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My aim in this paper is to present what information I have discovered about balls and their history in the medieval context. There are commercial and social notes dealing with both the makers and the users of balls, and descriptions of extant pieces, some more fragmentary than others.

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Bring out your dead!

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Diseases were terrible, but the Black Death was most feared!

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A really cool virtual tour of a medieval village!

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Regia Anglorum - The Village of Wichamstow

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It has three main roads leading to it, with the bridge across the river a little further upstream where the banks are a bit narrower. The largest town in the area is 25 miles away, which is a good days ride on horseback, and nearly two days if go by oxcart.

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An interesting article on the lives of medieval European teenagers.

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Today, there's often a perception that Asian children are given a hard time by their parents. But a few hundred years ago northern Europe took a particularly harsh line, sending children away to live and work in someone else's home. Not surprisingly, the children didn't always like it.

Around the year 1500, an assistant to the Venetian ambassador to England was struck by the strange attitude to parenting that he had encountered on his travels.

He wrote to his masters in Venice that the English kept their children at home "till the age of seven or nine at the utmost" but then "put them out, both males and females, to hard service in the houses of other people, binding them generally for another seven or nine years". The unfortunate children were sent away regardless of their class, "for everyone, however rich he may be, sends away his children into the houses of others, whilst he, in return, receives those of strangers into his own".

It was for the children's own good, he was told - but he suspected the English preferred having other people's children in the household because they could feed them less and work them harder.

Dick Whittington, the apprentice

London's folk hero Richard Whittington came to London as an apprentice to a mercer - an exporter of fabric, graduating in the 1370s

He came from a wealthy family and there is no evidence he liked cats (the cat in the image above was originally a skull)

He became very rich and was appointed mayor of London four times

Image courtesy of the Mercers' Company. Photograph by Louis Sinclair. Turmoil, crisis, creation: Life in the Middle Ages
His remarks shine a light on a system of child-rearing that operated across northern Europe in the medieval and early modern period. Many parents of all classes sent their children away from home to work as servants or apprentices - only a small minority went into the church or to university. They were not quite so young as the Venetian author suggests, though. According to Barbara Hanawalt at Ohio State University, the aristocracy did occasionally dispatch their offspring at the age of seven, but most parents waved goodbye to them at about 14.

Beaten into submission

Some insight into how such a boy or youth might be trained comes from the [14th Century] French hunting treatise La Chasse by Gaston count of Foix... A lord's huntsman is advised to choose a boy servant as young as seven or eight: one who is physically active and keen sighted. This boy should be beaten until he had a proper dread of failing to carry out his master's orders.
Source: "Medieval Children" by Nicholas Orme How the Black Death transformed Britain
Find out more

Colin Heywood appeared on The Why Factor: Adolescence on the BBC World Service
Listen to the programme Get the Why Factor podcast
Master and apprentice

Apprentices were sometimes abused by their masters

Among cases recorded by guilds in France was a boy who was beaten with a set of keys by a silversmith until he had head injuries, and a girl beaten so severely that she died

It is likely that girl apprentices were sometimes raped or prostituted, says Barbara Hanawalt

But the fact that masters were tried shows that parents followed up on mistreatment, and didn't completely abandon their children

Bequests from masters to their apprentices show that the relationship was often close

The skill of a medieval stonemason More from the BBC World Service
Model letters and diaries in medieval schoolbooks indicate that leaving home was traumatic. "For all that was to me a pleasure when I was a child, from three years old to 10... while I was under my father and mother's keeping, be turned now to torments and pain," complains one boy in a letter given to pupils to translate into Latin. Illiterate servants had no means of communicating with their parents, and the difficulties of travel meant that even if children were only sent 20 miles (32 km) away they could feel completely isolated.

