What did peasants do each day in 1069-1070?

Answer 1

Peasant's in illuminated pages are shown sowing from a canvas bag around their neck, scything barelegged in summer's heat in a loose blouse and straw hat, trampling grapes, herding swine in the forest, tramping through the snow in hood and sheepskin mantle with a load of firewood on his back, warming before a fire in a hut, binding sheaves. The peasants were diverse, ranging in economic levels from a half-savage pauper to the owner of fields and with featherbeds. The general term for peasant was "villein". They were neither slave nor were they free and he/she belonged to the estate of his lord. He paid rent or worked services for the use of the land and in turn got protection and justice from the lord. A serf belonged in personal bondage to a particular lord, so his children would also be serf's to the same lord. The peasant owed fees for everything he used, for grinding his grain, baking his bread in the lord's oven, pressing apples in the lord's cider press, settlement of disputes in the lord's court. At death he owed the heriot or to forfeit of his best item to the lord. His work on the land was supplied under rules that favored the lord whose fields he plowed, seeds he sowed, cut the hay, and harvested the crops. He also had to save the harvest of the lord before he could save his own from storms or pests. He had to drive his beast to pasture and bring them home across the fields of his lord so he could benefit from the manure. The priests wanted their share too. They wanted the grain, eggs, hens, pigs and the peasant's were told this was their "tax to god." If something happened and war broke out they were expected to fight. If their grain was stolen, the animals taken as food, the carts stolen, and the plows and tools forged to make weapons the peasant was still expected to pay the taxes due. As you can see the life of a peasant wasn't fun and required hard work every day.