# data[].attributes.headline
Adversity:  noun unfavorable condition or fate; a condition marked by misfortune, calamity, or distress. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Adversity:  noun unfavorable condition or fate; a condition marked by misfortune, calamity, or distress. 

# data[].attributes.body
Two trends are largely responsible for the rise of homelessness. One is the growing affordiblity. Another is Poverty.

# data[].attributes.body
Life is harder for the homeless because they have to defend off people because they might attack them and take their stuff but also the serfs had a hard because they had to pay for protection but they had a house unlike the homeless but the serfs house wasn't good because they had to share the house with a lot of other people and sometimes the animals that they farmed with and for the serfs most of the time the had to give the food to the people that protected and the knights.

# data[].attributes.body
homeless people have soup kitchens and serfs have house but they aren't the greatest

# data[].attributes.body
About a fifth of America’s 1.7 million homeless population suffer from untreated schizophrenia or manic depressive illness.

# data[].attributes.body
* Plague
*Travel
* Famine
* Child birth
* Child hood
* Weather
* Violence
* Heresy
* Hunting
* Sudden death

# data[].attributes.body
Serfs in the middle ages were generally peasant farmers who provided manual labor in their master’s land

# data[].attributes.body
The villagers were on a monotonous diet. meat was rare and a luxury and would usually be rabbit or pork. Rabbits were east to catch the villagers would have permission to use traps.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Homelessness and Mental Illness

There is madness in the streets.

About a fifth of America's 1.7 million homeless population suffer from untreated schizophrenia or manic depressive illness. That translates, if you can imagine it, to 385,000 individuals, roughly more than the population of cities such as Dayton, Des Moines, Ft. Lauderdale, Grand Rapids, Providence, Richmond, or Salt Lake City. And of that number, a percentage will wind up in prison.

[Tweet "About 1/5 of America's 1.7 million homeless suffer from untreated schizophrenia or manic depressive illness."]

The facts about homelessness get even worse when you break down the numbers. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, when you focus in on single adult homeless males, about 16 percent of them suffer from some form of severe and persistent mental illness.

Not surprisingly, mental illness often prolongs homelessness. Approximately 26 percent of homeless adults staying in shelters live with serious mental illness and an estimated 66 percent live with severe mental illness and/or substance use disorders.

At any given moment in time, there are many more people with untreated severe psychiatric illnesses living on America's streets than are receiving care in America's hospitals. To wit: approximately 90,000 individuals with schizophrenia or manic-depressive illness are in all hospitals receiving treatment for their disease.

Despite the disproportionate number of severely mentally ill people among the homeless population, most experts on the subject do not believe that increases in homelessness are attributable to the release of severely mentally ill people from institutions.

Indeed, most patients were released from mental hospitals in the 1950s and 1960s, yet vast increases in homelessness did not occur until the 1980s, when incomes and housing options for those living on the margins began to diminish rapidly. Most homeless persons with mental illness do not need to be institutionalized, but can live in the community with the appropriate supportive housing options. Problem is, many mentally ill homeless people cannot obtain access to supportive housing and/or other treatment services. And state and city budgets have been drastically cut, leaving the mentally ill, and other less fortunate, literally out in the streets. Some of those people turn to crime.

Mental Illness and Crime

Although prevalence rates vary considerably across studies, there is general agreement among researchers that the number of mentally ill individuals in jail is substantial, and that many of these individuals are arrested for minor crimes, particularly disorderly conduct. There is evidence that a large percentage of jailed individuals may also have been homeless at the time of arrest. The most striking finding was that nearly 21% were classified as homeless when they were arrested and 40 percent said they had been homeless at some time during the past few years. The researchers concluded that homelessness significantly increases the risk of indictment for violent criminal offenses among mentally disordered offenders (MDOs).

Problems associated with being homeless are compounded when homeless individuals also have a history of hospitalization for a mental disorder. Homeless persons with a history of prior hospitalization in a mental health facility also had greater involvement in criminal activities than homeless individuals with no such history. In New York City, researchers looked into what type of crimes are committed by the homeless.

