Hierarchy in Society in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries - Assignment Example

Hierarchy in society in the tenth and eleventh centuries Through much of history, France has often emerged as the center of culture and fashion. It is the country to which all others have turned for examples of taste and class. This is primarily due to the idea that the European feudal social structure seems to have emerged from France itself in the tenth and eleventh centuries as it slowly separated itself from the Germanic culture that had dominated the region previously. Despite the perception that Medieval Europe was a time of static oppression by the state, the church and the land-holding lords while the populace remained uneducated and barely managed to subsist (Power, 2006), there remains much truth to the idea that the period between the tenth and the 14th centuries were a time of significant change and development. “The area within the boundaries of France had one of the most dynamic histories of diversity in the European Middle Ages, occupied as it was at first by native Europeans, then the Celts, then the Romans, then the Germans, and, in the last wave of migration, an influx of Scandinavians. The amazing thing about this history is the culture that the French forged from all these materials, eventually, with England, becoming the central culture in the larger process of the invention of Europe” (Hooker, 1996). Historians generally date the European culture as starting its course of development in the late tenth century. “The late tenth century marks the beginning of a new phase in European history, since Latin Christendom ceased to be on the defensive against neighbouring cultures and began to expand aggressively against them” (Power, 2006: 5). In addition, the eleventh century was characterized by “radical changes to settlement patterns, often through aristocratic direction, which transformed the social and economic structures of the countryside” (Power, 2006: 22). An understanding of what happened in the tenth and eleventh centuries can begin to explain why and how this dynamic change started and how it helped to shape the future of the Western European nations. As the tenth century opened, society was split into three primary classes – the priests or monks, the farmers or peasants and the warriors. The beginning of France’s formation could be found in the efforts of Charlemagne, who was the first conqueror to unite much of central Europe under a single government in the early 800s. “Carolus Magnus, however, did not have a working model of government over such a vast territory, so he improvised. He appointed regional governors to rule separate localities – these he called counts – and he granted the counts tremendous independence and authority” (Hooker, 1996). This concept introduced the idea of the nobility as Charlemagne necessarily had to bestow a great deal of power upon these individuals in order to give them the resources necessary to meet calls for battle and to support their fighting men. Unfortunately, once Charlemagne died, his sons and grandsons lacked the necessary authority and fortitude to hold the territory together and the areas of Italy, France and Germany, once united, quickly fractured three distinct provinces by the mid-800s and fractured further into multiple landholdings by the beginning of the tenth century. “About the end of the ninth century there were already twenty-nine provinces or fragments of provinces which had become petty states, the former governors of which, under the names of dukes, counts, marquises, and viscounts, were pretty nearly real sovereigns. Twenty-nine great fiefs, which have played a special part in French history, date back to this epoch” (Guizot, 2004: 259). To support these estates and petty kingdoms, it was necessary for the nobles to maintain a fighting force, which eventually included the development of the knights who fill so many romantic novels of more modern times as well as the peasants who worked to provide for the needs of the upper two classes – the nobles and the fighters. With increased peace, however, society had more opportunity to make improvements to the way in which life was lived. Under Charlemagne’s system, “the count was responsible for revenue and finances while a separate title, the duke, too responsibility for the maintenance of a military” (Hooker, 1996). However, without the immediate presence of a strong ruler, or even the missis that Charlemagne introduced as a means of keeping an eye on what the lesser nobility were doing, these estates began to fracture into more independent states with rules and orders of their own. By the beginning of the tenth century, the military organization changed from one based strictly on the dictates of the king to one based upon castles and milites (Lewis, 2000). “The incessant private warfare that characterized medieval times brought about a permanent military class and by the tenth century the institution of knighthood was well established” (Duby, 2004). By the eleventh century, these professional soldiers were approaching nobility themselves. In addition to introducing the concept of the secular aristocracy in the form of minor nobles and governors, the Carolingians, those who followed in Charlemagne’s footsteps through the ninth century, also introduced a revived Christian Church throughout much of the French provinces. “From this revival stemmed a renewed Church and monastic growth which spread from the Massif Central and Languedoc and Catalonia, until by the end of the tenth century a vigorous Church was one of the realities in every part of these lands which lay south of Poitou and Burgundy” (Lewis, 2000). In order to service the needs of the military nobility and the increasingly political Church, peasant farmers were brought together in larger numbers around the castles, both for protection and for service. An increase in the numbers of available workers and animals during the tenth century led to improvements in agriculture which led to further opportunity for population growth. “Medieval historians have documented a transition from two-field to three-field agriculture in many regions in the eleventh century” (Jordan, 2001: 8). What this means in practical terms is