Similarities Between Serfs And Peasants

How did the life of a Serf differ from that of a slave or a peasant?

Peasants realized they could move from village to village, constantly switching to whichever proprietor offered them the best deal. This greatly changed the traditional feudal system, which served to confine peasants to a certain piece of land. In response to this, the government passed the Statute of Labourers in 1351 that forced peasants to remain in their homelands and did not allow lords to change their wages from what they were in 1346. This infuriated the peasants and led to the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381. Survivors of the Black Death felt that they were special, chosen specifically by God to be saved (Trueman), and after this the lower class began to demand more economic and social equality.

Laws were even made based on religion. The churches were so powerful they would even go to war with people of different religions. Peasants were expected to follow the “Great Chain of Being” which meant they were expected to show humble deference to their betters(). The second reason that the modern world highlights the limitations of peasants is they were constantly threatened by scarcity and famine ().

For them, life was difficult. They had to work long, hard hours on the manor that belonged to their lord. Most peasants were farmers. Peasants did not have good food or clothing. They did not have the right to be educated.

They had the least wealth and respect but without them the two kingdoms couldn’t continue. There were three sub-categories of peasants in both societies: Farmers were the wealthiest peasants as they had their own land where they would dwell and also harvest crops to sell to the rest of the kingdom. The craftsmen/artisans were the second wealthiest peasants. They would craft armour and weapons and make work with metal and wood. The merchants were the least wealthy of all the peasants because they were completely dependent on other people to give them work.

Serfs worked for nobles on their land, and were said to be bound to the land. Feudalism was highly reliant on the social pyramid and the system of working for superiors, but this all eventually changed. The Renaissance was a time after the Middle Ages for man to

Peasant - Were the lowest social rank. Peasants included Freemen and Serfs. Freemen - Poor farmers who controlled small areas of land. Sold crops. Serf - Had no rights or political power.

Serfs were no longer tied to their previous plot of land. Due to a severe labor shortage, serf survivors were able to demand higher wages and better working conditions from their new landlords. This may have contributed to the rise of capitalism. Many serfs moved to cities and contributed to the rise in urbanization and industrialization. (Cultural) Medieval society did not know what caused the plague or how it spread.

The middle class was arising and was becoming larger. Which meant they were able to challenge the authority of the church due to them being the majority. Even though the middle classes were big in size, the higher classes included the nobles, commoners and the clergy (popes, monks, bishops and priests). Since most of the classes were getting more attention and more benefits, the peasants were not quite happy. They were not at all, they became resentful and revolted towards everyone else.

Underneath the nobles and barons, there are knights that are trained from the age of 7. In return for service to the nobles and barons, they are given grants of land. The peasants and serfs are on the bottom of the social system, there are peasants who farm the land in return for shelter and protection (history.com). This compares with

The peasants often gave chicken, eggs, etc. in payment to their lords. In addition to the serfs, there were also artisans and people who worked in the chapel (Document 2). All of the people within the manor were extremely important for the survival of all the social classes, and everyone depended on the hard work produced by the people who worked the land. Also, as trade and commerce began to grow, the lives of the people in the Middle Ages also changed.

Others were loners and were usually paid to do work from peasants, merchants, and other citizens. Sometimes they could have been hired to kill someone, as they were a top class in the feudal system, sometimes they would be hired for farming

The class system that defined Europe during the Middle ages was very similar to the caste system implemented in India. These systems both had a single leader atop the order followed by wealthy landowners and intellectuals. In the Middle ages like India the lowest level of society was subjected to manual labor and harsh living conditions. Also, in both of these systems the gap between wealthy and peasant was extremely large. The people that gained from these conditions were the upper classes because they were able to make a lot of money off the back of these lower-class individuals. These divisions were in place to keep the wealthy at the top of the social order and dominant over society. I believe that these systems were created by people

Some of their people would do labor work but they were not slaves. Some of this slaves and servants would do some hard labor work but not get paid for it.

Furthermore, being a peasant was not a choice for peasants. Articles of the Peasants of Memmingen refers to Christ sacrificing blood for both the peasants and the emperor (Document 5). His say is that if God discriminated peasants like people do then he wouldn’t have offered them the same thing as he offered the