Prof. Martha Carlin
Week 2: Tuesday
LIFE ON THE MANOR
c. 1000-1300 Rise in crop yields,
caused
by:
End of external attacks and drop in internal violence
Better weather > longer growing season
Spread of 3-field crop rotation (first introduced in 700s), including
planting of legumes (peas, beans, lentils)
Increase in land under cultivation
Spread of heavy wheeled
plow (first introduced in 8th cent.)
Spread of watermills;
introduction of windmill
(12th cent.): freed women
from labor of grinding grain with handmills to work at other tasks
Rise in crop yields, better diet, and drop in violence > rise in population
Surplus crops > rise in markets and fairs > revival of trade
Surplus population + revival in long-distance trade > revival of
towns
Principal food crops:
S. Europe: olives and grapes
N. Europe: grain, sheep, and cattle
Click here to see a plan of a medieval manor.
Terms:
Manor: estate
owned
by a lord (a lord could be a man, woman, child, or institution)
Village: small
community,
usually of peasant farmers, both free peasants and
serfs
(also called villeins). Click to see:
photograph of
the village
of Midlem in the Scottish Borders
plan of
the deserted medieval village of Wharram Percy in Yorkshire
Parish: area
served by a single church and priest; the smallest unit in a diocese
headed by a bishop
Tithes: annual tax
owed by all parishioners to support their church and priest
Demesne: manorial
lands retained for the direct use of the lord (i.e., not rented
out)
Open fields: fields
divided into multiple holdings consisting of unfenced strips
(Click here to see the fields
of the deserted medieval village of
Southdean in the Scottish Borders.)
Manual labor services
(or labor-rent): owed by serfs as all or part of their annual
rent
to their lord
Field: land
used for growing crops (arable farming)
Pasture: land
used for grazing animals (pastoral farming)
Fallow: field
left uncultivated for a season, to recover its fertility
Meadow: land
used for growing grass, to make hay for winter fodder
3-field crop rotation:
One-third of fields planted with winter crops (wheat, rye)
One-third of fields planted with spring crops (barley, oats,
peas, beans, lentils)
One-third of fields left fallow
Online readings:
THE ARISTOCRACY AND FEUDAL SOCIETY
Terms:
Lord (can be man, woman, child, or institution): holder of
one
or more fiefs
Fief (or "fee;" Latin "feudum"): a valuable
seigneurial
property (usually land), held by service,
and often inheritable
Vassal: one who holds one or more fiefs from one or more
lords
Homage:
ceremony by which a vassal swears fealty
(loyalty) and acknowledges other
obligations (such as military service) to a lord in return for
a
fief
Liege lord: the lord to whom a vassal owes primary
allegiance
"Tripartite" society: those who pray (clergy), those who fight
(aristocracy),
and those who work
(peasants and artisans)
Beginning in the 1100s, the revival of towns > revival of cash economy
Among the landowning aristocracy, the increasing circulation of cash led to:
Knights were professional warriors; hunting and tournaments served to burnish and display their skills
A lady's main duty was to marry and bear heirs for her lord, but she also took charge in his absence
Aristocratic marriages were usually arranged by parents or
guardians;
aristocratic children often were
sent to other aristocratic households for training
Online readings:
The feudal compact: homages paid by the counts of Champagne,
1143-1226:
Note the reciprocal
obligations
of lords and their vassals, and the subjection of aristocratic
widows and under-age heirs
to the control of their liege lords (often the king)
John of Toul's Homage to the Count of Champagne, 13th cent.:
Note how a vassal to
multiple
lords sorts out potentially conflicting obligations
Four English treatises on household and estate administration, later
13th cent.:
steward (French seneschal):
the lord's most senior officer, responsible for administering all
the lord's estates and manor courts
bailiff: a mid-level
local estate officer, in charge of one or more estates
reeve: a low-level
officer, often chosen by the local villagers, who was in charge of
day-to-day operations on a single estate
hayward: local
low-level
officer, in charge of boon-workers (serfs who owed manual labor
services to the lord) and harvest-workers
tally:
notched stick
used as receipt for paying or collecting bills or estate accounting
tenement: a
land-holding
(usually a building-plot, with or without buildings on it)
corn:
British-English
for "grain"
money denominations:
£1 = one pound (Latin libra, French livre,
Italian lira, German
pfund)
= 20s. = twenty shillings (Latin solidi, French sols
or sous, Italian
soldi, German
schilling)
= 240d. = 240 pence or pennies (Latin denarii, French deniers,
Italian denari, German
pfennig)
12d. = 1 s.
20s. = £1
thus: £1 = 20s.
= 240d.
The silver penny
was the most common coin in circulation. Half-pennies and
quarter-pennies were also used:
1/2d. = 1 ob. (Latin obolus) = one ha'penny
or halfpenny (plural: ha'pence or
ha'pennies)
1/4d. = 1 q. (Latin quadrans) = one farthing
Other standard divisions of a pound were:
Christine de Pisan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies (1405): A lady's duties
