Who Could Read in the Middle Ages

By Tim Lambert

Gild In The Eye Ages

Under the feudal arrangement, introduced by the Normans society was like a pyramid. At the acme of the pyramid was the king. Below him were the barons or tenants-in-main. The king granted them land and in return, they had to provide so many soldiers to fight for and so many days a year. They besides had to swear an oath of loyalty to the rex and they became his vassals. The barons granted country to knights. In return, they had to fight for so many days a year.

Withal, this system proved bad-mannered. If a knight had to fight, say, 40 days a year when the twoscore days were upwards he would return dwelling house even if the king were in the middle of a campaign. Kings began to allow the barons to pay 'shield coin'. They used the money to pay soldiers when they needed them.

At the lesser of gild were peasants. Most were serfs or villeins. They were not free and could not leave their land without the lord'south permission. Furthermore, also as working on their own state they had to farm the lord's country for 2 or 3 days a calendar week. They also had to work extra days for him at busy times like harvest. (Although in time more and more than lords allowed them to pay money rents instead of doing labor service).

Villeins also had other burdens. For instance when a villein died his son had to requite the lord the best animal before taking over his male parent's land. Usually, peasants had to grind their grain to flour in the lord's mill (and give him a portion of their grain). In some places, they besides had to bake their bread in the lord's oven. Still, if you could escape from your village to a town for a year and a day you and so officially became gratis.

Moreover, the Black Death severely weakened the villeinage system. At the fourth dimension of the Domesday Book, the population of England was around ii one thousand thousand. By the cease of the 13th century, information technology had probably risen to nigh 6 million.

Even so, in the early 14th century, the climate of the world cooled and there were a series of famines. The population began to fall. The Black Death of 1348-49 killed well-nigh one-3rd of the population of England. So many people died at that place was a serious shortage of labor and lords were willing to 'poach' workers from other lords by offering them higher wages. Parliament tried to set up wages by police to prevent them from ascension but this was incommunicable to enforce. By the 15th century, the organization of serfdom or villeinage had broken down in England.

In the Centre Ages, the king ruled past divine right. In other words, people believed that God had chosen him to be king, and rebellion against him was a sin. Even so, that did not stop rebellions! Kings had limited power in the Middle Ages and rebellion was easy. A smashing deal depended on the personality of the king. If he was a strong graphic symbol he could control the barons. If he were weak or indecisive the barons would often rebel. Warrior kings who fought successful wars were the most powerful as they were pop with the dignity.

Homes In The Center Ages

Medieval peasants' homes were uncomplicated wooden huts. They had wooden frames filled in with wattle and daub (strips of woods woven together and covered in a 'plaster' of animal hair and clay). However, in some parts of the country huts were made of stone. Peasant huts were either whitewashed or painted in bright colors.

The poorest people lived in one-room huts. Slightly better-off peasants lived in huts with one or 2 rooms. In that location were no panes of glass in the windows merely wooden shutters, which were closed at night. The floors were of hard globe sometimes covered in straw for warmth.

In the middle of a peasant's hut was a fire used for cooking and heating. There was no chimney. Any furniture was very basic. Chairs were very expensive and no peasant could afford i. Instead, they sat on benches or stools. They would have a elementary wooden table and chests for storing clothes and other valuables. Tools and pottery vessels were hung on hooks. The peasants slept on straw and they did non have pillows. Instead, they rested their heads on wooden logs. The peasant'due south wife cooked on a cauldron suspended over the fire and the family ate from wooden bowls. Candles were expensive so peasants usually used rushlights (rushes dipped in animate being fat).

At night in summertime and all day in wintertime the peasants shared their huts with their animals. Parts of it were screened off for the livestock. Their body heat helped to keep the hut warm.

The Normans, at beginning, built castles of wood. In the early on 12th century rock replaced them. In the towns, wealthy merchants began living in stone houses. (The get-go ordinary people to alive in rock houses were Jews. They had to alive in rock houses for safety).

In Saxon times a rich human being and his entire household lived together in 1 great hall. In the Eye Ages, the not bad hall was still the center of a castle only the lord had his own room above it. This room was called the solar. In it, the lord slept in a bed, which was surrounded by curtains, both for privacy and to keep out drafts. The other members of the lord'due south household, such as his servants, slept on the flooring of the great hall. At one or both ends of the great hall, there was a fireplace and chimney. In the Middle Ages, chimneys were a luxury. Every bit time passed they became more than common but merely a small minority could beget them. Certainly, no peasant could afford one.

