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War and British Society c.790 to c.2010

The feudal system and feudal military service

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 2

Overview

William's claim to all the land, tenants-in-chief and knights' fees, a villein's obligations, Domesday Book, the new landowning class, peasant life after the Conquest, the Forest Laws, servitium debitum, homage, scutage, and the breakdowns under Stephen and John.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What did a tenant-in-chief owe the king for his lands?

Key term

What did a villein owe his lord, and how was that different from a knight’s obligation?

Key term

How completely had the landowning class changed by 1086?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What did William claim about the ownership of land in England, and what did he do with it?

    Model answer

    That all of it was his by right of conquest, and he granted most of it out to a few hundred followers who held it from him in return for service.

  2. 2

    What did a tenant-in-chief owe the king for his lands?

    Model answer

    A fixed number of trained, mounted knights for royal campaigns, together with money payments at set moments and the duty of attending the king’s council.

  3. 3

    How did a baron actually find the knights he had promised the king?

    Model answer

    He granted parcels of his own land, called knights’ fees, to knights who each swore to serve him in arms, usually for forty days a year.

  4. 4

    What did a villein owe his lord, and how was that different from a knight’s obligation?

    Model answer

    Several days’ unpaid labour a week on the lord’s demesne plus dues in kind, and unlike a knight he was unfree and could not leave the manor.

  5. 5

    What was the Domesday Book of 1086 for?

    Model answer

    It recorded who held every estate, what it was worth and what it had been worth in 1066, so the king knew his kingdom’s wealth and could settle disputes over who owned what.

  6. 6

    How completely had the landowning class changed by 1086?

    Model answer

    Almost every great estate was in Norman or other French hands, and only a handful of English lords of any importance were left.

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