We all love stories about princes rescuing fair maidens from evil lords and returning to their castles to live happily ever after. Everyday domestic life in the Middle Ages, however, was not nearly so exciting. Then as now, there were chores to do and roles that each member of the family fulfilled in the home. Learning about this reality shows us how life in the medieval period was both like and unlike life today.
• Medieval Life: Squires, Maidens, and Peasants
For nearly every person in medieval society, life was regular and revolved almost entirely around agriculture as a daily activity and hard labor was needed to produce enough food to survive. The vast majority of people lived their entire life within the same village and therein celebrated all the major occurrences of life — weddings, childbirth, and more. Over time some villages grew large enough to build walls for defense and became cities. The vast majority of citizens in a medieval village would have belonged to the peasant class.
• Daily Life in Medieval and Renaissance Times
• Fourth and Fifth Graders: Life in the Middle Ages
Most of the peasants who lived in these villages and cities were farmers and worked strenuously to eke out a living from the land. Usually, the fathers worked from sunup to sundown in the field just to grow enough food to last through the winter. Agriculture was not very advanced and the weather and other circumstances were often unpredictable, so they were lucky to raise one good crop a year. The sons in a peasant home might get some basic schooling from the church, but they would eventually join their fathers to work in the field when they were old enough. Peasant women spent the day doing the household chores, which included cooking, doing laundry, and child rearingff. Daughters would help their mothers get the work done and keep the home running.
• Women in the Middle Ages: Daily Life
Most peasant families lived in small houses with dirt floors. The entire family lived in one room, sometimes two. Houses were not very durable but provided basic shelter for the family. Sometimes conditions were actually better outside the home than within it, at least according to some scholars.
Peasant villages depended in large measure on the protection of lords who offered some measure of defense in exchange for taxes or a portion of the crop. In turn, these lords paid taxes to the king who depended on the nobility to provide soldiers for his army. It was definitely better to be the king than the peasant in the Middle Ages, for the monarch had a life that had more leisure in it. Nevertheless, the king was dependent on the nobles and had to work to maintain their support.
For all strata in society, the church was extremely important. Life was hard work six days a week, but Sunday was the day of rest and also a day for the people to attend worship. Church festivals helped to break up the monotony of daily life and parties were often held at harvest time and other special occasions. Birth and death was also a regular part of daily life, and the church was there to commemorate both with baptisms and funerals.
• Middle Ages: Medieval Society
Life in the Medieval period was hard but no less rewarding than life today. Men and women married, raised families, and built cultures and society. Whether a person was a king or a peasant, daily life helped to pass the time and gave people a routine to rely on. Though the amenities they enjoyed were not as advanced as those we have today, their life was not so different than our own.
• The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies
Written by Michael S. Atwood