The Feudal System is that system by which land (known as a, fief) is held by a vassal on condition of fidelity, that is, in consideration of services to be rendered to his superior or feudal lord. The nature of the feudal system is to be explained by its origin amongst the Germanic tribes.
In the earliest times the relation of superior and vassal did not exist in connection with the ownership of land. Each freeman had his share of the tribe lands, which were held simply on condition of his fulfilling his public duties of attendance at the councils of the mark or township and performing his share of military service in the wars or musters decreed at such councils. The noble had, of course, more land and more influence than the simple freeman, but there need be no tie of vassalage between them. This seems to have been the primitive social organization of the Anglo-Saxons and other German tribes. The lands held by all freemen, whether noble or ordinary freemen, under this system, are said to be allodial, as distinguished from feudal lands, which imply service to a superior lord.
By the close of the 10th century, however, this system had undergone considerable modifications. The masses of Teutonic invaders who overran Gaul and England had necessarily to confer exceptional powers on their leaders; and as they were for long very much in the position of military in an enemy's country, these powers were naturally continued. Thus it was that kings, before unknown to the Anglo-Saxons, make their appearance immediately after their descent upon Britain. It was common for a chief or great man to have a retinue or body-guard composed of valiant youths, who were furnished by the chief with arms and provisions, and who in return devoted themselves to his service. These companions (Anglo-Saxon, Gesithas; German, Gesellen) originally received no pay except their arms, horses, and provisions, and the portion of the spoils which remained after the chieftain had taken his own share. But when conquered lands came to be apportioned and large districts fell into the hands of kings or dukes and their subordinates, they gave certain portions of the territory to their attendants to enjoy for life. These estates were called beneficia or fiefs, because they were only lent to their possessors, to revert after their death to the grantor, who immediately gave them to another of his servants on the same terms.
As the son commonly esteemed it his duty, or was forced by necessity, to devote his arm to the lord in whose service his father had lived, he also received his father's fief; or rather, he was invested with it anew. By the usage of centuries this custom became a right and the fief became hereditary. A fief rendered vacant by the death of the holder was at once taken possession of by his son, on the sole condition of paying homage to the feudal superior. Thus a feudal nobility and a feudal system arose and for a time existed alongside of the old allodial system. But gradually the greater security to be got by putting one's self under the protection of some powerful ruler or leader gave the feudal system the predominance. The free proprietor of landed property, oppressed by powerful neighbours, sought refuge in submitting to some more powerful nobleman, to whom he surrendered his land, receiving it back as a vassal.
Even the inferior nobility found it to be to their advantage to have themselves recognized as feudatories of the nearest duke or earl; and as the royal power steadily advanced, the offices of duke, ealdorman, gerefa, etc., were always bestowed by the king. Thus the crown became the source of all authority and possession in the country. The land which had once been 'folcland,' or the land of the people, became the land of the king, from whom all titles to it were held to be derived. Such at least was the development of feudalism in England, where its centralizing tendencies, especially in the matter of holding land from the crown, were strongly reinforced by the circumstances of the conquest under William The Conqueror. Under him and his immediate successors there was a struggle between royalty and the nobility, which ended in the power of the latter sinking before that of the kings.
On the other hand, in Germany, France, and elsewhere on the Continent, the disintegrating tendencies of feudalism as a system of government had full play. In these countries the weakening of the kingly authority encouraged the great feudal dukes and counts to set up in an almost absolute independence, which in France was afterwards gradually lost as the monarchy grew stronger, but in Germany continued to divide the land down almost to modern times into a number of petty principalities.
Among the chief agencies that overthrew the feudal system were the rise of cities, the change in modes of warfare, and the spread of knowledge and civilization. The spirit of the feudal system, grounded on the prevalence of landed property, was necessarily foreign to cities which owed their origin to industry and personal property, and founded thereon a new sort of power. The growth of this new class, with its wealth and industrial importance, has contributed more than anything else to a social and political development before which the old feudal relations of society have almost totally disappeared. Even yet, however, the laws relating to land still bear the stamp of feudalism in various countries. Research Feudal
A Frith Gild was a Saxon voluntary association of neighbours for purposes of order and self-defence. They repressed theft, traced stolen cattle and indemnified parties robbed from a common fund raised by subscription of the members. Research Frith Gild
Habit and Repute, in Scotch law, was an expression applied to denote something so notorious that it was taken without further proof to be true. Thus, marriage could be established by habit and repute, where the parties cohabited and were recognized by the neighbours as man and wife. Also if a person was by habit and repute a thief, that is, a notorious thief, the punishment inflicted was heavier. Research Habit and Repute
Home and Away is an Australian television soap-opera, first aired in 1988, chronicles the lives, and loves of the residents of fictional 'Summer Bay', a small coastal town set in New South Wales. Home and Away was very obviously inspired by the earlier Australian soap-opera 'Neighbours' and has very similar characters, story lines and similarly appeals particularly to teenagers. Research Home And Away
A nation is a body of people, organised into a single state. One of the most characteristic of the ideas of the Age of the Renaissance was that of the Nation and its sovereign independence - an idea still very active in our own days. The Middle Ages had been dominated by the Catholic ideal of world unity. The great institutions of those ages were international - for example, the Feudal System, and above all the Church and the Papacy. Latin, too, was an international language; and though the various peoples had their own languages, the continual use of Latin in both Church and State affairs helped educated men to regard themselves as members of one society, the society of Christendom. Above all, these peoples - English, French, Spanish, Italian, German - were all members of one Church. All belonged in some measure to the Christendom of which the heads were the Pope and the Emperor. Then, gradually, from the early days of the Renaissance, the newer idea of the 'Nation' took root, and this in time changed the unity of 'Christendom' into the disunion of 'Europe'.
