A Life Of My Life

From 1300 to 1750, for the average peasant, people’s work and social life mixed, families lived on small pieces of lands growing their own crops at home.They lived in small cottages or, the richer people, who lived in castles. But during the

One night during one of the king’s parties, an old lady found her way to this kingdom. Before she could even knock on the door of the king’s palace, two guards shoved in front of her and asked for her cause. She explained how she only wished to stay a night as she was on a long journey. They interrupted her, saying she was not worthy of being there. She was pushed to the ground. Angry, she left in a haste and ventured her way to the outskirts. As she did this, the guards went back in and informed the king of the visitor. The king simply laughed upon hearing the news and announced that peasants should know their place in society and continued feasting and partying.

The theme of inequality starts to develop in the first chapter where the peasants are depicted to be living in conditions, which are regarded to be wretched. These peasants only have scant clothing and the children are required by law to walk bare without any garments. Furthermore, the peasants live in filthy spaces, and they eat poor food. Iron collars are put on the peasant as an indication of slavery which is rampant among the common population (Hasty 22). The deplorable condition of the peasants sharply contradicts the life of the knights and the inhabitants of the royal court. In the royal court, there is a parade of knights residing in the

The prevalent theme of inversion in late medieval Europe demonstrates the use of carnival in everyday peasant life and in exploring the nature of a wide range of social tensions surrounding power, such as politics, class, and religion. Inversion itself was the switching of established roles as part of the festivities of a carnival event. This act of ‘topsy-turvydom’ was so striking only because it stemmed from it being apart from the normal social roles. In normal medieval society, the three estates provided the hierarchical structure: those who fight, those who pray and those who work to produce food for the others, respectively knights, clergy, and peasantry. However, inversion flipped the restraints of this system upside down for the duration of a celebration or if applied to revolt and misrule then the theme would endure as long as the rebels upheld it. For example, peasants who organised various rebellions in medieval England, including the 1381 rising, took on fake names with king in the title.

During the Middle Ages a peasant’s life was, indeed, very rough, there were anywhere from ten to sixty families living in a single village; they lived in rough huts on dirt floors, with no chimneys, or windows. Usually one end of the hut was given over to storing livestock. Furnishings were quite sparse; three legged stools, a trestle table, beds softened with straw or leaves and placed on the floor; the peasant diet was mainly porridge, cheese, black bread, and a few homegrown vegetables. Peasants had a hard life, yet they did not work on Sundays, and they could travel to nearby fairs and markets. The basic diet of a lord consisted of meat, fish, pastries, cabbage, turnips, onions, carrots, beans, and peas, as well as fresh bread, cheese, and fruit. This is by no means equivalent to the meals the peasants ate, a lord might even feast on boar, swan, or peacock as well.

One of the main features of the manorial system was that serfs were bound to a certain manor, and required to work that land for the lord. The serfs were tied to the land because of their debts or their ancestors’ debts to the lord. For the lord to keep his power and comfortable way of life, he had to keep the serfs bound to his land. This meant that he must keep them in debt, which led to many fees and taxes. An example of one of these taxes is, “And after the death of any one of the aforesaid villeins, the lord shall have as a heriot his best animal…”. This example shows the extent that the lord went to to keep the serfs in debt, so that he could maintain control over the

Around 90% of the population in medieval times belonged to peasants. They were the best populated class but were treated terribly. A peasants life is hard. We are at the bottom of the feudal system (a system of classes used in the medieval times). Peasants lives were boring and had nothing much to do.In the medieval time us peasants were divided into three different statuses: slave, serf, and freeman. These statuses were very important because it helped us understand what we had to do for the church and the kings, lords, and queens we worked for.

