Three Orders

Feudalism
The economic, legal, political and social relationships that existed in Europe in the
medieval era are collectively called feudalism. Feudalism is a kind of agricultural
production which is based on the relationship between lords and peasants. The
peasants cultivated their own land, as well as the land of the lord. The lord provided
military protection in lieu of peasant’s services. The lords also had extensive judicial
control over the peasants. In fact, feudalism went beyond the economic to cover the
social and political aspects of life too.

France and England

Gaul was a province of the Roman Empire. From the sixth century, this region was a
kingdom ruled by Frankish/French kings. The Franks (a Germanic tribe) gave their
name to Gaul, making it ‘France’. The French had very strong links with the Church.
The link was further augmented when in 800 the Pope gave King Charlemagne the
title of ‘Holy Roman Emperor’ to ensure his support. The island of England-Scotland
was conquered by a duke from the French province of Normandy, in the eleventh
century.

The Three Orders

The three orders of society were broadly the clergy, the nobility and the peasantry.

The Second Order: The Nobility

The nobility had a central role in social process because they controlled land. This
control was the outcome of a practice called ‘vassalage’. The kings of France were
linked to the people by ‘vassalage’. The big landowners (the nobles) were vassals of
the king, and the peasants were vassals of the landowners.

The noble enjoyed a privileged status. He had absolute control over his property, in
perpetuity. He could raise troops called ‘feudal levies’. The lord held his own courts
of justice and could even coin his own money. He was the lord of the people settled
on his land. His owned vast tracts of land which contained his own dwellings, his
private fields and pastures and the homes of his tenant-peasants.

The Manorial Estate

A lord had his own manor-house. A small manorial estate could contain a dozen
families, while larger estates might include fifty or sixty families. Almost everything
needed for daily life was found on the estate. The estate had extensive woodlands
and forests where the lords hunted. There were pastures for cattle and horses. There
was a church and a castle for defence. From the thirteenth century, some castles were
made bigger for use as a residence for a knight’s family.

The Knights

From the ninth century, there were frequent localized wars in Europe. The amateur
peasant-soldiers were not sufficient, and good cavalry was needed. This led to the
growing importance of a new section of people – the knights. The lord gave the
knight a piece of land which was called ‘fief’ and promised to protect it. The fief
could be inherited. A fief extended to anything between 1,000 and 2,000 acres or
more. A fief contained a house for the knight and his family, a church and other
establishments to house his dependents. It also had a watermill and a wine-press.
The land of the fief was cultivated by peasants. In exchange, the knight paid a regular
fee to his lord and promised to fight for him in war. A knight was free to serve more
than one lord, but his foremost loyalty was to his own lord.

The First Order: The Clergy

The first order was composed of bishops and clerics. Most villages had their own
church. Everyone could not become a priest. The Serfs, physically-challenged and
women could not become priests. Men who became priests could not marry. The
bishops had the use of vast estates, and lived in grand palaces. The Church was
entitled to a tenth share of peasant’s produce. This tax was called ‘tithe’. It also
received money in the form of endowments made by the rich.

Monks

Some deeply religious people chose to live isolated lives. They lived in religious
communities called abbeys or monasteries. Abbeys were generally in places very far
from human habitation. Monks took vows to remain in the abbey for the rest of their
lives and to spend their time in prayer, study and manual labor. This option was open
to both men and women. Men became monks and women became nuns. Generally,
there were separate abbeys for men and women. Monks and nuns did not marry.
From small communities of 10 or 50 people, monasteries grew to communities often
of several hundred. Such monasteries had large buildings and landed estates, with
attached schools or colleges and hospitals. They contributed to the development of
arts.

The Church and Society

In spite of becoming Christians, the Europeans still held on to some of their old
beliefs in magic and folk traditions. Christmas and Easter became important dates
from the fourth century. Christmas, celebrated on 25 December, replaced an old pre-
Roman festival. The date of that festival was calculated by the solar calendar. The
date of Easter was not fixed, because it replaced and older festival to celebrate the
coming of spring, dated by lunar calendar. As per tradition, on that day people of
each village used to make a tour of their village lands. Overworked peasants
welcomed ‘holy days/holidays’. These days were meant for prayer, but people usually
spent them having fun and feasting. Many people went on long journeys to shrines
of martyrs or to big churches.

The Third Order: Peasants

The peasants comprised the third order. There were two types of peasants, viz. free
peasants and serfs.

Free Peasants: The free peasants held their farms as tenants of the lord. They had to
render military service; at least forty days per year. Peasant families had to devote
three or more days of the week to work at the lord’s estate. The output from such
labor was called labor-rent which would go directly to the lord. The kings sometimes
imposed a direct tax (taille) on peasants.

