0 of the system by which people gave certain services eg military support to a more powerful man in return for lands, protection etc -- feudal
the feudal system.
When luxury destroyed baronial power, it released the gentry from their feudal dependence and enlarged their power and authority.
The new elite was just as dependent upon the rural sector for its income as was the old feudal elite.
Its reformist zeal was most evident in the desire to abolish pre-capitalist modes of agricultural production symbolised by feudal intermediaries or zamindars.
But strong traditional, and even feudal aspects of their lives remained, as did their isolation in scattered courtyard farms.
All such commentators divided the ' gentle ' from the ' commons ' according to formulaic social categories derived from legal and feudal distinctions.
Often the two coincided, with those living together dividing state and feudal burdens among themselves.
He was clearly thinking of aristocratic, feudal and militaristic regimes, in which nobles kept retinues of armed men, flunkeys and attendants.
Such division was often met by those who had held large feudal estates, and by the tribal leaders, with displeasure and opposition.
