The Middle Age

 

Starting to the 8th until the 15th century, France had a feudal organization. Means that the country was split in different self-sufficient estates (fief), control by different lord, who could be kings, ecclesiastical, baron or any kind of noble.

These different lord should provide military protection to their peasants and, in return, the peasants should cultivate the land, do services or pay taxes to the lord.

 

In this system, the peasants were classified into two different classes ; the free and the unfree.

The unfree was known as the villain or the serf.

The villains were attached to the fief and performed a servile work to the lord. They were considerate as the property of the lord. In this type of society, the villain could be almost compared as slave. The only distinguish is that the villain are a group of people attached to the land and this status is hereditary.

 

This organization start to decline after the Black Death in 1349 because a lot of people dies, so they were less villains and the lords should accepted them some liberties to keep their services.

Then the feudal system continue to decline in the 15th century with the generalization of the kingdom and the arrival of one king to govern all the kingdom.

 

The feudal system continue to live in a new form ; one lord (the king of France) and the population (the clergy, the nobles and the third estate). This changing operate until the French revolution.