1257, Life as a Villein
My name is Katie Longhair. I am twenty-one years old and I am a villein, that's with an 'e' not an 'a', I'm no criminal you know. I live as a tenant on Lord Richard's land. That means that I have to pay him rent to live there. However, I can not pay him in pennies because I haven't got enough, instead I pay him with whatever I can spare off the farm.
I can see you're not from round these parts so let me tell you how life goes in this village. Villein is just another word for peasant, and peasant life really is tough. All we seem to do is work. Us peasants are an important part of feudalism. The King gave Lord Richard a share of his land and in return Lord Richard spends
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Then we've our own crop to bring in. When we have done our boon work ploughing or harvesting for the Lord, we all help each other with our own ploughing and harvesting. We can't afford oxen or a plough so we club together and hire them from the Bailiff. Last year there were so many arguments about ploughing into neighbours strips and Giles the Constable arrested Robin Stoutfellow for fighting over boundaries with Guy Thatcher.
There's Walter the Smith. He's a Freeman and he rents the smithy from the Lord for 10 shillings a year. He spends most of his time repairing ploughs and the like for the villagers. If we can't pay him in money he'll take some flour or eggs as payment. Like Rod the baker and the John the miller he's much better off than most of us villagers. Walter has got 15 strips in each field. This means he can grow more food than he needs and sell the surplus at market. He can afford to pay two men to help work his land. He still has to do some boon work at ploughing and harvest time, but not as much as us villeins and he doesn't do week work at all. He pays rent to the Lord instead which gives him much more time for his own work. And being a Freeman means he
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There's Molly the Smith's wife who has a weaving loom. I sell my yarn to her. We buy cloth from her or the travelling weaver who visits the village, when we can afford it. And there's Ann the Cooper's wife, she's a villein like me. She'll be taking those pails of milk up to the Manor House. I saw her this morning as she was taking her dough up to Rod the Baker's so that he could bake it for her, like he does for all of us. The Bailiff has declared it a fire risk for us to be baking our own bread, and there's a fine for anyone caught doing it, the same as if we are caught grinding our own grain.
Let me get you a drink of ale now to send you on your way. Our main drink is ale which is made in the village by Alice the brewer. Alf and I drink it with all our meals except breakfast. Brewing is another of the jobs done by the women. Before it can be sold it has to be checked by the Lord's ale taster who fixes the price and of course takes some of the ale for the Lord of the Manor, but you probably guess
to avenge the foul murder, but to leave his mother out of it as her guilt would
Corn soon became the crop of choice to Iowa farmers. They found that it was more resistant to disease than the other crops they were growing, such as barley, oats, wheat, and apples. With this newfound “wonder crop”, Iowans found that farming had become the ideal way of life. Working on the farm involved all of the members of the family, which brought them together and made them stronger through hardships and great opportunities.
to behave in the same way as King Richard, and since he is acting this way, the
Evidence can be gleaned from the remaining copies of newspapers from this time period as to the types of jobs that women were pursuing. There were three types of ads offering work for them. The first, which comprised about 43% of the total, was for those who had involved herself in some kind of economic activity ad was seeking to market her product. The second type was for women who were ot presently employed, but seeking to find a particular type of work. This could include nurses, seamstresses and domestic help. The third ad category was seeking to employ a female as a wet nurse, housekeeper, and even plantation and dairy managers, shopkeepers or teachers.11.
Late Medieval Europe was a very different time from what Europe is today. It was a time where social mobility was unthinkable; people lived in fear of their creator, and were always trying to please their creator. In addition, Medieval Europe was an unhealthy and unhygienic state, where sickness and disease was rampant. It was a place where women had little to no rights, and minority groups were frequently falsely accused of many problems that were out of their control. For example, they were blamed for drought, which usually resulted in their unjust persecution because they “angered” God. Overall, Europe was the last place one would want to live unless you were of the nobility. On the other hand, Europe was also a major trading power, engaging
With the decline of the Western Roman empire Western Europe was a disjointed land that had no true unifying structure till the rise of Christianity. In Roman antiquity people used the State or empire of Rome to define themselves and give them a sense of unity despite having a diverse group of people within the empire. When Western Rome fell this belief based on a Roman cultural identity disappeared and no longer were people able to identify themselves with any particular group as they once have. The Christian religion was able to fill this vacuum by having the people associate themselves to a religion instead of a given state or cultural group. During Medieval Europe Christianity became the unifying force that would define what it meant to be European. Christianity gave political leaders legitimacy by showing that they have been favored by the gods. The clergyman that recorded the histories surrounding the kings of the Medieval Europe also provided a link to the Roman Empire to give the Kings a link to Roman empire of antiquity. Christianity became the center of the cultural life in western Europe and created a new social elite in Europe which would dominate literacy and knowledge within Europe for centuries. Christianity provided Europe with an escape from the disorder of the Medieval ages and give them a spiritual outlet for their fears and desires for a better life, whether in the physical life or in the spiritual world after death.
...., Agnich, L. E., Stogner, J., & Miller, B. L. (2014). ‘Me and my drank:’ Exploring the
occupations” (“Women in the Labor Force in 2010”). The modern woman is free to make
Transitioning from high school to college can be overwhelming. Before English 1301, I thought that I did not have to worry about being prepared for college. I quickly realized that my little background in writing essays was not going to be enough for college. Writing is not just something that I will use in English classes. In college, I will have to use effective writing skills in all my classes to complete research papers, essay tests and communicate to professors. Throughout my education, writing strategies persisted to be something that did not come easy to me. I dreaded writing because I could never find ways to get my thoughts down on paper. Ironically, a class that petrified me due to the amount of writing that was required ended up helping me in so many ways. English 1301 and my professor prepared me so much for college and real life.
In the beginning of this semester, English 1302 seemed as though it would be the subject that would be the toughest for me to pass. The pace, the work load and everything in between seemed overwhelming for me. As time proceeded to pass, the course didn’t seem as overpowering. By taking the work one step at a time, it simply became another step to achieve the overall goal of this first half of the semester. I have made improvements as well as learned lessons from my mistakes made along the way.
Edward V and his brother so that he could be next in line for the crown. But that is not true for Richard really didn’t do it.
This highly influential and informational documentary about corn is told and experienced by two college friends Ian and Curt. These two best friends move from the east coast straight to the heart of their food’s location, the Midwest. Through the help from helpful neighbors and genetically engineered seeds they plant and produce their own crop of corn on just one acre of Iowa soil. After their attempt to follow their corn into the food system of America they wonder about the food we eat and how we farm. The two meet with the man who changed farming in America forever, Earl Butz and learn more than they ever thought they would about one crop.
Soaphead Church, to give her the bluest eyes in the world. In this time this is unpractical, so he hides her from reality.
greens, and corn around the area. The corn grew up like a forest! I can remember