About 1180 for the first time since the Romans rich people had panes of glass in their windows. At beginning, drinking glass was very expensive and only rich people could afford information technology but by the late 13th and early on 14th centuries, the middle classes began to have glass in some of their windows. Those people who could not beget glass could utilize sparse strips of horn or pieces of linen soaked in tallow or resin which were translucent.

Medieval Merchant'due south House, Southampton

In the Middle Ages, article of furniture was very basic. Even in a rich abode, chairs were rare. Near people sat on stools or benches. Rich people also had tables and large chests, which doubled up every bit beds. Rich people's homes were hung with wool tapestries or painted linen. They were not just for decoration. They also helped keep out drafts. In a castle, the toilet or garderobe was a chute built into the thickness of the wall.

Clothes In The Center Ages

In the Middle Ages, men wore tunics. Some men wore shorts and all wore 'hose' (tights or stockings). Women wore a long tunic (to their ankles) and over it another garment, a gown. Women held their dresses with a belt tied around their waists. Medieval women normally did non clothing knickers.

Both sexes wore wool but it varied in quality. It could be fine and expensive or coarse and cheap. From the mid-14th century laws lay downwardly which materials the different classes could vesture, to stop the center classes from dressing 'to a higher place themselves'. (Poor people could not afford to wear expensive textile anyhow!). However, most people ignored the law and wore what they wished.

In the late 14th and 15th centuries clothes became much more elaborate. Fashion in the modern sense began. For the wealthy styles changed rapidly. Women wore elaborate hats and men wore long pointed shoes chosen crakows. However poor people wore applied clothes. If it was wet and muddy they wore wooden clogs.

Food In The Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, the rich ate well. They ate beefiness, mutton, pork, and venison. They also ate a nifty diversity of birds, swans, herons, ducks, blackbirds, and pigeons. Still, the church decreed that Wednesday, Fri, and Saturday were fast days when people were not immune to eat meat. Rich people usually had fish ponds and so they could eat pike and bother. They also ate fish caught in rivers or the ocean.

On special occasions, the rich had huge feasts. The Lord and his lady sabbatum at a table on a raised wooden platform and then they could wait down on the rest of the household. Often musicians entertained them while they ate. Rich people ate their food from slices of stale bread chosen trenchers. Afterward, they were given to the poor.

Poor people ate a simple and monotonous diet. For them, meat was a luxury. If they were lucky they had a rabbit or pork. They as well ate lots of fibroid, dark bread and cheese. They only had one cooked repast a twenty-four hour period. In the evening the female parent mixed grain with hot water. She added vegetables and, if bachelor, meat or fish to make a kind of stew called pottage. In the autumn peasants gathered fruit and nuts. In normal years the peasants had an adequate diet merely if there was a famine they might starve.

The main pastime of the upper class was hunting. Lords hunted deer with packs of dogs and killed them with arrows. They also hunted wild boar with spears. Both men and women went hawking. In the evenings they feasted, danced, and played board games such as chess and backgammon. In the mid-15th century playing cards arrived in England. When he was not hunting the noble or knight was fighting. Their wives were also kept busy. They had to organize the servants and mostly run the household.

Knights as well took part in tournaments. These events drew large crowds of spectators. At them, knights fought with wooden lances, swords, or maces. This was called jousting. In that location were also tourneys (fights between teams). Tournaments often lasted four days. Two days were for jousting, one was for tourneys and ane was for archery competitions.

Children from noble families saw little of their parents. When they were very young nurses looked after them. When they were about vii they were sent to live with another noble household. Boys became pages and had to await on lords and ladies. They also learned to fight. At xiv a boy became a squire and at 21 a knight.

Girls learned the skills they needed to run a household. In upper-grade families, immature men and women did not usually cull their own union partners. Their parents bundled their marriage for them.

Children from poor families might accept more choice about who they married but by the time they were about 7 or 8 they had to commencement helping their parents by doing simple jobs such every bit chasing abroad birds when crops had been sown or helping to weave wool. Children were expected to help the family unit earn a living equally shortly as they were able.

