One of the most common ways medieval intellectuals described their society was to divide it into three groups: "those who work, those who fight, and those who pray." Used by kings and clergymen, this three-part system reflected an idealized view of the roles of medieval peasants, nobles, and clergy. In particular, it omitted townspeople who would become the most dynamic and innovative members of medieval society by the thirteenth century. If townspeople are added as an unofficial fourth community, however, this structure can be quite useful in understanding the daily lives of medieval people. It reflects the varied environments in which they lived, ways their lives were organized, and expectations they could have. It suggests variations in clothing, food, and shelter as well as work and fun. As such, this chapter portrays daily life in medieval Europe following the classification scheme that medieval elites themselves devised, although with a different sense of priorities.

The appearance of medieval Europe. European society in the Middle Ages was essentially rural, and most of its population gained its living through agriculture. Beginning in the tenth century, as the worst of the Viking raids tapered off and the European population and economy began to rebound, medieval people began clearing land at a rate that had not been seen for centuries. The extent of these clearances has led some historians to talk about a "new rural landscape" developing in Europe by 1100. Villages--communities with populations varying between 50 and 400 people--expanded all over Europe, even into areas that had not previously been populated. Despite these clearances, however, much of Europe was unsettled. Peasants lived close to forests that could be mysterious and dangerous, and, when the sun set, darkness settled everywhere. With unknown threats surrounding them, many spent most of their lives within a twenty-mile radius of where they were born. In this sense, then, the village in which the peasant lived and the manor of which it was a part were the basic social units of medieval Europe.

Manors and communities. Approximately 90-95% of medieval Europe's population lived in the countryside, and many of these people lived in communities known as villages. The village itself varied in size depending on many conditions: its age, location, prosperity, and health are just several contributing factors. Villagers were essentially farmers, and they distributed neighboring lands and cultivated these lands in different ways depending on where in Europe they were located, as described in chapter ________. As a general rule, the land distribution system known open-field was practiced on the plain of northern Europe and in a large band of land going through England. In woodland country pasture and arable lands were intermixed; these areas included Brittany, Normandy, and patches of the west, northwest, and southeast of England. In southern Europe in particular some villages were located on hills overlooking the lands the villagers cultivated. The judicial and administrative unit of the manor overlay these villages; it is sometimes useful to think of the village as a piece of paper with the basic outline of a picture on it, and the manor as another transparent piece of paper that is put on top of the village that, when combined with the village, adds depth to the picture. The manor was the basic source of revenue for medieval lords and nobles. While most manors were roughly the size of a village and the village's lands, some villages were divided between manors, and other manors controlled several villages. In general the manors controlled 35-40 % of a village's land, although at times the manor could account for 75-80% of the arable land around a village. Yet the populations who lived in villages and that manors controlled were often quite small when seen village by village. For example, in the English village of Cuxham during the thirteenth century, there were approximately two dozen households and 125-150 people living in the village. Even within this small community, however, there were distinctions in wealth and status. At the top of the village hierarchy were the village priest, two free tenants, a miller, and the reeve (the lord's representative and all-purpose judge). Next came the approximately fourteenth unfree tenants who had their own land, some of whom were women. Below them in the community came the approximately eight unfree cottagers, that is, people without their own land to cultivate. Even within such small societies there were distinctions which every member of the community appreciated.

Village Organization: Northern Europe. Although villages did vary region by region, successful villages shared some common patterns, which will be described here. Villages in much of northern Europe were either organized around a village square which often had the church and churchyard in the center or around a main street or junction with the church or manor house at the crossroads. The second type is often the sign of a planned village with layout and lots determined by a representative of the villagers' lord. Most European villages did not have fortifications nearby, and the church frequently served as the village stronghold. The roads and paths between houses were dirt, and in a well-located site a stream for the community's water would be nearby. Village houses did not share walls, as would increasingly happen in the city. Moreover, the houses were built on long, not quite rectangular lots (known in English as tofts) which the tenant either leased or in rare cases owned. On this toft would be a garden, a cesspit, and whatever outbuildings the peasant could afford. Chickens, goats, and other small livestock would be kept on this property, and their produce along with that of the garden would supplement the peasant's produce in the fields. The center of the village might contain a village green on which cattle could graze and other livestock wander. This green or the village churchyard served as a meeting place for the villagers where they might hold community councils, determine the allocation of fields, or even hold a festival. Here, too, would be the location of a market if a village had permission to hold one, and sometimes the market stalls would spread into the cemetery that was part of the churchyard. The living and the dead existed in close proximity in the medieval village.

Village Organization: Southern Europe. While villages in southern Europe would have many of the same components as their northern counterparts, they could be organized quite differently depending on the environment. In more hilly or mountainous regions villages tended to be on a hillside, in part for added protection. The village lands would be down the hillside or in flatter spaces. These villages shared with their northern counterparts a village square and individual peasant homes with small lots. In general, however, the houses were far closer together--sometimes even touching--the lots were much smaller, and the population density was much higher. Many such villages were built along one or two primary streets and almost looked as if they were part of the hillside. Although there is no single explanation for why the appearance of southern European villages evolved so differently from that of the north, it has been suggested that they were built in these locations for protection and convenience. These large villages proved more difficult to conquer, and in them it was easier to obtain help from a neighbor.

Peasant residences. While peasant houses were not the size of some modern homes, they were not the tiny hovels that popular imagination often makes them out to be. It has been repeatedly shown in England, France, and Germany that medieval peasant homes were rectangular, c. 49-75 feet long by 13-20 feet wide, that is 637 to 1500 square feet, the size of an average two-three bedroom house or apartment. Particularly in northern Europe, these buildings were divided into two parts, one for the humans and another for the animals; in southern Europe, where the climate was milder, a peasant might be able to afford a separate small stable or lean-to for his animals. There would be a single door for the human residents and perhaps another for the animals and into the storage areas of the structure. These doors could be locked by a wood bar across the door at night; only the rich used keys and generally for chests and secure storage. The residence might have a window, although this window had no glass and was covered with shutters at night for security and warmth. The floor was dirt on which some rushes or straw might be strewn in a wealthier household. In a peasant house that had been in place for several decades often the floor level was slightly lower than that of the outside because of years of sweeping and packing the earth down by walking. The fire was generally located in the center of the residence in an open pit. There was a small hole in the roof that was supposed to let the smoke out, although the room would often remain smoky. Wall fireplaces and enclosed stoves were generally later developments, and/or only the rich could afford them. The furniture and other elements of home comfort and decor will be described in the following sections.

Building a Peasant Home: Foundations and Walls. Buildings could be made in various ways depending on the wealth of the peasant and the available building materials. While this may sound commonsensical, historians often overlook this practical aspect of medieval life while trying to develop some general "medieval" pattern. The most basic houses had a foundation that was just support posts put directly into the ground in holes. Others set the posts directly into the ground but following trenches, while a third type would put the posts in the ground but on top of relatively flat stones and fill the holes with a mix of stones and dirt. The third type was more labor intensive and expensive, but it meant that the house's foundations would last longer because they did not have as much direct contact with the dirt and moisture that could rot the wood. The most expensive and elaborate constructions had stone foundations, but only in areas of predominantly stone construction would peasants be likely to have houses built with such supports. Walls could be made in various ways, but in most parts of Europe wood was the basic building material for peasants. Not only was it relatively easy to obtain, move, and shape compared to stone, but it kept the interior of the house warmer. It also needed more frequent maintenance and rebuilding. The most common use of wood in walls was to interlace tree branches to form the basic support and them to coat them with clay and straw mixed together, a process generally known as wattle and daub construction. While this method minimized drafts between the branches, it required continuous maintenance, although maintenance that a relatively unskilled peasant could perform. More elaborate peasant structures in northern European areas such as Germany did have wooden planks linked together, but such construction was extremely expensive and even more so as wood for such construction became harder to get later in the Middle Ages. Stone was the most durable material, but because of costs of quarrying it, the skill needed to work it, and time involved in building with it meant that peasants rarely had stone houses. Of course, there are exceptions. In certain areas of Scotland and Ireland wood was a precious commodity, and stone was the most plentiful building material available. Moreover, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries villages developed that were predominantly stone, especially in southern Europe, but they were also in regions were wood was considered to valuable to build with and stone was easy to obtain. While stone might be stronger and more durable, however, it was colder, so a peasant had to make a tradeoff. Even in Italy where we have records of using mortar by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries--mortar minimizes drafts between stones and helps stabilize the structure--wooden buildings were also being constructed in the same villages.

Building a Peasant Home: Roofs and Materials. Roofing a peasant house was both a necessity and a real problem. The roof alone could take almost the same amount of wood as the walls, which made it an expensive proposition. Moreover, finding roofing materials to go over the wooden framing could be difficult. The most common roofing material was of some form of straw; the straw of wheat, rye, or various wild grasses would be used depending on the region. The straw would then be woven and layered to approximately 1-2 feet thick by groups of trained men working on the wooden roof framework, a framework that had to be at a 40-55 degree angle to let water run off. While the materials were relatively easy to obtain and inexpensive, there were drawbacks to a such a roof, commonly known as a thatched roof. It was quite flammable and provided a home for a variety of animals: mice, wasps, spiders, and other small pests. Wooden shingles were used also in areas where wood was relatively plentiful such as medieval England and Scandinavia. Stone and turf were other possible roofing materials, but they were available only in smaller regions or were too expensive for common use in villages. Tiles and slates were generally luxury materials and, as such, might only appear in the village on the roof of the church or the manor. Even with basic materials, a peasant house was still a substantial investment. An excavation of a Neolithic house built following construction methods almost exactly like those used in medieval France provides a telling example of the materials and effort involved in building a house. The roof required 200 wooden poles about 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 inches in diameter, with 80 13 feet long and 120 8 feet long. A total of 1.5 tons of reeds comprised the roof. To tie all of this together required another 3 miles of vegetable material; for the Neolithic house this material was hemp. The walls needed 6,000 flexible sticks 3/8-3/4 inches in diameter and 4 feet long. The walls also needed 15 tons of clay soil. Making the daub that included the clay required around 1,000 gallons of water and another 440 pounds of chopped straw. The necessary tools were an ax, sickle, and spade. All of this for a building of 18 feet wide and 39 feet long, in other words a relatively small medieval peasant's home.

Sources:
Jean Chapelot & Robert Fossier. The Village and House in the Middle Ages. trans. by Henry Cleere. London: B. T. Batsford, Ltd., 1980/1985.

Christopher Dyer. "English Peasant Buildings in the Later Middle Ages (1200-1500)." Medieval Archaeology 20 (1986): 19-45.

Hans-Werner Goetz. Life in the Middle Ages: From the Seventh to the Thirteenth Century. trans. Albert Wimmer. Ed. Steven Rowan. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993.

Norman J.G. Pounds. Hearth and Home: A History of Material Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989.

www.netserf.org: "NetSERF: The Internet Connection for Medieval Resources" covers almost any medieval topic.
 

Making Land. The size of the village was naturally limited. All of the land which its residents worked had to be within close enough walking distance that the peasant could walk back and forth to his field and do a full day's work within 12-14 hours. In other words, most of the land that peasant's worked was within an hour's walk of the village, and much of it was closer. These limitations meant that medieval villages could quickly become pressed for land as their population grew, and some techniques were developed to extend a village's arable land or at least to make it more fertile. Large-scale land reclamation in the form of dykes and other drainage projects would only occur in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, but certain areas such as Flanders and the Netherlands took steps in that direction in the later Middle Ages. It was also possible to drain land by plowing in a direction that facilitated run-off, such as on top of a ridge, and there are examples of peasants using this technique when planning fields in both England and France. More common, however, were ways to make the soil itself more fertile. The traditional and least labor-intensive method was to leave a field alone for a season, that is, to let it lie fallow. Depending on resources, peasants also amended the soil. In parts of England fields marl was spread on fields; marl was a clay soil which contained a carbonate of lime, and lime increased nitrogen in the soil. Manure mixed with straw (compost) could also be spread on fields. The problem with using marl and compost was that neither was often available in quantities necessary for them to be effective. In other words, peasant resources for improving or expanding arable land were limited.

Crops and Land. Peasants used much of the arable land they controlled, beyond that around their residences, for growing grain. The type of grain and the method they used to plow and plant varied greatly depending on climate and tradition. The staple grain was whichever variety grew most easily in the region: rye in the mountains, wheat in lowlands, barley, oats, vetch, and others. Moreover, by the tenth and eleventh centuries in most parts of central and western Europe, these grains were grown in rotation to maximize productivity. For example, wheat and rye were traditionally sown (planted) in the fall, while barley, oats, vetch, and peas were sown in the winter. Crop rotation could occur two or three times a year depending on the region, but generally every second or third year a field was left fallow to recover some fertility. By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as the European economy grew, certain regions began to specialize. Burgundy and Bordeaux produced wine, while around Toulouse in southern France the peasants concentrated on the plants from which blue and yellow dies were made. Northern England was known for its sheep, while northern Germany specialized in cattle. In order to support such varied styles of agriculture, the ways peasant's distributed a village's lands also varied. In some parts of Europe all of a peasant's landholdings were integrated, but the more common pattern in France, England, and western Germany was for all of a village's lands to be divided into strips. Each landholding peasant had rights to a certain number of strips, and they were scattered all over the village lands. This method ensured that no peasant household monopolized all of the best land. The European landscape was a mixed one. Some areas were cultivated while others were not; some areas were fenced or otherwise enclosed, and others were not.

Plowing and Planting. One of the great technological revolutions of the Middle Ages was the development of the moldboard plow, as described in chapter _______________. The description of plowing and planting in this section is based on peasants using such a plow; in the areas where the traditional plow continued to be used--and there were many--the general procedures were similar. They differ in the depth the soil could be plowed and, therefore, the lands that were arable. Depending on climate, around the beginning of October a peasant's planting year would begin. At this time a farmer began to break up the soil in his fields so that it would be ready for planting. He and his son, a male relative, another farmer, or even a female family member would hitch a team of horses or oxen to the plow. While one person guided the team, the other would guide the plow, and they would begin making long, straight furrows up and down their narrow strips of land. After all the furrows had been made the farmer would place his seed in a basket or bag draped across his chest and "broadcast" the seed on the field. After all of the seed had been spread, he brought the team of horses or oxen out again and attached a harrow to them. The harrow was a rectangular or square metal frame with metal spikes attached so that they faced the ground. The farmer would have the team drag the harrow around the fields to level the furrows and cover the seed. Finally each household in the village was responsible for making a certain length of hedge or border around the planted field so that the village's animals could eat the crop. All of this work needed to be completed within a month, normally by the beginning of November. It would also be repeated again in the spring when a separate spring crop was sown again into the same field. While grown men normally did the plowing and planting because of the strength that was needed to use a moldboard plow, boys as young as seven could remove stones from the fields and chase away birds and other animals that would eat seeds or damage the crop. In need, however, women worked in the fields.

The Harvest. One of the most backbreaking and important chores peasants had was to harvest their fields. At harvest time in particular all members of the village turned out to lend a hand. Women and children worked alongside husbands, fathers, and brothers to bring in the crop on which they depended; women with infants would put them in a carrier which they hung from a low limb so that animals could not injure or eat the child. Those villagers who did not have sufficient land for their needs or who had no land at all worked as laborers for other villagers, especially during the harvest when labor was in demand. Villagers would work their way down a field using a sickle to cut off the grain near its base. This grain would be left to dry and turned using pitchforks for usually a few days depending on the climate. A sudden downpour could mean famine for a village. Once the grain was dry enough that it would not rot while stored, it was gathered into bundles (sheaves) and brought back to buildings where it would be stored. The poorest peasants might end up carrying these bundles on their backs, but normally several wagons owned by the village's most prosperous peasants would be hired out to carry the grain back. Once the harvest had been gathered, peasants would take down the barrier around the field, and cattle and other livestock would be allowed to graze on the stubble.

Gathering Food. Peasants had other sources of food besides the grain they grew in their fields. In their tofts they grew garden vegetables appropriate to their climate: radishes, celery, carrots, cabbage, onions, lettuce, and/or spinach. They also might have a few fruit and nut trees; apple, pear, cherry, plum, chestnut, walnut, and almond are frequently mentioned. Peasants also brewed their own beer or made their own wine from the grain or grapes in their fields, and beer in northern Europe and wine in southern Europe were staple foods. Moreover, peasants had the right to gather food in the forest, which made various herbs, fruits, and nuts available as well as wild mushrooms. Peasants, were, however, prohibited to hunt and often prohibited to fish, and the penalties for violating these laws could be quite severe. Such regulations meant that peasant food sources were limited and focused on grains and vegetables, especially those available to poorer peasants. Gathered food is also subject to seasonal variations, and most fresh food was only accessible a month or two of the year. When a peasant gathered or harvested, he concentrated on food which could be dried and, therefore, preserved.

Livestock. Aside from a peasant's house and land, his great investment would be in livestock. While cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry provided necessary protein and, in northern Europe, necessary materials such as grease, they were expensive to maintain and often the first sacrificed in times of famine. The largest domesticated animals peasant would regularly use were horses or oxen, which the moldboard plow described above required to pull it. Although treatises about plowing often call for a team of eight horses or oxen, it seems that most peasants worked with four animals. Oxen were cheaper to obtain and could tolerate coarser feed, but horses did not require any more feed and did half again as much work. In other words, fewer men with horses could cultivate more land than they could with oxen, which made horses the preferred animal once more efficient harnesses were developed. Given the costs of such animals, peasants would combine their resources to buy a team or rent a team from a prosperous neighbor. In part horses and oxen were expensive to support because medieval peasants rarely cultivated hay just for the animals. They relied on natural hay which grew near rivers, streams, and other, low wet places and mowed these when they could. It was also common to turn cattle and horses into harvested fields to eat the chaff, which had the advantage of scattering manure--that is, fertilizer--on the fields. Peasants relied on a town bull which was allowed to run loose in the town to impregnate females. While the ownership of this bull and rights to a percentage of its gets' value was originally a noble privilege, by the thirteenth century it appears that the village priest or a village committee had this right. There's no mention of a town stallion, so it's not entirely clear how medieval villagers arranged breeding their horses.
 
