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The daily life of medieval Europeans was governed by the rhythms of the agricultural year, the obligations of the feudal system, and the calendar of the Christian Church. Most people were peasants who lived in small villages and worked the land, and their lives were organized around the cycles of plowing, sowing, and harvesting. The townspeople and the aristocracy had their own distinct patterns of life, but all medieval Europeans were bound by the same basic realities: the weather, the seasons, the local lord, the parish priest, and the great feasts of the liturgical year.
This cluster explores the daily life of medieval Europe in the High Middle Ages. The articles in the related long-tail pages provide deeper examinations of specific aspects of daily life.
Most of what we know about the daily round of the High Middle Ages comes from records the medieval people left almost by accident: manorial court rolls, monastic obedientiary rolls, account books of episcopal households, the lists of goods made in wills. Marc Bloch and the Annales historians, working in the 1930s and 1940s, built the first synthesis from these; Jean Verdon, in “Le Plaisir au Moyen Âge” (1996), assembled the more recent social-history reading that the long-tail articles in this cluster draw on.
The Rhythm of the Year
The agricultural year was the basic rhythm of life for the vast majority of medieval Europeans. The cycle of plowing, sowing, and harvesting governed the daily routine of the peasant household, and the success or failure of the harvest could mean the difference between prosperity and starvation.
The plowing season began in the autumn, when the heavy plow opened the soil for the winter planting of rye and wheat. The winter months were a quieter time, during which peasants repaired tools, tended livestock, and performed the indoor tasks of the household economy. The spring plowing prepared the fields for the spring planting of oats, barley, and legumes. The hay-making in early summer was followed by the harvest of the grain crops in late summer, the most labor-intensive and important period of the agricultural year. The autumn sowing of the winter grain completed the cycle.
The feast days of the Church broke the agricultural routine. The great feasts of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost were major celebrations, marked by special liturgical services, the suspension of ordinary work, and feasting and entertainment. The saints’ days of the local calendar, often numbering forty or fifty in a year, also provided occasions for rest, for the payment of customary dues to the lord, and for the celebration of the local community.
The Feria of the Church calendar was the ordinary weekday, when work was permitted but feast days were not celebrated. The Vigil was a day of fasting and preparation before a major feast, and the Ember Days were four sets of three days each year, dedicated to fasting and prayer. The Lent of the forty days before Easter was a major period of fasting and penance, and the Advent of the four weeks before Christmas was a parallel period of preparation.
Work and Labor
The work of the peasant household was shared between men and women, and between adults and children. Men were primarily responsible for the heavy work of plowing, sowing, and harvesting the grain crops, for the care of the larger animals, and for the maintenance of the buildings, fences, and tools. Women were primarily responsible for the care of the household, the preparation of food, the spinning of wool and flax, the weaving of cloth, the tending of the garden and the smaller animals (especially chickens and geese), and the dairy work of making butter and cheese. Children helped with both the agricultural work and the household tasks, with the older children taking on more responsibility as they grew up.
The labor obligations of the peasant to the lord were a major feature of medieval life. The demesne — the portion of the manor’s land kept by the lord — was worked by the peasants in return for their holdings. The week-work of two, three, or four days a week was the most common form of labor service, and the boon-work of additional days at the busiest seasons (especially harvest) was also common. The peasant also owed the lord a variety of customary dues: the tithe (one-tenth of the produce) to the Church, the grain dues at harvest, the chicken rents and egg rents at Easter, and various other payments and services.
The work of the townspeople was different from the work of the peasants. The artisan worked in a small workshop, often with a few assistants and apprentices, producing goods for the local market or for the long-distance trade. The merchant bought and sold goods, traveling to the great fairs and markets to obtain goods and to dispose of them. The priest and the monk were dedicated to the religious life, with their own rhythms of prayer, study, and pastoral work. The scholar and the student spent their days in the lecture and the disputation, with the additional labors of copying manuscripts and the various tasks of student life.
Food and Drink
The diet of medieval Europe was varied and improved significantly over the High Middle Ages. The staples were bread, porridge, peas and beans, cheese, and the various products of the kitchen garden. Meat was relatively rare for most people, and the consumption of meat was largely confined to the feast days of the Church calendar and to the aristocratic households. Fish was an important source of protein, especially on the fast days of Friday, Saturday, and Lent, when the consumption of meat was forbidden. Dairy products — milk, butter, cheese, and eggs — were important throughout the year.
The drinks of medieval Europe were dominated by ale and wine. Water was often polluted and unsafe, and the consumption of ale and wine was the normal way of taking in liquid. Ale was the common drink of the northern European peasant, made from barley, oats, or wheat and flavored with herbs and spices. Wine was the common drink of the Mediterranean, the aristocracy, and the Church, who needed wine for the Eucharist. Cider and mead were also common in some regions.
