what will the mens life be like when they return to society

Past Tim Lambert

Social club In The Heart Ages

Nether the feudal organisation, introduced by the Normans club was like a pyramid. At the top of the pyramid was the king. Beneath him were the barons or tenants-in-chief. The king granted them land and in return, they had to provide so many soldiers to fight for so many days a year. They also had to swear an oath of loyalty to the king and they became his vassals. The barons granted state to knights. In render, they had to fight for so many days a year.

However, this organisation proved awkward. If a knight had to fight, say, 40 days a year when the xl days were upwardly he would render home fifty-fifty if the king were in the middle of a entrada. Kings began to allow the barons to pay 'shield money'. They used the money to pay soldiers when they needed them.

At the bottom of club were peasants. Virtually were serfs or villeins. They were not free and could not leave their land without the lord's permission. Furthermore, also every bit working on their own country they had to subcontract the lord's state for 2 or 3 days a week. They also had to work extra days for him at busy times like harvest. (Although in fourth dimension more and more than lords allowed them to pay money rents instead of doing labor service).

Villeins too had other burdens. For instance when a villein died his son had to give the lord the all-time animate being before taking over his begetter's land. Usually, peasants had to grind their grain to flour in the lord's factory (and requite him a portion of their grain). In some places, they likewise had to bake their bread in the lord's oven. However, if you could escape from your village to a town for a year and a twenty-four hours you then officially became free.

Moreover, the Black Death severely weakened the villeinage system. At the time of the Domesday Volume, the population of England was around 2 million. By the terminate of the 13th century, it had probably risen to about 6 million.

All the same, in the early on 14th century, the climate of the earth cooled and there were a series of famines. The population began to fall. The Black Death of 1348-49 killed about one-third of the population of England. And then many people died there was a serious shortage of labor and lords were willing to 'poach' workers from other lords by offering them higher wages. Parliament tried to set wages by law to prevent them from rising but this was impossible to enforce. By the 15th century, the system of serfdom or villeinage had broken downwardly in England.

In the Middle Ages, the king ruled past divine right. In other words, people believed that God had chosen him to be male monarch, and rebellion against him was a sin. However, that did not finish rebellions! Kings had limited ability in the Middle Ages and rebellion was easy. A great deal depended on the personality of the king. If he was a strong character he could control the barons. If he were weak or indecisive the barons would often rebel. Warrior kings who fought successful wars were the most powerful as they were popular with the nobility.

Homes In The Middle Ages

Medieval peasants' homes were unproblematic wooden huts. They had wooden frames filled in with wattle and daub (strips of woods woven together and covered in a 'plaster' of animal hair and clay). Yet, in some parts of the country huts were fabricated of rock. Peasant huts were either whitewashed or painted in bright colors.

The poorest people lived in one-room huts. Slightly better-off peasants lived in huts with one or two rooms. There were no panes of glass in the windows simply wooden shutters, which were closed at night. The floors were of hard earth sometimes covered in straw for warmth.

In the middle of a peasant'due south hut was a fire used for cooking and heating. There was no chimney. Whatsoever furniture was very basic. Chairs were very expensive and no peasant could afford one. Instead, they saturday on benches or stools. They would have a simple wooden table and chests for storing wearing apparel and other valuables. Tools and pottery vessels were hung on hooks. The peasants slept on harbinger and they did not have pillows. Instead, they rested their heads on wooden logs. The peasant's wife cooked on a cauldron suspended over the burn and the family ate from wooden bowls. Candles were expensive so peasants normally used rushlights (rushes dipped in animal fatty).

At night in summer and all twenty-four hours in wintertime the peasants shared their huts with their animals. Parts of it were screened off for the livestock. Their body estrus helped to keep the hut warm.

The Normans, at first, built castles of wood. In the early on 12th century stone replaced them. In the towns, wealthy merchants began living in stone houses. (The first ordinary people to live in stone houses were Jews. They had to live in stone houses for safety).

In Saxon times a rich man and his entire household lived together in one great hall. In the Middle Ages, the dandy hall was yet the eye of a castle merely the lord had his own room above it. This room was called the solar. In it, the lord slept in a bed, which was surrounded by curtains, both for privacy and to keep out drafts. The other members of the lord'south household, such every bit his servants, slept on the floor of the dandy hall. At one or both ends of the neat hall, there was a fireplace and chimney. In the Heart Ages, chimneys were a luxury. As time passed they became more common but only a pocket-sized minority could afford them. Certainly, no peasant could afford one.

