Feudal system: origin and features. Feudalism

The concept of “feudalism” arose in France before the revolution, around the end of the 18th century and designated at that time the so-called “Old Order” (that is, the monarchy (absolute) or the government of the nobility). Feudalism at that time was seen as a social and economic reformation, which was the predecessor of the well-known capitalism. In our time, in history, feudalism is considered such a social system. It was only in the Middle Ages, or rather in the Central and Western Europe. However, you can also find something similar in other eras and in other parts of the world.

The basis of feudalism includes relationships that are called interpersonal, that is, between the lord and the vassal, the overlord and the subject, the peasant and the person who has a lot of land. In Feudalism there is legal injustice, in other words, inequality that was enshrined in law, and a knightly army organization. The main basis of feudalism was religion. Namely, Christianity. And it showed the whole character of the Middle Ages, the culture of that time. Feudalism was formed in the fifth to ninth centuries, when the barbarians conquered the well-known Roman Empire, which was very strong. The heyday, somewhere in the twelfth-thirteenth centuries, then large cities and their entire population were politically and economically strengthened, so-called estate-representative communities were formed, for example the English parliament, and the estate monarchy was forced to pay attention not only to the interests of the nobility, but also all other members of society.

The worldly monarchy opposed the so-called papacy, and this created the opportunity to create and assert all their rights and their freedom, and over time, so to speak, they undermined feudalism, that is, its structure and main concepts. The city's economy developed quite quickly, and this undermined the basis of the government of the aristocracy, or rather the natural and economic foundations, but heresies grew into the reformation, which took place in the 16th century, and it was due to the growth of freedom of thought. In connection with the updated ethics and the new value system of Protestantism, he helped all entrepreneurs develop with their activities, which were of a capitalist type. Well, the revolution that took place in the 16th-18th centuries helped end feudalism.

The emergence of feudalism

It is generally accepted that feudalism as a special socio-economic formation arose in Western Europe on the basis of the collapse of the slave system of the ancient world and the fall of the Roman slave state as a result of the slave revolution and the conquest of the Roman Empire by the Germans. The usual idea that the slave system is directly replaced by the feudal system is not entirely accurate. More often, the feudal system arose anew from the primitive communal system. The peoples who conquered Rome were at the stage of a primitive communal system and did not adopt the Roman slave-owning system. Only a few centuries later they developed a class society, but in the form of feudalism.

Elements of feudalism began to take shape in the depths of the economic system late period The Roman Empire and in the society of the ancient Germans of the 2nd-3rd centuries. But feudalism became the dominant type of social relations only from the 5th-6th centuries. as a result of the interaction of the socio-economic conditions that existed in the Roman Empire with the new conditions that the conquerors brought with them. Feudalism was not at all transferred ready-made from Germany. Its origin is rooted in the military organization of the barbarian troops at the time of the conquest itself, which only after the conquest, thanks to the influence of the productive forces found in the conquered countries, developed into real feudalism. New forms of socio-economic system that arose in place of the Roman slave society had deep roots both in the old society of Rome itself and among the peoples that conquered it. In the Roman Empire, the crisis of a large slave economy already by the 1st-2nd centuries. n. e. has reached greatest strength. While large land ownership remained in the hands of a small number of Roman magnates, the latter, due to the extremely low productivity of slave labor, began to divide their lands into small parcels and plant slaves and free farmers on them. Instead of a large slave-owning economy, a colony thus arises as one of the earliest forms of new social relations - relations of small agricultural producers who still retained some elements of personal and economic freedom compared to slavery, but were attached to the owner's land and paid rent to the landowner in kind and in labor. . In other words, the columns "...were the forerunners of the medieval serfs." Due to the economic collapse of Rome's slave economy, its economic and political system was finally destroyed by the uprisings of millions of slaves. All this facilitated the conquest of the empire by the Germans, putting an end to the slave society. But new forms of social relations were not brought by the Germans “ready-made”, but, on the contrary, their “form of public” had to change in accordance with the level of productive forces of the conquered country. Even in the time of Tacitus (1st century AD), the Germans retained significant remnants of their ancestral building. But, already by the time of their first penetrations into Rome, the Germanic tribes were losing their tribal way of life and moving to a territorial community-mark. Military movements and conquests led to the establishment of a military-tribal aristocracy and the formation of military squads. The former communal lands were seized by vigilantes, private land ownership arose, and slaves were exploited and planted on the land. These new relations began to intensify and were transferred to Roman soil when the Germanic tribes began to settle in various parts the former empire. The Germans “... as a reward for liberating the Romans from their own state...” not only began to occupy free lands, but also took away two-thirds of their land from the previous Roman owners - huge Roman latifundia with the masses sitting on them slaves and colons. The division of land took place according to the orders of the clan system. Part of the land was left indivisibly in the possession of the entire clan and tribe, the rest (arable land, meadows) was distributed among individual members of the clan. This is how the German community-mark was transferred to new conditions. But the separation of the military-tribal aristocracy and military squads, which captured large expanses of land and large slave-owning Roman latifundia, contributed to the disintegration of communal ownership and the emergence of large private land ownership. At the same time, the Roman landed nobility began to unite with the military nobility of the German warriors and leaders.

