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[[File:BNF Fr 4274 8v knight detail.jpg|thumb|[[Investiture]] of a knight (miniature from the statutes of the [[Order of the Holy Spirit#Order of the Knot|Order of the Knot]], founded in 1352 by [[Louis I of Naples]])]]
[[File:Slovakia Oravsky Podzamok.jpg|thumb|[[Orava Castle]] in Slovakia. Medieval castles are a traditional symbol of a feudal society.]]
'''Feudalism''', also known as the '''feudal system''', was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in [[Middle Ages|medieval Europe]] from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour. 

The classic definition, by [[François Louis Ganshof]] (1944),<ref name=ganshof>[[François Louis Ganshof]] (1944). ''Qu'est-ce que la féodalité''. Translated into English by [[Philip Grierson]] as ''Feudalism'', with a foreword by [[F. M. Stenton]], 1st ed.: New York and London, 1952; 2nd ed: 1961; 3rd ed.: 1976.</ref> describes a set of reciprocal legal and [[Medieval warfare|military obligations]] of the warrior [[nobility]] and revolved around the key concepts of [[lord]]s, [[vassal]]s, and [[fief]]s.<ref name=ganshof/> A broader definition, as described by [[Marc Bloch]] (1939), includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but the obligations of all three [[estates of the realm]]: the nobility, the [[clergy]], and the [[peasant]]ry, all of whom were bound by a system of [[manorialism]]; this is sometimes referred to as a "feudal society". 

Although it is derived from the Latin word {{lang|la|feodum}} or {{lang|la|feudum}} (fief),<ref>''feodum'' – see {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KfgUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA365 |title=The Cyclopedic Dictionary of Law |first1=Walter A. |last1=Shumaker |year=1901 |publisher=George Foster Longsdorf |pages=365, 1901 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> which was used during the medieval period, the term ''feudalism'' and the system it describes were not conceived of as a formal [[political system]] by the people who lived during the Middle Ages.<ref>{{cite book |last=Noble |first=Thomas |title=The Foundations of Western Civilization |publisher=[[The Teaching Company]] |location=Chantilly, VA |year=2002 |isbn=978-1565856370 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/foundationsofwes04nobl}}</ref> Since the publication of [[Elizabeth A. R. Brown]]'s "The Tyranny of a Construct" (1974) and [[Susan Reynolds]]'s ''Fiefs and Vassals'' (1994), there has been ongoing inconclusive discussion among medieval historians as to whether feudalism is a useful construct for understanding medieval society.{{refn|<ref name=ebo>[https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9034150/feudalism "Feudalism"], by [[Elizabeth A. R. Brown]]. ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]]''.</ref><ref name=ebrown/><ref name=reynolds/><ref name="halsall">{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1i.html#Feudalism |title=Feudalism? |first=Paul |last=Halsall |author-link=Paul Halsall |website=[[Internet Medieval Sourcebook]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018025458/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1i.html#Feudalism |archive-date=18 October 2014 |access-date=4 November 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web |url=http://www.wku.edu/~rob.harbison/projects/Gfeudal.html |title=The Problem of Feudalism: An Historiographical Essay |first=Robert |last=Harbison |date=1996 |website=[[Western Kentucky University]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080229034347/http://www.wku.edu/~rob.harbison/projects/Gfeudal.html |archive-date=29 February 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Charles |last=West |title=[[Reframing the Feudal Revolution: Political and Social Transformation Between Marne and Moselle, c. 800–c. 1100]] |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2013}}</ref>}}

== Definition ==
The adjective ''feudal'' was in use by at least 1405, and the noun ''feudalism'' was in use by the end of the 18th century,<ref name=ebo/> paralleling the French {{lang|fr|féodalité}}.

According to a classic definition by Ganshof,<ref name=ganshof/> ''feudalism'' describes a set of reciprocal legal and [[Medieval warfare|military obligations]] of the warrior nobility that revolved around the key concepts of [[lord]]s, [[vassal]]s and [[fief]]s,<ref name=ganshof/> though Ganshof himself noted that his treatment was only related to the "narrow, technical, legal sense of the word."

A broader definition, as described in Bloch's 1939 ''Feudal Society'',<ref name=bloch/> includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but the obligations of all three [[estates of the realm]]: the nobility, the [[clergy]], and those who lived off their labour, most directly the [[peasant]]ry, which was bound by a system of [[manorialism]]. This order is often referred to as a ''feudal society'', echoing Bloch's usage.

Outside its European context,<ref name=ebo/> the concept of feudalism can be extended to [[analogy|analogous]] social structures in other regions, most often in discussions of [[History of Japan#Feudal Japan|feudal Japan]] under the ''[[shogun]]s'', and sometimes in discussions of [[Ethiopia in the Middle Ages|medieval Ethiopia]],<ref name="jessee1996">{{Cite web |last=Jessee |first=W. Scott |editor-last=Cowley |editor-first=Robert |editor2-last=Parker |editor2-first=Geoffrey |title=Feudalism |url=http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/mil/html/mh_017900_feudalism.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041112062036/http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/mil/html/mh_017900_feudalism.htm |archive-date=12 November 2004 |website=Reader's Companion to Military History |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Company]] |publication-place=New York |publication-date=1996}}</ref> which had some feudal characteristics (sometimes called "semifeudal").<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/semifeudal |title=Semifedual |work=Webster's Dictionary |access-date=8 October 2019 |quote="having some characteristics of feudalism"}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mWv1Xgn9poC&q=semifeudal+japan&pg=PT71 |title=Vietnam: A Global Studies Handbook |author=L. Shelton Woods |date=2002 |publisher= [[ABC-CLIO]] |isbn=9781576074169 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Some have taken the feudalism analogy further, seeing feudalism (or traces of it) in places as diverse as [[Spring and Autumn period]] China, [[ancient Egypt]], the [[Parthian Empire]], [[Indian feudalism|India until the Mughal dynasty]] and the [[Antebellum South]] and [[Jim Crow laws]] in the [[Southern United States|American South]].<ref name=jessee1996/>