 

Gathering and Preparing Food. It is estimated that an adult man in the Middle Ages needed at least 4,500 calories a day to support his activities, a figure that is 150% of the recommended caloric intake for an average modern man. With such needs it is not surprising that the bulk of a peasant's time was devoted to producing and gathering food. Moreover, much of a medieval peasant's food supply was only available seasonally; fruits and nuts were harvested when they were ripe which meant that certain seasons were known by what fruits appeared then. Whatever was gathered needed to be kept for times of hardship, so preservation was a central problem and an important chore. Although cereals could be stored year-round in sheds, bins, or even in the rafters, there was always a chance that they would spoil or that rodents would get into them. When cereals were made into flour, they had a longer shelf life. The mill was then an essential part of a village, and the miller who ground a community's flour was often one of the most prosperous peasants. In order to avoid charges for milling their grain some peasants would try to mill their own grain, but it was time-consuming and violated the dues they owned their lord. Beans and peas could be dried, which made them available year-round. As such, they were staples in a peasant diet. Peasants also kept cow and goat milk as cheese and butter to preserve it; butter it was packed in salt, and the reduced water content of cheese made it easier to preserve. In the same way meat, when available, was salted and dried, and before it was used it had to be soaked in water several times. Meat, too, was also a seasonal commodity because of the expense of keeping livestock through winter. November was known as butchering month when elderly and excess livestock was killed and meat was salted. The result of peasant methods of obtaining food and means of storing it was that peasants had an extremely uneven diet, with feasts and famines occurring within months of each other.

Daily Meals. Although peasants had access to various foodstuffs, basic peasant food was quite simple. Generally meals were cooked over the fire in a pot into which had been put water, grains, peas or beans, and salt; the mixture could be made more appetizing by adding herbs, vegetables, fat, oil, or even a pinch of salt, but it depended on their availability and a peasant's wealth. Medieval peasants generally did not eat breakfast either. Normally the first meal was eaten between 10 a.m. and noon after a morning's work had been accomplished, and supper was in the early evening. The first meal was usually the largest, and if any extra foodstuffs, such as meat, were available they would appear on the table then. When meat was available, it was roasted at the side of the fire, and a wooden platter or container of some other was placed under it to catch the drippings; they were useful in cooking and as grease for household uses, such as softening chapped hands and oiling shoes. Beer and wine were another source of vitamins and calories for peasants; the choice of beverage depended on whether grapes or grain grew most readily in the region and on the regional customs. The production of beer and wine for household use was most frequently women's work, although wine production by the thirteenth century was more commercialized. It is estimated that medieval people drunk approximately a gallon of ale or a half-gallon of wine a day, although many peasants would have probably drunk less because of the cost. It is, however, also estimated that the alcohol content was substantially lower than their modern equivalents. Bread was another product that became less of a luxury during the Middle Ages, but it was still less common than grain porridge because of its costs in time, materials, and expertise. Because peasant homes did not contain ovens or did not have ready ways of maintaining the consistent heat necessary to produce bread, bread was often produced at a village bakehouse, and such a structure needed a larger and more prosperous village in order to make building one worthwhile. Moreover, the danger of fire led many lords and village committees to set strict regulations on the types of fires peasant homes could have, the maintenance of hearths, and their use. "The oven was typically a chamber of brick or clay, several feet across and rounded on top. It was filled with fuel, lit, and allowed to burn until it reached a sufficiently high temperature. At this point, the coals were raked out, the hot baking surface cleaned with a wet rag, the bread inserted, and the aperture sealed. The bread was based by the oven's residual heat. The yeast by which the bread was leavened was usually taken from a batch of ale or from a previous batch of bread, after the fashion of sourdough." (Singman, 52)

Sources:
Robert Fossier. Peasant Life in the Medieval West. Trans. Juliet Vale. New York: B. Blackwell, 1988.

George C. Homans, English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century. New York: Norton, 1941.

Jeffrey L. Singman. Daily Life in Medieval Europe. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1999.

Keeping warm. As mentioned above, the fireplace for peasant houses was generally a firepit in the center of the structure with an opening in the roof for ventilation. Only in early thirteenth-century Germany did wall fireplaces with chimneys appear, but even at that time they were uncommon because of the difficulty and expense of construction. The fire served as the sole source of heat, the cook fire, and the primary light in peasant residences, and maintaining it was crucial and an on-going chore. If the fire died out, it would have to be restarted using embers borrowed from a neighbor or a flint and steel, a relatively valuable tool. The peasant would built a small pile of highly flammable objects in the firepit; these could include dry grasses, tiny pieces of wood, and/or old scraps of cloth. When a spark flew off into these objects, the peasant would coax it into flame by blowing on it and would gradually feed slightly larger kindling to the flame until a usable fire was achieved. Wood itself, however, was an exhaustible resource, and peasants were generally only entitled to windfall wood. The thin sticks that a peasant thus gathered were frequently bundled together in order to make something approximating a log and, therefore, a more consistent and durable fire. Although fire was essential for peasants, it was also a danger. Medieval records abound with stories about people, especially young children, falling into the fire and being critically burned. In order to minimize such hazards, the fire was allowed to die down into embers during the evening and at night, which meant that the house cooled significantly while people were sleeping. Mornings were long and chilly, because reheating the house could take hours. The fire had to be stoked, new wood and other supplies had to be gathered, and the heat had to radiate from the fire. Perhaps it is not surprising that peasants generally went immediately to the fields in the morning and returned to their home only a few hours later for the main meal. The difficulties in heating peasant residences also help account for peasant clothing and dressing habits.

Medieval Clothes. Clothing in medieval Europe, even among peasants, had several functions. They kept a person warm, covered nakedness which was considered shameful, and marked a person's status. For example, while medieval men and women would sometimes strip down to their shirts when doing heavy labor, it was considered exceptionally shameful to be naked once you were no longer a child. In fact, a common part of medieval punishments involved stripping the guilty and making him or her face his punishment naked. Clothes were thus an important investment and an expensive one. Medieval peasants rarely, if ever, bought new clothes; they made their own basic garments or purchased used products from a merchant who specialized in selling used goods. Moreover, they generally owned only a few pieces of clothing: two of each undergarment, one outer garment, a hat, a belt, and a pair of shoes. Essentially they had something to wear while the rest was being washed. Men's and women's clothes also differed to some extent. The first piece of clothing a man would put on was a pair of half trousers made of linen or another thin material; they were known in English as braies and were much like boxer shorts, although they went down to about mid-calf. Given that elastic and zippers are modern inventions and buttons were expensive and, therefore, decorations for a wealthy person's clothing, braies were held up by being rolled over around the waistband several times and cinched into place with a belt. Sometimes braies could have ties at the bottom which were run through this belt to raise the bottom of the braies when working or in the heat. Next a peasant would put on a pair of woolen hose which ran from waist to foot. Although medieval pictures depict hose as form-fitting, the lack of elastic probably meant that it hung close to the body but not snugly. In many ways hose resembled loose stirrup pants except that it, too, was attached to the braies by several leather thongs. Over the braies and hose was put a linen shirt which reached to the thighs at least and was slit up the side for mobility. Over all of these layers came a tunic, which for laborers would probably reach to no longer than the knee so that it would not get in the way while working. Tunics could have sleeves or be sleeveless, but they usually had a large head opening which might have laces to that the material could be gathered closer to the neck for warmth. Medieval women did not wear braies; instead their first piece of clothing would be the shirt, which was a longer version of the man's shirt. When she wore hose, it generally only went to the knee. Her tunic was also like a man's but always went to the floor. Over their tunic both men and women wore narrow belts around their waists, and they could attach various objects to this belt: money pouches and knives being among the most common. In cold weather peasants would wear a mantle. It, too, was made of wool and a simple half-circle of fabric with a slit in the center through which a person could put his head. A peasant could decorate any of these articles, but such work took time away from a peasant's extremely busy life. It is also worth noting that there is almost no mention of specialized underwear and no mention of special clothes for sleeping. Normally peasants slept in the nude. If it was cold, a peasant might remove his outer layer of clothes before he went to sleep.

Making Cloth and Clothing. One of a medieval woman's most time-consuming and onerous activities was making thread (spinning) and weaving it into cloth in order to make cloth. Girls in the Middle Ages would begin helping with this task by at least the age of seven and would not stop until they died or their hands were so crippled from arthritis or other diseases or injuries that they were unable to manipulate the tools. In the early Middle Ages, when weaving was done on the upright loom, it could also be a source of supplemental income, but by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries weaving for trade had become more of an urban craft and most peasant weaving was again done for private consumption. Producing clothes in medieval Europe began with the basics: gathering the raw materials. Flax for linen or wool from their sheep was generally the base for clothes, although many types of hair and fibers could conceivably be spun into thread. First, the material was cleaned and combed so that all dirt and unusable fibers were removed and that all remaining fibers ran parallel, which made it easier to spin and led to better cloth. The spinner would attach one end of a fiber to the top of a spindle, which was a stick about one foot long which had a weight at the bottom. After attaching the fiber, the spinner would start spinning the spindle; the spinning twisted fibers together, and the weight made them into thread. Later in the Middle Ages a more prosperous peasant might have a spinning wheel, which allowed more thread to be spun for less effort, but it was always a luxury item. Once the thread was spun, it was made into cloth using a loom; the different types of looms and their use is described in chapter _______________. (I assume). Once it was woven fabric had to be finished, and the process varied depending on the type of fabric. If the cloth was to be died, and that worn by most medieval peasants was not, the dies were based on natural materials. These dies faded in the sun, which meant that peasant clothes often looked washed out. Only the richest could afford to redye their clothing. Once the cloth itself was produced, it had to be made into clothes. This process involved tools that were a substantial investment: shears, needles, and some form of pin or fastener to hold pieces of clothing together. Metal needles were valuable goods. In many cases peasant clothing was designed to require little sewing, but darning and other repairs would be needed during a garment's lifetime; clothes were too valuable to be discarded just because they were torn.

Hats. Although hats have come to assume a highly decorative role, in medieval society a hat was a necessary piece of clothing. It helped retain warmth, protected farmers from the heat and sun, and marked a villager's wealth and status. The most basic hat worn by men, particularly workers and farmers, was called a coif. It was a linen cap that covered the head and tied under the chin, and it kept his head warm and his hair clean while working. Women also wore headcoverings made of linen, but theirs were generally triangular. Rather than wrapping fully around their head, a pointed part of the cloth would come off the back of the head and drop down to the nape of the neck. Sometimes in the summer men and women would wear straw hats, particularly while working the fields, in order to protect themselves from the sun. Hoods made out of wool or even leather would also sometimes be worm for additional warmth or protection from rain or snow. While fur linings were the best way to keep warm, fur was generally a luxury object and might only appear in or on a peasant hat if the hat itself had been recycled through several owners

Shoes and Other Apparel. Shoes provided important protection and warmth; they also required specialized skills to make and were expensive because of the materials used (leather) and because of how quickly they could wear out. For this reason, although medieval manuscripts generally depict farmers wearing something on their feet, it is unlikely that all peasants always wore shoes. When men and women did wear shoes, however, they favored a low, leather boot which probably lasted six months at most. By the twelfth century, shoes were held on feet by leather thongs which were laced around the ankle; examples from the next century also show these lacings going up the side of the ankle. There was no heel, and when the sole wore through another piece of leather would be sewn on top of the existing sole. In order to make shoes somewhat water tight, people greased them with animal fat from slaughtered livestock. Attachments were also available to make shoes more functional. For example, wooden platforms could be laced onto regular leather shoes so that the wearer could avoid walking in mud.

Washing Clothes and Bodies. When the fabric was thought to be washable, it appears that peasants washed clothing every week at most. Linen was one fabric that was washed in water using lye; afterwards it was laid in the sun on a rock or the grass to dry. (Clothespins which keep clothing from flying off clothes lines are another modern invention.) Wool was, however, probably the most common medieval fabric, and it was normally brushed rather than washed to remove dirt. In the rare cases that medieval peasants cared about wrinkles, a heated stone would be run over the cloth. Laundry and bathing were both extremely laborious processes. Peasants washed clothing most frequently in nearby streams and needed to carry the clothing there. If hot water was needed for washing, it had to be carried from the village water supply to a cauldron--itself a valuable commodity that not every peasant would have--and enough firewood gathered to heat the wood to an acceptable temperature. The effort and expense of generating hot water help explain the medieval reluctance to take full-immersion baths and even the insistence in some treatises that such baths caused sickness; imagine tacking a bath in a river when it was near freezing and it was 30-40 degrees outside! Medieval people did, however, wash parts of their bodies with some regularity, and peasants were condemned for excessive odors. Hair was washed using a solution like that used for clothes. It also appears that they tried to clean their teeth; at least there are reports of people using woolen cloths and hazel twigs for this purpose. Shaving was also difficult because of the lack of hot water, mirrors, and skin softeners, and when added to the fact that knives were the most common shaving instruments shaving was a weekly occurrence at most. Given these problems, some peasants just settled for a beard, and being clean shaven was often a mark of status.

Hygiene. Because they had no running water, there was no such thing as flush toilets. Generally sophisticated plumbing facilities were an outhouse built over a cesspit. Those living more comfortably might have a chamber pot which they used in the evening and which would then be emptied into the cesspit in the morning. After defecating, people used hay, straw, grass, or some other vegetation to wipe themselves. Because of a relatively lack of privacy when grooming or attending to basic bodily needs, it appears that people had a higher threshold of embarrassment than modern people. These thresholds also applied to the use of bodily fluids. "Medieval people were not very squeamish about urine: not only was it an essential element in tanning leather and fulling cloth, but the medieval physician's analysis of a patient's urine was expected to take into account taste as well as appearance." (Singman, 50)

Sources:
See the general surveys cited in the previous sections.

J. Storck and W.D. Teague. Flour for Man's Bread: A History of Milling. Minneapolis, 1952.

The Inside of a Peasant House. As noted above, medieval residences had few windows. Windows let heat out, and peasants could not afford what glass was available. For this reason, peasant homes were often so dark that it took eyes a few seconds to adjust when a person entered the one room that comprised the average peasant house, even in daylight. Given this situation, it may be not surprising that candles were a medieval invention. They could be made of wax from the honeycombs of bees or tallow which was made from sheep fat. Such candles, though, were often beyond the means of the ordinary peasant. Peasants made do with rushlights when they had artificial lighting at all. Rushlights were lengths of rush, a type of grass, dipped in fat and lit, but they offered little light and more smoke. Sometimes, particularly in southern Europe, peasants also used oil lamps, a technology that went back to the Greeks and Romans. Each of these solutions cost precious resources, however, and many peasants just made do with natural light and what they got from their fire. Soon after sunset the day's activities would end because there'd no longer be enough light to work, or several families of peasants would congregate in the evenings in one residence.

Basic Utensils A peasant's basic goods were quite limited and varied greatly depending on whether the peasant was male or female, a landholder or landless, or their prosperity in any of these categories; the description in this section and the two following focuses on what a peasant family might have if they were middle wealth and had a husband, wife, and a child of about five years old. Farm implements would be stored in the home and would include a series of handtools: a shovel (preferably metal shod around the end), a small axe, a sickle (both handheld and full sized), and a knife for each adult. If the peasant had his own plow team, there would be a harness to attach animals to the plow, a goad to move the animals along, and the plow itself; the number of animals that the harness should accommodate would vary depending on what type of plow the peasant was using. For furniture, there would be a table and a bench. Chairs required specialized carpentry so were more expensive than benches. At least one metal pot would be by the fire suspected from a metal pole which could swing over and away from the firepit. There would also be at least one wooden spoon for stirring in the pot. There might also be a pot that could be used to roast meat or vegetables in the coals. There would be various baskets and pots to carry water or food; wicker or leather would be the least expensive, while effective pottery demands access to the right type of clay and a kiln. A few wooden bowls would hold meals, and the basic utensils well into the end of the Middle Ages were a knife and fingers. Soup was drunk like water or eaten with fingers, and the same bowls also held beer or wine. Linens were a mark of status, and peasant would take pride in being able to cover his or her table with a cloth. In the same way bedding was a major expense in a peasant household. Beds were generally thick fabric stuffed with some sort of material: dried grasses, wool, old clothing scraps. Woolen blankets, leather hides, and fur when available would be layered on top of it. By the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries there's some evidence that prosperous peasants might have a raised bedframe which made the bed substantially warmer and more comfortable, but little evidence exists for it from earlier centuries. A few rushlights or oil lamps might lighten the night, and a few barrels might be off to the side holding beer or wine. A medieval peasant lived with such basic supplies.

Carpentry. Many of the goods in medieval houses were made of wood, so carpentry was an essential skill. While many peasants might be able to effect basic repairs and whittle basic tools, a carpenter would be called in to produce objects that needed firm joinery or specialized attachments. For example, a plow required various pieces of wood to be cut to size and assembled such that it could take repeated, heavy use. Moreover, making plows demanded that a carpenter know how to attach metal parts to wooden frames. Although not every village needed a resident who concentrated on carpentry, a peasant with a solid knowledge of carpentry had a valuable supplementary income. They also were important sources of information when building or repairing houses, although, prior to a series of innovations in building during the late thirteenth century, most villages did not need specialized building craftsmen.

Village Fairs. Village fairs supplied the goods unavailable in smaller villages and which peasants themselves could not produce. As has been repeatedly noted, villages varied in size and complexity, and most small villages in settled areas were located within half a day's walk of a larger one. The larger one would host weekly or biweekly markets to which its residents and those of neighboring villages would bring their goods for sale. These markets occurred at regular intervals: every seven or ten days. Peasants would start out from a small village early in the morning with carts of goods or what could be carried on their backs. They would then spend the morning selling what they had and buying what they needed. Market days were also times for negotiating contracts, paying taxes, and holding celebrations. Then later in the day they would walk back to their village.

Sources:
Frances and Joseph Gies, Marriage and Family in the Middle Ages. New York: Harper and Row, 1987.

Hans-Werner Goetz. Life in the Middle Ages from the Seventh to the Thirteenth Centuries. trans. Albert Wimmer. Ed. Steven Rowan. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993.
 

Village Tensions. Villagers lived in close proximity to their neighbors, and in this situation fights were bound to occur. The records of village meetings and manorial courts provide lists of the types of troubles that could happen in these communities, particularly when land, tools, and crops were often shared: "trampling another tenant's grain; cutting hay in the meadow without waiting for lots to be drawn; allowing one's cows, pigs, or geese to damage another's crops' 'stealing plow furrows,' that is, plowing part of a neighbor's land. Bylaws ruled that 'able-bodied' people should not be allowed to do the relatively easy work of gleaning reserved for 'the young, the old, and those who are decrepit and unable to work,' but should be employed to their capacity in reaping. Peas and beans, especially valuable in a protein-short diet, could be picked only at specified times when all villagers were present and could watch each other. All kinds of precautions were taken to prevent the theft of sheaves. Rules restricted carting and carrying to daylight hours, via specified entries and exits to the fields." (Gies and Gies, Marriage and Family, 164) Those who violated village procedures suffered various penalties. If they offended against a lord's rights, the lord could extract payment or, in serious cases, even replace one tenant with another. Within the community itself, the villager could be ostracized; unless he was quite prosperous and was therefore able to manage his land on his own, this sentence carried serious economic consequences for the entire household; who would help him lead a plow team or who would help him bring in his crop? Honor was also important to medieval people, including peasants, and shaming was another way to punish transgressors. A man whose wife cheated on him might be made to wear horns, as a sign that he had been cuckolded; in that situation the beating a woman might receive would be ample testimony to her crime.

