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dcs-armstrong

Peasant Life In The Middle Ages - The Finer Times - 1 views

  • Peasant life in the Middle Ages was noticeably difficult. Families and entire villages were exposed to disease, war and generally a life of poverty.
  • most people across Europe were peasants or “velleins”
  • worked in the vast stretches of lands owned by the local lords
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  • 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.
mukul g

The Black Death of 1348 to 1350 - 4 views

    • mukul g
       
      Mr.Holman you said that the people had some fever and then died right?
  • "The first signs of the plague were lumps in the groin or armpits. After this, livid black spots appeared on the arms and thighs and other parts of the body. Few recovered. Almost all died within three days, usually without any fever."
  • The Black Death had a huge impact on society. Fields went unploughed as the men who usually did this were victims of the disease. Harvests would not have been brought in as the manpower did not exist. Animals would have been lost as the people in a village would not have been around to tend them.
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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
Cameron G.

The Middle Ages for Kids - Common People, the Manorial System - 1 views

  • If the manor land was sold or reassigned to a new owner, the serfs stayed with the land.
  • Serfs had many jobs on the manor including craftsmen, bakers, farmers, and tax collectors
  • They had to do the job they were assigned to do. 
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  • Serfs could buy their freedom from the manor, but where would they get the money?
  • If a new lord took over the manor, he would need the serfs for labor.
  • Peasants were free to leave if they wished
  • Peasants worked the land and made the goods in exchange for protection.
  • Other than that, their life was just like a serf's life.
  • A few peasants escaped the hard work on the farm by joining the church. But most lived and died on the manor where they were born.
  • Everyone had to pay taxes to the lord
  • To pay the crop tax, some crops went to the lord, and some they kept. To pay the bread tax, some bread they made went to the lord, and some they kept. To pay the coat tax, some of the warm coats they made went to the lord, and some they kept.
  • Everything was paid in barter. Coinage or money did not exist on the manor. 
  • People believed that the only way to get to Heaven was to follow the teachings in the Bible.
  • The common people could not read or write.
  • The priest told them who they must marry and when. You had to do everything the priest said if you wanted to get to heaven. 
  • peasants and serfs were mostly content with their lot.
  • work kept everyone on the manor fed and comfortable, including themselves. 
  • They were not slaves. These people could not be bought and sold. But they could not leave the manor without permission.
Maya G

The Lifestyle of Medieval Peasants - 3 views

  • The peasants were at the bottom of the Feudal System and had to obey their local lord to whom they had sworn an oath of obedience on the Bible
  • The one thing the peasant had to do in Medieval England was to pay out money in taxes or rent.
  • pay a tax to the church called a tithe.
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  • Peasants lived in cruck houses. These had a wooden frame onto which was plastered wattle and daub. This was a mixture of mud, straw and manure.
  • For all peasants, life was "nasty, brutish and short."
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    Great site for peasants! 
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    quest 4
Garth Holman

The Medieval Church - 3 views

  • From the very earliest of ages, the people were taught that the only way they could get to Heaven was if the Roman Catholic Church let them. Everybody would have been terrified of Hell and the people would have been told of the sheer horrors awaiting for them in Hell in the weekly services they attended.
  • The control the Church had over the people was total. Peasants worked for free on Church land. This proved difficult for peasants as the time they spent working on Church land, could have been better spent working on their own plots of land producing food for their families.
  • They paid 10% of what they earned in a year to the Church (this tax was called tithes). Tithes could be paid in either money or in goods produced by the peasant farmers. As peasants had little money, they almost always had to pay in seeds, harvested grain, animals etc. This usually caused a peasant a lot of hardship as seeds, for example, would be needed to feed a family the following year.
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  • What the Church got in tithes was kept in huge tithe barns; a lot of the stored grain would have been eaten  by rats or poisoned by their urine.
  • A failure to pay tithes, so the peasants were told by the Church, would lead to their souls going to Hell after they had died. 
  • People were too scared not to pay tithes despite the difficulties it meant for them.
  • You also had to pay for baptisms (if you were not baptised you could not go to Heaven when you died), marriages (there were no couples living together in Medieval times as the Church taught that this equaled sin) and burials - you had to be buried on holy land if your soul was to get to heaven. Whichever way you looked, the Church received money.
  • The Church also did not have to pay taxes.
  • Important cities would have cathedrals in them.
  • To work on the building of a cathedral was a great honour. Those who did the skilled work had to belong to a guild. They would have used just the most basic of tools and less than strong scaffolding to do the ceilings. However, if you were killed in an accident while working in a cathedral or a church, you were guaranteed a place in Heaven - or so the workers were told.
  • Their sheer size meant that people would see them from miles around, and remind them of the huge power of the Catholic Church in Medieval England.
    • Shira H
       