The term ''feudalism'' has also been applied—often pejoratively—to non-Western societies where institutions and attitudes similar to those in [[Middle Ages|medieval]] Europe are perceived to prevail.<ref>Cf. for example: {{Cite news |issn=0312-6315 |last=McDonald |first=Hamish |title=Feudal Government Alive and Well in Tonga |work=[[Sydney Morning Herald]] |access-date=7 September 2008 |date=17 October 2007 |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/feudal-government-alive-and-well-in-tonga/2007/10/16/1192300767418.html }}</ref> Some historians and political theorists believe that the term ''feudalism'' has been deprived of specific meaning by the many ways it has been used, leading them to reject it as a useful concept for understanding society.<ref name=ebo/><ref name=ebrown/>

The applicability of the term feudalism has also been questioned in the context of some [[Central and Eastern Europe]]an countries, such as Poland and Lithuania, with scholars observing that the medieval political and economic structure of those countries bears some, but not all, resemblances to the Western European societies commonly described as feudal.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dygo |first=Marian |date=2013 |title=Czy istniał feudalizm w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej w średniowieczu? |trans-title=Did feudalism exist in Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages? |url=http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.ojs-doi-10_12775_KH_2013_120_4_01 |journal=Kwartalnik Historyczny |language=PL |volume=120|issue=4 |page=667 |doi=10.12775/KH.2013.120.4.01 |issn=0023-5903 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Skwarczyński |first=P. |date=1956 |title=The Problem of Feudalism in Poland up to the Beginning of the 16th Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4204744 |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |volume=34 |issue=83 |pages=292–310 |jstor=4204744 |issn=0037-6795}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Backus |first=Oswald P. |date=1962 |title=The Problem of Feudalism in Lithuania, 1506-1548 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3000579 |journal=[[Slavic Review]] |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=639–659 |doi=10.2307/3000579 |jstor=3000579 |s2cid=163444810 |issn=0037-6779|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Davies |first=Norman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b912JnKpYTkC&q=Poland+feudalism+davies&pg=PA420 |title=God's Playground A History of Poland: Volume 1: The Origins to 1795 |date=2005 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-925339-5 |pages=165–166 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

== Etymology ==
[[File:Codex Manesse Reinmar von Zweter.jpg|thumb|Herr [[Reinmar von Zweter]], a 13th-century [[Minnesang|Minnesinger]], was depicted with his noble arms in [[Codex Manesse]].]]
The word ''feudal'' comes from the medieval Latin {{lang|la|feudālis}}, the adjectival form of {{lang|la|feudum}} 'fee, feud', first attested in a charter of [[Charles the Fat]] in 884, which is related to Old French {{lang|fro|fé}}, {{lang|fro|fié}}, Provençal ''feo, feu, fieu,'' and Italian {{lang|it|fio}}.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=fee, ''n. 2'' |url=https://www.oed.com/start;jsessionid=EDF9DEAB4B7B735C3B23565BEB3C0017?authRejection=true&url=%2Fview%2FEntry%2F68943 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230311182818/https://www.oed.com/start;jsessionid=EDF9DEAB4B7B735C3B23565BEB3C0017?authRejection=true&url=/view/Entry/68943 |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 March 2023 |access-date=11 March 2023 |website=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] |language=en }}</ref> The ultimate origin of {{lang|la|feudālis}} is unclear. It may come from a Germanic word, perhaps {{lang|gem|fehu}} or {{lang|gem|*fehôd}}, but these words are not attested in this meaning in Germanic sources, or even in the Latin of the Frankish laws.<ref name=":0" />

One theory about the origin of {{lang|gem|fehu}} was proposed by [[Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern]] in 1870,<ref>"fee, n.2." OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2017. Web. 18 August 2017.</ref><ref>H. Kern, '[http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_taa005187001_01/_taa005187001_01_0032.php Feodum]', ''De taal- en letterbode'', 1( 1870), pp. 189-201.</ref> being supported by, amongst others, [[William Stubbs]]<ref name="lubetski">Meir Lubetski (ed.). ''Boundaries of the ancient Near Eastern world: a tribute to Cyrus H. Gordon''. "Notices on Pe'ah, Fay' and Feudum" by Alauddin Samarrai. [https://books.google.com/books?id=dO4rbfA_WVIC&pg=PA248 Pg. 248–250], Continuum International Publishing Group, 1998.</ref><ref>[[William Stubbs]]. ''The Constitutional History of England'' (3 volumes), 2nd edition 1875–78, Vol. 1, pg. 251, n. 1</ref> and [[Marc Bloch]].<ref name="lubetski" /><ref name="bloch-ety1">Marc Bloch. ''Feudal Society'', Vol. 1, 1964. pp.165–66.</ref><ref name="bloch-ety2">Marc Bloch. ''Feudalism'', 1961, pg. 106.</ref> Kern derived the word from a putative [[Franks|Frankish]] term ''*fehu-ôd'', in which ''*fehu'' means 'cattle' and ''-ôd'' means 'goods', implying "a movable object of value".<ref name="bloch-ety1" /><ref name="bloch-ety2" /> Bloch explains that by the beginning of the 10th century it was common to value land in monetary terms but to pay for it with objects of equivalent value, such as arms, clothing, horses or food. This was known as ''feos'', a term that took on the general meaning of paying for something in lieu of money. This meaning was then applied to land itself, in which land was used to pay for fealty, such as to a vassal. Thus the old word ''feos'' meaning 'movable property' would have changed to ''feus'', meaning the exact opposite: 'landed property'.<ref name="bloch-ety1" /><ref name="bloch-ety2" />

[[Archibald Ross Lewis]] proposes that the origin of ''fief'' is not {{lang|la|feudum}} (or {{lang|la|feodum}}), but rather ''foderum'', the earliest attested use being in ''[[Vita Hludovici]]'' (840) by Astronomus.<ref name="arlewis">{{cite book |first=Archibald R. |last=Lewis |author-link=Archibald R. Lewis |title=The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society 718–1050 |date=1965 |pages=76–77}}</ref> In that text is a passage about [[Louis the Pious]] that says {{Lang|la-x-medieval|annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant}}, which can be translated as "Louis forbade that military [[wiktionary:provender|provender]] (which they popularly call "fodder") be furnished."<ref name="lubetski" />

Initially in medieval Latin European documents, a land grant in exchange for service was called a {{Lang|la-x-medieval|[[beneficium]]}} (Latin).<ref name="lubetski" /> Later, the term {{Lang|la-x-medieval|feudum}}, or {{Lang|la-x-medieval|feodum}}, began to replace {{Lang|la-x-medieval|beneficium}} in the documents.<ref name="lubetski" /> The first attested instance of this is from 984, although more primitive forms were seen up to one-hundred years earlier.<ref name="lubetski" /> The origin of the {{Lang|la-x-medieval|feudum}} and why it replaced {{Lang|la-x-medieval|beneficium}} has not been well established, but there are multiple theories, described below.<ref name="lubetski" />

The term "{{lang|fr|féodal}}" was first used in 17th-century French legal treatises (1614)<ref>{{cite dictionary |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/feudal |title=Feudal (n.d.) |dictionary=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |access-date=16 September 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Civilization of the Middle Ages |url=https://archive.org/details/civilizationofmi00cant |url-access=registration |last=Cantor |first=Norman F. |author-link=Norman F. Cantor |year=1994 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=9780060170332}}</ref> and translated into English legal treatises as an adjective, such as "feodal government".