So why did this seemingly cruel system evolve? For the poor, there was an obvious financial incentive to rid the household of a mouth to feed. But parents did believe they were helping their children by sending them away, and the better off would save up to buy an apprenticeship. These typically lasted seven years, but they could go on for a decade. The longer the term, the cheaper it was - a sign that the Venetian visitor was correct to conclude that adolescents were a useful source of cheap labour for their masters. In 1350, the Black Death had reduced Europe's population by roughly half, so hired labour was expensive. The drop in the population, on the other hand, meant that food was cheap - so live-in labour made sense.
Listen again to Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook The Why Factor: Adolescence on the BBC World Service or get the Why Factor podcast.
"There was a sense that your parents can teach you certain things, but you can learn other things and different things and more things if you get experience of being trained by someone else," says Jeremy Goldberg from the University of York.

Perhaps it was also a way for parents to get rid of unruly teenagers. According to social historian Shulamith Shahar, it was thought easier for strangers to raise children - a belief that had some currency even in parts of Italy. The 14th Century Florentine merchant Paolo of Certaldo advised: "If you have a son who does nothing good... deliver him at once into the hands of a merchant who will send him to another country. Or send him yourself to one of your close friends... Nothing else can be done. While he remains with you, he will not mend his ways."

Many adolescents were contractually obliged to behave. In 1396, a contract between a young apprentice named Thomas and a Northampton brazier called John Hyndlee was witnessed by the mayor. Hyndlee took on the formal role of guardian and promised to give Thomas food, teach him his craft and not punish him too severely for mistakes. For his part, Thomas promised not to leave without permission, steal, gamble, visit prostitutes or marry. If he broke the contract, the term of his apprenticeship would be doubled to 14 years.

A decade of celibacy was too much for many young men, and apprentices got a reputation for frequenting taverns and indulging in licentious behaviour. Perkyn, the protagonist of Chaucer's Cook's Tale, is an apprentice who is cast out after stealing from his master - he moves in with his friend and a prostitute. In 1517, the Mercers' guild complained that many of their apprentices "have greatly mysordered theymself", spending their masters' money on "harlotes... dyce, cardes and other unthrifty games".

In parts of Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia, a level of sexual contact between men and women in their late teens and early twenties was sanctioned. Although these traditions - known as "bundling" and "night courting" - were only described in the 19th Century, historians believe they date back to the Middle Ages. "The girl stays at home and a male of her age comes and meets her," says Colin Heywood from the University of Nottingham. "He's allowed to stay the night with her. He can even get into bed with her. But neither of them are allowed to take their clothes off - they're not allowed to do much beyond a bit of petting." Variants on the tradition required men to sleep on top of the bed coverings or the other side of a wooden board that was placed down the centre of the bed to separate the youngsters. It was not expected that this would necessarily lead to betrothal or marriage.

To some extent, young people policed their own sexuality. "If a girl gets a reputation of being rather too easy, then she will find something unpleasant left outside her house so that the whole village knows that she has a bad reputation," says Heywood. Young people also expressed their opinion of the moral conduct of elders, in traditions known as charivari or "rough music". If they disapproved of a marriage - perhaps because the husband beat his wife or was hen-pecked, or there was a big disparity in ages - the couple would be publicly shamed. A gang would parade around carrying effigies of their victims, banging pots and pans, blowing trumpets and possibly pulling the fur of cats to make them shriek (the German word is Katzenmusik).

In France, Germany and Switzerland young people banded together in abbayes de jeunesse - "abbeys of misrule" - electing a "King of Youth" each year. "They came to the fore at a time like carnival, when the whole world was turned upside down," says Heywood. Unsurprisingly, things sometimes got out of hand. Philippe Aries describes how in Avignon the young people literally held the town to ransom on carnival day, since they "had the privilege of thrashing Jews and whores unless a ransom was paid".

In London, the different guilds divided into tribes and engaged in violent disputes. In 1339, fishmongers were involved in a series of major street battles with goldsmiths. But ironically, the apprentices with the worst reputation for violence belonged to the legal profession. These boys of the Bench had independent means and did not live under the watch of their masters. In the 15th and 16th Centuries, apprentice riots in London became more common, with the mob targeting foreigners including the Flemish and Lombards. On May Day in 1517, the call to riot was shouted out - "Prentices and clubs!" - and a night of looting and violence followed that shocked Tudor England.

