A summary of everyday life in the Middle

Ages
Medieval life is known for being hard, violent and short. Yet at the same time it did have periods of
peace and stability, and creativity in the arts.

In the Middle Ages people were divided into groups based on what skills they had, skills such as:

 carpenter
 cook
 doctor
 dyer - someone who coloured wool
 friar - a religious minister
 knight
 lawyer
 merchant - someone who sold goods such as wine or cloth
 miller - made flour from corn
 monk
 nun
 ploughman - ploughed the fields for a living
 priest
 prioress
 reeve - supervised work done by peasants
 sailor
 soldier
 squire - local land owner who would be wealthy
 weaver

Today, we often look at society in terms of wealth (rich and poor) or class (upper, middle,
working). Medieval writers divided society into 'those who fight', 'those who pray' and 'those
who work'

Those who fight Knight, squire, soldier.

Those who pray Prioress, nun, priests, monk, friar.
Those who work Merchant, lawyer, carpenter, weaver, dyer, tapestry weaver, cook, sailor,
doctor, ploughman, miller, reeve.
Life in a castle

Layout of a castle

 Many nobles lived in castles.

The great hall was the centre of
a castle and the walls were
decorated with tapestries.
Everyone except the lord sat on
benches. There was a minstrel
gallery for musicians and
singers. At night, the servants
slept on the floor.
 The great hall would have at
least one fireplace with a
chimney. This was a Norman
invention and stopped the
room filling with smoke.
 The lord had his own room, called the solar, and his own four-poster bed, with curtains for
privacy.
 At the top of the castle, the lady would have a day-room for herself and her maids-in-waiting.
This had the largest windows and the best views. After 1200, castles had panes of glass in the
windows.
 The toilet, called the 'garderobe', was usually a chute straight into the moat. One way to capture
a castle was to climb up the chute, keeping your fingers crossed that the toilet wasn't occupied!

Life inside a castle

 A young nobleman would join the household of another lord. He would serve there as a page,
learning how to carve and fight on horseback. He would then serve as a squire until he was
about 18 years old, when he would go through a religious ceremony and become a knight.
 Meals had many courses. Each course consisted of many kinds of meats including swan,
peacock, magpie, porpoise and boar. This was served on a thick bread 'trencher' and eaten with
a knife and the fingers. Nobles ate few vegetables. If the lord was entertaining guests, he might
impress them by gilding the food with gold leaf, or serving a pie full of live frogs.
 Contrary to Hollywood films, a tournament was usually a mock battle known as a melée. Knights
did take part in jousts, but these only became common after the 12th century. Almost every lord
loved hunting.
 Fashions became more extreme as time went by, and included huge sleeves, shoes and
codpieces. Men's fashions were just as colourful and gaudy as women's.
 Towards the end of the Middle Ages, knights were obsessed with chivalry and courtship.
A day in the life of a medieval lord

Life in a medieval
town
 A medieval town would seek a
charter giving it the right to become a
borough. The rich merchants would
then be allowed to choose a mayor
and hold a market.
 Houses were made of a wooden
frame, with the gaps filled with
woven strips of wood, known as
'wattle', and covered, or 'daubed', with
clay and horse-dung. Most roofs were
thatch.
 Medieval shops were workshops, open to the street for customers, with the craftsman's
house above. Because few people could read, shops signs were a huge model showing the
craftsman's trade. People of the same trade often worked in the same street.
 The streets of a medieval town were narrow and busy. They were noisy, with the town
crier, church bells, and traders calling out their wares. There were many fast food sellers,
selling such things as hot sheep's feet and beef-ribs.
 Nobody was supposed to carry a weapon or wear a mask.
  At dusk, a bell rang for curfew, when everyone was supposed to shut up their house. The
gates to the town would be closed, and a watch would patrol the streets looking for
thieves, and apprentices who had stayed out late.
 Criminals were put in the stocks or the pillory. These were wooden boards with holes for
feet, hands or head. Medieval punishments were cruel, and crimes such as theft were
punished by hanging.
 In November the poor of the town would elect a 'lord of misrule', who would wear a
paper crown and get up to mischief. At Christmas poor people would go round town
demanding traders give them charity.
 Holy Days would be marked by colourful processions, as the different guilds competed to
make the best display.
 If a serf ran away from his village to a town and remained free for a year and a day, he
could become a 'freeman' of the town.