Village time. Village time was essentially astronomical and agricultural. The annual calendar did not really begin in a particular month, and peasants often lost track of what year it was. The month itself was what mattered. January was the month of cold; February was spading or cleaning the fields, and March and April were devoted to chores like taking livestock out to the fields, trimming grapevines, or cutting posts. Medieval calendars linking chores and climate to months of the year appear in books from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries and would continue to be a common artistic pattern well after the Middle Ages. The sun's placement in the sky determined time during the day, and the chores that needed to be done distinguished the months. A peasant would generally head to the fields at daylight, eat the main meal when the sun was at its zenith, and head home when the sun began to set. Given this schedule, it is clear that the work day was longer in the summer than in the winter, and the days were of a more consistent length in southern Europe than northern Europe. Holidays were tied to the religious calendar, which will be described in more detail in the "clergy" section. For peasants, Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest, although harvest or other jobs could encroach on this time. In the same way other holy days or market days could also be holidays. It is estimated that medieval peasants had around 200-240 working days a year, that is, close to that of modern people. These estimates, however, cannot show if peasants actually took the days off of work that were supposed to be holidays.
 

Sources:
Frances Gies and Joseph Gies. Life in a Medieval Village. New York: Harper and Row, 1990.

Ronald Hutton. The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Theresa McLean. The English at Play in the Middle Ages. Windsor Forest, Berks.: Kensal Press, 1983.

In addition to several web sites which have been previously cited, the following sites are authoritative and comprehensive:
Labyrinth Home Page: www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/index.html

The Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy: www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.html

Medieval Sourcebook: www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html

ORB: The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies: orb.rhobes.edu
 

The noble class and the people who worked immediately with them (their retainers) comprised only a small percentage of the European population, at most 3-5%. Yet this small community had a disproportionate influence on many aspects of European society and culture. One of the most striking artifacts of noble power that remains are medieval castles, although many modern assumptions about castle structure and noble life are based on anachronistic, romantic perceptions. Castles were frequently only the home of a small garrison composed of one or two knights, mercenary soldiers, and soldiers who owed military service. Even in massive structures built by kings and princes the actual number of people living within the castle walls was not large; around 40-50 when the lord was in residence, maybe 20 when he was not. Many medieval lords were essentially itinerant. They might have a primary residence or even two, but it was rare that they spent more than several months of the year there. It is only by the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, near the end of the Middle Ages, that court protocol and lifestyles begin to approach the modern imagination of them. Even then only a very few of the courts established in castles were so elaborate, and some of the most elaborate were led by an ecclesiastical lord such as the papal court in Avignon. In other words, anyone studying medieval castles always needs to keep their function in mind and to lose any romanticism about castle and noble life.
 
 

What is a castle? A castle was essentially a structure built to fortify an area. Beyond that basic definition, there were a series of variables. Medieval castles could have many designs, be built out of many materials, be situated on many sites, and even be more or less defensible. Very few actually had the elaborate architecture and great luxury that the modern mind tends to associate with castles. Particularly in the tenth and eleventh centuries, castles were fortifications and not initially designed as luxury accommodations. Life in castles could be isolated and harsh, only comfortable by comparison with the lives of the peasants surrounding them. What follows is a description of the most common types of castles in the ninth and tenth centuries (the motte and bailey) and then the high point of medieval stone castle building in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the process, we will see that any of the comforts associated with noble and castle life only began to emerge in the thirteenth century and were in many cases a development of the fourteenth century and the Renaissance.

Mottes and Baileys. The earliest medieval castles were mottes and baileys. In essence a motte was a pile of dirt. This dirt, however, could be an artificial mound 15-20 feet high and large enough to support a square tower at least 3 stories tall and 50 feet long per side. In some cases people built wooden walls around the edges of the motte and in the process formed a ringwork fort; this type of protective structure was in use well into the twelfth century in places such as England and formed the bases for many towns' walls well into the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. A motte-and-bailey structure included an enclosed courtyard attached to the motte but generally at a lower level; that courtyard was the bailey. While the motte provided the strongest protection, the bailey was the area in which most of the basic living in the castle was done. Every region had its variations, however, dependent on geography, custom, or personal preference. Sometimes mottes had several baileys or none at all. At other times mottes had ditches around them that could be filled with water (moats), yet in some instances they had no ditch whatsoever and water could be difficult to obtain. Building a castle of any form often was based as much on social considerations as on military necessity, as is explained in this statement from the beginning of the twelfth century: "It is the custom of all the richest and most noble men of this region ... to construct, piling up the earth, a motte as high as they are able, digging all around it a ditch as wide and deep as possible, and fortifying it on the outer side of its enclosure with a palisade of planks solidly joined together in the form of a wall. They furnish the circuit with as many towers as possible and on the inside they build in the centre [sic] a house or rather a fortress which dominates everything else, set up in such a fashion that the entry into the dwelling is only accessible by means of a bridge ..." As this quote demonstrates, the bailey often contained at least one primary structure, generally known as the keep, and a larger fortification often enclosed several additional buildings for storage and housing soldiers and livestock. Cisterns were also included so that residents would not need to obtain water from outside the castle in case of siege.

Stone Castles: A General Description. Archaeological evidence suggests that stone castles began to appear a little before 1000 A.D. while historical records of stone castles emerge a bit later. Whatever the date of the first stone castle might be, the period from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries were the great ages of the medieval castle building, and stone castles replaced mottes and baileys as the preferred fortifications. At the same time, castles were relocated from lowlands near villages to hills and mountain tops; by the twelfth century, castles were frequently separate from the communities they were ostensibly protecting. The walls themselves were built in straight lines, but the enclosure they surround could be shaped in many ways, with the most common being a sort of oblong; round walls were a later invention. [here a picture of a castle plan would help]. While towers were not constructed at every bend in the walls, there were often several on a side or at least one on each corner. Inside the walls themselves, there was one tower, several stories tall called the keep. As noted above, medieval castles normally housed very few people, and living space within the castle enclosure (the yard) was at a premium. Much of the structure itself was composed of walls with various outbuildings attached to the side of the walls or built into the walls. These structures could house offices, stables, barns, personnel quarters, and a kitchen, but smaller castles would often just have one or two structures that combined all of these functions. Many medieval castles were built or modernized because of pressing military needs, and some of the largest were built quite quickly, within a year or at most five. One such castle was Richard the Lionhearted's key fortification, Château-Gaillard. The only comparable medieval structures, cathedrals, frequently took decades to build. For this reason, castle construction needs to be seen as an incredible concentration of resources. Workmen from miles around would be drawn off of other tasks and would cram together in the castle yard levering stone, mortaring walls, and framing the keep. The costs were equally impressive. For example, Château-Gaillard was built in just over a year, and the costs were £21, 203 pounds sterling, the equivalent of one year's pay for approximately 11,000 footsoldiers.

Castle Walls. The walls of medieval castles were massive, designed to present formidable obstacles to invasion and to repulse any objects catapulted at them. To fulfill these functions, they often were at least seven feet think and over thirty feet high; in great castles the walls could measure up to twenty feet thick. Walls that were especially vulnerable or strategic could have a secondary wall behind them that was built even higher. Because tunneling and setting explosives under a wall was a real danger, ditches were sometimes dug around the walls. These walls, however, were more than just obstacles. They were platforms on which garrison could fight during a siege. For this reason, there were walkways built onto the tops of many walls, and the walls themselves were irregular at the top, with a somewhat saw-toothed pattern (battlements). The rectangular projections that stood higher than the rest of the wall provided protection for archers and other soldiers who could fire and then step behind one of these for protection. Towers were generally build every 2-300 feet in wall, and they furnished high points for maximum visible and protection from rain. Built with walls as thick as those of the castle walls themselves, towers were often keys to a castle's defense. The tower would have slits shaped like elongated crosses from which archers could fire. These arrow-slits gave archers the best protection possible during a battle. Gates also broke the line of castle walls. Although they were necessary, gates were frequently the weak point in a castle's defenses, and extra precautions were taken to strengthen them. Towers would flank the two sides of the gate, and in the most technologically advanced castles those entering the gate would first have to go through a barbican, which was a small fortification right before the gatehouse. Inside the barbican there was a ninety-degree turn in the path that anyone entering the castle would have to take; this turn allowed anyone already inside the castle to ambush an unwelcome visitor.

The Keep. Near the center of most medieval castles was the keep, which served as the main storehouse and residence and the tower of last resort. As such its structure was quite formidable; generally the tallest structure by several stories, its walls frequently measured 12-15 feet thick. The multi-story structure also reflected its varied functions. The bottom story was a cellar located half underground. Here was stored all of the castle's basic supplies including a portion of its water. Like the cellar, the next floor was entered through an external staircase. The floor itself consisted of two great rooms with smaller side rooms, service areas, and even a bed chamber or two coming off of these rooms. For example, someone entering this story at Dover castle in England could go into a rectangular hall approximately 20-25 feet wide and 40 feet long. In the middle of that hall was a doorway which led to another such hall that was only slightly narrower. Off of the first hall were privies, a guard room, a chapel, a service area, and possibly a kitchen, while off of the second hall, were two bed chambers and another privy. The largest hall would serve as a banquet and meeting room, and the smaller hall would house more private assemblies and serve as a sleeping chamber for soldiers and servants. Only the most highly ranked visitors in the castle would have separate bed chambers, and even then their closest servants would probably sleep in the same room. In many castles, these rooms were all that were available. A major castle, such as Dover, had another floor above this in the keep, and this third floor was in many cases a duplicate of the one below it. Finally, the top of the keep itself was a look-out post and could serve as sleeping quarters on hot, summer nights. By the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, great lords often felt that the facilities of earlier keeps, such as the one just described, were insufficient to support their more elaborate lifestyles. In this case they built additional halls which followed the design of manor houses alongside the castle walls. Even in this case, however, personal space was still at a premium in the medieval castle.
 
 

Sources:
Philippe Contamine. War in the Middle Ages. trans. by Michael Jones. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1984.

Hugh Kennedy. Crusader Castles. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

John R. Kenyon. Medieval Fortifications. The Archeology of Medieval Britain. London: Leicester University Press, 1990.

Robin S. Oggins. Castles and Fortresses. New York: Metrobooks, 1975.

A.J. Taylor. Caernarvon Castle and Town Walls. London: HMSO, 1975.

www.castlewales.com/caernarf.html and www.castlewales.com/bastide.htm: maps, plans, and other information about Caernarvon Castle. The site will also lead to authoritative sites about 100s of other Welsh castles.

Keeps and Privacy. As noted above, the medieval keep did not allow for much personal privacy. Most of the rooms were multi-function, and the keep itself was the primary living space in the castle. Soldiers, servants, and even lords- and ladies-in-waiting were expected to sleep in groups segregated by sex. For example, the women may have slept in the bed chambers while the male servants, courtiers, and soldiers slept in the great hall. Even the lords and ladies of castles, when they were in residence, often shared a room with a servant or conducted some business in the same rooms in which they slept. Given that the staff of a major castle could include at least two dozen household officials, another dozen knights and other aristocrats, several dozen footsoldiers, and assorted servants and spouses, the keep could also become quite crowded. The castle was not a place to go if seeking a room of one's own.

Furniture. The furnishings of a medieval castle varied depending on who was in residence. Many medieval lords lived itinerant lives, spending a year in residence at several castles at least, and when they moved they brought their favorite and most valuable furnishings with them. The baggage trains involved could be enormous; for example, when the countess of Leicester decided to stay at Dover castle in 1265, she arrived with a baggage train that required over 140 horses to transport it, and more goods were sent later. Among the most valuable and important furnishings were those for the bedchamber. A wooden bedstead with cords woven across it provided a base for several layers of mattresses. The first would likely be of straw, the second of wool, and a third of goose down--essentially going from hardest to softest. Linen sheets, wool blankets, quilts, and furs were laid on top of these mattresses. A long pillow that stretched the width of the bed (a bolster) would be placed where the head went, and a feather pillow or two would be placed on top of it. Then heavy curtains would be hung all around the bed for both decoration and warmth; when they were pulled, they minimized the drafts by the bed. Probably the most prevalent type of medieval furniture was the chest. Almost any household good that can be thought of would be placed in chests to store or to move: clothes, documents, pots and pans. When a lord arrived in a castle, his servants would take the clothes out of the chests and hang them from wooden rods suspended from the walls. Each of the great chambers would include tables, but in many cases they were probably only boards put on top of trestles; this structure would allow them to be moved when the room needed to be used for something else and would make them easier to move when the lord relocated. Wooden stools and benches were the most common seats, while chairs were a mark of status. Generally much furniture was made out of wool which could be carved, gilded, or otherwise decorated. Metal was used to reinforce corners, for decorative handles, and for locks. Leather could be made into seats but was more often used as strapping or for ties.

Warmth. Warmth was an on-going problem for stone castles, even those in southern Europe. While stone was the best material for building fortifications, it retained cold, and even in Italy or on the Mediterranean coast the cold could bite to the bone in the winter. Yet fire remained a hazard in medieval castles. Although the keep and walls were made of stone, wood provided the framing for the roofs, and the construction of many outbuildings was just a slightly more sophisticated version of the construction of peasant huts. Thatch and wood was always flammable. Like peasant residences, early castles often relied on a central firepit for warmth and light, which left the side chambers cold and the main hall smoky. By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, however, stone wall fireplaces increasingly came into use, and even bed chambers might have a private one. Although these fireplaces made a definite difference in both warmth and light, they were still far from perfect; for example, fires were still allowed to die down at night for safety, and by the morning chambers were quite cold. Probably the first sound that many medieval lords and ladies heard in the morning was a servant stoking the fire. There were, however, ways of holding in the heat. Thick cloth was draped around beds and on walls to provide a layer of insulation.

Decoration. Although surviving medieval castles appear bleak and dreary places with gray, stone walls everywhere, medieval people took some care when decorating a keep. The cloths that covered walls to minimize drafts and retain heat were also dyed festive colors and embroidered with elaborate scenes done by either the lady of the castle and her ladies or, increasingly, professional embroiderers. (Tapestries are a later medieval invention.) Moreover, the great halls and the bed chambers would have generally been plastered and whitewashed. On top of this whitewash would be various colors of paint; red, green, yellow, and blue were considered most appropriate for the inside of a castle. As the medieval economy improved, especially in the fourteenth century, prosperous castle lords might commission a painter to decorate their chambers with moralizing, mythical, or recreational scenes such as hunts and picnics. One of the most striking examples of medieval architectural painting is the Sainte Chapelle built onto the palace of King Louis IX of France in the 1240s; there the entire chapel is painted dark blue and gold with stars and fleur-de-lis, the heraldic device of Louis' dynasty. The wooden framing of the ceiling could also be gilt or painted. Coats of arms, animals, and fantastic figures seem to have been popular designs. Floors were not often decorated; a layer of rushes on top of the wood provided basic insulation and could be discarded when it became too dirty. Yet by the fourteenth century, however, there is some evidence that the most prosperous and stylish members of the aristocracy were retrofitting their castles with some tiled floors, and these tiles came in many colors and patterns.

The Soldier's Life. Although the life of a soldier in a castle garrison was not harsh compared to that of a medieval peasant, it was still far from easy by modern standards. Soldiers generally came in two forms; there were those who were professionals and others who served at a castle for set number of days a year. The professionals could be in permanent residence, while the others rotated into the castle for a month at a time. Among the soldiers there also were hierarchies. The knight was at the highest level and enjoyed the greatest privileges as the commander of the garrison or of a part of it. Only a great castle would have more than one or two knights in residence. The knights were either housed together in a separate chamber, or, if they were placed in the hall with the rest of the soldiers, they would be in an area curtained off from the common fighters. Moreover, a knight would have one or more servants attending him. During ordinary times a knight would be responsible for keeping the castle in a state of readiness and making sure that the soldiers stayed disciplined and skillful. At the same time the ordinary soldier's primary duty was to take a daily tour of guard duty, make sure his weapons were maintained, and to keep himself fit. Soldiers ate together and slept together, generally in the great hall or in quarters built along the inside of the walls. In fact, it appears that the most consistent challenge facing a soldier in a castle garrison was boredom.

The Servant's Life. Servants were the backbone of medieval castles; no lord would expect to clean his own rooms, prepare his own food, or even care for his own horse. Castles were equipped with a staff ranging from skilled craftsmen to the scullery maids and men responsible for cleaning garbage dumps and cesspits. Clearly their standard of living varied greatly with the craftspeople generally enjoying the greatest privileges. Artisans working at the castle earned a daily or annual wage, bonuses for certain projects, clothing, food, and shelter. Although the food was not of the quality served to the highest nobility, it was still more varied and contained more meat than that of the average villager, and the shelter was probably in a building of some sort next to where they worked. The highest levels of staff may have even been prosperous enough to support a family of their own. Although castle servants could expect better pay than the average villager, they worked long hours. Always available at the whim of the lord, a servant could have a working day that lasted from before daylight to well past sundown. There was always a trade-off in service jobs, too; although it might be possible to have a more regular schedule or more time off working in a job more distant from the lord, those who directly served the lord or lady were most likely to get special preferment and bonuses. It should not then be surprising that positions as a serving maid, chamberlain, or others like them were among the most coveted.

Managing a castle: the lady. Noble women in medieval Europe had many roles. A few women fought alongside their husbands, such as Gaita, wife of a Norman prince, and Duchess Agnes of Burgundy. Even when they did not fight, others accompanied their husbands to war and, thereby, stood in real peril, as did Eleanor of Aquitaine when her husband, King Louis VII of France, went on crusade. More commonly, however, noble women had important managerial roles, both of individual castles and of a family's estates more generally. Such responsibilities only increased when wars struck, and men were away fighting. In such a position, a noble woman's day began quite early at daybreak. She would get dressed and hear mass after which time she would go to the great chamber to begin the day's work. After a few pieces of bread dipped in wine or something small morsel to eat, she would begin the series of tasks that filled her day. Her work included hearing messengers, resolving disputes in the castle and neighboring territories, and reviewing the castle and manorial accounts. She needed to buy provisions for the castle and negotiate with other lords and merchants for any men or materials her husband or she might need. She had to hear reports from important servants in the castle, such as the garrison commander and the steward, and respond as she felt necessary. She also needed to pay her respects to any visitors that might be taking shelter in the castle; given the lack of accommodations for travelers, a noble would house temporarily any other aristocratic or important cleric along with his household. In addition, she was responsible for supervising the care of her children, if not actually doing all of the babysitting. Essentially, a noblewoman was like the manager of a business, and the business could be as large as IBM or Microsoft.
 
