History glossary
Feudalism
a medieval system of land, loyalty, and obligation linking lords, vassals, knights, and peasants.
- Category
- Social and political system
- Region
- Medieval Europe
What it means
Feudalism is a broad modern term for medieval relationships built around landholding, protection, military service, and social hierarchy. It varied by place and time, but it helps explain how power worked in much of medieval Europe.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The English Civil War
Civil war between king and Parliament led to regicide, a republic, and lasting constitutional change.
The Norman Conquest of England
From Viking settlers to conquerors, the Normans reshaped England, Italy, and the medieval Mediterranean.
The Rise of the Medieval Church
From the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Avignon papacy, this story traces how the Christian Church built its authority through bishops, monasteries, missions, reform, and direct confrontation with Europe's rulers.
Feudalism and Medieval Society
From the estates of Charlemagne's empire to the flowering of Gothic cathedrals, this story explores how feudal hierarchies, manorial agriculture, and Church authority shaped the lives of kings, knights, and peasants alike.
The Crusades
From Pope Urban II's call at Clermont to the fall of Acre, the Crusades reshaped the medieval world through religious war, cross-cultural encounter, and lasting consequences for Europe and the Middle East.
Early China
From Neolithic farming villages to the Shang and Zhou dynasties, Early China built the writing, bronze culture, and political doctrines that gave Chinese civilisation its enduring character.
The French Revolution
From royal debt and social inequality to republic, terror, and Napoleon, the French Revolution dismantled the old order and produced the political ideas of citizenship, rights, and nationalism that defined the modern world.
Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleon turned revolutionary opportunity into continental empire, then lost it in total war that still transformed European politics, states, and nationalism.
