Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

2. Medieval Feudalism, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold A. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section II: Medieval, Political and Economic Development: Feudalism and Manorialism

Feudalism was the natural response to the greatest political need of the Dark Ages: security. Since there was no central government capable of providing this security, men fell back on their own resources, making local arrangements. Already, in the last chaotic centuries of imperial rule, Roman magnates had supported, and had been supported by, groups of clients. Among the Germanic tribes beyond the imperial frontiers, a roughly similar system of armed personal retainers had existed. From these precedents and from sheer necessity, feudalism was created in the Carolingian state in the ninth and tenth centuries. Thence it was transplanted in …