How was Medieval England life in 1066-1399 for women?

Answer 1

Awful. Dirty, dark, dank, and dangerous. Death was every where and around the corner very minute. Wars raged and people's homes and villages were under attack all the time. When the Roman Empire fell it left no government and the services that people had had were gone. The barbarians raided without fear and killed randomly. People were bought and sold into slavery. The living conditions weren't much better. A majority of the population were serfs and peasants and lived in hovels. These were one room, dirt floors, dank, dark, and had a fire place. The candles they used were made of tallow so they gave off a smoky oil residue that stunk like old grease. These places leaked in the rain, were cold in the winter, and had one window for light. People put rushes on the floor and these also smelled because they were changed once a year (if that) and the rats and dogs lived in the rushes. The water and food was bad. The water was polluted with everything and any thing. The food was rotten and mushy and tasted pretty bad. People worked from sunup to sundown so the summers were very long. The lower classes owed work time to the nobility and had to take care of their fields, animals, do their labor, and fight their wars. Plus, they still had taxes to pay to them and the Church. The Church taught that man was born in sin and that the only way to get to heaven was through the church and to pay them taxes. Even the nobility was not exempt from the church. The church was the first estate, the nobles the second and then there was everyone else. The church was suppose to teach and protect everyone souls while the nobility was to protect their bodies. Superstition was the science and the church prevented the medical people of the time from looking at the undressed human body. If you got hurt or ill you were either going to die of the illness or die of treatment. When the plague came along they had no idea what it was and it killed in mere days. Whole towns were dead from the plague and bodies were everywhere that they were in mass graves. Little did they know it was the fleas from the rats that was killing them. Rats were everywhere and a constant problem. There was a job for a rat catcher and he would put a sweet smelling oil and his hands and catch the rats. Women and children had no rights and were often abuse, killed, sold and left. A child by the time they were 7 or 8 common or noble all ready had their life set. Most people didn't live past 40 if they got that old. There were rules about what colors people could wear and what jewelry they could wear. Knights were not allowed to wear rings, the peasant class couldn't wear the colors of blue, purple, red or have any fur on their clothing. These were saved for the nobility as were the gems, pearls, and jewels. The life of people was hard and the times didn't help. We have taken this time and more or less made it into knights, ladies, and dragons with a sprinkle of fairy dust. It was none of that. It was hard, dank, dirty and stinky.