They were poor. They did all the menial work. They made up more than 90% of the population. No, I’m not talking about students, not even my hard-working year sevens. I’m referring to the peasants of medieval Europe.
Image kindly provided by http://retrokat.com/medieval
Even in such a lowly group, there were variations in status. Some were free and some were serfs. A serf was like a slave but not quite a slave. My beloved Shorter Oxford (which I carry around in my pocket on my i-Pod) describes a serf in this way: “a person in a condition of servitude or modified slavery”. According to this tome (which in its book form would weigh down even the healthiest peasant), the powers of the master were “more or less limited by law or custom”. You can see that the writers of the Shorter Oxford, being learned types, don’t want to be too specific.
In any case, I doubt whether such precise meanings would have mattered much to the peasants. When you are nearly a slave, but not quite, the finer distinctions might not concern you. (The word “villein” is also used sometimes as a synonym for serf.) Servitude meant that the serfs were subject to the will of the lord of the manor; they could not leave the manor without his permission. They were subjugated, they were poor, they were often hungry; to get through each year would have required unimaginable struggle, grinding toil and, I assume, a fair bit of luck.
Hunger was a constant danger, starvation a real possibility. According to Lacey and Danziger, the writers of The Year 1000: What Life was Like at the Turn of the First Millenium, July in England was the toughest month for the poor to get through. The spring crops had not yet matured; the midsummer harvest produced hay for the animals and nothing for the humans. This time was referred to as “the hungry gap”.
Yet there were some healthy aspects of their lifestyle. They had a very healthy diet, if only they could get enough of it. They lived on a pottage (like a porridge) of grain and vegetables, into which they dipped the hard, coarse and often stale flat bread that they baked. No soft, fluffy bread for them: their bread was a little like a pita bread or nan, but tougher and coarser. The pottage served to soften the hard, stale bread and make it edible. The bread was also used as an edible plate, called a “trencher”.
A detail from the beautiful 15th century Book of Hours (in the public domain from about.com) called Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. This shows October – tilling and sowing.
One of the healthiest aspects of their diet was that they had no sugar. Until the 17th century, when sugar was brought back from the Caribbean, no one in England had sugar. Honey was so precious that it was sometimes used as a currency. Imagine a life without sugar! But at least it meant they experienced almost no dental or jaw decay. The skeletal remains of the Anglo-Saxons in the year 1000 show that they were surprisingly tall, with excellent teeth.
Below are some extra details about their lives, with some websites for you to explore. Don’t work too hard. I don’t want you to feel like serfs.
On the other hand, I’d quite like to feel like a lord…
Did you know…?
Medieval peasants worked long hours, produced most of the food and paid most of the taxes. If you want justice, don’t expect to find it in the medieval world.
Peasants’ cottages had dirt floors and walls made of mud and straw. There was no glass in their windows and their animals often lived with them.
Fleas were common. People expected to have them.
Many peasants died in the winter from hypothermia.
Outer clothes were rarely washed but wood smoke acted as a kind of deodorant.
It has been estimated that 20% of women died in childbirth (this would not have varied much from peasants to the wealthy, presumably). Infant mortality was also high.
CLICK ON THESE SITES TO DISCOVER MORE…
General details of peasant life:
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/daily-life-peasant-middle-ages.htm
A village street of the Middle Ages: Click on the characters in the street to discover the range of people in medieval life:
http://www.camelotintl.com/village/street.html
Peasant life and housing with pictures of cruckhouses: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval_peasants.htm
Now that you have read all that information about peasants, leave a PARAGRAPH comment in irreproachable formal English, answering two or more of the following questions:
1) Read up on the people in the medieval village and think about the advantages and disadvantages of each person. Who would you most like to be and why…. a trader? A peasant? A lord?
2) Which part of being a medieval peasant would you find the hardest? (Think about what you would miss most: Facebook? Warmth? Abundant food? Luxury? A soft bed? PSP? Sugar?)
3) Based on the research you have done, name one modern object/idea/thing you would give a family of medieval peasants (e.g: electricity or a television).
4) Now imagine you could only give the family one medieval object/idea/thing. What would you give them? (e.g: A cow? A new church?)
Make sure you include WHY you think this is the most important thing a medieval family of peasants needs!
I would like to be a Lord, because you get to boss people you don’t like.
I would hate to be a peasant because you don’t get enough food.
I would give the peasants KFC because it tastes better than bread.
I would give them a pig so they can eat them or sell them
I would be a lord because I could boss everyone around and get lots of food.
