European Serfdom

You will remember from previous readings that feudalism created alliances between nobles (lords and vassals). The landholding nobles were a military elite whose ability to be warriors depended on their having the leisure time to pursue the arts of war. Landed estates located on the fiefs given to a vassal by his lord and worked by peasants, provided the economic support that made this way of life possible. 

A manor was an agricultural estate that a lord ran and peasants worked. Although free peasants continued to exist, increasing numbers of free peasants became serfs, or peasants legally bound to the land. Serfs had to provide labor services, pay rents, and subject to the lord's control. By 800, probably 60 percent of western Europeans were serfs. 

A serf's labor services included working the lord's land. The lord's land made up one-third to one-half of the cultivated land scattered throughout the manor. Peasants of the rest of the estate's land to grow food for themselves. Such tasks as building barns and digging ditches were also part Of the labor services peasants vided. Serfs usually worked about three days a week for their lords. 

The serfs paid rents by giving the lords a share of every product they raised. Serfs also paid the lords for the of the manor's common pasturelands, streams, ponds, and surrounding woodlands. If a serf fished in the pond or stream on a manor, he turned over part of the catch to his lord. Peasants were also to pay a tithe (a tenth of their produce) to their local village churches. 

In the feudal contract, lords and vassals were tied together through mutual obligations to each other. On individual estates, lords had a variety of legal rights over their serfs. Serfs could not leave the manor without the lord's permission and could not marry anyone outside the manor without the lord's approval. Lords often had political authority on their lands, which gave them the right to try peasants in their own courts. Peasants were required to pay lords for certain services, such as having their grain ground into flour in the lords' mills

Even with these restrictions, however, serfs were not slaves. The land assigned to serfs to support themselves usually could not be taken away, and their responsibilities to the lord remained fairly fixed. It was also the lord's duty to protect his serfs, giving them the safety to farm the land.

THE PEASANT HOUSEHOLD

The life of peasants in Europe was simple. Their cottages had wood frames surrounded by sticks, with the spaces between sticks filled with straw and rubble and then plastered over with clay. Roofs were simply thatched. The houses of poorer peasants consisted of a single room. Others, however, had at least two rooms—a main room for cooking, eating, and other activities and another room for sleeping. There was little privacy in a medieval household. A hearth in the main room was used for heating and cooking. Because there were few or no windows and no chimney, the smoke created by fires in the hearth went out through cracks in the walls or, more likely, through the thatched roof. 

THE CYCLE OF LABOR

The seasons of the year largely determined peasant activities. Each season brought a new round of tasks. Harvest time in August and September was especially hectic. A good harvest of grains for making bread was crucial to survival in the winter months. A new cycle of labor began in October, when peasants worked the ground for the planting of winter crops. In November came the slaughter of excess livestock, because there was usually not enough food to keep the animals alive all winter. The meat would be salted to preserve it for winter use. In February and March, the land was plowed for the planting of spring crops—oats, barley, peas, and beans. Early summer was a fairly relaxed time, although there was still weeding and sheepshearing to be done. 

In every season, of course, the serfs worked not only their own land but also the lords' lands. They also tended the small gardens next to their dwellings, where they grew the vegetables that made up part of their diet. The position of peasant women in manorial society was both important and difficult. They were expected to work in the fields and at the same time bear children. How well they managed the household determined whether their family starved or survived. 

FOOD AND DRINK

Though simple, the daily diet of peasants was adequate when food was available. The basic staple of the peasant diet, and of the medieval diet in general, was bread. Women made the dough for the bread. The loaves were usually baked in community ovens, which the lord owned. Highly nutritious, peasant bread contained not only wheat and rye but also barley, millet, and oats. These ingredients gave the bread a dark appearance and a very heavy, hard texture. 

Numerous other foods added to the peasant's diet: vegetables from the household gardens; cheese from cow's or goat's milk; nuts and berries from woodlands; and fruits, such as apples, pears, and cherries. Chickens provided eggs and sometimes meat. Peasants usually ate meat only on the great feast days, such as Christmas and Easter. 

Grains were important not only for bread but also for making ale. In the Middle Ages, it was not easy to obtain pure sources of water to drink. Consequently, while wine became the choice of drink for members of the upper classes, ale was the most common drink of the poor. If records are accurate, enormous quantities of ale were consumed. A monastery in the twelfth century records a daily allotment to the monks of three gallons of ale a day. Peasants in the field probably consumed even more.