Chapter 10 Shannon Kehoe

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Political
• Feudalism
• Nobles held the political power and possessed special legal status
• A male noble was seen as an adult when he inherited his property (when his father
died)
• Liberal spending on many luxuries signified power and status,
• Oftentimes, such spending would inevitably lead to large debts
• Vassals
• Were required to fight for lord or king whenever required
• Were also required to attend their lord’s court for significant occasions
• Holding the manorial court was a very important duty
• Warfare among the nobility was a great source of trouble for the monarchy, so the
monarchy looked to the middle class as a means of support.
• The crusades dealt with many problems for the monarchy.

Economic
• Peasantry did most work
• Slavery- property of their lord, could be sold/ bought
• Serfdom- property of their lord, could not be sold/bought
• Lords ran the Manor
• Different sizes
• “Manor usually contained a village”
• Demesne: manorial land actually possessed by the lord and not held by
tenants
• Usually, every manor had a pasture and a forest
• Field division
• Divided into 2-3 fields, then into strips for individual peasants
• One of the fields was left fallow
• Fallow: the land is plowed, but is not tilled or sown
• Used animal manure as fertilizer
• Low yields
• Yield: the amount or quantity produced or returned
• Believed that the amount needed for survival was 3 times the amount produced
• Average 13th century manor= 5:1 yield
• Monasteries
• In the late middle ages, monasteries such as Cluny did not gain enough income to
provide the lavish lifestyle the monks there were used to.
• Many monasteries fell into debt and received fewer donations

Religious
• Christian
• “Regulated and infused daily life”
• Church
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• Was not against making Christians slaves
• Was the center of the social, political, and economic life of a village
• Contained many rituals and ceremonies
• 12th century – sacramental religion emerged
• Seven sacraments—could only be delivered by a priest
• Baptism, penance, Eucharist, confirmation, orders,
matrimony, extreme unction (basically last rights)
• Was thought that the sacraments brought grace and salvation
• 11th century, emphasis on devotion to Mary came about
• Peasants believed that God was directly involved with human affairs and sin was
caused by the devil
• If one committed a sin, one could redeem oneself by making a pilgrimage to the
shrine of a great saint
• Monks
• Lived in monasteries
• Daily life in monasteries revolved around liturgy
• Liturgy: public worship
• Extravagant spending on objects was justified by the need to praise god
and enhance the liturgy
• Some monasteries became involved with mining lead and iron
• Acted as hostels and provided schools and hospitals for travelers
• Aristocratic monks/choir monks did not farm. They depended on lay brothers
• Lay brothers: peasants who did the agricultural labor for the monastery since
choir monks were aristocrats and therefore could not till the land themselves.
• Lay brothers were supervised by a cellarer when farming for the monastery
• Cellarer: person in a monastery responsible for providing food and drink
• Almoner: took care of the poor
• Novice master: trained recruits
• Raised and bred horses
• Converted wasteland to agriculture
• Performed prayers, an important social service, among other economic and
cultural services
• Many children were given as oblates to the church; these children grew to become
monks.
• Monasteries provided careers for aristocratic children.
• Eventually, the monasteries began recruiting from the middle class, not just the
aristocracy
• Nuns
• Lived in convents
• Were established for noble women
• The abbess/prioress typically had high social status
• “Some abbesses achieved national prominence”
• Nuns performed religious duties, administration, sewing, and sometimes even
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copied manuscripts
• Hildegard Bingen was a scholarly nun
• Isabella of Lancaster was a prioress
• Enjoyed court life and traveling
•

Social
• Serf: a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord
• Had to pay fees to their lord
• Were bound to the land, was a “hereditary position”,
• 3 ways to become free (for a serf)
• Granted freedom by their lord
• Purchased from their lord by a third party
• By belonging to a town’s guild for a year and a day
• Could move upward socially or gain freedom by helping to settle new land
• Most peasant homes contained a nuclear family
• Men
• Most doctors were men
• Women
• Midwives: non professionals who sometime performed Cesarean births (C-
sections)
• Worked the fields
• Managed the home
• “dominated” in beer and ale production
• Nobel Women
• Would run the estate, the men would be off traveling, looking after the rest
of their lands
• Warfare caused many of these women to become widows and run the
estate along with the rest of the lands. Because of this, they had the
opportunity to become very powerful.
• Diet (for peasantry)
• Vegetables, fruit, grains, beer, cheese, a little fish and meat, but mostly bread
• Most peasants didn’t live beyond the age of 40
• Thought to be a large increase in meat consumption by mid 13th century
• Children
• Peasant
• helped with chores
• Noble
• Probable decrease in infanticide, probable increase in abandonments
(which was socially acceptable)
• Often sold, or given to monasteries as oblates
• Aristocratic children had large amounts of playtime and freedom
• Age seven, served in a lord’s home and received formal arms training
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• Formal training was finished at age 21 with a knighthood ceremony
• Noble Youths
• Knights with live fathers had to entertain themselves with traveling, tournaments,
and drinking (carousing)
• Marriage
• Used primogeniture, late marriages, and birth control to preserve family
estates
• Primogeniture: an exclusive right of inheritance belonging to the eldest son
• A young man’s father must be dead in order for him to be considered a
man and eligible for marriage
• Women of the nobility married young. Their families gave large
dowries
• Tension arose between the young unmarried knights, the young women
and their older husbands
• Differences and arguments between generations were common in the 12th and 13th
centuries
• Oblates: a layman living in a monastery under a modified rule and without vows
• Urbanites had greater access to doctors
• Nobles
• Were politically powerful and “possessed special legal status”
• Were professional fighters
• Were supposed to protect the weak, the poor, and the church
• Practice chivalry: display courage, courtesy, loyalty, generosity, and
graciousness
• Sometimes viewed peasants with contempt, as dumb, and condemned to
labor by God
• Other times viewed peasants as virtuous and beloved by God
• Had to look after their lands, which involved traveling a lot
• Knights
• “All nobles were knights, but not all knights were noble”
• French and English linked knights with being morally superior, aware of family
duties and obligations, and belonging to a hereditary and superior class
• Ministerial: Germany, large class of non-noble knights

Intellectual
• Iron production in 1100 increased, allowed for better tools (farming)
• Hospitals started in 12th century
• Padded horse collar
• Led to horses being used in agriculture
• Allowed for a large increase in production
• Poor medical care
• Caused a lot of infants to die
• Literacy
• Learning to read and write was uncommon until the 11th and 12th centuries (among
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noble children)
• Law and medicine were investigated concurrently, possibly in the royal court
• Cistercians
• Important order of monks in England. Devoted their time to simple services and
hard manual labor
• Developed agriculture in the Low countries, France, England, and Germany

Artistic
• Liturgy: collection of ideas, phrases, or observations
• was the inspiration behind a lot of art