      Great site for quest 5
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    Medieval Church
Garth Holman

Medieval Peasant Cottage - YouTube - 2 views

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    Great for Peasants to find out how their cottage/house was built
  •  
    How was a peasant cottage made? Check out this explanation in youtube for 3:18
Maya G

Medieval Manors - 2 views

  • Medieval manors varied in size but were typically small holdings of between 1200 - 1800 acres. Every noble had at least one manor; great nobles might have several manors, usually scattered throughout the country;
  • A substantial number of manors (estimated by value at 17% in England in 1086) belonged directly to the king. An even greater proportion (rather more than a quarter) were held by bishoprics and monasteries.
  • A manor was the district over which a lord had domain and could exercise certain rights and privileges in medieval England. A typical manor would include a Manor House which was built apart from the village where the peasants lived.
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  • Servant: Servants were house peasants who worked in the lord's manor house, doing the cooking, cleaning, laundering, and other household chores
  • Peasant or Villein - A peasant or villein was a low status tenant who worked as an agricultural worker or laborer. A peasant or villein usually cultivated 20-40 acres of land
Garth Holman

Intro to the Medieval Era - 1 views

  • The Medieval Era, often called The Middle Ages or the Dark Ages, began just before 500 A.D. following a great loss of power throughout Europe by the Roman Emperor. The Middle Ages span roughly 1,000 years, ending around 1450 A.D. (Medieval actually means "Middle"!) In The Middle Ages people were busy: Building great Cathedrals as there was a huge rise in Christianity Building Great castles for local nobility Clearing large tracts of land by peasants and slaves for their Lords and Kings New towns and villages were popping up all over Europe
  • esulting in the foundation of many of today's modern European countries.
  • For safety and for defense, people formed small communities around a central Lord or Master. Most lived on a Manor, which consisted of the Castle, the Church, the Village, and the surrounding Farm Land. These Manors were isolated, with only occasional visits from peddlers or pilgrims on their way to the Crusades or soldiers from other fiefdoms (kingdoms).
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  • Feudalism ~ The King awarded land grants to his most important nobles, like Barons and Bishops, in return for their contribution of soldiers for the King's armies. Lords could have a variety of other official titles including Earl, Marquis or Viscount. Lords did more than fund wars. They were the local justice and held court for local matters. Lords provided some of their land to Vassals, or tenants who were a somewhat higher class than peasants. Vassals were required to serve guard duty, and later they paid a fee to acquire mercenaries (soldiers-for-hire).  At the lowest class of society were the Peasants, also called "serfs" or "villeins." Peasants provided the Lord with labor or a share of the produce or livestock yielded from his lands in exchange for protection, land to work and a place to live.
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    This page of the site is good.
Benjamin R

Study Island Session - 1 views

  • During the Middle Ages, humble pie, an actual meal, was served to peasants. This dish was made from gizzards, hearts, livers, intestines, and other undesirable cuts of meat, usually from deer. (The choice cuts went to the upper class.)
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    I found a study island question that describes humble pie, a dish for peasants in the middle ages.
Mike Pennington

Terry Jones-Medieval Lives-The Peasant Part 1 - YouTube - 0 views

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    Part I: Life of a Peasant
Asha G

