History is often viewed as a linear process of transition from one mode of production
and socio-economic system to the other.
The primitive community transitioned to slavery, which moved on to feudalism with the transformation
of slavery into serfdom, which gave way to capitalism as a more profitable mode of production.
But in practice, this process was more complicated involving transitionary forms and passing
through different stages at different points in history in different regions.
In this episode of Kings and Generals, we are going to talk about the reasons for the
decline of feudalism in Europe.
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What is feudalism?
Historian Maurice Dobb defines feudalism as a system “virtually identical with what
we usually mean by serfdom: an obligation laid on the producer by force and independently
of his own volition to fulfill certain economic demands of an overlord, whether these demands
take the form of services to be performed or of dues to be paid in money or in-kind”.
He describes the main features of feudalism as the use of primitive techniques and instruments
of production with the unsophisticated division of labour.
In feudalism, demesne-farming was the dominant type of labour carried out on lands owned
by a feudal lord and the vast majority of produce was used for the immediate needs of
the lord and his subjects.
These lords possessed almost total superiority over their serfs and could do almost anything
short of executing them.
One of the primary features of feudalism was political decentralization, as while a monarch
was a de facto sovereign of all feudal vassals in the country and exerted control over them
through lawmaking, taxation, and use for military purposes, feudals possessed almost unfettered
control over their lands and subjects.
Under feudalism, a monarch ruled over the state, which was divided into lands of various
sizes among hereditary feudals, who received lands and estates in accordance with their
services for the kingdom.
But around the 13th-14th centuries feudalism entered the period of decline in Western Europe
gradually giving way to capitalism.
Historian Henri Martin observed that “Feudalism concealed in its bosom the weapons with which
it would be itself one day smitten”, referring to the struggle of monarchs to establish more
control over the state and its feudal subjects through the support they had received from
an emerging class of townspeople capitalists, whose rise was possible due to growth of urban
centers, towns, and cities as a result of the expansion of trade.
These and other factors have caused the demise of feudalism and we will discuss them below.
Let’s start with the Crusades, which at first glance do not seem like something that
could have had a negative impact on feudalism.
The driving force of the Crusades were large feudal landowners, who would often use their
own money and resources to raise armies for this endeavour.
Surviving and returning feudals would often be so broke that they would accept peasants
buying lands and becoming essentially free from feudal control.
The same is true for towns, which used to be under feudal control and now were able
to purchase their freedom for their former lords.
These events led to an increasing portion of lands and a number of serfs setting themselves
free from feudal control.
Crusades also played a role in the import of new military technologies like gunpowder
from the East.
Gunpowder enabled the production of cannons and the cannons made feudal castles, one of
the key factors behind their autonomy, more susceptible to military actions.
In the pre-gunpowder era, it was extremely difficult and costly to capture castles and
feudal lords were confident in the impenetrability of their walls and hence their autonomy.
Now it was easier for kings to break feudal resistance and establish more solid control
over their lands, which made Western European states more centralized.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the Crusades also played a major role in the expansion
of trade in Western Europe.
Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, there was no major authority in Western
Europe to protect and maintain the road network.
Along with that, the Caliphate expanded to important trading regions like Gibraltar,
Alexandria, Sardinia, and Malta, hence the long-distance trade conducted by Western Europeans
gradually diminished and became localized.
One of the key tenets of feudalism was its self-sufficiency, as often all of the produce
from the feudal lands were used for mostly the feudal and a small portion of it for the
feudal subjects living and working on these lands.
There was a very small surplus left for major trade operations.
Crusades helped to expand the Western European reach to major cities like Constantinople
and Alexandria, along with gaining a temporary foothold in the Holy Land.
Moreover, Western Europeans regained control of important islands and trade outposts in
the Mediterranean.
This played an important role in the restoration of long-distance trade in Europe.
The Belgian historian Henri Pirenne argued that long-distance trade not only enabled
economic development and growth of civilizations, but was also a major driver of exchange of
ideas, exposure of civilizations and cultures amongst each other.
