A Medieval Pyramid
The ancient Egyptians built their pyramids long before there were castles and knights in Europe. But the European lords must of liked the pyramid design because they copied it, not in architecture, but for their society.
Medieval societal structure was like a pyramid with the lower class creating the large base while slowly moving higher with more “royal” and less people occupying higher slots. In almost all cases, your position in the pyramid depended on your birth status and nothing more.
At the bottom rung, were the serfs and peasants. Almost 90% of the population of Medieval Europe were serfs. Serfs were just the regular people of their day who lived in the villages and worked the land of the feudum. In many ways, serfs were slaves. They could not leave the land of their birth without permission and gave up much of what was produced to their lord. Unlike slaves, however, they could not be bought, sold, or traded.
Serfs helds various jobs in a feudum - from working the fields, harvesting the resources of the land or working to make sure the buildings of the land were kept in repair, their lot in life was a hard one.
One small step up from serfs were freemen and craftsman. While the great many serfs had no education or special skills, some showed promise and had an aptitude for woodworking or as a blacksmith. Some were free by royal decree. These enjoyed a better status in life although they worked just as hard to survive.
The next layer of the pyramid were knights and soldiers. While common soldiers weren’t held in much better regard than many serfs, they had better quarters and were better clothed and fed. The best of the best might become a knight. Only the most exceptional soldier had even a remote chance to move up and out of the ranks of the peasantry. A soldier could be knighted by a monarch or their liege and could even become a landholder - as a vassal to the king.
The next level up were the Nobles, or Lords, who ruled the king’s estates. Even ruling class members had a social strata depending on the circumstances of their birth and how powerful the family was. Nobles ranged from low-class (maybe even just titular, landless) nobles actually providing military service for their title and rank, to high-class nobles like the big landlords, holding several feudums and their own vassals, to the peers of the king - who could rival or exceeded their monarch in military or political power. Each lord provided management over individual fiefs, or feudums, in exchange for their loyalty and military and tax support.
In the 4X MMO-Strategy game Feudums, this is the level where players will start.....
Read the rest of this article at www.feudums.com. See you there!
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