Life in the Medieval Era Essay

Freemen were not required to stay or work on manors, so they could choose where they wanted to live or work. A few freemen even set up their own stores and became business owners over time. Since serfs were required to stay on their land, they tried many different ways leave or run away. If a serf went into hiding and ran away from his lord’s land for over a year, he would become a freeman. There were risks to this though. If they were found they would be severely punished by their lord or whomever was their master.

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

The Middle Ages, or Dark Ages, of the 15th century, established a policy regarding the practice of agriculture that later became known as feudalism. The monarchy bestowed vast tracts of land and an ennobling title to individuals who were tasked with keeping a functioning economy in their lands and maintaining a private militia for the protection of the realm and fiefdom they owned. These aristocrats allocated parcels of land to the serfs, or peasants, in exchange for complete rustic servitude and the privilege being allowed to live on that lord's land. Any crops or animals that were cultivated belonged to the realm and peasants were only permitted to keep a meager portion of their efforts. This archaic practice, established during the era

The diet of the peasants was dominated by grain, wheat, oats, barley, and millet. A typical peasant meal consisted of thin vegetable soup made from peas, beans, or cabbage, eaten with bread. Vegetables and fresh fruit were eaten by the poor, vegetables would have been included in some form of stew, soup or pottage. Food items which came from the ground we're only being considered fit for the poor. Peasant lived near a body of water of some sort, they may have caught fish to supplement his diet, and peasants ate mostly what they could grow.The lower classes were healthier than the upper class due to their consumption of vitamin C, fiber, and calcium. Meat was a rare luxury for the poorer classes. Their meals typically featured bread, eggs, and dairy products.“Their diet also included freshwater and sea fish, such as salmon, trout, eel, pike, and sturgeon, and shellfish such as crabs, lobsters, oysters, cockels and mussels. For the poor, bread was the staple food and it would be eaten with butter, cheese, eggs, and pottage. (“Elizabethan Food”). (“Food and Drink”) & (“Elizabethan

Rich people had more variety of food than poor peasant people. An important part of a peasant's diet was bread. Peasant's eggs were gathered from their chickens, cheese/butter was made from their cow's milk, and meat was from chickens that no longer made eggs. Fish and meat, were luxurious to most peasants. Peasants who had meat and fish slated them to keep them from spoiling. The wealthier you were the better you ate. For upper class people, instead of eating just normal 'bread' they ate white bread of finest quality bread made from flour that was sifted two or three times. People who were rich would have rabbit, pork, chick and beef flavored with spices. Both the upper and lower-class people all drank ale and

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

The peasant class had to work overcome many obstacles in their lifetimes. In medieval times, peasants and serfs faced

Firstly, most peasants lived in small towns or nearby farms on a lord’s manor. The average peasant lived in a house made of mud and straw, or stone and wood. They slept on sacks of straw and the floors were entirely dirt. They had very few pieces of furniture usually just enough to hold their families clothes. In the winter it would get so cold peasants would have to huddle up with their livestock in the living room for warmth. In contrast to many nobles windows, being made of glass and able to effectively hold out the wind, a peasant’s window was just a hole in their house.

Around 90% of the population in medieval times belonged to peasants. They were the best populated class but were treated terribly. A peasants life is hard. We are at the bottom of the feudal system (a system of classes used in the medieval times). Peasants lives were boring and had nothing much to do.In the medieval time us peasants were divided into three different statuses: slave, serf, and freeman. These statuses were very important because it helped us understand what we had to do for the church and the kings, lords, and queens we worked for.

13) There was only knives and fingers to eat food. Except for feasts the wealthy ate in their private rooms. They also said that lunch meant snack and dinner was eaten at midday. Supper was eaten in the evening. They also did not have 3 meals a day, they only had 2 meals.

