Feudalism
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50 free Feudalism trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Feudalism shaped life in medieval Europe for centuries. Land was held in exchange for loyalty and armed service, and almost everyone, from the king to the poorest farmhand, owed something to somebody above them. Its vocabulary still hides in modern English, and its last traces lingered far longer than most people expect. This quiz covers the essentials students meet in class: who held land from whom, what lords, knights and peasants owed one another, the ceremonies and oaths that bound them, and the knightly code of honour. It also follows the story further afield, to Japan and to colonial North America, and on to the revolts, plagues and reforms that brought the old order down. The questions suit history students revising a unit on feudal Europe, teachers who want a ready-made multiple-choice quiz, and anyone who enjoys the Middle Ages. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
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Q 01Which modern English word for a wicked character began as the name of a feudal class of half-free peasants?
Villain
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.
Q 02Which Channel Island was governed on feudal lines by a hereditary Seigneur until its first general election in 2008?
Sark
Sark's parliament had seated the owners of its 40 tenements by right, alongside just 12 elected deputies, until the reforms of 2008.
Q 03Which sport from the age of feudalism became Maryland's official state sport in 1962, the first adopted by any US state?
Jousting
Jousting has been held in Maryland since colonial times, and today's riders gallop at small hanging rings and spear them with a lance.
Q 04Which 14th-century pandemic left so few labourers alive that surviving peasants in Europe could demand higher pay?
Black Death
Black Death survivors found land plentiful and wages high, and the old duty to stay on a lord's estate withered across western Europe.
Q 05Which great survey, ordered by the king in 1085, recorded who held land across England and what it was worth?
Domesday Book
Domesday Book got its nickname in the 12th century because its rulings, like those of the Last Judgement, could not be appealed.
Q 06Which charter, sealed at Runnymede in 1215, forced King John to limit the feudal payments he demanded from his barons?
Magna Carta
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.
Q 07Which raiders, who besieged Paris in 845 and 885, exposed the weakness of Frankish kings and strengthened local lords?
Vikings
Vikings sailed 120 ships up the Seine in 845 and left Paris only after the king paid 7,000 livres in gold and silver.
Q 08Medieval thinkers split society into three orders: those who pray, those who fight and those who do what?
Work
Work fell to the peasants, by far the largest order, whose harvests fed the praying churchmen and the fighting nobles ranked above them.
Q 09On 4 August 1789 French deputies voted to abolish feudalism; which Paris fortress had fallen three weeks earlier?
The Bastille
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.
Q 10Which word for land held from a lord in return for service comes from the Latin feudum, the root of 'feudalism'?
Fief
Fief may trace back to a Frankish word combining cattle and goods, meaning a movable object of value, in the most widely held theory.
Q 11In feudalism, what was a noble called who received land from a lord and promised loyalty and military service in return?
Vassal
Vassal comes, by way of Latin, from an old Celtic word for a young man or servant: literally, one who stands under another.
Q 12Which class of feudal peasants could not be sold individually like slaves, but could be sold together with the land?
Serfs
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.
Q 13Which type of rural estate in feudal Europe centred on a lord's house and held its own court for the tenants?
Manor
Manor lords judged their own tenants in a court run by local custom, so rent, farming and justice all passed through a single estate.
Q 21Which payment, named from the Latin for shield, let an English knight buy his way out of military service?
Scutage
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.
Q 22Which part of a feudal estate did the lord keep for his own use rather than letting it out to tenants?
Demesne
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.
Q 23Which leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt was killed at Smithfield while negotiating with the young King Richard II?
Wat Tyler
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.
Q 14In which feudal ceremony did a tenant kneel with palms together while his lord placed his own hands over them?
Homage
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.
Q 15Which knightly code of honour takes its name from an Old French term that can be translated as 'horse soldiery'?
Chivalry
Chivalry at first meant simply mounted fighting men, from the French cheval, a horse; the ideals of honour were attached to the word later.
Q 16After serving as a page from the age of seven, a boy training for knighthood took which rank at fourteen?
Squire
Squire is short for esquire, from the Anglo-French for shield bearer, because the job meant carrying a knight's shield and armour.
Q 17Which levy gave the medieval Church a share of every harvest, often stored in a great barn built for the purpose?
Tithe
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.
Q 18Under which duke of Normandy did feudalism take root in England, after his victory at Hastings in 1066?
William the Conqueror
William the Conqueror claimed ultimate possession of all the land his armies controlled, then granted the confiscated estates to his followers.
Q 19Feudalism spread as the empire of which Frankish ruler, crowned in Rome on Christmas Day 800, fell apart?
Charlemagne
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.
Q 20For roughly how long each year did a feudal knight owe his lord armed service on campaign when summoned?
40 days
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.
Q 24Which warrior class of feudal Japan, whose name means 'one who serves', acted as retainers to the great lords?
Samurai
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.
Q 25Which title was held by the military rulers who usually governed feudal Japan while emperors reigned in name only?
Shogun
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.
Q 26Which inheritance custom passed a feudal estate whole to the eldest son, leaving his brothers to make their own way?
Primogeniture
Primogeniture kept great estates intact; the county of Kent was a famous exception, where the custom of gavelkind divided land among the heirs.
Q 27The word sheriff joins 'shire' to which title of a medieval estate overseer, usually a peasant chosen for a year?
Reeve
Reeve meant the overseer of the labour peasants owed their lord, while a 'shire-reeve' was the royal official for a whole county.
Q 28By medieval custom, how long did a runaway peasant have to live in a town before becoming legally free?
A year and a day
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.
Q 29Which oath, named from the Latin for faithfulness, did a feudal tenant swear to his lord on a Bible or saint's relic?
Fealty
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.
Q 30Which word for the ceremony that made a man a knight comes from the Latin for neck and now also means praise?
Accolade
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.