In the 18th century, [[Adam Smith]], seeking to describe economic systems, effectively coined the forms "feudal government" and "feudal system" in his book ''[[The Wealth of Nations]]'' (1776).<ref name=cheyette>{{cite dictionary |first=Fredric L. |last=Cheyette |title=FEUDALISM, EUROPEAN. |dictionary=New Dictionary of the History Of Ideas |volume=2 |editor1-first=Maryanne Cline |editor1-last=Horowitz |editor2-first=Thomas |editor2-last=Gale |date=2005 |isbn=0-684-31379-0 |pages=828–831|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons }}</ref> The phrase "feudal system" appeared in 1736, in ''Baronia Anglica'', published nine years after the death of its author [[Thomas Madox]], in 1727. In 1771, in his book ''The History of Manchester'', [[John Whitaker (historian)|John Whitaker]] first introduced the word "feudalism" and the notion of the feudal pyramid.<ref name="earbrown160">Elizabeth A. R. Brown, [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315582252-15/reflections-feudalism-thomas-madox-origins-feudal-system-england "Reflections on Feudalism: Thomas Madox and the Origins of the Feudal System in England,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306062442/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315582252-15/reflections-feudalism-thomas-madox-origins-feudal-system-england |date=6 March 2023 }} in ''Feud, Violence and Practice: Essays in Medieval Studies in Honor of Stephen D. White'', ed. Belle S. Tuten and Tracey L. Billado (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2010), 135-155 at 145-149.</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historymanchest02whitgoog/page/n378/mode/2up?q=feudalifm <!-- archaic spelling /s/f --> |title=The History of Manchester: In Four Books |publisher=J. Murray |author=John Whitaker |author-link=John Whitaker (historian) |year=1773 |page=359}}</ref>

Another theory by [[Alauddin Samarrai]] suggests an Arabic origin, from ''fuyū'' (the plural of ''fay'', which literally means 'the returned', and was used especially for 'land that has been conquered from enemies that did not fight').<ref name=lubetski/><ref name="samarrai">[[Alauddin Samarrai]]. "The term 'fief': A possible Arabic origin", ''Studies in Medieval Culture'', 4.1 (1973), pp. 78–82.</ref> Samarrai's theory is that early forms of 'fief' include ''feo'', ''feu'', ''feuz'', ''feuum'' and others, the plurality of forms strongly suggesting origins from a [[loanword]]. The first use of these terms is in [[Languedoc]], one of the least Germanic areas of Europe and bordering [[Al-Andalus]] (Muslim Spain). Further, the earliest use of ''feuum'' (as a replacement for ''beneficium'') can be dated to 899, the same year a Muslim base at [[Fraxinetum]] ([[La Garde-Freinet]]) in [[Provence]] was established. It is possible, Samarrai says, that French scribes, writing in Latin, attempted to [[Transliteration|transliterate]] the Arabic word ''fuyū'' (the plural of ''fay''), which was used by the Muslim invaders and occupiers at the time, resulting in a plurality of forms – ''feo, feu, feuz, feuum'' and others—from which eventually ''feudum'' derived. Samarrai, however, also advises to handle this theory with care, as [[Islamic Golden Age|Medieval and Early Modern Muslim]] scribes often used etymologically "fanciful roots" to support outlandish claims that something was of Arabian or Muslim origin.<ref name=samarrai/>

== History ==
Feudalism, in its various forms, usually emerged as a result of the [[decentralization]] of an empire: such as in the [[Carolingian Empire]] in the 9th century AD, which lacked the bureaucratic infrastructure<sup>[<nowiki/>[[Wikipedia:Please clarify|''clarification needed'']]]</sup> necessary to support [[cavalry]] without allocating land to these mounted troops. Mounted soldiers began to secure a system of hereditary rule over their allocated land and their power over the territory came to encompass the social, political, judicial, and economic spheres.

These acquired powers significantly [[federation|diminished unitary power]] in these empires. However, once the infrastructure to maintain unitary power was re-established—as with the European monarchies—feudalism began to yield to this new power structure and eventually disappeared.<ref name="Gat, Azar 2006. pp. 332">{{cite book |last=Gat |first=Azar |title=War in Human Civilization |date=2006 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0199236633 |location=New York |pages=332–343}}</ref>

=== Classic feudalism ===
{{See also|Feudalism in England|Feudalism in the Holy Roman Empire|Examples of feudalism}}
The classic [[François Louis Ganshof]] version of feudalism<ref name=ebo/><ref name=ganshof/> describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations of the warrior nobility based on the key concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs. In broad terms a lord was a noble who held land, a vassal was a person granted possession of the land by the lord, and the land was known as a fief. In exchange for the use of the fief and protection by the lord, the vassal provided some sort of service to the lord. There were many varieties of [[Feudal land tenure in England|feudal land tenure]], consisting of military and non-military service. The obligations and corresponding rights between lord and vassal concerning the fief form the basis of the feudal relationship.<ref name=ganshof/>

=== Vassalage ===
[[File:Hommage du comté de Clermont-en-Beauvaisis.png|thumbnail|[[Homage (feudal)|Homage]] of [[Clermont, Oise|Clermont-en-Beauvaisis]]]]
Before a lord could grant land (a [[fief]]) to someone, he had to make that person a vassal. This was done at a formal and symbolic ceremony called a [[commendation ceremony]], which was composed of the two-part act of [[Homage (feudal)|homage]] and oath of [[fealty]]. During homage, the lord and vassal entered into a contract in which the vassal promised to fight for the lord at his command, whilst the lord agreed to protect the vassal from external forces. ''Fealty'' comes from the Latin ''fidelitas'' and denotes the [[fidelity]] owed by a vassal to his feudal lord. "Fealty" also refers to an oath that more explicitly reinforces the commitments of the vassal made during homage; such an oath follows homage.<ref name=stephenson>{{cite book |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/28860952/Mediavel-Feudalism |title=Medieval Feudalism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209083705/http://www.scribd.com/doc/28860952/Mediavel-Feudalism |archive-date=9 February 2012 |author-link=Carl Stephenson (historian) |first=Carl |last=Stephenson |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |date=1942 |chapter=Classic introduction to Feudalism}}</ref>