In some parts of the former empire, as in the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy, the assimilation of the conquerors with the vanquished was most widespread and led to the assimilation by the Germans of socio-economic relations, the beginnings of serfdom and latifundia. Vast estates were called, specializing in export areas of agriculture: growing grain, producing olive oil and winemaking.) economy of the former empire. In the Frankish state, where Roman influence was weaker and where the newcomer Frankish tribes were less quickly assimilated with the Roman population, for some time there remained a large layer of free peasantry, and before the development of feudal-serf relations “between the Roman colony and the new a free Frankish peasant stood as a serf.” German land orders were most fully preserved where, as in Britain, the German conquerors almost completely destroyed the former Celtic population of the country and introduced their own rules for using the land, with rapidly growing, however, inequality in it, with the separation of tribal nobility (earls) and simple freemen farmers (curls). With all the diversity in the development of feudal relations in different localities and countries, the further process everywhere consisted of the gradual enslavement of the remaining mass of the free rural population and the development of the foundations of the feudal-serf economic system. With the fall of the slave economy and the decomposition of communal land forms on the basis of the emergence of property and land inequality in the land community, and then personal and economic dependence and, finally, with the seizure of land by conquerors, a complex and developed system of feudal-land relations was created in the kingdoms of Western Europe . The entire social structure, all social relations and the place of each individual person in them are determined on the basis of land ownership and land “holding”. Starting from the overlord, the king, his associates and larger and more powerful owners, all vassals dependent on them receive land as a fief, as a fief, that is, as a hereditary conditional possession, as an award for service. A complex system of vassalage and vassalage, the hierarchy of the highest and “noble” ruling classes permeates the entire society.

The development of feudal production relations ensured, first of all, the partial emancipation of the direct producer: since the serf can no longer be killed, although he can be sold and bought, since the serf has a farm and a family, he has some interest in work, shows some initiative in work required by new productive forces. The basis of feudal production relations was the ownership of feudal lords in the main means of agricultural production, land, and the lack of ownership of land among workers. Along with this main feature, the feudal form of ownership of the means of production is also characterized by the incomplete ownership of the feudal lord over the worker (non-economic coercion) and the ownership of some of the tools and means based on personal labor by the production workers themselves, i.e. peasants and artisans. The feudal form of ownership resulted in the position in production and the relationship between the main classes of feudal society: feudal lords and peasants.

The feudal lords, in one form or another, allocated land to the peasants and forced them to work for themselves, appropriating part of their labor or products of labor in the form of feudal rent (duties). Peasants and artisans belonged in the broad sense of the word to the same class of feudal society; their relations were not antagonistic. Classes and social groups under feudalism had the form of estates, and the form of distribution of production products entirely depended on the position and relationship of social groups in production. Early feudalism was characterized by the complete dominance of subsistence farming; with the development of crafts, commodity production became increasingly important in town and countryside. Commodity production, which existed under feudalism and served it, despite the fact that it prepared some conditions for capitalist production, cannot be confused with capitalist commodity production.

The main form of exploitation under feudalism was feudal rent, which increased through the successive change of its three forms: labor (corvee labor), food rent (in-kind rent) and money (monetary rent). The late feudal corvee system in the countries of Eastern Europe is not a simple return to the first form, but also carries the features of a third form: production for the market. With the emergence of manufacture (16th century), an increasingly deeper contradiction began to develop in the depths of feudal society between the new nature of the productive forces and feudal production relations, which became a brake on their development. The so-called primitive accumulation prepares the emergence of a class of wage workers and a class of capitalists.

In accordance with the class, antagonistic nature of the feudal economy, the entire life of feudal society was permeated with class struggle. Above the feudal base rose its corresponding superstructure - the feudal state, the church, feudal ideology, a superstructure that actively served the ruling class by helping to suppress the struggle of working people against feudal exploitation. The feudal state, as a rule, goes through a number of stages - from political fragmentation (“estate-state”), through class monarchy To absolute monarchy(autocracy). The dominant form of ideology under feudalism was religion

The intensified class struggle made it possible for the young bourgeoisie, leading the uprisings of peasants and plebeian elements of the cities, to seize power and overthrow feudal relations of production. Bourgeois revolutions in the Netherlands in the 16th century, in England in the 17th century, in France in the 18th century. ensured the dominance of the then advanced bourgeois class and brought production relations into line with the nature of the productive forces.

At present, the remnants of feudalism are supported and strengthened by the imperialist bourgeoisie. The vestiges of feudalism are very significant in many capitalist countries. In people's democracies, these relics have been decisively eliminated through democratic agrarian reforms. In colonial and dependent countries, peoples are fighting feudalism and imperialism at the same time; Every blow to feudalism is at the same time a blow to imperialism.

Feudalism was an integral part of the European Middle Ages. Under this socio-political system, large landowners enjoyed enormous power and influence. The basis of their power was the enslaved and disenfranchised peasantry.

The Birth of Feudalism

In Europe, the feudal system arose at the end of the 5th century AD. e. Along with the disappearance of the previous ancient civilization, the era of classical slavery was left behind. On the territory of the young barbarian kingdoms that arose on the site of the empire, new social relations began to take shape.