By this time, the city was swelling with apprentices, and the adult population was finding them more difficult to control, says Barbara Hanawalt. As early death from infectious disease became rarer the apprentices faced a long wait to take over from their masters. "You've got quite a number of young men who are in apprenticeships who have got no hope of getting a workshop and a business of their own," says Jeremy Goldberg. "You've got numbers of somewhat disillusioned and disenfranchised young men, who may be predisposed to challenging authority, because they have nothing invested in it."

How different were the young men and women of the Middle Ages from today's adolescents? It's hard to judge from the available information, says Goldberg.

But many parents of 21st Century teenagers will nod their heads in recognition at St Bede's Eighth Century youths, who were "lean (even though they eat heartily), swift-footed, bold, irritable and active". They might also shed a tear over a rare collection of letters from the 16th Century, written by members of the Behaim family of Nuremberg and documented by Stephen Ozment. Michael Behaim was apprenticed to a merchant in Milan at the age of 12. In the 1520s, he wrote to his mother complaining that he wasn't being taught anything about trade or markets but was being made to sweep the floor. Perhaps more troubling for his parents, he also wrote about his fears of catching the plague.

Another Behaim boy towards the end of the 16th Century wrote to his parents from school. Fourteen-year-old Friedrich moaned about the food, asked for goods to be sent to keep up appearances with his peers, and wondered who would do his laundry. His mother sent three shirts in a sack, with the warning that "they may still be a bit damp so you should hang them over a window for a while". Full of good advice, like mothers today, she added: "Use the sack for your dirty washing."

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What medieval Europe did with its teenagers

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Today, there's often a perception that Asian children are given a hard time by their parents. But a few hundred years ago northern Europe took a particularly harsh line, sending children away to live and work in someone else's home. Not surprisingly, the children didn't always like it.

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One of the better websites devoted to medieval towns.

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Medieval towns

Early medieval towns were quite small and there were probably only about 100 towns in medieval times, however as the medieval period moved towards the late and high medieval periods medieval towns started to expand as populations increased and people moved into medieval town's from the countryside, by far the biggest medieval town in England was the medieval town of London which had a population of around 8000 (now a city). Medieval towns were usually built within wooden walls and later stone walls that surrounded and protected the inhabitants of the town.

Early market traders | medieval towns

People from the countryside realised that they could sell food, products and goods easily in the new busy medieval towns and early entrepreneurs would take any surplus stock items they had to sell at medieval town markets, sometimes they did so well that they could afford to rent a property in the medieval town as well. Some medieval entrepreneurs moved to the medieval towns permanently to learn a trade or work for rich merchants. Many people from the countryside considered life to be much better in medieval towns because of the products and services that were available and there was also more varied and abundant jobs and entertainment.

Who created medieval towns

The medieval towns were mainly created by wealthy Barons/lords, these are the people that would have owned large plots of land that would have been given to them in return for services provided for the King under the medieval feudal system. The Lords soon realised that creating medieval towns was a very lucrative business, as not only could they charge high rents for the properties within the medieval towns but they could also collect a percentage of the profits that were made from goods and services that were sold in the medieval town markets.

Medieval town names

Many Towns derived their names from previous historic names such as London which had been named Londinium by the Romans and was the commercial centre of Roman Britain, other medieval towns that were newly created by Barons were either named after the person who had created the town, after some natural advantage that had been the deciding factor in creating the town such as a harbour, river crossing or crossroads where there was a busy flow of travellers or from other sources. You can find many of the original names of medieval towns included in what is called a manor court roll that can be found online.

London was the biggest town in medieval England (now classed as a city) this was mainly due to its strategic location and the fact that the Thames ran through Greater London meaning that ships with cargo aboard could easily travel to different parts of London. London's docks were busy with merchant ships arriving from all over the world with goods and produce, these were also distributed across the country to other smaller medieval towns. Small medieval towns often held special fairs once a year at special times such as Christmas and this also attracted traders from all parts of the country.

