Introduction

As the Middle Ages came to be recognized as a distinct historical period, scholars in the 15th and 16th centuries began characterizing it as progressing through stages from youthful vigor (12th and 13th centuries) to maturity and then declining into old age (14th and 15th centuries). 

• Significant events in the 14th century: 1315 famine, the Black Death in 1348, the financial collapse of Italian banking houses, and the heightened costs and devastating impact of larger-scale warfare.
• Historians, influenced by the belief that the Renaissance emerged after the collapse of medieval civilization, often viewed these disasters as dramatic indicators of the end of an era.

By the early fourteenth century, Europe’s economic expansion slowed down due to the following factors:

Social Unrest

Shift Towards Labor Services: The income of lords suffered during this period due to declining agricultural prices and rising labor wages. In response, some lords attempted to revert to labor services instead of money contracts.

• Peasant Uprisings: Peasants, especially the more educated and prosperous ones, vehemently opposed the lords’ attempts to revive labor services. 
  • This resistance led to significant peasant rebellions in 1323 CE in Flanders, 1358 CE in France, and 1381 CE in England.
  • These rebellions, despite being harshly suppressed, reflected the peasants’ efforts to protect the economic gains they had made during the period of economic expansion. They resisted returning to the old feudal system.
• Peasant Resistance and the Irreversible Shift: While the revolts were crushed, the intensity of peasant opposition prevented the complete reimposition of feudal privileges from earlier times. 
  • The money-based economy had progressed too far to be reversed. 
  • As a result, feudal relations could not return to their former state.

Political Changes

New Monarch: In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, European monarchs known as “the new monarchs,” including Louis XI in France, Maximilian in Austria, Henry VII in England, and Isabelle and Ferdinand in Spain, strengthened their power. 

• Centralization of Power: The dissolution of the feudal system and slow economic growth in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries created opportunities for kings to increase their control over their subjects. 
  • They replaced feudal levies with professional armies, often using firearms, and increased taxation to support larger armies, defending and expanding their territories. 
  • They organized standing armies, established a permanent bureaucracy, implemented national taxation, expanded their frontiers and overcame internal resistance to royal authority
• Resistance to Centralization: However this centralisation was opposed by aristocracy,
  • Example: In France, Louis XI (1461-83) had to wage a long struggle against dukes and princes. Lesser nobles, often members of local assemblies, resisted this royal usurpation of their powers.
• The Nobility’s Tactical Shift: The nobility transformed into loyalists, allowing royal absolutism to be seen as a modified form of feudalism. As a result the same class of people who had been rulers in the feudal system (lords) continued to dominate the political scene
• Rise of Non-Aristocratic Influence: The monarch ceased to occupy the pinnacle of a hierarchy characterized by personal reliance and trust. The king’s position transitioned into a complex society of courtiers and patron-client relationships.
  • Money became crucial in gaining access to the court and shaping the power structures.
  • Merchants and bankers lent money to the kings to pay the wages of soldiers. Rulers thus made space for non-feudal elements in the state system.

• The Evolution of Power Structures: France and England’s later history was influenced by changes in power structures. In 1614, Louis XIII of France, the Estates-General convened, representing clergy, nobility, and the rest. 
  • However, it wasn’t summoned for almost two centuries until 1789, as kings were reluctant to share power with the three orders. Later France developed into a Republic.
  • In England, King Charles I ruled without calling Parliament for 11 years (1629–40). When forced to convene it for funds, a parliamentary faction went to war against him, leading to his execution and the establishment of a republic. 
  • Monarchy was later restored with the condition that Parliament be regularly summoned.

Conclusion

England’s feudal system transformed after the Norman Conquest. The environment, technological advancements, and a growing monetary economy impacted agriculture and society. New towns offered economic opportunities and challenged the dominance of the nobility.

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