[Tweet "Homelessness significantly increases the risk of indictment for violent criminal offenses among mentally disordered offenders"]

Homelessness and Crime

Once incarcerated, even stronger links between mental illness, homelessness and crime were found. Prison inmates who had been homeless (that is, those who reported an episode of homelessness anytime in the year before incarceration) made up 15.3 percent of the U.S. jail population, or 7.5 to 11.3 times the standardized estimate of 1.36 -to 2.03 percent in the general U.S. adult population. Compared to other inmates, those who were homeless were more likely to be currently incarcerated for a property crime, but they were also more likely to have past criminal justice system involvement for both nonviolent and violent offenses, to have mental health and substance abuse problems, to be less educated, and to be unemployed.
Study: Base-rate estimates of criminal behavior by homeless mentally ill persons in New York City by Martell, Rosner, and Harmon.
Homelessness and incarceration appear to increase the risk of each other, and these factors seem to be mediated by mental illness and substance abuse, as well as by disadvantageous socio-demographic characteristics. Criminal behavior appears to serve various functions among the homeless, and the homeless who engaged in illegal behavior can be classified as chronic criminals, supplemental criminals, criminals out of necessity, substance abusers, or the mentally ill. While the homeless as a whole engage in relatively high levels of illegal activity, for many, this is an adaptive response to dealing with severely limited resources.

Health Insurance and The Affordable Care Act

The links between homelessness, mental illness and crime could possibly be broken by the Affordable Care Act. For many of the homeless, it's the very lack of access to health insurance that leads to a constant struggle to survive. By not having health insurance, people who are homeless often forgo treatment for mental illness, substance use, chronic health conditions, acute care and injuries making it difficult to focus on the goal of finding housing.

Without health insurance, mental health and medical crises and ongoing related costs can lead a lower-income household down the path to homelessness and in some cases, criminal behavior. The Affordable Care Act could help in providing a safety net of needed services, insurance coverage plays a critical role in helping a person who is homeless access those services needed to regain stability - mental, physical, and residential. Linking people who are homeless to Medicaid - the health insurance program for lower - income Americans - has become an increasingly important federal priority, and might, in the long term, help decrease the number of criminal acts performed by homeless individuals.

Additional research sources:
http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/why.html
http://www.uniteforsight.org/mental-health/module2
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18245159

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Madness in the Streets: Mental Illness, Homelessness and Criminal Behavior

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There is madness in the streets. About a fifth of America's 1.7 million homeless population suffer from untreated schizophrenia or manic depressive illness. That translates, if you can imagine it, to 385,000 individuals, roughly more than the population of cities such as Dayton, Des Moines, Ft.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The National Coalition for the Homeless publishes fact sheets on various aspects of homelessness. Each sheet summarizes facts and issues and contains a list of recommended reading for further research.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The plague was one of the biggest killers of the Middle Ages - it had a devastating effect on the population of Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. Also known as the Black Death, the plague (caused by the bacterium called Yersinia pestis) was carried by fleas most often found on rats. It had arrived in Europe by 1348, and thousands died in places ranging from Italy, France and Germany to Scandinavia, England, Wales, Spain and Russia.

The deadly bubonic plague caused oozing swellings (buboes) all over the body. With the septicaemic plague, victims suffered from skin that was darkly discoloured (turning black) as a result of toxins in the bloodstream (one reason why the plague has subsequently been called the 'Black Death'). The extremely contagious pneumonic plague could be contracted by merely sneezing or spitting, and caused victims' lungs to fill up.

The Black Death killed between a third and half of the population of Europe. Contemporaries did not know, of course, what caused the plague or how to avoid catching it. They sought explanations for the crisis in God's anger, human sin, and outsider/marginal groups, especially Jews. If you were infected with the bubonic plague, you had a 70-80 per cent chance of dying within the next week. In England, out of every hundred people, perhaps 35-40 could expect to die from the plague.

As a result of the plague, life expectancy in late 14th-century Florence was just under 20 years - half of what it had been in 1300. From the mid-14th-century onwards, thousands of people from all across Europe - from London and Paris to Ghent, Mainz and Siena - died. A large number of those were children, who were the most vulnerable to the disease.

People in the medieval period faced a host of potential dangers when travelling.

A safe, clean place to sleep upon demand was difficult to find. Travellers often had to sleep out in the open - when travelling during the winter, they ran the risk of freezing to death. And while travelling in groups provided some safety, one still might be robbed or killed by strangers - or even one's fellow travellers.

Nor were food and drink provided unless the traveller had found an inn, monastery, or other lodging. Food poisoning was a risk even then, and if you ran out of food, you had to forage, steal, or go hungry.

Medieval travellers could also be caught up in local or regional disputes or warfare, and be injured or thrown into prison. Lack of knowledge of foreign tongues could also lead to problems of interpretation.

Illness and disease could also be dangerous, and even fatal. If one became unwell on the road, there was no guarantee that decent - or indeed any - medical treatment could be received.

