The term feudalism is used to designate the social, military, political, and sometimes economic relationships found in western medieval Europe. was a social system that developed during the period called the Middle Ages in Europe. Feudalism is the system of political organization prevailing in Europe from the 9th to about the 15th centuries. The social structure of the Middle Ages was organized round the system of Feudalism. Feudalism in practice meant that the country was not governed by the king but by individual lords, or barons, who administered their own estates, dispensed their own justice, minted their own money, levied taxes and tolls, and demanded military service from vassals.