 

Georges Duby, ed. A History of Private Life: Revelations of the Medieval World. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1989.

Penelope Eames. Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century. London: Furniture History Society, 1977.

Joseph Gies and Frances Gies. Life in a Medieval Castle. New York: Harper and Row, 1979.

David Herlihy. Opera Muliebria: Women and Work in Medieval Europe. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990.

Eric Mercer. Furniture, 700-1700. New York: Meredith Press, 1969.

Dorothy Oschinsky. Walter of Henley and other Treatises on Estate Management and Accounting. New York: Clarendon Press, 1971.

Castle Storage. As noted above, medieval castles kept the bulk of their supplies in a large cellar at the base of the keep. This cellar contained everything necessary to supply a fortified village: grain, dried foodstuffs, military supplies, cloth, etc. Built half underground as it was, the cellar provided cool storage which helped preserve foodstuffs. Given that access to the cellar was by the same external stairwell that provided access to the keep, the castle would have to be in mortal danger before the cellar's supplies were unavailable. By that time, the supplies would probably be close to, if not totally, exhausted. By later in the Middle Ages, goods would also be stored in structures all around the castleyard next to where they were most needed. Hay would be near the stables, weapons caches at the towers, and iron and other metals besides the smithy.

Water Supply. Water supplies were an on-going problem for medieval castles. Few were built alongside streams, and the preferred coastline and mountain-top sites meant that water often had to be found a good distance away. One of the first tasks in castle construction was to build a well in the castle yard, at times even making it part of the keep. Water might be 100s of feet below the castle itself, and drilling the hold was dangerous work. Even once the well was constructed, water had to be pulled up by a chain and pulley mechanism into the castle cisterns. In some castles, the cisterns were located at a high elevation in the castle complex, which allowed for lead pipes to be connected to the cistern and for running water in various rooms in the castle, but such luxury was rare. Water cisterns to collect rainwater were also built within the castle walls; in the case of Dover castle, one of the largest and strongest of thirteenth-century England, these cisterns were in a building attached to and in front of the keep. Here pipes directed rainwater from the roof into the cisterns, and here, too, was access to the well using a chain and a bucket. Even when a castle had a moat next to its walls--and such moats were rare--the moat was not a source of drinking water except in desperation given that the privies and all other household water generally emptied into the moat.

Breaking Down the Walls. Although the most common ways of taking castles were through starvation and thirst, medieval people also designed weapons that could threaten these enormous structures. As mentioned above, undermining was one hazard facing all castles. Besiegers would provide cover for a team who would dig under the castle itself and weaken its foundations. Sometimes explosives would be planted in these tunnels. Medieval armies also used battering rams to strike at the castle's weakest defensive point: the walls. These rams were made of wood--generally a tree trunk--with the front sheathed in metal and handles attached to the ram. Hammering a ram into a gate was a dangerous business, however, considering that the castle's defenders would be shooting arrows and throwing stones, garbage and burning oil or water at you while you ran. Given these dangers, medieval craftsmen developed ways of damaging walls that kept their soldiers at a greater distance. One of the most fearsome developments of the thirteenth century was the trebuchet, described in chapter ____________. The trebuchet could throw stones weighing hundreds of pounds, and these stones demolished structures, crushed people, and acted somewhat like mortars, fragmenting and maiming or killing people just with the splinters of stone. By the fourteenth century, the trebuchet was both praised as a technological marvel and condemned as a demoniacal weapon. It also caused serious damage to all but the most powerful medieval fortifications.

Breaking Down the People. Much of the staff of a medieval castle was made up of residents from neighboring villages; these same people were even most of the average footsoldiers in times of siege. As such, psychological warfare could have a great impact on individuals not trained to deal with battle's stresses, and medieval warriors repeatedly used it. Threats, destroyed farms, and injured loved ones were all weapons in a soldier's arsenal. In sieges, however, such threats gained a real immediacy, because the defenders were trapped inside the castle walls. In fact, sometimes the castle itself could be transformed into an enemy. For example, germ warfare is not a modern invention. "In 1332 when besieging the castle of Schwanau, the men of Strasbourg captured 60 prisoners, of whom they massacred 48, including three carpenters, whose bodies they placed in barrels, together with all kinds of rubbish, when they then catapulted into the castle." (Contamine, 104)

Sources:
Jim Bradbury. The Medieval Siege. Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 1992.

Christopher Gravett. Medieval Siege Warfare.

David Nicolle. Medieval Warfare Source Book. 2 vols. New York: Sterling, 1995-1996.

Castles are Transformed. Although the castles of the highest nobility during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries were generally more luxurious than the description given in the preceding section, by the thirteenth and fourteenth century noble culture was becoming increasingly formal and complex. As the seat of noble courts, the largest castles were becoming more elaborate as well. As described above, more outbuildings were constructed in the castleyard to supply more goods and services, and the number of servants in attendance was increasing. At the same time noble life became less itinerant, and powerful lords increasingly divided their time between only a few residences except when needed for political considerations. Although these changes only affected the greatest castles and their lords, the development of this noble, court culture was a distinctive feature of the later Middle Ages.

Clothing the lord and lady. Basic clothing for aristocrats was based on the same patterns as that of villagers and craftsmen but was made of more valuable materials and had more intricate detailing and decoration. Silks, velvets, and other luxury cloth were staples of a noble's wardrobe, although nobles, too, might make their everyday clothes from wool or linen. Even when the substance of the garment was woolen, they lined cloaks and other clothes with more luxurious furs for warmth; ermine and sable were two of the most lush and prestigious furs. Nobles were able to afford more elaborate dies, and there is some evidence that their clothing was more colorful and the colors lasted longer. When clothing had faded, they would redye it or give it to an underling and commission a new garment. Even court clothing followed a similar pattern, yet, by the twelfth and thirteenth century, fitted clothing had come into style. Some noblemen and -women went so far as to have themselves pinned into pieces of their garments. Lacings were also used to make clothing fit more closely to the body. In the early fourteenth century buttons were employed as both decoration and fasteners, which allowed for a more tailored fit. At the highest levels of society and during royal or ecclesiastical ceremonies clothing might even be encrusted with jewels or embroidered with precious metals. Clothing was particularly important to a noble because of the value placed on display. Tailored clothes of the finest material and with the most costly decorations shouted a noble's status and aspirations, and noblemen and -women alike had a knowledge of clothing grades similar to that of a cloth factor.

Embroidery. One way used to decorate clothing in the Middle Ages was to embroider it, and embroidery came in many styles and many colors. Embroidery was treated as an appropriate occupation for noblewomen throughout this era, and embroidery produced by the wives and daughters of high-ranking men could have powerful symbolic value when presented as gifts. For example, in the eleventh century when King Canute of England presented altar-cloths which his wife had embroidered to the abbeys of Croyland and Romsey, clergy and nobles throughout his kingdom saw it as a sign of royal favor for those abbeys. Embroidery as a profession also grew during the course of the Middle Ages to supply the demand for ornate clothes and linens. By the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries embroidered wall hangings and bedclothes were important marks of noble status. This idea carried over into noble clothing. Embroidery decorated capes, hats, money pouches, and even shoes. The designs could be quite elaborate as well; while robes for the clergy might have the story of Christ's life embroidered on them, court robes for nobles could be decorated with hunting scenes or heraldic devices. The threads and materials used varied greatly. Although in the earlier Middle Ages, much embroidery thread would be produced and dyed with local materials, by the eleventh century embroiderers produced works using costly imported materials. Because of the time and craft needed to produce embroidery, it was reserved in practice to nobles and clergy, and the materials and techniques used in embroidered goods reflected on the wealth and status of the wearer. Supported by this attitude, embroidered products could be quite luxurious. Silk, silver, and gold threads were regularly used, and jewels could also be sewn into the patterns. Quilting and fringes could also be worked into the cloth to provide added decoration.

Fashion. Although fashions changed much less slowly in the Middle Ages, nobles were concerned with being fashionable. Fashion in medieval Europe was reflected in the tailoring of a gown or mantle, the decoration of a hat, or the length of toes on shoes. Men as much as women were condemned for their excesses. In southern Europe during the twelfth century a new fashion developed that would be a part of a fashionable wardrobe for centuries and would be a male fashion statement: colored and patterned woolen hose. Like a peasant's hose, these were generally woven of wool, although for festivals they might be of heavy silk or some other, more luxurious fabric, and were designed to fit much like stirrup pants. A stylish young man would have the hose sewn close to his body and tighten even further by lacing at the hips, a style that made certain clerics cry out at the obscenity. Then they would have one side of their hose woven one color and another side woven a different one; for example, red on one side and yellow on the other. Tunics could be died the same way, one side yellow and the other red to match. These two styles would continue throughout the rest of medieval Europe and well into the Renaissance; only the preferred colors and patterns would change as time went on. Eventually stripes and checks of varied colors could be mixed in vibrant patterns that commentators would again condemn for their vanity. Hose were not, however, the only medieval fashion statement that made clerics or more conservative laymen cringe. In late twelfth-century Germany another aristocratic style was to cut the bottom of a tunic into strips acting like a kind of fringes, and these strips could be decorated with embroidery or other material. Some hair styles called for a woman's hair to hang "wantonly" down, while the points of shoes at times were made so long that the wearer had to tie them to his waist or thigh in order to walk.

Jewelry. Jewelry of many kinds was worn by both noble men and women. Cloaks and mantles needed clasps, swords needed scabbards, and belts needed fasteners. Jewelry also had practical uses. Medieval lords would wear a signet ring, generally made of gold, engraved with his coat of arms or some other identifying mark or saying. These rings could be used as seals, stamping documents to authenticate them, or could be sent with a courier to testify to his legitimacy. Each of these objects could be made of precious metals and/or inset with jewels. The jewels came from Europe, Africa, and Asia, testimony to the extent if not the scope of medieval trade. Goldsmiths would also use Roman cameos and classical coins in medieval jewelry. Although the technique of faceting jewels was not known in the Middle Ages, jewels were rubbed and shaped to enhance their luster. The gold and silver itself often contained elaborate engraving or had been formed into unusual shapes; the pendants and pins were also frequently larger than most of their modern counterparts. Large pieces became family heirlooms, and because medieval money was based on gold and silver, jewelry made out of these materials was like having cash in hand. It also represented a substantial investment and, if necessary, could be melted down to supply cash.

Other Clothes. Noble men and women also wore hats, gloves, shoes, and other diverse pieces of clothing. Gloves could be made of thick leather to protect a knight's hands while riding or fighting or of thinner and more delicate materials, such as doeskin, linen,. or silk when wore as a fashion accessory. They, too, could be dye or embroidered and might be held tightly around the wrist with delicate lacings or, in the fourteenth century, buttons. Like those of the peasant, shoes were leather and generally flat bottomed. Given that men's clothing styles left shoes exposed, shoes became fashion statements. Jeweled, ribboned, and dyed, the shoes of a court dandy could be almost useless for walking. Much more practical and widely used were heavy leather boots with wooden heels built into them for riding. Hats, too, were both practical and fashionable. Although a linen cap might suit a man or woman of the minor nobility out supervising their manor, among the upper nobility hats were made of the same expensive materials as other clothing and could be quite ungainly. Aristocratic women generally wore a veil on top of their hair and draping down the back of their head. In the twelfth century various stylish ways of securing the veil were developed. One, called a barbette, was just a strap attached to the veil that went under the chin and back around to tie at the top of the head. A second, the wimple was another piece of fabric attached to the veil; it would wrap under the chin and cover the entire front of the neck. The elaborate pointed hats and veils of medieval stories are actually later medieval developments.

Hair and Cosmetics. Aristocratic women and, infrequently, men also used cosmetics. Some cosmetics, such as creams and balms, actually had medicinal value; During cold, European winters they kept the skin from the chapping and cracking which could lead to infections as well as helping the wearer maintain a more youthful appearance. Other forms of cosmetics were more clearly make-up. White powders made the skin appear fairer, charcoal enhanced eyes, and plant dyes hid gray hair. Although aristocratic women also frequently wore hats, certain styles demanded that their hair be visible. For example, in twelfth-century France and England one style was for women to wear their hair in two braids going down their back or wrapped in ribbons or fabric. As the Middle Ages went on, however, it was regarded as increasingly immodest for an adult woman to wear her hair unbound and her head uncovered; in fact, wrapping hair and covering it with some form of veil or hat was one ritual in a girl's coming of age.
 
 

Theories behind Aristocratic Food. Aristocratic diet was far more diverse than that of the medieval peasant, and several factors affected it: religious prohibitions, a product's availability, and medical theories. Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays were officially fast days, when meat and eggs were prohibited; the same fasting rules applied to evening before major religious holidays and to Lent, the forty days before Easter. Like medieval peasants, aristocrats were also tied to a growing season. Certain foods were just not available at certain times of the year, although a member of the upper nobility had the resources to take advantage of whatever distribution facilities might be available. Finally, medical theories at both popular and learned levels helped guide food choices and preparation. The humoral theory described in chapter ____________ applied to foods as well, and the proper diet was considered essential to maintaining a healthy balance of humors in the body and the mind; Renaissance chefs will even compare their job to that of a doctor and a pharmacist. For example, "Boiling ... offered a relatively constant heat, and boiling better suited beef because its cold dry nature needed to be both warmed and moistened. If the ignorant cook were to subject beef to a roasting, so further drying its already dry nature, this could be quite dangerous to the unfortunate person who was to eat it later, and could even put him or her at risk of an attach of melancholia or a bilious upset." (Scully, Early French, 29) For much the same reasons, texture was important in medieval food. Many ingredients were chopped, ground, or filtered through cloth mesh. While in some cases this may have been done because of the consumers' teeth, in most cases it reflected the medical theories of the era which, by the thirteenth century, seem to have been known by cooks at the level of those in the nobility, monasteries, and wealthy town residents. "The finer the particle of any foodstuff the more completely it mixed with particles of other foodstuffs, and so the more effective was any moderating influence that each foodstuff worked upon the nature of the other. Spices in particular had to be ground ... Most herbs were chopped and ground. Green vegetables were chopped, ground and pureed. Beans and peas were chopped, ground, pureed and reduced to paste. Liver, bread and toast were ground before they could be used as thickeners." (Scully, Early French, 28) Not just the preparation, but the type of food itself, could have serious consequences for the eater.
 
 

Kitchens. In the wealthiest households kitchens were located in a separate building from the main structure. This arrangement helped minimize the dangers of fire and kept unpleasant cooking odors down to a minimum in the residential areas. Even when the kitchen was attached to the main building, as it predominantly was in the early Middle Ages and in most castles, its organization and supplies had much in common with the more elaborate facilities. Generally a kitchen had at least one primary hearth, which could be 8-10 feet long and almost 2 feet deep. Around this hearth would be metal poles for suspending pots over the fire and rotisseries for roasting meat. A top-notch kitchen might even include a clay oven for baking bread and other confections. All around the sides of the room and even in the center would be rows of tables and chests for storing ingredients and pots. The tables also served as places for preparation, much like a modern countertop. For example, a roast would be scooped out of the pot in which it was boiling and placed on a wooden platter. That platter would be brought to the table where it might be cut into pieces small enough for two diners and garnished with vegetables, herbs, and spices. For an elaborate banquet, an entire roast pig or other animal could be placed on one of these tables and prepared with great artistry; it could be stuffed with fruit, and other ingredients could be used to make it seem almost as if it was alive. The kitchen would also contain a scullery area where pots, platters, and other tools were washed. Large spoons and knives would be hung from racks, and iron pots of various shapes and purposes stacked in corners. Although daily cooking in an ordinary castle might require a staff of only 3-4, for a large aristocratic banquet dozens of assistants would be necessary.

Banquets and Manners. Banquets were the most luxurious medieval meals and had the strictest protocols. Tables were covered with linens, and diners sat down on one side of the table so that servants could more easily reach them from the other. The table was set with a trencher, which was basically a large platter meant to be shared between two people. Trenchers appear to have been made out of either wood or bread (to better sop up sauces), although by the fourteenth century bread was rare. The host also provided spoons for each diner, but generally the diner had his or her own knife. Spoon, knife, and fingers were the main utensils, and the fingers were probably used most frequently. Two diners shared the trencher, salt cellar, and drinking cup, and many medieval guides to manners focus on the correct protocol when diners are sharing food and servers. For example, diners were admonished to rinse their fingers frequently in the fingerbowl so that they remained relatively clean. Diners were also told not to replace food on the tray after they had taken a bit from it and to finish swallowing food before they took a drink. After each of the courses--and there could be ten of them--a servant would offer more wine or beer and more water for washing. At the beginning and the end of the meal a clergyman said grace, and during the meal itself musicians would play or some other form of entertainment might be devised.
 
 

Rachel Laudan, "Birth of the Modern Diet," Scientific American (August 2000): 76-81.

Stephen Mennell. All Manners of Food: eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present. Oxford: Blackwell, 1985.

Françoise Piponnier and Perrine Mane. Dress in the Middle Ages. trans. Caroline Beamish. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.

D. Eleanor Scully and Terence Scully. Early French Cookery: Sources, History, Original Recipes and Modern Adaptations. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996.

Kay Staniland. Medieval Craftsmen: Embroiderers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.

Naomi Tarrant. The Development of Costume. New York: Routledge, 1994.

The Castle Yard. Medieval soldiers received various degrees of training. Conscripted villagers had very little, while training a knight could take a decade. For a garrison or young noble, the site of what training they received was the castle yard. In the small, open spaces inside a castle's walls, various tools could be set up to aid the apprentice soldier. Archers had targets, and swordsmen had their training ground. One of the most common pieces of equipment was a cloth dummy, stuffed with straw, and set on a rotating pole at man height. This dummy could be used to train a footsoldier with a sword or a horseman with various weapons. It had the advantage of being sized like a man so that the soldier would learn to aim his strokes instinctively, and because it moved it could swing around and even hit a soldier who did not place or time his blow correctly. Soldiers also learned swordplay by fencing with each other. Their vulnerable areas would be wrapped in padding, and wielding a wooden sword they would attack each other. While some mock battles were formulaic, injuries could occur, and broken bones or cuts needing stitches were not uncommon. Moreover, as long as they were done innocently, the combatant who caused the injury would not be liable for any penalties as he would during a real battle.

Exercising and Educating the Noble Soldier. Soldiers who were literate could turn in the thirteenth century to a series of treatises about the art of war, some of which were even composed by people who had some experience in battle. This type of literature along with classical examples, such as Caesar's Gallic Wars, would continue to be popular among nobles well into the Renaissance. Yet much of a medieval nobleman's training was based on experience, repetition, and hard work. Daily training involved hours of repeated, individualized work with various weapons, not group drills as in modern armies. Hours of horseback riding were also expected as the horse was both an essential tool in noble warfare and the fastest means of transportation generally available. In the process, a knight who escaped injury could have impressive strength.
 
