A compulsory payment that the lower estates had to make to the higher estates. This could be collected in the form of cash, kind, or services.
Feudalism is derived from the German word ‘Feud’ which means a piece of land.
The term ‘feudalism’ has been used by historians to describe the social, political, economic, and legal relationships that existed in Europe in the medieval era.
It refers to the kind of society that developed in medieval France, and later in England and in southern Italy.
The peasants performed labour services for the lords, who in exchange provided military protection. The peasants cultivated their own land as well as that of the lord.
Feudalism emerged as a way of life, in the eleventh century, in large parts of Europe.