50 Fun Facts About Feudalism

Which modern English word for a wicked character began as the name of a feudal class of half-free peasants?

Villain comes from the Old French vilain, a peasant or farmhand, and the class's low status turned the word into an insult that outlived it.

Which Channel Island was governed on feudal lines by a hereditary Seigneur until its first general election in 2008?

Sark's parliament had seated the owners of its 40 tenements by right, alongside just 12 elected deputies, until the reforms of 2008.

Which sport from the age of feudalism became Maryland's official state sport in 1962, the first adopted by any US state?

Jousting has been held in Maryland since colonial times, and today's riders gallop at small hanging rings and spear them with a lance.

Which 14th-century pandemic left so few labourers alive that surviving peasants in Europe could demand higher pay?

Black Death survivors found land plentiful and wages high, and the old duty to stay on a lord's estate withered across western Europe.

Which great survey, ordered by the king in 1085, recorded who held land across England and what it was worth?

Domesday Book got its nickname in the 12th century because its rulings, like those of the Last Judgement, could not be appealed.

Which charter, sealed at Runnymede in 1215, forced King John to limit the feudal payments he demanded from his barons?

Magna Carta fixed the fee an heir paid to inherit a barony at £100 and a knight's holding at 100 shillings, restoring the traditional rates.

Which raiders, who besieged Paris in 845 and 885, exposed the weakness of Frankish kings and strengthened local lords?

Vikings sailed 120 ships up the Seine in 845 and left Paris only after the king paid 7,000 livres in gold and silver.

Medieval thinkers split society into three orders: those who pray, those who fight and those who do what?

Work fell to the peasants, by far the largest order, whose harvests fed the praying churchmen and the fighting nobles ranked above them.

On 4 August 1789 French deputies voted to abolish feudalism; which Paris fortress had fallen three weeks earlier?

The Bastille fell on 14 July, and the uproar that spread to the countryside pushed nobles in the Assembly to give up their own privileges in one night sitting.

Which word for land held from a lord in return for service comes from the Latin feudum, the root of 'feudalism'?

Fief may trace back to a Frankish word combining cattle and goods, meaning a movable object of value, in the most widely held theory.

In feudalism, what was a noble called who received land from a lord and promised loyalty and military service in return?

Vassal comes, by way of Latin, from an old Celtic word for a young man or servant: literally, one who stands under another.

Which class of feudal peasants could not be sold individually like slaves, but could be sold together with the land?

Serfs owed their lord labour and dues in return for protection and the right to farm some land for themselves, and their name comes from the Latin for slave.

Which type of rural estate in feudal Europe centred on a lord's house and held its own court for the tenants?

Manor lords judged their own tenants in a court run by local custom, so rent, farming and justice all passed through a single estate.

In which feudal ceremony did a tenant kneel with palms together while his lord placed his own hands over them?

Homage made the tenant, literally, his lord's man, from the French homme, and its kneeling pose may be the origin of the Christian prayer posture.

Which knightly code of honour takes its name from an Old French term that can be translated as 'horse soldiery'?

Chivalry at first meant simply mounted fighting men, from the French cheval, a horse; the ideals of honour were attached to the word later.

After serving as a page from the age of seven, a boy training for knighthood took which rank at fourteen?

Squire is short for esquire, from the Anglo-French for shield bearer, because the job meant carrying a knight's shield and armour.

Which levy gave the medieval Church a share of every harvest, often stored in a great barn built for the purpose?

Tithe comes from the Old English word for a tenth, the share of produce the Church claimed, and barns built to hold it stood across northern Europe.

Under which duke of Normandy did feudalism take root in England, after his victory at Hastings in 1066?

William the Conqueror claimed ultimate possession of all the land his armies controlled, then granted the confiscated estates to his followers.

Feudalism spread as the empire of which Frankish ruler, crowned in Rome on Christmas Day 800, fell apart?

Charlemagne's empire lacked the bureaucracy to support cavalry except by allotting land to mounted troops, so power drifted to the men who held it.

For roughly how long each year did a feudal knight owe his lord armed service on campaign when summoned?

40 days was the standard term, and as warfare changed in the later 13th century so short a spell of service became less and less useful to the king.

Which payment, named from the Latin for shield, let an English knight buy his way out of military service?

Scutage suited the crown as well, because the growing use of mercenaries in the 12th century made a money payment more useful than personal service.

Which part of a feudal estate did the lord keep for his own use rather than letting it out to tenants?

Demesne is a variant of the word domain, from the Latin dominus, a lord or master, and in practice it was the estate's home farm.

Which leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt was killed at Smithfield while negotiating with the young King Richard II?

Wat Tyler's rebels sought an end to bondage and wanted every labourer free to choose his employer; the king's officers cut him down in mid-parley.

Which warrior class of feudal Japan, whose name means 'one who serves', acted as retainers to the great lords?

Samurai drew hereditary stipends from their lords, and when Japan abolished its domains in the 1870s they lost both the pay and the right to wear swords.

Which title was held by the military rulers who usually governed feudal Japan while emperors reigned in name only?

Shogun began as a title for military commanders in the eighth and ninth centuries; later holders were named by the emperor yet ran the country themselves.

Which inheritance custom passed a feudal estate whole to the eldest son, leaving his brothers to make their own way?

