The Three Orders
❇️ Three classes :-
The French society in Europe was mainly divided into three classes, which are as follows:-
🔸 Clergy class :-
🔹 Guidance of Christian Society.
🔹 Sermon in church.
🔹 Monk:- Observance of certain rules.
🔹 Living in religious communities.
🔹 Residence in monasteries away from common man.
🔸 Elite:-
🔹 Military capability.
🔹 Permanent control over their property.
🔹 Right to set up court.
🔹 Circulation of its currency
🔹 Knight: - The rise of this class due to the need of the cavalry.
🔸 Farmer class :-
🔹 It is of two types :-
🔸 Independent farmers: - referred to as the Lord's tenants to their land.
🔸 Agricultural slaves or surf: - Working on plots Lord.
❇️️ Sources of information about European history :-
🔹Details of landowners, values and legal litigation documents such as records of births, deaths and marriages found in the church. Church records made sense of festivals and community activities through commercial organizations and songs and stories.
❇️️ Feudalism :-
🔹 The word feudalism is derived from the German word Feud. Fud means piece of land.
🔹 Feudalism refers to a type of agricultural production based on the relationship between the feudal lords and the peasants. The peasants provided labor service to the lord and in return they gave him military protection.
🔹 The French scholar Marc Block, who was the first to work on feudalism, emphasized the importance of geography on the creation of human history, so that the behavior and attitude of the people could be understood.
" First Class – Clergy Class "
❇️️ Guidance of Christian society by priests and bishops :-
🔹These were members of the first class who preached in the church, highly religious individuals who lived in religious communities outside the church called monks. These monks lived in monasteries and followed certain rules.
🔹They had lands given by the king, from which they could collect taxes. Most of the villages had their own churches where they would gather every Sunday to hear the sermons of the pastor and offer congregational prayers.
❇️️ Characteristics of pastors and bishops :-
🔹 They had lands given by the king, from which they could collect taxes.
🔹On Sundays, these people used to give sermons in the village and offer congregational prayers.
🔹 They were included in the first class of French society, they were privileged.
🔹 Tithe salt used to collect religious taxes also.
🔹 Men who became priests could not marry.
🔹In the field of religion, the bishops were considered aristocrats and they also had elaborate jagirs like lords.
❇️️ Monks and Monasteries :-
🔹Apart from the church, there was another type of organization of some special devout Christians. Those who lived in monasteries and led a secluded life. This monastery used to be far away from the general population of man.
❇️️ Names of the two most famous monasteries :-
🔹 529 set in Italy St. Benedict Monastery.
🔹 9l0 established in Burgundy Cluny monastery.
❇️ Features of monks :-
🔹 They lived in monasteries.
🔹 They had to follow certain and special rules.
🔹 They lived far away from the general population.
🔹 The monk took a vow to live in the abbey all his life and devote time to physical labor such as prayer, study and agriculture.
🔹 Clergy - unlike work, the life of a monk could be adopted by both men and women - such men were called monks and women were called nuns.
🔹 There were separate obes for men and women. Like the clergy, monks and nuns could not marry.
🔹 He used to roam from one place to another, preaching to the people and earning his living by charity.
❇️️ Contribution of monasteries in French society :-
🔹As the number of monasteries grew into the hundreds, they became a community consisting of large buildings and estates as well as schools or colleges and hospitals.
🔹 These communities contributed to the development of the arts.
🔹 Abes Hildegard was a gifted musician who contributed significantly to the development of the practice of community singing in church prayers.
🔹 From the thirteenth century some groups of monks called fryers decided not to live in monasteries.
" Second Class – Elite Class "
❇️️ Elite :-
🔹 The aristocracy played an important role in the social process of Europe. This was because of their control over such an important resource land. This was due to the development of a practice called Vassalage.
🔹 The large landowners and the aristocracy were subordinate to the king while the cultivators were subordinate to the landowners. The aristocracy considered the king as their master and they were committed to each other.
