Feudal fragmentation - the defining stage of European development

Feudal fragmentation is the weakening of the central state power with the simultaneous strengthening of the peripheral regions of the country. The term applies exclusively to medieval Europe with its natural economy and a system of vassal relations. Feudal fragmentation was generated by an increase Members of the royal dynasties, simultaneously claiming the throne. Along with this factor, the relative military weakness of medieval kings over the combined forces of their own vassals led to the fact that previously extensive states began to split into numerous principalities, duchies and other self-governing possessions. Of course, the fragmentation was caused by the objective evolution of the economic and social development of Europe, but the conditional moment of the beginning of feudal fragmentation is 843, when the Verdun Treaty was signed between the three grandsons of Charlemagne, dividing the state into three parts. It was from these flaps of the empire of Charles the Great that France and Germany were subsequently born. The end of this period in European history is attributed to the XVI century, the era of strengthening the royal power - absolutism. Although the same German lands managed to unite in a single state only in 1871. And then, not counting the ethnically German Liechtenstein, Austria and part of Switzerland.

Feudal fragmentation in Russia

The pan-European tendency of the 10th-16th centuries did not bypass the domestic principalities. At the same time, the feudal disunity of the medieval Russian state had a number of features that distinguished its character from the Western version. The first bell to the disintegration of the integrity of the state was the death of Prince Svyatoslav in 972, after which the first internecine wars for the Kiev throne began between his sons. The last ruler of the united Kievan Rus is the son of Vladimir Monomakh, Prince Mstislav Vladimirovich, who died in 1132. After his death, the state was finally divided into patrimonies by heirs and never again rose in its former form.

Of course, it was It would be erroneous to talk about the simultaneous disintegration of the Kiev possessions. Feudal fragmentation in Russia, as in Europe, was the result of objective processes of strengthening the local landed boyar nobility. The boyars, who were sufficiently strengthened and had extensive possessions, became more profitable to support their own prince, relying on them and considering their interests, and not to remain faithful to Kiev. This is what allowed the younger sons, brothers, nephews and other princely relatives to oppose centralization.

As for the peculiarities of domestic disintegration, it lies, first of all, in the so-called leftist system, after which, after the death of the ruler, the throne passed to his younger brother, and not to his eldest son, as was the case in Western Europe (Salic law). This, however, was the cause of multiple internecine conflicts between sons and nephews of the Russian dynasty of the XIII-XVI centuries. Russian lands in the period of feudal disunity began to represent a number of large independent principalities. The rise of local noble families and princely households gave Rus the rise of the Novgorod Republic, the rise of Galicia-Volyn and Vladimir-Suzdal principalities, the creation and elevation of Moscow. It was the Moscow princes that destroyed feudal disunity and created the Russian kingdom.