HIST 2200 Lecture 9: Hist2200 Lecture 9 (02.08.2017)

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: History
• Course: HIST 2200
• Professor: Chelsea Hartlen

Document Summary

Topic - changes in medieval society and technology. Previous understanding of medieval europe as divided into three estates: people who worked, people who fought, people who prayed, eventually, women are added as a fourth estate in the 80s. The roman empire was very urban and commercial, but when it fell and infrastructure crumbled, the rest of western europe became more rural. In the early medieval period, the political stability and organization of the roman empire was lost in most areas. Feudalism (the 10th/11th centuries) reintroduces social and political stability to western europe. As was fairly evident during the lecture, feudalism was not everywhere the same at all times. Feudalism was different depending on the area, so sometimes it can be misleading to use the term. Fief = land held by a lord (given by the king) or vassal (from a lord) for service (military service, product of the land, or both)