Children of the Middle Ages - 0 views

  • Children of peasants often had to begin helping their parents when they were as young as seven or eight years old
  • Many of the boys had to become pages and were set away as young as age 7 to wait on the lords and ladies of another noble family
  • boys who were born to lords learned to fight when they were very young, became squires at 14, and became knights at 21.
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  • It was not uncommon for a boy of 14, whether born to a peasant or born to a lord, to marry.
  • Girls could marry when they were even younger during the Middle Ages, sometimes as young as 12
  • the parents normally arranged the marriage for their offspring.
  • conditions were often extremely unsanitary -- especially for the poor and the peasants during the Middle Ages.
Garth Holman

Feudalism at mrdowling.com - 0 views

  • Feudalism was the system of loyalties and protections during the Middle Ages. As the Roman Empire crumbled, emperors granted land to nobles in exchange for their loyalty. These lands eventually developed into manors. A manor is the land owned by a noble and everything on it. A typical manor consisted of a castle, a small village, and farmland
  • During the Middle Ages, peasants could no longer count on the Roman army to protect them. German, Viking and Magyar tribes overran homes and farms throughout Europe. The peasants turned to the landowners, often called lords, to protect them. Some peasants remained free, but many became serfs. A serf was bound to the land. He could not leave without buying his freedom, an unlikely occurrence in the Middle Ages. Life for a serf was not much better than the life of a slave. The only difference was that a serf could not be sold to another manor.
Chaehee Lee

rights of a peasant - Google Search - 4 views

shared by Chaehee Lee on 25 Jan 12 - No Cached
    • Chaehee Lee
       
      I can't find a place to get the rights of a peasant, is there a link anybody knows?
Yuke Z

Medieval Education - 3 views

  • All lessons taught in a grammar school were in Latin. Lessons were taught in a way that boys had to learn information off by heart. Whether they understood what they had learned was a separate issue! Books were extremely expensive in Medieval England and no school could hope to kit out their pupils with books.
  • Lessons frequently started at sunrise and finished at sunset.
  • Discipline was very strict. Mistakes in lessons were punished with the birch (or the threat of it) In theory pupils would never make the same mistake again after being birched, as the memory of the pain inflicted was too strong.
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  • The sons of the peasants could only be educated if the lord of the manor had given his permission. Any family caught having a son educated without permission was heavily fined.
  • Very few girls went to what could be describes as a school. Girls from noble families were taught at home or in the house of another nobleman. Some girls from rich families went abroad to be educated. Regardless of where they went, the basis of their education was the same – how to keep a household going so that their husband was well kept. Girls might learn to play a musical instrument and to sing. But the philosophy of their education remained the same – how to keep a successful household for your husband.
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    Peasant Schooling
Mike Pennington

Terry Jones-Medieval Lives-The Peasant Part 3 - YouTube - 2 views

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    Part III: Life of a Peasant
Mike Pennington

Terry Jones-Medieval Lives-The Peasant Part 2 - YouTube - 0 views

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    Part II: Life of a Peasant
Shira H

Daily Life in the Middle Ages - 5 views

    • Shira H
       
      great site for quest 4 blog There is daily life of a peasant, lord, noble, noblewoman, Knight.
  • Daily Life of a Knight in the Middle Ages
  • Daily Life of a Noblewoman in the Middle Ages
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  • Daily Life of a Peasant in the Middle Ages
  • Daily Life for Peasant Women in the Middle Ages
  • Daily Life in the Middle Ages - the Entertainment, Festivals and Holidays
  • ights and privileges given to the Upper Classes and in most cases enacted by laws. Everything was a source of privilege for the nobles.
tdowd t

