This reciprocal system of obligations was known as feudalism. In return, they were required to serve in the lord’s army in wartime, among other obligations. ![]() ![]() Peasants, or serfs, gave portions of crops they grew to their lords in exchange for being allowed to reside on small parcels of land and keep portions of their crops for themselves. Large-scale tyranny was receding, and in its place was an array of independent principalities. With violent decentralization of power came opportunity for individual freedom of maneuver, as many local rulers no longer had the territorial reach nor the wealth to employ armies of mercenaries and enslave the local population. No longer did a universal monarch hold sway over much of the continent, with an army, civil service, and road system powerful enough to impose and collect heavy taxes. The disintegration of Roman authority in Western Europe, however, was by no means a total loss to citizens. Foreign invasions – from the Goths, Huns, and Franks, among other groups – had resulted in large-scale plunder and ravaging of lands. Though the Roman Senate officially transferred that authority to the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople, which became known as the Byzantine Empire, Europeans in the previous Western Roman Empire no longer had Roman emperors ruling over them. ![]() The Middle Ages formally began with the collapse of unified Roman imperial authority in Western Europe in 476. Hi, and welcome to this overview of the Middle Ages!
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