Modern Europe is dominated by national feeling and is divided into independent national states; and these have no longer even the common bond of one Church. Europe has lost as well as gained by the disappearance of medieval Christendom. She has gained, because the old feudal divisions in most countries meant internal disunion, civil warfare, and baronial tyranny. But Europe has also lost, because the old ideal of a united Christendom has disappeared in the jealous rivalries of warring nations. From time to time attempts have been made to check these dangerous rivalries. But the problem of international peace and co-operation - of a 'society of nations' - is one which mankind is still trying to solve in a satisfactory manner. The nations which took the lead in Europe in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries were those that first achieved national unity, and the chief of these were France, Spain, and England. Italy, which had given so much to the world in art and letters, did not share in this political change. Great men lived in Italy - in Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, and Milan - but all these cities were the capitals of small states. In short, Italy was not a nation; hence she became from 1494 the prey of powerful neighbours. As with Italy, so with Germany.
The Holy Roman Empire was an empire only in name; in practice, Germany contained three or four hundred separate States. Both Germany and Italy retained, until even the nineteenth century, their internal divisions and discords. France, Spain, and England had achieved national unity in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, whereas Germany and Italy had to wait another three centuries - and some of our problems to-day are due to the fact that they are still comparatively new nations. The means by which national unity was brought about in France, Spain, and England was the monarchy. It was their kings who saved and made these countries - saved them from feudal anarchy and made them into nations. It was monarchs like Henry VII and Henry VIII of England, Louis XI and Francis I of France, and Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain who united their countries under a strong rule, and led them to a great destiny. A Holy Roman Emperor (Maximilian) contrasted the new monarchs with himself as follows: 'The Emperor is indeed a king of kings, for no one feels bound to obey him; and the King of Spain is a king of men, for, though resisted, he is still obeyed; but the King of France is a king of beasts, for him none dare gainsay.' Research Nation
Neighbours is an Australian television soap-opera created by Reg Watson, chronicling the lives of the residents of Ramsay Street in the fictional Australian suburb of Erinsborough. Neighbours was first aired in 1985 and appeals particularly to teenagers. Research Neighbours
The lesser horseshoe-bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) greatly resembles the Greater Horsehoe-bat but is smaller, with a wing span of about 22 cm. pointed and have a well-developed antitragus very similar to that of the greater horseshoe-bat on a smaller scale, but there are small differences from that species in the details of the form of the nose-leaf. The colour is a rather greyer brown without the yellowish or pinkish shade, and the fur is proportionately longer, silkier and less velvety. The underside tends to be lighter in colour and the fur extends on to the base of the wing membranes. As in the larger species there is a barepatch at the base of the tail on the upper surface. The upper incisors, and the first upper, and the first two lower premolars are very minute. The range extends from Ireland to the Himalayas and north Africa and includes all Europe south of the Baltic. In the British Isles it is common in the south and west from Kent to Cornwall, though scarcer in Sussex and Hampshire.
The lesser horshoe-bat is found throughout Wales and the border counties but not in east Anglia or north of Yorkshire. In Ireland it is confined to the west. The lesser horseshoe-bat is gregarious, the summer colonies occurring in house and church roofs and perhaps in hollow trees. The winter colonies are nearly always in caves, but the species is not then closely gregarious, individuals usually hanging up at some distance from their neighbours. They do not always hang in the roof of the cave and often choose the undersides of projecting points or boulders where they are only a few inches from the ground. The summer colonies show a segregation of the sexes and usually consist mainly of adult females, some immature bats of both sexes, and a few adult males.