The great feasts of the year were occasions for special food and drink. The Christmas feast featured roasted meats, pies, and the Yule log; the Easter feast featured lamb, eggs, and special breads; the harvest feast featured the products of the new harvest. The aristocratic household maintained a sophisticated kitchen, with cooks trained in the preparation of elaborate dishes, and the great feasts of the aristocracy could include dozens of courses, with elaborate presentations of roasted meats, game, fish, and pastries.
The diet of medieval Europeans improved over the period. Real wages rose as population grew and labor became scarce, and the diversity of the diet increased as new crops, new sources of fish, and new spices became available. The introduction of new sources of protein — including the greater use of legumes, the expansion of dairy production, and the increased consumption of fish — improved the nutrition of the medieval population. Yet the diet remained limited by the seasonal availability of foods, the lack of refrigeration, and the vulnerability to famine.
Houses and Households
The houses of medieval Europe varied enormously by region, by class, and by period. The peasant house of the early Middle Ages was a simple structure, often of one or two rooms, with a thatched roof, an earth floor, and a central hearth for cooking and heating. By the thirteenth century, the peasant house of many regions had improved considerably, with stone or timber-framed walls, tile or slate roofs, and multiple rooms. The manor house and the castle of the aristocracy were much larger and more elaborate, with separate rooms for sleeping, eating, working, and entertaining.
The household of a medieval peasant typically consisted of the nuclear family — the parents and their children — together with the grandparents and other relatives who might live with them. The peasant household was a unit of production as well as of consumption, and the division of labor within the household was carefully organized. The aristocratic household was a much larger and more complex institution, including the lord and lady, their children, their servants, their knights and squires, their chaplains, and their household officials.
The interior of the medieval house was spartan by modern standards. The floor was typically of beaten earth, stone, or wood. The walls were plain, often whitewashed, with the stones or timbers visible. The furniture consisted of a few tables, benches, stools, chests, and beds. The beds of the peasant household were typically of straw, with blankets of wool or linen, and the couches of the aristocracy were often elaborate pieces of furniture, with canopies, curtains, and richly embroidered coverings.
The heating of the medieval house was by the central hearth in the peasant household, and by fireplaces in the better houses. The candle and the oil lamp provided light, and the rushlight was the cheapest form of lighting for the peasant household. The stained glass windows of the great churches were the most spectacular form of medieval lighting.
Leisure and Entertainment
The leisure of medieval Europe was shaped by the liturgical calendar and by the seasonal cycles of work. The feast days of the Church were the major occasions for leisure and entertainment, and the fairs and markets combined commerce with celebration. The great feasts of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and the various saints’ days were marked by special foods, games, music, and dancing.
The games of medieval Europe included both physical games and board games. The physical games included ball games, wrestling, running, and shinney (a kind of hockey). The board games included chess (which had been introduced from the Islamic world in the early Middle Ages), backgammon, and merels (a game played with stones or pegs on a board). The aristocratic leisure of the period included hunting, falconry, tournaments, and the pursuit of courtly love.
The music and dance of the period were central to the celebration of feasts. The minstrel and the jester were professional entertainers who performed at the courts of the aristocracy and at the great feasts. The troubadour and the trouvère sang the songs of courtly love, while the folk musicians of the villages performed the traditional songs and dances of their regions.
The theater of the High Middle Ages was primarily liturgical drama, performed in the churches. The Easter play, the Christmas play, and the various saints’ plays were major productions, with elaborate costumes, music, and staging. The secular theater of the period was more limited, but it included the fabliau — short comic tales that were performed at the great feasts — and the mystery plays that would become a major feature of the Late Middle Ages.
Religious Life
The religious life of medieval Europe was the framework within which all other activities took place. The parish church was the center of local religious life, with its Sunday Mass, its sacraments, and its various devotions. The Mass was the central act of Christian worship, and attendance at Sunday Mass was an obligation for all Christians.
The sacraments of the Church — baptism, confirmation, marriage, confession, communion, holy orders, and last rites — marked the major stages of life from birth to death. The sacrament of confession, formalized by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 as at least annual confession, was a major institution of medieval religious life, and the penance imposed by the priest was an important element of the religious discipline.
The devotional life of the medieval Christian included prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and the veneration of the saints. The cult of the saints was a major feature of medieval religion, and the relics of the saints were objects of pilgrimage and devotion. The miracle stories associated with the saints were a major form of medieval literature, and the canonization of new saints was a major event in the life of the Church.
The religious life of medieval Europe was not merely a matter of individual devotion; it was also a matter of community celebration. The procession through the streets on the feast of Corpus Christi, the pilgrimage to the local shrine, the blessing of the fields in spring, and the harvest thanksgiving in autumn were all occasions for the whole community to gather in religious celebration.
Sources
Principal sources used in this article:
- Jean Verdon, Le Plaisir au Moyen Âge (Hachette, 1996), for the lived-world synthesis.
Further reading:
- Marc Bloch, Feudal Society, vol. 1, pt. 2 (1961).
For a recent single-volume synthesis with full scholarly apparatus, see the relevant chapter of Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (University of Toronto Press, 2014).