Another nail in the coffin of the F word

These days one really should encourage the young, and especially young historians, not to use the F-word - that is “Feudal” or “Feudalism”. For half a century academics have, or should have, known not to because it never existed as a system in reality, or a societal model, other than in the over ( or under ) heated minds of writers in later centuries. However its use has not been totally expunged, let alone its use, by sub,neo or crypto Marxists. There is an excellent discussion of that whole theme by Melissa Snell at The Problem With the F-Word (Feudalism)

The lack of linkage between grants of land - “benefices” - and future military service, that is the key presumption of the model of a “Feudal Society”, is set out with key references in an article on mediaevalists.net by David Bachrach which can be read at Why a Benefice Did Not Make a Vassal in the Middle Ages