A Peasant's Life in The Middle Ages

Nearly people in the Eye Ages lived in pocket-size villages of xx or 30 families. The land was divided into iii huge fields. Each year 2 were sown with crops while i was left fallow (unused) to let it to recover. Each peasant had some strips of land in each field. Near peasants owned only one ox so they had to bring together with other families to obtain the squad of oxen needed to pull a plow. After plowing the land was sown. Men sowed grain and women planted peas and beans.

Almost peasants also owned a few cows, goats, and sheep. Cows and goats gave milk and cheese. Near peasants also kept chickens for eggs. They as well kept pigs. Peasants were immune to graze their livestock on common land. In the autumn they let their pigs roam in the woods to swallow acorns and beechnuts. However, they did not accept enough food to continue many animals throughout the winter. Most of the livestock was slaughtered in autumn and the meat was salted to preserve it.

Nonetheless, life in the Middle Ages was not all hard work. People were immune to rest on Holy days (from which we go our word holiday). During them, poor people danced and wrestled. They too played a very rough form of football game. The men from 2 villages played on a 'pitch' which might include woods and streams! There were no rules so cleaved limbs and other injuries were common. People besides enjoyed cruel 'sports' like cockfighting and comport-baiting. (A bear was chained to a post and dogs were trained to attack it). Gambling was also common.

Warfare in the Heart Ages

The 'backbone of Medieval armies was the armored knight mounted on a horse. Norman knights wore concatenation mail, armor made of atomic number 26 rings joined together. In the 14th-century chain mail was replaced past plate armor. Metallic plates were attached to each part of the body. Norman knights carried kite-shaped shields. Later in the middle Ages shields became smaller.

The Normans congenital wooden forts chosen motte and bailey castles. An artificial mound of earth was created, called a motte and the living quarters were built on top. Below was a walled yard called a bailey where food and animals were stored. The whole thing was sometimes protected past a moat.

However, these early wooden forts were vulnerable to fire and later castles were built of rock. In the centre was a stone belfry called a keep where the inhabitants lived. Surrounding information technology was a curtain wall. Even so, even if attackers breached the drapery wall the defenders could retreat into the keep and proceed to hold out.

The weakest part of a castle was its gate only there were ways of strengthening it. A building called a gatehouse was built. Frequently information technology was approached by a drawbridge over a moat. Gatehouses usually had an iron grid called a portcullis that could be raised or lowered vertically. Behind the portcullis was a covered passageway running through the gatehouse. Sometimes in that location was a second portcullis at the other cease of the passageway. If you lot got past the drawbridge and the first portcullis you would have to fight your way to the second portcullis and the defenders would non go far easy for you. In the roof were holes through which the defenders could drop stones or pour humid liquids.

Around the curtain wall were pointer slits called embrasures. Furthermore, the tops of the castle walls often had overhangs. In them were openings through which humid liquids could exist poured or stones could exist dropped. They were called machicolations.

Nevertheless, attackers could apply a variety of siege weapons. The simplest was a battering ram. The users were protected by a wooden shed but the defenders might set it on fire. They could also use a crane with giant 'tongs' to try and grab the ram. To climb the walls y'all could employ ladders but that was dangerous equally the defenders could push them over. Attackers might use a wooden siege tower on wheels. Inside it were ladders for soldiers to climb. At the top was a drawbridge. When it was lowered the attackers could swarm over the castle walls.

Attackers could as well utilise a kind of crane called a tenelon to become over the wall. On the end of a long wooden arm was a basket containing soldiers. The handbasket could be swung over the castle walls.

The attackers could also hurl missiles. A Medieval catapult was powered by a twisted rope. The rope was twisted tighter and tighter then released, firing a stone.

Another siege weapon in the Middle Ages was called a trebuchet. It worked by a counterweight. It was a kind of see-saw with a huge weight at one terminate and a sling containing a missile at the other. The sling was tied down and when it was released the keen weight at the other end of the 'see-saw' caused information technology to swing upwards and hurl its missile.

A trebuchet

Attackers could also tunnel under the castle walls. The tunnels were supported by wooden props. When ready they were covered in animal fat and burned. The tunnels would collapse and hopefully so would the walls.

Nevertheless, in the 14th century warfare was inverse by the longbow. Longbows were not new (archaeologists accept found examples thousands of years erstwhile). Still, in the 14th century, the English learned to use the longbow in a new way. In the early Center Ages, archers were used to 'soften up' the enemy before knights charged. (They were used that way at Hastings).

