feudal systems
Lords over serfs
Feudal systems are social and political structures based on land ownership and obligations between lords and vassals.
A lord grants land to a vassal in exchange for loyalty and service, typically military.
The term extends to any rigid hierarchy where power flows from controlling resources: The company operates like a feudal system, with executives as lords and workers as serfs.
Often used critically to describe arrangements seen as exploitative or outdated.
- manorialOf a lord's estate
- lord of the manorFeudal estate holder
- manor houseLanded gentry's residence
- knightHonored mounted soldier
- lordshipNoble rank or domain
vassal · oath of loyalty · serfdom · fief · peasantry · suzerainty · chain of command · chattel · knight-service · demesne · tithe · landed gentry · divine right · fealty · villeinage · aristocracy · noble blood · bondage
- social classesupper class, middle class, lower class, working class, nobles
- Medieval Institutionsabbeys, abbey, convents, convent, priories
- Viking DenmarkViking Age, Viking era, longships, runestones, Jutland
- Medieval RomaniaMoldavia, Transylvania, boyar, boyars, principalities
- Pictish ScotlandPicts, serpent, boar, carved stones, matrilineal
feudal systemsdemocracy
Rule by the people
democratic governance · republicanism · constitutional government · representative government · popular sovereignty
feudal systemscapitalism
Private profit-based economy
free market economy · market economy · industrial capitalism · free enterprise · mixed economy
feudal systemsegalitarianism
Philosophy of universal equality
classless society · social equality · meritocracy · open society · social mobility
feudal, feudalism, fiefdom, feudalistic, feudal system, feudally