 

Making Armor. Armor and weapons were custom made through much of the Middle Ages. In fact, it was remarkable when, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Capetian monarchy began creating small stockpiles of crossbows, shields, lances, and armors. Although certain regions, such as Toledo in Spain, would be known for the quality of their steel and, therefore, their armor and weapons, the local blacksmith/armorer made much of the arms and armor that medieval nobles used. It also helps account for the debates about the technical production of military essentials, such as mail shirts and leggings. Scholars have debated for decades about how the rings were interwoven and the exact method of attaching them (riveting, wielding, etc.), but it appears that the differences are the product of local variations. Most larger villages, towns, and castles supported a blacksmith. Although a smith could specialize in armor, most often he also supplied all of the metal tools to a community and to the villages within market distance. The forge itself was in a separate building at a good distance from other structure to minimize the danger of fire. Working with steel demanded large, hot fires and sometimes ovens for softening or melting materials. One feature of a medieval armory/smithy was a large, brick fire pit about three feet tall located at least several feet from a wall. A well-equipped smith would have a large bellows with a foot pump angled alongside this fire so that he could regulate the air getting to the fire and, thus, the heat at which it was burning. Water was another essential commodity for a medieval smith. Not only did it cool the metal while it was being worked, it could help put out any small fires. Leather buckets then were as essential to a smith as iron hammers, anvils, bellows, and various types of pliers and other tools for shaping metal.

Dressing the Noble Soldier. The clothes which the medieval soldier used varied greatly according to the century and the soldier's social status, as has been explained above, and the description which follows is based on the fighting kit of a nobleman from approximately the middle of the thirteenth century. A soldier would start by putting on a pair of linen breeches, in England known as braies. This article of clothing was described in detail in the section on medieval peasants; for nobles the cloth would generally be of higher quality, and slits would be cut on both sides on the front near the waistband in order to attach other clothes. A soldier would next slip on a pair of wool hose over the braies and tie them to the braies through those slits using leather thongs. A wealthy knight would then put over these two coverings a layer of flexible mail hose known as chausses. Chausses even sometimes had feet attached to them; think of the pajamas with feet that small children sometimes wear. In top of the mail at the thigh would be layered further padding, generally stuffed with wool. The layering on the upper body mimicked that found on the hips and thighs, with a shirt, another lightly padded shirt, and a full mail hauberk draped over the two shirts. The head would be covered with padded woolen cap and then a mail hood would be placed over the cap; sometimes this hood was attached to the hauberk, and other times it was a separate piece of armor. Finally the mounted soldier would have steel sheet armor placed over his head, covering him much like a long tank-top. Heraldic devices painted on the sheet armor were relatively new at this period and would become more common in the later thirteenth and fourteenth century. The entire kit would be topped by a riveted steel helm with eye slits to see out of, holes around the mouth for breathing, and a very strong and straight nose guard. One of the most common fallacies about medieval knights is that these outfits weighed so much that a knight was helpless. Although his armor and weapons weighed between 60-70 pounds, that figure near the traditional weight of 70 pounds assigned to footsoldiers in the modern era. To get up, a knight would roll onto his knees to stand up.

Sources:
John Clark, ed. The Medieval Horse and its Equipment. London: HMSO, 1995.

David Edge and John Miles Paddock. Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight: An Illustrated History of Weaponry in the Middle Ages. New York: Defoe, 1988.

David C. Nicolle. Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era, 1050-1350. 2 vols. White Plains, NY: Kraus, 1988.

Matthias Pfaffenbichler. Medieval Craftsmen: Armourers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.

www.bumply.com/Medieval/Kit/kit.htm: making and wearing medieval male clothing and knightly armour of the 1250's.

Hawking. Although a common recreation, hawking had a practical application: it provided meat for the table. Carried by men and women on their wrists, hawks were an important tool in hunting. Their importance can be gauged by the number of manuals on hawking that have survived; of those, the most famous is "The Art of Falconry" by Emperor Frederick II. This guide stresses the care and patience every falconer must have while training his bird. After catching a wild hawk, the first task was to train it. A hood is placed over its head, leather straps (jesses) tied to its ankles, and bells attached to the jesses, after which the bird was placed on its perch. Over a period of weeks and even months the bird grows accustomed to human noises and contact, even beginning to take food from its handler's hand. When first teaching the bird to hunt and return, a lord cord (creance) was tied to the bird's leg while a piece of meat was throw away. If the falcon sprung on it and brought the meat back to its handler, the handler would reward the bird by allowing it to eat a very small bit of its prize. This process was repeated for greater distances and using various lures. The telling moment was the first time the hawk was let off its lead to hunt, and hawks were lost at this crucial moment.

Gambling and Games. Other common pastimes were gambling and cards. Almost any subject was open for a wager: the number of soldiers in a company, the winner of a mock combat, the conclusion of a successful hunt. Various dice games, like modern craps, could be played on tables or floors, and wagers were frequently made on their outcome. Many board games were also available to while away an evening or a dry spell in general. Many variations on backgammon were played: panquist, tables, and "six, two, and one" are names of some popular ones. Boards for other types of play have been found as well. Probably the most familiar medieval board game was chess, which was played following rules very similar to those in the modern game. One of the best sources for medieval games at court is the "Book of Games" by Alfonso X "the Wise," king of Castile and León from 1252 to 1284.

Reading. Medieval aristocrats could also pass their time reading or hearing written work. Although some medieval nobles were not literate in the sense that they could sit down and read books, they often had courtiers who were and who were required to read to them. Many of the preferred works were stories of classical heroes and knightly bravery; among the most famous examples are the stories that developed around the figure known as King Arthur and his mythical court. Arthurian romances were so popular in the high Middle Ages that the figures of Arthur and Guenevire were carved on churches as far as Italy. Arthurian romances are part of a literary genre known as courtly literature developed in southern French courts during the eleventh century but which spread all over Europe. In the process, each region developed its own "Arthurian" heroes and villains. The works of leading writers such as Marie of France, Andreas Capellanus, and Chrétien de Troyes would be recited at courts and inspire generations of nobles well into the Renaissance to mimic the pride and valor of Arthurian heroes.

Music. Music was another common form of courtly entertainment, and the style and subjects of songs could vary widely. Common medieval instruments for the aristocracy included lap harps, flutes, and the ancestors of modern violins and guitars, such as lutes. The songs themselves included melodies praising the deeds of the Virgins, bemoaning lost love, or celebrating bright spring days or martial accomplishments. Even the style of songs varied, some being sung without instrumental accompaniment (accapella), others being purely instrumental, and a third type including forms of harmony. One form of song practiced in court society was the canticle, where the "singer" chanted lyrics to an instrumental accompaniment. One of the most famous musical collections of the Middle Ages is composed of over 400 canticles, "The Cantigas de Santa Maria" (Canticles of Holy Mary) of Alfonso X "the Wise." Lavishly illustrated, this manuscript provides one of the largest collection of medieval solo songs. Alfonso's court is also the source of another valuable compilation of medieval songs, these ones with satirical themes that included jabs at lecherous monks, weak knights, ignorant scholars, and other subjects that were common objects of ridicule in the Middle Ages. While some nobles, and especially noble women, might be able to perform these songs or with a small group of musicians, at large and wealthy courts such as Alfonso's the performers would almost certainly be professionals, sometimes known as troubadours, Minnesänger, and minstrels. They would be either kept on retainer or hired for a set number of performances. In a smaller court or castle a professional still might provide entertainment, but there would be far fewer and the songs would generally be far less complex.

Sources:
_______. Cantigas from the court of Dom Dinis: devotional, satirical & courtly medieval love songs. Los Angeles: Harmonia Mundi, 1995. (A CD of songs from the court of King Alfonso X of Castile and León in Spain, 1221-1284.)

Meg Bogin. The Women Troubadours. New York: Paddington Press, 1975.

Andreas Capellanus. The Art of Courtly Love. Introduction, translation, and notes by John Jay Parry. New York : Columbia University Press, 1990.

John Cummins. The Hound and the Hawk : The Art of Medieval Hunting. New York : St. Martin's Press, 1988.

Theresa McLean. The English at Play in the Middle Ages. Windsor Forest, Berks.: Kensal Press, 1983.

www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cantigas/: web site giving recordings of and information about the Cantigas de Santa Maria, one of the best sources on medieval secular music.
 

The Church in Daily Life. As a landlord, institution, and spiritual guide, the Church was an integral part of the daily lives of all people in medieval Europe. Yet the Church had its own material culture which shared aspects of the lives previously described but had its own distinctive characteristics. This section will focus on two areas of daily life for the clergy that highlight both of these aspects in the medieval Church. Monasteries were in principle separate from the rest of the community, and their structures and the lives of their residents were designed to be self-contained. In practice, however, medieval monasteries fulfilled many important roles in the daily lives of the entire Christian community. Urban churches also had a central role in medieval villages and churches, and the construction of one of medieval Europe's most dramatic structures--the cathedral--highlights the value of the church in urban communities and the integration clergy and laity in medieval Europe.
 
 

Monasteries and Medieval Society. Although the most influential medieval monastic rule--the Rule of St. Benedict--and other monastic rules developed during the Middle Ages called for monks to live apart from the world, medieval monasteries had many significant roles in society as described in chapter 9. For the purposes of this section, it is important to remember two points. The monasteries described here follow the Benedictine Rule, which has been chosen as representative precisely because of its influence in medieval Europe. In addition, medieval monasteries were much like prosperous lordships and manors, and their monks had the privileges and responsibilities of large landowners. Monasteries' wealth made them attractive to the sons of the nobility, and monks generally came from the more comfortable classes of medieval society. Yet for all their influence the number of monks, even the number of residents, in the average medieval monastery was relatively small. Large and prestigious institutions like Westminster Abbey, Monte Cassino, and St. Gall had approximately 80-100 monks at their peaks, and most medieval monasteries were at least half that size. Monks and monastic institution greatly influenced medieval society, but they were definitely a minority population.

Nunneries. Around 1100 AD an advocate for women's pursuit of the monastic life wrote the following description of the joys of a laywoman's life: "When she comes in the house, the wife hears her child screaming, sees the cat at the bacon, and the dog gnawing her hides; her biscuit is burning on the stone, and her calf is sucking up her milk; the crock is boiling over into the fire, and the husband is scolding." (From F.J. Furnivall, ed., Hali Meidenhad, EETS original series 18 (London: EETS, 1992), 52 as quoted in Singman, 14). Although such descriptions were clearly polemical, they do emphasize that life in a cloister could provide a fulfilling alternative for medieval women. Like monasteries, nunneries came in many sizes, with wide varieties of wealth, and with great social distinctions in their population. From early in the Middle Ages, certain nunneries were reserved to the nobility, and their lifestyle was far from the austerities itemized in Benedict's Rule. Even the Rule set up different standards and guidelines for male and female religious communities. In general, however, the female abbeys were poorer and smaller. They did not actively acquire lands as did their male counterparts but waited for gifts to come to them. Although their complex followed the patterns for male monasteries, their buildings were frequently smaller, their outbuildings less numerous, and their community less diverse. For example, in all but the poorest monasteries abbots had a detached lodge to himself, while with the nunneries abbesses were enjoined to sleep communally, that is in the same room with their nuns. Although the abbesses of the great female abbeys could wield significant secular power, most communities had local influence at most.
 
 

The Ideal Monastery: St. Gall. In the early ninth century, a plan was developed for an ideal Benedictine monastery, filling in the many gaps Benedict himself left in his description of its structures in the Rule. Because the plan has been in the library of the Swiss monastery of St. Gall for time out of mind, the plan is known as the Plan of St. Gall although the layout of the real monastery has significant differences. The over thirty buildings and several gardens of this ideal plan illustrate the medieval vision of a monastery's spiritual and social roles.

[Insert copy of the plan of St. Gall here; I actually have a full-sized facsimile if you need it to make a reproduction. There is, also, a small one reproduced in Goetz, p. 81.]

Although the church, cloister, and residential buildings for the monks are at the heart of the complex, the Plan describes a structure with services second only to those obtainable in a large city or a great castle. There are separate barns for geese, cattle, dairy cows, mares, sheep, goats, pigs, and other horses. The servants caring for these animals also have several buildings as quarters. A brewery, pantry, cellar, bakery, wine press, and several kitchens provide for food preparation. The monastery also needed skilled craftsmen in various fields; tanners, shoemakers, saddlers, turners, goldsmiths, cloth workers, and even swordmakers each have a separate workshop. Buildings are designed to hold guest of varied social status plus their retinue. Even public welfare and hygiene are considered; several sets of latrines are placed throughout the complex, there are baths for the monks and those affiliated with the monastery, and there is even a hospital with a separate home for its manager and chief doctor (the infirmarian). A monk living in such a place would have little need to leave the complex to find anything necessary for his livelihood or comfort.

Variations from the Ideal. Although many monastic institutions followed the compound structure found in the Plan of St. Gall, they rarely had all of the services and separate buildings itemized there. Always the church and cloister remained in the center, and kitchens, barns, and various outbuildings would be constructed soon after the monastery's establishment. Because a monastery was intended to be a self-contained complex, it would also have storage facilities for food, tools, and raw materials. In addition, it had buildings designated to house travelers and other visitors that were separate from the dormitories of the monks. Given the lack of large hotels or other accommodations, large ecclesiastical structures, castles, and manors had a duty to house the retinues of traveling lords. The key differences between the Plan of St. Gall and actual monasteries were to be found in the details: the number of separate structures, the geographic orientation of the buildings (were they built facing north or south, downhill or uphill), and the materials with which the buildings were constructed.

Building the Structures. The ideal monastery was built entirely of stone, and actual monasteries worked to achieve this goal as much as possible. Generally the church, cloister, and other key buildings were stone; those most likely to be wooden were the workshops and barns. Building methods for wooden structures were much like those described earlier for peasant structures, while building methods for stone followed those used in constructing castles and cathedrals as developed in this chapter. When monasteries were first being founded, monks might work alongside craftsmen, when craftsmen were even available outside the monastic community. Once the monastery was established, monks generally worked separately from lay craftsmen or brothers, although monks did perform manual labor and could themselves be skilled craftsmen. The materials used in building monastic structures were predominantly local; in parts of Europe buildings might be sandstone, in other areas brick or granite. As such, building techniques took into account local demands and variations.

Plumbing and Water. One area that medieval monasteries were known for throughout Europe was the sophistication of their plumbing systems and relatively easy access to water. In addition to digging several wells in the complex itself, monastic planners generally established systems of piles and drains that supplied running water to the monastery. These provisions helped monks enjoy a standard of living of which most people could only dream. For example, Westminster Abbey had a system of pipes that took water to every major department in the monastery. Moreover, Westminster used a series of settling tanks which purified the water by allowing sediment to settle to the bottom and taking water only from the top; such provisions contributed to the health of the monastery's residents and were rare outside of monastic complexes. Latrines were often constructed so that running water washed away the excrement immediately, the closest thing to a flush toilet until the modern era. This access to water even made it easier for monks to take baths, although the Rule limited full-immersion bathing to four times a year; baths were considered a worldly luxury, and the Rule tried to redirect the monks from worldly to spiritual concerns. In this sense, medieval monks enjoyed the benefits of running water less than the aristocrats, who buy the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had apparently incorporated some of this technology into their structures and were enjoying the sanitary benefits.

Decorating the structures: tiles. Monastic structures were decorated using many of the same techniques described above for noble castles and described below for cathedrals. Yet it appears that medieval monasteries were among the first to employ tiles extensively as both roofing and flooring materials. The manufacture of tiles demanded a supply of the appropriate clay, a large area in which a kiln could be built without endangering other structures, and a group of skilled craftsmen. By the twelfth century glazed, monochrome, and patterned tiles were being used as flooring over wooden supports. Tiles were, of course, custom made and highly decorative, often using a series of floral, animal, and heraldic motifs. Tiles of various colors could be interlain to form beautiful mosaics as in the case of Byland Abbey in England. Tiles could also be used up the sides of walls almost like paintings and, in the same way, could be used as to illustrate stories. The use of tile decorations brightened medieval monasteries and churches, making them more colorful and vibrant than the more sparse structures they are too frequently assumed to be.

Sources:
Elizabeth Eames. Medieval Craftsmen: English Tilers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.

Barbara Harvey, Living and Dying in England, 1100-1500: The Monastic Experience. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

C.H. Lawrence. Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. 2d ed. New York: Longman, 1989.
 

Monastic Hours. Medieval monks kept time in the same way that all other people in the Middle Ages did: according to the position of the sun and the moon. The time from daylight to sunset was divided into twelve equal parts; any more specific ways of telling time could be provided by an hourglass, but such precision was generally not necessary. These ways of telling time were not supplanted until the middle of the fourteenth century when large, public clocks began appearing in town hall towers or in steeples, but even then they mainly appeared in cities. The twelve hours of the monastic day had more than just an organizational purpose, however. They structured a series of religious devotions that occurred approximately every three hours during the day and that were central to monastic life. The monastic day actually began around midnight when the monks rose from their beds and recited the religious service known as Matins. This lasted for an hour to an hour and a half, unless it was a high holy day when the service might be even more elaborate and longer. The monks would then go back to bed until first light when they would rise again say Prime after he had washed his face and hands and combed his hair. Between Prime and Tierce (the third hour since sunrise, approximately 9 a.m.) a monk would have time for prayer or work. After the short service of Tierce there would be morning mass, then a meeting of the monks when the abbot would lead discussion and disciplinary matters would be handled. Between the end of the meeting and the office of Sext (the sixth hour after daylight or around noon) a monk would have time to attend to various personal chores and activities, and during this time of the day he was allowed to speak; most of a monk's day called for silence. After Sext was the main meal and another period for work or reflection that lasted until None (the ninth hour of the day, around 2-3 p.m.). None was another, brief religious service and afterwards a second, light meal might be served. More work or rest was planned until Vespers another three "hours" later, which was one of the longer, more complicated services during the day. The evening meal would follow, and monks were enjoined to keep silent for the rest of the day. The final service of the day was Compline which occurred at sunset. Afterwards, the monks were sprinkled with holy water and went to their dormitory where they prepared for bed and for the cycle to resume the next day.

