The classic definition, by François Louis Ganshof (1944), describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations of the warrior nobility and revolved around the key concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Īlthough it is derived from the Latin word feodum or feudum (fief), 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. A medieval castle is a traditional symbol of a feudal society.įeudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Investiture of a knight (miniature from the statutes of the Order of the Knot, founded in 1352 by Louis I of Naples).
For feudalism in other societies, as well as that of the Europeans, see Examples of feudalism. This article is about the classic, medieval, Western European form of feudalism.
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