What was life like in Britain between 1550-1650?

Answer 1

It would depend on where you lived and on your social class.

In the 15th century in Europe, most people still relied on agriculture for their livelihood. The manorial system in England meant that lords rented their land to peasant farmers in return for labor on their own land. The peasants lived in villages governed by officials elected from among the villagers by the villagers themselves. Peasants enjoyed a reasonable standard of living, excavations of peasant villages have shown that they lived in quite comfortable houses and seem to have been reasonably well fed. The farmer's wife would be responsible for looking after the poultry and the dairy, she would often sell her own butter, cheese, eggs and poultry at market, and she might also brew ale for sale (most people drank ale or beer instead of water, which was mostly not safe to drink). Spinning of wool to make clothing was another job done by women, and again women would often spin for both home use and sell the surplus thread to weavers.

Medieval life revolved around the Church, Saints Days were holidays, and there were lots of them. Christmas lasted for 13 days, from Christmas Day to Epiphany (6th January). Children were often educated at church schools, and about one peasant boy in ten became a clergyman, which required the ability to read Latin. Monasteries and nunneries had infirmaries where the sick and aged were tended, and also gave hospitality to travelers. Before the printing press was invented (in 1455) books had to be written out by hand, which was a job often done by monks and nuns. Pilgrimages to the shrines of saints were popular with people of all classes (as described in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales).

Towns were much smaller than they are now, and would be full of craftsmen and tradesmen of all kinds, and wealthy merchants. Businesses tended to be family affairs, with wives and children participating in the work. Most people who worked in a town would belong to one of the guilds, which looked after the interests of their members, regulated business practices, and provided welfare for widows and orphans or members who had fallen on hard times. Most medieval guilds admitted women as members as well as men, and it was quite common for a widow to run her husband's business after he had died. Most people worked in their own homes, the worlds of home and work were more closely entwined in those days than they are now.

One of the functions of the medieval guilds were to put on 'mystery plays' based on stories from the Bible, which were produced at different times of year; the story of the Passion would be put on at Easter, for instance. Medieval people would also enjoy singing and dancing, playing games like football (very violent in medieval times) and Board Games like chess and backgammon.

Answer 2

i think life was hard with the war going on every day waking up and not knowing what would happen that day

Answer 3

pretty good!