Travellers might also fall victim to accident. For example, there was a risk of drowning when crossing rivers - even the Holy Roman emperor, Frederick I, drowned in 1190 when crossing the Saleph river during the Third Crusade. Accidents might also happen upon arrival: in Rome during the 1450 jubilee, disaster struck when some 200 people in the huge crowd crossing the great bridge of Sant' Angelo tumbled over the edge and drowned.

While it was faster to travel by sea than land, stepping onto a boat presented substantial risks: a storm could spell disaster, or navigation could go awry, and the medieval wooden ships used were not always equal to the challenges of the sea. However, by the later Middle Ages, sea travel was becoming faster and safer than ever before.

An average traveller in the medieval period could expect to cover 15-25 miles a day on foot or 20-30 on a horse, while sailing ships might make 75-125 miles a day.

Famine was a very real danger for medieval men and women. Faced with dwindling food supplies due to bad weather and poor harvests, people starved or barely survived on meagre rations like bark, berries and inferior corn and wheat damaged by mildew.

Those eating so little suffered malnutrition, and were therefore very vulnerable to disease. If they didn't starve to death, they often died as a result of the epidemics that followed famine. Illnesses like tuberculosis, sweating sickness, smallpox, dysentery, typhoid, influenza, mumps and gastrointestinal infections could and did kill.

The Great Famine of the early 14th century was particularly bad: climate change led to much colder than average temperatures in Europe from c1300 - the 'Little Ice Age'. In the seven years between 1315 and 1322, western Europe witnessed incredibly heavy rainfall, for up to 150 days at a time.

Farmers struggled to plant, grow and harvest crops. What meagre crops did grow were often mildewed, and/or terribly expensive. The main food staple, bread, was in peril as a result. This also came at the same time as brutally cold winter weather.

At least 10 per cent - perhaps close to 15 per cent - of people in England died during this period.

Today, with the benefits of ultrasound scans, epidurals and fetal monitoring, the risk for mother and baby during pregnancy and childbirth is at an all-time low. However, during the medieval period, giving birth was incredibly perilous.

Breech presentations of the baby during labour often proved fatal for both mother and child. Labour could go on for several days, and some women eventually died of exhaustion. While Caesarean sections were known, they were unusual other than when the mother of the baby was already dead or dying, and they were not necessarily successful.

Midwives, rather than trained doctors, usually attended pregnant women. They helped the mother-to-be during labour and, if needed, were able to perform emergency baptisms on babies in danger of dying. Most had received no formal training, but relied on practical experience gleaned from years of delivering babies.

New mothers might survive the labour, but could die from various postnatal infections and complications. Equipment was very basic, and manual intervention was common. Status was no barrier to these problems - even Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII, died soon after giving birth to the future Edward VI in 1537.

Infancy was particularly dangerous during the Middle Ages - mortality was terribly high. Based on surviving written records alone, scholars have estimated that 20-30 per cent of children under seven died, but the actual figure is almost certainly higher.

Infants and children under seven were particularly vulnerable to the effects of malnutrition, diseases, and various infections. They might die due to smallpox, whooping cough, accidents, measles, tuberculosis, influenza, bowel or stomach infections, and much more. The majority of those struck down by the plague were also children. Nor, with chronic malnutrition, did the breast milk of medieval mothers carry the same immunity and other benefits of breast milk today.

Being born into a family of wealth or status did not guarantee a long life either. We know that in ducal families in England between 1330 and 1479, for example, one third of children died before the age of five.

The vast majority of the medieval population was rural rather than urban, and the weather was of the utmost importance for those who worked or otherwise depended on the land. But as well as jeopardising livelihoods, bad weather could kill.

Consistently poor weather could lead to problems sowing and growing crops, and ultimately the failure of the harvest. If summers were wet and cold, the grain crop could be destroyed. This was a major problem, as cereal grains were the main food source for most of the population.

With less of this on hand, various problems would occur, including grain shortages, people eating inferior grain, and inflation, which resulted in hunger, starvation, disease, and higher death rates.

This was especially the case from the 14th through to the 16th centuries, when the ice pack grew. By 1550, there had been an expansion of glaciers worldwide. This meant people faced the devastating effects of weather that was both colder and wetter.

Medieval men and women were therefore eager to ensure that weather conditions stayed favourable. In Europe, there were rituals for ploughing, sowing seeds, and the harvesting of crops, as well as special prayers, charms, services, and processions to ensure good weather and the fertility of the fields. Certain saints were thought to protect against the frost (St Servais), have power over the wind (St Clement) or the rain and droughts (St Elias/Elijah) and generally the power of the saints and the Virgin Mary were believed to protect against storms and lightning.

