What facts can you add to this paragraph about feudalism?

Question:The end of the Roman Empire marks the beginning of the middle ages. During the middle ages the Middle Ages the system of government was called feudalism. Feudalism is parted into 4 main parts: Kings, Nobles, Knights, and Peasants. The structure of feudalism can be seen like a triangle, the top is the king because there was only one and he was the most powerful one, then there where the nobles who where a group of rich people who worked for the king. Nobles promised the king a good army and got paid in large amounts of land. Then up next are knights, these people fought to keep the kingdom safe and earned bits land for doing so. Then there are the many peasants, they worked to rent a little piece of land to live on. The largest population was the peasants. Unfortunately you could not move up the pyramid. If you were born a peasant you would die one and there was no other choice.

i learned this stuff in history class wikipedia has everything so wrong what elese can you add?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The end of the Roman Empire marks the beginning of the middle ages. During the middle ages the Middle Ages the system of government was called feudalism. Feudalism is parted into 4 main parts: Kings, Nobles, Knights, and Peasants. The structure of feudalism can be seen like a triangle, the top is the king because there was only one and he was the most powerful one, then there where the nobles who where a group of rich people who worked for the king. Nobles promised the king a good army and got paid in large amounts of land. Then up next are knights, these people fought to keep the kingdom safe and earned bits land for doing so. Then there are the many peasants, they worked to rent a little piece of land to live on. The largest population was the peasants. Unfortunately you could not move up the pyramid. If you were born a peasant you would die one and there was no other choice.

i learned this stuff in history class wikipedia has everything so wrong what elese can you add?

Nobles also kept the piece, or tried to. They also make sure the taxes were paid by the peasants. They were much like the judge and jury over the peasants.

One thing that is a big misconception is that Feudalism was not always the predominant way of government for all of Europe during the middle ages. Not only that but even the areas that had a so called feudal system, had no set way of doing things. The majority of armies and soldiers were merely armed, trained peasants - expendable, and you didn't have to arm them with much, a spear here, a few bows and arrows there, and you have a fairly effective fighting force en masse. Knights were actually often lords of some sort - after all, it took ALOT of income to become a knight - a knight required quite a few horses, retainers, enough money to afford armor (everything from a mere gambeson, leather armor, chain mail, or plate armor) weapons (spear, lance, long sword, short sword, mace, battle hammer, axe - and most knights carried at least 2 if not 3 or more weapons into battle) and of course a shield.

Peasants could sometimes work thier way into a Freeman status - these included merchants, masons, supervisors, things of this nature that require training and skills. In some areas, peasants sort of owned the land they worked, and payed taxes in the form of crops if nothing else, and were in turn, given protection, governance, and depending on the lord, and how well the peasant interacted with the society, permission to hunt. In RARE instances, a peasant who performed VERY couragous, noble acts, could be given a position as a captain or seargent of a goup of soldiers, and given a hefty raise or bonus, but usually never made a knight - as it just took too much money. The other group that you missed entirely is the church. Of course in the middle ages, the church was only the Catholic church though most of Europe, and it had AMAZING power. After all, it was a Pope who called for the crusades, who MADE different kings sign treaties and upheld disputed claims. Churches held vast sums of wealth and thier own estates, acting as lords who did not report to the king, but to the bishop. many times the structure could look more like a funny M where you have the kings and pope, followed by lords, cardinals and bishops, and then knights and peasants across the board.

Feudalism was a caste system, that was seen as preordained, so attempting act the part of another caste would have been seen as going against the natural order of things. A peasant was likely to take great pride in himself and wouldn't want to be a king any more than a king would want to be a peasant. Nobody believed in equality in these times; everything was seen hierarchical, from heaven to the earth, which coincidentally the peasant worked [the earth]. This symbolic association would have been obvious.

First of all, there were only three classes in Feudal society, Nobility (kings, knights, dukes, etc.) Clergy (popes, priest, abbots, bishops, etc) and Commons.

Serfs, the lowest ranked among the commons were tied to the land.

You totally missed the point that for the most part money was not exchanged under feudalism. The system was based on oaths of loyalty (or fealty) and reciprocal responsibility.

A vassal swore to support his liege lord, this could be a duke promising to send knights to battle or a serf promising to provide fodder for the stables.

The liege lord swore to look out for his vassals interests. This could and did mean things like the King went boar hunting because a wild pig was destroying the apple orchard tended by his serfs.

The only way to acquire land was by right of inheritance or right of conquest. A liege lord could and did grant usage of lands as a reward, however if the vassal died or failed to live up to his oaths, the land would revert back to the liege lord to do with as he pleased (either give to the vassal's heir, give to someone else or hold directly)

You also ignore the role of the freehold towns. If a serf could stay a year and a day in a town without his lord capturing and him and bringing him back, he would no longer be tied to the land. The rise of towns and cities lead to the end of the feudal system.

Most importantly you fail to acknowledge the role of the Church in Feudal society. The Church was the final arbiter in any dispute. Any change in allegiance had to be approved by the Church.

If a vassal knight, dared to overthrow his liege lord, only the Church could declare his conquest legitimate. If the Church didn't legitimize the conqueror's claim, then he would quickly be abandoned, especially if the Church put the region under interdict (meaning that no sacraments could be given in the land).

you could point out that wealth was inherited and land was the commodity that people fought over very rarely sold but passed on it was as there was no coin of the realm