The feudal system arose due to the formation of large land ownership. Influential and wealthy aristocrats close to royal power received allotments that only multiplied with each generation. At the same time, the bulk of the Western European population (peasants) lived in the community. By the 7th century, significant property stratification had occurred within them. Community land passed into private hands. Those peasants who did not have enough plots became poor, dependent on their employer.

Enslavement of the peasantry

Independent peasant farms of the early Middle Ages were called allods. At the same time, conditions of unequal competition arose when large landowners oppressed their opponents in the market. As a result, the peasants went bankrupt and voluntarily came under the protection of the aristocrats. Thus, the feudal system gradually arose.

It is curious that this term did not appear much later. At the end of the 18th century in revolutionary France, feudalism was called the “old order” - the period of the existence of an absolute monarchy and nobility. Later the term became popular among scientists. For example, it was used by Karl Marx. In his book “Capital” he called the feudal system the predecessor of modern capitalism and market relations.

Benefits

The Frankish state was the first to show signs of feudalism. In this monarchy the formation of new social relations accelerated thanks to benefits. This was the name given to land payments from the state to service people - officials or military personnel. At first it was assumed that these plots would belong to a person for life, and after his death the authorities would again be able to dispose of the property at their own discretion (for example, transfer it to the next applicant).

However, in the 9th-10th centuries. the free land fund has ended. Because of this, property gradually ceased to be individual and became hereditary. That is, the owner could now transfer the flax (land plot) to his children. These changes, firstly, increased the dependence of the peasantry on their overlords. Secondly, the reform strengthened the importance of medium and small feudal lords. They became the basis of the Western European army for a long time.

Peasants who were deprived of their own allod took land from the feudal lord in exchange for the obligation to perform regular work on his plots. Such temporary use in the jurisdiction was called precarity. Large owners were not interested in driving the peasants off the land completely. The established order gave them a noticeable income and became the basis for the well-being of the aristocracy and nobility for several centuries.

Strengthening the power of feudal lords

In Europe, the peculiarities of the feudal system were also that large landowners over time received not only large lands, but also real power. The state transferred various functions to them, including judicial, police, administrative and tax functions. Such royal charters became a sign that land magnates received immunity from any interference with their powers.

Compared to them, the peasants were helpless and powerless. Landowners could abuse their power without fear of government intervention. This is how the feudal-serf system actually appeared, when peasants were forced to perform labor duties without regard to the law and previous agreements.

Corvee and quitrent

Over time, the responsibilities of the dependent poor changed. There were three types of feudal rent - corvée, quitrent in kind and quitrent in cash. Free and forced labor was especially common in the early Middle Ages. In the 11th century, the process of economic growth of cities and the development of trade began. This led to the spread of monetary relations. Before this, the same natural products could have taken the place of currency. This economic order was called barter. When money spread throughout Western Europe, the feudal lords switched to cash rent.

But even despite this, the large estates of aristocrats participated in trade rather sluggishly. Most of the food and other goods produced on their territory were consumed within the household. It is important to note that the aristocrats used not only the labor of the peasantry, but also the labor of artisans. Gradually, the feudal lord's share of land in his own household decreased. The barons preferred to give plots to dependent peasants and live off their quitrents and corvée.

Regional features

In most countries, feudalism was finally formed by the 11th century. Somewhere this process ended earlier (in France and Italy), somewhere later (In England and Germany). In all these countries, feudalism was practically the same. The relations between large landowners and peasants in Scandinavia and Byzantium were somewhat different.

The social hierarchy in medieval Asian countries also had its own characteristics. For example, the feudal system in India was characterized by great influence of the state on large landowners and peasants. In addition, there was no classical European serfdom there. The feudal system in Japan was distinguished by actual dual power. Under the shogunate, the shogun had even more influence than the emperor. This one rested on a layer of professional warriors who received small plots of land - samurai.

Production ramp-up

All historical socio-political systems (slave system, feudal system, etc.) changed gradually. Thus, at the end of the 11th century, slow production growth began in Europe. It was associated with the improvement of working tools. At the same time, there is a division of worker specializations. It was then that the artisans finally separated from the peasants. This social class began to settle in cities, which grew along with the increase in European production.

The increase in the number of goods led to the spread of trade. Started to take shape market economy. An influential merchant class emerged. Merchants began to unite in guilds in order to protect their interests. In the same way, artisans formed city guilds. Until the 14th century, these enterprises were advanced in Western Europe. They allowed artisans to remain independent from the feudal lords. However, with the onset of accelerated scientific progress at the end of the Middle Ages, guilds became a relic of the past.

Peasant revolts

Of course, the feudal social system could not help but change under the influence of all these factors. The boom of cities, the growth of monetary and commodity relations - all this happened against the background of an intensification of the people's struggle against the oppression of large landowners.

Peasant uprisings became a common occurrence. All of them were brutally suppressed by the feudal lords and the state. The instigators were executed, and ordinary participants were punished with additional duties or torture. Nevertheless, gradually, thanks to the uprisings, the personal dependence of the peasants began to decrease, and the cities turned into a stronghold of the free population.