Serfs: The serfs cultivated the land which belonged to the lord. Much of the produce
from such land went to the lord. They received no wages and could not leave the
estate without the lord’s permission. Serfs could use only their lord’s mill, oven and
winepresses. The lord could decide whom a serf could marry. The lord might give his
blessings to the serf’s choice but on payment of a fee.

England

Feudalism developed in England from the eleventh century. The Angles and Saxons
came from central Europe to settle in England in the sixth century. William, the Duke
of Normany crossed the English Channel in the eleventh century and defeated the
Saxon king of England. William 1 had the land mapped, and distributed it in sections
to 180 Norman nobles. The lords became the chief tenants of the king. The lords
soon began to gift some of their own lands to knights. But they could not use their
knights for private warfare, which was forbidden in England. Anglo-Saxon peasants
became tenants of various levels of landholders.

Factors Affecting Social and Economic Relations

Some of the changes which affected social and economic relations in Europe are as
follows:

The Environment

From the fifth to the tenth centuries, most of Europe was covered with vast forests.
This left limited land for agriculture. Dissatisfied peasants often took refuge in the
forests. The cold climatic condition led to severe winters. It resulted in a shortened
growing season and reduced yield from agriculture.

Europe entered a warm phase from the eleventh century. This resulted in a longer
growing season. The soil could be more easily ploughed. Forest line significantly
receded in many parts of Europe. This made it possible to expand the area under
cultivation.

Land Use

Agricultural technology was primitive. Wooden plough, drawn by a team of oxen,

was used by peasants. The wooden plough could only scratch the surface of the
earth. Field had to be dug by hand, usually once in four years. Additionally, an
ineffective method of crop rotation was in use. The land was divided into two halves.
One field was planted in autumn with winter wheat, while the other field was left
fallow. Rye was planted on this fallow land the next year and the other half was left
fallow. This system resulted in gradual deterioration of soil. Famines and chronic
malnutrition was quite common.

But the lords wanted to maximize their incomes. The peasants were forced to bring
under cultivation all the land in the manorial estate, and spend more time on the
manorial estate. The peasants resorted to passive resistance. They spent more time
on their own fields, and kept much of the product of that labor for themselves. The
peasants also avoided doing unpaid extra work. They came into conflict with the
lords over pasture and forest lands. The peasants saw such resources meant for the
whole community, while the lords treated them as their private property.

New Agricultural Technology

Many technological changes took place by the eleventh century.

 Iron tipped ploughs and mould-boards came in use. The iron ploughs could
dig much deeper. The mould boards turned the topsoil properly.
  There was improvement in the methods of harnessing animals to the plough.
Shoulder-harness replaced the neck-harness. This enabled animals to exert
greater power.
 Use of iron horse-shoes helped in preventing foot-decay among horses.
 The use of wind and water energy for agriculture increased.
 The earlier two-field system of land use was replaced with three-field system.
The peasants could use a field two years out of three. They planted one crop
in autumn and a different crop in spring a year and a half later. Now the
farmers could break their land holdings into three fields. One field could be
used for planting wheat or rye in autumn for human consumption. The second
field could be used in spring to grow peas, beans and lentils for human uses,
and oats and barley for the horses. The third field was left fallow.

These changes helped in significantly increased food production. Availability of food

became double. Peas and beans provided more vegetable proteins in the diet and
served as a better source of fodder for their animals. The average holding size
reduced from about 100 acres to 20 to 30 acres by the thirteenth century. Smaller
holdings could be managed more efficiently.

Some of the technological changes cost a lot of money. Windmills and watermills
were installed by the lords. But peasants were able to take the initiative in many
things. Peasants extended the arable land. They switched to the three-field rotation
of crops. They set up small forges and smithies in the villages, where iron-tipped
ploughs and horseshoes could be made and repaired cheaply.

From the eleventh century, the economic transactions were becoming more and
more money based. This led to a weakening of the personal bonds. The increasing
use of money began to influence prices. Prices became higher in times of poor
harvest. In England, agricultural prices doubled between the 1270s and the 1320s.

A Fourth Order
Europe’s population was about 42 million in 1000. It increased to 62 million around
1200, and 73 million in 1300. Better food resulted in longer lifespan. By the thirteenth
century, an average European’s lifespan increased by 10 years than what it was in the
eight century. However, lifespan of women and girls was shorter.

The towns of the Roman Empire became deserted and ruined after its fall. But the
towns began to grow again from the eleventh century, due to improvements in
agriculture. Peasants needed a place where they could sell their surplus grain, and
could buy tools and cloth.
This led to growth periodic fairs and small marketing centres. Such places gradually
developed town-like features, such as a town square, a church, roads, shops, offices,
etc. Towns offered the prospect of paid work and freedom from the lord’s control.
Many serfs who wanted to be free ran away and hid in towns. If a serf could stay for
one year and one day without being discovered by his lord, he would become a free
man. The people of towns made the fourth order.

