he was bound to perform military service for his chief by his oath of commendation.
Then a new invasion occurred. The followers of Mohammad—the Saracens or Moors—conquered all of Northern Africa and spread over into Europe by the way of Spain. A strong and warlike people, determined upon conquest and fanatical for their religion, they threatened the life of Christendom. Charles Martel, the Frankish king, gathered the warriors of the German tribes at Tours and drive the Moors backward in defeat. But his campaigns were fearfully costly to the tribesmen, who fought without pay and furnished the horses to mount the newly formed cavalry, which was organized to meet the Saracens in their own style of fighting. To relieve the distress among the warriors, Martel seized the lands of the Church and divided them among those who were most impoverished and, for the first time, combined the oath of commendation to himself as king, with a grant of land by the custom of precarium. This was the real beginning of the Feudal System.
Then followed the plagues—the "black death" devastating immense sections of the country—and social chaos prevailed. Out of this fearful condition, the strong and forceful finally struggled to the head of affairs and exercised a semblance of control. The former territorial officials of the kings took possession of the soil and all the obligations which men had formerly owed to the tribe or nation were changed into private obligations owed to persons and services were rendered as a form of rent FOR THE USE OF LAND. The Feudal System was in force.
FEUDALISM
LAND was the basis of the Feudal System and those of the people who were most impoverished were bound to it—they were Serfs. Production on the great estates was carried on entirely by hand labor. Each one gave a portion of his time to service and production for the overlord—the balance of the time he labored for himself.