The struggle between feudal lords and monarchs

Slaveholding, feudal, capitalist systems - all of them, one way or another, influenced state power and its place in society. In the Middle Ages, the strengthened large landowners (barons, counts, dukes) practically ignored their monarchs. Feudal wars took place regularly, in which aristocrats sorted things out among themselves. At the same time, the royal power did not interfere in these conflicts, and if it did intervene, then because of its weakness it could not stop the bloodshed.

The feudal system (the heyday of which occurred in the 12th century) led to the fact that, for example, in France the monarch was considered only “first among equals.” The state of things began to change along with the increase in production, popular uprisings, etc. Gradually in the West European countries National states with firm royal power emerged, which acquired more and more signs of absolutism. Centralization was one of the reasons why the feudal system remained a thing of the past.

Development of capitalism

Capitalism became the gravedigger of feudalism. In the 16th century, rapid scientific progress began in Europe. It led to the modernization of working equipment and the entire industry. Thanks to the Great Geographical Discoveries, the Old World learned about new lands lying overseas. The emergence of a new fleet led to the development of trade relations. Never-before-seen products appeared on the market.

At this time, the Netherlands and England became leaders in industrial production. In these countries, manufactories arose - enterprises of a new type. They used hired labor, which was also divided. That is, trained specialists worked in manufactories - primarily artisans. These people were independent of the feudal lords. This is how new types of production appeared - cloth, cast iron, printing, etc.

The Decay of Feudalism

Together with manufactories, the bourgeoisie was born. This social class consisted of owners who owned the means of production and large capital. At first this layer of the population was small. Its share in the economy was tiny. At the end of the Middle Ages, the bulk of manufactured goods appeared in peasant farms dependent on feudal lords.

However, gradually the bourgeoisie gained momentum and became richer and more influential. This process could not but lead to conflict with the old elite. This is how social bourgeois revolutions began in Europe in the 17th century. The new class wanted to consolidate its own influence in society. This was done through representation in the highest government agencies Parliament), etc.

The first was the Dutch Revolution, which ended with the Thirty Years' War. This uprising also had a national character. The inhabitants of the Netherlands got rid of the power of the powerful Spanish Habsburg dynasty. The next revolution took place in England. She also received the name Civil War. The result of all these and subsequent similar revolutions was the rejection of feudalism, the emancipation of the peasantry and the triumph of a free market economy.

The feudal system existed, with one or another characteristic, in almost all countries.

The era of feudalism covers a long period. In China, the feudal system existed for over two thousand years. In the countries of Western Europe, feudalism covers a number of centuries - from the fall of the Roman Empire (V century) to the bourgeois revolutions in England (XVII century) and France (XVHI century), in Russia - from the 9th century to the peasant reform of 1861, in Transcaucasia - from the 4th century to the 70s of the 19th century, among the peoples Central Asia- from the 7th-8th centuries until the victory proletarian revolution in Russia.

In Western Europe, feudalism arose on the basis of the collapse of the Roman slave society, on the one hand, and the decomposition of the clan system among the conquering tribes, on the other; it was formed as a result of the interaction of these two processes.

Elements of feudalism, as already mentioned, originated in the depths of slave-owning society in the form of a colony. The colons were obliged to cultivate the land of their master - a large landowner, pay him a certain amount of money or give him a significant share of the harvest, and perform various kinds of duties. Nevertheless, the colons were more interested in labor than the slaves, since they had their own farm.

Thus, new relations of production were born, which received full development in the feudal era.

The Roman Empire was defeated by tribes of Germans, Gauls, Slavs and other peoples living in various parts of Europe. The power of the slave owners was overthrown, slavery abolished. Large latifundia and craft workshops based on slave labor were fragmented into small ones. The population of the collapsed Roman Empire consisted of large landowners (former slave owners who switched to the colonata system), freed slaves, coloni, small peasants and artisans.

At the time of the conquest of Rome, the conquering tribes had a communal system that was in the stage of decay. The rural community, which the Germans called a mark, played a major role in the social life of these tribes. The land, with the exception of large land holdings of the clan nobility, was communally owned. Forests, wastelands, pastures, ponds were used together. Fields and meadows were distributed among community members after a few years. But gradually, household land, and then arable land, began to pass into the hereditary use of individual families. Distribution of land, trial of cases concerning the community, settlement disputes between its members were dealt with by the community assembly, the elders and judges chosen by it.At the head of the conquering tribes were military leaders who, together with their squads, owned large lands.

The tribes that conquered the Roman Empire took possession of most of its public lands and some of the lands of large private landowners. Forests, meadows and pastures remained in common use, and arable land was divided between individual farms. The divided lands later became the private property of peasants. Thus a vast layer of independent small peasantry was formed.

But the peasants could not maintain their independence for long. Based on private ownership of land and other means of production, property inequality between individual members of the rural community inevitably increased. Prosperous and poor families appeared among the peasants. As wealth inequality grew, community members who became rich began to acquire power over the community. The land was concentrated in the hands of wealthy families and became the subject of seizure by the family nobility and military leaders. The peasants became personally dependent on large landowners.

