The later Middle Ages from the 9th to the 13th century saw the Feudal Ages, the rise of the Knights, and the coming of the Crusades. Its main features included the period of feudalism and chivalry, when power went to the landlord an to the mighty.
FEUDALISM: A Unique Socio-Economic System
Feudalism was the political and military system of Western Europe during the Middle Ages. As there was no strong central government, feudalism arose to fulfill the basic need for justice and protection.
After Charlemagne's death, there was a leadership void and many nobles and rich people grabbed power. Through kings were still in control of many lands in Europe, the nobles, in fact, held more power. This was because the people of Europe then sought the protection of the nobles.
The nobles were also needed by the kings for their was efforts. In return for serving the king with their military skills, the nobles were granted lands, called fiefs, that they could manage. In return, the nobles paid homage to the king, a kind of vow to serve their king. The nobles who were granted lands were called vassals, who gave part of the land to lesser vassals as they could not administer a large territory. The vassals had the power to hold land, administer justice, and impose taxes within their territories.
The lesser nobles who had their smaller fiefs also had authority within their territories, and also collected taxes and exacted loyalty. Usually, serfs and artisans lived in the noble's fief. Feifs became selfsufficient economies where people produce their own food. To protect their territories from intruders, the vassals got the services of knights - especially trained warriors adept in battle skills and obeying a particular code of honor.
Chivalry and Knighthood
Knights pledged to observe a certain code of gallantry and knighthood. While the codes vary depending on the territories, it usually involves the knights' observance of some or all of the following virtues: piety, honor, valor, courtesy, chasity, and loyalty. This custom of knighthood had its roots in the earlier customs of the German tribes and developed in the feudalistic communities of Francd and Spain, before spreading to other parts of Europe.
A knight is considered as a gallant and able warrior who is skilled in fighting and in using weapons, such as a lanc or a sword. He is expected to fight it off with other knights, or with other warriors, even to the last breath, in order to defend his honor or the honor of his vassal or king, But no matter how fierce a knight is in battle, he is still expected to be courteous to a lady, and never to unduly harm anyone, specially women, children, and the elderly.
Knights became formidable with the development of horse-mounted cavalry. Before the development of this method of warfare, they were just foot-clad soldiers who fought on the ground. A warrior mounted on a horse has a tremendous positional advantage. He can view a large area and can strike with a very potent blow to a foot-clad opponent. A knight on a horse is not only an imposing warrior, but a very destructive one.
Stages in Becoming a Knight
A knight is usually the son of a noble who is trained for knighthood from childhood. At age seven, the child becomes a page, trained early in the basics of weaponry. At fifteen, the page becomes a squire, who is given to the charge and care of a certain knight for training, knowledge, and experience. The squire imbues whatever the values and virtues his knight-lord has, and learns and follows his code of honor. The lord-knight usually gives the squire different tests and various tasks for him to learn better and faster. When the squire has passed all the requirements and has acquired all the qualities of a knight, then he is prepared for knighthood.
A squire can become a knight beginning at age 21. Before the ceremony for knighthood comes, the squire has to hold a vigil or nightwatch in a chapel to meditate on his coming new duties and responsibilities. At the ceremony, the lord-knight or the king himself will raise a sword and tap the squire on the shoulder with it as he kneels before him. The squire is now officially a knight.
The knight is usually covered by an armor made of metal and tough skin. He also usually wears a metal helmet to protect the head. They are adept in the use of lances and swords. While knights usually fight in war, they always need to be ready against bandits and other knights. In their spare time, knights engage in the tournaments or jousts, a kind of fighting in horses using lances to push the opponent hard, where the knight who falls off his horse loses.
The Role of the Church in Feudalism
The Roman Catholic Church played an important role in the continued existence of feudalism as a system. Fiefs were usally enclosed in castles, and every castle had a chapel where a priest or a monk stayed. The chapel served as a kind of asylum for all those who were being cruelly punished or mistreated by their lords or by knights. The priest also served as a conduit of information about supposed abuses of vassals which may then be relayed to the king.
The knights of a certain territory may have values or a code of honor that conforms those of the religious orders where the priest of their fief belongs. They also protect the priest from harm and defend his chapel.