Primogeniture kept great estates intact; the county of Kent was a famous exception, where the custom of gavelkind divided land among the heirs.

The word sheriff joins 'shire' to which title of a medieval estate overseer, usually a peasant chosen for a year?

Reeve meant the overseer of the labour peasants owed their lord, while a 'shire-reeve' was the royal official for a whole county.

By medieval custom, how long did a runaway peasant have to live in a town before becoming legally free?

A year and a day in a town broke a lord's claim, a rule remembered in a German saying about city air setting people free.

Which oath, named from the Latin for faithfulness, did a feudal tenant swear to his lord on a Bible or saint's relic?

Fealty was sworn on a holy object, often one kept inside an altar, so the swearer was bound by religion as well as by loyalty to the lord.

Which word for the ceremony that made a man a knight comes from the Latin for neck and now also means praise?

Accolade first meant an embrace about the neck; early knightings simply girded the candidate with his sword, and the tap of the blade came later.

Which medieval poet-composers performed lyric verse in Old Occitan on themes of knightly honour and courtly love?

Troubadours first appeared in the late 11th century in what is now southern France, and their art later spread into Italy and Spain.

Which epic poem, the oldest major surviving text in French, tells of a Frankish hero's last stand at Roncevaux Pass?

The Song of Roland, based on a real battle of AD 778, was the first of the chansons de geste, heroic poems that flourished for five centuries.

Which Church-backed movement led Normandy's nobles in 1047 to ban private wars from Wednesday evening to Monday morning?

The Truce of God was first proclaimed by bishops at Toulouges in 1027, and it tried to limit the days and seasons on which nobles could fight.

Which Russian tsar, later known as the Liberator, freed more than 23 million unfree peasants by an edict of 1861?

Alexander II had prepared the ground with a speech to the nobility in 1856, and the edict became the first and most important of his liberal reforms.

In which present-day Canadian province did habitants owe dues to seigneurs until a Feudal Abolition Act passed in 1854?

Quebec kept the system after the British conquest because an act of 1774 retained French civil law, and some of the rents lingered into the 20th century.

Which Frankish leader, victor at Tours in 732, is traditionally credited with a key role in the rise of feudalism?

Charles Martel's byname means the Hammer, and a 19th-century historian argued that he seized church lands to pay for the reforms that won his wars.

Which French historian wrote the classic study Feudal Society and was executed by the Gestapo in 1944?

Marc Bloch co-founded the Annales school of social history, then joined the Resistance and played a leading role in Lyon, where he was captured.

Which medieval warhorse, known in its day as the Great Horse, was the finest and strongest mount a knight could ride?

The destrier was rarer than its fame suggests: most knights rode coursers or rounceys into battle and kept a palfrey for everyday riding.

Under which feudal custom could a lord claim a tenant's best beast or chattel when the tenant died?

Heriot comes from the Old English for war-gear: lords once lent a fighting man his horse and weapons, and took them back when he died.

Which English king's statute Quia Emptores of 1290 stopped landholders from creating feudal tenants of their own?

Edward I's statute made anyone acquiring land step into the seller's place instead, so the lord above kept his dues and the feudal ladder grew no new rungs.

Which term described medieval land held in full ownership, owing no feudal duties to any lord?

Allod comes from a Frankish word meaning full ownership, and its holder had the right to sell or give away the land as he chose.

Which Chinese dynasty granted land to royal relatives and warriors in return for loyalty, a system called fengjian?

The Zhou kings' grants backfired: the regional lords grew stronger than the royal house, and their territories hardened into independent kingdoms.

Which philosopher helped draft Carolina's 1669 constitution, with its hereditary nobles titled landgraves and cassiques?

John Locke was secretary to one of the colony's eight proprietors, who invented the new titles because their charter barred them from creating earls or barons.

Which feudal doctrine returned an heirless tenant's land to his lord, and now passes unclaimed property to US states?

Escheat comes from the Latin for fall away, and in feudal England it also applied when a tenant was convicted of a felony.

Which agreement of 843 ended a Frankish civil war by splitting the Carolingian Empire among three royal brothers?

The Treaty of Verdun created West, Middle and East Francia; the western kingdom eventually became France and the eastern one Germany.

Which piece of riding gear did historian Lynn White argue gave rise to feudalism by enabling mounted shock combat?

The stirrup thesis holds that steadier riders made heavy cavalry decisive, so Frankish rulers paid mounted warriors in land; other historians contest it.

Which castle design, spread across England by the Normans, set a tower on an earth mound beside a walled courtyard?

Motte-and-bailey is a modern label, not a medieval one; a chronicler of the day simply described nobles piling up earth as high as they could.

Which animals were yoked in teams of eight to pull the heavy ploughs that tilled the farmland of medieval villages?

Oxen set the units of the land itself: an acre was what one team could plough in a day, and a furlong was how far it could pull without resting.

Which Japanese emperor's restoration in 1868 led to the abolition of Japan's feudal domains three years later?

Meiji took back the authority of every domain lord in 1871, and prefectures run by centrally appointed governors replaced their territories.

In which country did landowners pay annual feu duties to feudal superiors until a law took effect in November 2004?

Scotland's parliament had passed the abolition in 2000, and on the appointed day each holder became the sole owner of the land.