The Three Orders
‘FEUDALISM’
The three orders are three social
categories: christian priests, landowning
nobles and peasants.The term ‘feudalism’ has
been used by historians to describe the
economic, legal, political and social
relationships that existed in europe in the
medieval era.
The Three order
The Three order
THE THREE
ORDER
First Order Second Order Third Order
The Clergy Nobles Peasants
• The Catholic Church • Vassals of the king • Free peasants and
• Europe guided by bishops and clerics. • They enjoyed a privileged status serfs
• Pope lived in Rome • Absolute control over property • Serfs cultivated plots
• Women could not be become priests • Could raise troops of land, but these
• Monks – The church and Society • Even coin his own money belonged to the lord.
FIRST ORDER - THE CLERGY
• Church was a powerful institution. The Pope, the head of the
Catholic Church, lived in Rome. Bishops were religious
nobility.
• The church played a major role in influencing the Medieval
European society.
• They collected the tithe, a tax from the peasants.
• Church ceremonies copied several formal feudal customs.
• Some Christians chose to live in isolation in abbeys. (‘Abbey’
is derived from the Syriac abba, meaning father. An abbey
was governed by an abbot or an abbess)
SECOND ORDER NOBILITY
• The word ‘Feudalism’ is derived from the German word
‘feud’ which means ‘a piece of land’. Feudalism was a
division of society that initially developed in medieval
France, then in England and southern Italy.
• It was a kind of agricultural production relationship
between lords and peasants.
• The nobility had a privileged role in the social process
with absolute control over his land. They raised troops
that were called ‘Feudal Levies’. The King of France was
linked to his people through the system of ‘vassalage’.
The King was accepted as Seigneur, i.e. lord. The
nobility lived in manor houses.
THIRD ORDER THE PEASANTRY
• Peasants and Serfs were two kinds of cultivators in medieval Europe.
• Free peasants laboured for cultivating the lord’s fields to provide labour rent. They paid a direct tax,
called taille, to the king. European monarchs were called New Monarchs.
Factors affecting Social and Economic Relations.
The Environment
Land use
New Agricultural Technology
Urbanisation
Cathedral – Towns:
From the twelfth century, large
churches – called cathedrals – were
being built in France. These
belonged to the monasteries.
Cathedrals were built of stone. The
area around the cathedrals became
more populated and they became
centres of pilgrimage. Small towns
developed around them. Stained
glass was used for windows of the
Cathedrals.
The Crisis of the Fourteenth Century:
In Europe economic expansion slowed down. This was due to three factors:
• In Northern Europe, by the end of the thirteenth century the warm summers of the previous 300 years
had given way to bitterly cold summers. Seasons for growing crops were reduced by a month.
• Trade was hit by a severe shortage of metal money because of a shortfall in the output of silver mines in
Austria and Serbia. This forced government to reduce the silver content of the currency and to mix it with
cheaper metals.
• Ships carrying goods from distant countries had started arriving in European ports. The ships came with
rats carrying deadly bubonic plague infection (the Black Death).
Political Changes:
• In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, European kings strengthened their military and financial power.
The new monarchs, Louis XI in France, Maximilian in Austria, Henry VII in England and Isabelle and
Ferdinand in Spain were absolutist rulers, who started the process of organising standing armies.
• Decline of feudalism and lordship in the sixteenth century paved the way for the rise of nation-state in
Europe.
Louis XI in France Maximilian in Austria , Henry VII in England Isabelle and Ferdinand in Spain
Rise of ‘Fourth Order’ – New Towns and Townspeople
• Expansion in agriculture was accompanied by growth in
three related areas: population, trade and towns.
• The towns of the Roman Empire had become deserted
and ruined after its fall. But from the eleventh century, as
agriculture increased and became able to sustain higher
levels of population, towns began to grow again
• Towns offered the prospect of paid work and freedom from
the lord’s control, for young people from peasant families.
• The bigger towns had populations of about 30,000. They
could be said to have formed a ‘fourth’ order.
