The Middle Ages

• Feudalism
• a political, military and economic system based on land-holding and protective alliances.
• the system based on personal loyalty to people who can help you.
• rich dudes; lord
• tough dudes; vassals (worked for the lord)
• Pyramid
• king
• the most powerful vassals (nobles and bishops)
• knights - mounted warriors who received fiefs for defending their lord's land)
• peasants (mostly serfs) landless, powerless, money-less, rights-less, just working for the land for "the man" (their lord)
• (very little middle class)
• Manor: the lord's estate
• a lord's manor house
• a church
• some workshops
• 15-30 families
• all on a few square miles
• Good news: its a self-sufficient community
• Bad news: its harsh if you're a peasant
• Peasants 
• poor and pay high taxes
• tax on grain
• tax on marriage
• church tax (10% of their income)
• they live in crowded cottages