In order to maintain and strengthen power over dependent peasants, large landowners had to strengthen state authorities. Military leaders, relying on the clan nobility and warriors, began to concentrate power in their hands and turned into kings - monarchs.

From the ruins of the Roman Empire, a number of new states were formed, headed by kings. The kings generously distributed the land they seized as lifelong and then hereditary possession to their associates, who had to bear for it military service. The church received a lot of land, which served as an important support for royal power. The land was cultivated by peasants, who now had to perform a number of duties in favor of the new masters. Huge land holdings passed into the hands of the royal warriors and servants, church authorities and monasteries.

Land distributed on such terms was called fiefs. Hence the name of the new social system - feudalism.

The gradual transformation of peasant land into the property of feudal lords and the enslavement of the peasant masses (the process of feudalization) occurred in Europe over a number of centuries (from the 5th-6th to the 9th-10th centuries). The free peasantry was ruined by continuous military service, robberies and extortions. Turning to the large landowner for help, the peasants turned into people dependent on him. Often peasants were forced to surrender under the “patronage” of the feudal lord: otherwise it would be impossible for a defenseless person to exist in conditions of continuous wars and predatory raids.

In such cases, ownership of the land passed to the feudal lord, and the peasant could cultivate this plot only if he fulfilled various duties in favor of the feudal lord. In other cases, royal governors and officials, through deception and violence, took over the lands of free peasants, forcing them to recognize their power.

In different countries, the process of feudalization proceeded differently, but the essence of the matter was the same everywhere: previously free peasants fell into personal dependence on the feudal lords who seized their land. This dependence was sometimes weaker, sometimes stronger. Over time, the differences in the position of former slaves, colons and free peasants were erased, and they all turned into a single mass of serf peasantry. Gradually, a situation arose that was characterized by the medieval saying: “There is no land without a seigneur” (that is, without a feudal lord). The kings were the supreme landowners.

Feudalism was a necessary step in historical development society. Slavery has outlived its usefulness. In these conditions further development productive forces were possible only on the basis of the labor of a mass of dependent peasants who owned their own farm, their own instruments of production and had some interest in the labor necessary to cultivate the land and pay tribute in kind to the feudal lord from their harvest.

In Russia, in the conditions of the disintegration of the communal system, patriarchal slavery arose. But the development of society here went mainly not along the path of slavery, but along the path of feudalization. Slavic tribes, even under the dominance of their clan system, starting from the 3rd century AD, attacked the Roman slave-owning empire, fought for the liberation of the cities of the Northern Black Sea region that were under its rule, and played a large role in the collapse of the slave-owning system. The transition from the primitive communal system to feudalism in Russia took place at a time when the slave system had long since fallen and feudal relations in European countries were strengthened.

As human history shows, it is not necessary for every nation to go through all the stages social development. “For many peoples, conditions arise under which they have the opportunity to bypass certain stages of development and move directly to a higher level.

The rural community among the Eastern Slavs was called “verv”, “world”. The community had meadows, forests, and ponds for common use, and arable land began to come into the possession of individual families. The community was headed by an elder. The development of private land ownership led to the gradual disintegration of the community. The land was taken over by elders and tribal princes. Peasants - smerds - were at first free members of the community, and then became dependent on large landowners - boyars.

The largest feudal owner was the church. Grants from princes, deposits and spiritual testaments made her the owner of vast lands and the richest farms for those times.

During the formation of the centralized Russian state (XV-XVI centuries), the great princes and tsars began, as they said then, to “place” their associates and service people on the land, that is, to give them land and peasants under the condition of performing military service. Hence the names - estate, landowners.

At that time, the peasants were not yet completely attached to the landowner and the land: they had the right to move from one landowner to another. At the end of the 16th century, landowners, in order to increase the production of grain for sale, intensified the exploitation of peasants. In this regard, in 1581 the state took away the right of the peasants to move from one landowner to another. The peasants were completely attached to the land that belonged to the landowners, and thereby turned into serfs.

During the era of feudalism, the predominant role was played Agriculture, and one of its branches is agriculture. Gradually, over the course of a number of centuries, methods of arable farming were improved, and vegetable gardening, horticulture, winemaking, and butter-making developed.

IN early period Feudalism was dominated by fallow farming, and in forest areas - by slash-and-burn farming. A plot of land was sown with one crop for several years in a row until the soil was depleted. Then they moved to another area. Subsequently, there was a transition to a three-field system, in which the arable land is divided into three fields, and one is alternately used for winter crops, the other for spring crops, and the third is left fallow. The three-field system began to spread in Western Europe and Russia from the 11th-12th centuries. It remained dominant for many centuries, surviving until the 19th century, and in many countries to the present day.

Agricultural implements in the early period of feudalism were scarce. The tools of labor were a plow with an iron ploughshare, a sickle, a scythe, and a shovel. Later, the iron plow and harrow began to be used. For a long time, grain grinding was done by hand until windmills and water mills became widespread.

History knows two ways of the formation of feudalism. The first is the emergence of feudalism, respectively, the feudal state and law directly during the decomposition of the primitive communal system, bypassing the slave system and the slave state and law. The Germans, Slavs and many other peoples followed this path. The second is the formation of feudal relations in the depths of the slave system, the transformation of a slave society into a feudal one. This is the path, for example, of Byzantium.