Once the commendation ceremony was complete, the lord and vassal were in a feudal relationship with agreed obligations to one another. The vassal's principal obligation to the lord was to provide aid or military service. Using whatever equipment the vassal could obtain by virtue of the revenues from the fief, the vassal had to answer calls to military service by the lord. This security of military help was the primary reason the lord entered into the feudal relationship. In addition, the vassal could have other obligations to his lord, such as attendance at his court, whether [[Manorial court|manorial]], baronial, both termed [[Manorial court#Court baron|court baron]], or at the king's court.<ref>Encyc. Brit. op.cit. It was a standard part of the feudal contract (fief [land], fealty [oath of allegiance], faith [belief in God]) that every tenant was under an obligation to attend his overlord's court to advise and support him; [[Sir Harris Nicolas]], in ''Historic Peerage of England'', ed. [[William Courthope (officer of arms)|Courthope]], p.18, quoted by Encyc. Brit, op.cit., p. 388: "It was the principle of the feudal system that every tenant should attend the court of his immediate superior".</ref>

[[File:Map France 1477-en.svg|thumb|France in the late 15th century: a mosaic of feudal territories]]
It could also involve the vassal providing "counsel", so that if the lord faced a major decision he would summon all his vassals and hold a council. At the level of the [[Manorialism|manor]] this might be a fairly mundane matter of agricultural policy, but also included sentencing by the lord for criminal offences, including capital punishment in some cases. Concerning the king's feudal court, such deliberation could include the question of declaring war. These are [[examples of feudalism]]; depending on the period of time and location in Europe, feudal customs and practices varied.

=== The feudal revolution in France ===
In its origin, the feudal grant of land had been seen in terms of a personal bond between lord and vassal, but with time and the transformation of fiefs into hereditary holdings, the nature of the system came to be seen as a form of "politics of land" (an expression used by the historian [[Marc Bloch]]). The 11th century in France saw what has been called by historians a "[[France in the Middle Ages#Vassalage and feudal land|feudal revolution]]" or "mutation" and a "fragmentation of powers" (Bloch) that was unlike the development of [[feudalism in England]] or Italy or [[Feudalism in the Holy Roman Empire|in Germany]] in the same period or later:{{sfn|Wickham|2010|pp=522–523}} Counties and duchies began to break down into smaller holdings as [[castellan]]s and lesser ''[[seigneur]]s'' took control of local lands, and (as [[Count|comital]] families had done before them) lesser lords usurped/privatized a wide range of prerogatives and rights of the state, including travel dues, market dues, fees for using woodlands, obligations, use the lord's mill and, most importantly, the highly profitable rights of justice, etc.{{sfn|Wickham|2010|p=518}} (what [[Georges Duby]] called collectively the "''seigneurie banale''"{{sfn|Wickham|2010|p=518}}). Power in this period became more personal.{{sfn|Wickham|2010|p=522}}

This "fragmentation of powers" was not, however, systematic throughout France, and in certain counties (such as [[County of Flanders|Flanders]], [[Duchy of Normandy|Normandy]], [[County of Anjou|Anjou]], [[County of Toulouse|Toulouse]]), counts were able to maintain control of their lands into the 12th century or later.{{sfn|Wickham|2010|p=523}} Thus, in some regions (like [[Normandy]] and [[Flanders]]), the vassal/feudal system was an effective tool for [[Duke|ducal]] and comital control, linking vassals to their lords; but in other regions, the system led to significant confusion, all the more so as vassals could and frequently did pledge themselves to two or more lords. In response to this, the idea of a "liege lord" was developed (where the obligations to one lord are regarded as superior) in the 12th century.<ref>Elizabeth M. Hallam. ''Capetian France 987–1328'', p.17.</ref>

===End of European feudalism (1500–1850s)===
{{Further|Abolition of feudalism in France}}

Around this time, rich, "middle-class" commoners chafed at the authority and powers held by feudal [[Lord|lords]], [[Overlord|overlords]], and [[Nobility|nobles]], and preferred the idea of [[Autocracy|autocratic]] rule where a king and one royal court held almost all the power.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Slosson |first=Preston W. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12782511 |title=Pictorial History of the American People |publisher=Gallery Books |year=1985 |isbn=0-8317-6871-1 |edition=Revised |location=[[New York City|New York]] |pages=13 |oclc=12782511}}</ref> Feudal nobles regardless of ethnicity generally thought of themselves as arbiters of a politically free system, so this often puzzled them before the fall of most feudal laws.<ref name=":1" />

Most of the military aspects of feudalism effectively ended by about 1500.<ref>"The End of Feudalism" in J.H.M. Salmon, ''Society in Crisis: France in the Sixteenth Century'' (1979) pp 19–26</ref> This was partly since the military shifted from armies consisting of the nobility to professional fighters thus reducing the nobility's claim on power, but also because the [[Black Death]] reduced the nobility's hold over the lower classes. Vestiges of the feudal system hung on in France until the [[French Revolution]] of the 1790s. Even when the original feudal relationships had disappeared, there were many institutional remnants of feudalism left in place. Historian [[Georges Lefebvre]] explains how at an early stage of the French Revolution, on just one night of 4 August 1789, France abolished the long-lasting remnants of the feudal order. It announced, "The [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]] abolishes the feudal system entirely." Lefebvre explains:

{{blockquote|Without debate the Assembly enthusiastically adopted equality of taxation and redemption of all manorial rights except for those involving personal servitude—which were to be abolished without indemnification. Other proposals followed with the same success: the equality of legal punishment, admission of all to public office, abolition of venality in office, conversion of the tithe into payments subject to redemption, freedom of worship, prohibition of plural holding of benefices&nbsp;... Privileges of provinces and towns were offered as a last sacrifice.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lefebvre|first=Georges|author-link1=Georges Lefebvre|title=The French Revolution: Vol. 1, from Its Origins To 1793|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bd-JDOw8v5QC&pg=PA130|year=1962|publisher=Columbia U.P|page=130|isbn=9780231085984}}</ref>}}