People also believed the weather was not merely a natural occurrence. Bad weather could be caused by the behaviour of wicked people, like murder, sin, incest, or family quarrels. It could also be linked to witches and sorcerers, who were thought to control the weather and destroy crops. They could, according to one infamous treatise on witches - the Malleus Maleficarum, published in 1486 - fly in the air and conjure storms (including hailstorms and tempests), raise winds and cause lightning that could kill people and animals.

Whether as witnesses, victims or perpetrators, people from the highest ranks of society to the lowest experienced violence as an omnipresent danger in daily life.

Medieval violence took many forms. Street violence and brawls in taverns were not uncommon. Vassals might also revolt against their lords. Likewise, urban unrest also led to uprisings - for example, the lengthy rebellion of peasants in Flanders of 1323-28, or the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 in England.

Medieval records demonstrate the presence of other types of violence also: rape, assault and murder were not uncommon, nor was accidental homicide. One example is the case of Maud Fras, who was hit on the head and killed by a large stone accidentally dropped on her head at Montgomery Castle in Wales in 1288.

Blood feuds between families that extended over generations were very much evident. So was what we know today as domestic violence. Local or regional disputes over land, money or other issues could also lead to bloodshed, as could the exercise of justice. Innocence or guilt in trials were at times decided by combat ordeals (duels to the death). In medieval Wales, political or dynastic rivals might be blinded, killed or castrated by Welsh noblemen to consolidate their positions.

Killing and other acts of violence in warfare were also omnipresent, from smaller regional wars to larger-scale crusades from the end of the 11th century, fought by many countries at once. Death tolls in battle could be high: the deadliest clash of the Wars of the Roses, the battle of Towton (1461), claimed between 9,000 and 30,000 lives, according to contemporary reports.

It could also be dangerous to disagree. People who held theological or religious opinions that were believed to go against the teachings of the Christian church were seen as heretics in medieval Christian Europe. These groups included Jews, Muslims and medieval Christians whose beliefs were considered to be unorthodox, like the Cathars.

Kings, missionaries, crusaders, merchants and others - especially from the late 11th century - sought to ensure the victory of Christendom in the Mediterranean world. The First Crusade (1096-99) aimed to capture Jerusalem - and finally did so in 1099. Yet the city was soon lost, and further crusades had to be launched in a bid to regain it.

Jews and Muslims also suffered persecution, expulsion and death in Christian Europe. In England, anti-Semitism resulted in massacres of Jews in York and London in the late 12th century, and Edward I banished all Jews from England in 1290 - they were only permitted to return in the mid-1600s.

From the eighth century, efforts were also made to retake Iberia from Muslim rule, but it was not until 1492 that the entire peninsula was recaptured. This was part of an attempt in Spain to establish a united, single Christian faith and suppress heresy, which involved setting up the Spanish Inquisition in 1478. As a result, the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, and Muslims were only allowed to stay if they converted to Christianity.

Holy wars were also waged on Christians who were widely considered to be heretics. The Albigensian Crusade was directed at the Cathars (based chiefly in southern France) from 1209-29 - and massacres and more inquisitions and executions followed in the later 13th and 14th centuries.

Hunting was an important pastime for medieval royalty and the aristocracy, and skill in the sport was greatly admired. The emperor Charlemagne was recorded as greatly enjoying hunting in the early ninth century, and in England William the Conqueror sought to establish royal forests where he could indulge in his love of the hunt. But hunting was not without risks.

Hunters could easily be injured or killed by accidents. They might fall from their horse, be pierced by an arrow, be mauled by the horns of stags or tusks of boars, or attacked by bears.

Status certainly did not guarantee safety. Many examples exist of kings and nobles who met tragic ends as a result of hunting. The Byzantine emperor Basil I died in 886 after apparently having his belt impaled on the horns of a stag and being dragged more than 15 miles before being freed.

In 1100, King William II (William Rufus) was famously killed by an arrow in a supposed hunting accident in the New Forest. Likewise, in 1143, King Fulk of Jerusalem died in a hunting accident at Acre, when his horse stumbled and his head was crushed by his saddle.

Sudden or premature death was common in the medieval period. Most people died young, but death rates could vary based on factors like status, wealth, location (higher death rates are seen in urban settlements), and possibly gender. Adults died from various causes, including plague, tuberculosis, malnutrition, famine, warfare, sweating sickness and infections.

Wealth did not guarantee a long life. Surprisingly, well-fed monks did not necessarily live as long as some peasants. Peasants in the English manor of Halesowen might hope to reach the age of 50, but by contrast poor tenants in same manor could hope to live only about 40 years. Those of even lower status (cottagers) could live a mere 30 years.

