by Mark Hopkins

Created on: September 05, 2008

Peasants were by far the largest group of people in Europe during the Middle Ages. Research suggests that around 90% of people would have fallen into this category, but it also reveals that there were significant variations in their status and living standards, both from place to place and from time to time. However, some generalization can be attempted.

From about the time of Charlemagne onwards (ruled Frankish Empire 774-814 CE) we can discern the Manor as the key unit of landholding over much of western Europe. The 'Manorial System' becomes the typical way of organizing the land and the people who live upon it and is bound up with the concept of estates being granted to an elite of professional warriors in return for service to the King. Depending on the productivity of the land, it could require the work of from 15 to 30 families to sustain one 'Knight'. Gradually this becomes the fully fledged 'Feudal System'.

A Manor comprised the Lord's Demesne, his private farm, and the peasants' holdings which were typically scattered across three huge, unfenced, arable fields divided into hundreds of one acre strips. These strips were typically 22 yards wide by 220 yards long. This shape coped best with the long plow teams of oxen in use at this time. Peasants would have strips scattered in each of the three fields, as one field each year was left fallow to prevent soil exhaustion. Arable crops were usually barley, wheat, rye or beans and the crop provided the food on which the peasants depended. Theirs was a subsitence farming lifestyle. There is evidence from Inquests in England that women worked alongside men at many farming tasks for some of the time at least, as well as having charge of the home and domestic chores. Children were expected to help as soon as they could walk. Infants were wrapped in tight swaddling bands and hung from tree branches close by when both their parents were busy. Life expectancy for both sexes was low and infant mortality was high.

In addition to the arable fields, the Manor also provided rough grazing for cattle, sheep, goats and geese. This was 'Common' land which everyone could use. It might be 'stinted'or 'unstinted'. If stinted, a peasant was limited as to how many beasts he or she could keep on it. The Manor also had meadow land, used principally for hay for winter fodder (though most animals were slaughtered and salted down or smoked in November) and woodland which provided timber, pannage in the Fall and foraging opportunities.

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