Village+Life,+Guilds+and+Food

Click Here to Read Simone's Village Life Report = **    __Medieval Villages, Guilds, and Food__ Maria Kilcullen     ** =

 In the Middle Ages, most people lived in towns or villages. A lord owned the land where the town was built, and made its rules. A lord was the one with all the power because he was in charge of the peasants and craftspeople of the villages, and all the surrounding land. The lord provided land and protection. In return, the peasants grew the crops, paid taxes, and followed the lord’s orders. The people owed loyalty to whichever lord ruled the land, because he gave then protection and the right to live on his land. The peasants stayed on the land, even when the lord changed. The men hunted animals and fought enemies for the lord. The women gathered the food and cared for the children. The peasants worked or labored all day and some who were wealthier had a strip of land for themselves, although some peasants had nothing. All of these peasants worked without being paid, but got to eat some of the things they grew for the royal family. Around the village’s church were houses grouped together on a street. In wooded or hilly country, houses were spread out in hamlets. Each town was no larger than five hundred people, with either a well or a stream for a water source. There might also have been an ale house. Sometimes there was a windmill to grind corn. Surrounding the peasants’ houses were open fields. They had to farm for survival. Expensive equipment such as carts, wagons, oxen and horses were shared by the peasants. In towns or villages there were often weddings and parties. Social activities were important in each town. During a festival the streets had acrobats, troubadours, and people selling goods in the town square. Another way people entertained themselves was by playing games of chance when they gathered in taverns. If there was a wedding it was open for the whole town to come. Even a peasants’ wedding was celebrated by the entire town. The craftspeople with no land worked as blacksmiths, woodworkers, or potters. The people of the same craft or trade formed a guild. Then they trained apprentices by assigning them to a master. The master taught the apprentice his craft, and gave him food and housing. If an apprentice wanted to be a part of a guild, once he’d learned the craft, he would had to prove to the guild that he had enough money or tools to run a business. A person would belong to a guild because the guild would look after a member’s interests and pay for his funeral. There were guilds for weavers, blacksmiths, bakers, painters, and many other trades, also. During this time, mostly men belonged to guilds, but wives, widows, and daughters of male guild members might be allowed to join. Interestingly, around the 1300s, there were several guilds whose members were all women! In Paris there were five female guilds and in Germany there were four. The all female guilds were dedicated to making silk. Even food was ranked by its importance during the Middle Ages! Birds, including cranes, pheasants, and duck were the highest ranked because they were closest to heaven, Things grown under ground were the lowest ranking because they were furthest from heaven. The order of importance was, from the sky (birds), from the ocean (fish), from the earth (animals), from the trees (berries), and from the ground (vegetables). A person’s diet depended on his or her social class. In the manor house, there was a wide range of food, such as capons, geese, and chickens. Also, on the manor table, cheese and butter were served, although dairy products were rare during the Middle Ages. The lord and family would dine on meats such as beef, bacon, and lamb. They also might eat fish, salmon, herring, and other fresh water fish. Families who were lucky got to add salt, pork, or fatty bacon for protein and flavor. Bread was made with barley and rye, and was baked into dark heavy loaves. Raw vegetables were unhealthy and rarely eaten. The peasants ate protein from peas and beans and added them to bread and pottage, a warm soup. The ingredients they used to make soup were onions, cabbage, garlic, nuts, berries, leeks, spinach, and parsley. Not very different to how soup is made today. There was no sugar, so things were sweetened by honey. Water drawn by the well was sweetened with honey, and so were ales. The medicines used during this time included mint and anise for bad breath, pepper for chills, almond for a cough, myrrh for cuts and scrapes, verbena to help heal dog bites, frankincense for sinuses, ginger for stomach aches, and cloves and sage for toothaches. These remedies are similar to ingredients used today. The people of the Middle Ages lacked the vitamins A, C, and D. in their diets. One good thing about this diet was the high fiber and low fat which was very good for the heart. The Medieval Times is one time period where a lot of food was made! __ Works Cited __ “Life During the Middle Ages” __Medieval-Life.net__ 2000. http://www.medieval-life.net/life_main.htm “guilds” __Britannica Online School Edition __2008 http://school.eb.com/elementary/article?articleId=353357&query=guilds&ct = “Medieval Food” __Medieval-Life.net__ 2000 http://www.medieval-life.net/food.htm Elliot, Lynne __Food and Feasts in the Middle Ages.__ New York, NY: Crabtree Publishing Company 2004 Macdonald, Fiona __Everyday Life in the Middle Ages.__ London: Macdonald Educational 1984 Hinds, Kathryn __Life in the Middle Ages The City. __New York: Marshall Cavendish 2001

