Feudalism Timeline

The adjective 'feudal' was in use by at least 1406, marking an early stage in the terminology later used to describe the medieval system of lords, vassals, and fiefs.

The term 'féodal' was first used in 17th-century French legal treatises (1614) and translated into English legal treatises as an adjective, such as 'feodal government'.

In the 18th century, writers of the Enlightenment wrote about feudalism to denigrate the antiquated system of the Ancien Régime, or French monarchy. When the French Constituent Assembly abolished the 'feudal regime' in August 1789, this is what was meant.

Image source: Age of Enlightenment

The phrase 'feudal system' appeared in 1736 in Baronia Anglica, published nine years after the death of its author Thomas Madox in 1727.

Henri de Boulainvilliers's Histoire des anciens Parlements de France (1737), published in English in 1739, helped establish the widely held concept of a feudal state or period dominated by lords possessing financial or social power and prestige.

Image source: Henri de Boulainvilliers

Montesquieu's De L'Esprit des Lois (1748), published in English as The Spirit of Law, contributed to the widespread acceptance in the mid-18th century of the concept of a feudal state or period dominated by powerful lords.

Image source: The Spirit of Law

In 1771, in his book The History of Manchester, John Whitaker first introduced the word 'feudalism' and the notion of the feudal pyramid.

In the 18th century, Adam Smith, seeking to describe economic systems, effectively coined the forms 'feudal government' and 'feudal system' in his book The Wealth of Nations (1776).

Image source: Adam Smith

Karl Marx used the term in the 19th century in his analysis of society's economic and political development, describing feudalism (or more usually feudal society or the feudal mode of production) as the order coming before capitalism.

Image source: Karl Marx

One theory about the origin of fehu was proposed by Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern in 1870, being supported by, amongst others, William Stubbs and Marc Bloch.

Heinrich Brunner, in his The Equestrian Service and the Beginnings of the Feudal System (1887), maintained that Charles Martel laid the foundation for feudalism during the 8th century.

Image source: Heinrich Brunner

Marc Bloch, arguably the most influential 20th-century medieval historian, approached feudalism sociologically rather than legally, presenting in Feudal Society (1939; English 1961) a feudal order not limited solely to the nobility but encompassing nobility, clergy, and peasantry bound by manorialism.

Image source: Marc Bloch

François Louis Ganshof articulated the classic narrow definition of feudalism in Qu'est-ce que la féodalité? ('What is feudalism?', 1944), describing a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations among the warrior nobility revolving around lords, vassals, and fiefs.

In a published version of his 1952 doctoral thesis, Georges Duby excavated the complex social and economic relationships among individuals and institutions of the Mâconnais region using sources from Cluny, Mâcon, and Dijon, charting a profound shift in medieval social structures around the year 1000.

Most of the military aspects of feudalism effectively ended by about 1500, as changes in warfare and state formation rendered the old obligations of mounted warrior nobility obsolete.

Historian Georges Lefebvre explained how at an early stage of the French Revolution, on just one night of 4 August 1789, France abolished the long-lasting remnants of the feudal order.

Image source: Abolition of feudalism in France

In the Kingdom of France, following the French Revolution, feudalism was abolished with a decree of 11 August 1789 by the Constituent Assembly, a provision later extended to various parts of the Italian kingdom following invasion by French troops.

Image source: Kingdom of France

The majority of peasants refused to pay the obligations imposed upon them, and in 1793 the obligation was cancelled outright.

Image source: French Revolution

In Piedmont feudalism ceased by virtue of the edicts of 7 March and 19 July 1797 issued by Charles Emmanuel IV, although on the island of Sardinia feudalism persisted much longer.

Image source: Charles Emmanuel IV

In the Kingdom of Naples, Joachim Murat abolished feudalism with the law of 2 August 1806, then implemented with a law of 1 September 1806 and a royal decree of 3 December 1808.

Image source: Joachim Murat

In the Kingdom of Sicily, the abolishing law was issued by the Sicilian Parliament on 10 August 1812, ending feudal institutions on the island.

Image source: Kingdom of Sicily

Although Piedmont had abolished feudalism in 1797, in the Kingdom of Sardinia, specifically on the island of Sardinia, feudalism was abolished only with an edict of 5 August 1848.

Image source: Kingdom of Sardinia

Slavery in Romania was abolished in 1856, part of the broader dismantling of bonded labor systems in Eastern Europe during the 19th century.

Image source: Slavery in Romania

Russia finally abolished serfdom in 1861, freeing millions of peasants who had been bound to the land under a manorial-style system resembling Western European feudalism.

Image source: Emancipation reform of 1861

In the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, feudalism was abolished with the law of 5 December 1861 n.º 342, whereby all feudal bonds were abolished.

Image source: Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia

On 28 November 2004, the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 entered into full force, putting an end to what was left of the Scottish feudal system.

Image source: Baronage of Scotland

The last feudal regime, that of the island of Sark, was abolished in December 2008, when the first democratic elections were held for the election of a local parliament and the appointment of a government.

Image source: Sark

In 1939, the Austrian historian Theodor Mayer subordinated the feudal state as secondary to his concept of a Personenverbandsstaat (personal interdependency state), understanding it in contrast to the territorial state.

In 1974, the American historian Elizabeth A. Brown published 'The Tyranny of a Construct', challenging the usefulness of feudalism as a concept for understanding medieval society and sparking ongoing inconclusive debate among medieval historians.

Image source: Elizabeth A. R. Brown

In Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted (1994), Susan Reynolds expanded upon Brown's original thesis, further fueling inconclusive discussion among medieval historians about whether feudalism is a useful construct for understanding medieval society.

Karl Friday notes that in the 21st century historians of Japan rarely invoke feudalism; instead of looking at similarities, specialists attempting comparative analysis concentrate on fundamental differences between Japanese institutions and European feudal models.