Shortly after the barbaric invasions, Rome's urban setting disappeared and gave way to fields, pastures, and forests. The principles of Roman urban culture had to adapt to this new change. Powerful Germanic tribes invaded Europe and settled there in the 3rd and 4th centuries of the Christian era. They brought new rules of conduct, new codes of ethics and a new way of accumulating and distributing wealth.
A chaotic society
The world had entered a new era filled with riddles and mysteries, it was dangerous to venture into the hostile forests where bandits had control. Travelers from Roman times had disappeared. Collective fear reigned everywhere. The first Merovingians to destroy themselves did little to improve this chaotic situation. As soon as the invasions of the East were contained, it was necessary to face the Vikings and Normans. The great Charlemagne partly restored the situation by laying down the principles of a new administration. Money circulated again, schools were created, the population ranked themselves often leading to the possession of privileges for some over others. This period is commonly referred to as: "The Little Renaissance".
Local government
Under the Carolingian Empire, the emperor represented the heart of the administrative organization. The size of its territory had forced it to delegate its power to regional, regional or district officials. The insecurity of the territory was such that the kingdom was geographically delimited so that one could go from one point to another in a day's riding. Rivers or forests delineated the regions thus formed. Necessity and fear had imposed such a network of relationships between the person in charge of a region, called a vassal, and the emperor or king to whom he had sworn loyalty. The vassal swore an oath to the lord, occupying a fiefdom, a large land estate. He had to provide soldiers for the lord and provided him with income. In return, the lord protected him with his army.
The organization of the fiefdom
Some fields and villages depend directly on the vassal who is entrenched in the castle. He has entrusted hamlets to back vassals who in turn protect sub-vassals who take care of a few plots and houses.
Decentralization of power
The feudal system is therefore made up of a set of personal relationships, based on mutual help that organizes society on a new basis. A certain balance of power is characteristic of the feudal system. The powerful needs loyal men to help him administer the land and the army. On the other hand, there are the less powerful who ask for help and assistance, thus becoming servants of the most powerful. But they will also be able to enact laws, recruit soldiers... The feudal system was born out of the weakness of States and the insecurity it created. The state was subsequently divided into a large number of autonomous units and accompanied by the shift of social and economic life towards the countryside and the lord's residence: the castle.
Life at the castle
The castle was the center of a complex that lived almost in a closed circuit. It includes the dwellings of the lord, soldiers, free peasants, craftsmen, serfs and everything that was necessary for their lives: stables, warehouses, shops, ovens, workshops... In exceptional situations such as a siege, he could do without the outside world.
A new society
The vassal was not the true owner of his fiefdom, it was up to the suzerain, but he could administer and use the resources and products of the land for his benefit. When the vassal died, the land was returned to the suzerain, but in practice, the vassal's son came to renew the oath of fidelity made by his father. The vassal himself can be assisted by other people who take the oath, these people then received a castle, a fortified tower with a village, fields, or a road and a bridge. They were the backbones. At that time there were already three orders: the nobility who were in charge of command and war, the clergy who prayed for spiritual peace, the peasants who worked harvested, they survived above all.
The emergence of nobility
After Charlemagne's death, the imperial power weakened, the delegates of power gained independence and importance. A nobility emerged and ranked themselves respectively as barons, viscounts, counts, marquises, dukes, and princes. Sometimes even vassals were richer than their lords. Thus the Dukes of Normandy who controlled England were more powerful than the kings of France.
to be continued in the next part
