feudalism

feudalism. At its broadest this term is used by historians to describe the social, economic, and political structure of north‐west Europe in the Middle Ages. More narrowly it serves to define the nature of relations between and within the upper strata of society. It is associated with certain institutions, ceremonies, and attitudes to the ownership and use of property. These include the act of homage and fealty; the holding of fiefs or fees—usually in the form of land—in return for military service; knighthood and chivalry; the use of stone castles for military and domestic purposes; reciprocal obligations of protection and service between superiors and inferiors; and hereditary succession to fiefs by eldest sons.

While these features had earlier origins they became more formalized in north‐west Europe in the 12th century, an era of economic expansion, population growth, intellectual advance, and more frequent recourse to written documents as legal proof of property transfer. Twelfth‐century Ireland shared in many of these developments. Claimants to the high kingship engaged in military operations which lasted longer, ranged further, involved greater numbers, and depended upon more sophisticated planning than had been the case before. They built castles, employed administrators, issued charters, and granted land in return for homage and military service. The principle of hereditary succession to property by the eldest son of the holder, however, had not been established by the time the English arrived.

In England itself, by the time of the conquest of Ireland, customs concerning the holding and transfer of property, and the rights and obligations which went along with it, were being scrutinized and standardized in law tracts such as Glanvill and political documents such as Magna Carta. The assumption that a man who held a fief in return for military service would turn up personally to fight for his lord had been modified long before Strongbow arrived in Ireland: money payment, known as scutage, was accepted in place of personal military service. The associated idea that a knight's fee or fief should be of a certain size and value had also taken root. These developments were transferred across the Irish Sea in the years after 1170. The size of knight' fees in Ireland, for instance, was not standardized, but they tended to be larger in frontier areas of the lordship than in more densely colonized regions. As regards scutage, this was collected in Ireland from an early stage of the conquest and continued to be taken into the 15th century, even though it provided only a small percentage of the money needed to mount a military campaign.

Some variations of the English pattern were visible in Ireland. From the outset church lands were not expected to provide knights, while types of tenure which did not involve military service, but instead depended upon money payment, were also more common in Ireland. Nevertheless, personal military service remained important. The link between tenure and military service finally ended in England in the early 14th century, but in Ireland knight service continued to be required into the 15th century, and military tenancies were still being created at an equally late date.

Medieval Ireland was an arena of frequent and small‐scale warfare. The flexibility of the system of linked tenure and military service brought in by the English made it possible for the settlers to defend themselves either by personal service or by the payment of money which was used to employ mercenaries, many of whom were Irish. This tenurial system was also the basis of the developing English or common law code, in both England and Ireland. The native Irish had from the outset been almost entirely excluded from the type of tenurial relationship used by the settlers, and this in consequence led to their exclusion from the legal system of the lordship, which had an established set of procedures by the middle of the 13th century.

‘Feudalism’ in the context of medieval Ireland is perhaps best thought of as a legal approach to property relations between lord and man, introduced by the English, which served to divide the settlers from the Irish and give the former a stronger sense of their separate identity.

Bibliography

O Corráin, D. , Ireland before the Normans (1972)
Otway‐Ruthven, A. J. , ‘Knight Service in Ireland’, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 89 (1959)
Reynolds, S. , Fiefs and Vassals (1994)

Brendan Smith