 **__Village Life/ Guilds/ Food/ Social Class__** Simone Ayjian

The center of life in the Middle Ages was the Medieval village. It was made up of peasant cottages and community places. The Lord of the Manor lived on an estate in the village. Surrounding this were fields to grow crops and graze cattle. It was better to be a lord or a knight than a peasant. In the medieval society all the people would have to depend on each other and the village society for protection and shelter. In a normal size village there were a few cottages where the peasants would have lived. There was also a manor house. There were fields and farms for the peasants to grow their crops behind the Lord’s house. In medieval times, many people were born, worked hard, got married had children, and then died. They never left the village. The priest of the village lived in a house near the church. Young men left the village to study to become a priest. They then returned and taught boys in the village. The priest spoke Latin in church. He visits the sick and helps the poor. Sometimes a friar would come through the village and preach to the people. The farmer’s role was important to the entire village. He ploughed the fields, planted the crops, and harvested them. In the winter the farmer cleaned out ditches, gathered wood and tended the animals. After he harvested the crops the lord had a big banquet for the village. Middle Ages people would eat unhealthy food because they didn’t have clean farms. The village people did not know healthy from unhealthy. People ate many vegetables such as carrots, leeks, and onions. They ate roots such as rabe and burdock. Some of the vegetable spices would have been imported from different places such as Italy. Spices on food in the Middle Ages could have been cubbanib, pepper, and ginger. The fruits were crab apples (little apples), plums, sloes, and cherries. Apples were made into apple cider and then were sweetened with honey. Sweet alcoholic drinks were made from honey called mead. It was flavored with an herb called meadow sweet. Wine was usually made with home made fruits. Beers used to be made from barley which was flavored with wild hops. Cider was usually made from “apple wine”. Pears, plums, and apples were used for fruit juices and teas. The guilds were very important in the medieval villages. The guild is a group of people who bind together according to their trade. Trade and craft were two of the guild jobs. The most important thing about the guilds was that one worked as an apprentice for a long time to learn his trade. The apprentice would usually have to have lived in the master’s house while he was training. Usually when the apprentices were doing their training, they would have had to give a present to the guild. They would have to show that they had the tools and money to be in the guild. The apprentice would have to promise that he would always be careful and loyal. They also had to practice whatever their profession was responsibly and honestly. In the medieval times the social class revolved around farming. The time of the Middle Ages was usually spent trying to grow food to survive. In the 1000’s, Europe was not very populated and was also very poor. The average person would have lived for about thirty years. The foods for the feasts of the Church were planned around harvesting and sowing days. Every citizen in the medieval town would be expected to attend social actives such as jousting, they were very important. There would be some occasions when the lord and the peasants would be able to take time off from their labors. Everyone in the medieval village was supposed to come to all of the weddings and celebrate with the bride and groom. The Middle Ages was a very special time period. We should be very thankful that we don’t have such a hard life. Back then only a few people were Lord’s and most of them were peasants. So most children didn’t get to learn, read or write. There are also some good things about the Medieval times. Although the children had to work, they got protection and shelter from working on the land and they never had to go into to war because they would have been in the castle. We are all lucky that the children in this time period don’t have to work when they are young and they get a great education. “Life of the People.” __World Book Encyclopedia Online.__ 15 May 2008  “Food and Drink” __Middle Ages Food and Drinks__ 2008. 15 March 2008 < http://www.regia.org/food.htm > “ Life During the Middle Ages.” __Middle Ages Life.__ 2008 May 15, 2008 http://www.medieval-life.net/life_main.htm Unstead, R. J. __Life in a Medieval Village.__
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