Citizenship and Feudalism
PA9.3a Differentiate the criteria for citizenship in the societies studied with that in contemporary Canadian society.
PA9.3c Examine the rights and responsibilities of people as they existed within the societies studied, and compare findings to contemporary Canadian society.
Citizenship:
ü a person’s status under the law of a country/state giving that person certain rights and duties. Enfranchisement (verb=to enfranchise): to be given citizenship.
Rights may include:
ü right to vote
ü right to return to country
ü right to own real estate
ü right to legal and military protection
ü right to diplomacy
Duties may include:
ü duty to follow the law
ü duty to pay taxes
ü duty to serve in the military
Canadian Citizenship
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/rules/
From the Government of Canada Immigration and Citizenship website:
You may already be a citizen if… / You may not be a citizen if…· you were born in Canada,
· you were naturalized (you immigrated to Canada and later got citizenship) in Canada or
· you were born outside Canada after April 17, 2009, but one parent was born in Canada or naturalized in Canada. / · you marry a Canadian citizen,
· you areadopted by a Canadian citizen,
· your refugee claim is accepted,
· you have lived in Canada as a permanent resident for many years,
· you renounced your citizenship and never applied to get it back (see information onresuming citizenship),
· you were born outside Canada on or after April 17, 2009, and one or both of your parents was a Canadian citizen, but neither of them was born or naturalized in Canada, or
· the Government of Canada took away (revoked) your citizenship.
Answer the following questions from the Government of Canada Immigration and Citizenship website:
1. What are the nine requirements for becoming a Canadian citizen?
2. What is a PR card? What does PR grant you? What does it not grant you that citizenship does?
3. What criminal history prohibitions would keep you from becoming a citizen in Canada?
4. What four topics comprise the citizenship test?
ü Under what circumstances could a person’s citizenship be revoked?
Feudalism
Feudalism was the medieval ______of government predating the birth of the modern nation-state. Feudal society is a ______hierarchy in which a ruler or ______offers ______a ______which is a unit of land to control in ______for ______service. The individual who accepted this land became a ______, and the man who granted the land become known as his ______. The deal was often sealed by ______oaths on the Bible or on the ______of saints. Often this military service amounted to forty days' ______each year in times of peace or indefinite service in times of war, but the actual terms of service and duties varied considerably on a case-by-case basis. Factors such as the quality of land, the skill of the fighter, local custom, and the financial status of the lord always played a part. For instance, in the late medieval period, this military service was often abandoned in preference for cash payment, or agreement to provide a certain number of men-at-arms or mounted knights for the lord's use.
Social Classes Are Well Defined
o Medieval feudal system classifies people into three social groups
§ those who fight: nobles and knights
§ those who pray: monks, nuns, leaders of the Church
§ those who work: peasants
o Social class is usually inherited; majority of people are peasants
o Most peasants are serfs—people lawfully bound to place of birth
o Serfs aren’t slaves, but what they produce belongs to their lord
In the late medieval period, the fiefdom often became ______, and the son of a knight or lesser nobleman would inherit the land and the military ______from his father upon the father's death. Feudalism had two enormous effects on medieval society.
First, feudalism discouraged ______government. Individual lords would divide their lands into smaller and smaller sections to give to lesser rulers and knights. These lesser noblemen in turn would ______their own lands into even smaller fiefs to give to even less important nobles and knights. Each knight would swear his oath of fealty (loyalty) to the one who gave him the land, which was not necessarily the king or higher noblemen. Feudal government was always an arrangement between ______, not between nation-states and citizens. It meant that, while individual barons, dukes, and earls might be loyal in theory to the king or centralized noble family, there was no strong legal tradition to prevent them from declaring war on each other. The bonds of loyalty often grew so entangled that a single knight might find himself owing allegiance to two different dukes or barons who were at war with each other. There was no sense of ______to a geographic area or a particular race, only a loyalty to a person, which would terminate upon that person's death.
Second, feudalism discouraged ______and ______growth. The land was worked by peasant farmers called ______, who were tied to individual plots of land and forbidden to move or change occupations without the permission of their lord. The feudal lord might claim one-third to one-half of their produce in taxes and fees, and the serfs owed him a set number of days each year in which they would work the lord's fields in exchange for the right to work their own lands. Often, they were required to grind their grain in the lord's ______, and bake all their bread in the lords' oven, and to use roads and bridges the lord had built. Each time they did this, of course, they would have to pay him a ______or a ______of some sort. They were, however, forbidden to set up their own roads, bridges, mills, and ovens--the lord had a legal ______and would milk it for all it was worth. In exchange for other hefty fees, various peasants might set up a commune (a cooperative government amongst themselves), or pay the lord for the right to try their own court cases by juries. Other ambitious communities might pool their resources and purchase a charter, a legal document that gave the inhabitants of a town or village certain economic freedoms to buy and sell their own land or produce. In practice, these occurrences were often economic necessities, but in theory, these freedoms were generous gifts given by the lord to his former serfs in exchange for various financial considerations.
The Harshness of Manor Life
§ Peasants pay taxes to use mill and bakery; pay a tithe to priest
§ Tithe—a church tax—is equal to one-tenth of a peasant’s income
§ Serfs live in crowded cottages with dirt floors, straw for beds
§ Daily grind of raising crops, livestock; feeding and clothing family
§ Poor diet, illness, malnutrition make life expectancy 35 years
§ Serfs generally accept their lives as part of God’s plan
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