Information on kings and queens that is relevant to feudalism in the middle ages?

Question

Information on kings and queens that is relevant to feudalism in the middle ages?

Answer 1

Actually, there is some debate as to whether the Norman's brought feudalism to England or not. But the question didn't mention England specifically so I will answer in a broader sense:

Three primary elements characterized feudalism: lords, vassals and fiefs. A lord was a noble who owned land, a vassal was a person who was granted possession of the land by the lord, and the land was known as a fief which included all serfs who might be tied to that land. In exchange for the fief, the vassal would provide military service to the lord. The obligations and relations between lord, vassal and fief form the basis of feudalism. There were many layers to this so that the lord of one vassal might himself be a vassal to a greater lord. For example, a knight is the vassal of a baron, but that baron is himself a vassal to the king.

With regards to information on specific kings, there has been evidence that feudalism existed all the way back to the 6th and 7th centuries with the Carolingian Kings. In the 12th century literature, Song of Roland, Roland pledges his fealty to the Holy Roman Emporer, Charlemagne (also a Carolingian), and becomes his vassal. Roland is based on a real person who existed in the court of Charlemagne (9th century).

Answer 2

Hm.  A difficult one.  It was often the case that Kings were married to them.

Answer 3

William "the Conqueror" brought the Norman culture to England, which had an enormous impact on the subsequent course of England in the Middle Ages. In addition to political changes, his reign also saw changes to English law, a programme of building and fortification, changes to the vocabulary of the English language, and the introduction of continental European feudalism into England.

He increased the function of the traditional English shires (autonomous administrative regions), which he brought under central control; he decreased the power of the earls by restricting them to one shire apiece. All administrative functions of his government remained fixed at specific English towns, except the court itself; they would progressively strengthen, and the English institutions became amongst the most sophisticated in Europe.

William is said to have eliminated the native aristocracy in as little as four years. Systematically, he despoiled those English aristocrats who either opposed the Normans or who died without issue. Thus, most English estates and titles of nobility were handed to the Norman noblemen.

To the new Norman noblemen, William handed the English parcels of land piecemeal, dispersing these wide. Thus nobody would try conspiring against him without jeopardizing their own estates within the so unstable England. Effectively, this strengthened William's political stand as a monarch.