What were the living conditions of the middle ages?

Answer 1

People of the Middle Ages regarded life as a test whose outcome determined whether they went to heaven or to hell, and they tended to be very religious. They also believed that cleanliness was next to godliness, and that diseases were carried by bad (smelly) air, so they objected to bad odors even more than we do today. They had public baths in most small towns and larger communities. Where people had no access to baths, they used tubs in their homes, if they could afford them. Some bathed in the rivers and brooks - even in the winter.

Living conditions in the Middle Ages were not all that different from what they were 200 years ago. Medicine barely improved from that of the Middle Ages until 200 years ago. Law in most countries of 200 years ago was arguably more repressive than it was in many places during the Middle Ages. Serfs had far more in the way of rights than slaves did, and even had more rights than many industrial workers of 200 years ago. At least the serfs had a right to farm the land and earn a living, and they had a right to a place to live and to protection from the lord of their manor.

The wars of the Middle Ages were possibly no worse than they have been since, but also not much better. They did not have nuclear bombs, but they did have Greek fire, which could set people aflame.

The problems with superstitions, such as belief in witchcraft and witch hunts, were more important in the Renaissance and Reformation, after the Middle Ages ended, than they were during them. In fact the legal codes of the Franks and Lombards made killing people for witchcraft illegal unless it could be proven that they had actually murdered someone with a curse.

The Church did not suppress science during the Middle Ages, as it may have later. There was some suppression of science because of the extreme intellectual conservatism of university professors, essentially teaching that Aristotle was infallible, but the Church put an end to this practice.

Answer 2

A typical medieval village was populated by peasants. It did not have a permanent market, because if it did, that would make it a town, rather than a village. It did have a church, because presence of a church distinguished a village from a hamlet. A village might have one or more houses that supplied beer or cider, and possibly food, as a sort of primitive public house. And there could be a blacksmith, and possibly other people doing work in some craft such as potting or weaving. But most people of villages were serfs, who farmed for a living.

There were feasts, which were generally church events celebrating the days of local saints, Christmas, Easter, and so on. There were irregularly opened markets, if the village was on a travelled road or near a crossroad or bridge. Itinerant tradesmen came by from time to time, and these might include tinkers, shoemakers, and such.

In some places, the serfs practiced Archery, and there were competitions. There were sports that people played in the Middle Ages, and some of these were played at the village level. Football was one, though the rules were nearly absent, and the result was a game that was not really recognizable as anything we would call football. It was a game that people of one village could play against people of another village, however.

There is a link below to a related question on the life of a serf. There is also a link on football.

Answer 3

1st AnswerIn abject poverty, riddled with disease, infested with bugs and vermin. Life for a peasant was nasty, brutal, and short.

Other than that, it was a piece of cake.

2nd AnswerAmong the poorly understood aspects of the Middle Ages is the lives of peasants. Today's popular understanding is mostly wrong on the subject.

First of all, in nearly all countries of Europe, for nearly all of the Middle Ages, everyone had at least some rights, even slaves. This was partly the result of laws, and partly the result of pressures by the Church. Slavery was not common, however, and serfs were not slaves.

Serfs, agricultural peasants, had the right to be protected by their feudal lords, had a right to a place to live, and had a right to fields to work. In exchange for this, they had to provide services or the monetary value of the services to the lord of the manor. They also had other rights, including, for example, a right to gather dead wood from the lord's forests. Their relations with the feudal lord were through a reeve, who also supervised the use of land and a variety of activities. The reeve was not appointed by the lord, but was elected by the serfs.

Serfs were bound to the land. They were not allowed to leave it without the consent of their lord, but the lord was typically not allowed to force them to leave it either. If the land was sold, they retained their rights to farm it, and the new lord could not evict them. Serfs could be evicted if there was cause, such as a refusal to work, but only with cause. They sometimes ran away, and if they managed to stay away for a year, they were considered free. Freedom, however, had its down sides, because landed serfs had their right to farm, which free men did not have.

Serfs who who were bound to the soil did not exist in all places. In some places there never were such serfs, and these places included much of Scandinavia. In other places, serfs were only around during a period of a couple centuries, and most serfs had been freed in England and France well before the end of the Middle Ages. Free men were often peasants, who were not bound to the soil and paid rent or share cropped became the most common class of agricultural worker.

