The Three Orders Class 11 Notes History Chapter 4 - CBSE

Chapter : 4

What Are The Three Orders ?

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The Church had a great influence on life in medieval Europe. They collected the tithe, which was the tax they collected from the farmers.
The Church was an important institution. The Pope, head of the Catholic Church, lived in Rome and Bishops were members of the clergy.
The word "feudalism" comes from the German word "Fehde", which means "a piece of land". Feudalism was a social divide that began in medieval France and spread to England and southern Italy.
Some formal feudal rituals were incorporated into church rituals. There were Christians preferred to live in
monasteries for their solitude. (“Abbot” comes from the Syriac word abba, meaning father. An abbot or abbess
ruled a monastery.)
It was like an agricultural production partnership between landowners and farmers. Aristocrats who completely controlled the territory occupied a special position in society. They established a military force known as feudal conscription. The vassal system united the King of France with his subjects. The king was given the title Seigneur, which means monarch. The mansion was the residence of the nobility.
Knights possessed cavalry and infantry and protected the feudal chiefs in return of lands and other financial resources. In order to earn wages, free farmers worked to plough the fields of their lords. They paid the king a direct tax called taille.
Medieval Europe had two kinds of peasants: peasants and serfs.
In France, from the 12th century onwards, large buildings called cathedrals were built. These were the property of the monastery. The population around cathedrals increased and they became pilgrimage sites. A small community grew around them.
Stones were used in the construction of cathedrals. The windows of the cathedral had stained glass which became radiant for the people inside the cathedral in the sun during the day and became visible to passers at night due to the light of candles. Biblical stories were told through graphics in stained glass windows.
Two well-known Abbeys were, those founded by Saint Benedict in Italy in 529 and of Cluny in Burgundy in 910.
The Guild Hall became a prominent building of every town where the heads of the guilds used to visit regularly
for discussing several aspects related to the trade.
By the end of the thirteenth century, there was severe winter in Europe which reduced the duration of the agricultural season. Apart from this, oceanic floods and storms also brought large scale destruction.
There was significant shortage of metal money as there was severe shortage of the output of silver mines in the Austria and Serbia. This led to the mixing of other metals in the currency.
Black Death was a bubonic plague that got spread in Europe during the 1347 to 1350. It was caused by rats and led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people.
There was rise in the wages of the labour as there was shortage of people. The agricultural production got reduced which led to the drop in its prices as well.
The new monarchs got stronger in Europe which enhanced their military and financial power. They also organised a permanent bureaucracy for administrative purposes.
The dissolution of the feudal system and slowing down of the economic growth due to the bubonic plague which led to the rise of the power of monarchs in Europe.
The bubonic plague during the 1347 to 1350 led to the reduction of the population of Europe from 73 million in 1300 to 45 million in 1400.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, European rulers increased their military and economic supremacy. The new
monarchs like Louis XI in France, Maximilian in Austria, Henry VII in England and Isabelle and Ferdinand in
Spain were absolutist rulers who began the process of organising standing armies.
In the 16th century, the decline of feudalism laid the groundwork for the establishment of nation-states in Europe.