Life of the People Chapter 12-4

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Life of the PeopleChapter 12-4
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Marriage

• Most important consideration Economics
• Marriages were arranged by parents for ALL
  classes
• A girl who married without parental consent was
  shunned by family
• Unwed pregnancies did happen but marriage was
  encouraged by all community
• Children were economically important

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Marriage

• Most married within their own village and within
  their own station
• Needed permission of the Lord of the manor
• Needed to pay lord a fine Merchet
• Parish priest had to publish Banns three weeks in
  a row (notifying possible objectors)
• Parents needed to make financial settlement
• Dowries even for the poor

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Marriage

• Most marriages in the summer or harvest
• Discouraged during the holy days
• Women expected to work in the fields with
  husbandswere true partners in the relationship
• Wealthy women had great responsibilities
• Marriage age depended more on economics than
  anything else

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Marriage

• Men in the 30s (had to AFFORD a wife)
• Women usually 20s but some as early as 12.
• Marriage was for life no divorce, some
  annulments (a Catholic sacrament)
• No big party met at Church door with witnesses
  and exchanged vows with Priests blessing
• Private weddings occurred but rife with problems

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Prostitution

• Not respectable but considered necessary as many
  men had to wait to marry
• Legal and regulated by local authorities
• Large urban centers had red light districts
• Rules
• Prostitutes had to live in certain areas, had
  defined hours of business, had to wear some
  identifying article of clothing, were barred from
  business if they had the burning sickness

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Work

• Most worked on collective land holdings
• Called the Open Field System
• Church calendar coincided with cycle of crops
• Priests blessed land
• Parish celebrations of good harvests
• Peasants had universal hatred of obligations to
  lord of the manor

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Guilds

• Had replaced the Hansiatic League (during middle
  ages, German towns and tradesmen monopolized
  trade in Northern Europe)
• 13th Century Guildsmen in urban areas better off
  than agricultural workers
• 14th Century guilds still exclusive in spite of
  lack of population
• Most important thing a monopoly of product

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Guilds

• Had high initiation fees, long apprenticeships,
  passed on to families, ethnic considerations,
  women usually excluded BUT no age restrictions
• Guilds took care of sick members, old, widows
• BUT journeymen put in many years before becoming
  a Master (only then could they sell their
  product. Had to create a masterpiece to certain
  high standards to be judged by other masters AND
  there had to be an openings were controlled by
  the guild)

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Guild Problems

• As the population increased guilds grew too large
• Many masters did not even know their won
  journeymen
• Fewer slots for new masters
• Frustration, strikes, riots
• Many in towns joined in with peasant revolts
• Alsoethnic issues

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Crime

• After the Hundred Years War no more looting
• Nobles needed . Entertainment was costly
• Many were on fixed incomes
• So they engaged in Fur Collar Crime generally
  nonviolent. Kidnapping, robbery, extortion
• Juries and witnesses were intimidated
• Nobles were the local judges

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Crime

• Abused peasants had no recourse
• So riots and peasant revolts
• Central authorities not strong enough to deal
  with peasant revolts
• Peasants burned castles, raped, looted, killed
  and DESTROYED RECORDS (who had paid special
  taxes, fees, feudal obligations, etc.)
• Biggest Peasant revolt in England 1381
  Lollards, Wyclif, Ball

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Peasant Revolts

• Nobles had to band together to crush revolts
• Were everywhere England, France, Germany, Spain
  Eastern Europe
• Underlying issues were never dealt with
• After the Plague peasants demanded (and got)
  higher wages (Western Europe)
• Parliament failed in an effort to freeze wages
• Statute of Laborers an attempt to freeze wages

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Entertainment

• Everyone enjoyed bear baiting, bull baiting,
  public drunkenness, public executions
• BUT only the elite nobility jousting,
  tournaments, archery contests
• Church holidays and festivals
• Laity took increasing control over Church
  maintenance, building, lands, finances

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Race Relations

• Before the plague, Legal Dualism Ethnic groups
  were permitted to practice own customs, religious
  beliefs, language, law, etc. regardless of where
  they lived
• Example Mudejars (Muslims) in Spain
• One Big Exception The Irish
• The problem was not rooted in religious
  difference
• English were always racist toward the Irish

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The Irish Problem

• 1210 The Statue of Kilkenny issued by King John
• No English/Irish marriage
• Widows could not inherit from husbands
• All Church offices to English
• Irish could not sue English in court
• English did not even have to show up in court
• Killing an Irishman not even a felony
• Banned from guilds and civil office

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The Irish

• Lived in ditches
• Lost all land to the English and had to pay rent
  to minority absentee land owners
• Still issues today

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Racism

• By second ½ of 14th century racism everywhere
• Migration of ethnic groups due to the plague
  caused economicthen racial tension
• Also big competition for Church offices
• Mudejars expelled from Spain
• Guilds more exclusive members had to prove both
  sets of grandparents belonged to regional ethnic
  group

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Racism

• Laws and restrictions were made to protect
  interests of the natives
• Big problems between Poles, Germans, Bohemians
• The Dalimil Chronicles a history of Bohemia
  with much German-bashing
• Conflict got worse with rising Bohemian
  nationalism

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Racism especially prominent when it came to
Church offices

• Polish Archbishop Swinka routinely called Germans
  Dogheads
• Bohemian Archbishop Drazic founded a friary that
  would only admit Bohemians who could prove both
  parents were Bohemian
• Bishop John of Cracow (German?) tried to expel
  Poles from the region and refused to appoint any
  Poles to Church offices

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Rising Nationalism

• The increase of vernacular literature contributed
• In Eastern Europe, nationalism was a response to
  German migration
• Much translation of religious material from Latin
  to the vernacular
• Eastern Europeans DID NOT reject all Western
  literature (ie. Tales of Knights and Chivalry)

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Vernacular Literature

• Middle Ages Latin and Church themed (though
  some Chivalric tales)
• Example Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica
  never completed but a guideline or summary of
  important Church teachings combined with rational
  thinking
• By 14th Century, vernacular literature on the
  rise
• Dante, Chaucer, Villion, de Pisan

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Vernacular Literature

• Dante (1265-1321) Chose Tuscan Italian to write
  The Divine Comedy
• Trilogy in verse form
• Homer the guide
• A Christian work but critical

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Vernacular Literature

• Chaucer (1340-1400) Canterbury Tales
• Written in verse
• Stories told by Pilgrims on their way to the Holy
  Land
• Used Middle English

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Vernacular Literature

• François Villon 1431-1463 wrote
• The Grand Testament
• Ballad of the Hanged Man
• Was the most prolific French writer of the time
• Was the greatest poet of Medieval France
• Was a gang member and murderer
• Not just common language but VERY common

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Vernacular Literature

• Christine de Pisan
• The Book of the 3 Virtues
• The City of the Ladies
• Was raised at French Court
• Father was court astronomer
• Husband died and had to support children
• Queen of France was her benefactor

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Literacy increased in response to the needs of
commerce and government

• 13th C. Only some Church officials
• 14th C. nobles and merchants needed wills,
  inventories, books
• of schools increased
• More non-noble, non-Church government workers
• Girls in convent schools more reading than
  writing

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The Arts

• Medieval Art generally religious or Chivalric
• Architecture
• 800-1100 Romanesque Churches with round
  arches, heavy roofs, dark, thick walls and
  pillars, few small windows
• 1100s Gothic Tall Structures, vaulted
  ceilings, stained glass, light, airy pointed
  arches and tall spires Flying Buttresses
  supported walls
• 1170-1270 500 Churches built in Gothic style

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Romanesque
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Gothic