How Feudalism Works - 0 views

  • Mind Your Manors   In the days of decentralized government, a fief was like its own mini country that produced pretty much everything that was needed from food to weapons to tools. At the heart of a lord's fief was the manor-large estates. The manor was where the lord's family, servants, and his knights lived. At first they began as large houses, but over the years became full castles as walls, towers, and moats were added for protection. Manors were always in the country and surrounded by farmland and woods. Some of the wealthier lords even had more than one manor.   A manor was the center of the community. Not only did it serve as a place for peasants to run to in times of war, but was the political center as well. When he wasn't out fighting for his Lord, the lord of a fief would act as a judge in settling disputes. He also appointed officials who would collect taxes and rent from the peasants and townspeople. Large manors had their own churches complete with their own clergy, as well as a marketplace where locals could buy and sell goods. At any time one time, hundreds of people from priests, knights, squires, entertainers, merchants, peasants, and visiting nobles would head to the manor.   For the Lady of the manor her day was spent overseeing servants & caring for the children. When her husband was away (or killed in battle) the Lady of the manor assumed the same roles her husband did, appointing officials and acting as judge. In the early Middle Ages a woman owning property was not all that uncommon.
  • Living in a castle might sound romantic but it's not all that it was cracked up to be. Medieval manors were built of wood and stone and built on a large scale. Glass was rare and extremely expensive so windows often were either left open or covered with cloth during the winter. The only means of heating a manor was the fireplace. Each major room had its own. The Great Room, which as its name implies was the center of manor life.  The Great Room was heated and lit by an enormous fireplace, big enough to stand in. The Great Room was where all of the eating, drinking, debating, politicking, and merry making and other business was conducted. Speaking of doing business, how did medieval people use the bathroom? All manor houses had privies either outside or inside the castle. The ones inside were nothing more than a seat that emptied directly into the moat. ​ To modern observers manors would have been filthy places. Fleas were common and the smell of hundreds of unwashed people (who often only bathed once a week) would have pervaded. Rats and mice also would have been running around as food was thrown directly on the floor during meal times. At night the servants swept the floor and rushes (dried river reeds) would be spread on the floor and all minor visitors and knights would bed down. The manor was often dark, cold, and smoky. To liven things up a bit, tapestries would be commissioned to decorate the walls.
Garth Holman

Medieval education in Europe: Schools & Universities - 0 views

  • It is estimated that by 1330, only 5% of the total population of Europe received any sort of education
  • Even then education, as we understand it, was not accessible or even desired by everyone. Schools were mostly only accessible to the sons of high lords of the land.
  • In most kingdoms in Europe, education was overseen by the church.
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  • The very fact that the curriculum was structured by the church gave it the ability to mould the students to follow its doctrine
  • Unofficially, education started from a very young age. This sort of early education depended on the feudal class of the child’s parents
  • Even the children of serfs would be taught the skills needed to survive by their parents. The boys would be taken out into the fields to observe and to help their parents with easy tasks, while the girls would work with the animals at home, in the vegetable garden with their mothers, or watch them weave.
  • Children of craftsmen and merchants were educated from a very young age in the trade of their fathers. Trade secrets rarely left a family and they had to be taught and understood by all male (and unusually, female) heirs, in order to continue the family legacy.
  • Young boys of noble birth would learn how to hunt and swing a weapon, while the young ladies of nobility would learn how to cook
  • The main subject of study in those schools was Latin (reading and writing). In addition to this, students were also taught rhetoric – the art of public speaking and persuasion – which was a very useful tool for both men of the cloth and nobles alike.
  • Lessons frequently started at sunrise and finished at sunset
  • University education, across the whole of the continent, was a luxury to which only the wealthiest and brightest could ever aspire
  • Since the creation of the first university in 1088
  • Students attended the Medieval University at different ages, ranging from 14 (if they were attending Oxford or Paris to study the Arts) to their 30s (if they were studying Law in Bologna)
  • The dynamic between students and teachers in a medieval university was significantly different from today. In the University of Bologna students hired and fired teachers by consensus. The students also bargained as a collective regarding fees, and threatened teachers with strikes if their demands were not met
  • A Master of Arts degree in the medieval education system would have taken six years; a Bachelor of Arts degree would be awarded after completing the third or fourth year. By “Arts” the degree was referring to the seven liberal arts – arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music theory, grammar, logic, and rhetoric
  • The sons of the peasants could only be educated if the lord of the manor had given his permission
  • Any family caught having a son educated without permission was heavily fined
  • Historians today believe that this policy was another way in which authority figures attempted to control the peasants, since an educated peasant/villein might prove to question the way things were done and upset the balance of power which kept the nobles strong.
  • Students held the legal status of clerics which, according to the Canon Law, could not be held by women; women were therefore not admitted into universities.
  •  
    This explains the importance of education and how each group got an education.
Garth Holman

