Today in class we took notes on a PowerPoint. These are some of the notes I took.

Feudalism 

• Feudalism is the governmental system and the relationships between landowners and warriors.
• warriors (knights) would pledge his allegiance to a lord, who would in turn give that knight land
• Feudal Compact- The lord would grant a fief (property) to the knight who would then become the lord's vassal (servant) 
• vassal- was required to pay homage to his lord 
• men were apprenticed to older knights before they could become a full knight himself
• when a knight died, his fief would revert to hos son though his lord would be protector of that son if he was underage or if it was a daughter  
• Barons were lords of larger territories who usually paid homage to a king 
• often a baron's army could outnumber that of a king which kept a check on the king's power
• the divine right of the king gave his power over hos vassals no matter how much land they had

Peasants of the Lord

The Manorial Estate

• medieval society wsa divided into three "estates": the clergy, the nobility, and the common people
• usually the peasantry farmed on the land plantations known as "manors" which were owned by a lord or lady of the nobility (or a member of the clergy)
• iron plows and water-powered grinding mills helped with agricultural production, but the yield was still miniscule nu today's standards