The Three Orders

Two features of early feudal society in France were:

1. Land-based social organisation: Society was centred on control of land. Kings, nobles and peasants were linked through landholding and service.
2. The system of vassalage: The king gave land to nobles in return for loyalty and military service, and peasants worked the nobles’ land in return for protection.

Another important feature was that the three orders were clearly separated: the clergy, the nobility and the peasantry.

Long-term changes in population affected Europe in several ways.

- When population increased, there was more demand for food, which encouraged the expansion of agriculture, the clearing of forests and the growth of towns and trade.
- Better food supply also helped people live longer, so population growth and economic expansion supported each other.
- Later, when population fell sharply because of famine and the Black Death, there was a shortage of labour. This raised wages, reduced the income of lords, and weakened feudal relations.
- The decline in population also reduced demand for goods, lowered agricultural prices and caused social unrest.

So, population growth encouraged economic expansion, while population decline caused crisis, labour shortage and changes in society.

Knights became a distinct group because from the ninth century there were frequent local wars in Europe, and the old peasant-soldiers were not enough. Good cavalry was needed, so a new military class of mounted fighters developed.

They became closely linked to lords: a lord gave a knight a fief of land, and the knight promised to fight for him and pay a fee.

Knights declined when the feudal system weakened and kings began to build standing armies with trained infantry, guns and siege artillery under royal control. This happened especially in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.