS SERFS
Print this slide to create a poster for the classroom.
Feudal Pyramid of Power

39. Feudal Pyramid of Power
LAND
and the people who lived there
MONEY (TAX) AND KNIGHTS
MONARCH
LOYALTY, PROTECTION and MILITARY SERVICE
LAND (fief)
NOBILITY
LAND
and protection
FOOD AND SERVICES
KNIGHTS VASSALS
MERCHANTS
FARMERS CRAFTSMEN
PEASANTS SERFS
Print this slide to create a poster for the classroom.
Feudal Pyramid of Power

40. Feudal Pyramid of Power
Print this slide to create a worksheet for students to fill in as you go through the PowerPoint.
Feudal Pyramid of Power

41. Print this slide for the ‘Medieval Peasants Calendar’ activity.

42. Bibliography and Recommended Websites
Images by Wikipedia Commons, Geograph.org.uk and OpenClipArt.org.
To the best of my ability I have used original and royalty free images and information. If you believe I have broken copyright, please contact me immediately:
FEUDALISM INFORMATION
Boughey. n.d.. Feudal System, Schoolhistory.co.uk [online] Available at: [Accessed: 18 Aug 2013].
Historylearningsite.co.uk Feudalism. [online] Available at: [Accessed: 18 Aug 2013].
Historylearningsite.co.uk Medieval Farming. [online] Available at: [Accessed: 18 Aug 2013].
Middle-ages.org.uk. n.d.. Feudalism in England. [online] Available at: [Accessed: 18 Aug 2013].
Uncp.edu Medieval Civilization: Lecture Notes. [online] Available at: [Accessed: 18 Aug 2013].

43. Australian Curriculum
This PowerPoint addresses:
Year 8 History
Overview:
key features of the medieval world (feudalism, trade routes, voyages of discovery, contact and conflict)
Medieval Europe Depth Study (c.590 – c.1500)
The way of life in Medieval Europe (social, cultural, economic and political features) and the roles and relationships of different groups in society (ACDSEH008)

44. Thankyou! © 2013, Duffy Stirling.
I am a Middle and Senior Secondary School teacher in a rural South Australian high school.
Thankyou for downloading one of my resources.
Please contact me to let me know how you have used it!
Do not reproduce this work for any commercial purpose.
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