By the second half of the 14th century, peasants there were living five to seven years longer than in the previous 50 years. However, the average life expectancy for ducal families in England between 1330 and 1479 generally was only 24 years for men and 33 for women. In Florence, laypeople in the late 1420s could expect to live only 28.5 years (men) and 29.5 years (women).

Dying a 'good' death was very important to medieval people, and was the subject of many books. People often worried about 'sudden death' (whether in battle, from natural causes, by execution, or an accident) and what would happen to those who died without time to prepare and receive the last rites. Written charms, for example, were thought to provide protection against sudden death - whether against death in battle, poison, lightning, fire, water, fever or other dangers.
Dr Katharine Olson is a lecturer in medieval and early modern history at Bangor University. She specialises in the religious, cultural, social, political and intellectual history of medieval and early modern Britain, Ireland, Europe and the Atlantic world, c1100-1750.
This article was first published by History Extra in May 2015

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It was one of the most exciting, turbulent and transformative eras in history, but the Middle Ages were also fraught with danger. Here, as part of our Medieval Week, historian Dr Katharine Olson reveals 10 of the biggest risks people faced...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Written by Simon Newman

Serfs in the middle ages were generally peasant farmers who provided manual labor in their master's land.

The peasants would pay the lord some dues (in the form of labor) in exchange for using part of the lord's land to generate their own food.

These farmers would work in the lands at least three times a week and sometimes longer during the plantation and harvest seasons.

The serf was bound to work in a single manor and his status as a serf was passed on to his children, who would then continue to work in that same estate, regardless of whether the land changed ownership.

Serfdom was introduced by the Roman Empire and most of the peasants in the Middle Ages were those who took over from their families who worked in Roman slavery.

In the Middle Ages, some freemen offered their freedom and labor to the lord in exchange for protection against the tides of war, diseases and poverty.

Nevertheless, serfdom was largely seen as an oppressive system that possessed characteristics of partial freedom and slavery.

Within the middle ages manor or village where the serfs lived and worked, there were further stratifications. The freemen did not owe labor to their lords but they paid rent in the form of agricultural products or money.

Other laborers included smallholders who would also rent very small pieces of land from the lord but they were not tied to the soil. At anytime these people would decide to become villeins and surrender most of their rights to the nobility or lords.

A villein or villain was the most common type of serf. Villeins had greater rights than the lower serfs. The lord allowed them to rent small houses but they would offer some of their time working in the lord's manor.

They would spend the remaining time working in their own lands. There were other variations of villeins especially in middle ages Europe.

There were half-villeins who had access to very small pieces of land for their use and they owed their lord complete labor. This would force them to serve in other serfs' pieces of land to compensate for the hardship.

Cottagers or small holders were lowers than the villeins because they only had access to small pieces of land, enough to feed a family. They were also not allowed to own horses or oxen while they lived within the enclosure of the manor.

Essentially the slave was his master's possession and could be exchanged like a commodity. The only difference between a slave and villein was that the villein was not traded and he would not be dispossessed of his belongings.

However, villeins were of a lower status that a freeman because the lord did not permit the villein serf to marry someone outside of the manor, or change homes or donate his property.

The only way that a vellein would become free would be to run way to the city or a borough. But this would incur harsh penalties including losing land rights, paying a high price or loss of livelihood.

Daily Life of Serfs

For purposes of safety and defense, the serfs lived close together in small villages around their master. Other than working in the lands, the serfs were also dedicated to the Church.

The church played an important role in their lives as the serfs looked up to the Church for additional assistance in difficult times.

The serfs generously offered their labor and produce to their local church and were particularly instrumental in maintain the overall fabric of the church.

The day-to-day life a serf was difficult. In addition to the labor that he provided the lord, he also paid extra taxes for using facilities in the manor such as the mill. However, the lord was cautious not to lose his tenants by imposing too many obligations on the serfs.

Besides working on the lord's demense, the serfs had limited access to non-arable land in the manor. The lord allowed them to graze their own cattle in the meadows and to cut some hay from there.

The serfs in the middle ages were also allowed to venture into the lord's forests to gather firewood for building and domestic purposes.

Serfs in the middle ages had some form of political rights and were allowed to form their own village courts, known as halimotes. They created regulations and codes of conduct to be adhered to by the village members.

Their laws pertained to every aspect of village life including intermarriages, working in the fields, the role of women, festivities and celebrations. The courts typically comprised of 12 representatives who had the responsibility of enforcing the manorial laws.

The Decline

The system of serfdom saw a series of changes that went a long way in emancipating the serf. The Black Death was one such occurrence that killed almost half of the population in England.

This plague left very few people who could work in the field.

