Cooperation In The Middle Ages

Cooperation and a powerful rule of law are not always synonymous with the Middle Ages, and for the people, many of which were accustomed to a war-based society, the transition to a more peaceful landscape was difficult. The shift took place only after widespread violence, with Germanics conquering large holdings of land in ____. Followers of the warriors settled to live and work the land, and settled agriculture, the first step to widespread peace, was established. The following centuries saw related events pushing people to work together in interesting ways, including the improvement of agriculture practices, defensive warfare against surprise invasions, and the reestablishment of commerce. Coordination and collaboration was easily seen

These basic changes helped lay the groundwork for the beginnings of a more cooperative and organized society. More intricate and complex organized agricultural systems, manorial and feudal, were created in response to the plague of viking attacks, and relied heavily on people working together peacefully under a set rule of law. People needed different things during the attacks, with peasants looking for protection against violence, and Lords needing money for expensive equipment and weapons, as well as food to survive off of. The Manorial system functioned with the basic premise of peasants farming for Lords in exchange for protection. For either party to achieve their ultimate goals in this system, they both had to work together. The Peasant Obligations at Alwaton show the typical requirements of a peasant, such as “Henry son of the miller, holds a cottage with a croft which contains 1 rood, paying thence yearly to the said abbot 2s. Likewise he works for 3 days in carrying hay and in other works at the will of the said abbot, each day with 1 man and in autumn 2 day in cutting grain with 1 man” (Source 79). Here, Henry owes money and labor to his lord, which to him means

Lords had to keep their peasants content and organized in order to generate the production they needed, so small village court systems were established. As the lives of the peasants did, the court cases mostly pertained to agriculture, seen in the Manorial court, “All the ploughmen of Great Ogbourne are convicted by the oath of twelve men...because by reason of their default [the land] of the lord was ill-ploughed whereby the lord is damaged to the amount of 9s...And Walter Reaper is in mercy for concealing [i.e. not giving information as to] the said bad ploughing. Afterwards he made fine with the lord with 1 mark” (Source 80). This legal system encouraged the peasants to follow a set code of laws, while also giving them power or representation within that court system. Prior to the Manorial system, villages lived with only loose ties to others and rudimentary systems of representational government. The Manorial system led to cooperation which created an exciting step towards future democracy. However, Lords found that they required more knights to