MEDIEVAL PEASANTS, LIFE UNDER THE FEUDAL SYSTEM.PAGE 1.Medieval Peasants, accounted for the majority of people in medieval times. They lived a rural, agrarian life under a Feudal System in which they would form communities.
They ate well, for although their food was basic, it was good. Medieval Peasant Clothing was also quite sufficient for their needs, but we will go into more detail of diet and clothing a little later. At the centre of each of these communities was the village, which usually comprised of several, small one roomed dwellings, with a church and a mill, blacksmith, baker, butcher, a brewer and possibly one or two other necessary vendors. Most of the villagers came under one of two categories, ones who were free and the ones who were unfree, these latter were called serfs. In the feudal system, serfs were the unfree people, being tied to the lord on whose manor they lived, by owing him certain obligations and fees in exchange for the small pieces of land he had granted to them to work. Slavery in England and western Europe had died out and completely disappeared by the end of the first millenium. It had been replaced by a part of the feudal system called serfdom. Serfdom was not slavery or bondage, whereby people were property in the truest sense of the word and could be worked as hard, or treated in whichever way, an owner wished.
Therefore, although serfs were not slaves, they were what was termed as unfree, whereby they owed rent to the lord on whose manor they lived, and a certain number of days each week labouring for him, though not neccessarily in his fields. Most medieval peasants were serfs, but there were also non-serfs who actually owned their own land, but also had all the responsibilities that went with farming their own land. Surrounding these villages were large strips of arable farmland, usually three, with each one being subdivided into long strips. One peasant would farm a strip in each one of these fields, on a rotational basis, by changing the crops they grew in each field, annually. Each year, one of the fields would not be used, it would lie fallow, in order that it could recover and regain its goodness. In the middle ages there were still plenty of forests, where the peasants would collect wood. There was also common land surrounding the villages, which everyone could use to graze their livestock and a nearby river, from where they got their water supply, for washing, cooking and very importantly, to obtain a fresh supply of fish. Medieval Peasants, were a hardy bunch, they had to be, just to survive. They worked from dawn until dusk, half their time being spent working on their own pieces of land and half their time spent labouring on church lands and on the land of the lord of the manor. It had been the custom for centuries, that everyone had a duty to give to the church. Each man's due was known as a tithe, which means a tenth of whatever he earned. They could pay it in money or in kind. The Medieval Peasants were no exception, they had to pay this tax to the church. Therefore, a tenth of anything they grew, whether it was grain, barley, wheat or fruit, had to be given to the church. In order to grow this produce, which then meant they could pay their dues, they first needed land, which they obtained from their local lord. In return, they had to pay rent. This rent was usually paid, by giving the lord a percentage of their harvest, which would pay a part of their rent and in order to pay the remainder of the rent, they would owe the landlord a certain number of days labouring for him each week. This labouring did not neccessarily mean working in the landlord's fields, it could involve any kind of work the landlord required doing. For instance, it may have involved the maintenance of roads and bridges, which constantly needed attention. It could also mean the difficult task of assarting. Assarting, or the act of clearing forested lands so that it can be used for agriculture, or any other purposes, is not just the felling of trees and shrubbery, for this vegetation can grow again. It is the complete uprooting of trees, or total extirpation of the forested area. It was both difficult to carry out in medieval times, and extremely labour intensive, given the tools at their disposal. However, deforestation had begun in earnest as the size of the population increased. More and more landlords were increasing the amount of land that they could plough, by clearing woodland and as a result, they would use the labour at their disposal. Go To Medieval Peasant Page 2.
|
