Can feudal society and a town be an oxymoron

Question

In terms of AP European history.

I was thinking yes and no, because a feudal society was started for protection, and a town started for improvement. So in a sense can they be oxymoron? Can a feudal society and town exist together? I don't think so, what do you think? The time era is the early middle ages.

Answer 1

I am not really into these social or history stuffs, but I think feudal society can not be a town in the way you said it was built for improvment. I am sorry but I have seen some feudal societies that do not Want any improvement, the purpose of the leader is to keep them ignorant so that no one knows how ignorant he is!

So I guess it'd be a No!

Answer 2

I majored in medieval european history, and I have to say that I don't exactly agree with you. Of course, towns existed in the period associated feudalism. However, feudalism is better understood as an economic system in which the land and people on it belong to a lord, and peasants must pay for the right to live and work on that land. Further, peasants were considered tied to the land-- one couldn't just leave. Towns were far less associated with agriculture; townspeople were typically free commoners who practiced some form of trade (ie, made shoes, clothing, etc). These kinds of activities were usually accomplished with the confines of a feudal estate, and so the feudal economy remained independent. If the holdings of the lord were large enough to include a town, the town would generally carry on its economic activities under a special permission granted by the lord, and for which its inhabitants would have to pay (though remaining free). In exchange for all this, the lord was to extend military protection to all those within the confines of the fief. I would have to say that the feudal lords and the townspeople frequently had complex relations arising from their different economic systems, but that these were generally smoothed by the military power of the feudal lord.