What is a medieval fief?

fief, in European feudal society, a vassal’s source of income, held from his lord in exchange for services. The fief constituted the central institution of feudal society. Besides land, dignities and offices and money rents were also given in fief.

Who gave land in the Middle Ages?

Vassals ruled lands granted to them by their king. Those lands were called fiefs. Within a fiefs, a vassal acted as a local lord and could give portions of it to vassals of his own. Someone might be the vassal of one person, but the lord of another.

What were medieval slaves called?

serfs
The word serf originated from the Middle French serf and was derived from the Latin servus (“slave”). In Late Antiquity and most of the Middle Ages, what are now called serfs were usually designated in Latin as coloni.

What was the fief and manor under the feudal system?

Under the feudal system land was granted to people for service. It started at the top with the king granting his land to a baron for soldiers all the way down to a peasant getting land to grow crops. The center of life in the Middle Ages was the manor. The manor was run by the local lord.

How was land divided in medieval times?

They divided up their land among Lords who ran individual manors. Lords and Knights – The lords ran the local manors. They also were the king’s knights and could be called into battle at any moment by their Baron. The lords owned everything on their land including the peasants, crops, and village.

How was land used in the Middle Ages?

The manor house, church, and village were surrounded by cultivated and fallow land, woods, and pasture. Some of the land was the demesne of the lord; some was allocated to individual farmers, and some to the parish priest. Some of the woods and pasture were held in common and used for grazing and wood-gathering.

Were there slaves in medieval times?

Slavery, or the process of restricting peoples’ freedoms, was widespread within Medieval Europe. Europe and the Mediterranean world were part of a highly interconnected network of slave trading. Throughout Europe, wartime captives were commonly forced into slavery.

Was there slavery in medieval England?

Yet into the 14th and 15th centuries, medieval Europeans continued to own slaves, trade in slaves, and enslave each other as well as non-European others. They used slaves for agricultural and artisanal labor as well as domestic, sexual, reproductive, and military service.