[I'd like to insert here a summary version of a monastic daily schedule. I have one, but I can't find where I've put it, so if you have a good one, Jerry, please insert it. If all else fails, there's a summary version on Singman, Daily Life, p. 163]
 
 

Gregorian Chant. Most of the earliest surviving documents of medieval music are of music used in religious services, in particular the daily offices as described above and in chapter 9. Although there were various forms of church music in the Middle Ages, probably the most famous and widespread were the Gregorian chants. These songs ranged from simple melodies with each syllable of a word being assigned one note to complex polyphonic (many voiced) songs with elaborate equations of notes to syllables. Given that most medieval religious services were chanted, the number of songs that monks and other clergy might need to learn could be staggering; it's estimated that by the ninth century almost 4,000 chants were part of every church year, and every new feast day meant new songs. In order to make some sense of this huge collection and to ensure that future generations of monks learned the proper chants, the songleaders of medieval churches (cantors) developed one of the first musical notation systems and recorded their songs in huge books. These books can frequently be 2-3 feet tall, almost 2 feet wide, and at least 6 inches thick. Although it appears that some monastic communities might have had monks whose vocation was composing new chants, the songs of certain individuals could be circulated widely. One of the most famous composers of the twelfth century was Hildegard of Bingen, who during her lifetime was also the abbess of Bingen, a mystic, and an author of theological and medical treatises. Her songs were even approved by the Pope.

Vestments. Medieval clergy used special clothing when celebrating mass and other religious services, and monks were no exception. While the average monk reciting the office would remain in his cowl and tunic as described below, the monks officiating at the ceremony often wore elaborately decorated vestments. Vestments followed patterns of medieval clothing as depicted in previous sections, but the craftsmanship was infinitely more detailed and the fabrics more valuable. An important monastery such as Cluny, St. Gall, or Westminster would have capes for celebrants (called copes) of thick silks or other luxury fabrics worked in embroidery that depicted, for example, the life of Christ as a series of 15-20 separate scenes. Like with noble clothing, jewels and threads made of precious metals were worked into the fabric. Moreover, the table cloth and other linens used while serving mass were made of similar fabrics and were also elaborately embroidered. Monks themselves could do such work as part of the labor they were required to perform, but generally these works of art were the product of years of work by professional craftsmen. Sometimes the abbot himself commissioned them, while at other times they were gifts from wealthy, aristocratic patrons of the monastery. A great religious house which had existed for centuries might have a veritable treasure-trove of liturgical clothing. Such clothes were seen as paying honor to God who present at the mass and as statements of the sacrality of the religious offices.

Vessels for the Mass. Among the most beautiful examples of the medieval goldsmith's art are the hundred of surviving cups, goblets, platters, and other vessels used for mass and other religious offices. Like vestments, these vessels were obtained as gifts, fabricated by professionals, and were used to emphasize the sacrality of the ceremony. As such, a goldsmith (the medieval name for a jeweler) might even have his own workshop on the monastery's grounds. Such shops contained a large number of specialized, metal tools; the money needed to purchase these essentials as well as a basic stock of raw materials meant that the capital outlay for such a shop was substantial. Goldsmiths did not just fabricate the basic structure of objects needed for Mass. They were responsible for their decoration and, at times, for their design. As such the medieval goldsmith needed also to be a designer, and many subjects were available to him even when decorating objects for religious service. For example, the crosses which decorated the altar table and sometimes even held relics might be inlaid with jewels, embossed with plants or geometric patterns, and filigreed. At the base miniature sculptures of saints set inside miniature cathedral doorways might support the cross itself. Like a noble's jewelry and plate, a monastery's collection of sacred vessels also formed its treasury, and at need the object could be melted down and converted to ready cash.
 
 

Illumination and Writing. One labor which medieval monks performed resulted both beautiful objects of art and the preservation of classical knowledge: writing and illuminating medieval books. Most substantial monasteries had a specific room reserved for books and for writing them, known as the scriptorum. The preparation of a book would begin with the gathering of materials: the text that was to be copied, quills and ink of various colors, the vellum on which it was to be written. Vellum was made of animal hides, preferably sheep, scraped, stretched and treated so that it could take the ink without it blurring at the edges. Slight imperfections in the hide could make it useless for forming the pages of a book, and it has been estimated that the average medieval Bible took the hides of a hundred sheep. Once the vellum was selected and cut to a uniform, rectangular size, the page would be designed. Someone looking closely at a medieval manuscript can see fine, straight lines drawn on the center of the page like the lines in modern binder paper. Generally the text only filled half of the page, leaving the margins for decoration. The text would generally be written in black ink with the first letter of the page or of a significant world written in different colors and sometimes even designed with a small scene it in, like a person swinging from a tree. Although Charlemagne's court developed a standard hand used in ecclesiastical documents for centuries, the Carolingian miniscule, by the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries handwriting had evolved into a distinctive Gothic script with definite regional variations. After the text was written a monk was free to exercise his imagination, at least to some extent. The margins of medieval manuscripts are filled with miniatures not only depicting Bible stories and scenes from saints' lives, but pictures of daily life, elaborate floral patterns, and even fantastic animals. Writing and illuminating a book like the Bible could take decades and involve a workshop of monks. Done by candlelight or the light of a window in rooms with almost no heat, these manuscripts are testimony to the dedication ,piety, and artistry of medieval monks.

Sources:
John Cherry. Medieval Craftsmen: Goldsmiths. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.

Richard H. Hoppin. Medieval Music. New York: W.W. Norton, 1978.

www.music.princeton.edu:80/chant_html/: "Gregorian Chant Home Page" has both text about and recordings of Gregorian chants.

www.newadvent.org: "New Advent" houses the Catholic encyclopedia which is the most comprehensive on-line source for medieval liturgy, saints, and theology.
 
 

Communicating in the Monastery. Monks were supposed to be silent during much of the day. Not only was silence seen as a way of enforcing spiritual contemplation, but it helped to prevent disputes and gossip. Monks were not allowed to speak in the church, kitchen, dormitory, and refectory. Even when monks could speak, they were to do so quietly and to speak only about spiritual subjects. Moreover, monks could not speak with anyone except other monks, even the lay brothers, except in cases of utmost necessary or if they held office in the monastery. Yet there were times when speech was essential even when it was forbidden, and monks developed sign language to communicate during these periods. Most sign language had to do with basic foodstuffs and activities, but it could become quite elaborate and excessive. One visitor to Canterbury in the eleventh century complained about the monk's violation of the spirit of the Rule, if not its letter: "They gesticulated with fingers, hands, and arms, and whistled to each other instead of speaking.... It would be more consonant with good order and decency to speak modesty in human speech than to indulge ridiculously in this mute chatter." (Gerald of Wales, as quoted in Singman, Daily Life, 161.)
 
 

Monastic Meals. Sit-down meals were served in medieval monasteries at least twice a day. Preparing and serving them could become quite a production given that anywhere from twenty to well over 100 individuals were being fed in several locations in the monastery. Monks were required to eat their meals in the refectory unless they were sick or had pressing duties; for example, sick monks ate diets tailored to their illnesses in the infirmary. Monastic complexes generally had separate refectories for the lay brothers and the monks themselves. Moreover, the abbot might take his meals in his own lodgings particularly if he was entertaining an influential visitor. Serving these meals was a chore rotated among the healthy monks, and it qualified as one of their good works, a meritorious duty blessed by God. The meal would begin with grace and prayers. Then the monk in charge of provisions and the kitchens (the cellarer) would send his assistants into the dining hall to distribute platters of food. The monks were supposed to remain quiet, but a monk might be reading psalms or Biblical verses in the background. Like a medieval noble, monks would place their food on bread trenchers and, by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, wooden plates; they would eat with spoons and knives. Ale, wine, and water would be served with each meal. Once a monk was done, he waited at the table until everyone was dismissed.
 
 

Sleeping. The dormitory where most of the monks slept was often one of the largest buildings in the monastic complex, sometimes measuring over 150 feet long and 30 feet wide. The monks' beds would be set up in rows down the two long walls, much like in a military barracks. A monk had no privacy in these dormitories, and only monasteries who were deviating from the Rule allowed curtains to separate the monks' beds. The beds themselves were a wooden frame lined with straw. The mattress was made of canvas, probably filled with straw, and put on top of the straw and wood frame. On top of the mattress would be a woolen blanket or two. When a monk went to bed, he climbed in fully clothed with even his hood over his head. Once in bed he was to crawl under the covers and remove the top layers of his clothes which he would then place at the head of his bed so that he could easily reach them when called to Matins and get dressed again under the covers. These provisions were designed to protect the monks' modesty and minimize any sexual impulses that a naked body might cause. Luxurious dormitories might provide a small chest for a monk's scanty possessions and other clothes, although the chest remained unlocked. There were also often windows set high on the walls, and in a large dormitory some sort of fire which could be lit before the monks went to bed. Given that fires and all lights were extinguished once a monk went to bed, getting up for Matins must have been cold and dreary.

Caring for the Sick: The Infirmary. Sick monks could take advantage of an infirmary, and most monasteries had at least one monk with medical expertise (the infirmarian) who managed this part of the cloister. Although sometimes infirmarians engaged in medical work such as that of surgeons or apothecaries--which were looked down on as manual labor and as crafts in the Middle Ages--there were generally diagnosticians who then left others to carry through with the treatment he prescribed. The Rule allowed ill and elderly monks additional comforts and dietary privileges, and custom diets were even developed to help cure them. Moreover, the surroundings themselves could be relatively luxurious, and a trip to the infirmary could seem like a brief vacation. For example, in Westminster Abbey "there were hangings of red and green worsted, and blue cushions patterned with tree foliage and birds in flight." Although a sick monk brought his own bedclothes--generally the undergarments he wore everyday--beds, mattresses, and blankets were provided. There were also attempts to make the infirmary more sanitary and comfortable. Thick rushes covered the floors which retained heat, minimized sound, and gave some cushioning underfoot; these were changed at least once a month. Moreover, the infirmary's hall, its parlor, and even the individual rooms were the sick were housed had fires. Even though the fires would be extinguished at night, the infirmary's rooms were still significantly warmer and less drafty than the dormitory. Most monasteries also saw sick from the neighboring community, and the infirmarian and his assistants might be called to mix drugs, set bones, and contain contagious diseases.

Sources:
The Rule of St. Benedict: http://www.osb.org/rb/text/toc.html
 
 

Types of Churches. Given the ways that Christianity permeated medieval life, many types of churches other than monasteries existed and even monasteries themselves varied widely. Villages often had a local church whose priest ministered to that community and sometimes even to neighboring villages. Within towns there could be urban monasteries--generally founded before the town itself--parish churches whose priests acted much like village priests, private chapels and chantries, and a series of other ecclesiastical institutions and structures. Like the monastery most were made of stone, and their residents had a higher standard of living and controlled a larger amount of property than most of their neighbors. Like their monastic counterparts, these clergy also had a day that was regulated at least in part by an ecclesiastical calendar and the need to say Mass or perform other religious services. Yet, even when the churches in towns and cities were themselves monasteries, they often had significant differences from their rural counterparts. In particular, an urban church was often identified with the urban community, and its maintenance and the activities of its residents were seen as reflections on that community. For these reasons among others, urban laity became increasingly involved in the Middle Ages with the administration of their churches and, therefore, the daily life of their clergy.

Cathedrals and civic life. A cathedral is a church that houses a bishop; it is the symbolic center of his authority because it shelters the episcopal throne that represents his spiritual and temporal authority. The cathedral complex of which it was a part housed the episcopal court and a college of canons, clergymen who assist the bishop and who administer the cathedral and its properties. Because the cathedral itself was the tallest and largest building in a city, it came to symbolize the city's status and aspirations. A city with a cathedral had enormous regional stature and a consistent source of revenue. The cathedral itself often provided a dramatic backdrop for key urban events. Not only would religious feast days be celebrated most dramatically in the cathedral, but the square in front of the cathedral and the cathedral cemetery gradually became the largest open spaces in most medieval towns. As such, they were sites for assemblies, elections, marketplaces, and even playing fields. Surrounded by the graves of their ancestors, urban citizens would elect their governors for a year.

Cathedrals and Education. Cathedral schools were also one of the few ways young men could receive a literary education. Although most of their pupils were intended for the priesthood, by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries boys of the upper or prosperous classes might receive a couple of years of formal schooling; this was generally provided by the church or a cathedral school. Sometimes the boys would be educated through charity. In the process they learned to read, write, and add basic figures. From that point, any further education would often be dependent on their father or guardian's choice of their future career. Boys who were being trained to be churchmen might get further schooling, particularly by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Building a cathedral: Romanesque Design. Given the importance of cathedrals to a city's spiritual and civic life, it should not be surprising that citizens and clergy often cooperated in building enormous and elaborate structures. In the process many of the most innovative building techniques and designs of the Middle Ages were developed. From the tenth to the twelfth centuries, churches were built and rebuilt all over Europe in the Romanesque style. Although Romanesque architects continued to follow the traditional cross shape for a church, they changed the vaulting used to support the structure. The result was a shift from the round, barrel vaulting that characterized Roman buildings to a form of linked barrel vault with very thick walls and alternating piers and columns in the center halls (nave) of the church. These new techniques allowed builders to add more windows and greater height to their structures. The solid walls and large open spaces also provided ample surfaces for decoration. Sculpture covered the buildings both in- and outside, and the inside would be lit with hundreds of candles and covered with frescoes, paintings, reliquaries, and pulpits, although no pews. It reached its height in the early twelfth century in buildings such as the church of Mary Magdalene at Vezelay in France.

Building a cathedral: Gothic Design. At the same time that the Romanesque style was reaching its height, a new architectural movement was beginning, that of Gothic design. Led by Abbot Suger of the monastery of St.-Denis outside of Paris, Gothic architects attempted to transcend the weight stone construction gave to a church and to convey the light and mysteriousness of God. In the process they raised medieval churches to unheard of heights; for example, the interior of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris in 107 feet high (approximately ten stories tall) and 493 feet long. Spreading from northern France to Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and England by the fourteenth century, Gothic architecture became the style most frequently associated with medieval churches. Towering over the towns that surrounded them, Gothic cathedrals were also a dramatic statement of the devotion, determination, and prosperity of both the ecclesiastical and secular community. These qualities often led to competition between towns over which could build the highest or most elaborate cathedrals. Such competitions literally came to a crashing halt in 1284 when the nave at Beauvais collapsed.

Building a cathedral: the structure. In order to achieve the height and airiness to which Gothic architects aspired, several important innovations in structural engineering had to take place. Adopting pointed arches, a technique important from the Islamic world, allowed architects to connect vaults of varying heights which added to the lightness and interest of the structure. These arches were supported by buttresses, which distributed the weight and pressure of the building's walls and vaults onto interior columns and pillars and, from the 1180's, onto exterior flying buttresses. The figure responsible for developing these innovations and coordinating the hundreds of workmen and dozens of crafts employed when constructing a cathedral was the master mason. Although some masons signed their work, probably the most famous Gothic mason is Villard de Honnecort because of the survival of his sketchbook. Like other master masons, Villard was proficient in geometry and algebra, and using sketches as well as models of sections and of the completed work he guided his stonemasons, carpenters, and other craftsmen in working the thousands of tons of lumber, stone, and metal that comprised a medieval cathedral. The first stages in building a cathedral involved laying stone foundations and building a timber framework to support the vaults and arches during construction. Stone would be lifted into place using a windlass hoist or the "Great Wheel," a treadmill powered hoist mounted in the roof beams that looks like a much larger version of the wheels put in hamster cages. Scaffolding was built alongside the structure as it was being built, along with passages and stairways in the structure of the cathedral itself which would give ready access in the future to outside walls and the roof. While some of the workers were highly skilled craftsmen, other individuals provided brute force and were paid minimal salaries of with indulgences.

Building a cathedral: the sculpture. Sculpture was used extensively in decorating Gothic cathedrals on both the inside and the outside. While gargoyles are probably the most famous medieval sculptures, elaborate traceries and life-size statues were more common. On the columns and pillars inside the church were statues of saints and carvings representing key moments in the lives of Jesus and the saints. Later in the Middle Ages tombstones with relief carvings of the dead would be set into the floors, and free-standing tombs with effigies and other decorative motifs would be placed between pillars or in side chapels. The doorways of Gothic cathedrals commonly contained sculptures designed to convey important messages about Christianity and salvation to all who entered the cathedral. For example, the cathedral of Chartes has three doorways on its west front. Above each doorway in a recessed arch is a carved scene depicting the story of Christ and his redemption. The large panel (tympanum) on the right shows Mary giving birth, presenting Jesus at the temple, and sitting on a throne with the baby Jesus. The left door portrays Christ ascending into heaven; a series of signs pointing to the end of the world and the Last Judgement accompany Christ. Above the center portal the sculptor displayed Christ in Majesty with the Apostles below him and figures from the Book of Revelation surrounding him. Supporting each of these arches and surrounding the entrances to the Church are twenty-four life-size sculptures of kings and prophets from the Old Testament, Christ's human and spiritual ancestors. While the sculpture program at Chartes west front is impressive, it is not unusual when compared to the decorative and instruction schemes of Gothic cathedrals.

Building a cathedral: the decoration. Medieval builders and craftsmen decorated Gothic cathedrals using many other techniques besides sculpture. Floors would be tiled or inlay with marble, walls were whitewashed or painted with religious scenes, and architectural features might be highlighted with gilding. Parishioners and other devout people would present the cathedral with silver and gold candlesticks, embroidered linens, and devotional paintings. Even poorer people could express their piety, leaving little images around altars or other places in the church in remembrance of some favor God had shown them. These images were known as ex votos and could take make shapes: dolls, tiny pictures, now-useless crutches. Small wax statues about 3-4 inches high in the shape of a lamb (the Lamb of God) could also be left as a sign of devotion; these images were known as Agnus Dei. In addition, the lower tier of windows and the main windows in the front and back of the church were stained-glass which set prisms of colors radiating around the church. Gothic cathedrals must be seen as an almost riotous mix of color, image, and texture, especially by the late Middle Ages, not as the plain and stately structures that remain.

Building a cathedral: the painting. Devotional pictures enjoyed a powerful position in the medieval church. Not only were they testimonies to the faith of the person who had ordered them and had them hung, but they served as lessons for illiterate churchgoers. Cathedrals were frequently decorated with wall paintings, frescoes (paint applied to wet plaster), and canvases which major corporations or powerful clans commissioned. The contracts for such works show the important role of the patron in medieval art. The painter was regarded as a skilled craftsman, not as an inspired artist. The client often determined the subject and composition of the painting and specified the materials and colors to be used in creating it. Colors were particular important because of their symbolic and actual value; certain paints such as gold and blue required expensive dies. The use of such materials testified to the client's devotion, because he or she was willing to spend a great deal toward the glory of God or the saints depicted in the painting. Yet such materials also gave glory to the client who could afford them. Because painting cycles could cover entire church walls, entire workshops could work for years on them for example, the Arena Chapel in Padua by the Italian master Giotto has murals covering the walls entirely from floor to ceiling, and even the ceiling is painted to look like the heavens. The work of painters often decorated the altars, the pillars, and various freestanding sculptures in the cathedral itself.
 
 

Jean Bony. French Gothic Architecture of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.