World-History | Medieval Knights - 1 views

  • Knights might have been professional soldiers but that didn't mean they had to act like one. In the early days of feudalism, knights often ate at the same table as the lords and ladies of the manor
  • They often belched, spit, and put their feet directly on the dinner table. The refined ladies and lords were appalled. So, a code of honor was drawn up that we now call Chivalry.
    • Garth Holman
       
      So Chivalry comes as a way to correct their personal bad behavior. 
  • This stems from the Medieval Knights Code of Chivalry and the Vows of Knighthood.
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  • There were at least 17 rules to the knights code of chivalry and vows of knighthood. The most important were to serve God, serve their liege lord (the King), be courteous to all women (though what they meant was all women of the noble class), and to defend the weak. Other rules included to fight for the welfare of all, to live by honor and glory, and to refrain from the wanton giving of offence; basically, don’t act like ye olde arse.
    • Garth Holman
       
      Rules for the knight to follow. 
  • this was meant to defend the elderly, women and children, but of the upper class. Knights were often brutal to peasants and it was considered acceptable because of the low social status of the peasants. 
    • Garth Holman
       
      Poor Peasants? 
  • From this, came rules like if a woman was of equal or higher status, he should stand when she enters a room and sit only after she does, the best foods at a meal should be offered to her, and when walking on the sidewalk, the man should walk closest to the street. This was to protect the woman from getting spattered with mud and the contents of chamber pots (buckets that were used as toilets) that were thrown out windows. It was a way to show that the gentleman honored the woman to have the poop hit him instead.
  • nights kept their skills sharp by competing in tournaments known as jousts where two heavily armored horseman race at another at high speed
  • Medieval tournaments brought knights and lords together in friendly competitions to show off their skills at hand to hand combat, horse back riding, and of course, jousting
  • A head shot for example was the most damaging but also the most difficult target, and therefore was awarded the most points.
  • Cash prizes, called a purse, would be given to the winners and this was the best way to move up the social ladder if you didn't get a chance to show off your skills on the battle field. 
    • Garth Holman
       
      Maybe you can win the "PURSE" in your blog! 
  • To become a knight was a long and difficult path.
  • sent to live in the castle with his Lord where his training would begin around the age of seven
  • road to knighthood he was known as a page. A page's training involved learning to ride a horse and receiving religious instruction from the priest of the manor. And, when he wasn't riding or praying, a page spent his days running errands and serving the ladies of the manor. He would also be taught to dance, sing, and play a musical instrument which were considered honorable qualities for a knight to have.
  • a page would be promoted to the role of squire. A squire worked directly with his knight. The squire learned skills from his knight (who was also his Lord) such as sword fighting and hand to hand combat. The squire pretty much acted as personal assistant to his knight, polishing his armor, caring for his horse, and even waiting on him at meal times. During times of battle, it was the job of the squire to help his Lord into the armor and look after him if he was wounded. He also had the awful task of cleaning out the armor which, after a long day on the battle field would be covered in all sorts of bodily fluids.
    • Garth Holman
       
      Like pee He he!
  • "I promise on my faith that I will in the future be faithful to the lord, never cause him harm and will observe my homage to him completely against all persons in good faith and without deceit." -A Typical Oath of Fealty
    • Garth Holman
       
      NOTE: loyalty, homage, never cause harm, good faith.  You had to be a trustworthy to be a knigh! 
  •  
    Learn how a Knight becomes a knight and how Chivalry impacts you!
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