Medieval town rules and laws

During medieval times people in medieval towns saw a need to create rules and regulations on how their medieval town was governed, medieval towns created their own rules which led to each town having different standards, but they all tried to keep their medieval towns clean and tidy as to attract as many visitors as possible, the citizens of the medieval town would get together and write out the rules for the medieval town, some would form trade associations and Guilds to control the quality of goods and products produced, this created a standard for goods and trading within the medieval town system.

Medieval town halls and Mayors

Bigger and more complex medieval towns would also set up councils to help organise and run the medieval town and official positions such as mayor were created, market tolls were also introduced for medieval town markets and there were local law courts set up to deal with any crimes or disorder. Special teams could be set up to carry out any emergency repairs and building work in larger medieval towns. Some medieval towns also set up hospitals which were charity based to take care of the old and sick people within the medieval town, in conclusion it seemed to follow that the bigger the medieval town that the more structures of control were needed to run it efficiently.

Downsides of medieval towns

Because of their very nature medieval towns also attracted the rouge elements of medieval society, some people wanted to make a fast buck selling shoddy products and being dishonest with weights and measures of foods etc. There were plenty of the snake oil salesman types in medieval towns and medieval people needed to keep their wits about them. There was also the problem of overcrowding, general lack of hygiene and dangers such as fires, disease and violence which also made life unpleasant in some medieval towns.

Norman medieval towns

The Norman invasion in 1066 that led to Norman rule across medieval England and introduced the feudal system to England helped to create the conditions prevalent in mediaeval towns, the Norman rulers had plenty of good trading contacts throughout Europe and were able to bring in many luxurious products from different corners of the world which were sold in medieval towns, particularly from France, this attracted more people to medieval towns.

This also provided a platform in which craftsmen and merchants in English medieval towns could export their goods to other countries which allowed craftsmen to sell more products and helped them increase the size of their operations. It was William the conqueror the Norman ruler of England that realised there was a need to build up trade and wealth in England. English Christians at this time did not believe that they should profit from lending money, so Jewish merchants who were prepared to lend money were encouraged to settle in English medieval towns.

Medieval town layout

The medieval town was usually surrounded by a large stone wall with one main entrance in and out of the town, this kept the inhabitants of the town safe and helped people in the town monitor visitors. Craftsmen and merchants shops and houses were usually built around the inside of the walls and there was usually a church or other official building such as the town hall which could be located in the middle of the town square or around the sides. Market traders who did not permanently sell their goods in the town usually set up stalls in the centre of the town. You could usually find buildings such as a Town Hall, Look out tower, Inn, Cooper, Fishermen's hut, pigsty, forge, peasants houses and even witches huts in many medieval towns.

How guilds organised in medieval towns

Medieval craftsmen thought it was a good idea to set up shop in the medieval towns to cater for a larger population who also had more wealth to buy their goods. Bakers, carpenters, shoemakers and all types of craftsmen making clothes, ornaments and tools were present in medieval towns. Medieval craftsmen were usually part of a guild that basically proved that they had reached a level of mastery in their chosen field of work and had served an apprenticeship. Medieval craftsmen would have poles sticking out from their premises in medieval towns that had flags or signs dangling from them to show people the trade that they were in and the products or services they provided.

Medieval town Hall

Larger medieval towns would have a town hall, sometimes also called a Guildhall to provide a administrative base for the town, this is where all the rules and regulations were made and the concerns of medieval people could be considered and acted upon.

Medieval town facts

Medieval towns were created by wealthy Barons/lords

medieval towns were very small in comparison to today's towns

London was the biggest medieval town in England

London was a thriving shipping port in Europe

people from the countryside moved to medieval towns for a better standard of living

As medieval towns grew more products and services became available to medieval people

Craftsmen set-up shop in medieval towns and sold their products

Poles with flags and signs portrayed what products or services a shop sold in a medieval town

Medieval people believed that life was better in medieval towns than in the countryside

Medieval towns usually had surrounding wooden and later stone walls

Small medieval towns had special markets to attract visitors

The Norman conquest of England led to the creation of medieval towns under a feudal system

The Normans introduced exotic and luxury goods to medieval towns

Medieval towns could be dirty and unhygienic

Medieval towns could be crowded and dangerous

Snake oil salesman would often target medieval towns

Bigger medieval towns formed trade associations and Guilds

Some medieval towns had Mayors, councils and law courts

Some medieval towns had hospitals that cared for the sick and elderly

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Early medieval towns were quite small and there were probably only about 100 towns in medieval times, however as the medieval period moved towards the late and high medieval periods medieval towns started to expand as populations increased and people moved into medieval town's from the countryside, by far the biggest medieval town in England was the medieval town of London which had a population of around 8000 (now a city).

