California Teacher Credentialing Examination (CSET) Practice Test

In the feudal system, the primary social class that owed labor and obedience was the peasants. This class, often referred to as serfs in certain contexts, was bound to the land and worked on the estates of the nobles in exchange for protection and the right to work a portion of the land for their own sustenance. Peasants were responsible for agricultural production and other forms of manual labor, which were vital for the economy of the feudal system. Their obligations encompassed not just labor but also a degree of loyalty to the lords or nobles who owned the land. Vassals, typically landholders who received land in exchange for military service, had a different role focused on allegiance and defense rather than labor. Nobles, who occupied a higher social class, owned large estates and had power and authority over the peasant class, while knights were often vassals who provided military service in return for land or protection but did not owe labor in the same way that peasants did. Therefore, the characteristic of owing labor and obedience is most closely associated with peasants within the feudal hierarchy.