The flight is rather fluttering with frequent glides, and usually fairly near to the ground. The food consists of the smaller insects; moths appear to form a large part of the diet. The single young is born in June or July, the breeding season being rather protracted. Hibernation lasts from early October to the beginning of April, but it is frequently interrupted, the bats shifting their quarters within the hibernating cave and perhaps feeding upon the gnats which are usually found in them; but they are not known to come out into the open in the winter. Wherever caves are used by the greater horseshoe-bat for hibernation this species is found too; but because its range in Britain is much wider, it is also found in many caves outside the range of that species. Research Lesser Horseshoe-Bat
Ali Bey was a ruler of Egypt. He was born in 1728 in the Caucasus and died in 1773. He was taken to Cairo and sold as a slave, but having entered the force of the Mamelukes, and attained the first dignity among them, he succeeded in making himself virtual governor of Egypt. He now refused the customary tribute to the Porte, and coined money in his own name. In 1769 he took advantage of a war in which the Porte was then engaged with Russia, to endeavour to add Syria and Palestine to his Egyptian dominion, and in this he had almost succeeded, when the defection of his own adopted son Mohammed Bey drove him from Egypt. Joining his ally Sheikh Daher in Syria, he still pursued his plans of conquest with remarkable success, until in 1773 he was induced to make the attempt to recover Egypt with insufficient means. In a battle near Cairo his army was completely defeated and he himself taken prisoner, dying a few days afterwards either of his wounds or by poison.
*Ali Pasha
Ali Pasha was an Albanian chief. He was born in 1741 and died in 1822. A bold and able, but ferocious and unscrupulous Albanian, he was the son of an Albanian chief, who was deprived of his territories by rapacious neighbours. Ali by his enterprise and success, and by his entire want of scruple, got possession of more than his father had lost, and made himself master of a large part of Albania, including Yanma, which the Porte sanctioned his holding, with the title of pasha. He now as a ruler displayed excellent qualities, putting an end to brigandage and anarchy, making roads, and encouraging commerce. He still farther extended his sway by subduing the brave Suliotes of Epirus, whom he conquered in 1803, after a three years' war. He had long been aiming at independent sovereignty, and had intrigued alternately with England, France, and Russia. Latterly he was almost independent of the Porte, which at length determined to put an end to his power; and in 1820 Sultan Mahmoud pronounced his deposition. Ali resisted several pashas who were sent to carry out this decision, only surrendering at last in 1822, on receiving assurances that his life and property should be granted him. Faith was not kept with him, however; he was killed, and his head was cut off and conveyed to Constantinople, while his treasures were seized by the Porte. Research Ali Bey
Charles XII (also known as Alexander of the North) was king of Sweden. He was born in 1682 at Stockholm and died in 1718. He was the sole surviving son of Charles XI, whom he succeeded in 1697, when he was but fifteen years old, he was declared of age by the estates. To his jealous neighbours this seemed a favourable time to humble the pride of Sweden. Frederick IV of Denmark, Augustus I. of Poland, and the Czar Peter I of Russia concluded an alliance which resulted in war against Sweden. With the aid of an English and Dutch squadron the Danes were soon made to sign peace, but Augustus of Saxony and Poland, and the czar were still in the field. Rapidly transporting 20,000 men to Livonia, Charles XII stormed the czar's camp at Nerva, slaying 30,000 Russians and dispersing the rest on the 30th of November 1700. Crossing the Dwina he then attacked the Saxons and gained a decisive victory. Following up this advantage he won the battle of Clissau, drove Augustus from Poland, had the crown of that country conferred on Stanislaus Leczinsky, and dictated the conditions of peace at Altranstadt in Saxony in 1706.
In September, 1707, the Swedes left Saxony, Charles XII taking the shortest route to Moscow. At Smolensk he altered his plan, deviated to the Ukraine to gain the help of the Cossacks, and weakened his army very seriously by difficult marches through a district extremely cold and ill supplied with provisions. In this condition Peter marched upon him with 70,000 men, and defeated him completely at Pultawa. Charles XII fled with a small guard and found refuge and an honourable reception at Bender, in the Turkish territory. Here he managed to persuade the Porte to declare war against Russia. The armies met on the banks of the Pruth on July the 1st 1711 and Peter seemed nearly ruined, when his wife, Catharine, succeeded in bribing the grand vizier, and procured a peace in which the interests of Charles XII were neglected.
The attempts of Charles XII to rekindle a war were vain, and after having spent some years at Bender he was forced by the Turkish government to leave. Arriving in his own country in 1714, he set about the measures necessary to defend the kingdom, and the fortunes of Sweden were beginning to assume a favourable aspect when he was slain by a cannon-ball as he was besieging Frederikshall on November the 30th, 1718. Firmness, valour, and love of justice were the great features in the character of Charles XII, but were disfigured by an obstinate rashness. After his deathSweden sank from the rank of a leading power. Research Charles XII
Frederika Bremer was a Swedish novelist. She was born in 1802 near Abo in Finland and died in 1865. She early visited Paris, and at subsequent periods of her life, up to 1861, she travelled in America, England, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, Greece, and Palestine. She also resided for some time in Norway. She wrote an account of her travels; but her fame chiefly rests on her novels, which were translated into German and French, and into English by Mary Howitt. Among the chief of these are Neighbours, The President's Daughters, Nina, and Strife and Peace. Research Frederika Bremer
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Abbreviations
Research Feudal