Nevertheless, in the 14th century, the English language devised a new tactic of having dismounted knights to protect the archers and allowing the enemy to charge. The enemy cavalry was decimated by volleys of arrows. The longbow was used to win decisive victories at Crecy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415). An archer could shoot an arrow every five or 6 seconds. He could shoot an arrow accurately up to 200 meters. An arrow could penetrate armor at 90 meters. The i disadvantage of the longbow was that it took years to acquire to employ ane properly.

Transport In The Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages roads were no more than dirt tracks that turned to mud in winter. Men traveled on horseback (if they could afford a equus caballus!). Ladies traveled in wagons covered in painted fabric. They looked pretty but they must have been very uncomfortable on bumpy roads as they had no springs. Worse, travel in the Middle Ages was very slow. A horseman could only travel 50 or 60 kilometers a day. Some goods were carried by packhorses (horses with numberless loaded on their sides) and peasants pulled along two-wheeled carts full of hay and harbinger.

All the same, whenever they could people traveled by water. Information technology was faster and more than comfortable than traveling by land. Information technology was also much cheaper to transport goods by water than by land. Some goods were taken by transport from 1 part of the English coast to another. This was known as the coastal trade.

The primary type of ship in the Heart Ages was called a cog. It had only one canvass. Furthermore in the early Middle Ages ships did not take rudders. The rudder was invented at the end of the 13th century.

In the Centre Ages, people believed they would gain favor with God if they went on long journeys chosen pilgrimages to visit shrines. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) wrote the Canterbury Tales nigh a group of pilgrims who go to Canterbury to visit the burial identify of Thomas Becket. They tell each other tales to pass the time.

Towns in The Center Ages

In the Eye Ages, most people lived in the countryside and fabricated a living from farming. However, at the time of the Domesday Book (1086) about x% of the population of England lived in town. Moreover trade boomed in the following two centuries and many new towns were founded. Examples of towns founded in the 12th and 13th centuries include Portsmouth, Plymouth, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Southampton.

The showtime thing that would surprise us about Medieval towns would exist their modest size. At the fourth dimension of the Domesday Volume in 1086 London had a population of about 18,000. By the 14th century, it rose to about 45,000. Other towns were much smaller. York may have had a population of about 13,000 by 1400 but it then vicious to about 10,000 past 1500. Most towns had betwixt ii,000 and 5,000 inhabitants.

The larger towns had stone walls. Small towns often but had stone gates. They also had ditches and earth ramparts with wooden stockades on superlative. About of the buildings in Medieval towns were of wood and fire was a constant danger. Many English language towns were devastated by fire in the Middle Ages.

A town gate in Winchester

In towns in the Eye Ages, at that place were a host of craftsmen such as carpenters, bakers, butchers, blacksmiths, bronze smiths, fletchers (pointer makers), bowyers (bow makers), fullers (who cleaned and thickened wool before it was dyed), dyers, potters, coopers, turners (who turned wooden bowls on lathes and barber-surgeons who both cut hair, pulled teeth and performed operations.

Oftentimes craftsmen of the same kind lived in the same street. Most craftsmen had a workshop at the bottom of their house which doubled upwards equally a shop. Behind they had a storeroom. The craftsman and his family lived in the rooms to a higher place. Many people in towns kept animals also.

Craftsmen took in apprentices for coin. The apprentice lived with the craftsman and his family and his apprenticeship might last vii or 8 years. At the cease of it, the amateur had to make a masterpiece to prove his skill. If it was good enough he was admitted to the guild.

In the Middle Ages, craftsmen were organized into guilds. They fixed hours of work and the wages paid to apprentices. They besides inspected members' piece of work to make sure it was up to standard. The guilds also prevented craftsmen from other towns or anyone who wasn't part of the local guild from working in their town. Moreover, guilds looked afterward their members in times of trouble similar a sickness. Merchants had their own guilds.

Guilds also put on plays called mystery plays. (The word mystery is a corruption of the French word metier meaning job or merchandise). The plays were based on Bible stories and were meant to instruct the people. However, there was nothing solemn nearly these plays. They independent lots of jokes.

The Church building in The Middle Ages

In the Centre Ages religion was an important part of everyday life for most people. All children were baptized (unless they were Jewish) and well-nigh people attended mass on Sunday. Mass was in Latin, a language that ordinary people did not sympathize.

