ABSTRACT
This chapter describes feudalism as a form of government based on land tenure. Two practices of the fourth and fifth centuries, the frecarium and the fatrociniumy were forerunners of feudalism. As a form of government, though not as a social structure, feudalism began to lose ground in the thirteenth century, except in Germany, where it continued almost too modern times. Independently of these external forces, feudalism developed difficulties within itself. Fundamentally, of course, feudal society rested on the productive efforts of the peasantry. And as each warring noble strove to destroy the resources of his enemy, the villages and crops of the peasantry suffered severely. Chivalry was an important medieval institution with political, religious and juridical aspects. It was a vast fellowship of the nobility without fixed form or precise organization, but with rules of conduct and professional duties attached to membership in it.
