Life in the Feudal System During Medievel Times

Peasants lived in small cottages or huts with their families, and they laid claim to small strips of land and also a share of the meadow. (ok just add some more info)

Imagine a time where you are working long hours outside in the hot summer and cold winters, getting paid little to nothing and having to work and figure out life for your family on a day-to-day basis. This is how life was like for peasants and serfs in the Middle Ages in Europe. This period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century (IO). In Europe, during the Middle Ages, feudalism was shown in three different ways as Social, Political and Economic.

Manorialism was an economic structure during the high middle ages that consisted of a lord and his vassals who served him and his wife. The serfs had more rights than slaves but they were tied to the land of their lord even when their land was captured by another lord. Unlike slaves, serfs could keep some of their crops and maintain their own family. Cottagers ranked below serfs and were only given cottage and a small plot of land to work on. At the top of the working class were freeholders. These peasants owned their own land and were not subjects of a lord. Peasants would work the fields together as a family regardless of sex or age, although mostly men worked with the heavy plows and women wove clothes during the least demanding seasons. The lands

In this time period, Feudalism became completely established (completed during the 11th century). Also, by this time a class called Knighthood had been completely established and was the prevailing method of protection for all classes (serfs, nobles, and kings). The Feudal System flourished during the times of Hand-To-Hand combat when wars were won with swords and armor, due to the superfluous amount of peasants (serfs) who together with the other classes of the Feudal System together created the flourishment of the

In the Middle Ages, everything was the progress of changing, a new European Society was being molded and its growth around Europe. Alongside of this change came the Manorial System or Manorialism, relationships between the Lord and his people, how the manor was typically ran, life inside the manor, including cultivation, economic system, etc. As a typical manor, it was as small as a self-sustaining country ran by the lord and peasants and serfs as his ruling people. On the inside, there was a castle, also known as the fortress, and the village, consisting of cottages, huts, barns, and farms for the peasants to live. Other creations included a church, a pond, a common pasture, and the demesne. These manors were created due to domestic disorders, depleted governments, and barbarian conquests that wracked Europe in the Middle Ages.

Manorialism is known as the Manorial System. Manor was known as a small piece of a larger land grant. Each manor was a self-sufficient community. The peasants and serfs worked the land and provided the labor for the production of all the things that are needed for a group of people to live together. The peasants usually lived in dirty houses scattered around the farms they worked. The peasants was required to work a few days a week on the lord's land and the other days he was to work on his land to provide for his family. The peasants had to pay taxes in the form of money or goods to the lord in exchange for using the lord's facilities. The lord provided an area where the peasant could take refuge in times of attack. The castle had thick outside walls that protected a variety of buildings inside. Everyone could go inside the castle walls for safety and protection. The walls would be emergency supplies that could be used if the castle were under attack for a long amount of time. It developed by keeping everyone fed and clothed in a self-sufficient manner. The manorial system provided stability in those ancient and dark moments where the only safe place was behind the thick walls of the castle. . The manorial system was also an important feature of the social structure of the Middle Ages. Overall, manorialism is a political, economic, and social system in medieval and early modern

Medieval times were very similar to current times. There were the rich and the poor. The poor families (families not related to the lord) would live in the village and work on the farms. The farming land was split into three different fields and then split among the different families in the village. Many of the families owned one ox but that was not enough to pull the plow, so the different families had different jobs for each month of the year. When the farmers came home from long days in the fields, their meals were not very plentiful. To have meat in the house was considered a luxury. The dinner would often consist of bread, cheese, and sometimes pottage. Pottage was a mixture of grain, hot water, and when available meat or fish.

