Not having to worry about managing your surplus sons helped a whole lot. Sending them out to crusade against the heathens took a lot of coordination and energy. Plague reversed that problem real fast.
In the west! In the east? They switched to less laborious methods if need be, in fact laws were passed so that serf could no longer migrate away from their lords; making them the closest we have ever had to slavery with exception to the slaves we had
The plague is actually what ended feudalism in Europe.
Not having to worry about managing your surplus sons helped a whole lot. Sending them out to crusade against the heathens took a lot of coordination and energy. Plague reversed that problem real fast.
In the west! In the east? They switched to less laborious methods if need be, in fact laws were passed so that serf could no longer migrate away from their lords; making them the closest we have ever had to slavery with exception to the slaves we had