Modern people have the most vague ideas about how peasants lived in the Middle Ages. This is not surprising, because the way of life and customs in the villages have changed greatly over the centuries.
The emergence of feudal dependence
The term "Middle Ages" is most applicable to Western Europe, because it was here that all the phenomena that were firmly connected with ideas about the Middle Ages took place. These are castles, knights and much more. The peasants in this society had their own 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. A feudal system developed, which was the basis of medieval society.
Kings (holders of supreme power) relied on the support of the army. For service, close monarchs received large land. Over time, a whole class of wealthy feudal lords appeared, who had vast territories within the state. The peasants who lived on these lands became their property.
The meaning of the church
Another major landowner was the church. Monastery plots could cover many square kilometers. How did peasants live in such lands in the Middle Ages? They received a small personal allotment, and in exchange for this they had to work a certain number of days in the territory of the owner. It was an economic coercion. It affected almost all European countries except Scandinavia.
The church played a large role in the enslavement and landlessness of the villagers. The life of peasants was easily regulated by spiritual authorities. The common people were inspired by the idea that resigned work for the church or the transfer of land to it later would affect what would happen to a person after death in heaven.
The impoverishment of the peasants
The existing feudal landholding ruined the peasants, almost all of them lived in marked poverty. This was due to several phenomena. Due to regular military service and work on the feudal lord, the peasants were torn off their own land and had virtually no time to deal with it. In addition, a variety of taxes from the state fell on their shoulders. Medieval society was based on unfair prejudice. For example, peasants were subject to the highest judicial fines for misconduct and violation of laws.
The villagers lost their own land, but never drove away from it. It was subsistence farming that was then the only way to survive and earn. Therefore, the feudal lords offered landless peasants to take land from them in exchange for the numerous obligations described above.
Precarius
The main mechanism for the emergence of European serfdom was the precarius. That was the name of the contract that was concluded between the feudal lord and the poor landless peasant. In exchange for owning the allotment, the plowman was obliged either to pay the rent, or to carry out regular corvee. The medieval village and its inhabitants were often wholly connected with the feudal lord by the treaty of the precaries (literally “transferred upon request”). Use could be given for several years or even for life.
If at first the peasant found himself only in land dependence on the feudal lord or the church, then over time, due to impoverishment, he also lost personal freedom. This enslavement was the result of the difficult economic situation that the medieval village and its inhabitants were experiencing.
The power of large landowners
The poor man, who was unable to pay all the debt to the feudal lord, fell into bondage with the creditor and actually turned into a slave. In general, this led to the fact that large farms absorbed small ones. This process was also facilitated by the growing political influence of the feudal lords. Due to the large concentration of resources, they became independent from the king and could do everything they wanted on their land, regardless of the laws. The more average peasants became dependent on the feudal lords, the more powerful the latter grew.
The way peasants lived in the Middle Ages often depended on justice. This kind of power also fell into the hands of the feudal lords (on their land). The king could declare the immunity of a particularly influential duke, so as not to conflict with him. Privileged feudal lords could judge their peasants (in other words, their property) without regard to central authority.
The immunity also gave the right to the large owner to personally collect all the cash proceeds that went to the treasury of the crown (court fines, taxes and other requisitions). Also, the feudal lord became the leader of the militia of peasants and soldiers, which gathered during the war.
The immunity bestowed by the king was only a formal design of that system, of which feudal land tenure was a part. Large owners owned their privileges long before receiving permission from the king. Immunity only gave legitimacy to the order in which peasants lived.
Fiefdom
Before the revolution in land relations took place, the main economic unit in Western Europe was the rural community. They were also called brands. The 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 estates of large feudal lords, to whom serf communities were subordinate.
They could be very different in structure, depending on the region. For example, in the north of France, large estates were distributed, which included several villages. In the southern provinces of the common Frankish state, medieval society in the village lived in small estates, which could be limited to a dozen yards. This division by European regions persisted and existed until the rejection of the feudal system.
Patrimony Structure
Classical patrimony was divided into two parts. The first of these was the master’s domain, where the peasants worked on strictly defined days, serving their duties. The second part included the courtyards of rural residents, because of which they fell into dependence on the feudal lord.
The labor of peasants was necessarily applied in the manor, which, as a rule, was the center of the patrimony and the allotment of the land. It included a house and a courtyard, on which there were various outbuildings, gardens, orchards, vineyards (if the climate allowed). The master craftsmen also worked here, without which the landowner also could not do. 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 plots, which could be located in strip with allotments of the landowner.
Dependent rural workers had to work on the feudal lords with the help of their equipment, as well as bring their cattle here. Real slaves were used less often (this social layer was much smaller in number).
Arable plots of peasants were adjacent to each other. They were supposed to use a common cattle grazing plot (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. It was chaired by the headman, who was elected by the feudal lord.
Features of subsistence farming
In the patrimony, subsistence farming prevailed . This was due to the small development of productive forces in the village. In addition, in the village there was no division of labor between artisans and peasants, which could increase its productivity. That is, handicrafts and homework appeared as a side effect of agriculture.
Dependent peasants and artisans provided the feudal lord with various clothes, shoes, and also necessary equipment. What was produced in the patrimony was for the most part used at the owner’s court and rarely became the personal property of serfs.
Peasant trade
The lack of circulation of goods hindered trade. Nevertheless, it is wrong to say that she 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 patrimony. The peasants did not have any means of independent existence, and feeble trade could not help them buy off the feudal lords.
With the proceeds from trade, they bought in the countryside what they could not produce on their own. The feudal lords acquired salt, weapons, as well as rare luxuries that merchants could bring from overseas countries. Rural residents did not participate in such transactions. That is, trade satisfied only the interests and needs of the narrow elite of society, which had extra money.
Peasant protest
The way peasants lived in the Middle Ages depended on the size of the quitrent 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 remnants of property caused a protest of the peasantry. It could be expressed in various forms. For example, villagers fled from their oppressors or even staged mass riots. Peasant uprisings were defeated every time due to spontaneity, fragmentation and disorganization. At the same time, even they led the feudal lords to try to fix the size of duties in order to stop their growth, as well as to increase dissatisfaction among serfs.
Refusal of feudal relations
The history of peasants in the Middle Ages is a constant confrontation with large landowners with varying success. These relations appeared in Europe on the ruins of ancient society, where classical slavery reigned in general, especially pronounced in the Roman Empire.
The rejection of the feudal system and enslavement of peasants occurred in modern times. He contributed to the development of the economy (primarily light industry), the industrial revolution and the outflow of the population to the cities. Also at the turn of the Middle Ages and the New Age, humanistic sentiments prevailed in Europe, which placed individual freedom at the head of everything else.