Lack of these led to ruralization of Europe, a decrease of the significance of cities,
less contact and exposure within Europe and between Europe and other civilizations.
Expansion of trade led to the accumulation of money by merchants and a gradual transition
from an exchange-based economy to a money-based economy.
The merchant class was made up of commoners and was the predecessor of bourgeoisie class,
which would in the upcoming centuries upend the European aristocracy.
The emergence of major cities was another important factor causing the crisis of feudalism.
We already talked about how dropping revenues forced feudal lords to give up control over
a large number of serfs, some of whom moved to cities for employment and new life.
While the exploitation of labour and the general hardship of course existed in cities as well,
urban centers were attractive to peasants for, at least, being safe from feudal arbitrariness
and oppression, along with providing them with certain rights and freedoms.
Towns and cities would often offer refuge to runaway serfs and peasant rebels, especially
during the 14th century, when peasant rebellions got widespread in Western Europe.
The emerging class of rich urban dwellers was also active in trying to attract peasants
to cities as cheap labor force and more soldiers to their militaries.
It is important not to over-exaggerate the significance of the impact of the growth of
cities on feudalism, since most of the peasant and serf migration was still within the countryside.
The growth of cities in Europe between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries was major,
but the overall urban population of Europe was no more than 10% in that period.
But the mere fact that now there was an alternative for peasants to leave for cities put additional
pressure on feudal landowners and feudalism.
The growth of cities and the increase of manor-city trade were also linked to the gradual transformation
within the manor system itself.
Feudal lords would assign bailiffs amongst their peasants to manage and oversee the cultivation,
storage, and disposal of the produce made on their lands.
Naturally, not all dealings between lords and bailiffs had been honest, as bailiffs
tended to keep some of the produce and money made from trading it for themselves.
Gradually bailiffs accumulated enough money to start renting parts of the lands owned
by their feudal lords.
They would employ peasants to work on rented lands in exchange for wages or produce, since
serfs were obliged to work only for their feudal lords.
This paved the way for the gradual emergence of capitalist relations in the countryside
and the class of capitalist farmers.
Such farmers would usually become better managers of lands, since they were driven by the motivation
to pay the rent and accumulate more profit by selling the surplus produce in town markets,
which enhanced trade between the countryside and cities further boosting the process of
decline of feudalism.
The decrease of population in Western Europe also played a major role in the demise of
feudalism.
In the mid 14th century the bubonic plague reached Europe and devastated the whole continent
over the next decades.
There are different estimates of the bubonic plague casualties in Europe ranging from 24
million to 70 million.
Some claim that 60% of the European population was wiped out during the pandemic.
Whole towns and communities would disappear.
It brought chaos and social disruption to European states.
Many serfs would run away from the countryside, hoping that the bubonic plague would not catch
them in the cities.
Trade, enterprise, economic relations - all collapsed and it had to be rebuilt again.
There were fewer people to employ due to a drastic decrease in population.
Therefore, enforcing serf labour was not as easy anymore, since serfs now had more leverage
and often used it to do wage labour instead.
This was a further blow to feudalism.
The Hundred Years’ War between England and France had a similar impact on feudalism.
This long-lasting conflict had major implications on military strategy, the organization of
armies, the emergence of national identities in Europe, and the increase of the role of
commoners against the nobility, which all had a negative influence on feudalism.
Longbows were used extensively during the war and proved to be an effective weapon against
mounted knights, one of the key components of feudal armies.
Cannons were also used during the Hundred Years’ War.
They would penetrate castle walls making feudals vulnerable to the power of the state, where
the role of the monarch was gradually growing.
France would be the first country since Roman times to use a standing army in 1445, making
the monarch less dependent on levies and mercenaries, which were the key components of the feudalism
era armies.
Standing armies would consist of commoners, which helped to boost their value in society
and decrease their feudal dependence.
