HIST 204
Syllabus
Lecture outlines
Week 2: Tuesday
Music:
two medieval bagpipe pieces performed by Cornucopia: tant es gaia (0:00-2:30 min.), and trotto (2:30-5:00 min.)
Videos:
Plowing with oxen at Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts, 2009 (1:24 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuytRXRfyeI
How to mow with a scythe (Wilson, Wisconsin, 2009; 3:36 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzdjOkLQw1s
Reaping wheat with a sickle (2011; 6:16 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXey-x3eCxc
Threshing with flails (0:21 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAmyKYPE3vo
Threshing and winnowing mustard seed and wheat by hand in Nepal (7:31 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG_0t7sIQ-c
| c. 1000-1300 | Rise in crop yields, caused by:
Rise in crop yields, better diet, and drop in violence > rise in population Surplus crops > rise in markets and fairs > revival of trade Principal food crops:
|
Click here to see a plan of a medieval manor.
Terms:
| Manor: | estate owned by a lord (a lord could be a man, woman, child, or institution) |
| Village: | small community, usually of peasant farmers, both free peasants and semi-free serfs (also called villeins).
Click to see:
|
| Parish: | area served by a single church and priest; the smallest unit in a diocese headed by a bishop |
| Tithes: | annual tax owed by all parishioners to support their church and priest |
| Demesne: | manorial lands retained for the direct use of the lord (i.e., not rented out) |
| Open fields: |
fields divided into multiple holdings consisting of unfenced strips (Click here to see the fields of the deserted medieval village of Southdean in the Scottish Borders.) |
| Manual labor services: | (or labor-rent) owed by serfs as all or part of their annual rent to their lord |
| Field: | land used for growing crops (arable farming) |
| Pasture: | land used for grazing animals (pastoral farming) |
| Fallow: | field left uncultivated for a season, to recover its fertility |
| Meadow: | land used for growing grass, to make hay for winter fodder |
| 3-field crop rotation: | One-third of fields planted with winter crops (wheat, rye) One-third of fields planted with spring crops (barley, oats, peas, beans, lentils) One-third of fields left fallow |
Online readings:
Aelfric, Colloquy (c. 1000): excerpt from a Latin teacher’s dialogue book, describing peasant work
Pierce the Plowman’s Crede (late 1300s): excerpt from a moral poem, describing peasant life
Photograph of cottage from Hangleton, Sussex (1200s): peasant housing
Thursday
THE ARISTOCRACY AND FEUDAL SOCIETY
Videos:
Tournament: documentary with Mike Loades, 2005 (48:58 min.; start at 36:00):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh-i9spR1HU
Documentary by Mike Loades on the lance and the spear (45:57 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1tAqrMQaEw
Terms:
| Lord: | (can be man, woman, child, or institution) holder of one or more fiefs |
| Fief: | (or “fee;” Latin “feudum“) a valuable seigneurial property (usually land), held by service, and often inheritable |
| Vassal: | one who holds one or more fiefs from one or more lords |
| Homage: | ceremony by which a vassal swears fealty (loyalty) and acknowledges other obligations (such as military service) to a lord in return for a fief |
| Liege lord: | the lord to whom a vassal owes primary allegiance |
On the manor:
| steward: | (French seneschal) the lord’s most senior officer, responsible for administering all the lord’s estates and manor courts |
| bailiff: | a mid-level local estate officer, in charge of one or more estates |
| reeve: | a low-level officer, often chosen by the local villagers, who was in charge of day-to-day operations on a single estate |
| hayward: | local low-level officer, in charge of serfs who owed manual labor services (weekly “customary” work and extra “boon” work at harvest time) to the lord |
| tally: | notched stick used as receipt for paying or collecting bills or estate accounting |
| tenement: | a land-holding (usually a building-plot, with or without buildings on it) |
| corn: | British-English for “grain” |
“Tripartite” society: those who pray (clergy), those who fight (aristocracy), and those who work
(peasants and artisans)
Beginning in the 1100s, the revival of towns > revival of cash economy
Among the landowning aristocracy, the increasing circulation of cash led to:
- gradual replacement of military service with money rents owed by vassals to lords
- rising aristocratic standards of living (e.g., more imported luxury goods)
- rise in aristocratic debt
Justification for aristocratic wealth and power = protection of non-combatants (clergy, peasants, artisans, women, children, etc.)
Knights were professional warriors; hunting and tournaments served to burnish and display their skills
A lady’s main duty was to marry and bear heirs for her lord, but she also took charge in his absence
Aristocratic marriages were usually arranged by parents or guardians; aristocratic children often were sent to other aristocratic households for training
Money denominations (very important!):
£1 = one pound (Latin libra, French livre, Italian lira, German pfund)
= 20s. = twenty shillings (Latin solidi, French sols or sous, Italian soldi, German schilling)
= 240d. = 240 pence or pennies (Latin denarii, French deniers, Italian denari, German pfennig)
12d. = 1 s.
20s. = £1
thus: £1 = 20s. = 240d.
The silver penny (here, an English penny of 1305-10) was the most common coin in circulation. Half-pennies and quarter-pennies were also used:
1/2d. = 1 ob. (Latin obolus) = one ha’penny or halfpenny (plural: ha’pence or ha’pennies)
1/4d. = 1 q. (Latin quadrans) = one farthing
Other standard divisions of a pound were:
1 m. = mark (= 2/3 pound) = 13s. 4d.
1/2 mark (= 1/3 pound) = 6s. 8d.
Online readings:
The feudal compact: homages paid by the counts of Champagne, 1143-1226:
Note the reciprocal obligations of lords and their vassals, and the subjection of aristocratic widows and under-age heirs to the control of their liege lords (often the king)
John of Toul’s Homage to the Count of Champagne, 13th cent.:
Note how a vassal to multiple lords sorts out potentially conflicting obligations
Four English treatises on household and estate administration, later 13th cent.:
Glossary of technical terms used in the above four treatises:
https://sites.uwm.edu/carlin/estate-terms-glossary/
Christine de Pisan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies (1405): A lady’s duties
