Feudalism

Feudalism

Everyday Life

• Nobles and peasants lived close to each other, and they had to work together on many tasks:
• growing food
• making clothes
• defending themselves.
• However, their lives were very different.
• The lives of men and women were also very different.

Noblemen

• Normal day:
• Nobles got up at dawn. They always had to be ready to fight, so they spent a lot of time practising using their weapons.
• They also had to manage their land.
• Leisure:
• Poets, musician, jesters and acrobats entertained the nobles in their free time.
• They also went hunting with falcons.

Noblemen

• Food:
• They ate lots of meat and fish.
• Boys:
• Boys lived with a knight from another family as a page (a kind of apprentice). They learned how to ride a horse and use weapons like swords and lances.

Noblewomen

• Marriage:
• Noblewomen had to marry and have children.
• Their parents arranged the marriage.
• They had to obey their husband.
• If they didn’t marry they became nuns.
• Normal day:
• They spent most of their time sewing and weaving.
• They also looked after the children and organised the servants.

Noblewomen

• Leisure:
• Noblewomen hardly ever went outside the castle.
• Girls:
• Girls were educated by their mothers.

Peasants men

• Normal day:
• Peasants worked in the fields from dawn to dusk (sunrise to sunset). In the summer, this meant getting up at 4 am.
• They made some of their own tools using wood, leather and cow horn.

Peasants men

• Leisure:
• Peasants had very little free time, but a few times a year there were fairs and festivals.
• Food:
• Peasants normally ate bread and vegetable soup. Nevertheless, they occasionally had rabbit or pork.

Peasant women

• Marriage:
• Serf women had to get permission from the nobleman to marry.
• They could only marry somebody from the same fief.

Peasants

• Normal day:
• Like the men, the peasant women worked in the fields.
• They also spent time cooking, looking after children, sewing and weaving.

1. Choose one of the four types of person we have seen before. Write a paragraph about what they did on a normal day. Was it easier or more difficult than your normal day? Was it more interesting?

Activities