Feudalism is a more progressive form of economic and political development. The purpose of the feudal state and law is to consolidate the dominance of feudal lords over the peasants. Gradually, a class of large landowners emerged, vested with political power over the local population. Free community peasants turned into dependent people, losing their former legal status; New groups of feudally dependent population appeared. The state apparatus could not cope with its tasks, and the population actually found itself at the disposal of large landowners. They recruited militia, levied taxes, and judged the population independently of royal power. At first this was done on behalf of the king, and the proceeds were turned to his benefit; later they began to appropriate them for themselves. The kings sanctioned this order with letters of immunity, according to which no one, not even a royal official, had the right to set foot on the territory belonging to those to whom these letters were given. As large-scale feudal land ownership developed, local virtually independent feudal lords became stronger. The feudal mode of production was characterized by the dominance of subsistence farming and the weak development of economic ties between individual lands, which inevitably led to economic and political fragmentation.

The period of feudalism covers a long period of time, which leads to the need for internal periodization. In relation to the countries of Western Europe, there are three main stages in the development of feudal states: the period of the early feudal monarchy, the period of the estate-representative monarchy, and the period of the absolute monarchy.

The early feudal monarchy is the time of the emergence of the feudal state and law.

By the 6th century n. e. On the territory of the former Roman province of Gaul, the first feudal state of the Franks arose in Western Europe. In 843 it was divided into three parts, which became France, Germany and Italy. In the population

peoples who lived in Britain from the 5th century. n. e. in the VII-VIII centuries. The first seven feudal kingdoms appear, which in the 9th century. united into a single state called England. In 1066 it was conquered by the Norman Duke William the Conqueror. The first period in the history of feudal states in Europe lasted until the XIII-XIV centuries.

Under the conditions of the early feudal monarchy, the feudal mode of production and feudal ownership of land were established. At the same time, the formation of the main classes of feudal society is underway: feudal landowners and the feudally dependent, and then the serf peasantry.

At this time, a special form of relationship between feudal lords emerged in the form of suzerainty-vassalage, which was based on the allotment of land and the associated emergence of relations of personal dependence. In France and Germany, the classic form of vassalage was in effect: “My vassal’s vassal is not my vassal.” This meant that the vassal had duties only towards his immediate overlord from whom he received the land.

A general pattern is the emergence in these countries of a monarchical form of government - kingdoms. A palace-patrimonial management system is emerging, when the king's personal servants turn into officials with no clear delineation of responsibilities. The central apparatus was built on such principles, first in the Frankish kingdom, and then in France and Germany.

Co-representative monarchy

The next period in the history of feudal statehood covers the XIII-XVI centuries. Economic progress led to the development of crafts, trade, the spread of commodity-money relations, strengthening ties between different regions of the country, and the development of cities. The social system has also changed: the knight class gains predominant influence

gentry, nobles, and the urban population became an influential force. In Western European states, feudal estates are emerging: the clergy, the nobility and the “third estate” - the top of the urban population.

The political system of an estate-representative monarchy is characterized by the following features. The royal power, striving to strengthen, finds support in the nobility and the urban population and gets the opportunity to begin an open struggle against the large feudal magnates. Political consolidation and the formation of centralized states are taking place everywhere.

The transition to a class-representative monarchy took place in a unique way in England, which did not know feudal fragmentation. At the beginning of the 13th century. John the Landless was in power, bringing the country to ruin with unsuccessful wars and constant extortions. The royal outrage caused general outrage. The barons attracted the knights and townspeople to their side and began to fight the king. Having suffered defeat in 1215, he was forced to sign the Magna Carta. In it, he pledged not to demand benefits and fees without the consent of the “general council of the kingdom”, to respect the rights and liberties of the barons, to take into account the interests of knighthood and townspeople, etc. The struggle for the implementation of the Charter ended in 1265 with the creation of parliament and the entry of England into the period estate-representative monarchy.

An exception to the general pattern was Germany, where the struggle for the creation of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation seriously weakened the imperial power. She did not receive the support of cities and knighthood. Germany remained feudally fragmented. The real power ended up with the princes, which was secured by the “Golden Bull” signed by Charles IV in 1356. Seven electors received the right to elect the Emperor of Germany, hold their own congresses, independently set taxes, mint coins, wage wars, etc. Thus, the fragmentation of Germany received its legislative reinforcement.

Everywhere at this time, class-representative bodies were formed, which included representatives of the main classes. A classic example of such an institution is the Estates General of France, first convened in 1302. They were divided into three curiae according to the number of estates, each curia had one vote. Dukes, counts and senior church officials received a personal invitation from the king, while other members were elected. The competence of the States General included issues of declaring war, imposing taxes, etc. In England, parliament was divided into two chambers: the upper - the House of Lords, which included dukes, earls, barons who received the right of hereditary peerage, and the lower - the House of Commons, which was elected and included the knighthood and townspeople. This peculiar development of the English parliament, when knights and townspeople sat in the same chamber, turned it into a very influential body.

