What are the differences between medieval towns and a middle age village?

Answer 1

The definition of town was based on legalities rather than size.

• Originally a city had a cathedral. Later, it could become a city by having a royal charter.
• Originally, a town had to have a permanent market, and a permanent market had to have a royal charter. Later, a village could become a town by having a second church, building a town hall, or having a permanent mayor.
• A village did not have a permanent market or any of the other things that defined towns, but did have one church.
• A hamlet was a group of houses and buildings, but had no church.

Answer 2

According to the laws of some places in the Middle Ages, a village was a community with a church but no market. A town was a community with a church and a market, but no cathedral. A community with a cathedral was a city, and a community too small to have a church was a hamlet.

Later on, towns were created by charter that simply said the community was a town.

Answer 3

The definition of a city (everywhere except in the USA) has always been that it has a cathedral, and therefore either a bishop or archbishop. The word "cathedral" refers to the Latin word cathedra, meaning a seat or chair, since the cathedral was the location of the bishop's ceremonial throne.

All medieval cities had a cathedral, plus many parish churches. There would also be many mills, craftsmen's workshops and merchants' premises, with some houses built entirely of stone. There would be a mixed population representing the Church, the aristocracy, wealthy freemen and poor peasants (including homeless beggars). There would also be a constant traffic in travelling merchants, pilgrims and officials. Cities often imposed a tax on the movement of goods and people by way of "bars" or toll gates across the roads in and out of the city. The craftsmen formed guilds and the city had its own militia made up of resident freemen.

A village only had a church; it might also have one or more manor houses, a small house for the priest and one or more mills; there were not usually any shop premises, although there might be a smith's forge. Most of the houses were simple wooden buildings with thatched roofs, home to labouring peasants at the lower end of the social scale.

Villages could not impose tolls on the movement of goods; there were no guilds, no militia and no accommodation for travellers.

Both cities and villages might have leper hospitals just outside the populated area (outside the city walls in the case of a city), usually located on a main road.