Originally the peasants were supposed to pay for the release of seigneurial dues; these dues affected more than a quarter of the farmland in France and provided most of the income of the large landowners.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 650023|title = The Survival of the Nobility during the French Revolution|journal = Past & Present|issue = 37|pages = 71–86|last1 = Forster|first1 = Robert|year = 1967|doi = 10.1093/past/37.1.71| issn = 0031-2746 }}</ref> The majority refused to pay and in 1793 the obligation was cancelled. Thus the peasants got their land free, and also no longer paid the [[tithe]] to the church.<ref>Paul R. Hanson, ''The A to Z of the French Revolution'' (2013) pp 293–94</ref>

In the [[Kingdom of France]], following the French Revolution, [[Abolition of feudalism in France|feudalism was abolished]] with a decree of 11 August 1789 by the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|Constituent Assembly]], a provision that was later extended to various parts of [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Italian kingdom]] following the invasion by French troops. In the [[Kingdom of Naples (Napoleonic)|Kingdom of Naples]], [[Joachim Murat]] abolished feudalism with the law of 2 August 1806, then implemented with a law of 1 September 1806 and a royal decree of 3 December 1808. In the [[Kingdom of Sicily]] the abolishing law was issued by the [[Sicilian Parliament]] on 10 August 1812. In [[Piedmont]] feudalism ceased by virtue of the edicts of 7 March, and 19 July 1797 issued by [[Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia|Charles Emmanuel IV]], although in the [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]], specifically on the island of [[Sardinia]], feudalism was abolished only with an edict of 5 August 1848.

In the [[Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia]], feudalism was abolished with the law of 5 December 1861 n.º 342 were all feudal bonds abolished. The system lingered on in parts of Central and Eastern Europe as late as the 1850s. [[Slavery in Romania]] was abolished in 1856. [[Serfdom in Russia#Abolition|Russia finally abolished serfdom]] in 1861.<ref>John Merriman, ''A History of Modern Europe: From the Renaissance to the Age of Napoleon'' (1996) pp 12–13</ref><ref>Jerzy Topolski, Continuity and discontinuity in the development of the feudal system in Eastern Europe (Xth to XVIIth centuries)" ''Journal of European Economic History'' (1981) 10#2 pp: 373–400.</ref>

More recently in Scotland, on 28 November 2004, the [[Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000]] entered into full force putting an end to what was left of the Scottish feudal system. The last feudal regime, that of the island of [[Sark]], was abolished in December 2008, when the [[2008 Sark general election|first democratic elections]] were held for the election of a local parliament and the appointment of a government. The "revolution" is a consequence of the juridical intervention of the [[European Parliament]], which declared the local constitutional system as contrary to [[human rights]], and, following a series of legal battles, imposed [[Parliamentary system|parliamentary democracy]].

== Feudal society ==
{{main|Manorialism}}
[[File:Reeve and Serfs.jpg|thumb|Depiction of [[socage]] on the royal [[demesne]] in feudal England, {{Circa|1310}}]]
The phrase "feudal society" as defined by [[Marc Bloch]]<ref name=bloch>{{cite book |last=Bloch |first=Marc |title=Feudal Society |translator-first=L. A. |translator-last=Manyon |location=Chicago |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |date=1961 |isbn=0-226-05979-0}}</ref> offers a wider definition than Ganshof's and includes within the feudal structure not only the warrior aristocracy bound by vassalage, but also the [[peasant]]ry bound by manorialism, and the estates of the Church. Thus the feudal order embraces society from top to bottom, though the "powerful and well-differentiated social group of the urban classes" came to occupy a distinct position to some extent outside the classic feudal hierarchy.

== Historiography ==
The idea of ''feudalism'' was unknown and the system it describes was not conceived of as a formal political system by the people living in the medieval period. This section describes the history of the idea of feudalism, how the concept originated among scholars and thinkers, how it changed over time, and modern debates about its use.

=== Evolution of the concept ===
{{English Feudalism}}
The concept of a feudal state or period, in the sense of either a regime or a period dominated by lords who possess financial or social power and prestige, became widely held in the middle of the 18th century, as a result of works such as [[Montesquieu]]'s {{lang|fr|De L'Esprit des Lois}} (1748; published in English as ''[[The Spirit of Law]]''), and [[Henri de Boulainvilliers]]'s {{lang|fr|Histoire des anciens Parlements de France}} (1737; published in English as ''An Historical Account of the Ancient Parliaments of France or States-General of the Kingdom'', 1739).<ref name=cheyette/> In the 18th century, writers of the Enlightenment wrote about feudalism to denigrate the antiquated system of the {{lang|fr|[[Ancien Régime]]}}, or French monarchy. This was the [[Age of Enlightenment]], when writers valued reason and the Middle Ages were viewed as the "[[Dark Ages (historiography)|Dark Ages]]". Enlightenment authors generally mocked and ridiculed anything from the "Dark Ages" including feudalism, projecting its negative characteristics on the current French monarchy as a means of political gain. For them "feudalism" meant [[Fief|seigneurial]] privileges and prerogatives. When the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|French Constituent Assembly]] abolished the "feudal regime" in August 1789, this is what was meant.<ref name=bartlett>{{cite book |author-link=Robert Bartlett (historian) |first=Robert |last=Bartlett |chapter=Perspectives on the Medieval World |title=Medieval Panorama |date=2001 |publisher=Getty Publications |isbn=0-89236-642-7}}</ref> 

