Professional Documents
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the Manor
Economy
Chapter 7 Section 2
Modern World History
Unit: Early Middle Ages
Windham High School
Peltier rm. 229
Feudalism Develops
Emperors were too weak to maintain law and
order with all the incoming invasions from the
Vikings, Muslims, and Magyars.
Feudalism begins due to the basic need for
protection.
o People needed protection.
Mutual Obligations
Land in exchange for loyalty and military service.
Feudal Contract- lords gave land to vassals,
vassals became knights for lords, vassals divided
land into fiefs, peasants worked the land.
Draw this diagram in your notebooks:
A Secured Society
This is the time where we got all the fun names;
dukes, counts, earls
One man could be both a lord and a vassal
Sometimes vassals had land from many lords,
and it turned into quite a problem.
o Ex. If your two best friends are fighting,
and you have been loyal to both, what
dilemma does that put you in?
Noblewomen: Restrictions
& Power
Lady of the manor took over when men were at
battle.
o
o
o
o
Supervised vassals.
Managed household.
Agriculture and medical tasks.
Sometimes even went to war.
Manors Support
Feudalism
Manors could include one or more villages and
the surrounding lands.
Peasants worked on the manor.
o Most of them were serfs and tied to the land (they couldnt just up and
move.)
A Self-Sufficient World
Peasants produced almost everything they
needed on the manor.
Manor included: cottages, water mill, church,
manor house.
Peasant Life
Men and women helped to till the land.
Children planted seeds and weeded the gardens.
In the winter after the harvest, hunger was very
common.
Few lived past the age of 35.
Diet: black bread, cabbage, turnips or onions.
Not allowed to hunt on the lords land.
Slept with their animals.