Government
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France had a feudal system of government; the royal power was largely decentralised. In rural areas, feudal lords handled matters such as defense and the maintenance of law and order. This was the result of the chaos that followed the Germanic and Viking invasions. The feudal hierarchy started with Kings at the top. The next step down were the Liege lords, Dukes, and other nobles with titles who were given manors and dioceses(fiefs) to control within the King's Domain. Below them were the vassals, or lesser lords who controlled smaller pieces of land on the Leige lord's manor. Below the knights were serfs. Serfs were peasants who were indebted to the vassals, and in order to pay off their debt, they had to work the land and give half of their crops to their vassal. A serf was bound to their land, meaning that they could not travel without permission. A serf's debt could be sold from one manor to another. If the lord of the manor died, then the serfs would continue to pay their debt to the new lord. In urban areas, popular agitation led to the setting up of autonomous "communes" that served as units of self-government.
Read more about this topic: France In The Middle Ages
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“Nations do not think, they only feel. They get their feelings at second hand through their temperaments, not their brains. A nation can be brought—by force of circumstances, not argument—to reconcile itself to any kind of government or religion that can be devised; in time it will fit itself to the required conditions; later it will prefer them and will fiercely fight for them.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“What happens in a strike happens not to one person alone.... It is a crisis with meaning and potency for all and prophetic of a future. The elements in crisis are the same, there is a fermentation that is identical. The elements are these: a body of men, women and children, hungry; an organization of feudal employers out to break the back of unionization; and the government Labor Board sent to “negotiate” between this hunger and this greed.”
—Meridel Le Sueur (b. 1900)
“I am concerned about the whole man. I am concerned about what the people, using their government as an instrument and a tool, can do toward building the whole man, which will mean a better society and a better world.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)