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Those who survived the Black Death believed that there was something special about them – almost as if God had protected them. Therefore, they took the opportunity offered by the disease to improve their lifestyle.

Peasants could demand higher wages as they knew that a lord was desperate to get in his harvest.

To curb peasants roaming around the countryside looking for better pay, the government introduced the Statute of Labourers in 1351 that stated: No peasants could be paid more than the wages paid in 1346. No lord or master should offer more wages than paid in 1346. No peasants could leave the village they belonged to.

Though some peasants decided to ignore the statute, many knew that disobedience would lead to serious punishment. This created great anger amongst the peasants which was to boil over in 1381 with the Peasants Revolt. Hence, it can be argued that the Black Death was to lead to the Peasants Revolt.

Why did the bubonic plague spread so quickly?

In towns and cities people lived very close together and they knew nothing about contagious diseases.

1.5 million people

In Medieval England, the Black Death was to kil

out of an estimated total of 4 million people between 1348 and 1350

The Black Death is the name given to a disease called the bubonic plague which was rampant during the Fourteenth Century. In fact, the bubonic plague affected England more than once in that century but its impact on English society from 1348 to 1350 was terrible.

It symptoms were described in 1348 by a man called Boccaccio who lived in Florence, Italy:

ck Death was caused by fleas carried by rats that were very common in towns and cities

The Bla

The Black Death did set the stage for more modern medicine and spurred changes in public health and hospital management. Frustrated with Black Death diagnoses that revolved around astrology and superstition, educators began placing greater emphasis on clinical medicine, based on physical science.

generally suffered a communal crisis of faith.

They had turned to the church for an answer to the plague, and the church had been able to offer no help.

celebrate being alive.

The danse macabre, or dance of death, is an allegorical concept that was expressed in drama, poetry, music and visual art.

The range of figures shown is meant to show that death will come for everyone, and the various activities depicted are a reminder that death could always be right around the corner.

very little known about the detailed life of peasants in Europe because the lords and the clergy did not keep records of the peasants

only

early records were concerning

duties

peasants owed their masters

slaves and serfs.

manors were divided into two:

Those who were full time servants would work every day of the week and would get a break to attend Mass on Sundays. Peasants were forbidden from leaving the lord’s manor without seeking permission. The condition of serfdom was hereditary and one would be tied to his master unless he saved enough to purchase some land or if he married a free person.  At the end of the twelfth century, the ties that bound peasants to their masters began to loosen.

Peasant life in the Middle Ages was confined to the manors,

The lords had great influence over the lives of the peasants;

Majority of the peasants worked three days a week in their lord’s land but they would work longer during the harvest and plantation periods

was where the peasants worked, tilled the land, planted and harvested on

he Church offered help to the neediest peasants in the form of food and necessities.

behalf of the lord

he peasants would receive a larger piece of land as long as they adhered to the condition that they work on the lord’s land before working on their own.

The plows and horses were so few and the peasants themselves spent the entire day working in the “demense”.

peasant also tended to the horses and cattle in meadows

Most peasants did not do much other than working, going to church and the occasional celebration.

hardly travelled outside their villages but they did have a sense of community amongst themselves

Peasant life was generally marked by having few possessions in the home

houses were basic shacks with benches, stools, wooden cups, bowls and spoons. Most households had a chest of drawers where the family would keep their valuable items. Peasants hardly slept on beds; they slept on straw mattresses on the floor. Given that they had few possessions even in terms of personal attires, they typically slept with their work apparels and covered themselves with animal skin.

Women

a small garden behind their house.

one part of the land, the “demense”

Church was also a source of education mainly for the peasant’s children who attended the local school that was part of the church. The peasants looked to the priests for baptism, marriage, and performance of last rites for the dying.  Christianity guided the moral decisions that peasant men and women made in their day-to-day life.

Education was meager and only available to a select group of boys.

young girls helped with chores in the house and they were married off as soon as they attained maturity; this was usually at the young age of thirteen or sixteen years.

Societal and economic development saw the rapid rise of cities and towns. As the ties between serfs and their masters became lose, the peasants were able to rent land and some even migrated to the towns. Catastrophes such as the Black Death, a plague that killed thousands of peasants made it difficult for lords to find peasants to work in their farms.