How did the peasants live in the Middle Ages? History

Modern people have the vaguest ideas about how the peasants lived in the Middle Ages. This is not surprising, because life and customs in the villages have changed greatly over these centuries.

The emergence of feudal dependence

The term "Middle Ages" is most applicable to Western Europe, because it was here that all those phenomena that are firmly connected with the ideas of the Middle Ages took place. These are castles, knights and much more. The peasants in this society had their place, which practically did not change for several centuries.

At the turn of the VIII and IX centuries. In the Frankish state (it united France, Germany and most of Italy) there was a revolution in relations around land ownership. There was a feudal system, which was the basis of medieval society.

Kings (holders of supreme power) relied on the support of the army. For the service of the approximate monarch received large land. Over time, a whole class of wealthy feudal lords appeared, who had huge territories inside the state. The peasants who lived on these lands became their property.

Significance

Another large owner of the land was the church. Monastic plots could cover many square kilometers. How did the peasants live in the Middle Ages on such lands? They received a small private plot, and in return they had to work a certain number of days on the owner's premises. It was economic coercion. It affected almost all European countries, except for Scandinavia.

The church played a large role in the enslavement and de-occupation of the villagers. The life of the peasants was easily regulated by the spiritual authorities. It was suggested to the commoners that the uncomplaining work on the church or the transfer of land to it later would reflect on what will happen to the person after death in heaven.

Impoverishment of peasants

The existing feudal landownership ruined the peasants, almost all of them lived in marked poverty. This was due to several phenomena. Because of the regular military service and work for the feudal lords, the peasants were cut off from their own land and had practically no time to engage in it. In addition, on their shoulders lay a variety of taxes from the state. Medieval society was based on unjust prejudices. For example, peasants were subject to the highest judicial penalties for misconduct and violation of laws.

The villagers lost their own land, but they never drove it. It was natural economy that was the only way to survive and earn. Therefore, the feudal lords suggested that landless peasants take land from them in exchange for the numerous obligations described above.

Preclean

The main mechanism for the emergence of European serfdom was prekary. This was the name of the treaty, which was concluded between the feudal lord and the impoverished landless peasant. In exchange for the possession of the allotment, the plowman undertook either to pay a quitrent or to perform regular corvee. The medieval village and its inhabitants were often entirely connected with the feudal lord by the treaty of the prekaryas (literally "transferred at the request"). The use could be given for several years or even for life.

If at first the peasant was only in land dependence on the feudal lord or church, then in time, because of his impoverishment, he also lost his personal freedom. This process of enslavement was the result of the difficult economic situation experienced by the medieval village and its inhabitants.

The power of large landowners

The poor peasant, who was unable to pay all the debt to the feudal lord, fell into bondage to the creditor and actually became a slave. In general, this led to the fact that large land economies absorbed small farms. This process was also promoted by the growth of the political influence of the feudal lords. Thanks to a large concentration of resources, they became independent of the king and could do whatever they wanted on their land, regardless of the laws. The more middle peasants became dependent on feudal lords, the stronger the power of the latter grew.

The way the peasants lived in the Middle Ages often depended on justice. This kind of power was also in the hands of the feudal lords (on their land). The king could announce the immunity of a particularly influential duke in order not to go into conflict with him. Privileged feudal lords could, without regard to the central authority, judge their peasants (in other words, their property).

Immunity also gave the right to a large owner personally to collect all the monetary receipts that went to the Crown coffers (judicial fines, taxes and other fees). Also, the feudal lord became the leader of the militia of peasants and soldiers, which was assembled during the war.

The immunity granted by the king was only a formal design of that system, of which feudal landownership was part. Large owners owned their privileges long before the permission of the king. Immunity only gave legitimacy to the order in which the life of the peasants passed.

Scammers

Before there was a revolution in land relations, the main economic unit of Western Europe was the rural community. Also they were called marks. Communities lived freely, but at the turn of the 8th and 9th centuries they were a thing of the past. In their place came the patrimony of the great feudal lords to whom the serf communities were subordinate.

They could be very different in structure, depending on the region. For example, large fiefdoms were distributed in the north of France, which included several villages. In the southern provinces of the common Frankish state, medieval society in the village lived in small patrimonies, which could be limited to a dozen yards. This division in the European regions survived and survived until the rejection of the feudal system.

The structure of the patrimony

The classical patrimony was divided into two parts. The first of these was the master's domain, where peasants worked on strictly defined days, serving their duties. The second part included the yards of rural residents, because of which they fell into dependence on the feudal lord.

The work of the peasants was always applied in the manor house, which, as a rule, was the center of the patrimony and manor allotment. It included a house and a yard, on which there were various outbuildings, kitchen gardens, gardens, vineyards (if the climate allowed). Also, master craftsmen worked here, without which the landowner could not do without. The estate also often had mills and a church. All this was considered the property of the feudal lord. What the peasants owned in the Middle Ages, was located on their sites, which could be located in a pattern with the allotments of the landowner.

Dependent rural workers had to work on the sites of the feudal lord with the help of their inventory, and also to bring their cattle here. Slaves were used less often (this social stratum was much smaller in number).

Arable plots of peasants were neighbors with each other. They had to use a common site for grazing (this tradition remained with the time of the free community). The life of such a collective was regulated with the help of a rural gathering. He was presided over by an elder who was elected a feudal lord.

Features of subsistence farming

In the patrimony prevailed subsistence farming. This was due to the small development of productive forces in the countryside. In addition, there was no division of labor between artisans and peasants in the village, which could increase its productivity. That is, handicraft and domestic work appeared as a by-product of agriculture.

Dependent peasants and artisans provided the feudal lord with various clothes, footwear, and also necessary implements. What was produced in the patrimony, for the most part was used at the master's court and was rarely in the personal property of the serfs.

Peasant trade

The lack of circulation of goods hampered trade. Nevertheless, it is wrong to say that it was not at all, and the peasants did not participate in it. There were markets, fairs, as well as money circulation. However, all this did not affect the life of the village and the fiefdom. The peasants had no means of independent existence, and the feeble trade could not help them buy off the feudal lords.

With the proceeds from the trade, people in the village bought what they could not produce on their own. The feudal lords purchased salt, weapons, as well as rare luxuries that merchants from overseas countries could bring. The villagers did not participate in such transactions. That is, trade satisfied only the interests and needs of a narrow top of society, which had extra money.

Peasant protest

The way the peasants lived in the Middle Ages depended on the size of the dues paid to the feudal lord. Most often it was given in kind. It could be grain, flour, beer, wine, poultry, eggs or handicrafts.

The deprivation of the leftovers of property caused a protest of the peasantry. It could be expressed in various forms. For example, villagers fled from their oppressors or even organized mass riots. Peasant uprisings each time suffered defeat because of spontaneity, fragmentation and disorganization. At the same time, even they led to the fact that feudal lords tried to fix the amount of duties to stop their growth, as well as increase the discontent among serfs.

Abandonment of feudal relations

The history of the peasants in the Middle Ages is a constant confrontation with large landowners with varying success. These relations appeared in Europe on the ruins of an ancient society, where classical slavery generally reigned, especially pronounced in the Roman Empire.

The abandonment of the feudal system and the enslavement of the peasants occurred in the New Times. He contributed to the development of the economy (primarily light industry), industrial revolution and outflow of population to the city. Also at the turn of the Middle Ages and New time in Europe, the humanistic mood prevailed, which placed individual freedom at the head of everything else.