Reddit reviews Life in a Medieval Village

Peasant was a very specific role played in a medieval village, though they were not always referred to by that title (title's the wrong word, since peasants weren't really given "titles", but you know what I'm saying.) In short, they were among the lowest classes of the very structured medieval fief system. Not all peasants were considered equal - some were more prestigious than others, either based on family history or their land's yield. Essentially, a peasant was a farmer, but it's more complicated than that. They did not own their own land (usually) and farmland was considered "communal" in that nobody "owned" it (the Lord really did) and everybody worked to keep the system going (for a while, for more information on why this system ended, see the Peasant Wars period in Britain and W. Europe). They were just above cotters, who subsisted in small cottages and lived on whatever they could grow in a tiny garden (this land was either undesirable to a liege lord, or gifted out of pity, or due to a family debt, or something similar). Peasants were workers, and were given land with the understanding that they could take enough food to survive, and pay the rest in tax. In exchange, they were offered protection from invasion and rival Lords, by their liege lord and his army.

We don't refer to people as peasants anymore because our economic system doesn't include this class of people. In modern capitalism, land can be bought and sold by any class of people, and land ownership is common. At least, in theory - I'm sure you could make the argument that banks have become the liege lord, because they hold the deed to your land while you pay your mortgage. In a sense, the middle class in America fulfills the role of peasants, because they pay out most of their wage in the form of bills, taxes, and loans. But, they standard of living for the middle and lower class in America is exponentially better than that of a medieval peasant.

For a good overview of the role of Peasants, Cotters, and liege Lords, read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Life-Medieval-Village-Frances-Gies/dp/0060920467

It wasn't all that dissimilar from many marriages today. Two people gathered together with their friends and families, which often constituted their entire village. They gathered at the medieval community center most often, which was usually the local church or chapel. The purpose of meeting here was not only to receive the blessing of God on their marriage, but also to announce their marriage in a public setting with reputable witnesses, of which any official member of the clergy was included. These witnesses legitimized the marriage in the eyes of God and the people, especially important before government records were regularly kept and customs were still largely oral.

Well known modern scholars on the subject are Frances and Joseph Gies, Life in a Medieval Village, here, or Marriage and Family in the Middle Ages, here. Barbara Hanawalt has one of the most respected books on medieval peasantry in the last generation called The Ties that Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England, here.

Finally, a duller look of medieval marriage according to canon law can be found in Gratian's Decretum here.

I hope this helps a little. Happy Reading!

Frances and Joesph Gies wrote a great series of books about life in the middle ages. Here's one of them.

This is great information about what every day life was like in Europe during the medieval era; incorporating some of it into fantasy can help build a better sense of verisimilitude.

Anyone interested in medieval peasant life should check out Life in a Medieval Village. It's actually really interesting to see how they lived and is backed up pretty well.

Life in a Medieval Village

https://www.amazon.ca/Life-Medieval-Village-Frances-Gies/dp/0060920467