The Great Stirrup Controversy is the academic debate about the Stirrup Thesis, the theory that feudalism in Europe was largely the result of the introduction of the stirrup to cavalry. It relates to the hypothesis suggested by Lynn Townsend White, Jr. in his 1962 book, Medieval Technology and Social Change. White believed that the stirrup enabled heavy cavalry and shock combat, which in turn prompted the Carolingian dynasty of the 8th and 9th centuries to organize their territory into a vassalage system, in which these mounted warriors were rewarded with land grants for their service. White's book has proved very influential, but he has also been accused of speculation, oversimplification, and ignoring contradictory evidence on the subject. Other scholars have debated whether the stirrup a