Nicola Coldstream. Medieval Craftsmen: Masons and Sculptors. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989.

Hans Erich Kubach. Romanesque Architecture. New York: Electa/Rizzoli, 1988.

Frances Gies and Joseph Gies. Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

http://info.pitt.edu/~medart: Medieval Art and Architecture.

By the tenth century urbanization in Europe followed two patterns. Almost every city of any substantial size (5-10,000 residents or larger) in Christian Europe was located south of the Alps or along the Mediterranean, while those few surviving cities north of the Alps were based around administrative centers or were located in Flanders and along the western Rhine. The reasons for this division are many; the influence of Roman foundations, traditions of urbanism, and the extent of Viking or other invasions are three of the most convincing. By the fourteenth century, this pattern remained roughly the same, but the number and size of urban centers had grown enormously. Spurred by administrative centralization and economic revival throughout Europe, cities such as London and Paris reached 30,000 and 70-80,000 residents respectively, and entire regions of northern Europe such as Flanders and the southwestern Empire were dotted with cities whose population ranged from 3-20,000 people. In southern Europe the cities had grown proportionately larger, and leading cities such as Florence, Milan, and Venice formed city-states (communes) of their own, independent from any noble lord. Although the percentage of Europe's population who lived in city's remained only 5-10%, urban residents would have a disproportionate impact on European history.

What is a city? Medieval law made a technical distinction between a city and a town. A city was the seat of a bishop and contained a cathedral with its dependent population, while a town was an urban center that did not have a bishop. While this distinction may be important legally, judicially, and even socially, from the point of view of material culture--how people lived their daily lives--it is insignificant. For this reason, both words will be used interchangeably here. Some cities were based on old Roman establishments, particularly in southern Europe; others grew up around a monastery, cathedral, or castle, while still others were plantations, promoted by lords who wanted a community to grow in a particular region so that its resources could be exploited better. Creating a new town was a relatively simple procedure. A lord would give permission for a settlement to develop on his land. Although he would charge a lease as well as labor and other services to settlers, these taxes were generally at reduced rates, and the peasants who settled in a new town also enjoyed legal privileges. Frequently these settlers were granted lucrative rights such as the ability to hold fairs, and they might even be given permission to collect taxes to build fortifications of some sort to protect their city.

How big is a city? Based on the definition above, it should be clear that the difference between a city and town is not one of size. In fact, medieval cities are generally quite small by modern standards and would remain so long after 1300. As noted above, size depended on where the city was located and what were its economic and social foundations. For example, in thirteenth-century Germany the average city numbered 2-3,000 residents, and only at most 50 cities had populations over 5,000. Yet in Italy or Spain over a dozen cities had more than 25,000 residents. Because of the differences in population, the geographic size of cities varied enormously. A large city such as Cologne, the largest city in medieval Germany, might have almost a 1,000 acres of land within its city walls, but most cities were substantially smaller. The typical area which walls encircled of most chartered cities was between 50 and 200 acres. Moreover, much of this area would not be built on; only in the fourteenth century and then only in certain towns was there pressure on the open spaces within the walls. In addition, most cities had at least some jurisdictional rights and most residents owned or worked land beyond the city walls. For these reasons, even medieval residents could be vague about where the city stopped and its exact size. It depended on what aspect of a city a person was considering.

City walls. The quality of city walls varied enormously, but the possession of walls was one of the qualities that distinguished a city from a village. Many cities were content to rely on old Roman walls or wooden palisades until the twelfth century. Even at that time when town councils around Europe began to rebuild and/or expand their walls, the effort was piecemeal. Wars in particular inspired urban residents to open their coffers for the great expenses of fortifications, and in times of peace the structures were frequently neglected; it was not unheard of for walls to be propped up by wooden braces or for itinerants to dug through the walls at night when they had been denied admission at a gate. When a wealthy and powerful lord decided to fortify a city, however, the results could be impressive. In the late twelfth century, the French king Philip Augustus renovated the walls of Paris and expanded them so that they enclosed all of the residents on both sides of the river Seine. In this case the appearance, cost, and resources of a city's walls resembled those of a castle's outer walls. Paris' fortifications consisted of walls 6-10 feet thick and up to 30 feet tall. Every 200 feet a tower was constructed, and 6 gates were built into the walls on each side of the river. A series of castles provided further fortification: the Louvre, the Grand Châtelet, and the Petit-Châtelet. As in other medieval cities, citizen levies patrolled the walls both night and day and were led by craftmasters or members of the town council. Many regional centers could not afford such elaborate walls, especially since many medieval cities need to expand their walls at least once to accommodate the population surge of the High Middle Ages.

Markets. Many cities were established to be markets or developed at the site of markets, and the market square(s) remained important locations in every medieval town. Any city would have one site designated for general markets at least once a week and often more frequently; larger commercial towns such as those in Flanders would have several markets open several days a week and specializing in particular goods: cloth markets, food markets, flower markets, etc. Frequently the craftsmen would build their houses around the market where they sold their goods. Although markets began as open squares where a craftsman or farmer would just display his or her goods on the ground or on tables, they rapidly developed into something more formal particularly in mercantile centers. A town looking to attract merchants would build a covered market hall and would rent fixed spaces to traders, assuring consistent attendance even in poor weather by both sellers and buyers alike. Moreover, merchants who had shops around the market square would open the front of their shops providing both open access during markets and a secure and convenient shelter for their products. Both methods also enhanced trade because consumers could be sure that their shop would be at the market month after month, year after year. In addition, markets attracted less prosperous sellers. Peddlers and farmers working from carts would be licensed by the town council to sell used goods and produce from their farms. When a city had bridges they, too, often became important commercial centers often of luxury goods; such was London Bridge, and Florence's Ponte Vecchio continues to be. A city of 5-10,000 could supply any needs a resident might have, and large, commercial ports sold at their markets goods from Africa, Asia, and the Near East.

Roads. By modern standards, the roads found in medieval towns were narrow, dark, crooked, and filthy, yet they were a natural outgrowth of early medieval urban planning, or the lack thereof. Even cities founded by lord developed in a relatively random way, with maybe only one or two straight trees laid out as part of the original plan. These roads themselves were dirt and often only 12-15 feet wide. Most medieval cities, however, expanded gradually and with minimal supervision from town councils or lords. Roads developed connecting markets, churches, and the buildings belonging to civic leaders and wove around the fronts of established structures and vacant lots. As foot or cart paths most roads needed to be no bigger than 8-10 feet. When buildings were constructed alongside these paths, their width was set. Moreover, to get more light inside their structures, medieval masons would build each story so that it jutted out a foot or two from the lower level. Although this style did not hinder passage in the street itself, it meant that less light actually made it down to street level. Horses, dogs, and other livestock regularly roamed city streets and left their droppings behind them. A well-planned city might have a drain in the center of the road with water running through it, and city street cleaners would infrequently push the garbage that collected on the road into the drain with the idea that it would then run into a neighboring stream, river, or lake. Because the roads were dirt, dust was a on-going problem in the buildings alongside them, and when it rained the roads turned into quagmires. There were no sidewalks. Attempts were made in the Middle Ages to put cobblestones on at least the major thoroughfares, but they were only successful in major cities who had the patronage of wealthy and powerful individuals. Most regional centers had primarily dirt streets well into the fifteenth century.
 

Sanitation and Cleanliness. As the descriptions of roads and water supplies suggest, sanitation was poor and cleanliness difficult to achieve in most medieval towns. Roaming animals did more than just defecate and urinate in the streets; loose pigs and dogs could wander into houses, and sometimes attacked unsupervised children. Rats, mice, fleas, flies, and lice were common, and guides to household management concentrate on maintaining acceptable levels of rodents and insects; they despair of eliminating them. Although the Black Death is the most dramatic disease which struck urban concentrations in the mid-fourteenth century, throughout the Middle Ages cities had been susceptible to disease of some sort; malaria, typhoid, influenza, and others that have not been identified were recurring killers. In fact, cities would have declined in the population if rural residents did not regularly move to the city to take advantage of the freedoms and opportunities there. Disposing of industrial waste was also a problem. Certain crafts such as tanning leather and dyeing cloth demanded quantities of water, and their shops were therefore located on the river. Despite repeated injunctions by town councils to locate those shops downstream from the town, there is repeated evidence that their byproducts entered the urban water supply; moreover, they were in the water supply for all downstream communities. Human waste was also a serious problem. Some cities made feeble attempts to concentrate the waste in one area for easier removal. For example, medieval London had at least sixteen public latrines, but they were for a population of at least 25,000. Most medieval houses had their own cesspit out back where waste was disposed of, and its contents would gradually seep into the city's watertable, not to mention leave an incredible stench. For those without yards, waste disposal could mean just dumping a chamberpot out the window into an alley or going to a neighboring river. The filth in rivers could reach amazing extremes; for example, in medieval London, jailers complained that the Fleet river which ran alongside the prison was "so obstructed by dung" that the river itself no longer hindered prisoners from escaping. Under such conditions, it is amazing that some residents of medieval cities lived to a ripe, old age.

Neighborhoods, Families Rivalries, and City Towers: The Example of Genoa. Although medieval cities might seem small by modern standards, they often intimidated medieval people, and both new and old residents formed smaller communities within the city for support. In urban Italy, these leagues left a visible mark on the cityscape: fortified towers. Although these towers were originally wood, stone or brick was preferred and marked the most powerful leagues. Towers were designed so that league members could throw or shoot projectiles at members of rival leagues passing by or in neighboring towers during the feuds that marked medieval Italian cities. City governments did try to stop these feuds; the city of Pisa even passed a law in 1100 that "limited the height of towers and forbade private possession of catapults, mangonels, cross-bows and ammunition." Such laws were frequently ignored, however, and the city of Genoa was known for its towers. Anyone approaching the city would see the standard urban landmark, the main church, and then a cityscape bristling with towers that surpassed the official city limit of eighty feet. These towers. These "rugged square towers dominated neighborhoods that were fortified compounds, within which banded together the great aristocratic lineages. The core of each enclave was composed of a few wealthy families claiming relationship, around which were settled a number of lesser families, some of them poor relations, some dependent clients. Houses fronted on a square enclosing market, shops, covered corridors and walkways (loggias), ovens, gardens, bath, and church." (Gies and Gies, Marriage and Family, 146) The social life of aristocratic Genoese and the urban leagues centered around this complex dominated by the tower. The compound's "bath became a center for family gossip while its loggias were a more public place for family meetings and festivities. Its church ... like the loggia, which was often decorated with family emblems, provided a means of family identification through plaques inscribed to the ancestral dead, through every more splendid tombs and monuments, and through a constant hum of masses sung to mark the anniversaries of the deaths of its members." (Hughes, "Domestic Ideals," 120-21). In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, urban governments in Italy became strong enough to tear down most of these towers, but remnants can be seen in most Italian cities.

Sources:
M.W. Barley. European Towns: Their Archaeology and Early History. New York: Academic Press, 1977.

Maurice Beresford. New Towns of the Middle Ages. Wolfboro, NH: Sutton, 1988.

Urban Tigner Holmes. Daily Living in the Twelfth Century, Based on the Observations of Alexander Neckham in London and Paris. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1952.

Diane Owen Hugues. "Domestic Ideals and Social Behavior: Evidence from Medieval Genoa," in Charles E. Rosenberg, ed., The Family in History, Philadelphia, 1975.

David Nicholas. The Growth of the Medieval City: From Late Antiquity to the Early Fourteenth Century. New York: Longman, 1997.

Who is a Burgher? Burgher is at its most basic level a synonym for many words used in modern English: bourgeoisie, burgess, citizen, urban elite, etc. In the Middle Ages these words and many others designated the urban ruling class. Although generally not aristocrats or nobles, medieval burghers enjoyed a special legal and economic status because they were citizens of a particular town. To become a citizen in many medieval towns, a person had to be male or born into a citizen family, reside in the city a certain number of years, be engaged in a respectable business, pay a substantial entry fee, and have other citizens vouch for his character. By no means every resident of a medieval city was a citizen, although the exact percentage could vary. Moreover, burghers were often a special class of citizen, although this status might not be officially documented. Generally the most prosperous, prestigious, and politically influential citizens, urban burghers dominated their towns, almost becoming urban lords. As such, their standard of living was substantially higher than their fellow residents.

The Construction and Design. Like in villages, homes in medieval cities were initially laid out with substantial yards although of differing sizes. For example, lots of 40 x 80 and 50-60 x 100 were common at twelfth-century Regensburg in Germany. Burghers often owned buildings scattered throughout the town, and it was not uncommon that their primary residence would be built on several lots. As with medieval castles and peasant homes, construction materials depended on what was available and what was traditional. Although southern European burghers had stone houses from the early Middle Ages, in northern Europe many houses were made of wood. The mark of a prosperous burgher became the construction of a stone house, a pattern found throughout Europe by the twelfth century. These houses were frequently long and narrow, the better to fit on a city lot. They had several stories and, when the water table permitted, a cellar to store household supplies. The ground floor would be reserved for business transactions, while the upper floors were reserved for household members or privileged guests. Styles differed dramatically from region to region. In southern Europe, for example, it was customary to build a stone house around an open central courtyard, continuing the style of the ancient Romans. In medieval northern Europe there might be such a courtyard with a heavy wooden gate at the primary entrance, but it was more common for burgher houses to be built directly onto the street, the entire property fenced and entrances to the storage areas coming off of back alleys. By the thirteenth century the number of windows in the upper stories had increased, and glass was being used to control drafts. Moreover, greater attention was being paid to the facade facing the busiest street, and wooden trim and sculptural elements were added to the front. The ground floor remained, however, quite stout with no windows and thick wooden doors reinforced with iron. As such, the burgher's house could also provide some protection in case of an urban riot or fight between rival clans.

Decoration. When it came to decoration and taste, urban burghers imitated the secular and ecclesiastical lords around them. Painted walls, embroidered wall hangings, and tiled floors would all move in and out of style in the course of the Middle Ages. Generally, however, all but the richest merchants could not afford decorations of the quality and cost of the upper nobility. Prized possessions would be silver candlesticks and plate and thick, elaborately decorated linens; inventories made of burghers' possessions after death stress the material, ornamentation, and wear of each, individual piece of linen in a household. The rooms most likely to have extensive embellishments were the public room where the master of the house would receive his clients, host dinners, and otherwise present a public facade. The other room would be the master's bedroom. The supplies for a kitchen might be costly but they were rarely decorative, and the other rooms in a medieval burgher's home often had undifferentiated functions. In many cases, it was a question of where to most productively use the available resources.

Furnishings. Furnishings, too, followed the pattern found in medieval castles, although the extent and quality of the pieces never achieved that of the upper nobility. Chests were the most common objects, while beds were some of the largest and most costly furnishings. Furniture was generally wooden--metal objects were especially valuable and noted as such--of local manufacture; only the wealthiest families could purchase large objects that had to be shipped. Even chests, however, could be carved, painted, and/or gilded, and burghers availed themselves of all of these techniques to add color and luxury to their homes. Certain chests, such as the Italian marriage chests known as cassone, could have elaborate scenes of the natural world or true love painted on them. Although burghers would often patronize different painters for the decoration of furniture and for wall or canvas paintings, some workshops produced all of these types of goods and more.

The Yard. Many households in early medieval cities started with a toft much like that of the medieval peasant. As the population grew and space was at a premium, these lands were sold, and by the fourteenth century generally the only members of the urban community who had substantial yards within the city walls were burghers. (Ecclesiastical communities are not included in this assessment; they often had their own enclosed compounds inside the city walls.) The burgher's yard contained a variety of outbuildings and reflected the close connections many medieval burghers still had with the countryside. There would be sheds to house farm tools, brewing vats, or wine presses. Small and large barns would house horses, pigs, and poultry. A garden provided herbs and vegetables for household consumption, as did several fruit trees. The cesspit would generally be placed in the far corner of the yard, and in an especially prosperous and fortunate household, there might even be a private well. Other outbuildings might exist depending on a burgher's needs; for example, a dyer might have a separate dye shop in his yard but distanced from the residence. Stone walls enclosed the burgher's yard to prevent theft.

Food and Guests. A burgher's diet had much in common with that of medieval monks and nobles, although it probably lacked the variety and luxury. Bread was the staple, and dairy products, fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, and beer or wine supplemented it. Meat was served whenever possible generally 4-5 times a week. Like another medieval people, burghers had set days of fast when meat was prohibited. Burghers also participated in banquets, especially those hosted by craftmasters or their religious confraternity. There, too, they strove for the level of luxury achieved by the upper nobility in clergy. In general, there would be fewer courses, the presentation would be simpler, and the ingredients more local and seasonal. Burghers, however, made extensive use of spices and subscribed to the same dietary theories and practices as the nobility.

Dressing like a Citizen. Burghers had the same basic clothing as medieval peasants and nobles: braies, shirts, hose, tunics, mantles, cloaks, shoes, belts, and knives. Like the nobles that he imitated, a burgher would attempt to wear clothes with fine tailoring and fabrics. Clothes were generally professionally woven, custom made, and new, unlike many other urban residents who would buy theirs second hand. For daily work, medieval burghers favored woolen tunics and hose in muted colors, although at a festival or banquet furs, embroidery, and dramatic dyes would make an appearance. Like many nobles, however, the number of different outfits a burgher had was minimal. Several pairs of braies, shirts, and hose, a couple of tunics and cloaks, a basic mantle designed for daily wear, a more elaborate festival mantle, one pair of boots and another of lower leather slippers, several belts, and a good knife would be considered a perfectly acceptable wardrobe. Women's clothes were also like those of the middle nobility with similar variations to those described above. Jewelry was used as decoration, fasteners, and signs of the wearer's status and could represent substantial expense. Men and women wore multiple rings when they could afford it, and belts, scabbards, clasps often had filigree work or jewels set into them. Hats, too, were both practical and fashionable made of various materials and with different degrees of decoration. Feathers could be put into the hatbands, silver or gold thread trim the rim, and embroidery embellish the crown. The main point to remember about the fashion of medieval burghers is that it was a visible statement of that individuals social status and aspirations.

Controlling Style: Sumptuary Legislation. Because of the messages medieval people saw in clothes, it should not be surprising that burghers attempted to regulate who could wear what. These ordinances were known as sumptuary laws. In them, certain fabrics were limited to certain social classes, and people in different professions were only allowed to wear clothes worth up to specific amounts. Scabbards could not be jeweled, and only burgher women might wear velvet hats; make-up was generally condemned for all social classes. Certain colors were prohibited to particular groups and professions; for example, many sumptuary laws insisted that only town councilmen could wear clothes the color of the town's livery. Fines and confiscations awaited anyone who broke these laws. In fact, an additional point of evidence at a trial could be that someone dressed above his or her station; such activities illustrated that the accused was a threat to society. Despite the existence of such laws, the very frequency with which they were repeated, particularly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, suggests that medieval urban residents dressed to limits of their ability rather than the limits of the law.

