What is fief in the Middle Ages?

Answer 1

Feudalism has different meanings. If you go to the Wikipedia article on feudalism and look at the section marked history, it is not the history of the system, but the history of how the word has been used.

The broader meaning of the word equates it with manorialism, or even just government in the Middle Ages. According to this definition, it was a system that arose when the authority of the Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe. It provided security at a time when people were willing to sell themselves into slavery to get a place where they could be safe. As time passed, over centuries, so did the continual danger, towns grew, agriculture improved, central governments became strong, mercantilism increased, education became more widely available, and the system evolved to the point that the serfs were largely freed, and the encumbrances of the feudal system were no longer necessary and were not really even helpful to anyone. The feudal system evolved into something sufficiently different that the world entered an age with a different name.

Seen the other way, feudalism was a specific type of government some Western European countries had during the Middle Ages. It prevailed in France, the Holy Roman Empire, and, briefly, England. It was a system used by a weak central government, which took advantage of the existing structures of allegiances of the manorial system to distribute power and authority. Its advantage is the a local or regional response to a problem can be made much faster than mobilizing the national resources. Its disadvantage is that the regional and local powers look out for their own interests rather than those of a king or emperor.

It arose during the Middle Ages, as large countries that formed suffered from weakening power of their central governments. With the establishment of stronger central governments, feudalism passed by. It might be dated as beginning as a reaction to the weakening and division of the Carolingian Empire after the death of Charlemagne in 814, or possibly the death of Charles the Fat, in 888. It was over in France with the end of the Hundred Years War in 1429. We might date its end in Germany to somewhat earlier or later.

During this time, the feudal system prevented a complete collapse of authority under such pressures as Viking raids, then went through a series of trials, including the Hundred Years War, which took place because of the distribution of power the system entailed. In the case of the Hundred Years War, the King of England held more feudal territory in France than the King of France did, and when the question of succession made it possible for the King of England to assert rights to the French crown, the war ensued.

Answer 2

In the middle ages a nobleman owned a number of fiefs. The fief was the basic unit above the basic farms and was run by a vassal. The serfs farmed the land. The vassal oversaw the serfs, collected the taxes, paid the nobleman his share, and provided soldiers in time of war. The oldest son usually inherited the right to run the fief. In other words, the fief was the lowest unit of government.