By the eleventh century, new trade routes with West Asia were developing. This
helped in growth of traders and merchants. They became rich and powerful, and
rivaled the power of the nobility.

Cathedral-towns

Large churches are called cathedrals. They were being built in France from the twelfth
century. These cathedrals belonged to monasteries, but were made by contribution
from different groups of people. The contributions came in the form of labor,
materials or money. During the course of construction of a cathedral, the
surrounding area became more populated. On completion of construction, such
places became centres of pilgrimage.

The Crisis of the Fourteenth Century

Europe’s economic expansion slowed down by the early fourteenth century. It
happened due to three factors. The northern Europe began to experience bitterly
cold summers. This resulted in shorter seasons for growing crops. It became difficult
to grow crops on higher ground. Many farmsteads were destroyed by storms and
oceanic flooding. It resulted in less income in taxes for governments.

Intensive ploughing had exhausted the soil, because land clearance was not
accompanied by proper soil conservation. Shortage of pasturage reduced the
number of cattle.

Population growth was outstripping resources. As a result, severe famines hit Europe
between 1315 and 1317. It was followed by massive cattle deaths in the 1320s.
Shortfall in the output of silver mines and Austria and Serbia resulted in severe
shortage of metal money, which hit the trade. The government was forced to reduce
the silver content of the currency, and mixed cheaper metals in it.

When the trade expanded in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, ships from
distant lands arrived in European ports. Those ships also brought rats, along with the
goods. The rats carried the deadly bubonic plague inflection. Western Europe was hit
by the epidemic (Black Death) between 1347 and 1350. The impact of plague was so
severe that 20 per cent of the people of the whole of Europe died. Some places lost
as much as 40 per cent of the population. The population of Europe reduced from 73
million in 1300 to 45 million in 1400.

This catastrophe, coupled with the economic crisis, caused immense social
dislocation. There was major shortage of labor because of depopulation. Shortage of
labor created serious imbalances between agriculture and manufacturing. Prices of
agricultural goods dropped. Wage rate increased by as much as 250 per cent in
England.

Social Unrest

The income of lords was badly hit. They tried to give up the money-contracts and
revive labor services. This was violently opposed by peasants; especially by better
educated and more prosperous ones. Peasants revolted in Flanders in 1323, in France
in 1358, and in England in 1381. These rebellions were ruthlessly crushed. But such
protests showed that the peasants wanted to protect the gains made in previous
centuries. In spite of severe repression, the old feudal relations could not be re-
imposed because of intense opposition by peasants. The money economy was far
too advanced to be reversed.

Political Changes
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, European kings strengthened their military
and financial power. These kings created powerful new states. Hence, historians
called these kings ‘the new monarchs’. Louis XI in France, Maximilian in Austria,
Henry VII in England and Isabelle and Ferdinand in Spain were absolutist rulers.
Isabelle and Ferdinand started the process of organizing standing armies, a
permanent bureaucracy and national taxation in Spain and Portugal.

Social changes which took place in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, gave
opportunities for the triumph of these monarchies. The feudal system of lordship and
vassalage had become weak. The economy was growing at a slower pace. The kings
introduced professionally trained infantry equipped with guns and siege artillery. The
aristocracies could not offer much resistance in the face of the firepower of the kings.
Monarchs increased taxes to get sufficient revenue to support larger armies. In
England, rebellion occurred in 1497, 1536, 1547, 1549 and 1553, but were put down.
In France, Louis XI had to wage a long struggle against dukes and princes. The
nobility made a tactical shift to ensure their survival. From being opponents to the
new regime, they turned into loyalists. In the new power equation, the lords were
given permanent positions in the administrative services.

But the king was no longer at the top of the pyramid. There was now an elaborate
courtier society and a network of patron-client relationships. The king was at the
centre of this system. Now, patronage could be given or obtained by means of
money. Due to money power, non-aristocratic elements could also gain access to the
court. The merchants and bankers lent money to the kings. Thus, space was made for
non-aristocratic elements in the state system.

Case of France: In France, in the reign of the child-king Louis XII, a meeting of the
French consultative assembly was held in 1614. The French consultative assembly
was known as the Estates General. It had three houses to represent the three orders.
After that assembly, it was not summoned again for nearly two centuries, till 1789.

Case of England: The developments in England were entirely different. Even before

the Norman Conquest, the Anglo-Saxons had a Great Council. The king had to
consult the Council before imposing any tax. This eventually developed into the
Parliament. The Parliament was composed of two Houses. The House of Lords had
lords and clergy as members. The House of Commons represented towns and rural
areas. King Charles I ruled for 11 years (1629-40) without calling the Parliament.
When he was forced to call the Parliament, due to the need of money, a section of
Parliament decided to go to war against him. They later executed the king and
established a republic. Within a short span of time, the monarchy was restored; but
on the condition that Parliament would be called regularly.