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Life in the Middle Ages
Part A: A huge part of the European Middle Ages was a new social order called Feudalism.
Feudalism was a political system in which nobles were granted the use of land that legally
belonged to the king, and in return, the nobles agreed to give their loyalty and military services to
the king. Below are several documents that aim to give a more in depth look at what life was like
in their feudal system.
DOCUMENT A: Social Hierarchy
Feudalism was a political, economic, and social system in which nobles were granted the use of
land that legally belonged to the king. In return, the nobles agreed to give their loyalty and
military services to the king. The peasants or serfs worked the land for the knights and nobles and
in return they received protection and a portion of the harvest to feed their families. The image
below shows the structure of feudal society – a social, political, and economic hierarchy.
Source: World History Patterns of Interaction.
STUDENT ANALYSIS:
1. How did feudalism provide for the security of the people of medieval Europe?
2. How were obligations mutual in feudalism?
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DOCUMENT B: Manor Layout
The manor was the lord’s estate. The manor was the basic economic arrangement that rested on a
set of rights and obligations between a lord and his serfs. The manor was a largely self-sufficient
system in which the lord’s land (granted by the king) was farmed by his serfs (essentially slaves
bound to the land). It consisted of a manor house and thousands of acres of land that was divided
between the meadow, pasture, forests, and farmland. The farmland was usually divided into three
strips: one third is for the lord of the manor, another for the church, and the last for the peasants.
The manor included not just farmers, but also artisans who provided certain specialized services
like metal workers, carpenters, breeders, religious guidance, and game keepers. The two images
below show the physical layout of the manor system.
Source: World History Patterns of Interaction, and http://www.uncp.edu/home/rwb/lecture_mid_civ.htm
Source: Piers Plowman, in World History Patterns of Interaction Literature Section
STUDENT ANALYSIS:
1. What three groups were the field divided among?
2. What resources would all people in the manor find in the surrounding lands?
3. What is another name given for Parson’s Fields?
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DOCUMENT C: Medieval Painting
STUDENT ANALYSIS
What does this painting tell us about the
three predominant social classes of the
Medieval Ages?
Source: Medieval French manuscript illustration of the three classes of medieval society: The Cleric, Knight, and Peasant. Li Livres dou Sante, 13th century.
DOCUMENT D: Piers Plowman
For the majority of Europeans, life was hard. Serfs, or peasants obligated to work the lord’s land,
had no freedoms. Serfs worked for six days of the week and received one day to farm and collect
food for their own families, and were also expected to pay rent to their lords to use their land. In
return for their labor, the serfs could depend on their lord for housing, food, and protection from
raiding invaders. Piers Plowman is an English poem written by a London priest, William
Langland, in 1362. He spent many years working in rural areas and learned firsthand about
peasant life.
Source: Piers Plowman, in World History Patterns of Interaction Literature Section .
The Peasant’s Cares
The most needy are our neighbors, if we notice right well,
As prisoners in pits and poor folk in cottages,
Charged with their children, and chief lord’s rent,
What by spinning they save, they spend it in house-hire,
Both in milk and in meal to make a mess of porridge.
To cheer up their children who chafe for their food,
And they themselves suffer surely much hunger
And woe in the winter, with waking at nights
And rising to rock an oft restless cradle,
Both to card and to comb, to clout and to wash,
To rub and to reel yarn, rushes to peel,
So ‘tis pity to proclaim or in poetry to show
The woe of these women who would in such cottages;
And of many other men who much woe suffer
Crippled with hunger and with thirst, they keep up appearances
And are abashed for to beg, and will not be blazoned
What they need from their neighbours, at noon at and at evensong
This I know full well, for the world has taught me
How churls are afflicted who have many children,
And have no coin but their craft to clothe and to keep them
STUDENT ANALYSIS
Describe some of the
hardships of a peasant’s life as
described in this poem.
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DOCUMENT E: Peasant’s World
Source: Bertram Linder, Edwin Selzer, and Barry Berk, A World History: The Human Panormama (Chicago: Science Research Associates, 1983), 159-160
STUDENT ANALYSIS
1. What are the differences between serfs and freemen?
2. Identify several positive aspects of the peasant’s life.
3. Identify several negative aspectsof the peasant’s life.
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DOCUMENT F: The Duties of Lords and Vassals
In the year 1020, Bishop Fulbert of Chartres wrote this letter to William, Duke of Aquitaine, in
southern France. The letter is the earliest surviving document explaining the bond between lords
and vassals.
To William most glorious duke of the Aquitanians, bishop Fulbert the favor of his prayers.
Asked to write something concerning the form of fealty, I have noted briefly for you on the
authority of the books the things which follow. He who swears fealty to his lord ought always to have these
six things in memory; what is harmless, safe, honorable, useful, easy, practicable. Harmless, that is to say
that he should not be injurious to his lord in his body; safe, that he should not be injurious to him in his
secrets or in the defences through which he is able to be secure; honorable, that he should not be injurious
to him in his justice or in other matters that pertain to his honor; useful, that he should not be injurious to
him in his possessions; easy or practicable, that that good which his lord is able to do easily, he make not
difficult, nor that which is practicable he make impossible to him.
However, that the faithful vassal should avoid these injuries is proper, but not for this does he
deserve his holding; for it is not sufficient to abstain from evil, unless what is good is done also. It remains,
therefore, that in the same six things mentioned above he should faithfully counsel and aid his lord, if he
wishes to be looked upon as worthy of his benefice and to be safe concerning the fealty which he has
sworn.
The lord also ought to act toward his faithful vassal reciprocally in all these things. And if he does
not do this he will be justly considered guilty of bad faith, just as the former, if he should be detected in the
avoidance of or the doing of or the consenting to them, would be perfidious and perjured.
Source: Recueil des Hist. des Gaules et de la France , (Loan), translated by E.P. Cheyney in University of Pennsylvania
Translations and Reprints, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1898), Vol 4:, no, 3, pp. 23-24
STUDENT ANALYSIS
1. What were six things that a faithful vassal should have always kept in mind?
2. What was a vassal expected to do besides avoid injurious behavior?
3. According to this letter, what formed the basis of the bond between a lord and his vassal?
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Document Based Response
Directions: The following question is based on the accompanying documents in Part A. As
you analyze the documents, take into account both the source of the document and the
author’s point of view. Be sure to:
1. Carefully read the document-based question.
2. Now, re-read each document carefully, underlining key phrases and words that address the
document-based question. You may also wish to use the margin to make brief notes. Answer the
questions for each document.
3. Based on your own knowledge and on the information found in the documents, formulate a
thesis that directly answers the question.
4. Organize supportive and relevant information into a brief outline.
5. Write a well-organized paragraph proving your thesis. The paragraph should be logically
presented and should include information both from the documents and from your own
knowledge outside of the documents.
Question: Describe what social and economic life was like in the Middle Ages?
Consider how manors were organized, quality of the relationships between lords and
their vassals, and how life was like for the different classes. You must have at least
three different descriptors plus supporting evidence.
Brainstorm your ideas below: next to each brainstorm, make sure you identify which document(s)
supports each idea. You must make references to the documents in your final response. Your
final response goes on a separate sheet of paper.