Unraveling Feudalism: The Hierarchical Society of the High Middle Ages During the High Middle Ages in Europe between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, there was a system of social society now known as feudalism Feudalism can be understood as a hierarchical society where the king owned most of the land he would distribute it out to lords who would then lease the units of land to the peasants and serfs. The units of distributed land are known as fiefs. The king would give fiefs to the nobles and