Sources:
Joseph Gies and Frances Gies. Life in a Medieval City. New York: Harper, 1981.

David Herlihy. Medieval Households. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985.

John Schofield. Medieval London Houses. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.
 

Urban Crafts. One of the qualities that distinguished a city from a village or even a market village was the diversity of crafts than could be found in a city. Specialties and sub-specialties in almost any area of manufacture could be found in a regional center. Moreover, as the European economy expanded in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the demand for diverse artisanal skills also grew. We can track the variety of crafts in part through last names which were just coming into use at that time. Many craftsmen took names that identified their family with their trade; for example, families working in construction included the Smith, Schmidt, Faber, Tinker, Plumb, Houseman, Mason, Maurer, Thatcher, Glazer, Turner, Carpenter, and Dauber. Although craftsmen often dominated urban government, certain crafts and their guilds (see chapter __________) were more prestigious and prosperous than others. The description given here of an artisan's household is based on that of a mastercraftsman but one in a less prestigious craft such as shoemaker or candlemaker.

A Craftmaster's Household. The household of a craftmaster was different than that of a burgher, although it could approach the same size. Although craftsmen frequently had smaller families due to later marriage and poorer living conditions and nutrition, their households also included apprentices and journeymen as well as a servant or two. As such, the size of a craftmaster's household depended on his ability to support it; a poorer craftsman would not be able to maintain more than a journeyman and/or an apprentice, while a large, prosperous shop might have several of each.

At Home. While craftmasters aspired to houses like those of the urban burgher, generally their homes were smaller and less elaborately furnished. A successful craftsman might own his outright, but some rented them. Moreover, by the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, urban craftsmen were unlikely to have large yards attached to their homes unless they were in a profession that needed space like butchers, bakers, and blacksmiths. Even then their workshops might be on the outskirts of town or in specific, marginal neighborhoods, while their homes and shops were in a different quarter. The average medieval craftsmen lived only slightly better than a prosperous peasant. His house would consist of two rooms, one for general living and the other a sleeping chamber. Journeymen and apprentices might have their own chambers or might have to sleep in the main room, which at least had the advantage of a hearth. Wooden tables, benches, and chests were the most common furnishings, and cooking was done on an open fire in either the center of the room or, increasingly, against one of the outside walls. An artisan's home followed the same model as that of a burgher, but it was often both shorter and narrower and consisted of only two stories. Floors in the downstairs would most likely be packed dirt, while the walls themselves were of wood, straw, and plaster.

Integration of Home and Work. As the preceding descriptions suggest, a craftmaster's household integrated work and family in various ways. The front of the house itself was often the workshop; sales took place in that room or a market stall nearby. The bulk of most craftsmen's wealth was in their tools and supplies, which were stored in that room or in small cellars or outside sheds. Even the craftsman's family itself consisted of biological relatives and those bound to him under long-term contracts. Generally apprentices paid for their apprenticeship; they received no wages, but they were given their training, room, and board. Sometimes their master would give them some small change, but it was not required. Journeymen contracts provided for salaries, but when cash was tight their salaries were often in arrears. Even wives and daughters were involved in managing the shop and, sometimes, in producing goods.

Crafts and Neighborhood. Originally attracted to a location because of its amenities, such as water or good roads, crafts concentrated in specific neighborhoods and along certain roads. Street names in modern Europe perpetuate these medieval patterns; most European cities have a Carpenter, Furrier, or a Saddlery Street. Streets were also named after churches and religious communities that existed on them, such as the Road of St. Genevieve or Mary Magdalene, or for activities that occurred in the area, such as the "rue ou l'en cuit les oeufs" of medieval Paris (the Road where they cook eggs). These neighborhoods allowed members of a similar craft to band together for mutual protection while at the same time to police each other for violations of craft statutes. The laws of many medieval towns and crafts make the person who fails to report a crime just as guilty as the person who commits it and liable to the same penalties.

Money. Cash was a rare commodity in medieval Europe, and much trade in rural communities was done using barter and credit; only by the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was a cash economy trickling down to the village level. Because of their commercial nature, however, cities had always been much more dependent on coins. The problem facing the development of cities and the medieval economy in general was the variable worth of such coins. In the ninth century many lords had the right to mint their own coins, and it would take centuries for kings and major lords to reserve these rights to themselves. Moreover, a coin's worth was based on its precious metal content, which meant that all but the smallest coins were worth more than most peasants or smaller artisans might earn in a week; for example, a single ounce of silver was generally a week's wages for a skilled worker. Because of this standard, people could shave or otherwise dilute the precious metal content of a coin and, as long as it still contained the seal attesting to its value, make money by reminting the metal into additional coins; such counterfeiting occurred and invoked stiff penalties. A merchant in medieval Europe needed to know the value of gold, silver, and copper coins minted by many sovereign states at different periods. Moreover, he or she needed to be able to translate this value into one of the standard units of account used throughout Europe. Given the complexities of such conversions, the development of coins of guaranteed and stable values such as the Florentine florin and the Venetian ducat was of inestimable value to European trade. Prices varied enormously based on many factors.

Wages and Prices. Both wages and prices varied based on many factors: the current economy, local supply, quality of the worker or product, and the negotiator's skill. Inflation was far less of a factor in prices than in the modern world, and prices stayed on average stable over a period of centuries. These averages, however, conceal sizable annual variations especially in the price of foodstuffs which could increase up to ten times their normal cost in several months if the weather had been especially bad and supplies were short. During these times town councils attempted to fix prices and patrol cellars to prevent hoarding and price gouging both from a sense of Christian charity and to prevent riots by starving urban residents. Wages also differed for various reasons. Some jobs were paid by the year, some were waged, and others were paid by the piece. Pay varied according to the time of the year, in part because the working day was longer or shorter depending on daylight. "Long-term employees were especially likely to receive food and lodging as well as money, and perhaps seasonal perquisites such as an annual outfit of clothing. Even daily workers might receive at least one meal from their employer, and perhaps also lodging if the laborer was an itinerant seasonal worker." (Singman, 61)

Urban Tradesmen: The Reseller. Another not a prestigious profession, selling used goods was a widespread trade in medieval Europe. Medieval people rarely threw away clothing and other goods; when something was seen as too old or unfashionable, it was sold to someone else. The resellers/ used goods dealers acted as middle-men in these transactions and made provisions to have the goods repaired if necessary. Although a more prosperous reseller might have a storefront attached to his house, the most that many could hope for was a cart or a table near a market square. The regulations about reselling were generally less stringent than those placed on other professions, although a reseller was not supposed to misrepresent his goods. Women could also be resellers and would continue to practice this profession even after they were barred from many others in the later Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Urban Craftsmen: The Apothecary. The apothecary was one of the more prestigious professions, and some apothecaries would become burghers and town councilors in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; the coat of arms of one of the wealthiest and most powerful Italian families of the Renaissance, Florence's Medici, contained the balls that stood for their ancestor's membership in the apothecary's guild. An apothecary's job carried such status because of the learning required, the value of his goods, and its lack of manual labor. Much like modern pharmacists, apothecaries dispensed a wide variety of medicines; St. John's wort, mandrake root, and ground seed pearls were all obtainable at an apothecary shop and had assorted medical uses. Yet apothecaries also dealt in a wide variety of goods, generally small and expensive. An apothecary would stock spices and sugar which were seen as having medicinal properties, lye used for making soap or washing clothing, and the dyes and solutions used to make ink. Every household of any standing whatsoever would need to buy goods from an apothecary. Because of the expenses of obtaining these products and their costs to buyers, apothecaries also often had a substantial store of coin, at least according to medieval standards. From there, it was not a large step for apothecaries to serve as community bankers to some extent, tendering loans and safeguarding other residents' resources. Because an apothecary's work was rarely dirty, he could dress and carry himself like the prosperous tradesman that he was, an appearance that would further affect perceptions in a medieval society.

Urban Craftsmen: The Baker. Because urban bakers supplied the city's basic foodstuffs, they belonged to one of the city's most powerful guilds. It was also one of the most tightly regulated, and master craftsmen working for the town council generally inspected shops and bread weekly and set the prices for each type of bread produced. In the early Middle Ages bakers were paid much like millers; residents came to the bake shop bringing their grain, and the baker made it into loaves and baked it, reserving a percentage of the grain as his pay. Increasingly in the Middle Ages the system became less complicated, especially in larger towns whose governors feared grain shortages. There central grain markets or barns would be established, and a member of the baker's household would go there daily to collect the day's supply of grain. The baker would then produce several types of loaves, differentiated by weight and type of grain, and sell them for set prices. Bakeshops were developed to minimize the danger of fire by concentrating their large, hot ovens in set locations within the city. Moreover, few urban residents could afford private baking ovens or take the time to watch their fires all day. Because bread was so essential to the medieval urban diet, bakers worked long hours, and the regulations about when they could work were more relaxed than for other professions. For example, bakers were not allowed to bake on Sundays or major holy days, but he was allowed to open the shop for sales. Moreover, many medieval crafts were not allowed to work after dark or before dawn, but bakers could work at any time in the day. Given the hundred of loaves a medieval bakeshop would be expected to produce in a day, it was common for a baker to have at least one assistant from outside the family. His wife and/or daughters would manage the shop, while the baker himself would focus on preparing the dough and watching the oven. Although the size of his household definitely placed the baker among the prosperous ranks of craftsmen, it was rare for a baker to ascend into its higher levels. This occurred for several reasons. The baker's craft was definitely manual; he kneaded dough, formed loaves, and pulled them in and out of a hot oven throughout the day. In the process bakers might strip to their shirt and tunic, thereby losing the appropriate appearance necessary for a prosperous burgher. Moreover, although a baker sold many loaves, his profit margin was not high; he might live comfortably, but he was unlikely to have access the riches of a goldsmith, cloth dealer, or jeweler. Finally, by the nature of his profession, a baker was unlikely to deal with and, therefore, know the most influential members of urban society; burghers and bankers sent servants to buy their bread.
 
 

Sources:
John Blair and Nigel Ramsay, eds. English Medieval Industries. London: Hambledon Press, 1991.

Steven A. Epstein. Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.

Barbara Hanawalt. Growing Up in Medieval London: The Experience of Childhood in History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Jacques LeGoff. Medieval Callings. Trans. Lydia G. Cochrane. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Processions. Medieval towns were the sights of many festivals, and one component of the more solemn ones was a procession. For example, city governments would commemorate the holy day of their patron saint or a day on which the town was delivered from plague or siege with a procession. The process would generally begin at one of the larger churches and wind its way through the city's larger streets until it arrived at the primary church of the community. All participants would be decked in their finest clothing; if they were members of guilds, they might be required to wear cloaks or mantles with their guild's crest. Precedence also mattered a great deal in these processions, and it was not uncommon for groups in the parade to pummel each other over their place in the procession. Sometimes these combats set the clergy against the laity. Frequently participants would carry large candles, relics, and statues relevant to the procession's theme. Prior to beginning the procession, the town government would attempt to clean the roads and remove any wandering animals. People who had houses alongside the street where the procession would pass might be enjoined to drape cloth from their windows or to provide some other festive decoration. When the procession was to honor a visiting dignitary, the city might stage small plays on specially built platforms at key sites on the processional route. Often these plays would be tableau vivant, that is, with actors frozen in place illustrating major historical, mythological, or allegorical scenes or themes. The participants in a procession could number in the hundreds, but they could also be much smaller. For example, in fourteenth-century Dijon the bodies of dead urban leaders would be accompanied to their burial by representatives of the town council bearing large candles.

Community Matches. In medieval towns, town councilors and other community leaders made many attempts to control youth violence through the development of community sports generally linked to major religious festivals. Often these took the form of mock combats. On the designated day young men from two opposing factions would meet in the designated area, generally a town square, and the combat would begin. Free-for-alls, these mock-combats involved men in full, foot-soldier armor swinging wooden maces at each other until one side yielded the field of battle. In some towns there were separate battles, one for aristocratic youth who could fight on horseback while a second was for craftsmen or poorer citizens who fought hand-to-hand on foot. Governments would even encourage such ritual battles and provided a "field of honor" marked off by chains and with set entrances. Just because they had community sanction, however, does not mean these "mock" battles were safe. If a combatant fell they hit hard-packed dirt or stone, given that the battle was in a public square. By this time in medieval European cities, particularly in Italy, the public squares that could hold such battles were surrounded by houses of several stories. Partisans from each side would watch the battles from inside and were known to throw rocks or other projectiles if members of the opposing factions came too close; bricks, sticks, water, and even the contents of chamber pots were fair game. Moreover, the battles themselves were brutal; a wooden club connecting to the side of a combatant's head could easily lead to a fractured skull or worse. With such consequences in mind, many medieval towns attempted to ban these combats by the fourteenth century, although similar events would occur in cities such as Venice well into the seventeenth century.
 
 

Rape. With such gangs loitering on medieval streets, it is probably not surprising that rape was a hazard to many young women. As noted above, cities attracted rural dwellers including both young men and women. Generally these women became servants; if they were particularly lucky they married a craftsman. Because their family was distant, they had few, if any, protectors, which made them perfect targets for predatory gangs. Young women walking on the street at night or even twilight might be accused of being prostitutes, which legitimized her rape. Sometime gangs of young men would even break into the house of her employer, if they felt they could argue before the court that the young woman had behaved in a wanton fashion, "inviting" such attentions. Once a young woman was raped, the burden of proof that she had not willingly participated was on her. She had to prove that she had fought her attackers, that she had repeatedly cried out for help, and that she had a good reputation, and that she had never sought sexual attention in the past. Even if she was able to prove her innocence, and few were able, her reputation was affected which injured her ability to arrange a marriage or to find other employment if necessary. In this situation, it seems that many medieval women tried to hide the rape.

Police. Gangs could have such a powerful influence on the city after dark because of the lack of an urban police force. Many cities relied on powerful individuals or their supporters to police anyone who lived in their neighborhood and who was affiliated with them. The cities themselves had a small staff of "sergeants," who were chronically unpaid and unwilling and unable to take the initiative. A sergeant's job was basically to support an urban administrator who might be coming to arrest an offender or to collect back taxes; he was not authorized to make independent arrests. In fact, most cases that were brought before the city courts originated in the complaint of one or more residents; if a person was murdered or otherwise injured and had no relatives or did not wish to prosecute, there was no case. At night citizen patrols led by a town councilor would police sections of the city, but even then they might be outnumbered. In those situations there was nothing to do but beat a hasty retreat.

Sources:

The Poor. Cities also house a large underclass, and it has been estimated that in some late medieval cities up to 40% of the population was too poor to pay taxes. Like cottagers and laborers in the countryside, such people lived a hand-to-mouth existence. If they had shelter, it might be a rented, unheated room in a building where several families were housed. Such residences had only minimal heat and might contain a cookpot, thin mattress, a table, and bench. Their clothes would be of threadbare wool or linen, their hat torn, and their shoes--when they had them--patched. Without any savings or resources to sell, the poor were the first to suffer in famine, drought, or plague. Certainly the hungry and beggars were a common sight on medieval streets.

Welfare. Medieval people were not insensitive to the needs of the poor and made various attempts to help them. Many of these were administered through the city's churches. Urban residents would provide in their wills for bread to be distributed to the poor, dowries to be established for deserving, poor girls, and for the apprenticeship dues of poor orphans to be paid. While distinct institutions for the care of the poor, such as poor houses and orphanages, were a later development, the poor could look forward to extra food being distributed in the afternoons and evenings from the kitchens of those more prosperous. Town councils also took a person's wealth into consideration when assessing various civic dues and could eliminate payments by or even contribute to families. Such charity, however, was based on an assessment of the moral and social state of the poor. The poor were generally classed into two categories: the deserving and undeserving poor. The deserving poor were members of good families fallen on hard times, young widows, orphans, and preachers who lived through begging. The undeserving poor were foreigners, people with bad reputations, and people believed to be able to work. Any welfare distributed in medieval towns was aimed at the deserving poor.

Hospitals. Hospitals were institutions that only larger cities of several thousand had, and they had more diverse functions than their modern counterparts. When medieval people speak of "hospitals," they include leper houses, almshouses, hospices for poor travelers and pilgrims, and institutions caring for the sick poor. In some cases, if a person in a hospital was believed to have a contagious disease, he was exiled from the city. In the Middle Ages the Church administered most hospitals, although they depended for part of their income on the generosity of urban residents. Women who had taken minor religious vows (sisters) and female servants often provided much of the care of the sick; the hospital brothers handled general administration and fulfilled any religious functions. The residents of medieval hospitals ate and slept in common halls, wore distinctive clothes, and attended daily mass. When provided, medical care was minimal. Medieval doctors and surgeons rarely treated hospital patients, and the cures that were effected often stemmed from bed rest, warmth, cleanliness and good diet. By the late thirteenth century, many hospital foundations "combined the relief of poverty with a religious and liturgical regime maintained by a regular group of secular clergy and assisted by a group of lay brethren or sisters." These institutions would frequently be located on the outskirts of town so as to minimize any threats to the urban community.

Jewish Communities. The Jews of medieval Europe lived primarily in towns. Jewish quarters existed in many communities stretching from Spain to Germany and England in the ninth and tenth centuries. Yet Jewish communities always lived on the sufferance of the town's lord. They were often taxed substantially more than other urban residents, lived in distinct communities where they could more easily band together for protection, and could be expelled at the lord's whim. For example, the Jewish community of medieval Paris was large and prosperous until Philip Augustus expelled the Jews from France in 1182. They were also a potential source of disorder in towns and, therefore, troubled town governments. Popular opinion made the Jews scapegoats for many misfortunes, and during times of religious enthusiasm, such as the calling of the First Crusade in 1095, many communities faced waves of anti-Semitic violence. Within their communities the daily life of medieval Jews had many similar characteristics as those of the Christian communities. Their houses were built using the same materials and designs, their clothes were made of similar cloth and patterns, and they faced many of the same difficulties finding warmth, light, supplies, etc. In larger cities, such as Paris and Venice, they even had a synagogue. Jews did, however, have special difficulties. Most towns limited the professions Jews could practice, excluded them from guilds, and denied them the ability to own land. Jews began to practice moneylending and long-distance trade because they were among the few occupations open to Jews in much of Europe. In a society like that of medieval Europe where Christianity and community were so closely integrated, the Jewish communities would always live on the margins even when the Christian majority tolerated them.

Sources:
Linday Granshaw & Roy Porter, eds. The Hospital in History. New York: Routledge, 1989.

Jane S. Gerber. The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience. New York: Free Press, 1992.

Michel Mollat. The Poor in the Middle Ages: An Essay in Social History. Trans. Arthur Goldhammer. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.