Did feudal lords genuinely protect peasents from attacks, crime, and other threats to their livelyhood? Or did the nobility mainly exist to extract produce from serfs?

by NepalesePasta
PearlClaw

Given how broad this question is I'd like to add some specific sub questions:

Were there meaningful general differences geographically between how well feudal lords honored their commitments?

Did feudal lords pay a social price (vis-a-vis other nobles) for not honoring their commitments to those "below" them.

DericStrider

This answer by u/sunagainstgold, to a question about what recourse would a robbed peasant have living in central Europe, gives an example of how peasants would be pawns in larger feuds between lords, how they could get some protection against marauding and some form of courts they can appeal to.

It doesn't fully answer your question but gives some context of what a Lord (in later medieval Germany) would do to defend (or lack of) their peasants.