A day in the life of a medieval town

Life in a medieval village

In the early Middle Ages, under the feudal system, the life of a peasant was hard:

 Even in the later Middle Ages, the medieval peasant's life was hard and the work back-
breaking. It followed the seasons – ploughing in autumn, sowing in spring, harvesting in
August. Work began at dawn, preparing the animals, and it finished at dusk, cleaning
them down and putting them back into the stalls.
 A peasant's hut was made of wattle and daub, with a thatch roof but no windows.
 Inside the hut, a third of the area was penned off for the animals, which lived in the hut
with the family. A fire burned in a hearth in the centre of the hut, so the air was
permanently eye-wateringly smoky. Furniture was maybe a couple of stools, a trunk for
bedding, and a few cooking pots.
  Many peasants' huts included a simple loom, which is a device used to weave cloth. The
daughter would spin wool using spinng tools known as a distaff and spindle, and the wife
would weave it into rough cloth.
 Peasant food was mainly vegetables, plus anything that could be gathered – nuts, berries,
nettles. The usual drink was weak, home-brewed beer. Honey provided a sweetener. If he
ate bread, the peasant did not eat white wheat bread, but black rye bread.
 The most difficult time was late spring, when food stores were running out, and new food
was not yet growing. A poor harvest meant that some of the villagers would starve to
death.
 A male peasant would wear a rough tunic, with a hood and gloves, and leather shoes with
wooden soles. Women wore a coarse gown over a sleeveless slip.
 Towards the end of the Middle Ages, when some peasants were growing quite rich,
'sumptuary laws' forbade them to wear clothes above their class.
 Village life was not all misery. Holy days meant a day off work. Peasant fun was rough –
wrestling, shin-kicking and cock-fighting. The ball was almost unnecessary to a medieval
ball game, which was basically a fight with the next village. Occasionally a travelling
musician or bear-baiter would pass through.

Literature, art and architecture in the Middle

Ages
Whilst the Middle Ages are often known for war and sickness, there was a wealth of artistic
expression. Typically the remaining evidence reflects the life and experience of the wealthiest
classes. Consider why that might be the case.

Literature in the Middle Ages

Portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer

 Books were often written in Latin or

French. A famous example is The
History of the Kings of Britain
written by Geoffrey of Monmouth
around 1136. The historical
accuracy has been disputed but it did
create the popularity of such
characters as Arthur and Merlin.
 Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury
Tales is perhaps the first popular
English work. The tales are a
 collection of stories from the late 1300’s. The book forms a story-telling contest by a collection
of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury Cathedral. Together they provide an insight into medieval
life.
 Gerald of Wales (c.1146-c.1223) wrote, sometimes bluntly, about the history and geography of
Wales and Ireland based on his extensive travels and we can learn much about people’s lives
and beliefs from his works.
 The most widely available book was the Bible but it was very expensive as each copy was
handwritten by monks. Books were therefore normally held only by nobles and the church.

Art in the Middle Ages

 Illuminated writing to decorate books was popular.

 Stained glass windows and wall murals were widespread in medieval churches. They illustrated
Biblical scenes and would have been a marvel for ordinary people.
 Tapestry was popular among wealthy noblemen. It displayed heraldry and Biblical sense. At the
same time it was useful way of insulating and decorating a draughty castle.

Architecture in the Middle Ages

Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire

Portrait of Charles Barry

 The most common surviving examples are castles and churches. Made to last by the wealth of
nobility and religion many examples survive today. For example, ‘Fountains Abbey’ in Yorkshire
dating from 1132.
 Gothic architecture was used for many of the great cathedrals, abbeys and churches of Europe.
It is also seen in many castles and palaces.
 Gothic styles were revived in in England in the 1800s. The Houses of Parliament, by Sir Charles
Barry, is a high-profile example.