The Feudal System
What was it?
The way life worked back in the middle ages. A system of rankings that determines your job, your rights, and your relationship with others. To some people the feudal system was like a family. The dad would be the King, the lords could be the wife/mom, the older children would be knights, and little kids in the family would be the serfs
How did it work?
You are automatically born into whatever class your parents were in and you can never improve your ranking. You were stuck in whatever class you were born in. You would make deal with people above you in ranking (unless you were a king ) and below you (unless you were a serf).
The most powerful and wealthy of all of the people in the village. The king controls all of the lords, knights, and serfs. He was an army commander, a judge, and a lawmaker. He would give some of his land and protection to lords who would give the king a percent of the crops they grew and would provide knights.
Queen
The queen was married to the king. She was as rich as him too. She and the king ate great meals. The queen also had much jewlery, many cloths, and a lot of other riches.
The king gives a lord some land to rule over. The land he gets comes with all the crops, serfs, and villages on it. In exchange for the land, he has to recruite knights that will fight in wars, he needs to give a certain amount of crops to the king, and he needs to be loyal at all times to the king!!!
She gets married to the lord and lives with him and does several chores such as sewing, singing to the guests, and setting the table. She has several pages who help her with her work to be promoted to a squire and then to a knight. She helps them train and get promoted to a knight and then a squire. She has very few rights.
A squire that gets recruited from a lord to be trained as a knight. He fights for the lord and king in time of war for a manor and money. Instead of the lord going to war, he has a choice to make the knights go in his place.
The serf was the poorest one and is left to live in a little cottage and did all the work. The job of a serf was to farm the land, take care of the animals, make cotton, and do whatever the king, lady, lord, or knight tells them to. They get the lowest cut out of the crops and do the biggest amount of work. However, they did get some food and protection during war. They were not free and belonged to whoever owned the land. They even needed permission to leave the land or get married.
Did it make life better or worse?
It made life better for kings,lords, and knights who had good lives, but worse for serfs who had bad lives because of feudalism. The serfs had no where to go so they were stuck in the lowest ranking. Feudalism made different people have different rankings, different amounts of power and wealth, and different jobs. Since none of these things were divided evenly, people lived very different lives, some good, and some bad.
What advantages did it have?
Whoever you were, feudalism garenteed you some kind of job and some way to get food and protection. It also created a system that controlled everything, so everyone knew what to do, who to hire, and how to earn money. Since lords had some power, the king wasn't the only one with power, even though he essentially controlled everyone.
What disadvantages did it have?
Most people were serfs, so most people had bad lives. It was not fair because, the people who did the most work got the least amount of the crops. It was also unfair that you could never improve your rank. Woman had almost no power and rights. The feudal system meant a monarchry form of government with one person in almost complete power. The King got to lay back and do no work will he hired diffrent people to do everything for him.
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