Who did the Peasants of the middle ages include?

Answer 1

Peasants are small farmers and farm workers.

In Western Europe, a few of the peasants were slaves. This was not common, as the Church moved, from time to time, to end slavery, getting success in some places. In many countries of the West, most slaves were criminals, who were being punished by being made slaves, but in the East, most slaves were people who were captured. Slavery was banned in England by King Henry I.

Many of the peasants were serfs, who were bound to the manors they lived on and could not legally move away. The other side of this is that they could also not be made to move away just because the lord wanted to get rid of them - it was a mutual obligation. The serfs were organized by supervisors to do common work for the lord and on common land. In England, the supervisor was called a reeve, and was a serf appointed or elected to the job. Aside from their duties to the manor, the serfs were rather free. There were also serfs who were not peasants, but worked in fields other than agriculture.

Some peasants were tenant farmers. They differed from serfs in that they were not tied to the land. They had leases, and paid money in rent.

Some peasants were yeomen, who were small farmers who held their own land and did not pay rent. They did pay taxes and had military obligations to the king.