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A nice overview of what daily life was like in medieval English towns.

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A new class emerged during the Middle Ages; the merchant. The growth of trade and the merchant middle class went hand in hand with the growth in towns. Town populations swelled during this period, particularly after the Black Death. Trade routes grew, though roads remained poor and dangerous, so most goods were transported by water.

Towns were built on trade, and the elite of towns were the merchants. Merchant guilds controlled town government, though they often clashed with craft guilds for power. Merchants needed stability for trade, so they supported the king and the establishment of a strong central government against the rule of individual nobles. The king, for his part, encouraged the growth of towns and trade. Town charters became a major source of royal revenue. Eventually the growth of towns and guilds led to the breakdown of the manor-centred feudal society.

Merchant Guilds
Guilds controlled the trade in a town. Merchant guilds regulated prices, quality, weights and measures, and business practices. The power of the guilds was absolute in their domain, and to be expelled from a guild made it impossible to earn a living. Each guild had a patron saint, celebrated religious festivals together, put on religious plays, and looked after the health and welfare of the members and their families.

Craft Guilds
Separate from the merchant guilds were the craft guilds, which regulated the quality, working hours and conditions of its members. There were three levels of craftsmen; masters, journeymen, and apprentices. Parents paid a fee to place a boy with a master craftsman as an apprentice. There he received food, lodging (often sleeping under the counter in the shop itself), clothes, and instruction in the craft.

Apprentices, Journeymen, and Masters
The period of apprenticeship lasted for 2-7 years, after which time the apprentice became a journeyman. The term has nothing to do with traveling; it comes from the French "journee", (day), and meant that the journeyman was paid by the day for his work. After several years as a journeyman the craftsman would submit a piece of his best work to the guild for approval. If this "master-piece" was accepted he could become a master craftsman and own his own shop.

All townsmen were free, and this provided some incentive for serfs to run away to the towns. If they could remain there for a year and a day they were considered free and could not be compelled to return to the manor.

Before Edward I all repairs to streets were the responsibility of adjacent householders. After Edward's time town councils began to take over more responsibility. New roadways were often built directly on top of the old with little attempt to clear it away. Thus repairs never lasted long. There was also the possibility that a citizen would build his section higher than his neighbour. Because of this practice street levels rose and rose. In London the original Roman roads are buried up to 20 feet beneath the street level of today.

Roads were narrow, and tradesmen and householders were constantly encroaching on them. Traffic moved slowly, not least because tolls at the town gates were often paid in kind (that is, with goods rather than money), causing delays and long lineups.

Cleanliness
Sanitation was a constant concern. Open drain channels ran along the sides or down the centre of streets. Many stables opened out onto the streets and muck heaps encroached on passage. People often threw dirty water out of windows in the general direction of the drains. Dyers vats were particularly noxious when they were emptied into the street. Again the onus was on the individual householder to keep the space in front of his house relatively clean. In practice the only real incentive to do so was an outbreak of the plague or a visit of the King.

Livestock in the Streets
Pigs were another nuisance in the streets. Most people kept pigs. They were cheap, and a good source of food. However, houses were small and gardens even smaller, so pigs were often let out into the streets to forage. Stray pigs were such a nuisance that they were liable to be killed and the owner charged for the return of the dead animal.

Law Enforcement
Law and order in the town was enforced by the beadle or constables, who could call on citizens to form a night Watch. If a "hue and cry" was raised to chase a criminal all citizens had to join in or risk being fined. The penalty for the criminal was much higher. A thief found in possession of stolen goods was hanged.