Some peasants were free, but lots of the peasants became serfs (slave to the land) who cannot leave the land without permission, must pay rent to the lord or do military service for their master. Since life was harsh and difficult, Christianity and the church became the people’s salvation and for every medieval village, there would be a church in the center of it. Because the manors were isolated in rural areas, the manorialism system is self-sustaining with little trading or connecting to the outside world, aside from occasional visit from pilgrims, travelers, and soldiers. Thus, manorialism reflects the economy and social structure of the Middle Ages where the lords had absolute power over his

Historians have suggested that peasants lived in a nuclear family such as many people in the World do. As for privacy experts also concluded that they liked their privacy from homes found from the 13th century which presumably had hedges and ditches surrounding their land. Peasants were self-producers of their food and livestock if they had any, many of the things that were produced by peasants were divided equally among the many things they had such as the livestock, the church and if they were working the land of the lord in that area his cut. The reason many of the peasants could have such live is because the lords did not wish to partake in the drawbacks of having slaves such as feeding and caring for them, so instead they created small vills (villages) that they could live in and then gave them land to work. (Terry Johns). The land they worked and the labor they did for the lord was their rent for living in the vills. The lords that owned the land and manor were often of fighting so they instilled the work of the tenants to take care of the manor, this became more prominent that peasants had the power to speak out against their lords since there are records of manor workers fining the lord for making a mess or things of that

During the High Middle Ages, there were a lot of changes in the livelihood of those who lived in the rural and city areas. Opportunities emerged for both areas to begin living a better life. In earlier decades, there were not enough agricultural resources for people to prosper. They relied heavily on the land-holding class of nobles and knights. The common people became serfs and gave up many freedoms in return for protection and survival.

Women from the medieval ages were denied so many opportunities and their voices were not being considered in society. They were not allowed to hold any position and “either were they allowed to contribute in any aspect of life. There is a very profound statement made in the book “The book of the city of ladies”. “Didn’t you yourself create woman, especially and then endow her with all the qualities that you wish her to have? How could you possibly have made a mistake in anything?” (De Pizan, Christine.) "The Book of the City of Ladies." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

Some crops they cultivated were wheat, vegetables, rye, oats and barley. Some products were traded outside which included millstones, salt and iron. Within the manor, there was a manorial court which regulated the property and services such as the number of pigs that can be pastured per household. The courts also cleared up disputes around inheritance and property. Peasants were required to pay taxes on grain and marriage and they paid a church tax or a tithe which was one-tenth of their income. Some baked bread as a way to avoid taxes, however, this was illegal and treated as a serious crime. A marriage had to be approved by the lord and a unfree peasant could not marry a free peasant. Peasants seldom left the estate and travel more than 25 miles away. Even though serfs were restricted and had few rights, they were not slaves due to the inability of the lords to sell or buy them. The peasants’ living conditions were harsh and crowded. Between 15 to 30 families lived in small two room cottages close to each other in the village within the

Medieval society was completely dominated by men, making a women’s life at the time difficult. Medieval law at the time stated that women could not marry without their parents consent, could not divorce their husbands, could not own property unless widows, could not inherit land if they had surviving brothers, and could own no business with special permission (Trueman, “Medieval Women”). When a woman married a man, he would get any property she owned and she would forfeit any rights she had to him. When the husband dies she would get one third of the land to live on and support herself. Unmarried women who owned land had the same rights as men (Hull). Whenever a woman got into trouble it would be her closest male relative who would appear

These farms were part of an estate that included a castle and a small village, surrounded by woods, meadows, and pastures. The landlord kept serfs, and these serfs obtained the same agreement as in the Anglo-Saxon period: obedience to the king resulted in the king’s protection. Serfs performed tasks such as farming and blacksmithing. Like the Thegns, serfs had few freedoms, but in contrast, they were not slaves. Limitations on these individuals included being unable to leave the property without permission or marry someone from another manor. As the late Middle Ages approached, many serfs became freemen, able to own land either by renting or owning little debt to a feudal lord. Compared to the Anglo-Saxon time period, the Middle Ages brought more freedoms to the lowest

The rest of the people in the manor would live on the outskirts of the manor house where they worked harvesting the fields of making skilled crafts (Nardo 21). In a serfs house had a dirt flor, a thatched roof , and a hearth in the center for cooking and warmth (Hazen 2). The house was flammable so most cooking was done outside. (Hazen 3). Women serfs took care of the household (Hazen 2). Farmers used 3 field method to farm the most food as possible (Hazen 2). One field was for spring, one field was for fall, and one field was left fertile (Hazen 2). This system helped the manor have a constant supply of food. The strips field system enforced villiage demoncracy (Collaboration). Each village has common land where villages can graze cattle, collect wood, cut turf and catch fish (Collaboration). Clearly, the structure of the manor makes for a society that can be seen as self