About 1180 for the first time since the Romans rich people had panes of glass in their windows. At offset, glass was very expensive and just rich people could beget information technology only by the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the eye classes began to have glass in some of their windows. Those people who could non afford drinking glass could use thin strips of horn or pieces of linen soaked in tallow or resin which were translucent.

Medieval Merchant's House, Southampton

In the Center Ages, furniture was very bones. Even in a rich home, chairs were rare. Well-nigh people saturday on stools or benches. Rich people also had tables and large chests, which doubled upwards as beds. Rich people's homes were hung with wool tapestries or painted linen. They were non just for decoration. They also helped keep out drafts. In a castle, the toilet or garderobe was a chute built into the thickness of the wall.

Clothes In The Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, men wore tunics. Some men wore shorts and all wore 'hose' (tights or stockings). Women wore a long tunic (to their ankles) and over it some other garment, a gown. Women held their dresses with a belt tied around their waists. Medieval women normally did not wear knickers.

Both sexes wore wool but it varied in quality. Information technology could exist fine and expensive or coarse and inexpensive. From the mid-14th century laws lay downwards which materials the dissimilar classes could vesture, to stop the middle classes from dressing 'above themselves'. (Poor people could not afford to clothing expensive cloth anyway!). Yet, most people ignored the law and wore what they wished.

In the belatedly 14th and 15th centuries clothes became much more elaborate. Manner in the modern sense began. For the wealthy styles changed rapidly. Women wore elaborate hats and men wore long pointed shoes chosen crakows. However poor people wore practical clothes. If it was wet and muddy they wore wooden clogs.

Nutrient In The Heart Ages

In the Middle Ages, the rich ate well. They ate beef, mutton, pork, and venison. They besides ate a great variety of birds, swans, herons, ducks, blackbirds, and pigeons. However, the church building decreed that Midweek, Friday, and Saturday were fast days when people were not allowed to eat meat. Rich people usually had fish ponds so they could consume pike and carp. They also ate fish caught in rivers or the sea.

On special occasions, the rich had huge feasts. The Lord and his lady sabbatum at a table on a raised wooden platform so they could look down on the rest of the household. Often musicians entertained them while they ate. Rich people ate their food from slices of stale breadstuff called trenchers. Afterward, they were given to the poor.

Poor people ate a unproblematic and monotonous diet. For them, meat was a luxury. If they were lucky they had a rabbit or pork. They also ate lots of fibroid, nighttime breadstuff and cheese. They just had one cooked meal a mean solar day. In the evening the mother mixed grain with hot water. She added vegetables and, if bachelor, meat or fish to make a kind of stew called pottage. In the fall peasants gathered fruit and nuts. In normal years the peasants had an acceptable nutrition but if at that place was a famine they might starve.

The main pastime of the upper class was hunting. Lords hunted deer with packs of dogs and killed them with arrows. They also hunted wild boar with spears. Both men and women went hawking. In the evenings they feasted, danced, and played board games such equally chess and backgammon. In the mid-15th century playing cards arrived in England. When he was not hunting the noble or knight was fighting. Their wives were likewise kept busy. They had to organize the servants and more often than not run the household.

Knights also took office in tournaments. These events drew large crowds of spectators. At them, knights fought with wooden lances, swords, or maces. This was chosen jousting. At that place were also tourneys (fights betwixt teams). Tournaments frequently lasted 4 days. Ii days were for jousting, one was for tourneys and i was for archery competitions.

Children from noble families saw little of their parents. When they were very young nurses looked after them. When they were near seven they were sent to live with some other noble household. Boys became pages and had to expect on lords and ladies. They also learned to fight. At 14 a boy became a squire and at 21 a knight.

Girls learned the skills they needed to run a household. In upper-class families, young men and women did not usually choose their ain wedlock partners. Their parents arranged their matrimony for them.

Children from poor families might have more selection about who they married but by the time they were about 7 or viii they had to commencement helping their parents by doing simple jobs such equally chasing abroad birds when crops had been sown or helping to weave wool. Children were expected to assist the family earn a living equally presently as they were able.