If a fugitive managed to reach a church they could claim the right of sanctuary there for a period of 40 days. This meant that someone would have to stand watch outside the church for the entire time to ensure that the fugitive did not escape, a duty that no one wanted. Towns could even be fined if the felon escaped. At any one time in the Middle Ages it has been estimated that there were as many as 1000 people in sanctuary throughout England.

The Curfew Bell
Curfews were imposed in towns to keep the peace. Originally the "curfew bell" was rung at 8 or 9 o'clock in the evening to indicate that it was time for smiths, brewers, and taverners to cease their working day. It became the custom that anyone abroad after that had to carry a light and have a good excuse for being out. The carrying of weapons was carefully regulated, especially where foreigners were concerned. Nobility, as usual, were exempt from these regulations. There were also laws prohibiting the wearing of masks in the street; this after an attempt on the life of Henry IV by some nobles disguised as Christmas mummers.

Fire was the constant fear of town dwellers. Due to closely packed wooden houses and inadequate water supply, fires were difficult to control and could produce widespread damage. There were other factors that increased the risks of fire; Beds were of straw and were commonly kept close to open hearths for warmth. Roofs of reeds, rushes and straw were common. It was only after 1213 that these materials were forbidden in London in favour of tile and shingles. Other places were slow to follow London's lead.

Wooden and Brick Buildings
Although stone building was encouraged, expense meant that most houses were built of wood up until Tudor times. Then, the flourishing new brick industry and a rapidly falling timber supply swung the tide away from wood as the material of choice for most domestic building. Cooks, barbers, and brewers were heavily regulated because of the risk their fires posed. Their premises had to be whitewashed and plastered inside and out.

Each householder was required to keep a full vessel of water outside his door in summer, due to fire risk. When fires did occur it was every citizen's duty to come running with whatever equipment they had. Often firehooks were used to haul burning thatch off a roof, and also to pull down adjacent buildings to provide a firebreak.

The Town Day
The day officially began with the ringing of the Angelus bell at 4 or 5 o,clock. It announced the first mass of the day and the end of the night watchman's duty. Most shops opened at 6 AM, providing plenty of early morning shopping before the first meal of the day at 9 or 10 AM.

Market Hours
Morning was the active time for markets. Things quieted down after noon, and most shops closed at 3 o'clock. Some kept open until light faded, and others, such as the barbers and blacksmiths, were open until the curfew bell sounded. Foreign merchants were heavily regulated. They had to wait two or more hours before they could enter the market, giving the locals the best of the business.

Markets were noisy, raucous affairs. Merchants had to "cry the wares" as their only means of advertising, and some had to be fined for forcibly grabbing hold of passers-by in their enthusiasm to make a sale.

Saturday was early closing day for shops. Usually noon was the close of business. Sunday, however, the "Lord's day of rest", was not kept as restful as we might think. Some trades were allowed to work after Mass, and some field work was allowed to be done before it. A few places even had the privilege of Sunday markets.

Bells and Criers
Bells were the main medium of telling time and making announcements. A Common Bell was rung to summon civic meetings, courts, and as an alarm in case of fire or attack. The town crier rang a hand bell when he walked throughout the town declaiming news and proclamations. The criers were the main source of news for town dwellers. They also had the task of ringing their bells to solicit prayers in memory of people who had paid for the privilege.

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A new class emerged during the Middle Ages; the merchant. The growth of trade and the merchant middle class went hand in hand with the growth in towns. Town populations swelled during this period, particularly after the Black Death. Trade routes grew, though roads remained poor and dangerous, so most goods were transported by water.

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A website that goes into more detail than our text on the topic of guilds and the role they served in medieval society.

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An article on the role of women in medieval guilds!

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by Lady Magdelene Saunders

Under the Feudal System local landowners also owned their peasants, who were obliged to work for them for defined amounts of time and provide them with amounts of goods. Villages had agricultural workers and also some skilled craft workers who were exempted from farming duties in return for their craft services. Some estates had workshops, usually staffed by women, producing textiles for sale.

