Feudalism
The feudal system comes into focus during the 8th century, when the Carolingian dynasty is expanding its territory. Charles Martel grants his nobles rights over tracts of land, to yield the income with which they can provide fighting men for his army. This act of generosity, ultimately for his own benefit, requires an oath of loyalty in return.
Thus there develops the relationship between lord and vassal which is at the heart of feudalism. The lord gives the vassal an income-yielding fief (fehu-od in Frankish, the basis of the word 'feudal'). The vassal does homage to the lord, formalizing the relationship.
The largest fiefs are those given directly by monarchs to noblemen or barons, who then subcontract parts of these fiefs to vassals of their own. Only in this way, sharing out both the benefit and the obligation, can the king's vassals be sure of bringing their promised contingent of armed men into the field.
A pyramid of loyalty is thus created, in which each man - except at the very top and bottom - is a vassal to one lord and a lord to several vassals. At the very peak of European feudal society is the pope. By the end of the 12th century the papacy has more feudal vassals than any temporal ruler.
Middle Ages Architecture
Architecture during the Middle Ages saw many innovative changes from the Romanesque style of architecture to the Gothic style of architecture.
Romanesque architecture was the name given to the style of architecture used in very early Middle Ages when much of these developments were pioneered by the Normans and their prolific castle building. Romanesque Architecture was succeeded by Gothic, or Perpendicular style of architecture of the later Middle Ages (1066 - 1485) To appreciate the full extent of the changes in Middle Ages Architecture it is helpful to understand its fore-runner - Romanesque Architecture
Average Life Span
70 years
King John
All this time John's cruelty and savageness were making the whole kingdom miserable; and at last the great barons could bear it no longer. They met together and agreed that they would make John swear to govern by the good old English laws that had prevailed before the Normans came. The difficulty was to be sure of what these laws were, for most of the copies of them had been lost. However, Archbishop Langton and some of the wisest of the barons put together a set of laws--some copied, some recollected, some old, some new--but all such as to give the barons some control of the king, and hinder him from getting savage soldiers together to frighten people into doing whatever he chose to make them. These laws they called Magna Carta, or the great charter; and they all came in armor, and took John by surprise at Windsor. He came to meet them in a meadow named Runnymede, on the bank of the Thames, and there they forced him to sign the charter, for which all Englishmen are grateful to them. But he did not mean to keep it and prepared to take vengeance on the barons.
John Ball
Ball was imprisoned in Maidstone, Kent at the time of the 1381 Revolt. What is recorded of his adult life comes from hostile sources emanating from the established religious and political social order. He is said to have gained considerable fame as a roving preacher—a "hedge priest" without a parish or any link to the established order—by expounding the doctrines of John Wycliffe, and especially by his insistence on social equality. He delivered radical sermons in many places, including: Ashen, Billericay, Bocking, Braintree, Cressing Temple, Dedham, Coggeshall, Fobbing, Goldhanger, Great Baddow, Little Henny, Stisted and Waltham.
His utterances brought him into conflict with Simon of Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, and he was thrown in prison on several occasions. He also appears to have been excommunicated; owing to which, in 1366 it was forbidden for anyone to hear him preach. These measures, however, did not moderate his opinions, nor diminish his popularity. He took to speaking to parishioners in churchyards after the official services in English, the "common tongue", not the Latin of the clergy, a radical political move. Ball was "using the bible against the church", very threatening to the status quo.
A modern aerial view of the Black death looking south.
Shortly after the Peasants' Revolt began, Ball was released by the Kentish rebels from his prison. He preached to them at Black death (the revolting peasants' rendezvous to the south of Greenwich) in an open-air sermon
The feudal system comes into focus during the 8th century, when the Carolingian dynasty is expanding its territory. Charles Martel grants his nobles rights over tracts of land, to yield the income with which they can provide fighting men for his army. This act of generosity, ultimately for his own benefit, requires an oath of loyalty in return.
Thus there develops the relationship between lord and vassal which is at the heart of feudalism. The lord gives the vassal an income-yielding fief (fehu-od in Frankish, the basis of the word 'feudal'). The vassal does homage to the lord, formalizing the relationship.
The largest fiefs are those given directly by monarchs to noblemen or barons, who then subcontract parts of these fiefs to vassals of their own. Only in this way, sharing out both the benefit and the obligation, can the king's vassals be sure of bringing their promised contingent of armed men into the field.
A pyramid of loyalty is thus created, in which each man - except at the very top and bottom - is a vassal to one lord and a lord to several vassals. At the very peak of European feudal society is the pope. By the end of the 12th century the papacy has more feudal vassals than any temporal ruler.
Middle Ages Architecture
Architecture during the Middle Ages saw many innovative changes from the Romanesque style of architecture to the Gothic style of architecture.
Romanesque architecture was the name given to the style of architecture used in very early Middle Ages when much of these developments were pioneered by the Normans and their prolific castle building. Romanesque Architecture was succeeded by Gothic, or Perpendicular style of architecture of the later Middle Ages (1066 - 1485) To appreciate the full extent of the changes in Middle Ages Architecture it is helpful to understand its fore-runner - Romanesque Architecture
Average Life Span
70 years
King John
All this time John's cruelty and savageness were making the whole kingdom miserable; and at last the great barons could bear it no longer. They met together and agreed that they would make John swear to govern by the good old English laws that had prevailed before the Normans came. The difficulty was to be sure of what these laws were, for most of the copies of them had been lost. However, Archbishop Langton and some of the wisest of the barons put together a set of laws--some copied, some recollected, some old, some new--but all such as to give the barons some control of the king, and hinder him from getting savage soldiers together to frighten people into doing whatever he chose to make them. These laws they called Magna Carta, or the great charter; and they all came in armor, and took John by surprise at Windsor. He came to meet them in a meadow named Runnymede, on the bank of the Thames, and there they forced him to sign the charter, for which all Englishmen are grateful to them. But he did not mean to keep it and prepared to take vengeance on the barons.
John Ball
Ball was imprisoned in Maidstone, Kent at the time of the 1381 Revolt. What is recorded of his adult life comes from hostile sources emanating from the established religious and political social order. He is said to have gained considerable fame as a roving preacher—a "hedge priest" without a parish or any link to the established order—by expounding the doctrines of John Wycliffe, and especially by his insistence on social equality. He delivered radical sermons in many places, including: Ashen, Billericay, Bocking, Braintree, Cressing Temple, Dedham, Coggeshall, Fobbing, Goldhanger, Great Baddow, Little Henny, Stisted and Waltham.
His utterances brought him into conflict with Simon of Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, and he was thrown in prison on several occasions. He also appears to have been excommunicated; owing to which, in 1366 it was forbidden for anyone to hear him preach. These measures, however, did not moderate his opinions, nor diminish his popularity. He took to speaking to parishioners in churchyards after the official services in English, the "common tongue", not the Latin of the clergy, a radical political move. Ball was "using the bible against the church", very threatening to the status quo.
A modern aerial view of the Black death looking south.
Shortly after the Peasants' Revolt began, Ball was released by the Kentish rebels from his prison. He preached to them at Black death (the revolting peasants' rendezvous to the south of Greenwich) in an open-air sermon