Serfs typically lived in houses made of local materials. In some places, a frame was constructed of wood, and walls hung on it that were woven of reeds. This was called wattle. The holes in the walls were chinked with a mud mixture called daub. In other places, rude stone walls were used, also chinked with daub. The floor was dirt. There was no fireplace or chimney, because these only began to be introduced in rich people's houses in the 11th or 12th century. A fire could be built in the middle of the dirt floor, and there was usually a hole in the roof, or under the roof peaks, to let the smoke out. During much of the Middle Ages, some livestock were kept in the home during bad weather. This is a practice that continued well beyond the end of the Middle Ages, however.

The laborers who live in towns did not ordinarily cook for themselves, and cooking in villages or isolated farms was done outdoors, unless there was a fire inside. Food consisted largely of cereal grains and bread; peas and old world beans, such as fava beans; root vegetables such as turnips, carrots, parsley, onions, and leeks; various plants in the cabbage family; other greens, including lettuce, turnip greens, and so on; fruits; nuts; cheese and other fermented milk products; eggs; and fish and certain meats. Many things were pickled. Fruits were often dried or held in cellars. Fish was often ocean fish, salted, and sometimes transported rather far inland. Meats were fresh, dried, salted, or smoked, but for serfs, the meats were of only certain varieties. Chicken and pigs were raised by serfs for their own use, but there were sumptuary laws that prohibited anyone but the nobility from eating certain meats or cuts of meats. Peasants also had wine, cider, or beer, depending on where they lived. Mead was too expensive for serfs normally to have.

Medical care for serfs was pretty much folk medicine. As such it was about as good as anything that existed until after the Crimean War or American Civil War. People in the Middle Ages died from infected pimples and blisters, but so did the son of a President of the United States.

They believed that cleanliness was next to godliness and the condition of a person's soul was reflected by the care the person took of his body. They believed that bad air, with bad smells, carried disease. So they were very clean. They did have problems with fleas and lice, but so do people today.

The life expectancy at birth was about 37, more or less depending on when and where. I have heard educated people say this meant they only lived to be 37, but this is not what it means. The Infant Mortality Rate was about 30 to 35%, so about a third of the people born died before they were two. As the math works out, this means that a person who survived to the age of two had a 50% chance of living to the age of 54. Medieval peasants tended to marry late, but as the Middle Ages progressed, it became more common for women to marry in their teens rather than their twenties. Men usually had to show they could support a wife before they could marry.

Serfs who were bound to the soil were not usually educated, but some peasants were free men. Free men often were educated, and there were several kings who had policies of seeing that free men were taught to read and write. Charlemagne promoted this kind of education, as did Alfred the Great, who went so far as to stipulate that the eduction should be done in English, and set about having great books translated into English for those who could not read in Latin.

Serfs had some rights we might consider unusual. If life was too tough for them, they could enter monastic life, where they might still work the soil or cook and clean, but they had more security and less care. But if they were in trouble, ranging from spousal abuse to being fugitives from the law, they could seek sanctuary of a church or monastery. Depending on the time and place, they could be handed over to the authorities or not after a specified time, often a month or two. But in some places, even felons on the run were protected, and agents of the king could not take them away.

Most serfs were baptised shortly after birth, were confirmed, were married, tended by the church in illness, and when they died were buried with a Christian funeral. They attended church every week, sometimes every day, or oftener if they were devout. Many went on pilgrimage. Many went on crusades. Many fought and died in wars that were no less horrible than any we have today.

We have literature of the time that portrays peasants or laborers of that class. The Canterbury Tails, by Geoffrey Chaucer, has several characters telling stories who were common workers, and these might have included the miller (who was more likely middle class), the yeoman, the shipman, and the cook. In addition, some of the clergy or nuns might have been of this class. Also Adam de la Halle's Jeu de Robin et Marion has a number of peasant characters. They do not look like their lives were brutal, nasty, or short to me.

Answer 4

they were harsh, they had to work long hours

Answer 5

There was lots of trees and they took very good care of it.