[[Adam Smith]] used the term "feudal system" to describe a social and economic system defined by inherited social ranks, each of which possessed inherent social and economic privileges and obligations. In such a system, wealth derived from agriculture, which was arranged not according to market forces but on the basis of customary labour services owed by [[Serfdom|serfs]] to landowning nobles.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usna.edu/Users/history/abels/hh315/Feudal.htm |title=Feudalism |first=Richard |last=Abels |publisher=usna.edu |access-date=30 August 2010 |archive-date=5 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705064653/https://www.usna.edu/Users/history/abels/hh315/Feudal.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Heinrich Brunner ===
[[File:Francia at the death of Pepin of Heristal 714-es.svg|thumb|The Frankish domains in the time of Charles Martel (boundaries approximate), primarily modern day France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Czech Republic and Austria]]
[[Heinrich Brunner]], in his ''The Equestrian Service and the Beginnings of the Feudal System'' (1887), maintained that [[Charles Martel]] laid the foundation for feudalism during the 8th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fouracre |first=Paul |title=Debating Medieval Europe: the Early Middle Ages, c. 450-c.1050 |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2020 |isbn=9781526117328 |editor-last1=Mossman |editor-first1=Stephen |location=Manchester |pages=35–62 |language=English |chapter=The Successor States, 550-750}}</ref> Brunner believed Martel to be a brilliant warrior who secularized church lands for the purpose of providing ''[[precaria]]s'' (or leases) for his followers, in return for their military service. Martel's military ambitions were becoming more expensive as it changed into a cavalry force, thus the need to maintain his followers through the despoiling of church lands.<ref name="FouracreIntroduction">{{Cite book |last=Fouracre |first=Paul |title=The Age of Charles Martel |publisher=Routledge |year=2000 |isbn=9781315845647 |edition=1st |location=London |publication-date=2000 |pages=1–11 |language=English |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> 

Responding to Brunner's thesis, [[Paul Fouracre]] theorizes that the church itself held power over the land with its own ''precarias''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fouracre |first=Paul |title='Writing about Charles Martel', in Law, laity and solidarities : essays in honour of Susan Reynolds / edited by Pauline Stafford, Janet L. Nelson and Jane Martindale |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2007 |location=Manchester |publication-date=2007 |pages=19 |language=English}}</ref> The most commonly utilized ''precarias'' was the gifting of land to the church, done for various spiritual and legal purposes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fouracre |first=Paul |title='Writing About Charles Martel' in Law, Laity and Solidarities : Essays in Honour of Susan Reynolds / Edited by Pauline Stafford, Janet L. Nelson and Jane Martindale |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2007 |location=Manchester |publication-date=2007 |pages=19 |language=English}}</ref> Although Charles Martel did indeed utilize ''precaria'' for his own purposes, and even drove some of the bishops out of the church and placed his own laymen in their seats, Fouracre discounts Martel's role in creating political change, that it was simply a military move in order to have control in the region by hording land through tenancies, and expelling the bishops who he did not agree with, but it did not specifically create feudalism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fouracre |first=Paul |title='Writing About Charles Martel' in Law, Laity and Solidarities : Essays in Honour of Susan Reynolds / Edited by Pauline Stafford, Janet L. Nelson and Jane Martindale |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2007 |location=Manchester |publication-date=2007 |pages=18 |language=English}}</ref>  

=== Karl Marx ===
{{Capitalism sidebar}}
[[Karl Marx]] also uses the term in the 19th century in his analysis of society's economic and political development, describing feudalism (or more usually feudal society or the feudal [[mode of production]]) as the order coming before [[capitalism]]. For Marx, what defined feudalism was the power of the ruling class (the [[aristocracy]]) in their control of arable land, leading to a [[Social class#Class society|class society]] based upon the exploitation of the peasants who farm these lands, typically under [[serfdom]] and principally by means of labour, produce and money rents.<ref name=daileader/> He deemed feudalism a 'democracy of unfreedom', juxtaposing the oppression of feudal subjects with a holistic integration of political and economic life of the sort lacking under industrial capitalism.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halikias |first1=Dimitrios |title=The Young Marx on Feudalism as the Democracy of Unfreedom |journal=The Historical Journal |date=2023 |volume=67 |issue=2 |pages=281–304 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X23000493 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/1E4726CDDF8401225BFFAD350B7607BC/S0018246X23000493a.pdf/the-young-marx-on-feudalism-as-the-democracy-of-unfreedom.pdf |access-date=10 February 2024}}</ref>

He also took it as a paradigm for understanding the power-relationships between capitalists and wage-labourers in his own time: "in pre-capitalist systems it was obvious that most people did not control their own destiny—under feudalism, for instance, serfs had to work for their lords. Capitalism seems different because people are in theory free to work for themselves or for others as they choose. Yet most workers have as little control over their lives as feudal serfs."<ref>{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Singer |title=Marx: A Very Short Introduction |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=2000 |orig-date=1980 |page=91}}</ref> Some later Marxist theorists (e.g. [[Eric Wolf]]) have applied this label to include non-European societies, grouping feudalism together with [[History of China#Imperial China|imperial China]] and the [[Inca Empire]], in the [[pre-Columbian era]], as 'tributary' societies .<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wolf |first=Eric Robert |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/905625305 |title=Europe and the people without history |date=2010 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-26818-0 |oclc=905625305}}</ref>

=== Later studies ===
{{Feudal status}}

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, [[J. Horace Round]] and [[Frederic William Maitland]], both historians of medieval Britain, arrived at different conclusions about the character of [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon English society]] before the [[Norman Conquest]] in 1066. Round argued that the Normans had brought feudalism with them to England, while Maitland contended that its fundamentals were already in place in Britain before 1066. The debate continues today, but a consensus viewpoint is that England before the Conquest had commendation (which embodied some of the personal elements in feudalism) while [[William the Conqueror]] introduced a modified and stricter northern French feudalism to England incorporating (1086) oaths of loyalty to the king by all who held by feudal tenure, even the vassals of his principal vassals (holding by feudal tenure meant that vassals must provide the quota of [[knight]]s required by the king or a money payment in substitution).

In the 20th century, two outstanding historians offered still more widely differing perspectives. The French historian [[Marc Bloch]], arguably the most influential 20th-century medieval historian,<ref name=daileader/> approached feudalism not so much from a legal and military point of view but from a sociological one, presenting in ''Feudal Society'' (1939; English 1961) a feudal order not limited solely to the nobility. It is his radical notion that peasants were part of the feudal relationship that sets Bloch apart from his peers: while the vassal performed military service in exchange for the fief, the peasant performed physical labour in return for protection – both are a form of feudal relationship. According to Bloch, other elements of society can be seen in feudal terms; all the aspects of life were centred on "lordship", and so we can speak usefully of a feudal church structure, a feudal courtly (and anti-courtly) literature, and a feudal economy.<ref name=daileader/>

In contradistinction to Bloch, the Belgian historian [[François Louis Ganshof]] defined feudalism from a narrow legal and military perspective, arguing that feudal relationships existed only within the medieval nobility itself. Ganshof articulated this concept in ''Qu'est-ce que la féodalité?'' ("What is feudalism?", 1944; translated in English as ''Feudalism''). His classic definition of feudalism is widely accepted today among medieval scholars,<ref name="daileader">{{Cite book |last=Daileader |first=Philip |title=The High Middle Ages |publisher=[[The Teaching Company]] |date=2001 |isbn=1-5658-5827-1 |chapter=Feudalism |author-link=Philip Daileader |issue=869}}</ref> though questioned both by those who view the concept in wider terms and by those who find insufficient uniformity in noble exchanges to support such a model.

