DAILY LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Was it really all work and no play for those who lived in the Medieval era?

As peasants stirred from their slumber in the early hours and headed out at dawn for a hard day toiling the land, nobles would awake in comparative luxury and get stuck into the less back-breaking grind of politics and business. For those at the bottom of Medieval society, it was more a battle for survival. Bound by law, which handed them very few rights, the feudal system ensured the peasants were always at the behest of the ruling class.

It was a hard life. Peasants not only had to labour on the lords’ lands but farm the plot loaned to them in order to feed their families. It meant peasants completed the most daunting of tasks, from cutting and collecting wood to threshing and winnowing the grain. They would also work in all weathers and yet they were at least self-sufficient.

Each year was similar. The peasants tended to follow the three-field agricultural system so they would have one plot of land for a summer crop, another for winter and one left fallow so that it could regain nutrients for the following year. They would sow seeds in Spring, plough the fallow fields in May, shear sheep in June and July, harvest in August, thresh in September and spend Winter producing tools and making repairs.

If they wanted to leave the manor, they needed to gain permission and they also had to pay taxes including a tithe to the Church. While their situation was made all the worse for having to labour by hand, groups of peasants also worked together on the big tasks. They also got days off on Sundays, saints’ days and religious festivals.

Peasants had houses within the village manor, living in one- or two-room cottages built from sticks, straw and mud. They were sparsely equipped and a world away from those of the ruling class. They would lay on straw mattresses and heat their homes using a stone hearth. But with no chimney, the homes were smokey, and darkly lit thanks to the tiny windows.

The lord and his family, meanwhile, had lavishly decorated houses built from stone. They had servants who would cook, clean and launder, cottagers to carry out basic labouring jobs, bakers to make bread, blacksmiths to forge weapons and barbers who would double as doctors and dentists. None of these were afforded to the peasants and the average overall lifespan was close to 35.

Housing standards improved during the plague pandemic. Many peasants were killed in 1348, leading to a shortage of labour, and they were able to command higher wages as a result. Attempts were made to restrict their freedom of movement through the Ordinance of Labourers in 1349 but by then the landscape had changed.

The Medieval family

Although the Medieval writer Hostensius argued that girls were ready for marriage at 12 and boys at 14, teenage weddings were only typical among the wealthy aristocracy. In those cases, they were arranged and generally conducted for political reasons and so it very often meant that the couple were not necessarily deeply in love.

For the rest of society, though, it was more common for couples to marry later and, while women would often be younger than their husbands, a man tended to want the means to support his family before committing. The upside was that peasants were most likely to marry for love and couples would tend to be far closer than those further up the chain.

Indeed, the poorest people would sleep and socialise together and they also ate at the same table. Wives would prepare the food, ranging from a breakfast pottage – a hearty, predominantly vegetable-based broth to fill the husband’s ravenous belly – to the cooking of rabbit, pork, fish and other meats to accompany an otherwise narrow diet of bread and vegetables.

Women also worked just as hard, if not harder, than their male counterparts. As well as completing the domestic chores and looking after the children, they would knuckle down and help their husbands in the field, especially during the busiest harvesting periods. They tended to the livestock and ensured that their families were clothed but many also had jobs of their own.

Certainly in the towns, women would work in baking, textile manufacturing and brewing. Another popular job for women was the spinning of thread to form yarn. The lives of the less fortunate could not have been more different from the rich, though. In upper-class society, servants would produce banquets laden with the best variety and quality of food on offer. Meanwhile, the wealthier women would look after the household and be surrounded by lots of helpers.

Poorer women were helped in their domestic duties by their children once they reached the age of around seven. In the villages, children were expected to learn from their parents and they were prepared for domestic chores and husbandry. In the towns, children tended to fall under the eye of their employer or master as they became servants or started to learn a trade as an apprentice.

There was often heartache for families, though. Poor healthcare meant infant mortality rates were high and a quarter of babies died before they reached their first birthday. Many women also became widows since their older husbands would die before them, shattering what was once a closeknit family unit and putting extra pressure on those left behind.

From "All About History Book of Medieval History",UK, 2016, excerpts pp. 130-133. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.