The same kind of institution - the Reichstag - arose in Germany, but in a country that remained fragmented, this body did not have real power. Local representative authorities - Landtags - enjoyed a certain influence in each individual state, therefore we can only speak conditionally about estate-representative power in Germany.

Absolute monarchy

The last period in the history of feudal state and law begins at the end of the 16th century. This is the time of the decomposition of feudalism and the emergence of new bourgeois relations. The old classes are disintegrating; for example, in France the nobility is divided into two groups - the “nobility of the sword” and the “nobility of the robe,” which is formed mainly from the bourgeoisie. In England, along with the old aristocracy, a new nobility appears - the gentry, whose interests are also closely connected with the bourgeoisie. A pre-proletariat appears in the form of hired workers, the urban lower classes. It's getting worse

the struggle between the feudal lords and the peasantry. Under these conditions, the formation of an absolute monarchy takes place - the dictatorship of the nobility in the conditions of the crisis of feudalism.

The classic form of absolutism arises in France. The power of the king extends to the entire country, the remnants of vassal relations completely disappear, the Estates General are not convened, cities lose self-government, and the church is subordinated to the state. The king is now the source of power, the will of the king is the law. The essence of absolute monarchy was most accurately expressed by Louis XIV, who declared: “The State is me!” The nobility occupies the main administrative positions; the bureaucratic apparatus, the center of which was the Royal Council, covers the entire country, bringing the will of the monarch to the most remote corners of the state. The quartermasters of police, justice and finance, endowed with enormous powers, played an active role in this.

England is characterized by incomplete absolutism. It began earlier, but under conditions of absolutism, parliament and class self-government bodies in the counties continued to operate here, and the process of forming a bureaucratic state apparatus did not develop.

Germany developed in a unique way. The strengthening of the heads of large principalities - the electors - led to the fact that they turned into absolute monarchs, practically consolidating the feudal fragmentation of Germany.

Main features of feudal law

Feudal law, acting as a means of regulating feudal relations, represents a step forward in its internal content, but in its external form, legal technique, and the development of institutions it is significantly inferior to the highest examples of law ancient world. It is characterized by a slow pace of development as a result of the conservation of legal customs, largely stemming from the barbarian era, legal formalism and the primitiveness of jurisprudence

dic procedures. Feudal law was a privileged right for the feudal class, and a coercive right for the rest of the population. Law was also characterized by a connection with religion, which, as the only form of worldview and the dominant ideology, cannot but influence the law and which itself creates its own law - canonical. Another feature is particularism, the fragmentation of law not only within Europe, but also in individual regions and localities of one state. The reason is the dominance of legal customs as the leading sources of law. The next feature is the reception of Roman law, its adaptation to feudal society. The reason is the lack of norms that adequately regulate the development of commodity-money relations.

Under the conditions of the early feudal monarchy, customary law was in force, which was recorded in the so-called “barbarian truths,” the most famous of which is the “Salic truth” of the Franks.

The development of feudal relations led to the fact that the decisive role passed to local customary law. For example, in France these customs were called kutyums, which had a common basis, but were very different in individual provisions and details characteristic of each locality. Therefore, the law of France was distinguished in the Middle Ages by its extraordinary diversity. In the North, customary law was in force; in the South, which used to be part of the Roman Empire, Roman law continued to be in force - written, but along with it, many kutyums were in force. A similar system has developed in Germany.

With the strengthening of royal power, royal ordinances - decrees of kings that were in force throughout the entire territory of the state - began to acquire increasing importance.

During the period under review, urban law acquired particular importance. With the growth and development of cities, city courts appear, gradually gaining jurisdiction

the entire population of the city and supplanted the use of fief and courtyard law in cities. The law of Lübeck, Magdeburg and several other cities was especially famous.

By the 16th century the collapse of feudal relations and the growing power of the bourgeoisie gave particular importance to the regulation of obligatory, contractual relations. This led to increased interest in Roman law and the active borrowing of its provisions; Its study begins at universities, textbooks, reference books, and dictionaries are published.

A specific legal system developed during the Middle Ages in England. It was called "common law". A unified English “common law” began to emerge starting from the 12th century, when royal courts gained dominance over the courts of counties and feudal lords. The royal courts did not have any written sources at their disposal and decided cases based on the “law of the land,” i.e., common law. This right was thought to be well known to the king's judges and was reflected in the decisions of the courts. However, the royal judges not only drew rules from their own knowledge of legal customs, but were also guided by previous court decisions and instructions contained in royal decrees issued for a fee to those who sought protection. Although each decree was issued for a specific case, it was drawn up according to a specific model, uniformly formulated. The "common law" was the practice of the royal courts, recorded in judicial records called "rolls of litigation", and reference to the cases contained therein confirmed the existence of a rule or principle in English law. Along with common law, laws began to acquire increasing importance. Active legislative activity was carried out by kings and parliament. The statutes were binding on the royal courts and supplemented and modified the common law.

