HIST-281 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Morale, Nouveau Riche, Class Consciousness
3 Nov 2020
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Feudal society thus developed, in other words, as a military regime a society organized for war. The collapse of the carolingian empire had left the notion of political legitimacy wide open. Feudal relations formed a way of rebuilding a institutional framework to establish a new standard of legitimacy. But a vassal"s military service to his lord was sharply limited. By the end of the eleventh century, a norm had developed that put the service owed at just forty days per year. For the rest of the year, each vassal remained on his fief, governing its people, watching over its manors and villages, collecting taxes, and dispensing justice. A vassal"s second chief obligation was to attend his lord"s court. In the first place, merely by answering a summons to attend court, the vassal was recognizing the lord"s authority; but there was more to it than that. The lord"s court provided the chief venue for making judicial decisions and debating political matters.