A Peasant's Life in The Middle Ages

Near people in the Centre Ages lived in small villages of 20 or 30 families. The land was divided into 3 huge fields. Each year ii were sown with crops while i was left fallow (unused) to let it to recover. Each peasant had some strips of state in each field. Most peasants endemic merely 1 ox so they had to join with other families to obtain the team of oxen needed to pull a plow. Later plowing the land was sown. Men sowed grain and women planted peas and beans.

Most peasants also endemic a few cows, goats, and sheep. Cows and goats gave milk and cheese. Most peasants also kept chickens for eggs. They as well kept pigs. Peasants were allowed to graze their livestock on common country. In the fall they let their pigs roam in the woods to eat acorns and beechnuts. However, they did non have plenty food to keep many animals throughout the winter. Virtually of the livestock was slaughtered in fall and the meat was salted to preserve it.

All the same, life in the Middle Ages was non all hard work. People were allowed to residual on Holy days (from which we get our discussion holiday). During them, poor people danced and wrestled. They also played a very rough form of football game. The men from 2 villages played on a 'pitch' which might include woods and streams! There were no rules so cleaved limbs and other injuries were common. People also enjoyed cruel 'sports' like cockfighting and conduct-baiting. (A bear was chained to a mail service and dogs were trained to attack it). Gambling was also common.

Warfare in the Middle Ages

The 'backbone of Medieval armies was the armored knight mounted on a horse. Norman knights wore chain mail service, armor made of iron rings joined together. In the 14th-century chain mail service was replaced by plate armor. Metal plates were attached to each part of the body. Norman knights carried kite-shaped shields. Afterward in the middle Ages shields became smaller.

The Normans built wooden forts called motte and bailey castles. An bogus mound of earth was created, called a motte and the living quarters were built on top. Below was a walled g chosen a bailey where food and animals were stored. The whole thing was sometimes protected by a moat.

All the same, these early wooden forts were vulnerable to fire and afterward castles were built of stone. In the center was a stone tower called a keep where the inhabitants lived. Surrounding information technology was a mantle wall. However, even if attackers breached the curtain wall the defenders could retreat into the proceed and continue to agree out.

The weakest part of a castle was its gate just there were ways of strengthening it. A building called a gatehouse was built. Often information technology was approached by a drawbridge over a moat. Gatehouses usually had an iron filigree chosen a portcullis that could be raised or lowered vertically. Behind the portcullis was a covered passageway running through the gatehouse. Sometimes at that place was a second portcullis at the other end of the passageway. If yous got past the drawbridge and the first portcullis you would take to fight your way to the second portcullis and the defenders would not make it piece of cake for you. In the roof were holes through which the defenders could drop stones or cascade boiling liquids.

Around the curtain wall were pointer slits called embrasures. Furthermore, the tops of the castle walls often had overhangs. In them were openings through which boiling liquids could be poured or stones could be dropped. They were called machicolations.

However, attackers could use a multifariousness of siege weapons. The simplest was a battering ram. The users were protected past a wooden shed but the defenders might set it on burn. They could too utilize a crane with giant 'tongs' to try and grab the ram. To climb the walls you could use ladders only that was unsafe every bit the defenders could push them over. Attackers might use a wooden siege tower on wheels. Inside it were ladders for soldiers to climb. At the top was a drawbridge. When it was lowered the attackers could swarm over the castle walls.

Attackers could too use a kind of crane called a tenelon to get over the wall. On the end of a long wooden arm was a basket containing soldiers. The basket could be swung over the castle walls.

The attackers could as well hurl missiles. A Medieval catapult was powered by a twisted rope. The rope was twisted tighter and tighter then released, firing a stone.

Another siege weapon in the Centre Ages was called a trebuchet. It worked by a counterweight. Information technology was a kind of see-saw with a huge weight at ane end and a sling containing a missile at the other. The sling was tied downwards and when it was released the bang-up weight at the other end of the 'see-saw' acquired it to swing upward and hurl its missile.

A trebuchet

Attackers could also tunnel under the castle walls. The tunnels were supported by wooden props. When ready they were covered in creature fat and burned. The tunnels would collapse and hopefully so would the walls.

All the same, in the 14th century warfare was changed by the longbow. Longbows were non new (archaeologists have constitute examples thousands of years old). However, in the 14th century, the English learned to use the longbow in a new manner. In the early Middle Ages, archers were used to 'soften upwards' the enemy before knights charged. (They were used that way at Hastings).

