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 subsistence economy and system of vassal relations. Feudal fragmentation was spawned by an increase in
members of royal dynasties, simultaneously claiming the throne. Together with this factor, the relative military weakness of medieval kings in the face of the combined forces of their own vassals led to the fact that previously vast states began to be fragmented into numerous principalities, duchies and other self-governing destinies. The fragmentation was, of course, generated by the objective evolution of the economic and social development of Europe, however, 843 is called the conditional moment of the beginning of feudal fragmentation, when the Treaty of Verdun was signed between the three grandchildren of Charlemagne, dividing the state into three parts. It was from these patches of the empire of Charlemagne that France and Germany were subsequently born. The end of this period in European history is attributed to the 16th century, the era of strengthening royal power - absolutism. Although thethe German lands managed to unite into a single state only in 1871. And that's not counting the ethnically German Liechtenstein, Austria and parts of Switzerland.
Feudal fragmentation in Russia
The pan-European trend of the X-XVI centuries did not bypass the domestic principalities. At the same time, the feudal fragmentation of the medieval Russian state had a number of features that distinguished its character from the Western version. The first call to the collapse of the integrity of the state was already the death of Prince Svyatoslav in 972, after which the first internecine wars for the throne of Kyiv began between his sons. The last ruler of the united Kievan Rus is considered to be the son of Vladimir Monomakh, Prince Mstislav Vladimirovich, who died in 1132. After his death, the state was finally divided into estates by the heirs and never again rebelled in its former form.
Of course it was
it would be erroneous to talk about the simultaneous collapse of the Kyiv possessions. Feudal fragmentation in Russia, as in Europe, was the result of objective processes of strengthening the local landed boyar nobility. The boyars, who had sufficiently strengthened and had extensive possessions, became more profitable to support their own prince, relying on them and taking into account their interests, and not remain loyal to Kyiv. This is what allowed the younger sons, brothers, nephews and other princely relatives to resist centralization.
Regardingfeatures of domestic decay, it lies primarily in the so-called ladder system, according to 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, caused numerous internecine conflicts between the sons and nephews of the Russian dynasty of the XIII-XVI centuries. Russian lands during the period of feudal fragmentation began to represent a number of large independent principalities. The rise of local noble families and princely courts gave Russia the emergence of the Novgorod Republic, the rise of the Galicia-Volyn and Vladimir-Suzdal principalities, the creation and rise of Moscow. It was the Moscow princes who destroyed feudal fragmentation and created the Russian kingdom.