Since the 16th century. a new system of law emerges - “the law of justice”. The court of justice arose as a result

those petitions and complaints submitted to the king on issues that did not receive protection in the general courts for any formal reasons. The king provided assistance to the petitioner as a mercy, but the increasing number of petitions led to the fact that the king began to transfer them to the chancellor, who dealt with cases not according to the law of the country, but according to justice, that is, he was not bound by the practice of common courts, turning to the natural and partly to Roman law, although the latter had no practical significance in England.

This term is practically synonymous with the Middle Ages. In films, books and historical magazines you can find descriptions of feudal relations between people. So what is feudalism? Feudalism, also called the feudal system or feudalism, is a construct referring to the social, economic and political conditions in Western Europe during the early Middle Ages, ranging from the 5th to the 12th centuries. In fact, these terms - feudalism and "feudal system" - are labels invented many centuries after the period to which they were applied.

The phrase "feudal system" was coined in the early 17th century, and the words feudalism and feudalism (as well as feudal pyramid) were used towards the end of the 18th century. They were derived from the Latin words feudum ("feudal lord") and feodalitas (services associated with a fief), both of which were used in the Middle Ages and later to denote a form of ownership. The essence was the following - these are designations of human property and land use rules.

Feudalism in Europe

From the school course we know that a feudal lord is a person who owns land, as well as several slaves who cultivate this land. These relations have been evident since antiquity (the slave system existed even then). But it was during the Middle Ages that it really blossomed.

Feudal period

Western European feudalism is divided into three parts - early (5-10 centuries). During this period, the very essence of the new slave-owning system was laid, and the gradual enslavement of peasants on land belonging to the feudal lords took place. The most striking example is the state of the Franks. The more powerful of the later Carolingians tried to regulate local aristocrats and bring them into their service, but the power of local elites was never destroyed or completely subordinated to the king. In the absence of powerful kings and emperors, local lords expanded the territory under their control and increased control over the people living there.

In many areas, the term feodum, as well as the terms beneficiary and casmentum, came to be used to describe the form of property ownership. Holdings designated by these terms were often considered to be essentially dependent companies in respect of which the rights of their owners were particularly limited. However, there was such a term as unconditional ownership - during this period it acquired a new connotation. The second stage is developed feudalism (11-15 centuries) - here cities are already flourishing, guilds are being formed, villages are completely switching to the feudal system. Trade is improving. The third period - late feudalism (15-17 centuries) - the system gradually fades away, giving way to a novelty of that time - capitalism.

They received land quite simply - for military service. In those days it was not 1 or 2 years, like military service now. Back then it was a lifelong job. And the reward for it should be appropriate. After all, an incredible number of wars were fought then. The owner of the fief swore allegiance to the person whom he recognized as his master. The ceremony of taking the oath was called tribute, or homage (from the Latin homo; “man”).

These institutions survived in England until they were abolished by Parliament in 1645 and were reactivated after the English Revolution and the accession of Charles II to the throne in 1660. Before their liquidation by the National Assembly in the period from 1789 to 1793, they had great importance in France, where they were used to create and strengthen family and social ties.

As defined by scholars in the 17th century, the medieval feudal system was characterized by the absence of public authority and the exercise by local lords of administrative and judicial functions that had previously (and since) been performed by centralized governments. The relationship between lord and vassal was officially documented in the chronicles of the medieval period. They involve the provision of services by vassals for their lords and the obligations of lords and their vassals. The studied legal commentaries on laws governing property, called "fiefs", also influenced the interpretation of the sources. These commentaries, produced from the 13th century, focused on legal theory and rules emerging from factual disputes and hypothetical cases. They did not include an impartial analysis of historical development.

Legal commentators in the 16th century prepared the way for the development of the feudal construct by formulating an idea flowing freely from the libri feudorum, a single feudal law, which they presented as prevalent throughout Europe in the early Middle Ages.

The terms feudalism and feudal system have enabled historians to make sense of a long period of European history whose complexities were—and remain—tangled. The beginnings of feudalism began with Charlemagne and his empire. Various Roman, barbarian, and Carolingian institutions were considered precursors to feudal customs: Roman lordship and servants, barbarian military leaders and units loyal to them, grants of land to soldiers and officials, and oaths of allegiance.

Later, rulers who adopted and adapted feudal institutions to increase their power were called "feudal lords" and their governments "feudal monarchies." “Despite the existence of institutions and practices associated with the medieval feudal system in the 17th century, historians of the time imagined medieval feudalism and feudal system as having lost their significance in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Features of feudalism

If we discard the entire philosophical essence of the relationship between the lord and his servant, then we can identify the main features of feudalism.

• Dominance of subsistence farming
• Personal dependence of peasants on feudal lords, forced labor on the land
• Rent relations - for the right to use the land, the peasant paid rent (that is, speaking modern language, rented land for his own needs)
• Class division of society - nobles, clergy, peasants.

From all of the above, a peculiar picture emerges - the peasants seemed to be free, but at the same time dependent on their masters. The conditions of feudal relations did not allow them to leave the lord and start working for themselves.

However, nothing could last forever - with the era of the Great geographical discoveries feudalism is gradually losing its dominant role in the life of society. Having somehow held out for another couple of centuries, in the 17th century it finally became a thing of the past, leaving behind only memories of the bright years of the Middle Ages, when commodity-money relations were quite simple and did not require many skills.