However, in the 14th century, the English language devised a new tactic of having dismounted knights to protect the archers and allowing the enemy to charge. The enemy cavalry was decimated by volleys of arrows. The longbow was used to win decisive victories at Crecy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415). An archer could shoot an pointer every five or vi seconds. He could shoot an pointer accurately upwardly to 200 meters. An arrow could penetrate armor at xc meters. The one disadvantage of the longbow was that it took years to learn to use i properly.

Ship In The Middle Ages

In the Center Ages roads were no more than than dirt tracks that turned to mud in wintertime. Men traveled on horseback (if they could afford a horse!). Ladies traveled in wagons covered in painted fabric. They looked pretty but they must take been very uncomfortable on bumpy roads as they had no springs. Worse, travel in the Middle Ages was very slow. A horseman could merely travel 50 or 60 kilometers a twenty-four hour period. Some goods were carried by packhorses (horses with numberless loaded on their sides) and peasants pulled along 2-wheeled carts full of hay and straw.

Even so, whenever they could people traveled by water. It was faster and more comfortable than traveling by land. It was too much cheaper to ship goods by water than by land. Some appurtenances were taken by ship from one part of the English coast to another. This was known equally the littoral merchandise.

The main type of ship in the Eye Ages was chosen a cog. It had but one canvas. Furthermore in the early Center Ages ships did not take rudders. The rudder was invented at the end of the 13th century.

In the Middle Ages, people believed they would proceeds favor with God if they went on long journeys called pilgrimages to visit shrines. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) wrote the Canterbury Tales virtually a group of pilgrims who get to Canterbury to visit the burial place of Thomas Becket. They tell each other tales to pass the time.

Towns in The Centre Ages

In the Center Ages, most people lived in the countryside and fabricated a living from farming. However, at the fourth dimension of the Domesday Book (1086) about 10% of the population of England lived in town. Moreover trade boomed in the following ii centuries and many new towns were founded. Examples of towns founded in the 12th and 13th centuries include Portsmouth, Plymouth, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Southampton.

The first thing that would surprise us about Medieval towns would be their small size. At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 London had a population of nearly eighteen,000. By the 14th century, it rose to virtually 45,000. Other towns were much smaller. York may take had a population of nigh 13,000 by 1400 but it then fell to near 10,000 by 1500. Almost towns had betwixt 2,000 and 5,000 inhabitants.

The larger towns had stone walls. Small towns often merely had stone gates. They also had ditches and world ramparts with wooden stockades on superlative. Nearly of the buildings in Medieval towns were of woods and burn down was a constant danger. Many English towns were devastated past fire in the Eye Ages.

A town gate in Winchester

In towns in the Heart Ages, there were a host of craftsmen such as carpenters, bakers, butchers, blacksmiths, statuary smiths, fletchers (pointer makers), bowyers (bow makers), fullers (who cleaned and thickened wool before it was dyed), dyers, potters, coopers, turners (who turned wooden bowls on lathes and barber-surgeons who both cut pilus, pulled teeth and performed operations.

Often craftsmen of the aforementioned kind lived in the same street. Well-nigh craftsmen had a workshop at the bottom of their house which doubled up as a shop. Backside they had a storeroom. The craftsman and his family unit lived in the rooms above. Many people in towns kept animals equally well.

Craftsmen took in apprentices for money. The apprentice lived with the craftsman and his family unit and his apprenticeship might last vii or viii years. At the cease of information technology, the apprentice had to make a masterpiece to bear witness his skill. If it was good plenty he was admitted to the order.

In the Center Ages, craftsmen were organized into guilds. They fixed hours of work and the wages paid to apprentices. They also inspected members' work to make sure it was up to standard. The guilds also prevented craftsmen from other towns or anyone who wasn't part of the local guild from working in their town. Moreover, guilds looked afterwards their members in times of trouble like a sickness. Merchants had their own guilds.

Guilds also put on plays called mystery plays. (The word mystery is a corruption of the French give-and-take metier meaning chore or trade). The plays were based on Bible stories and were meant to instruct the people. Still, there was nothing solemn about these plays. They contained lots of jokes.

The Church in The Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages religion was an important office of everyday life for almost people. All children were baptized (unless they were Jewish) and nigh people attended mass on Dominicus. Mass was in Latin, a language that ordinary people did not sympathize.

Bishops ruled over groups of parishes called dioceses. They unremarkably came from rich families. Bishops lived in palaces and ofttimes took part in government. Things were very different for parish priests. They were poor and frequently had picayune educational activity. Parish priests had their own land called the glebe where they grew their ain food. They lived and worked aslope their parishioners.

