Life in a Medieval Castle by Frances & Joseph Gies

Author:Frances & Joseph Gies [Frances & Gies, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-03-04T06:56:23+00:00

VIII

The Villagers

Quoth Piers Plowman, “By Saint Peter of Rome!

I have an half acre to plow by the highway; Once I have plowed this half acre and sown it after, I will wend with you and show you the way…

I shall give them food if the land does not fail, Meat and bread both to rich and to poor, as long as I live, For the love of heaven; and all manner of men That live through meat and drink, help him to work wightly Who wins your food…”

And would that…Piers with his plows…

Were emperor of all the world, and then perhaps all men would be Christian!

Though many castles were built inside towns for political and strategic reasons, the castle was rooted economical y in the countryside. It was connected intimately with the vil age and the manor, the social and economic units of rural Europe. The vil age was a community, a col ective settlement, with its own ties, rights, and obligations. The manor was an estate held by a lord and farmed by tenants who owed him rents and services, and whose relations with him were governed by his manorial court. A manor might coincide with a vil age, or it might contain more than one vil age, or a vil age might contain parts of manors or several entire manors.

The manor supplied the castle’s livelihood. The word

“manor” came to England with the Conqueror, but the arrangement was centuries old. On the Continent, it was used to provide a living for the knight and his retainers at a time when money was scarce.

A great castle such as Chepstow commanded a large number of manors, often widely scattered and interspersed with land belonging to other lords. The kind of settlement and cultivation on these manors depended on their location. On most of the plain of northern Europe, and in England in a band running southwest from the North Sea through the Midlands to the English Channel, the land lay in great open stretches of field broken here and there by stands of trees and the clustered houses of vil ages. This was “champion” (“champagne,” open field) country.

Contrasting with it was the “woodland” country of Brittany and Normandy and the west, northwest, and southeast of England, where smal , compact fields were marked off with hedges and ditches, and the farmhouses were scattered in tiny hamlets.

In champion country, the vil ages were large, with populations of several hundred. The surrounding fields were divided into either two or three sectors, farmed according to a traditional rotation of crops. In each sector every vil ager held strips of land, alongside and mixed in with those of his fel ows and those of the lord. Land usual y descended to the eldest son, but younger brothers and sisters could stay on and work for the heir, as long as they remained unmarried. Many younger sons of champion country left home to seek their fortunes in the cities, or became mercenary soldiers.

In woodland country, on the other hand, each man worked his own separate farm.

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