The peasants however could only eat what they harvested in their own fields and what was left if they worked for the lord (Galloway 20-21). They also could rarely eat meat, which was a huge luxury back then. They also had no refrigerators so many of the things peasants ate were stale food or spoiled food (Allen). Clean water was also a rarity. This was because water ways were not always clean and because many peasants used clean rivers as a place to dump their waste, there were no reliable sources for clean water in the Middle Ages (Allen). To solve this problem, brewers, or people who made a wine like drink called “ale” for living, used water and fermented fruits and was surprisingly cleaner than the water they had back then! Because of this, many peasants asked the brewers to make them ale and beaus of this, ale was the most popular dink for peasants and even the some of the nobles (Galloway). The peasants usually ate bread because thats what they could grow. Many peasants could only grow grain or barley and so they would take their crops to the miller who would grind the grain for you. However “many millers were known as cheaters as they made the people pay more or they kept some of the flour for themselves or even both!” (Galloway). Some millers would even put their hands on the scale so it would make the grain weigh more so the peasants would have to

This information in this paragraph talks about the life that the people in the middle ages live. They did not have the types of clothes that we have today. Now people for game they use electronic devices.Whatever the people ate it really depended on what was there level on the Feudalism Pyramid. Sometimes peasants did not have anything to eat because they were so poor and it was hard for them to afford food. In the other hand the people who were at the top of the pyramid also known as Royalty had a lot of food to eat. While the people at the top had good food like vegetables,wine,meat the people on the bottom did not have good food such as bread and sometimes water if they could find any for that one day.If people think about it it is like the book A long walk to water because in the Middle ages it was hard for them to get water just like in Africa.

Behind each house was a garden or small plot of land. The common fields surrounding the village were some distance away, divided into strips and separated by twigs and pieces of unplowed land. Past the open fields was the waste, the uncultivated land which provided grazing land for the cattle, sheep and pigs and also fuel and timber for building.11 Bread was the staple item of the peasant diet. Eating meat was either a rare or nonexistent occurrence. Peasants ate whatever they grew: grains and a small percent of vegetables and potatoes. Barley and oats were made into both food and drink for consuming. The good grains, the meat from the animals, and the tasty fruits and vegetables went to either the lords or to the upper classes.12 “The peasant’s housing was as basic as his diet.” Most houses consisted of two rooms, one for living and one for sleeping. The walls were constructed of clay or straw supported by wooden frames. The roofs were thatched and animals were free to wander in and out. The smells of animals, sweat and waste were anything but pleasant and were more than plentiful.Water was gathered from an outside well or spring and there was no form of sanitation leading to a low level of personal

In the Middle Ages, a person’s social status was defined by the Feudal rankings. The Feudal rankings consisted of kings at the top, followed by nobles, knights, and then peasants and serfs. “Feudalism was a political, economic, and social system in which nobles were granted the use of land that legally belonged to the king. In return, the nobles agreed to give their loyalty and military services to the king” (Doc. 1). Another influential part in the social life of a person in the Middle Ages was the Roman Catholic Church (Doc. 3). Mostly everyone in Europe was a Christian during this time. People, especially serfs and peasants, liked the Church because it gave them a sense of social belonging even though they were the bottom class (Doc. 3). Finally, the Code of Chivalry played an important role in the lives of everyone. It shaped how they lived. A social part of the Code of Chivalry was “Feudal duties,” which every person was required to do, and “Thou shalt be generous,” especially to the Church (Doc. 5). The social life of a person in the Middle Ages was important but not the only

Peasants would normally sprawl out all over the countryside growing crops, but were normally vulnerable to raids from other countries or rebels, so they exchanged part of their crops and tribute for protection from a lord. The Lord, having gained food and currency from the villages, would stockpile and use some of the food, and sell the rest for more currency, currency that could fund new building projects such as an upgrade to or a new mead hall for his subjects. The lord would also have to pay his soldiers to keep from mutinying, and to remain loyal to him, he would also feed his armies with the food harvested from the peasants, and buy food with the tribute given to him. Mead halls were widely used, but the Anglo-Saxon utilized them the