The Crusades: The Religious Wars
Another series or events which colored the later Middle Ages was the Crusades, a number of wars launched by the Roman Catholic Church against non-Catholics and heretics, which was sanctioned by popes. There were different causes for these crusades, but this main motivations were 1) the permanent control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land; 2) the protection of the Byzantine Empire from the Muslims; 3) religious zeal and the need to defend the faith; 4) the desire for land and loot by the individual crusaders; and 5) the trading ambitions of many businessmen at that time.
The knights played a major role in the crusades in that they were the very first warriors to be sent to these wars. The church's influence was very strong, particularly the support of the papacy, which was the top leadership of the church, and with their efforts influenced the knights and other Christian warriors to do battle for their own reasons and purposes.
The notable crusades which happened in history are the following:
The First Crusade (1096 - 1099)
This happened when Caliph Hakim a Muslim leader, destroyed a Christian sanctuary in Jerusalem in 1010. When the Seljuk Turks took Jerusalem, Christian pilgrimage became even more difficult. This prompted Pope Urban II to appeal for the protection of the pilgrims in 1905, after which the first crusades were launched with the knights participating in Europe. Part of the first wave of crusades were armies headed by Walter the Penniless and Peter the Hermit, who were untrained and undiscipline. These armies stole from the towns they passed by, hence they were killed by the people themselves, and later perished in battle.
Godfrey of Bouillon and Bohemand of Taranto were more successful in the next wave of crusades, as they headed groups of Knights Hospitallets and Knights Templars. Joined by Byzantine forces, they defeated the Muslims in 1097 in Nicaea, a part of modern Turkey. As they moved on, they fought many battles, experienced death, diseases, and starvation along the way but eventually captured the Holy Land after more than a month of fighting. However, many of the Crusaders eventually went home, and after some time, the Christian forces in the Holy Land became weaker.
The Second Crusade (1147 - 1149)
As the Christian grip on the Holy Land became weaker, the estates they occupied became threatened. In 1144, the County of Edessa was conquered by the Turks, causing fear to the other Christian counties. The second crusade was launched, with King Louis VII of France and King Conrad III of Germany leading their armies made the Second Crusade a failure, with Muslim forces defeating them even before they had reached their destination.
The Third Crusade (1189 - 1192)
The Muslims continued attacking Christian fronts, and from 1183 - 1187, Saladin, the famous sultan of Syria, had conquered almost all of the Holy Land. This began the Third Crusade, which counted among its leaders the German Emperor Frederick I, who drowned on the way to battle; and King Richard (the Lion-hearted) of England and King Philip II of France, whose quarrels left their crusade without able leaders. As they failed to recapture Jerusalem, they just negotiated with Saladin to have Christian pilgrims enter Jerusalem freely.
The Fourth Crusade (1202 - 1204)
As the third crusade was a failure, another attempt was made to recapture Jerusalem. This started the Fourth Crusade. However, the crusaders, composed mostly of French nobles, became involved in different affairs.
First, the crusaders attacked Egypt to divide the Muslim power, but only a limited number arrived in Venice, who were then implored upon by the Venetians to attack Zara, another city. They also helped the Greek prince Alexius to reclaim the Byzantine throne for his father, Isaac. Because of all these, they were not able to meet their objective of reclaiming the Holy Land.
The Children's Crusade (1212)
This was a special but a tragic event during this period in history, as several thousands of children from 10 to 18 years old were allowed to go on a crusade. Most of them were convinced that they could recapture Jerusalem because God would help them as they were children. No victory happened. Instead, most of them died through starvation, freezing in cold ocean water, drowned in storms, or sold into slavery.
Other Crusades
Other crusades include the Fifth Crusade (1217 - 1221) when Andrew of Hungary led Christians against Muslims in Egypt. They captured the town of Damettia but were eventually repulsed; the Sixth Crusade (1228), which was more of a peace talk than a crusade, as Emperor Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire regained Jerusalem using diplomacy. Frederick negotiated a peace treaty with the Muslim sultan, who gave Jerusalem to the Christians, which remained with them unt 1244, when Muslims recaptured it again; the Seventh Crusade (1248 - 1254) and Eight Crusades (1270) which were headed by King Louis IX of France to get back Jerusalem. These crusades, however, were disorganized and suffered from many plagues, and Louis himself died on the way to Egypt.
What followed were weak attempts to organize crusades to defend Acre, the last Christian territory in Palestine, and to defend against the Ottoman Turks. All of these attempts failed. As the European Christians looked to other territories such as the Americas and the Atlantic, they left the Holy Land to the Muslims, effectively ending the crusades.