The Domesday Book, compiled after the Norman Conquest of England as a means of assessing tax, lists craftswomen in lots of different occupations under the Feudal System. All sorts of tools have been found in pre-Christian women's graves. The only major craft which seems to have been restricted to men only was Blacksmithing.

The towns developed in the medieval period as trading centres. They were independent of local Feudal lords. Town councils made their own laws and raised their own taxes. Under medieval law any peasant who reached a town and remained there for a year and a day without being claimed by his or her Feudal lord became free.

Not all the people living in a town would be citizens, there were procedures for applying for citizenship. Citizens had both rights and responsibilities within the town.

Within the towns Guilds would control particular businesses. Guild members had monopolies in their particular areas, and were controlled by Guild law as well as by town law. The main Guild structure was to have Masters, Journeymen and Apprentices to a trade.
Masters had the right to trade independently. Journeymen were trained in a craft, but inexperienced, and had not yet been granted the full trading rights. Apprentices were in training. A Master's household would consist of his family, apprentices, journeymen and various servants who also worked in the business.
A contract between master and apprentice included details of their obligations to each other. These might include the work and training required, punishments to which apprentices could be subject, as well as what food and accomodation was to be provided by the Master.

To become a full member of a Guild, a person had to have undertaken approved apprenticeship of several years. They also had to pay a membership fee to the Guild and providing a birth certificate to show that they were legitimate.

Guild members had to contribute to the guard duties and the defence of the town, either by turning out with the militia, or, alternatively by paying for someone else to do it for them. Members also had the right and obligation to take part in Guild meetings at which things like Guild laws were decided. Guilds might specify how many employees members could have, and when they could work.

Many medieval Guilds had women members. Some Guilds specifically excluded women, but most did not. There are records of women only Guilds in Paris and Cologne which dealt with the manufacture of silk and textiles.
Women who were independent Masters of crafts generally had same rights and obligations as men in the Guilds. Sometimes women had to meet additional conditions before being allowed to join a Guild, for example they might have to prove that they had a reputation for being chaste. Women members of some Guilds also had to abide by dress codes.

Some towns and Guilds allowed widows who did not have independent Guild membership could continue to use their husbands' Guild rights as "part members" provided they had a competant journeyman to do the craft work involved in their business.

The legal position of craftswomen and women traders in towns was complicated because of an assortment of marriage laws, some of which made women the property of their husbands, and gave husbands control of their wives' assets. Unmarried women might be under the guardianship of their fathers, and widows might be under the guardianship of their late husband's family. Women's right to inherit and to make independent wills also varied throughout the medieval period and throughout Europe.
Various towns made different laws concerning the position of women, their property and their inheritance rights.
A husband might be entitled to take all the property his wife brought into a marriage. In other cases he might become custodian of her property and administer it for her, but not be allowed to sell it without her permission. Most German law gave a widow the right to keep or sell her own clothes and jewelery. A lot of it also gave her the right to keep property which she had bought into a marriage. Usually, a childless widow had to share her deceased husband's assets with his relatives, unless he made a specific will in her favor. A widow might lose her share of any inheritance if she remarried.

Many town laws give women who are involved in separate trades to their husbands the right to be treated as if they were single women as far as their business affairs are concerned. In some places a dowry was the wife's property and could not be taken to settle the husband's debts.

In the second half of the 11th Century, Bishop Burchard II granted the right of succession to merchants' daughters. Kings of Navarre granted succession rights to daughters of all town inhabitants in 1212. Other laws allowed women to sign contracts relating to their husband's business.

Despite their status as independent traders, guild members, or even members of the town militia, women were still expected to defer to men. One woman was forced by a town council to apologise to a customer because she badgered him about his unpaid bills. There are also records of men being given authority to collect debts owed to business women on their behalf, because women were not able to go and insist on being paid themselves.

