Feudalism and manorialism are two systems that existed in medieval Europe. Both these systems involved the exchange of land in return for services. Feudalism mainly describes the obligation of vassals to the king, but manorialism describes the organization of the rural economy in a feudal society.
What is Feudalism — Definition, Characteristics, Facts 2. What is Manorialism — Definition, Characteristics, Facts 3. Feudalism, Manor, Manorialism, Medieval. Feudalism is a social, political and economic system that existed in European medieval societies. Although different scholars define feudalism in different ways, the term feudalism specifically refers to the hierarchical relationship between different levels of people in society. Moreover, a feudal society had three distinct classes: lords, vassals, and fiefs.
In other words, we call these the king, nobles and peasants. The king lord owned all the land, and he gave out parcels of land nobles vassals who would promise loyalty and service to the king. The nobles, in turn, rented out their parcel of land to peasants fiefs. However, before the king granted land to someone, he had to make that person a vassal. This was done at a commendation ceremony that consisted of the two-part act of homage and oath of fealty.
During this, the king and vassal entered into a contract — the vassal promised to fight for the king at his command, while the king agreed to protect the vassal from external forces. Thus, the feudal system was fundamentally based on the interdependent relationship between lord and vassal. However, feudalism started to decline with the increase in commerce, the rise of towns, and the population decline caused by the black plague.
Although we usually associate feudalism with medieval Europe, characteristics of feudalism are also visible in many other historical societies like Japan and Rome. Manorialism or seignorialism is an economic and social structure based on the medieval manor in which a noble enjoyed a variety of rights over land and tenants.
An essential component of the feudal society, this system basically describes the land distribution and rural economic organization. Moreover, manorialism originated in the Late Roman Empire and was popular in medieval Europe.
In manorialism, peasants were totally under the jurisdiction of the lord of their manor. They were also economically, politically, and socially obligated to him. Unlike fief holders, the serfs were not obliged to provide military assistance to their lord. On the contrary, it was the lord who owed military protection to his serfs. Both feudalism and manorialism determined the social status of an individual that eventually became hereditary.
But unlike fiefs which could have been initially taken away, the lord could not withdraw the land from his serfs. The peasants were, however, tied to the land and could not move away from their land nor choose their lord. Fief holders could grant a part of their fief together with the serfs to someone who then became their vassal and the new lord to the serfs on the received fief.
Feudalism and manorialism were the predominant landholding systems in most parts of medieval Europe. They were closely related and provided the basis for the feudal society that survived until the 19th century in some parts of Europe.
However, they cannot be used interchangeably because there were some important differences between both landholding systems.
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