There was a greater demand for serfs and this opportunity was ideal for serfs to re-bargain the agreements they had with their lords.

As such, most serfs became freer and were not tied to the lord's soil. Moreover, their serfdom was no longer something that their children inherited.

The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 also contributed to the decline of serfdom in England. By 1500 the system of serfdom had was in complete decline but was still legal. Queen Elizabeth I freed the serfs who were still tied to their lord's land.

A new system of copyhold tenancy emerged soon after this but was less restraining on the serfs as the earlier system. This system was however abolished in 1925. Other places that experienced peasant revolts were Sweden, Portugal, France and Germany.

Even though these revolts were usually successful, it was long before the countries changed the legal structures.

In places such as France, serfdom ceased by fact, when Philip IV, Louis X took over power in 1315. By the 15th century most of France was free of the system of serfdom even though it was still illegally practiced in a few areas across the country.

The nobles did continue to maintain privileges and rights over the freemen who worked in the nobles' lands. In France serfdom was officially over in 1798.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Serfs in the middle ages were generally peasant farmers who provided manual labor in their master's land. The peasants would pay the lord some dues (in the form of labor) in exchange for using part of the lord's land to generate their own food.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Lost Kingdom Fantasy Writing, Roleplaying and Worldbuilding Resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
During the middle ages (medieval times) the lives of villagers (serfs) were far from easy. Hard work and continuous effort - required to ensure the necessities of life - characterised most aspects of their existence.

Please note that by Villager we mean any serf, including villeins, bordars and cottagers, and exclude any Freeman who was farming land.

A villager's house

Construction
Villager homes (also known as cruck houses) were simple structures based on a wooden frame. The walls of the frame were panelled with wattle and daub and plastered with quick lime and earth, a process also referred to as whitewashing. The colour of the local soil gave the plaster vibrant white, yellow or red colour, depending on the minerals present. The roof was usually made out of straw, reeds and other dried vegetation, commonly referred to as a thatched roof. There were no panes of glass in the windows. Instead, wooden shutters were used, closed at night or during winter, and would have made the houses quite draughty. Although this draught would have lowered the overall temperature of the house, it would have provided much-needed ventilation to combat the high concentration of smoke from the fire, and the smells of both animals and people living in close quarters. The floors were of hard, compacted earth sometimes covered in straw for warmth. The materials made the building relatively easy to erect and to maintain, because the components were readily available and frequently free to obtain.

Setup
In most cases the house was not internally separated and thus consisted of one long room. In some instances the house would have been separated in two rooms and possibly also would have had a raised floor spanning about 1/3 of the structure, which would have been accessible by a wooden ladder. This floor was used mostly as living quarters, primarily inhabited by the younger members of the family, since it was considered safer.

Furnishings and Tools
In the middle of a peasant's hut was a fire used for cooking and heating. However, there was no chimney - the whole of the house would have been filled with smoke, which would slowly escape from the thatched roof. This would have kept pests (such as rats) and some parasites under control to a certain extent. Any furniture would have been very basic. Peasants sat on benches or stools, with chairs being considered more expensive, luxury items, only usually found in the manor house of the village. They would have a simple wooden table and chests for storing clothes and other valuables. Hooks were used to hang clothes and equipment around the house. The bed mattress was made out of straw and pillows were a luxury that peasants could not afford - it is theorised that logs were used to support their neck. Houses had no fresh water or a lavatory. A bucket was used and was emptied at the closest creek nearby in the morning. Food would have been cooked in a suspended cauldron on top of the hearth.

During summertime, the peasant's animals would also live with the family in the house during the night. During winter the animals would have stayed in the house throughout the day. This contributed to a fairly low hygiene but also kept the house warm. Animals were expensive property and vital for survival, and keeping them inside would have ensured their security overnight.

These houses mostly provided shelter for a whole family; that would have included the serf, his wife, their children and quite possibly the extended family. The average household would have numbered eight peasants.

During the late middle ages the house would also have had a well and an outhouse, and also a barn.

The surroundings of the house would have had a fenced area to keep the animals inside, and also a small garden for the serf to cultivate vegetables and some basic herbs for his family.