Here are a few examples of jobs done by women in the medieval period:
brewer, laundress, barrel and crate maker, soap boiler, candle maker, book binder, doll painter, butcher, keeper of town keys, tax collector, shepherd, musician, rope maker, banker, money lender, inn keeper, spice seller, pie seller, woad trader, wine merchant, steel merchant, copper importer, currency exchanger, pawn shop owner, lake and river fisherwoman, baker, oil presser, builder, mason, plasterer, cartwright, wood turner, clay and lime worker, glazier, ore miner, silver miner, book illuminator, scribe, teacher, office manager, clerk, court assessor, customs officer, porter, tower guard, prison caretaker, surgeon and midwife.

There are records of women traders in 1205 in Genoa, Italy. In fact, 21% of people involved in trade contracts there in the 13th Century were women. Women also provided 14% of capital in seafaring ventures at the time.
Even earlier, in the 12th Century, there are records of women traders in Georgia, Eastern Europe. Paris tax registers for 1292, 1300, 1313 list lots of craftswomen, many of whom were in different trades to their husbands. In 1397 in Cologne a butchers' charter grants men and women equal status in the trade. There are 14th and 15th Century records of several women clerks, including three clerks of courts in a parish in Nuremburg.

Towns and Guilds encouraged people to learn to read, write and do arithmetic. This was obviously useful in keeping business records. Girls might be educated at home, with private tutor, or at a Convent. There were also schools within towns.
In some cases girls were excluded from these, or only allowed to enter elementary schools. In other cases they were allowed to enter secondary schools and obtain a much broader education, including Latin and other languages. Some schools were mixed, others were single sex. Town Councils and the Church had some control over schools and over the appointment of teachers.
In 1388, a Jewish woman, Sarah of Gorlitz, donated a property to be used as a school for Jewish children.

Outside of the Guilds, women might be employed as unskilled labourers in vineyards, on building sites and so on. Many more women than men were employed because they could be paid less for doing the same work.
In Wurzburg, 1428-1449, for example, there are records of 323 female building site workers, paid 7.7 pfennings a day, and 13 male building site workers, paid 11.6 pfennings a day.

In general, it seems that a wide range of professions were open to medieval women, although they were also subject to a variety of restrictions.

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Under the Feudal System local landowners also owned their peasants, who were obliged to work for them for defined amounts of time and provide them with amounts of goods. Villages had agricultural workers and also some skilled craft workers who were exempted from farming duties in return for their craft services.

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Religious themes were popular

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One popular game in the Middle Ages was the classic board game about strategy!

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A representation of Medieval London

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Most cities had walls around them for protection during the Middle Ages

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Imagine narrow streets in front of these homes, and lots of traffic! People, animals and goods!

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the risks faced in everyday life are pretty intense!

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What were these walled cities like on a day to day basis?

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The rap artists and pop stars of their time!

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A different type of metal worker that had it's own craftsman guild

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This was definitely not the golden era of health care...

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Master craftsmen of the valuable

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A type of craft guild

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Hand-crafted metal armor

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One of the many guilds that could be found during the Middle Ages!

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Would you ever work a job where you didn't get paid if you were learning a very special skill?

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Check out this connection between guilds and modern  team logos!

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Check out this connection between guilds and modern  team logos!

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Who knew they had so much in common?

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The growth of commerce and trade creates the need for a new system.

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The economy bounces back, finally!

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Did each power have its own trade route, or did rival powers share the road?

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A common punishment for serious crimes.

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The image from TCI in color!

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Trade and Manufacturing during the Middle Ages

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Trade and Manufacturing during the Middle Ages

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Exactly what kinds of goods were Medieval people making?

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How did agriculture undergo a revolution?

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How did agriculture undergo a revolution?

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Big changes during the Middle Ages!

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What were the career options during the Middle Ages?

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Torture in the Middle Ages was serious business...

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Torture in the Middle Ages was serious business...

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You'll see what I mean!

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I really hope he doesn't get an itch on his back...

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I really hope he doesn't get an itch on his back...

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One of many punishments used during the Middle Ages, to the stocks with ye!

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None of these punishments look pleasant

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Take the challenge!

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How did they decide during the Middle Ages?

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What was it like during the Middle Ages?