The northern tribes, such as the Goths and the Vandals, were savage fighters. As they migrated into Europe, each man wanted to have his own land and used whatever force was necessary to obtain it. The strongest of these men made himself king and took the largest portion of the land he had conquered. The remaining land was divided among his chief followers, with the condition that they pay him taxes and fight for him. In turn, these men divided the land they had been given by the king among other men with the same conditions they had agreed to. The dividing continued down to the smallest landholder.

As a result, every man (except the king) owed something to a stronger man. The stronger man was the lord, and the weaker man was his vassal. The lord might also be the vassal of a yet more powerful lord.

The Noble Men

In order to obtain the land, a vassal had to pay homage to his lord. To do this, a man went down on his knees before the lord without a weapon, placed his hands between his lord's hands and promised to be his man, to serve him and fight for him. The lord then granted the man a fief. A fief was usually a piece of land, although sometimes it was a right, such as the right to fish in a stream or the right to collect a toll on a certain road  A vassal could become a lord himself if he granted a piece of his fief to another man.  This man would become his vassal.  This system of granting and holding fiefs or feuds was known as the feudal system.

Lords commanded a small army made up of vassals who owed him military service for their fiefs. When he made a law, he used this army to enforce it. However, he could not use his army to stop his vassals from fighting with each other, or to enforce laws in his vassals lands. He had to trust that his vassals would carry out his commands because he had no power except in his own lands. The lord made money by collecting tolls and custom duties from merchants traveling through his land and by requiring certain tributes from his vassals. These tributes were many, and included payment upon the knighting of the lord's eldest son and upon the marriage of his eldest daughter. However, the lord could not demand any new taxes or obligations unless his vassals agreed to them. He also had no control over his vassals' vassals.

The lord was also a judge. If his vassals had disputes with one another, then they could bring the dispute to the lord to be settled.

The Common People

Not everyone could be a lord or a vassal though. The bottom rung of society was made up of peasants. This was the largest class of people and they did most of the work. The peasants farmed the lord's land in exchange for protection from the lord in times of war, a small strip of land that they could farm for themselves, and a house to live in. Some peasants were freemen and could move from place to place if they did not like their master. Most peasants though were serfs. Serfs belonged to the land and could not move off of it. They also could not be removed from it by their lord.

Children

Children belonged to the class that they were born into. It was good to be born a noble, for they enjoyed what luxuries there were and only noblemen could be earls, barons, or knights. Children of peasants on the other hand, would probably live in the same place their entire life and do the same job that their father had done.

Conclusion

The feudal system was not the same everywhere in Europe. It varied from country to country and even from lordship to lordship within the same country. Some parts of Europe never had this system, though it was the most prevalent government in medieval Europe.  The system broke down gradually.  It wasn't totally eliminated from France until the French Revolution and it lasted until 1917 in Russia.

To learn more about feudalism in the Middle Ages, click here.

References:

Sobol, Donald J. The First Book of Medieval Man. Franklin Watts, Inc. New York. 1959.

Oakes, Catherine. Exploring the Past: The Middle Ages. The Hamlyn Publishing Group. 1989.

Feudalism. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-feudalis.html

Feudal Oaths of Fidelity. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/feud-oath1.html

Feudalism. http://www2.mc.maricopa.edu/anthro/lost_tribes/Feudalism.html