Answer:
C. lords
Step-by-step explanation:
Feudalism is the denomination of the predominant political system in Western Europe of the central centuries of the Middle Ages (between the tenth and eleventh centuries, although there is no agreement between historians about its beginning and its duration, and this varies by region), and in Eastern Europe during the Modern Age, characterized by the decentralization of political power; based on the diffusion of power from the top (where in theory the emperor or the kings were) to the base where local power was effectively exercised with great autonomy or independence by an aristocracy, called nobility, whose titles derived from governors of the Carolingian empire (dukes, marquises, counts) or had another origin (barons, knights, etc.).
Feudalism responded to the insecurity and instability of the time of the invasions that were happening for centuries (Germanic, Slavic, Magyar, Muslim, Viking people). Given the inability of state institutions, far away, the only security came from local authorities, lay nobles or ecclesiastics, who controlled castles or fortified monasteries in rural settings, converted into new centers of power in the face of the decay of cities.