After the Roman Empire in the west had fallen—that is, after it had been quite perforated by the incursions of Germanic warlords, it was often hard for ordinary peasant farmers to secure sufficient peace to till their lands. As late as the eleventh century, if they lived on an estuary in Kent near a place called Maldon, they had to band to fight Viking marauders who had come calling for their tribute in exchange for not having lands burned and possessions rifled. At the famous Battle of Maldon, a nobleman named Byrhtnoth organized the locals into a citizen militia. Farm boys who had spent their lives with spades, picks, and shovels had to be trained to slash the sword and hurl the spear and stand their ground against the foe.
They lost that battle, of course. A peasant isn’t much use against a Viking. The more typical recourse of the small farmer or herdsman or artisan was to enter one protection scheme as a shelter against another protection scheme. You gave up most of your freedom of movement in exchange for military protection provided by the local strong man, the lord of the manor, who could afford to keep an attachment of armed cavalrymen, and who could call upon a string of subordinate lords, his vassals, to provide counsel and military assistance in times of trouble.
You weren’t a chattel slave; you did have certain rights, and of course both you and the lord were subject to the authority of the Church. But the very word serf (Latin servus, servant or slave) suggested a humble life, strictly subject to the justice administered by the lord. You were a sharecropper, tied to the land, and your children and their children would be sharecroppers too. Your choice was between servility and destitution, just as, when the Vikings came ready with fire and sword, your choice was between coughing up your goods and rooting about in the ashes of what used to be your fields.
It’s not clear that Europeans in the early Middle Ages, from about 500 to 1000, could have managed a whole lot better than they did. Feudalism provided order in the midst of disintegration. But what can we say for people who once lived free, who possess material wealth and comfort that kings of old never knew, and yet who have allowed themselves to be inveigled into a new feudalism, a new protection racket? (more...)
No comments:
Post a Comment