that the village on a three-field system was able to grow much more food than the village still working on a two-field system. As the terms might suggest logically, the three-field system enabled villagers to grow crops on two-thirds of their available arable land while allowing one field to remain fallow, an important stage in ensuring the land was given a chance to restore fertility for future crops. “The increase in food and fodder production that was brought about would allow for improved nutrition for humans and animals, larger families and more work animals, along with more manure to fertilize gardens and some fields” (Jordan, 2001: 8). This was the beginning of the feudal system as a natural progression of mutual need and reciprocal service. As a result of the developmental process of the area, France shared many basic ideas in common with Germany and Italy, having been contained within the same political system for approximately 50 years under Charlemagne and his sons, but 50 years of in-fighting among the royal family and increased autonomy among the various minor nobles led to increased changes by province. “By the tenth century little of the Carolingian political system had survived which could form the basis of later government, either feudal or nonfeudal” (Duby & Goldhammer, 1982: 13). There were four primary developments in France that made their system different from the others. The first of these was the insistence, since the early tenth century, that land ownership was alludial, or free of any encumbrances, taxes or other liens. Perhaps as a result of this type of arrangement, the family system emerged as the strongest controlling body for a given property rather than a central king or other agent. Feudal ties, rather than being the sort of lord and vassal fiefs of other regions were, in French territories, more a matter of personal agreements and loyalties rather than inherited rights bestowed by the king (Lewis, 2000). Finally, the judicial system that emerged in this system was not based upon central government but was instead carried out by relatively informal gatherings of nobles and clergy who would determine among themselves how to solve disputes. Thus, the feudal system that emerged in France was considerably weaker than that formed in other parts of Europe despite the fact that it was derived from the same source. The final element of society to have emerged during this period in time was the increasing power of the church. “By the year 1000, times had changed. Yet it remained important that the bishop be a nobleman, that his blood carry the charismas which predestined him to play the role of intercessor … only certain lineages were thought to possess the power of communicating with the invisible” (Duby & Goldhammer, 1982: 14). As in all matters of legal concern or land use, nobility was an essential element if one was to become anything more than a peasant farmer working for one of the lords. The reason this was important in the form of the bishop was because he was the medium between the physical realm and the realm of heaven. He possessed a kind of magic evidenced by the very language he spoke. “The language he used was a very old one, incomprehensible to most other men, but which by virtue of translation had become the language of Holy Scripture some seven centuries earlier in an Imperial Rome at long last converted to Christianity. Because the bishop was the interpreter of the word of God, and because, in this part of the world, that word was couched in the noble Latin of the fourth century, the bishop was the repository of classical culture” (Duby & Goldhammer, 1982: 15). Thus, the control of the church began to emerge as a primary player in the politics and social order of the French regions. While the Capetians came to power in the beginning of the eleventh century, they weren’t able to gain control of the country for several more centuries thanks to the well-established feudal system they inherited. While France was not yet fully defined by the end of the eleventh century, the term had come into common usage to refer to a generally defined geographic region populated by landholding nobility and served by the lesser nobility made up of knights and other military leaders and members of the clergy. In turn, these individuals were cared for by the peasant farmers, who, thanks to increased knowledge and techniques in farming, were able to produce more food and tools to facilitate yet further growth. As these castles and landholdings became more developed, villages and towns grew, complete with an emerging bourgeois class that served as artisans and specialists in various fields designed to meet the requirements of the noble class for fine products and services. The clergy represented perhaps the strongest element of social control as the bishop spoke for God himself, but disputes remained between the church and the nobility that would prove difficult to resolve for several centuries. Growing out of the Carolingian state, by the end of the eleventh century, much of the formal allegiance to king and state had deteriorated to principalities and personal social agreements. While the Capetians took control at the beginning of the eleventh century, it would be another few centuries before even they were able to re-establish a unified social order and pull France together as a nation. References Duby, Georges & Goldhammer, Arthur. (1982). The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Duby, G. (2004). “Knight.” The Columbia Encyclopedia. (6th Ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. Guizot, Francois Pierre Guillaume. (2004) A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 5. Medford, OR: Baumgartner Books. Hooker, Richard. (1996). “The French.” World Civilizations. Available November 24, 2007 from < http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MA/FRENCH.HTM> Jordan, William Chester. (2001). Europe in the High Middle Ages (Penguin History of Europe). London: Penguin Books. Lewis, Archibald R. (2000). The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718-1050. Austen: University of Texas Press. Power, Daniel. (2006). The Central Middle Ages (The Short Oxford History of Europe). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More