What was life like for medieval peasants?

Answer 1

Peasants were usually farmers because there weren't very much jobs and they didn't need to go to school to be a farmer. The work days were very long, and the cottages had only one room that served for the hole family.There usually wasn't any windows and there was no chimney. A fire was made in the fire place (usually in the middle of the room) and the smoke went out through a hole in the celing.They shared there house with the animals because this was like an extra heating.Peasants in the middle ages were rather unclean people because they didn't have any bath or showers. They bathed in the local river but not often maybe on a sunday because that was there day off.They had very simple and dirty clothes wich womens made at home.They had to pay taxes to the lord (he is the most important person in the village). They had 2 or 3 strips of land each to grow there crops and they had to leave each year a strip fallow (empty) to bring the goodness of the earth back to do this they used there animals because the animal did there business on the field.

Answer 2

Beer would be the only thing to drink as water was bad and carried diseases. This was also a good thing to make and sell if you needed money as it was cheap to make. You could not eat much, an average breakfast lunch and dinner for a peasant contained mainly barley, in things like porridge, flat bread, bread, pies and soup, (very boring). They grew vegetables and herbs, so things like onion, cabbage, celery and parsnip were, added along with herbs like thyme and rosemary. They also gathered things like mushrooms and made cheese to make soup fun, you could not buy meat as it was hard to get and it would cost lots.

To earn money the easy choice would be a farmer, this was a demanding job where you had to get up early and be very strong. You could rent a strip of land of the lord; this land would be shared with other people and be bad bumpy land. All that you harvest would have to be given to the lord, so you would have to own another plot just to get food for yourself. Farming was very hard as there were know machinery, as there is today. A plough back then would be done buy a ox pulling and you pushing this was time consuming as the plough would get stuck on things like stones and roots.

You could also be a miller this was good. Bread was hard to make as it was difficult to filter the bad chaff from the barley, making the bread hard and bitty. You could sell bread for lots of money to the lord if it was filtered properly and was not so hard. It was illegal in some places for anyone to grind barley apart from the miller.

Another job was being a servant for the lord, if you were not trained you would have to do the dirty jobs e.g. when the heap of human waste outside got high (made from a hole in a platform for people to go to the toilet on so it goes outside like a toilet) you had to clear it up. Or you could tend the lords horses in the stable (better than the last job!)

Work started early as there was no school, 1 out of 3 babies died from famine or illness and life expectancy would be less than 40. If you stole something you could have your hand cut of or do the swim test in which you would put in water with hands tied to feet and if you sink not guilty if you rise you are killed. This was a very social event that people from the village would attend if board, they believed that it was the will of god that saved you. Public humiliation was popular then as people joined in regular stoning on throwing things at people in stocks.

An average peasant's home would be a single room around 5m by 3m in which the whole family lived. In the room there would be; straw beds (small creatures would live in the straw) pots (for cooking and water), stools and a table, at night the animals would share your home as a stable as it was too much money to make one. Clothing was made of cores wool and fabric this also let bugs in and scratched the skin this also was not very warm and many people died in the winter.

The land lord owned everything even your clothes and he would log all of this in a book what you buy what you sell. This was called a domes day book and was brought over buy William after he conquered Brittan this recorded everybody in Brittan. The book is used by archaeologist because it shows how people used to live. As the lord owned everything you had to pay tax on everything and when you died you had to pay or if you did not have enough money your relatives would pay.

Answer 3

They would work in the fields not on their own land but usually the land lords land they would have to earn their land or pay for it

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Actually, it was part of the feudal agreement that the peasants (or serfs) worked the land of their lord, whom was usually a noble. The land actually belonged to the king, but had been given to the noble for a service he had paid to the king. The produce of the crops was shared between the family of the serf and the family of the serf's lord.

I have been working on a social studies project on the medieval times/middle ages, and i have found so far that peasants are known as serfs and they worked the land for nobles and preformed other backbreaking tasks. also that they worked for the Knight's, the nobles, and the LORD!

Answer 4

Peasants mostly did outdoor labor. Most of them were farmers. A few did other kinds of thing, such as forestry and mining. When there was unskilled work required, such as moving stones around for construction or road building, they would do that also.

There were different classes of people who might all be called peasants and were in the same class as peasants. They had a variety of different names, such as cottars, bordars, villeins, and so on. The bottom line on all of them is that they were unskilled laborers who were at the lowest level of social classes. They were the people who helped the cooks, they were washer women, cleaners, porters, and drudges of all sorts. They could help skilled workers, such as carpenters, but they could not become masters of any skill unless they started very young.

Answer 5

Peasants were farmers. They plowed, planted, and harvested, raised animals, and lived just as farmers always have. Life was not easy, but life on a farm has almost never been mostly easy.

There were different kinds of peasants. In much of western Europe of the Middle Ages, most peasants were serfs. Serfs lived on manorial estates, and did most of their work communally. They were organized by a supervisor called a reeve, who was himself a serf. Men plowed and did other heavy work. Women cared for the homes and children, and also worked on the farm, often tending animals. Serfs were not free to leave the manors and live elsewhere, but they did get a measure of protection from living on the manor, and this had value in hard times. Their condition was not actually slavery, but the are described as being unfree.

Some peasants were free. These include tenants who worked as independent farmers on estates, and yeomen, who worked their own farms. Such people had demands for taxes and service from the king or some member of the higher nobility, instead of a local lord of a manor. They sometimes had to serve as archers in wars. Their lives were also not easy, and they did not have the security of the manor, but they were able to live more as they chose.There are links below to articles on peasants and serfdom.

Answer 6

Peasants lived a life that was mostly hard work. The majority of peasants (and I am taking peasants to refer to the serfs and free men of the small villages of medieval times) lived by farming, herding, or other agricultural activities. This involved a great deal of hard manual labor. Peasant families also practiced a wide range of crafts, including cheese making, brewing, spinning thread, etc, that were labor intensive.

Life was not entirely work, however. Even in busy times peasants would take Sundays off from work, and there were many religious holidays throughout the year. Also, while there were times during the agricultural cycle that that work was very intensive (such as harvest) there were also times of the year where there was less to do. Some scholars have estimated that the medieval peasant had more days off of work per year than the modern American office worker.

Peasants had leisure time activities and a cultural life. Musical Instruments have been found in the excavations of medieval villages, so music, singing, and dancing were popular entertainments. Sports were also popular, including Wrestling matches, knife throwing games, and rough and tumble ball games that may be ancestor of soccer. Board Games and dice games are known to have existed. Peasants also had access to a spiritual life, as all but the tiniest villages had a church and a priest. Peasants would also drink and socialize together. Villages typically did not have a tavern, but peasants would brew ale (a common source of income for widowed or single women) and have friends an neighbors over to their home.

So on the whole, it certainly was a life of hard work, but there was still time for community, cultural, and social activities.

Answer 7

the peasants during the middle ages were treated poorly and worked in the fields. Serfs were not allowed to even leave their master/lord's land. Later on when the government had issues with the black plague, the peasants were treated and paid higher.

Answer 8

They done hard labour for hours, with no break. That's how bad it was. At least 12 hours straight. that must of killed.

Answer 9

bad