Feudalism: A Brief Explanation

In this video, I try to bring order to the chaos that is feudalism and render it comprehensible.

[Gingy]

Thank you for another great video! However I think we can find the roots of Feudalism also in the ancient Germanic society. Tacitus in his text "Germania" mentions that the local tribal leaders used to surround themselves with a band of warriors which supported them both in battlefield but also in public. He calles them the "Comitatus". However these local warlords didn't inherit their position but were elected by a community of warriors. That "Comitatus" hierarchy functioned very similarly, but somewhat on a smaller scale, as the Vassalic system of the early medievals. It changed from a local warlord accompanied by a band of warriors, to a king accompanied by dukes and earls and so on.

[HavanaSyndrome]

If you're interested for future reference the term dux was pronounced Duke in Latin. In Latin the x is pronounced like a k so the spelling changed a little bit between the different languages but the pronunciation remained the same

[xximpactscks]

If you kept going towards the fall of feudalism and the rise of capitalism, you would’ve basically given me all the info to write my paper lol. Thanks for the video

[TheLoyalOfficer]

You need to emphasize how weak kings were in this system until about the 15th century.

[domingo]

Were should we start reading to delve more into the topic of feudalism?

[axelandersson]

During the 100 years war, the English needed 10 000 men to conquer France and the French could mobilise 10 000 men to repel that invasion.

When Julius Caesar was granted the governorship of Cis (some land in Northern Italy) and Trans (the southern coast of what would later be called France) Alpine Gaul, and Illyria (what would 2 millennia later become Yugoslavia), he was granted 3 legions, about 15 000 men. Shortly after that, he casually raised another 15 000 men from Cis Alpine Gaul alone.


These huge differences in the sizes of armies is often explained as “in feudalism, everything is smaller”. Because the manpower and tax income of a kingdom was be split among the nobles.

But how did this apply in the Byzantine Empire? They are always said to have followed the traditions of the Romans. But if they shared the government system of the Romans, being able to mobilise much more people from much smaller and less populated lands, how could the surrounding Iqta and Feudal states stand a chance against them when the Byzantines had some of the most developed land in europe?

[danielhutchinsonjr]

Hey apricate the great work @@@ thank you for your dedicated works o look forward to your videos

[JeniferPena-qn]

This helped me answer the topic of my question. Thanks for the help

[tacitdionysus]

So basically you replace their 'Nobles' with our 'Banks' and it was roughly the same as we have now.

[akritisharma]

Sir plz tell me... Feudalism flourished first in. britan or

[parthiancapitalist]

Any of you into worldbuilding? Feudalism gets boring when you put it into settings. How about after the early medieval era, feudalism eventually collapsed as the military became more powerful, and Kings took them over and pretty much turned it centralized. That would be cool

[FreedomstCenturi]

You like Star Trek, Dragon Ball Z, and wrestling. You're a total badass.

[polishherowitoldpilecki]

I’m curious how serfs fled to cities, did they bece wanted men. Could serfs also serve in the army

[HxHDRA]

Thanks so much the american education system really failed me on this one

[moseszero]

You talk about the other non-french/english were not really feudal but only give one example about land ownership being by the state in one place. I think the problem is not the word 'Feudalism' but the overly narrow interpretation of set rules of lord based land ownership and serfs being bound to the land. Just expand the definition to include all nobility/clergy based systems that work on a hierarchal system of loyalty. That would cover most of the medieval period of europe since they all seemed to operate was through shifting political alliances of convenience (IE the way all the kingdoms of Holy Roman Empire acted.)

[marvintpandroid]

Nobody owes anything to anyone by accident of our births or the station in life that gives us.

[MegaTang]

Wait, Nobels actively fought against innovations?! I thought the backwardness of that era was a bug, not a feature

[eliegbert]

Nice! Good job, maybe try to say um less

[akatsukami]

The _causes_ of feudalism were completely neglected.

[michaelodonnell]

In the medieval era, the vast majority of bishops were appointed by the local lords. On a practical level, Rome was too far away and communication too slow for a strongly centralized model of the Church!