Feudalism

by François-Louis Ganshof

"Professor Ganshof's book answers the prayer of every teacher and student of medieval history for a lucid, concise and authoritative exposition of feudal institutions. Its author is one of the leading authorities in western Europe on Feudalism and its translator a leading English expert on the early Middle Ages. Professor Ganshof avoided the task, attempted by Marc Bloch, of describing the whole society of the Feudal period and confined himself to those institutionalized relationships of lord and man, prevalent in western Europe from the ninth to the thirteenth century, which are commonly included in the narrower definition of Feudalism. the result is a summary of current doctrine which could scarecly be bettered . . . is quite the best on its subject that money can buy." --George Holmes, The Cambridge Review

[From the back cover]

Genres: History, Medieval, Nonfiction, Medieval History, Politics

170 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

François-Louis Ganshof, Belgian medievalist who specialised in the study of the Franks under the Carolingian monarchy.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

Best contrasted with Bloch's Feudal Society which offer's a broad definition of Feudalism, Ganshof developed a narrow definition of Feudalism that is focused on the a type of legal relationship between people living between the Rhine and the Seine in and around the tenth century. Very detailed and very specific, it's a good starting point towards understanding the workings of Feudal states. The slight problem is that Ganshof is right and Bloch is also right. The joy and the problem of Bloch's definition is that includes medieval Europe, Japan and the Middle East among others as having Feudal Societies - broadly similar ways of extracting value from agriculture and power over the countryside, if one wants to talk about what was weird, specific and peculiar to Europe then one needs Ganshof, the issue with him is that it is not just particular to a place but also a time, his book deals with a period of about one century and one can already spot the system straining and changing in places and not conforming to Ganshof's vision, his book almost invites a series of categories Feudalism I through to Feudalism VII (b) (wales) to deal with the development and varieties in time and space of European Feudalism. ie Theoretically at the centre of Feudalism was the grant of the fief by a Lord to a military man in return for service auxilliam et consiliam and dependant on his ability to perform such service, but one can see how this can easily get complicated. What happens when you can no longer perform your duties either due to age or fitness, if you owe service to more than one Lord and both are at war with each other, is the Fief heritable, can a widow hold a fief for an infant? So one rapidly moves from theoretical Feudalism I to Feudalism II: rise of the Lawyers and so on to the infinite joy of all scholars.

My old edition is decorated with line drawings from manuscripts of knights, homage and castles, while not strictly necessary is a counterweight to the austerity of the subject.

[Hobart Mariner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tightly focused and circumscribed legal history of the various forms of feudalism. As stated in the intro, it has no intention to give an expansive account of feudal society in Europe or other feudalisms in Japan, Turkey, etc. Instead it is entirely focused on how one form of contract evolved, as well as all the related terminology. Ganshof provides a lot of interesting and lengthy quotations translated out of Latin of the formulas by which one man became the vassal of another. I enjoyed seeing how much of the oath of fealty consisted in promising not to murder, un-limb, kidnap, etc. the lord. The differences between the evolution in France, Germany, and England are prominently discussed; less attention given to Italy or Iberia. The inability of the lords to check the spreading influence of their vassals, as well as the (by the 13th century) growing ability of the bourgeois to purchase fiefs, leads to the end of the legal institution in its most recognizable form. Enjoyable and short, but dry.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know there has been a lot of controversy over the idea and history of feudalism and that many might consider this dated. But it is still an excellent overview of the legal side of the concept--Ganshof limits his discussion to the higher levels of society (you don't see serfs here). He makes sure to define all the terms and to explain the use of alternate terms for the same ideas.

I found it interesting to imagine the audience the publisher foresaw. It is an inexpensive paperback. All of the Latin quotations are translated (there are many). There is no index. But, on the other hand, there are many footnotes citing foreign-language books and the modern-language passages are not translated even though they are probably archaic versions (French, etc.). I did find the lack of an index annoying, especially because of all the specialized language--if I couldn't remember his definition of a term, I had to skim through the book looking for the first mention of it. Thankfully, he italicizes the words which did make it easier to scan for them.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a quick, accessible, and intelligent introduction to feudalism this is a good place to go. Ganshof's book is probably a little bit more circumscribed than most books on feudalism, as he only examines the legal/political relationship between lords and their vassals - no serfs or wider social implications here. But that's okay: you can't cover the whole of medieval feudalism in 150 pages, and what Ganshof does address he does so very clearly. It's the perfect place to go if you want clear definitions on the types of feudal tenure and a quick overview of how the institution developed from the Merovingians to Carolingians and then to it's 'classical' phase in the high middle ages.

