Why is the political map of Western Europe so fragmented? Why did the centralized feudal unified state appear so late? This has to touch on some important features of the politics of the feudal society period in Western Europe.
A feudal system with a strict system
In the early days of feudal society in Western Europe, land was the main wealth. The king divided a part of the land among the great feudal lords, who became princes.
The princes also divided some of the land to smaller feudal lords, and the small feudal lords divided them downwards. The king and the great feudal lord each divided a group of knights as their own armed forces.
Such layers of feudalism formed dukes, marquises, counts, viscounts, barons, knights and other feudal lords of different ranks from large to small.
These feudal lords had fiefs of varying sizes, and had a varying number of manors, serfs, and armed forces. In this way, in every corner of society, a relationship of lords and vassals is formed, and they owe duty to each other.
The lord protects the vassals, who must swear allegiance to the lord and provide the lord with a variety of services,
Including: military assistance to the lord in the event of war; The lord received the reception according to the etiquette when he visited; The daughter of the lord gave gifts to congratulate her when she married.
However, the lord can only directly govern his own vassals, not the vassals of the vassals. Each feudal lord is tantamount to a small monarch, divided into one side and independent. The power of the princes was so great that some dared to challenge the king. The feudal nobles lived in heavily guarded castles,
Have their own arms; Their economic production units are called manors, which are generally self-sufficient and do not interact with the outside world.
As a result, the strict feudal hierarchy, the numerous castles surrounded by vast manors, and the spire churches that plunged straight into the sky became the typical political landscape and unique social landscape of the early feudal society in Western Europe.