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AIMS:

1) What was life like for peasants in the Middle Ages?STARTER:

Reminder exercise – draw a triangle and in it complete the FEUDAL SYSTEM diagram.

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© Boardworks Ltd 20043 of 16

The vast majority of people in England at this time lived in the countryside. There were very few towns in England and most people made their living from the land.

The Normans who invaded England soon became the lords of these manors. The English were the peasants.

The village

Most people lived in manors. The manor was an area of land that could sometimes include more than one village.

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The general term for people who worked on the lord of the manor’s land was peasants. They could be divided into villeins and freemen.

Who worked on the lord’s land?

The villeins worked on the lord’s land, and in return they had their own land to farm.

The freemen paid rent to the lord to have their own land.

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© Boardworks Ltd 20046 of 16

As well as the specific chores, peasants also had to dig and maintain drainage ditches, look after their animals, make repairs to their house, tend their gardens and collect firewood all year round.

On top of all this, peasants had to do their services to the lord – usually three days a week ploughing and other jobs.

The peasant’s life

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Peasants also had to make payments for certain things. To stop fires, ovens for baking bread were controlled by the lord and had to be paid for. All the peasants had to use the lord’s mills, using your own hand mill would mean you would be punished! Even brewing your ale had a price. Ale tasters had to check it before it could be sold.

Life was certainly hard for peasants, but the problems did not end there. The lord of the manor had a great deal of control over his peasants. A villein could not marry without his permission, nor could a villein travel beyond the village without permission. (Freemen could!)