Lifestyle of peasants in medieval Europe was tremendously challenging. Seeing that, they were at the bottom of the European feudal system that foresaw peasants as the main working force. During the Middle Ages the concrete structure of the society classified individuals from the moment they were born. Which resulted in, no significant changes attributed to the work one was able to endure. Meanwhile; homes, clothing, food and marriage were the prominent contributors that determined your status/class. For means of survival peasants worked extremely long hours each day to obtain the basic necessities of; food, shelter and clothing. Most peasants were farmers however, a select few were Tradesmen who work as Miller's or in the tavern establishment. Peasants obeyed their local Lord swearing an “oath of obedience” on the Bible. This ensured to peasants loyalty and commitment to a Lord, in aspirations of producing goods and other fineries.

Peasants keep complaining and complaining about their situation, yet they do not do anything about it. That’s because of Manorialism. They depend too much on their lords for food and lodging. But not voluntarily. They had no other choice, as they will starve to death in the streets, homeless.

Life on a manor was very diverse depending on your social status during the medieval period in Europe. This essay will discuss the life of people during the Middle Ages in Europe. It will first give background on how feudalism began and explain the feudal classes on a manor. Next the paper will inform about the manor system and relationships between lords and serfs. It will then expand on the actual lives of individuals who lived on a manor. After that it will explain the differences in the lives of noblemen and women. Following the lives of men and women, it will touch on the life of the royal family on a manor. Lastly it will show the connections between medieval life and modern life.

February 1st, 2009 -the day my family and I landed in the great United States of America, I flew in hearing about it being the land of opportunities and of freedom. I hated everything about Nepal. I hated the patriarchal system that was very much alive. I hated that being a girl meant one day being someones wife, someones mother not someone who was college educated and following her dream. I hated girls were expected to be light skinned, pretty, and well mannered-everything I lacked. Therefore when I flew in, I was ecstatic about living in such great place, a place I did not know much of but it seemed like paradise because I had known about Hillary Clinton- a woman who endured so much as a woman but still kept on flighting because she lived in a country where there was freedom to pursue anything one liked-even for a woman.

Despite peasants being at the bottom of the Feudal system, Historian’s say that, without the role of the peasant’s the feudal system would be made redundant as with most peasants working on farms they would provide the kingdom with food and tools to survive, even peasant children played a vital role when deemed old enough would go and work in fields.

Peasants and serfs had to work for their lords to feed themselves by "reaping, plowing, sowing, and weeding the crops in the fields to try and stay alive" (Galloway 20-21). Also, to be able to do something on the lord's land such as "planting seeds to baptizing children, every peasant and every serf had to ask the lord himself or the steward, if the lord was absent" (Galloway 20-21). The peasant women and children would tend the house and make food for their family.  The nobles however, enjoyed a much more carefree lifestyle. After their morning affairs with all of the troubles that peasants had as well as settling rights as well as giving permission to travel, nobles would get the opportunity to hunt or practice sword fighting in the afternoon" (Lords and Ladies). At night they were also given "entertainment such as jugglers, jesters, music, and dancers" (Lords and Ladies). But jobs were not the only thing that peasants and nobles differed from, nobles also were given the opportunity to go to large banquets and feasts while many peasants

Having been given land by the king, the barons had to raise a number of knights who would serve him, for example by taking a number of knights into his household and feeding and providing for them, on the chance that they would be needed, but this was a costly way to secure their service. Given this, most barons would grant smaller fiefs to their vassal knights. On these fiefs, the knights could grow crops or support their families. In exchange the knights promised to be part of their baron’s military contribution to the king and part of the baron’s escort if he travelled. The knight’s vassal was the peasant, the poorest social class of medieval society. For labouring on the knight’s land, the peasant would be granted a small portion to work for himself. It was in this relationship to land that the positive and negative aspects for each of these groups in feudal society can be most clearly seen.

A child imitates its parents while it grows up, thus making them copy or imprint their actions, becoming child’s point of reference as it matures. I being no exception did the same. I looked up to my parents especially my mother, a high school teacher for Chemistry having a strong background in biology as my point of reference. She became my educational pillar and the ember of interest for science kindled right from my childhood days. This ember of interest turned into flames when I entered my high school.