Although [[Georges Duby]] was never formally a student in the circle of scholars around Marc Bloch and [[Lucien Febvre]], that came to be known as the [[Annales school]], Duby was an exponent of the {{lang|fr|Annaliste}} tradition. In a published version of his 1952 doctoral thesis entitled {{lang|fr|La société aux XIe et XIIe siècles dans la région mâconnaise}} (''Society in the 11th and 12th centuries in the [[Mâconnais]] region''), and working from the extensive documentary sources surviving from the Burgundian [[Cluny Abbey|monastery of Cluny]], as well as the dioceses of [[Ancient Diocese of Mâcon|Mâcon]] and [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dijon|Dijon]], Duby excavated the complex social and economic relationships among the individuals and institutions of the Mâconnais region and charted a profound shift in the social structures of medieval society around the year 1000. He argued that in early 11th century, governing institutions—particularly comital courts established under the [[Carolingian dynasty|Carolingian]] monarchy—that had represented public justice and order in [[History of Burgundy|Burgundy]] during the 9th and 10th centuries receded and gave way to a new feudal order wherein independent aristocratic knights wielded power over peasant communities through strong-arm tactics and threats of violence.

In 1939, the Austrian historian [[Theodor Mayer (historian)|Theodor Mayer]] subordinated the feudal state as secondary to his concept of a ''[[Territorial state#Personenverbandsstaat|Personenverbandsstaat]]'' (personal interdependency state), understanding it in contrast to the [[territorial state]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bentley |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JWqIAgAAQBAJ&q=personenverbandsstaat&pg=PA126 |title=Companion to Historiography |date=2006 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-1349-7024-7 |page=126 |access-date=17 November 2019 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> This form of statehood, identified with the [[Feudalism in the Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman Empire]], is described as the most complete form of medieval rule, completing conventional feudal structure of lordship and vassalage with the personal association among the nobility.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elazar |first=Daniel Judah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yKOIqPsf7acC&q=personenverbandsstaat&pg=PA381 |title=Covenant and commonwealth : from Christian separation through the Protestant Reformation |date=1996 |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |isbn=978-1-4128-2052-3 |volume=2 |page=76 |access-date=17 November 2019 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> But the applicability of this concept to cases outside of the Holy Roman Empire has been questioned, as by Susan Reynolds.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Susan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vkQ8z7S2cIIC&q=personenverbandsstaat&pg=PA397 |title=Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted |date=1996 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-1982-0648-4 |ol=7397539M |page=397 |author-link=Susan Reynolds |access-date=17 November 2019 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> The concept has also been questioned and superseded in German [[historiography]] because of its bias and reductionism towards legitimating the {{lang|de|[[Führerprinzip]]}}.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

=== Challenges to the feudal model ===
In 1974, the American historian [[Elizabeth A. R. Brown]]<ref name=ebrown>{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/1869563 |volume=79|issue=4 |pages=1063–1088 |last=Brown |first=Elizabeth A. R. |title=The Tyranny of a Construct: Feudalism and Historians of Medieval Europe |journal=[[The American Historical Review]] |date=October 1974 |jstor=1869563}}</ref> rejected the label ''feudalism'' as an anachronism that imparts a false sense of uniformity to the concept. Having noted the current use of many, often contradictory, definitions of ''feudalism'', she argued that the word is only a construct with no basis in medieval reality, an invention of modern historians read back "tyrannically" into the historical record. Supporters of Brown have suggested that the term should be expunged from history textbooks and lectures on medieval history entirely.<ref name=daileader/> In ''Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted'' (1994),<ref name=reynolds>{{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Susan |title=Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=1994 |isbn=0-19-820648-8}}</ref> [[Susan Reynolds]] expanded upon Brown's original thesis. Although some contemporaries questioned Reynolds's methodology, other historians have supported it and her argument.<ref name=daileader/> Reynolds argues:
{{Blockquote|Too many models of feudalism used for comparisons, even by Marxists, are still either constructed on the 16th-century basis or incorporate what, in a Marxist view, must surely be superficial or irrelevant features from it. Even when one restricts oneself to Europe and to feudalism in its narrow sense it is extremely doubtful whether feudo-vassalic institutions formed a coherent bundle of institutions or concepts that were structurally separate from other institutions and concepts of the time.{{sfn|Reynolds|1994|p=11}}}}

The term ''feudal'' has also been applied to non-Western societies, in which institutions and attitudes similar to those of medieval Europe are perceived to have prevailed (see [[Examples of feudalism]]). Japan has been extensively studied in this regard.{{Sfn|Hall|1962|pages=15–51}} [[Karl Friday]] notes that in the 21st century historians of Japan rarely invoke feudalism; instead of looking at similarities, specialists attempting comparative analysis concentrate on fundamental differences.<ref>[[Karl Friday]], [https://www.academia.edu/download/71051487/j.1478-0542.2009.00664.x20211002-26720-9g3rf8.pdf "The Futile Paradigm: In Quest of Feudalism in Early Medieval Japan"],{{dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} ''History Compass'' 8.2 (2010): 179–196.</ref> Ultimately, critics say, the many ways the term ''feudalism'' has been used have deprived it of specific meaning, leading some historians and political theorists to reject it as a useful concept for understanding society.<ref name=daileader/>

Historian [[Richard Abels]] notes that "Western civilization and world civilization textbooks now shy away from the term 'feudalism'."<ref>Richard Abels, "The Historiography of a Construct: 'Feudalism' and the Medieval Historian." ''History Compass'' (2009) 7#3 pp: 1008–1031.</ref>

