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Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, c1060–88

The feudal system and the Church

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 2 booklet B

Overview

The Norman feudal hierarchy, tenants-in-chief, homage, knight service and subinfeudation, labour service, forfeiture, why feudalism suited a conqueror, the Church's power, Stigand's deposition, Lanfranc and his reforms, Church courts, Normanisation, peasant life, the decline of slavery, what carried on unchanged and the replacement of the landowning class.

What you need to know

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Key term

What was labour service?

Key term

What was forfeiture, and why did it hold the whole system together?

Who and when

Who was Stigand, and why was he a problem for William?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Who stood at each level of the Norman feudal hierarchy?

    Model answer

    The king at the top, then his tenants-in-chief, then knights and lesser lords, and at the bottom the peasants who worked the land.

  2. 2

    What did it mean to be a tenant-in-chief?

    Model answer

    To hold land directly from the king, usually as a baron or bishop, in return for supplying him with an agreed number of knights.

  3. 3

    What was homage?

    Model answer

    A ceremony in which a man knelt, placed his hands between his lord’s and swore to be his man, receiving land from him in return.

  4. 4

    What was knight service?

    Model answer

    The duty to serve the king in arms for about forty days a year, or to provide the quota of knights owed for the land held.

  5. 5

    How did a tenant-in-chief usually find the knights he owed?

    Model answer

    By subinfeudation, granting parts of his own land to knights who then owed service and homage to him.

  6. 6

    What was labour service?

    Model answer

    The work villeins owed on their lord’s own land, such as ploughing and harvesting, for a fixed number of days each week.

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