Bishops ruled over groups of parishes called dioceses. They usually came from rich families. Bishops lived in palaces and oft took office in government. Things were very different for parish priests. They were poor and often had little teaching. Parish priests had their ain land called the glebe where they grew their own food. They lived and worked alongside their parishioners.

In the Heart Ages, monks and nuns gave food to the poor. They as well ran the just hospitals where they tried to assist the ill as best they could. They also provided hospitality for pilgrims and other travelers (although as fourth dimension went by there were an increasing number of inns where you could pay to stay the dark).

In a Medieval monastery, there was an almonry where food or money was given to the poor, the refectory where the monks ate, the dormitory, infirmary, and the cloisters where the monks could take exercise. An almoner looked after the poor, an infirmarian looked after the sick and a hospitaller looked after visitors. In the Eye Ages, the Church ran the simply hospitals.

Besides as the monks from the 13th century at that place were also friars. They took vows like merely instead of withdrawing from the world they went out to preach. Franciscan friars were called grey friars considering of their gray costumes. Dominican friars were called blackness friars.

Teaching In The Eye Ages

In the Middle Ages, nigh people were illiterate but not all. Upper-class children were educated when they were pages. Among the poor, the better-educated priests might teach some children to read and write – a little. In many towns, there were grammer schools where middle-course boys were educated. (They got their name because they taught Latin grammar). Boys worked long hours in grammar schools and subject field was astringent. Boys were beaten with rods or birch twigs.

There were also chantry schools. Some men left money in their wills to pay for a priest to chant prayers for their souls subsequently their death. When he was non praying the priest would educate local children.

During the Center Ages, literacy and learning gradually increased. By the 15th century, maybe a third of the population could read and write.

From the early on 13th century England had ii universities at Oxford and Cambridge. At them, students learned seven subjects, grammar, rhetoric (the art of public speaking), logic, astronomy, arithmetic, music, and geometry.

Medicine in The Eye Ages

In the late 11th century a school of medicine was founded in Salerno in Italy. In the twelfth century, another was founded at Montpellier. In the 13th century more than were founded at Bologna, Padua, and Paris.

Furthermore, many students studied medicine in European universities. Medicine became a profession again. However ordinary people could not afford doc'south fees. Instead, they saw 'wise men' or 'wise women' with folk remedies.

In the Middle Ages medicine was dominated past the ideas of Galen and the theory of the four humors.

Medieval doctors were great believers in bloodletting. Sick people were cut and immune to drain into a bowl. People believed that regular bleeding would continue you salubrious. And so monks were given regular claret letting sessions. Medieval doctors as well prescribed laxatives for purging. Enemas were given with a greased tube attached to a pig's bladder.

Doctors likewise prescribed baths in scented water. They also used salves and ointments and not just for peel complaints. Doctors believed it was important when treating many illnesses to foreclose heat or moisture from escaping from the affected part of the body and they believed that ointments would practise that. In the Middle Ages doctors also examined a patient's urine. The color, smell, and even taste of urine were of import.

Astrology was also an important part of medicine in the Eye Ages. Doctors believed that people born under sure zodiacal signs were more susceptible to certain ailments.

In the 13th century, a new type of craftsmen emerged in towns, the hairdresser-surgeon. They cut hair, they pulled teeth and they performed simple operations such as amputations and setting broken basic.

In the Eye Ages, the church building ran the merely hospitals. (Although often the only affair they could practise was offer food and shelter). In many towns, monks and nuns cared for the sick as best they could.

Furthermore outside many towns were leper 'hospitals' (really just hostels every bit nothing could be washed for the patients). Leprosy was a dreadful skin disease. Anyone who defenseless information technology was an outcast. They had to wear wearing apparel that covered their whole torso. They besides had to ring a bell or a wooden clacker to warn people they were coming. Fortunately, leprosy grew less common in the 15th century and it died out in United kingdom in the 16th century.

In the Middle Ages in monasteries had streams that provided clean water. Muddied h2o was used to clean toilets, which were in a dissever room. Monks too had a room chosen a laver where they washed their hands earlier meals.

However, in castles, the toilet was but a long passage built into the thickness of the walls. Ofttimes it emptied into the castle moat. Despite the lack of public health, many towns had public bathhouses where you could pay to have a bath.

From the mid-14th century, the church immune some dissections of man bodies at medical schools. However, Galen's ideas connected to boss medicine and surgery in the Middle Ages.

Last revised 2022

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Source: https://localhistories.org/life-in-the-middle-ages/

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