How did feudalism work?

Answer 1

First, a noble would hand a bit of land called a fief to one of his most trusted being called a vassals in exchange for protection like a knight. The vassal must swear and oath that he will be loyal to his noble. A noble who gives a fief to a knight is called a lord. This vassal may hand a bit of land to another vassal, who we'll call vassal B and he shall swear an oath and so on. So one can be a lord and vassal.

Answer 2

Feudalism is a social system which work by mostly favoring the nobles. Nobles had large parcels of land which they got in exchange for military service and they used vassals and peasants to work on their farms.

Answer 3

Like a pecking order in which the peasants were pecked by all other classes. Feudalism from a top down perspective is a guarantee of protection in exchange of services and/or taxes. Usually a king or other high ranking noble at the top, granting land as a fief to lower nobility (usually dukes, sometimes counts in direct vassalage. Direct vassal barons were rare, particularly later on). This lower nobility was obliged to provide his lord with military service upon his call to arms, and usually to provide a number of knights and footsoldiers depending on the value of the land granted to him. This class of lower nobility could not manage their massive estates without further middle men, so divided their domain into smaller fiefs, for which they drew up similar contracts: income from the fief and protection against invasion in exchange for military service and sometimes tax. This could be repeated a number of times, until you reach the lowborn (ie. not nobility) peasants. They would normally "lease" a small plot of land which they worked, and paid for it through a percentage of the crop yield, cash and/or services (building, moat digging, military service, etc.) They usually did not own the land they worked, so were dependent of their lord not only for protection, but for their livelyhood.

Now, imagine that from a peasant's point of view. You lease the land you and your family can work, pay the rent through a significant proportion of your yield, are left with barely enough to survive, and can be called away from your land into military service basically at the whim of your lord (there were some restrictions, peasants did have some rights). Bear in mind the fact that if any nobleman in this line of obligations felt like going to war, you could expect to be called into service, and that nobility tended to be pretty warlike in medieval times, and you get a sense of what feudalism looked like from the bottom ranks of society.