== See also ==
=== General ===
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Barons in Scotland]]
* [[Bastard feudalism]]
* {{lang|fr|[[Cestui que]]}}
* [[English feudal barony]]
* [[Feudal baron]]
* [[Feudal duties]]
* [[List of feudal wars 12th–14th century]]
* [[Investiture]]
* {{lang|de|[[Lehnsmann]]}}
* [[Majorat]]
* [[Neo-feudalism]]
* ''[[Nulle terre sans seigneur]]''
* [[Protofeudalism]]
* [[Quia Emptores]]
* [[Statutes of Mortmain]]
* [[Suzerainty]]
* [[Vassal state]]
* [[Ziamet]]
{{div col end}}

=== Non-European ===
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Fengjian]] (Chinese)
* [[Feudalism in Pakistan]]
* [[History_of_Japan#Feudal_Japan|Feudal Japan]]
* {{lang|es|[[Hacienda]]}}
* [[Indian feudalism]]
* [[Mandala (political model)]]
*[[Sakdina]], a Thai feudal system
* [[Samanta]], an Indian feudal system
* [[Zemene Mesafint]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Wickham |first=Chris |author-link=Chris Wickham |date=2010 |title=The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000 |title-link=The Inheritance of Rome |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=978-0140290141}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* Bloch, Marc, ''Feudal Society.'' Tr. L.A. Manyon. Two volumes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961. {{ISBN|0-226-05979-0}}.
* {{Cite book
| publisher = Longmans, Green
| last = Ganshof
| first = François Louis
| title = Feudalism
| url = https://archive.org/details/feudalism00gans
| url-access = registration
| location = London; New York
| year = 1952
| isbn = 978-0-8020-7158-3
}}
* Guerreau, Alain, ''L'avenir d'un passé incertain.'' Paris: Le Seuil, 2001 (complete history of the meaning of the term).
* Poly, Jean-Pierre and Bournazel, Eric, ''The Feudal Transformation, 900–1200.'', Tr. Caroline Higgitt. New York and London: Holmes and Meier, 1991.
* Reynolds, Susan, ''Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. {{ISBN|0-19-820648-8}}.

===Historiographical works===
* {{Cite journal |last=Abels |first=Richard |date=2009 |title=The Historiography of a Construct: "Feudalism" and the Medieval Historian |journal=History Compass |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=1008–1031 |doi=10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00610.x}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Brown |first=Elizabeth |date=1974 |title=The Tyranny of a Construct: Feudalism and Historians of Medieval Europe |journal=American Historical Review |volume=79 |issue=4 |pages=1063–1068|doi=10.2307/1869563 |jstor=1869563 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Cantor |first=Norman F. |title=Inventing the Middle Ages: The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth century |date=1991 |publisher=Quill |author-link=Norman Cantor}}
* {{Cite journal |last={{not a typo|Friday<!--not a date-->}}|first=Karl |date=2010 |title=The Futile Paradigm: In Quest of Feudalism in Early Medieval Japan |journal=History Compass |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=179–196 |doi=10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00664.x}}
* {{Cite book |last=Harbison |first=Robert |url=http://www.wku.edu/~rob.harbison/projects/Gfeudal.html |title=The Problem of Feudalism: An Historiographical Essay |date=1996 |publisher=Western Kentucky University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080229034347/http://www.wku.edu/~rob.harbison/projects/Gfeudal.html |archive-date=29 February 2008}}

=== End of feudalism ===
* {{Cite book |last=Bean |first=J.M.W. |title=Decline of English Feudalism, 1215–1540 |date=1968 |ol=23803960M}}
* {{Cite book |last=Davitt |first=Michael |title=The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland: Or, The Story of the Land League Revolution |date=1904 |oclc=1595429 |ol=23299170M |author-link=Michael Davitt}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Hall |first=John Whitney |author-link=John Whitney Hall |date=1962 |title=Feudalism in Japan-A Reassessment |journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=15–51 |doi=10.1017/S001041750000150X |jstor=177767 |s2cid=145750386}}; compares Europe and Japan.
* {{Cite journal |last=Nell |first=Edward J. |author-link=Edward Nell |date=1967 |title=Economic Relationships in the Decline of Feudalism: An Examination of Economic Interdependence and Social Change |journal=History and Theory |volume=6 |doi=10.2307/2504421 |jstor=2504421 |pages=313–350 |number=3}}
* {{Cite book |last=Okey |first=Robin |title=Eastern Europe 1740–1985: Feudalism to Communism |date=1986 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=0816615616 |oclc=13644378 |ol=2718094M}}

==== France ====
* Herbert, Sydney. ''The Fall of Feudalism in France'' (1921) [https://archive.org/details/falloffeudalismi00herbrich full text online free].
* Mackrell, John Quentin Colborne. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Kb7WAQAAQBAJ ''The Attack on Feudalism in Eighteenth-century France''] (Routledge, 2013).
* Markoff, John. ''Abolition of Feudalism: Peasants, Lords, and Legislators in the French Revolution'' (Penn State Press, 2010).
* {{Cite journal |last=Sutherland |first=D. M. G. |year=2002 |title=Peasants, Lords, and Leviathan: Winners and Losers from the Abolition of French Feudalism, 1780-1820 |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=1–24 |jstor=2697970}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Feudalism}}
* [https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9034150/feudalism "Feudalism"], by [[Elizabeth A. R. Brown]]. ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]]''.
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1i.html#Feudalism "Feudalism?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018025458/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1i.html#Feudalism |date=18 October 2014 }}, by [[Paul Halsall]]. [[Internet Medieval Sourcebook]].
* [https://www.academia.edu/634989/Feudalism_the_history_of_an_idea "Feudalism: the history of an idea"], by Fredric Cheyette (Amherst), excerpted from ''New Dictionary of the History of Ideas'' (2004)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120209083705/http://www.scribd.com/doc/28860952/Mediavel-Feudalism ''Medieval Feudalism''], by [[Carl Stephenson (historian)|Carl Stephenson]]. Cornell University Press, 1942. Classic introduction to Feudalism.
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226131755/http://www.wku.edu/~rob.harbison/projects/Gfeudal.html |date=26 February 2009 |title="The Problem of Feudalism: An Historiographical Essay" }}, by Robert Harbison, 1996, [[Western Kentucky University]].

{{History of Europe}}
{{Types of societies}}
{{Middle Ages}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feudalism}}
[[Category:Feudalism| ]]
[[Category:9th-century establishments in Europe]]
[[Category:1861 disestablishments in Europe]]
[[Category:Economic systems]]
[[Category:Political systems]]
[[Category:Social systems]]