Examples Of Social Class In Medieval England

In the Middle Ages your social status depended on your rank. The ranks were kings, nobles, knights, and then serfs.(Doc.1) Typically, the serfs did the most for everyone else, they provided food and services when demanded in exchange for protection and maybe something to eat.(Doc.1) Knights provided protection and military service for nobles in exchange for land. (Doc.1)

During the Middle Ages social class much different than modern day. In a feudal society “nobles were granted the use of land that legally belonged to the king,” (Doc. 1). The nobles, in return, would give the lord loyalty and military services (Doc. 1). As peasants or serfs worked for nobles and knights they received protection and a portion of the harvest to feed their families (Doc. 1).

Social life in the Middle Ages was heavily influenced by the feudal system. The King was at the top of the society then the nobles, knights, and peasants/serfs. The King, nobles, and knights talk to each other the serfs/peasants are all by themselves (Doc. 1). If you were born as a serf, you would be a serf for the rest of your life. The kings controlled the land. The nobles were the assistants for the kings. The knights protected the nobles and the kings, and the serfs were farmers (Doc. 1). Another influence on the social lives of people was the Church. In a time of great political chaos, the Roman Catholic Church was the single, largest unifying structure in medieval Europe

Society in the middle ages had a different lifestyle than most of today’s public. In medieval times there was more social grouping, however, not vastly different from the social classes there is currently. Generally citizens are split into upper class, middle class, and lower class, where in the middle ages people where split into

In the English colonies there were six social classes. From the richest to the poorest, these were the gentry, the middle Class, poor whites, indentured servants, free africans and slaves. The people that made up these classes ranged from the most powerful to those with the least amount of rights, if any.

Women and their families often grew up in rural areas, making most of their money and living from the land they would tend, and the crops they grew (bl.uk). Most women were neither nuns or housewives, but worked. “Women’s gender…excluded them from the learned professions of scholarship, medicine, and law. A women rarely considered herself as just a wife (“The Western Heritage” p. 218). Women held a lot of traditional roles and jobs in medieval times. Women were expected to be in charge of making all of the food for the whole family. Men rarely cooked, as this was the job of the women. Also, women were expected to be the primary caretakers of the children, as the men were often working in the fields, and

The monarch during the Elizabethan era was Queen Elizabeth the I she had most of the power to control her land similar to our president, though in modern times our president controls most things the House of Congress is similar to the Lord Mayor of London in the way that they can give a majority vote in favor of a certain law. The nobles of the century do not directly correlate to the upper class but there can be similarities found in the amount of power they had due to the amount of money they had. The military is considered to be the knights though they are respected they are not as high up on the totem pole as the knights. The middle class of our modern world is similar to that time period because it is the largest class but different because in the 16th-century middle class got little respect whereas as now middle class is treated the same as any other person. The final class the laborers, does not necessarily relate to our modern society because everyone would be considered a laborer but there are also poor people in our society. The separations in our modern society are heavily influenced by the strict social class of the 15th and 16th

In the Life Cycle Completed by Erik H. Erikson, Erikson talks about the stages in life those stages range from infancy to elderly age. The stages are basic trust vs. basic mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. identity confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generatively vs. stagnation, and finally integrity vs. despair. In Wild Strawberries the character Isak Borg goes through all the stages that Erikson talk about in his book Life Cycle Completed and you get a visual understanding of what Erikson means about the stages.

Peasants were members of the lowest class, those who work. They were the most common class. They were the millers, blacksmiths, butchers, carpenters, farmers, and other trades people. Peasant women in particular, spent much of their time taking care of children, making clothes, and cooking meals. They also tended gardens, took care of animals by tending chicken, shearing sheep, and milking cows (Cels 16). Within peasants, there were two main groups of people, the serfs and the freemen. Both were employed by the lords. And serfs were people that paid more fees, and had less rights. Freemen on the other hand paid less fees and had more rights than serfs (Noiret). While freemen could leave the manor when at whim, serfs were not allowed to leave

The social structure of the Middle Ages was based on the practice of feudalism. Feudalism meant that the country was not governed directly by the king, but by individual lords

Written by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the fourteenth century, The Canterbury Tales and more specifically it’s prologue, shed a great deal of light on the rising middle class in (fourteenth century) England. Despite the fact that some readers may not know a lot about the time period today, Chaucer’s writing in the prologue elaborates on topics such as occupations, wealth, education, and political power. Scholar Barbara Nolan writes of the prologue, “it is more complex than most…It raises expectations in just the areas the handbooks propose, promising to take up important matters of natural and social order, moral character, and religion and outlining the organization the work will follow” (Nolan 154). In other words, while noting the

Life in the high middle ages, between 1000 and 1300 A.D., had two kinds of communities, manorial villages and towns. The major difference in these two distinct types of communities was the freedom and rights of the people. In the manorial villages you had lords who owned large portions of land. The vassals who entered into a military obligation with the lords, in exchange for land and protection. Finally, serfs who were a class of people that worked their lord’s land as half slave and half freeman. Vassals were more of an employee and the serfs were little more than a slave because they were bound to the lord’s land. The serfs could not leave or do anything without the lord’s permission and most of the time they had to pay fees to be granted the permissions they requested. In contrast the townspeople elected their officials, had freedom to choose a careers, they move about where they liked, and could acquire training and schooling. Townspeople were in fact free and not absolutely controlled by a lord. As for the manorial villages, the lords had all the power and had absolute control over all the actions and work of the vassals and serfs.

During this time the social class depended on how much land you owned. Royalty in your Kings and Queens was part of the upper class; the noble lords and vassals followed the

Social classes play a major role in society and shape the roles of the people. Since the Elizabethan period began, the social classes were well structured with many influences, such as prestige or wealth. Many citizens found ways to elevate their status and become more successful citizens in the public. The social class structure in the Elizabethan Era was thought to be strict and very well organized, yet still had many opportunities and flaws which lead to changes in citizens’ lives.

Social class plays a major role in a society. A person’s social class affects his/her education, respectability, and ability to get a job. Most people in America’s society are born into their social class, but it is easier now to move up than it was in 16th century England. Although there are some slight differences in these two social classes, the social classes of 16th century England are shockingly similar to the social classes of modern day America.