September 2012 – Emit Repoons on a Mission

SAMSUNG DIGITAL CAMERA — Chooks peck the chooks that are below them in status, while they submit to being pecked by those above them. This hierarchy is evident in many human interactions, though it is rarely quite so straightforward and predictable. In the European feudal system, people certainly knew their place; their position in society was unlikely to change much in the course of one lifetime. If you were born a peasant, you were overwhelmingly likely to die a peasant – after a life of intensive labour and anxiety about survival. In comparison, these chooks seem very happy, even if some of them have to put up with a bit of pecking. Picture kindly provided by Ms Gordon.

Dear S1Y,

The medieval feudal system could be described as a kind of complex pecking order.

The original type of pecking order was first observed by a biologist called W. C. Allee. He noticed in the 1920s that chooks peck each other according to their power or status in the farmyard. The most powerful chook pecks all the others. The least powerful chook is pecked by all the others. In between are the chooks who are pecked by those above them and who peck those below them. This is called a pecking order and is used to denote a hierarchy of power.

For instance, in our school Mrs Mitchell is above me in the pecking order and, I’m sorry to say, you are below me. But of course, I would never peck you, because I don’t have a beak. Besides, I’m a very nice old chook. All the same, I get to tell you what to do, badger you about your homework and talk endlessly about history while you feel more or less obliged to listen. That’s a bit like pecking, if you think about it.

Human relationships are in any case much more complex than those of chooks. The feudal system was not just a one-way pecking system, but a system of reciprocal rights and duties. The people at the top had responsibilities as well as privileges, but they certainly wielded much more power than those at the bottom. The lowly peasants and serfs, as you already know, experienced a life of grinding toil. For them hardship was unavoidable and hunger common, especially at certain times of the year; starvation was a serious possibility.

one sack of grain — **One sack of grain might yield, after taxes and setting aside grain for the following year, about 2.2 sacks. All that work, so little gain.**

One reason for this is that the yield from the peasants’ crops was often quite meagre, especially when you factor in the taxes they had to pay to the Church and their lord. One source calculates that for every sack of grain they planted, they would harvest four.* One of these would need to be kept to plant the following year. A tenth would be paid to the Church and a tenth to the lord. That would leave them with about 2.2 sacks of grain for each one planted. You can understand why their lives were precarious. One poor season, one bad harvest or one unexpected war that a peasant had to fight in could wipe out their surplus and plunge them into a desperate situation.

Using the sites below, create a mind map or concept map of the feudal system. In the process, you should learn more about how it worked and add a number of new or unfamiliar words to your bulging vocabularies. Make sure that your concept map includes the words that I have listed below, along with explanations. Using symbols to denote the role of each group (for instance, king – crown, lord – castle, peasant – scythe) would also help you to remember this medieval pecking order.

Best of luck from an old hen,

Ms Green

* My source for this detail is a book called Zeitreise, a history text that I’m reading in German. Zeitreise could be translated Journey through Time.

http://history-world.org/feudalism.htm

http://www.historyonthenet.com/Medieval_Life/feudalism.htm (This site has a useful diagram)

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/medieval/government/feudalism.htm

http://www.learner.org/interactives/middleages/feudal.html

Vocabulary:

♦fealty

♦fief

♦vassal

♦serf

♦villein

Ensure that your concept map uses all the elements above.

Some Reading for S1Y

The Life of Medieval Peasants

They were poor. They did all the menial work. They made up more than 90% of the population. No, I’m not talking about my students. I’m referring to the peasants of medieval Europe.

Seedman copyright free from retrokat.com medieval clipart 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”.

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”.

DETAIL october tilling and sowing pd about.com calendar page of Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry A detail from the beautiful 15^th 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.

Month: September 2012

A Kind of Pecking Order