The Feudal Forms of Medieval Europe
The European Middle Ages spanned more than a thousand years, a period of statehood, society, and law. During the Middle Ages the foundation was laid for the rapid development and change of Europe and the intense expansion of European civilization.
The Middle Ages were characterized by one-man rule. Virtually all the countries of Europe were ruled by monarchy; there were also republics of a special kind. The power of the king or kings was perceived as something natural and unquestionable, power derived from God and the higher spiritual spheres. The legal rules issued by monarchs were accepted as unquestionable “divine law,” they were almost never challenged. The king had sovereignty and was not subject to the courts.
There were several forms of monarchy in Europe:
- Early feudal monarchy (V-IX centuries). Characteristic of the period of formation of feudal property, feudal lords are concentrated around the strengthened power of the king. The first feudal states are established.
- Senorial monarchy (10th – 13th centuries). Feudal mode of production and subsistence economy flourish. Processes leading to feudal fragmentation start, the power shifts from the king to individual feudal lords. State power is established on the basis of vassal ties.
- Class-representative monarchy (14th and 15th centuries). The state becomes centralized and representative bodies begin to function. Absolute monarchy (16th-17th centuries).
- The entirety of power (legislative, judicial and executive functions) is concentrated in the hands of the king, and a bureaucratic state apparatus and professional army are created. The king had full control and governance over the country.
Role of feudal class in the establishment of statehood
Feudal class was dominant and represented a relatively closed group of people, endowed with special privileges – monopoly on the right to participate in the court and government, the right to own land and serfs.
Feudal relations were based on the relationship between feudal lords and vassals. The liege lords granted land to vassals and guaranteed them protection. In relation to the lords, the vassals were obliged to perform military service and other duties. The feudal possession was granted for life, but was taken away if the vassal obligations were breached. Land was leased for rent or taxes, and land was given for service. The number of vassals and lands determined the status of the liege lord, his title, and his influence at court.
The relationship of suzerainty and vassalage formed the class and specific political hierarchy. The economy was based on the land ownership of the ruling estates and was of a subsistence nature. The desire of the largest landowners to gain full power over their own possessions weakened the power of feudal powers. To maintain their power, monarchs used rivalries between feudal lords, used methods of court intrigue, and concluded dynastic marriages.
The class division expressed the inequality between people; a special legal place was established for each group. In addition to feudal lords and dependents, the clergy, nobility, artisans, merchants, officials, and bankers were distinguished. For each class were defined their own rights and duties, non-compliance with which led to the deprivation of rights. Within each estate was also distinguished hierarchical system. A significant role was played by corporate ties – guilds, shops, communities. The community played a large role in the life of the state, performing various functions: administrative, fiscal, judicial, and economic.
Medieval towns did not fit into the system of feudal relations. For the most part, townspeople were guided in their political life by traditional antique democratic orders, ignoring feudal methods of power.
Law in medieval Europe
The legal system of the Middle Ages was characterized by:
- Norms that regulated land relations, as well as norms that guaranteed extra-economic coercion, occupied the main place;
- Feudal law to a large extent perpetuated the inequality of different estates;
- In feudal law, there was no division into branches of law; there was a division into church law, tenant law, municipal law, etc., which was determined by its class principle;
- Feudal law was greatly influenced by ecclesiastical norms, often modified into legal norms;
- There was no unified law in the whole territory of the state, the law based on local customs prevailed.
During the late Middle Ages in Europe the foundations of the future law and judiciary, which went back to late antique Roman law, were laid.
Feudal law was considerably inferior to slave-holding private law (in particular, Roman law) by its internal structure, degree of elaboration, and legal technique. In Western Europe, Roman law experienced its “second birth”, which was due to the following reasons: Roman law provided a solution in matters of legal expression of processes and relations in the developing commodity economy; in Roman law monarchs found legal norms explaining their claims to unlimited power. Roman law favored the overcoming of state borders, the formation of a single nucleus of European legal culture.