What are the lives of serfs and peasants?

Answer 1

Serfs were in a condition referred to as unfree, but it was not slavery. Rather serfs were bound to the soil; they were legally attached to the land, the manors, on which they lived. They could not move away, legally, and they had to provide a share of their crops, labor, or money payment for rent, but aside from that they were pretty much free to do as they pleased. This was a two-way thing, and the serfs got benefits from it. The fact that they were bound to the soil, rather than their lords, meant that they could not be sold or even evicted without just cause. They were required to live on the soil, but they also had a right to live and work there. They had to provide payment for their rent, but the lord had to let them live on and farm the land, and he had to protect them.

Serfs worked on farms, for the most part. They also did other work, and this could be mining, forestry, working in mills, working as porters, or doing any of a host of jobs requiring physical labor. The women worked as well as the men, but they were more likely to be the people tending animals or weeding garden patches, and less likely to be those who drove work animals or worked as plowmen. They worked long hours; I have never met a farmer who did not.

The serfs lived in very simple cottages, and they tended to be of a single room. The construction depended on the nature of the land. On stony soil, the cottages were likely to be made of rough stone, chinked with mud, called daub. Elsewhere, timber frames were put up, and the opening between the timbers will filled with mats of woven reeds, called wattle, and this was plastered with daub. The roof was likely to be thatch, consisting of bundles of reeds. The floor was nearly always dirt. Serfs nearly never had fireplaces because chimneys were not invented until the 11th or 12th century and were too expensive for a long time after that. If they had a fire, it would be built in the middle of the room, and the smoke would go out through a hole in the roof, or a large opening in a wall under the peaks of the roof. There were very few windows, and they were not glazed. Doors and shutters were often made of wattle. Needless to say, the cottages were drafty.

They cooked out doors, unless the weather was inclement. They ate a variety of vegetables, including greens in the summer. They had cabbages and lettuce, peas, and fava beans. They had parsnips or carrots (probably not both on the same manor), turnips, onions, leeks, and garlic. They ate a lot of grain, both as porridge or gruel, and as bread. They ate eggs, chicken, pork, and cheese. They did not usually eat much meat, and what they did eat was cheaper cuts, probably cubed or chopped, and they often ate this in stews. Sometimes there were no plates or dishes used, so stale bread was used as trenchers, and after the stew soaked in, while they ate it, they would finish off by eating the bread.

Their bread was not likely to be baked at home, because to bake bread they needed and oven. In some places, they could rent an oven. In others, the millers were also bakers.

If they lived in town they were very unlikely to cook at all, because they would not have had a place to cook. In that case they ate prepared food.

They drank a lot of beer, and in places where grapes were grown they drank a lot of wine. In places where apples were grown they drank a lot of cider. They were unlikely to drink mead, however, because of the expense.

The serfs were very clean, because they believed that cleanliness was next to godliness. Many villages and most towns had public baths. If they did not have a bath available, they would sometimes bathe in a brook, even in the winter.

They also believed that foul air bore diseases, so they were not likely to tolerate things that smelled bad. The idea that those who lived in town dumped waste on the street is because they dumped gray water on the street and let it flow off in gutters. They were likely to have night soil collected and used for fertilizer.

We are told they went to church a lot, but I have never seen a historic document saying they were required to go every day, as some people assert. On the other hand, I have seen (but unfortunately cannot remember the source) documentation of lamentations on the part of some clergy that some serfs rarely attended services because there was no priest in the place where they lived.

In some places, including England at some points in history, if they ran off the manor, they were considered free after they were gone for a year. The landlord's obligations probably made him glad to be rid of them in any case. Serfs did not run away in great numbers in many places because they lost an important measure of security by doing so.

They did not marry particularly young, and serf women were not usually subjected to arranged marriages, as the daughters of the higher nobility and royal families often were, and as women in ancient times were. The records that we have on marriage indicate that they were likely to marry at about age 25 on average, and women chose their own husbands. The marriage was not a church thing, but a private thing, and was between a man and a woman, requiring no priest or witness. Marriage were often registered with the local church, though it was not required.

Life expectancy at birth seems to have been about 25. Infant mortality rates were high, so children who lived to age 2, were likely to live to be 40 or more. Women died in child birth a lot, so the life expectancy of women was shorter than that of men in peacetime. For men and women who lived past childbearing years, the life expectancy was probably well over 60.

The laws were different in those days. They had the concept of a right of asylum, which meant that a person who sought refuge in a church or monastery could not be removed by the authorities. In some places, this right was only given permanently to those who were not accused of felonies, and felons had to surrender after they had time to repent and confess, often a period of six weeks. In some places, they could stay permanently, regardless of why the authority wanted them or who the authority was.

Trials were also different. In some places, an adequate defence could consist of swearing an oath of innocence and getting twelve people to swear they believed the oath was valid.

Answer 2

They were slaves so they lived like slaves and were treated like slaves. Not good.

Answer 3

The working and living conditions of the serf were likely quite bad. There was often not enough to eat, wood for warmth, and any kind of health care.