Clothing

The medieval serf's clothing was basic and practical. A medieval serf's clothing or dress consisted of:

A blouse of cloth or skin, fastened by a leather belt round the waist

An overcoat or mantle of thick woollen material, which fell from his shoulders to half-way down his legs

Shoes or large boots

Short, woollen trousers

A sheath for his knife, hanging from his belt

In cold weather or in rain he wore a woollen hat

Gloves were only worn for their practical clothing value and were padded for use in tasks such as hedging

Food

Peasants 'enjoyed' a rather monotonous diet. Meat was a rare luxury and would have usually been rabbit or pork; rabbits were easy to catch, provided the villagers had permission to use traps from the Lord of the manor. Pigs were the most standard meat animal and were usually slaughtered in the early winter, since feeding them throughout the lean winter was difficult and impractical. The bulk of a peasant's diet consisted of brown bread (coarse barley bread) and cheese, made using the milk of their goats, lambs and, less commonly, cows. They only had one cooked meal a day, 'pottage', which was a broth of grains, vegetables and possibly some meat or fish. During late summer and early autumn peasants would gather nuts and fruits, as well as acorns, to fatten up the pigs for slaughter during winter time.

During the middle ages, starvation was not an uncommon cause of death, especially during times of drought. Peasants lived hand-to-mouth and anything which depleted their already meagre supplies would have had a devastating effect on the household.

Hygiene

Despite recent dramatisations ( ahem Blackadder) the hygiene of peasants was not as bad as is commonly supposed. In fact, there is considerable evidence that most medieval people tried to keep themselves clean. The evidence also suggests that most people washed and changed their clothes quite frequently. They also tried to keep their houses clean. The idea that people were filthy and stinky is a myth.

The myth may have arisen because villagers rarely took baths. Before the 19th century it was difficult to heat a large amount of water in one go. Suppose you heated a cauldron of water and poured it into a tub. By the time you had heated a second lot of water, the first lot would already be cold.

The Romans solved this problem by having public baths, which could be heated from underneath. However, after the fall of Rome, it was much easier to have a strip wash. In hot weather people bathed in rivers. There is also evidence that villagers washed their clothes quite often.

Health manuals from the period note that it was important to get rid of dirt and grime. They also explained that it was important to keep the entire body clean. For example, the fourteenth-century writer Magninius Mediolanesis stated in his work Regimen sanitatis that "the bath cleans the external body parts of dirt left behind from exercise on the outside of the body".

Children & Education

During the 1330s, only 5% of the population of England had any sort of education. In fact some lords of the manor had laws against educating the serfs. Some manors allowed particularly bright children to attend grammar school if that was available in a town nearby. The lack of education was, perhaps, one of the most powerful tools that the nobles had for exerting control over the numerous serfs. The nobles of the land knew that their lack of education, combined with continuous, draining physical labour, was a very effective way to keep the populace subjugated and tame.

Farmland & Animals

Depending on his classification, a serf could have anything from one acre (1 to 5 acres for Bordars and Cottagers) to 30 acres (20 - 30 acres for Villeins).

An acre is defined as the land that a man behind one ox can plough in a day. One acre is 4840 square yards and would cover about half a full-size football (soccer) pitch.

Considering the fact that in order to make a living, a family needed about 10 acres, many of the villagers had to work on other serf's land in order to survive.

The lands of a villager were divided into strips, called selions or ridges, scattered within two of the three active fields of the manor; the third field was left uncultivated (fallow) every year to ensure the land's fertility. The strips in the first field would have been used to cultivate grains in order to pay their dues to the Lord of the Manor and the strips on the second field would have been used to grow barley and legumes for personal consumption.

In addition to their strips, each villager would have had a small vegetable garden close to his house to grow vegetables for his family.

Most of the villagers would not have been able to afford to have a team of oxen by themselves, which mostly meant that two villagers would have to team up in order to plough their fields.

In addition to an ox, which was of vital importance to all villagers, each family would also have had some geese, chickens (for eggs), goats (for milk), and lambs (for wool and milk). In some cases, a villager might have also owned cows and/or pigs. The amount of animals that a villager had depended on how many his family could afford to feed and support, and how many animals the Lord of the manor allowed to graze in the commons (pasture and meadow).

Taxation and Fees

As we've discussed, serfs were not land owners; they were using the land of their lord (not renting) in order to repay their hereditary debt to him. Most of the serfs hardly ever had coins and, for their transactions with their Lord, would have to pay by working for him and with items produced.

Each household had to pay two to three man-days per week in their Lord's service, doing anything the lord needed at the time, from cleaning the manor to taking care of the fields of the lord (ploughing, seeding etc). The amount of days was completely arbitrary and each lord could have requested more household members for more days. In times of high labour need, such as during harvest, this work tax was regularly increased.

The serfs had to use the manor's mill in order to grind their grain, and the manor's oven to bake their bread and for both those services the Lord would demand a portion as a fee.

During Easter, the serfs would offer the Lord an additional dozen eggs, and during Christmas the serf would offer a goose to his lord.