Many losses suffered by them during the war would increase their value in peacetime as
labourers, making it less and less likely that they would work for free as serfs.
Moreover, the large-scale nature of the Hundreds Years’ War and participation of different
strata of English and French societies increased the sense of patriotism, national identity,
and loyalty to the state and the king, rather than the feudal lord, like it used to be.
This process led to the emergence of more centralized territorial states, where feudal
aristocracy was still prominent but was gradually losing its rights to absolutist monarchs.
Territorial states or nation-states paved the way for the further progression of the
urban-based bourgeoisie and capitalism in Western Europe.
While feudal aristocracy still enjoyed political influence well into the Modern Era, the economic
power was shifting to bourgeoisie and capitalists mirroring the process of transformation of
the mode of production in Western Europe from feudalism to capitalism.
Whereas the processes described above logically should have led to more rights for peasants
and commoners in Western Europe, as is usually the case in history, the change did not come
without popular movements and social unrest.
In the 14th century, Europe was a ground for numerous major peasant rebellions in England,
Flanders, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.
The 1381 peasant revolt in England is especially notable in that respect.
In the initial phase, the revolt was so successful that rebels advanced to London and forced
King Richard II to meet with the rebels and promise them to abolish serfdom.
The rebellion was eventually defeated and Richard II reneged on his promise, but it
definitely pushed the English landowners and nobility to think hard and long about necessary
changes, eventually leading to the disappearance of serfdom, the key pillar of feudalism, by
the 15th century and its substitution with wage labour.
The political struggle between monarchs and the nobility also played its part in the decline
of feudalism.
Particularly in England, the period of the 12th-13th centuries was a time of adoption
of laws expanding individual liberties, including for commoners.
In the 12th century, Henry II strengthened the role of royal courts as new laws stipulated
that an individual could not be jailed or executed for no legal reason, which in theory
weakened the position of feudal lords against their subjects.
In 1215, during the reign of his successor King John Magna Carta was adopted.
While in short term Magna Carta strengthened positions of the nobility, in the long run,
it contributed to ideas on individual rights in England, which was incompatible with a
key pillar of feudalism - serfdom.
It should be noted that some historians are less keen on Magna Carta as the reason feudalism
declined, and offer the devastation of the Wars of the Roses and the economic impoverishment
of the lower classes via enclosures as more important factors.
Essentially, most of the factors negatively impacting feudalism trace their roots to the
human factor.
Many of these factors caused and enabled the flight of serfs and peasants from the countryside.
Why were they so keen to leave their homes once the opportunity arose?
The answer according to historian Maurice Dobb is simple - over-exploitation.
The greed and desire for ever-increasing profit were so high for feudal landlords that peasants
were overworked and exhausted and as soon as better opportunities emerged on the horizon
they fled the countryside en masse causing the gradual decline of feudalism.
This is not to say that over-exploitation ended together with feudalism, as it in fact
turned into capitalist exploitation instead, but it was different in its nature and undoubtedly
progress for humankind, manifesting if not in better living and economic standards, then
at least, in terms of civil and political rights, which they utterly lacked in the feudal
era.
Over-exploitation was also a cause for peasant rebellions, dropping economic productivity
and gradual recognition that serf labour would have to be substituted by wage labour.
It is necessary to remember that the decline of feudalism and the emergence of capitalism
as the dominant mode of production was not a rapid process.
It took centuries and numerous crises for capitalism to upend feudalism.
In major Eastern European powers like Russia serfdom existed until the 19th century and
the economy was primarily feudal and agrarian for a very long time.
What is described in this video is the decline of feudalism in Western Europe, where the
process of decline of feudalism started and finished earlier.
But it still took a lot of time.
According to Dobb, there were three decisive moments in the process of transition from
feudalism to capitalism.
First, the crisis of feudalism in the 14th century.
Second, the beginning of capitalism in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Third, the victory of capitalism through the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries.
Based on Maurice Dobb’s theory, it took 5 long centuries for feudalism to give way
to capitalism.
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