Feudalism offered the nobles an opportunity to retain their powerful position and rule over a given territory under the express consent of the reigning monarch. It also offered military protection and formal alliances, as this group of wealthy elites were bound by oaths of fealty and brotherhood. The nobility had control over the knighthood, and could utilize them for purposes of war or as a prevention from peasant uprisings. Other than the Crown, the nobility had the most to gain from this system of governance.