[Pedro · Rating 4 out of 5]

um grande livro, é raro ver uma escrita tão interessante que custa acabar

[Michael Stephenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A foundational text for many, and I really enjoyed the easy flow. However, the dependence on contractual law between rulers, particularly in Lotharingia, seemed vaguely lacking and a bit confusing. Some thing required elaborate ceremonies and written contracts between God, ruler, and subservient, but others seemed sort of informal and off the cuff. In the short text, the author didn’t seem to economize his topics well, maybe even to his own liking, but overall the text read time as tight and well planned.

[Mir]

Note: this book represents a break from the Pirenne tradition of medieval history.

Characteristics of feudalism:
-extreme development of personal dependence in society
-specialized military class as elite
-extreme subdivision of property rights

This originates in Merovingian Loire and Rhine areas, and is most characteristic in France, German, and Burgundy.

Feuds were often between relatives over division of land.

[Matthew Dambro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Narrow interpretation of the feudal relationship in Western Europe from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. Standard textbook treatment but solid research.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

brief, clear, classical, inspiring

[Elia Princess of Starfall · Rating 3 out of 5]

We all know about the archaic and old-fashioned concept of medieval feudalism, am I right?

With its wealthy and controlling monarchs, belligerent and deceitful nobles and its many, many overworked, underpaid and desperately poor peasants?
With its unbreakable code of obligation and servitude on behalf of the vassal; of protection and defence on behalf of the lord ?
Where land, rank and titles were the be all and end all of medieval life and were how one climbed up the social ladder?

Lets begin!

Feudalism dominated the Middle Ages from around 800 to 1300 and was the social and economic structure that knitted together the various factions of medieval life be they monarch, priest, merchant, noble or peasant. Land was of fundamental importance to the Middle Ages; through it an individual could gain wealth, security, power, political influence and the ability to raise armed forces. Feudalism, at its most basic level, concerned the holding of land and the obligations that one undertook to defend and maintain it. Land is power and power is everything especially in the violent and ruthless Middle Ages.

At the top of the feudal pyramid sits the king and it is he owns all the land. However, in return for oaths of homage and military assistance, the king rewards his loyal followers with grants of land and titles. However, the king is still the true owner of the land or fief; the nobleman to whom he gave it to is now a tenant-in-chief. If he were to rebel the king would declare him a traitor, seize his land and give it to a better nobleman. The nobleman, now tenant-in-chief, would further subdivide his land and bequeath it too his knights and followers, insuring their loyalty to him. On and on it would go until the peasantry themselves received small parcels of land from however was above them in rank.

This book goes into detail about the legal intricacies of the feudal order, while describing in detail how feudalism arose out of the chaos of the Carolingian Empire and permeated the social, political and economical structure of Europe. The author gives lengthy and intense monologues about fiefs and vassals, oaths of homage and military assistance, the hereditary titles that came and went with certain fiefs and how feudalism operated on different and contrasting scales in opposing countries.

The writing is dry and rather lifeless and the endless legal ramifications of feudalism would, I suspect, drive most individuals mad with boredom and despair. This is heavy going stuff but the author knows what he is talking about and if you can wade through the drab, dull writing style and understand the various ins-and-outs of the feudal order then you may find this interesting.

MAY.

[no · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quaint, outdated, dry. Athletic research and unadorned prose diagramming a coherent economic system where it doesn't appear there was one. For every rule, an exception. For every technical term, synonym and nontechnical usage. Law is always arbitrary. The medieval era is so broad that even within the narrow geographic and temporal confines of Ganshof's query, he winds up with descriptions of various hierarchical property relations—tendencies over rules, feudalistic rather than feudalism. Ganshof knows and even admits this. He's trying something. Best taken with Susan Reynolds and skepticism.

Takeaway:
"Inside each of these countries, the rules in which feudal relationships were embodied were largely a matter of regional or local custom. Despite the infinite variations which these entailed, however, it is possible to determine the general principles which regulated the relationship of vassal to lord and the custom of fiefs: we can disentangle the essential traits of the ius militare, the feudal law, the Lehnrecht of these various countries. It is even possible to go further; while recognizing the existence of these national varieties of feudal law, we can isolate those elements which were common to the whole of western Europe."

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great, informative book, it was just so dry!

Read this if you want to learn about the origins of feudalism in 7th century France/Germany, the etymology of terms associated with feudalism, or the technicalities that arise from the form of government. Just don't expect this to be super engaging....

[Ryan Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[he chow · Rating 4 out of 5]

前半部分確實好看，後半部分水了。
有虎頭蛇尾之嫌。如果將封土繼承制不是拆散，而是專列一章節做研究會更有意思。
另外一點，就是知曉了比較視野下民族國家與民族國家的進化分歧，卻是最近學術界一個比較好的研究框架。

[Thomas Roche · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic to understand the feudalism as a political system in middle age Europe.