I think not having enough food would be the hardest for a peasant.
I would get a tractor for ploughing the fields.
I would also give them some more food.
1. Is this a joke question? Of course anybody sane would want to be a lord because you’d have power over everybody
2. Not being able to eat anything good tasting
3. I’d give them a refridgerator so their food deosn’t go mouldy.
5. I’d give them a set of swords so they could rebel against the evil lord
I just wouldn’t want to live in medieval anyway
I would miss the Luxury the most because luxury pretty much includes facebook, warmth, food, a soft bed and SUGAR!!! … N’o, I wouldn’t miss sugar. 🙂
I would like to be a knight of the realm because you get to fight and your one of the toughest people.
The worst thing about a peasant is not having any food and almost starving to death.
I would give peasants McDonalds because it tastes better then what they eat.
A chicken because they can eat its eggs and they can cook them for food.
I would like to be a entertainer in the Medieval times because people throw money at them and it sounds like they get a decent salary. I thunk that the hardest thing to live without is books. They tell stories and most people can’t read them which makes me very sad. As something that I would give is the power of reading. I think that reading is a very important part of our community and that we should be proud of our talent to read.
The thing I’d give a medieval peasant would be a tank. They could just kill everybody and become king because nobody would be able to stand up to them.
The medieval thing I’d give them would be a bar of gold because they could just buy so much, and money is power.
If I have to become someone in the medieval village, I would want to become a lord. I want to become a lord because I can control people like peasant and I would be rich.
I would like to be a lady of the realm, because you get to fight other knights and defend your kingdom, and you would get to ride around everywhere.
If I were a villein, I would miss my lovely warm bed, and I would be sad, because we would be too poor to own a horse or pony 🙁
I would give the villeins a fridge, so they could preserve their meats and vegetables for longer. I would also give them a tractor so they don’t have to work so hard ploughing the fields.
I would give those poor villeins some food, an apple tree, and two cows, because food is very important, and the cows would give them a constant supply of milk and meat.
I would prefer to be the Lord of the Manor because he had the powers he needed, the spare time he required and the things he wanted. He served directly under the order of the King and provided armies whenever the king required. He could do whatever he wanted. If I lived in the medieval village the thing I would miss is the abundant food, the soft bed and OF COURSE THE BROADBAND.
The one thing I would give the medieval peasants is McDonalds, it provides unlimited amount of food to the family. And YUMMY AS WELL!!!
Dear Ms Green,
I would love to be a nice Lady. Because I can improve rights for the serfs and villeins so they would still work for me but under nicer conditions.
I have no idea what I’d miss the most!! I would be stuck without the confectionary aisle of Safeway, the cinema candy bar and the lolly shop near where I live (which I think has become defunct since I last used it, it will be truly missed), but if I know one thing it’s that I at 6am in the morning when my alarm goes off, I want a man with a tomahawk to come in and smash it, so yes a warm and soft bed is EXTREMELY important. As I don’t have a Facebook page, I don’t know what I am missing out on, and I can do without my electronics (except my phone and its charger, both of which are vital) as long as I have my Monopoly board and heaps of board games.
As much as I can’t last for very long without food, I would provide these poor serfs and villeins with a ducted heating system. I would also give the mother a couple of big balls of wool, some knitting needles and a pocket Ms Green to teach her how to knit jumpers, scarves and beanies.
From Emily.
1) I would like to be an unmarried lady, as they are entitled to own their own land and if they do have land have equal rights to men. She could make a will and seal documents with her own seal.
2) I can’t be sure but I think I would miss both the warmth and chocolate about the same. I think I could live without internet… I think.
3) I would give a medieval family a heater so they could last the winter without getting pneumonia.
4) I would give them sheep, as they both provide food and wool for clothes.
If I had to live a peasants life, the thing I would miss most is Abundant food. It would make life miserable to not be able eat as much as you want.
Lovely comment, Emily. Very thoughtful and empathic towards the poor and excellent choices of items for the peasants. I feel proud to be mentioned as their potential helper.
1) Would anybody in their right mind say that they would want to be a slave? Of course I would want to be a lord. then I would get a reasonable standard of living, have a lot of servants and people who look up to me.
2) I think the thing that I would find the hardest being without as a peasant (if I ever was one) would be the lack of warmth that you would get.
3) The modern item that I would give to a family of peasants would be a heater with electricity. imagine being in a cold hut in the middle of winter!
4) The medieval item(s) that I would give to a family of peasants would be a whole herd of cows. Then they could have food and something to drink all throughout the year.