When the father of the household died, his son would have to pay a Feudal relief to the Lord as a reassurance of his fealty and in order to inherit the right to use the land. This, in most cases, was the best animal or the best part of the serf's bounty. If a freeman or a serf outside the manor wanted to marry one of the serf's daughters, her father had to pay a fee to the Lord.

Last but not least, a serf had to pay a food-rent to the Lord called feorm, which was essentially a significant part of his grain production.

A serf was able to pay a very heavy fee in order to purchase his freedom, or occasionally he could prove extraordinary valour in battle in order to have a chance to gain Freeman status. In some cases, serfs who gained their freedom by showing their valour were also ennobled.

Legal Status

Serfs were considered part of the land of the manor. They did not own the land they were living on or cultivating. Although serfs might have enjoyed some "freedoms" that slaves did not, for all intents and purposes serfdom was considered a form of hereditary ownership. A serf could not leave the land, but he could save enough money to repay his debt and buy his freedom if his Lord wished it.

Some serfs were able to escape and hide within cities; after a year and a day they could be recognised as freemen, but if they were found the penalty was a most cruel punishment, both for them and their whole family. Accounts of these punishments are violent, graphic and extraordinarily ostentatious - clearly these were intended to serve as examples to other would-be escapees.

Work & Holidays

Serfs worked for 6 days a week either on their fields or in the service of their Lord. Sundays were days of rest and prayer. In addition to Sundays, serfs did not work during holy days (holidays) which were usually accompanied by festivities, patronised by the Lord of the manor.

Common Tasks for Medieval Workers

January & February - work indoors repairing hunting nets, sharpening tools, making utensils - on mild days work outdoors to gather firewood, prune vines and mend fences.

March - work in the fields, ploughing and cultivating.

April - clean ditches, pruning trees, fixing sheds, hauling timber, and repairing roofs.

May - sheep cleaning and shearing, planting and field maintenance.

June - mowing hay crop and raking it into piles.

July - harvest grains, bundle sheaves, weed gardens.

August - threshing and winnowing of grains, grinding of grains into flour.

September - fruits picked and dried or stored, grapes picked and pressed for juice and wine.

October - gather nuts, roots, berries, and mushrooms, fields ploughed and empty fields sown with winter wheat, repairing and cleaning equipment.

November - firewood gathered, split, and stacked for themselves and the lord, pigs and cows slaughtered and meat smoked or salted, flex and hemp processed to make thread and rope.

December - trim trees, grape vines pruned, and hunting.

In conclusion

Most serfs had very hard lives and, in most cases, struggled to keep their families alive and well. Most of a serf's clothing was scented with smoke (due to the lack of a chimney), though contrary to popular opinion they had a good understanding of hygiene. Their everyday food was a very humble warm meal once a day and, in some rare occasions, meat was part of it. Most, if not all of the villagers, were uneducated. All villagers had to pay very harsh taxes, consisting of both manual labour and produce; these taxes were tailored to suppress the serfs and make it impossible for them to recover from their hereditary debt and gain their freedom.

Do you have any questions?

Please leave a comment! We will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have, or listen to your feedback. We have tonnes of research we cannot publish on each article (due to its size) and we are more than happy to share.

References

Serfdom, Wikipedia, 20 February 2015 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom

Everyday life in the Middle Ages by Tim Lambert, 20 February 2015: http://www.localhistories.org/middle.html

The Lifestyle of Medieval Peasants". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014, 20 February 2015 http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval_peasants.htm

Medieval Life - Housing, 20 February 2015, http://www.historyonthenet.com/medieval_life/houses.htm

Medieval Serfs, 20 February 2015, http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-life/medieval-serfs.htm

Peasant life in the middle ages, 20 February 2015, http://www.camelotintl.com/village/peasant.html

A brief history of baths and showers by Tim Lambert, 20 February 2015, http://www.localhistories.org/washing.html

Did people in the Middle Ages take baths?, 20 February 2015, http://www.medievalists.net/2013/04/13/did-people-in-the-middle-ages-take-baths/

About Dimitris Romeo Havlidis

My name is Dimitris Romeo. I am a dyslexic one-eyed, web architect, developer and designer with a passion for photography, User Experience and telling stories.I spend my free time taking photos, watching tv series, cooking and watering my plants.I love lemon tarts, audiobooks, top hats, fantasy and science fiction in all its forms.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The life of villagers and serfs during Medieval Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
During the middle ages (medieval times) the lives of villagers (serfs) were far from easy. Hard work and continuous effort - required to ensure the necessities of life - characterised most aspects of their existence. Please note that by Villager we mean any serf, including villeins, bordars and cottagers, and exclude any Freeman who was farming land.