Feudalism and the Truce of God

Feudalism itself is a form of government developed in the time after the Roman Empire. This method of ruling enables weaker leaders to retain control over their land by contracting it out to others in return for their service to the king. This government structure is great for situations like the one that developed during the middle ages where there weren't the countries that we see today, but groups of allied kings that ruled over smaller areas. However, even though it is often classified as a type of government, the concept of Feudalism doesn't dictate in any way the way these kingdoms are ruled. Instead it simply provides a way for rulers to attain and retain power.

This type of rule is very good in theory, but it is one that requires good enforcement of the oath taken by the subjects who have pledged allegiance to the king. Without guidelines, the king would not be able to defend his land or even summon his army when he called on it. It is because of that oversight that rulers implemented laws for the lords and vassals to follow. One set of laws was brought forth by the Catholic church and is called the Truce of God.

The Truce of God was a set of rules designed primarily to prevent conflict on certain days of the year. In addition to providing new laws for people to abide by, it also provided punishments for those that would violate the law. These rules and regulations  dealt mostly with the carry and use of a weapon on Sundays and various holy days such as Lent and it was eventually amended to include Fridays as well. The idea behind creating this Truce of God was to keep Christians from fighting each other and more importantly, to keep knights from violent acts as much as possible. If one of the codes were broken though, the Truce of God contained the information needed to carry out a fitting punishment for the crime and goes so far as to tell who would be the one to implement the punishment as well. It's safe to say that without this code of ethics and the addition of many others, Feudalism may not have lasted in the middle ages.