Serfs: Difficult, Demanding Life In The Middle Ages

The majority of people in medieval Britain, both men and women, lived as farmers. Surely this was a life dominated by men at the time, with the heavy and physical work demanded in the fields? In fact, peasant life was very much about a partnership between husband and wife in raising a family and working the fields. At crucial times in the farming year, particularly harvesting seasons. Women worked alongside men in the fields.

Although the feudal system presented a mutually beneficial relationship at first, over time many burdens were placed on the vassals. A serf was bound to the land, thus resulting in a fixed income. Since he was unable to move to another lord, he was reliant on only what was originally agreed upon to provide monetary support. [Support was generally in kind, or in labor.] With no “right” to adjust the support needed for survival, the serf and his family experiences tremendous hardships.

Hayek makes another reference to Totalitarianism. He believes that there has to be a group behind the leader in order to make it work. Hayek thinks that these people tend to be the bad apples. Hayek also states that groups have common goals and finding the goals can be an issue. Hayek makes the reference

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

This was influenced by the manor system, “ The manor was the economic side of feudalism” (Doc 2). This meaning that your ranking in the feudalism was your job in the manor system. If you were a serf you worked, and farmed for the King, Knights,and Nobles and you had one day a week to farm to feed yourself and your family. If that isn't hard enough they also had to pay high rents to the lords for using his land to farm. The Knights and Nobles had to fight and serve the King for exchange of land,and they had to pay taxes. This showing that life in the Middle Ages was hard for many

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).

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.

It was also because they were needed by everyone and people did whatever the serfs wanted because they needed them. Serfs soon gained more rights and were treated like everyone else in the society. They were no longer poor people who were tied to their master’s land. Serfs started to go to the kings and dukes and bargained with them about better working conditions for themselves. This demand for higher wages and better working conditions ended serfdom. Serfdom was just that serfs were tied to the land that they worked

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.

The upper class had high demands for serfs. Rebellions occurred because lords in the feudal system tried to continue impose the feudalism structure, which lead to the Peasant’s revolt. Through this, the laborers were able to demand better working conditions since the upper class was desperate for people to grow their crops. Those who were slaves gained power. Those who had their rights abused were able to stand up. “The peasants became slightly more empowered, and revolted when the aristocracy attempted to resist the changes brought about by the plague” (“1320: Section...”). The Peasant’s Revolt foreshadowed future labor unions. They wanted to have fairness and better treatment which started the end of feudalism. “This set Western Europe along the path of diverging classes” (“1320:

1.The serfs are the most important role in a feudal society.(A feudal society is a “ political and economic system of Europe from the 9th to about the 15th century”). Another word for a serf is a peasant which is a very poor person. If this role didn’t exist then the kings would have no one to rule. So that would mean there is no kingdom. Another reason why serfs are the most important is if the serfs weren’t there,who would feed the king, his knights and his vassals on their journeys. Serfs also did the lord's hard work so how would the lord get all of his work done. 2. I know this because the serf poster wrote the serfs feeds the king, his knights and the vassals on their journeys. Serfs also did the lord's hard work and labor.3.What this

Serfs had multiple promises made in order to keep the flow of feudalism running smoothly. The laborers worked on the King’s land and gave him food in return for their property (Macdonald 17). The workers were required to give a payment to be able to live on the king’s land. Just about everything Serfs did, they had to pay a tax to do (“Social Classes, Life, and Plague”). The workers were required to pay a certain fee to the lord be able to do their daily job- provide for the lord.

This is the year 1542 around the medieval times. Alex and Mayana were brother and sister, but I was 3 months older than her. I had just turned 12 in this frightful time while she was still 11. No one really remembered because we were slaves in the medieval times and are parents were killed just after they were 6 years old. We were building something in the walls of the city which seemed like it was taking forever. We didn’t know what we were building though?

The peasant has always been looked upon as an object of pity, an underclass citizen who worked to provide for the higher classes. A passage from Pierce the Ploughman’s Creed gives the perfect description of a day in the life of a peasant: As I went by the way, weeping for sorrow, I saw a poor man hanging on to the plough. His coat was of a coarse stuff which was called cary; his hood was full of holes and his hair stuck out of it. As he trod the soil his toes stuck out of his worn shoes with their thick soles; his hocks on all sides and he was all bedaubed with muck as he followed the plough. He had two mittens, scantily made of rough stuff, with worn-out fingers and thick with muck. This man bemired himself in mud

The Medieval Ages that descended upon the Europeans following the deconstruction and devolution of the formerly grand institutions of the Roman Empire left a world darkened to the eyes of history. The world lost touch with simple concepts to a modern history student of writing, economy, culture, and government—the mainstay of that which we cannot see ourselves without—civilization. What was left of Europe was a state of chaos. In all other periods of human history I have studied there were similarities among them from which I could draw conclusions upon the condition of the respective times. The Text helped to give order to the progression of European history from the ancient to the modern drawing