At the bottom of the hierarchy were farmers and merchants. Japan operated under a feudal system from the 1100s to the 1800s under powerful military leaders called shoguns, whose vassals, called daimyo, controlled armies of samurai. And they were required to get the lord’s permission to do just about anything, including getting married or traveling off of the land.įeudalism wasn’t limited to medieval Europe. Serfs were not free to work elsewhere or go wherever they pleased-if the land passed from one owner to another, the serfs were then required to work the land for that new owner. Working the land (doing the actual farming) at the very bottom of the hierarchy were peasants called serfs.
Their tenants, called vassals, swore loyalty to the lord and provided military service (yes, knights in shining armor).
At the top of the hierarchy in the feudal system was a king, who traditionally owned all land and granted it directly to noblemen, known as lords, who held hereditary rights to it. The word feudalism may call to mind images of lowly peasants toiling for haughty nobles, but the relationships in such systems were more complex than that. The term feudal system was introduced much later, in the 1700s, by scholars studying the complex legal and political relationships of the Middle Ages. But they didn’t call it a feudal system at the time. The feudal system developed in Europe when the decline of the Roman Empire led to a fragmentation of power, which in turn allowed wealthy landowners to strengthen their control over the people living on their land.
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