Medieval Society

The Village

Most Europeans in the Middle Ages lived in villages—communities that consisted of a few hundred people who were primarily engaged in farming. The village was the fundamental social and economic unit of medieval society.

Two types of villages dominated the European countryside: nucleated and dispersed. The former was found in the most fertile areas such as river valleys, and were mainly in northern Europe. A nucleated village was what you probably think of when you picture a village: houses clustered about a village green, with farms surrounding the village and a road running through it, while nearby stands the manor where the lord lives.

The other type of village was also characterized by its physical layout and was determined by the type of soil. Dispersed villages were more common in southern Europe, and any place where the soil was light and sandy.

There were other variations as well, all determined largley by climate and soil. In certain areas, the dominant activity was ranching, in others it was fishing, while elsewhere it might be olive groves or vineyards. But these were always limited in number and scope.

Each village was surrounded by unfenced farmland divided into two equal parts: those lands under cultivation, and those lying fallow. Each field was divided into narrow strips, and each villager held several strips in each field.

In northern Europe, where the soil was heavy, peasants used a heavy plow and teams of four to eight oxen to pull it. Villagers often pooled their animals.

A second type was closed-field farming, found mainly south of the Loire and in the Mediterranean regions in general. Here, land was divided into closed rectangular plots with a biennial rotation of crops. Peasants here used a light scratch plow. Each family was largely independent, with less sharing of resources among the villagers than in the north.

Dispersed settlements were found in regions of poor soil, such as Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and the central highlands of France. In these settlements, each household had a small plot of land close by, the "in-field". They grew garden crops, fertilized with manure, and these fields were the more heavily cultivated. They also had open land, the "out-field", which they farmed for a year or two and then abandoned for another patch. The surrounding wasteland was used for grazing.

Even the best peasant in the best year could get no better than a five to one yield, while three to one and even two to one were more common. Grain provided not only bread but drink as well. As much land as possible needed to be under cultivation, but animals need hay, and that requires good land too. Without hay, the oxen can't eat and the peasant can't plow his fields. So other animals were kept to a minimum - less to feed - but this in turn reduced the amount of manure available, which kept yields low. All sowing was broadcast by hand and much of the seed was eaten by birds.

A Typical Farm

Farms varied greatly in size, but perhaps an indicative size was 30 acres, though some had as little as five. In good years you got by, in bad years you starved.

Each house had a garden with a few fruit trees, if they were lucky. Each house had strips in the fields, a share of the hay crop, and the right to graze its animals in the common pasture (these typically were lands unfit for farming).

The local woods provided pasture for the pigs and wood for the fire. Those villages lucky enough to be next to a stream or lake had fishing rights. In short, each house had its own resources, plus a share in the common holdings of the village.

The villagers plowed together, reaped together and threshed together, sharing labor and work animals and tools—it was impossible to do otherwise. Some tasks were handled by specialists, such as the village herdsman who looked after everyone's stock.

Field Systems

The earliest technique for farming is known as "slash and burn", which is about what it sounds like. Land in northern Europe was usually overgrown, being either swampy or heavily wooded, but in any case in need of clearing. A family or group of families would move into an area and simply set fire to the forest, burning out a clearing. They would plant and farm for some years, planting the same crops in the same land year after year. Eventually, the soil would become exhausted of nutrients and the family would burn a new clearing. When the whole district had given way, they would move to new lands.

The classical world knew enough to rotate crops, planting only a portion of the land and leaving the other portion to lie fallow for a year. The following year, the fallow land would be planted and the cultivated land would lie fallow. This is the two-field system of crop rotation. It's about all you can get out of the drier lands around the Mediterranean.

Northern Europe, however, has much richer soil and abundant rainfall. During the early Middle Ages, farmers in the north developed a three-field system of rotation, planting one type of crop on a third of the land, another type with a different harvest date on another third, and leaving fallow only one-third instead of one-half the land. The resulting increase in productivity was significant.

Fertilized land, of course, can be farmed much more intensively. Medieval farmers knew about fertilizer, but manure was about the only type known and there wasn't enough of it. It required many animals to produce enough manure to fertilize a field; more animals, in fact, than the field itself could feed. So farmers were never able to keep enough animals to produce fertilizer for their fields. The use of manure was mainly restricted to fertilizing kitchen gardens, if that.

It is not until the early modern era, in the 17th and 18th century, that Europeans understood the chemistry of plants well enough to learn how to use legumes to help nourish the soil. Once that technique was discovered, it became possible to keep certain types of crops and fields under almost continuous cultivation, producing two and three harvests a year. It was this innovation that allowed the first phase of population growth in Europe that in turn helped drive the Industrial Revolution.

But all of that goes beyond our course.

Manor

The village was ruled from the manor house, where lived the local noble lord. The village belonged to him, as part of his fief, which the baron held from the duke who in turn held from the king. The control of certain parcels of land was in dispute, having been claimed by the local monastery as well.

The baron held a good deal of power over the village. He had the right to hold a court of law and to adminster justice regarding petty theft, cases of assault and so on. His word in these matters was final.

The baron also could demand free labor services from his peasants. Called week work in England, or corvée in France, the labor might be helping to build a road, repair a bridge, or clear some land, The number of days per week the lord could ask was fixed.

The lord of the manor had his own farmland that provided food for his own household and perhaps some surplus for sale. Only very poor knights had to work their own land. Normally, the peasants of the village were expected to work the lord's farm in addition to their own plots.

The manor was the source of some benefits. The baron would hunt the wolves and boars and bears that threatened the livestock. In hard times he might be counted on to distribute alms to the poor.

But generally the manor house was a place to fear, or at least to be careful of.

Road

A village was not completely isolated from the rest of the world. Few villages were without a road leading to another village and eventually to a town, and down this road from time to time came visitors.

Day laborers came down the road, looking for work, especially at planting and at harvest. It carried vagabonds, too, who came at all times of the year and who looked only for handouts. If the village were on a route, the road might carry pilgrims. All these brought news from the outside.

One of the more important visitors was the peddlar. This term covers a variety of itinerant merchants who usually worked a particular region. They bought and sold second-hand goods, redistributing them among the villages. They also brought new goods into the village from the neighboring town—spices and fancy cloths, metal goods and trinkets. The peddlar was an especially important source of news, for he knew the region well and could report on events with a local's understanding.

Forest

The forest played a vital role in the economy of the village, providing forage for animals and wood for fires and building.

Pigs were an important source of meat for the peasants. Pigs were hardy animals and were cheap to raise, especially since they were half-wild and foraged for themselves in the forest. Acorns were their favorite food and the forests of northern Europe provided the oak trees. The peasants simply turned them out to let them graze; the pigs stayed close to the village because it provided shelter and other food when acorns were not available.

The forest was often off-limits to peasants otherwise. The deer and other creatures that lived among the trees were often the preserve of the duke or the king, and no commoner could hunt there without permission. The story of Robin Hood alludes to this, for Robin initally crossed paths with the Sheriff of Nottingham when he came to the defense of a peasant who had been hunting in the king's forest.

Danger lurked in the forest as well. Wolves lived there, and wild boars and bears. The peasant tended to stay out of the forest unless brought there by need, and he never stayed in the woods after dark. Here again fairy tales illustrate the point. Little Red Riding Hood meets the wolf where? In the forest. Hansel and Gretel are abandoned by their parents in the forest, a place from which they were not expected to return. Peter pursues the wolf into its forest lair.

The woods were a dangerous place, perhaps even magical, and the safe thing to do was to remain in one's village.