Reddit mentions of The Making of England to 1399 (History of England, vol. 1)

Peasants historians and archaeologists have learned in recent years were not the filthy snaggletoothed cretins popularly portrayed in history over the centuries and especially in movies.

Peasants were of course the solid working class, so that's what they did. I just happen to have my old "England from pre-history to 1399" textbook right next to me so I'll sum up what they say about peasant life.

The average peasants home was thatch roofed on a wooden frame, with the walls stuffed with mud and straw. Wealthier peasants (and yes, there were wealthy peasants), might have two or three rooms with a few sticks of furniture like benches, a table, a chest for storage. Some wealthy peasants had stone walled homes as well. Archaeology shows that the cobblestone floors of these homes were swept meticulously clean.

A single cottage might shelter the family but its livestock as well, so you would sleep with your cows, chickens, dogs, geese, etc. You might have one or two small windows in your home with no glass and only shutters. There were no chimneys for the small cooking and heating fires, so the smoke would filter out through cracks in the roof and ceiling. Candles were rare and used mostly torches.

They would rise before dawn, eat a breakfast of black bread and ale, and then work till sundown. The men did the heavy labor while the women folk would cook, clean, make clothes, churn cheese and butter, spin yarn, weave cloth, milk the cows, feed the livestock, tend the garden...so the next time someone calls something "women's work", tell them about all the work they could do. Both sexes would make hay, sheer the sheep, sow and reap grain, weed, etc.

Come wintertime when you couldn't farm, you sat inside and fixed tools.

In the evening you would eat a fancier meal of bread, soups, ale, eggs, and sometimes good meat like mutton.

Quite often you would be sick or injured and laid up in bed.

You would bring to the Manor house your crop taxes as well as your legal disputes...yes the Middle Ages did have a rather functional legal system.

You would go to the local parish church in the center of the village, where the moderately educated priest would give the Latin prayers and sacraments. He would baptize the babies, officiate weddings, and bury the dead. Occasionally a wandering preacher would come by and give a homily and a theological lesson about the gospels. While you might not be able to read, you would still know a few prayers like the Hail Mary and Lord Prayer and be able to give a simple statement about belief.

During festivals the church would often serve as the meeting hall, where against the canonical prohibitions during the high feasts of the Christian calender and any celebrations ordered by the Lord of the Manor, people would gather and dance, feast, act the fool, drink themselves silly, listen to bards and music, tell tall tales to each other and such, have a huge bonfire.

Sometimes during the day, you might find some times to play games like early versions of soccer, have drinking contests, cockfight (with the animals you cretins ಠ_ಠ), wrestle, play at archery, etc.

Then you would have market festivals, usually at the end of the planting season in the fall, where everyone would gather in the town to sell their wares. Clothes, home made goods as varied as soaps to candles, glassblowers, blacksmithing products, weavers, leather goods, all such would be gathered from miles around and people would buy stocks of what they needed for the next year. Again, drinking, carousing, and general shenanigans were had.


So were they happy? Of course they were. In their time and place they would suffer the same trials and tribulations we do today. You would marry off your daughters, watch your sons start their own families, you worried about your work being done lest you be fired (or flogged for the peasant), you fretted about taxes and crime, you worried about your daughters tooth ache and glowered at the doctors who always asked to much money. You showed off your new fancy gaget. You defended your spouses honor, you worked to be a good person, tried to be a good neighbor, you worried about your salvation if that was your thing, you drank beer and laughed with your friends, fears of war scared the crap out of you, you bowed to the lords in charge but cursed them behind their backs, you rolled your eyes at the hypocritical priest when they were caught, you flirted with the cute girl who lived down the road, you played games, and talked and told stories.

They were us. Just replace the ipods, SUV's, designer label clothes, and fancy electronic crap, and they are us. Just kind of smellier and with scabies.