Diagram of a typical Feudal village
What is it that
defines the middle-ages as the epoch that left its legacy on the Western world?
When one thinks of the middle-ages, one tends to think of knights on horseback
in combat, glorious battles of hallowed significant and decisiveness, clashes
of civilizations through various crusades and diplomatic disputes, or even
great kings with wisdom and sovereignty.
As relevant as these aspects were in providing a description of this era, they
simply don't do justice in explaining to the common man exactly how a medieval
society orated itself geopolitically and interdependently.
The middle-ages, like any age, is a historical period that exhibits more than
meets the eye.
It is an age riddled with inflated loyalties,
clerical powers of the church combating the invading warriors, and constant
threats from neighbouring political entities. Initiated through the Germanic
invasion, leading down to humble beginnings of principalities and local
political entities, a complex system of relationships between the aristocrats
and laymen began to emerge.
This would become the standard form of political systems throughout western
Europe until the high middle-ages, starting with William the Norman in England
in 1066 A.D
after the battle of Hastings, in conjunction with the fall of the Carolingian
empire; feudalism slowly began to catch on throughout continental Europe and
would encompass the early kingdoms of Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.
As a homogenous mixture of Latin and Germanic traditions, feudalism was the
practical and sensible blend of systems that formed the cornerstone of medieval
society because of its robust social, economic, and relationship purposes.
With this important characteristic of
western-medieval Europe, feudalism, a medieval society functioned well enough
to govern itself territorially and locally, and assuming that the people accept
their natural order, it would continue to be a dominant system of politics
throughout the middle-ages which would restore much of the nostalgic post-western
Roman world to order through its prevalence.
