by Ethel Smith

Created on: August 02, 2008   Last Updated: May 18, 2009

Peasant life even today will be hard and there will no doubt be daily battles to fight. However in the middle ages life was so much worse for everyone, rich and poor alike, but especially for the peasants. The Feudal system meant that, in the Hierarchy of life, peasants were the lowest of the low. With little if any rights life was hard and at times very brutal.

From the seventh to the thirteenth centuries there were few advances that helped a peasant's daily life. A peasant family would have to work long and gruelling hours in the fields, no matter what the weather. There would be few labour saving utensils available and most tasks involved hard graft. The peasants usually lived in small, communal, villages where everyone depended on each other and so the community was very important if not vital for survival. Bartering of skills and produce would be the main way that each peasant could acquire what they needed.

A peasant's working day began very early, in fact with the first signs of daylight in the summer months, and continued well into the darkness of night. The whole family had chores which had to be done and children received no formal education, but just some basic schooling up until the age of ten. At this age the children joined their parents working in the fields or the home. A life of toil was their future.

Religion was paramount in everyone's lives and the church and its teachings had to be obeyed. God and the church were something to be feared. Taxes were high on produce and peasants lived in near poverty constantly having to scrimp and save just to survive.

There were few medical treatments available for anyone no matter what their social standing. What medical treatments did exist were very basic, and childbirth and infancy saw plenty of deaths, especially amongst the peasant class. The average life expectancy of peasants was usually much less than today. Many were lucky if they even survived into middle age. The peasant's home was not much more than a mud hut and so the living quarters were usually dirty and hard to keep clean. As there were no labour saving devices household chores would have been never ending and difficult. However with the time spent working each day most peasants spent little time at home apart from sleeping.

Women had no rights, as such, and were literally owned by their husband. Marriages were usually arranged between families and a woman's choice did not come into the equation. For those women with brutal husbands life must have been a nightmare. Of course the men did not really have that many more rights and tended to have to answer to the Lord of the Manor. Everyone had their master and the King or Queen of the country were at the top, over everyone, and only answerable to God. From this dizzy height the peasants were way down the line at the very bottom.

Trying to assess another period of time is always difficult as, looking at it from one's own time zone, makes it seen incongruous and barbaric. I have no doubt that future generations will look back on our time and have similar thoughts. However, back then, in the Middle Ages, there were truly no home comforts, luxuries and conveniences. Entertainment could even be cruel as it might involve dog fighting or bear baiting. With a lack of sources of energy also, the days and nights must have been very cold and dark. To most 21st Century folk a peasant's life in the Middle Ages would have just been one hard slog and life of squalor. However, with the peasant's firm belief in God they at least were promised a better deal in the next life!.

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