❇️️ Senor / Lord :-
🔹 Senor/Lord (Lord derived from a word meaning bread giver) used to protect the slave (Vassal) and in return he was loyal to him. In these relations, elaborate rituals and oaths were performed.
❇️️ Elite Features :-
🔹The aristocracy had a special status. He had complete control over his property permanently.
🔹 He could increase his military capacity, he had his own feudal army.
🔹 They could have their own court.
🔹 They could even circulate their own currency.
🔹 0He was the owner of all the people settled on his land.
" Third Class – Farmer Class "
❇️️ Farmer class :-
🔹There was a class of free and hostages (slaves). This class was a large group which supported the first two classes, the clergy and the aristocracy.
❇️ There were two types of tenants :-
(i) Independent farmers
(ii) Serf (Krishi Das)
❇️️ Role of independent farmers :-
🔹 The independent farmers saw their land as the tenants of the lord.
🔹 The contribution of men to military service was required (at least forty days in a year).
🔹 The families of the cultivators had to set aside three or more days a week to work on the lord's estates. The output from this labor, which was called 'labour-rent', went directly to the lord.
🔹 Apart from this, they were also expected to do other labor such as digging pits, collecting wood for burning, building fences and repairing roads and buildings and for these they did not get any wages.
🔹 Apart from helping in the fields, women and children also had to do other work. They spun yarn, weaved cloth, made candles, and made wine by extracting juice from grapes for the use of the Lord.
❇️️ Taille :-
🔹 The direct tax levied by the king on the farmers was called Taille.
❇️️ Labor surplus :-
🔹 The families of the cultivators had to set aside three or more days a week to work on the lord's estates. The output from this labor, which was called 'labour-surplus', went directly to the lord.
❇️️ Agricultural servant :-
🔹 Those farmers who could work only under the ownership of lord were called agricultural slaves.
❇️ Changes in various technology in Europe till the eleventh century :-
🔹 Use of heavy iron plow and molded plank in place of wooden plow.
🔹 Gambling on the shoulder instead of the animal's neck.
🔹 Now use of iron rod on horse's hooves.
🔹 Use of wind and water power for agriculture.
🔹 The use of air and water power in compressors and mills also.
🔹Use of three farm system instead of two farm system. Rapid increase in agricultural production.
🔹 Double the availability of food.
🔹 Better opportunities to the farmers.
🔹 Small size of holdings.
🔹 With this, agricultural work should be done with more efficiency and less labor is required.
🔹 Time to farmers for other activities.
❇️ The crisis of the fourteenth century :-
🔸 Due to slowing down of economic expansion to Europe at the beginning of the fourteenth century :-
🔹 By the end of the thirteenth century high summer season in Northern Europe took a cool summer.
🔹The cropping season is short, storms and ocean floods destroy farm establishments. Reduction in income from taxes to the government.
🔹 Weakening of land due to three field crop rotations of earlier intensive tillage.
🔹 Decrease in the number of animals due to lack of pastures.
🔹 Due to population growth, available resources are decreasing.
🔹 Terrible famine in Europe in 1315 – 1317, 1320 AD. death of many animals. Decrease in the production of silver mines of Austria and Serbia.
🔹 Metal - currency shortages affecting trade.
🔹With the ships came rats, which brought the infection of epidemics like bubonic plague. Millions of people are affected.
🔹The economic downturn accompanied by destruction led to social displacement. The number of laborers decreased, due to which the rate of wages increased by up to 250 percent.
️❇️ Political Change :-
🔹 Rise of new powerful states – The process of establishing an organized standing army, a permanent bureaucracy and a national tax system begins.
️❇️ The new governance system is different from the old system :-
🔹 The ruler was no longer at the top of the pyramid where royal devotion rested on trust and mutual dependence. He was now the focal point of the wider court society and patron-follower system.
