Social Classes In Medieval Europe

During the Middle Ages, the prevailing system of government was feudalism. Under feudalism, there was the use of a definite social structure. People were born into a social class and usually stayed in that class for the rest of their life. The three social classes were the nobility, clergy, and peasantry and each of these classes had different roles to perform in the society.

The middle ages was a difficult time period that resulted in famine, death, and poverty. During this time period a new system of government rose called the feudal system. The feudal system was a system of government that had social classes with kings being at the top and the peasants at the bottom with the nobles and knights in the middle. In the system the nobles/knights offered protection to the peasants in return for manual labor. All the different social classes had different standards of life but they were all crucial to the organization of the feudal system.. It consists of the peasants, lords, nobles, and kings.

I learnt through a presentation performed by 2 people on Medieval day about the social structure of Medieval European society. The Medieval European feudal system that was used to classify every human in a social class that was used over a period of a 100 years. The amount of goods you provided and how loyal you were to someone of a higher rank allowed you to gain protection and more. What you were decided what class you were considered to fit.

In the Middle Ages, which started at A.D 476 and ended in 1500, a lot of serfs and peasants faced adversities. Serfs were slaves who worked for the lords and ladies in the Middle Ages. On the other hand, peasants are lower class people who works in farmlands. Serfs and peasants were in the lowest class, so they had a life that was harsher than than the lords and ladies.

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 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

In medieval England, social status and rank are very important in everyday life. There are some things a person is obligated to do because of his/her social rank, and some things a person is forbidden to do because of his/her social class.

The societies of Tokugawa Japan (c.1603-1867C.E.) and medieval Europe (c.1000-1500C.E.) had two things in common; a feudal system. A feudal system is something that features hierarchies or social structures. The feudal system normally starts with a religion, which is at the very top of the social pyramid, then it’s the King or monarch for Europe and the shogun for Japan, then there are the nobles for Europe and the daimyos for Japan. As we go down the pyramid there are the warriors, like the knight in Europe and the samurai in Japan, then there are the peasants. The peasants were included in both eras and are at the lowest part of the pyramid.

Poverty in Europe from 1450 to 1700 was a huge issue that stuck around for centuries. The wars that took place during this time always seemed to negatively affect the poor the most. The poor, consisting of the majority of the European population, was never taken into consideration during these wars which is ironic considering these wars were caused in the name of religion. This situation, combined with weak leadership and in many countries a heavy taxation system, such as those found in England under the leadership of James I and his son Charles I, or under the leadership of absolute monarchs like Louis XIV, prevented the poor from rising in social status. The way people regarded “the poor” in Europe from 1450-1700 differed significantly based

Feudalism was a social system during the dark ages. On the top of the feudalism triangle was the king, just below him are the lords and nobles, below them are the knights that protected the king(dom), at the bottom of the triangle were the peasants. They were the slaves on the fifes (DBQ#2, Doc 1). “For the majority of Europeans, life was hard. Serfs / Peasants were required to work the land.”

In the Elizabethan Era, the low-class people, such as laborers and yeoman, had a struggle living than the high-class people, such as the nobles and monarchs. The Capulet family are high ranked: “They are nobles” (www.prezi.com). The Montague family are also Nobles. This explains why Romeo’s and Juliet’s mother and father have the title “Lord” or “Lady” in front of their last name. Lord Capulet held a big party for the nobles, so that means the family has a lot of money. The nobles during the Elizabethan Era were “wealthy and powerful class people.” (sites.google.com). But not all characters in Romeo and Juliet are nobles. One example is the nurse. She is “a lower class woman” (www.shmoop.com). The nurse represents the laborers. She gets

During the Elizabethan Age, there were social classes that consisted of the upper, middle, and lower class. Each social class’ wardrobe depended on the Sumptuary Laws created by Queen Elizabeth. “The main purpose of the legislation was to mark class distinctions clearly and to prevent any person from assuming the appearance of a superior class” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition “Sumptuary laws”). The Sumptuary Laws were a set of restrictions that were placed, depending on the social class, to regulate luxury and extravagance. As a result of the Sumptuary Laws in the Elizabethan Age, each social class had a limit on what type of clothing could be worn.

People in our world, whether it’s in the past or present, are constantly influenced by their surroundings. They live their lives based on what’s around them and how they are brought up. The people in the Middle Ages were often exposed to a variety of different things that affected what they did. Their relationships with one another, and the way they were brought up to interact with each other greatly modified each individual’s lives. In addition to that, their daily jobs affected how they lived as well. All of these things were majorly influenced by feudalism, the form of government that the people in the Middle Ages lived by. They were exposed to this government every day, and it was the base of their values and as a whole. There were many

However, this could be better seen in their form of government. Feudalism was a system that had land owners at the top (Kings and lords) and those who worked the land and keep the community safe at the bottom. It was basically impossible to move between social classes, and a desire to keep the rich with the rich meant that one couldn’t marry into money It was a social, economic, political, and legal system that stood in place for hundreds of years. The system, however meant that the government was weak, and it rarely stretched far; the larger the kingdom, the harder it was to keep it working. It also meant there were a lot of poor people living in the fifteen hundreds.

The middle class wore dark and black colors as a symbol of wealth. • Fashion for men was more elaborate than women. • Middle class were morally conservative and wanted to dress like royalty. • Lower class dressed according to their occupation. (Barton,M n.d)