Daily Lives of Peasants
Daily Life of a Peasant in the Middle Ages
The daily life of a peasant in the Middle ages was hard. Medieval Serfs had to labor on the lord's land for two or three days each week, and at specially busy seasons, such as ploughing and harvesting. The daily life of a peasant in the Middle Ages can be described as follows:
- The daily life of a peasant started at started in the
summer as early as 3am
- A peasant would start with breakfast, usually of pottage
- Work in the fields or on the land started by dawn and the daily life of a peasant included the following common tasks
- Reaping - To cut crops for harvest with a scythe, sickle, or reaper.
- Sowing - the process of planting seeds
- Ploughing - To break and turn over earth with a plough to form a furrow
- Binding and Thatching
- Haymaking - cutting grass and curing it for hay.
- Threshing - To beat the stems and husks of plants to separate the grains or seeds from the straw.
- Hedging - creating boundaries
- Outside work finished at dusk, working hours were therefore longer during the summer months
- Peasants made some of their own tools and utensils using
wood, leather and the horns from cattle
- Women generally ate when her husband and children had
finished and had little leisure time
About nine tenths of the people were peasants--farmers or village laborers. Only a few of these were freemen--peasants who were not bound to a lord and who paid only a fixed rent for their land. The vast majority were serfs and villeins. Theoretically, the villeins had wider legal rights than the serfs and fewer duties to the lords. There was little real difference, however.
A peasant village housed perhaps ten to 60 families. Each family lived in a dark, dank hut made of wood or wicker daubed with mud and thatched with straw or rushes. Layers of straw or reeds covered the floor, fouled by the pigs, chickens, and other animals housed with the family. The one bed was a pile of dried leaves or straw. All slept in their rough garb, with skins of animals for cover. A cooking fire of peat or wood burned drearily day and night in a clearing on the dirt floor. The smoke seeped out through a hole in the roof or the open half of a two-piece door. The only furniture was a plank table on trestles, a few stools, perhaps a chest, and probably a loom for
the women to make their own cloth. Every hut had a vegetable
patch. All the peasants worked to support their lord. They gave about half their time to work in his fields, cut timber, haul water, spin and weave, repair his buildings, and wait upon his household. In war, the men had to fight at his side. Besides labor, peasants had to pay taxes to their lord in money or produce. They had to give a tithe to the church--every tenth egg, sheaf of wheat, lamb, chicken, and all other animals.
Famines were frequent. Plagues depleted the livestock. Frosts, floods, and droughts destroyed the crops. Bursts of warfare ravaged the countryside as the lords burned each other's fields and harvests.
The peasants' lot was hard, but most historians consider it little worse than that of peasants today. Because of the many holidays, or holy days, in the Middle Ages, peasants actually labored only about 260 days a year. They spent their holidays in church festivals, watching
wandering troups of jongleurs, journeying to mystery or miracle plays, or engaging in wrestling, bowling, cockfights, apple bobs, or dancing.
Peasant had celebrations such as Christmas, Easter, weddings, and their off-days. They even believed in some things such as elves, fairies, and other nature spirits.
The daily life of a peasant in the Middle ages was hard. Medieval Serfs had to labor on the lord's land for two or three days each week, and at specially busy seasons, such as ploughing and harvesting. The daily life of a peasant in the Middle Ages can be described as follows:
- The daily life of a peasant started at started in the
summer as early as 3am
- A peasant would start with breakfast, usually of pottage
- Work in the fields or on the land started by dawn and the daily life of a peasant included the following common tasks
- Reaping - To cut crops for harvest with a scythe, sickle, or reaper.
- Sowing - the process of planting seeds
- Ploughing - To break and turn over earth with a plough to form a furrow
- Binding and Thatching
- Haymaking - cutting grass and curing it for hay.
- Threshing - To beat the stems and husks of plants to separate the grains or seeds from the straw.
- Hedging - creating boundaries
- Outside work finished at dusk, working hours were therefore longer during the summer months
- Peasants made some of their own tools and utensils using
wood, leather and the horns from cattle
- Women generally ate when her husband and children had
finished and had little leisure time
About nine tenths of the people were peasants--farmers or village laborers. Only a few of these were freemen--peasants who were not bound to a lord and who paid only a fixed rent for their land. The vast majority were serfs and villeins. Theoretically, the villeins had wider legal rights than the serfs and fewer duties to the lords. There was little real difference, however.
A peasant village housed perhaps ten to 60 families. Each family lived in a dark, dank hut made of wood or wicker daubed with mud and thatched with straw or rushes. Layers of straw or reeds covered the floor, fouled by the pigs, chickens, and other animals housed with the family. The one bed was a pile of dried leaves or straw. All slept in their rough garb, with skins of animals for cover. A cooking fire of peat or wood burned drearily day and night in a clearing on the dirt floor. The smoke seeped out through a hole in the roof or the open half of a two-piece door. The only furniture was a plank table on trestles, a few stools, perhaps a chest, and probably a loom for
the women to make their own cloth. Every hut had a vegetable
patch. All the peasants worked to support their lord. They gave about half their time to work in his fields, cut timber, haul water, spin and weave, repair his buildings, and wait upon his household. In war, the men had to fight at his side. Besides labor, peasants had to pay taxes to their lord in money or produce. They had to give a tithe to the church--every tenth egg, sheaf of wheat, lamb, chicken, and all other animals.
Famines were frequent. Plagues depleted the livestock. Frosts, floods, and droughts destroyed the crops. Bursts of warfare ravaged the countryside as the lords burned each other's fields and harvests.
The peasants' lot was hard, but most historians consider it little worse than that of peasants today. Because of the many holidays, or holy days, in the Middle Ages, peasants actually labored only about 260 days a year. They spent their holidays in church festivals, watching
wandering troups of jongleurs, journeying to mystery or miracle plays, or engaging in wrestling, bowling, cockfights, apple bobs, or dancing.
Peasant had celebrations such as Christmas, Easter, weddings, and their off-days. They even believed in some things such as elves, fairies, and other nature spirits.