In the Middle Ages, monks and nuns gave food to the poor. They also ran the only hospitals where they tried to help the ill as best they could. They besides provided hospitality for pilgrims and other travelers (although as fourth dimension went by there were an increasing number of inns where you lot could pay to stay the night).

In a Medieval monastery, there was an almonry where nutrient or money was given to the poor, the refectory where the monks ate, the dormitory, infirmary, and the cloisters where the monks could accept exercise. An almoner looked later on the poor, an infirmarian looked later the ill and a hospitaller looked after visitors. In the Middle Ages, the Church building ran the only hospitals.

Also as the monks from the 13th century in that location were also friars. They took vows like but instead of withdrawing from the world they went out to preach. Franciscan friars were called gray friars because of their grey costumes. Dominican friars were called black friars.

Pedagogy In The Eye Ages

In the Eye Ages, most people were illiterate simply not all. Upper-class children were educated when they were pages. Among the poor, the meliorate-educated priests might teach some children to read and write – a piffling. In many towns, there were grammar schools where center-form boys were educated. (They got their name because they taught Latin grammar). Boys worked long hours in grammar schools and subject field was severe. Boys were beaten with rods or birch twigs.

There were also chantry schools. Some men left money in their wills to pay for a priest to chant prayers for their souls later on their expiry. When he was not praying the priest would brainwash local children.

During the Heart Ages, literacy and learning gradually increased. By the 15th century, perhaps a third of the population could read and write.

From the early 13th century England had two universities at Oxford and Cambridge. At them, students learned seven subjects, grammer, rhetoric (the art of public speaking), logic, astronomy, arithmetic, music, and geometry.

Medicine in The Middle Ages

In the late 11th century a school of medicine was founded in Salerno in Italy. In the 12th century, some other was founded at Montpellier. In the 13th century more were founded at Bologna, Padua, and Paris.

Furthermore, many students studied medicine in European universities. Medicine became a profession over again. However ordinary people could not afford md'southward fees. Instead, they saw 'wise men' or 'wise women' with folk remedies.

In the Center Ages medicine was dominated past the ideas of Galen and the theory of the four humors.

Medieval doctors were great believers in bloodletting. Sick people were cut and allowed to bleed into a bowl. People believed that regular bleeding would go along you healthy. So monks were given regular blood letting sessions. Medieval doctors likewise prescribed laxatives for purging. Enemas were given with a greased tube attached to a pig'due south float.

Doctors also prescribed baths in scented h2o. They too used salves and ointments and not just for skin complaints. Doctors believed it was important when treating many illnesses to forestall rut or moisture from escaping from the afflicted part of the body and they believed that ointments would practice that. In the Middle Ages doctors also examined a patient'south urine. The colour, olfactory property, and even gustation of urine were important.

Astrology was also an important part of medicine in the Centre Ages. Doctors believed that people born under certain zodiacal signs were more susceptible to sure ailments.

In the 13th century, a new type of craftsmen emerged in towns, the barber-surgeon. They cutting hair, they pulled teeth and they performed unproblematic operations such as amputations and setting broken bones.

In the Middle Ages, the church ran the merely hospitals. (Although frequently the only thing they could do was offer food and shelter). In many towns, monks and nuns cared for the sick as best they could.

Furthermore outside many towns were leper 'hospitals' (really just hostels equally zip could be done for the patients). Leprosy was a dreadful skin disease. Anyone who caught it was an outcast. They had to wear apparel that covered their whole trunk. They also had to ring a bong or a wooden clacker to warn people they were coming. Fortunately, leprosy grew less common in the 15th century and information technology died out in Britain in the 16th century.

In the Middle Ages in monasteries had streams that provided clean water. Dirty h2o was used to clean toilets, which were in a separate room. Monks also had a room called a laver where they washed their hands before meals.

However, in castles, the toilet was simply a long passage built into the thickness of the walls. Often it emptied into the castle moat. Despite the lack of public health, many towns had public bathhouses where you could pay to have a bath.

From the mid-14th century, the church building allowed some dissections of homo bodies at medical schools. Even so, Galen's ideas connected to dominate medicine and surgery in the Center Ages.

Last revised 2022

alvarezundan1952.blogspot.com

Source: https://localhistories.org/life-in-the-middle-ages/

Share this post