Medieval Society

Change in Village Life in the Later Middle Ages

not finished!

You have learned elsewhere that social conditions changed fairly significantly for the nobility in the later Middle Ages. You will also find that conditions changed for the clergy as well. It should come as no surprise that there were changes for the peasantry as well.

Change is never absent from any society, of course. When I speak of change here, I mean to say that the pace and nature of changes reached a level and character unprecedented in medieval society. While its outlines are clear enough and easy to describe, it's frustratingly difficult to being those generalizations down to specific cases. At the level of any given village, it's nearly impossible to make one village look like another. They all manage to do something atypical, at least where we have any records at all.

Still, it's worth talking about the generalities.

Decline of Serfdom in Western Europe

Rise of Serfdom in Eastern Europe

Shift to Money Rents

Little Innovation in Agriculture

History of Western Civilization

E.L. Skip Knox
Boise State University

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