n the medieval period the most powerful people in the Western Europe were the great noble’s kings, lords and the lesser nobles. They were at the top of the feudal system.Nobles had control over the knights and peasants. Kings and queens found it difficult to rule without the help of the nobles for three main reasons. Firstly they needed the force of fighting men (knights) on call if their power was threatened, Secondly they needed someone to travel their messages it was hard for rulers to make their power felt in distant parts and lastly they needed someone to look after the manor this meant hiring peasants (serfs)to farm the land. In return nobles were given a great deal of power, land, money and life of luxury.
Noble’s had many roles in the medieval period but their main roles were; collecting taxes from people (peasants) who lived on their manor, to run manor courts for the peasants that broke the rules e.g.
if a peasant didn’t pay their fee (tax), protecting whom lived on the manor, fighting in wars and providing soldiers to fight in wars. In return the rulers (kings and queens) gave them a fief (a ruler giving a great deal of manor (land), control over people who lived on the manor and great deal of power). Nobles had to support the king by coming to fight with a number of supporters (knights).they would hire knights to be their supporters. knights would come to fight when it was needed .In return the nobles provided them with their needs. The nobles owned everything on the manor including the peasant that worked on the manor .lords who owned a large manor and had a great deal of power were called “the stewards’. The stewards hired bailiffs to be their representative. Bailiff and peasants would decide on a reeve, wealthy peasant to supervise them and keep account of all the crops .the peasants would farm the land and In return the nobles would let the peasants live on the manor and use the facilities on the manor but with an exception that the peasants would obey the manors rules. If a peasant didn’t obey the manors rules they would be sent to a manors court where they would be decided on a punishment sometimes even sentenced to death .. Nobles in the medieval period were powerful and had control over people because they were wealthy however in the present time nobles are people who just achieve great things in life e.g. sir Elton john is a noble because he has achieved great heights in the music industry, people respect him because he is a great singer.