Where the Middle Ages Begin
The recovery, however, proved to be too superficial for the continuing prosperity of either Gaul or the Western Roman Empire. The problems of the imperial government continued with little relief. The government still had to drive out and keep out the barbarians…
The archaeologically resolved theme of the medieval peasant house can be divided into three developmental areas, an understanding of which has various groundings, while yielding diverse results.
The first question, not yet raised in labour historiography, is about the impact of wage labour relations on gender equality.
The second question is related to the first one: what role did women play as protagonists of wage labour relations.
My paper will have two main goals. The first goal is to survey the historical evidence available for the study of real women who were affected by the war…The second goal will be to consider the theoretical implications of the representation of women in a discourse produced entirely by men.
In the period when agriculture dominated almost every aspect of daily life, the lords and wealthy peasants relied on paid labourers for farming business, yardlanders hired labourers to work with them, whilst moderate and landless villagers worked for hire. Agrarian wage labour is a window on the economy as well as on agricultural society.
The differences in the imposition of serfdom led to different economic and political effects for the peasantry in Europe. In Western Europe, wages rose, grain prices fell, and the consumption of meat, dairy products, and beer increased. More and more peasants moved into a widening “middle class” that could afford to buy manufactured goods.
For, to put the matter briefly, in the study of this as of so many other areas of mediaeval social and economic history, the question of freedom or liberty currently emerges as a problem of historiography, a paper curtain as it were, imposed by later centuries
The present paper will attempt to address these issues and outline the attitudes of the peasantry in regard to the potential of enclosing land and adopting convertible husbandry.
The most ordinary way to act during prayer was to stand with hands together, palm against palm, and to pray in the vernacular often using mental themes to enhance the devotion.
What were the causes and circumstances that led not only to the ebullient revolt in Southeast Europe, but also to ist relative success?
A reading of Malthus’s text reveals that his argument was essentially religious—violation of his “principle” of population was a violation of god’s will…
Although most historians would agree today that there is no authentic proof of the actual exercise of the custom in the Middle Ages, disagreements persist concerning the origin, meaning, and development of a widespread popular belief in this alleged “right” and the existence of symbolic gestures associated with it.
Since access to ancient documents was unobtainable, the information in this paper is based on the writings of twentieth century historians.
Female healers and the boundaries of medical practice in post-plague England Chamberland, Celeste M.A. Thesis, Concordia University, March, (1997) Abstract This study is an exploration of the unlicensed and semi-official medical activities of women in England from 1348 to 1500. The emphasis is placed on the diversity of women’s medical practice in both urban and rural […]
Feminine and masculine in the images of power. A study of the changes in visual political symbolism inSweden ca. 1350-1600 Berglund, Louise, PhD (Örebro University Sweden) Paper presented at the international conference: Creating women: Notions of femininity from 1350 to 1700, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria College, University of Toronto, 11-12 November, (2005) Abstract It […]
The Means of Agricultural Production: Muscle and Tools Bryer, Anthony The Economic History of Byzantium: From the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection Washington,D.C. (2002) Abstract The principal means of Byzantine production was the muscle of its peasants. The Byzantine state, its administration, defense, even patronage of its arts, eventually depended upon […]
The following essay is divided into three parts. The first presents a chronology of religious conversion and peasant history to roughly the year thousand. The second reflects on the methodological and conceptual issues raised by the evidence presented in the first part. The third then looks at peasant religion in Europe to the end of the Middle Ages.
I aim in this article to offer a defence of the study of gossip in medieval (and not only medieval) history.
![Credit: Wellcome Library, London Gynaecological texts, including information about conception, pregnancy and childbirth - Woman who died in childbirth on operating table, with doctor holding knife after delivering baby by Caesarean section, a nurse holding swaddled child Ink and Watercolour Circa 1420-30 From: MS 49, Apocalypse, (The), [etc.]. Apocalypsis S. Johannis cum glossis et Vita S. Johannis; Ars Moriendi, etc.; Anatomical, medical, texts, theological moral and allegorical 'exempla' and extracts, a few in verse.](http://www.medievalists.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/medieval-caesarean-section.jpg)
Of the more than 200 pieces of advice contained in The Distaff Gospels, a mid-15th-century Old French collection of women’s lore recently available for the first time in modern English, almost half concern aspects of health: pregnancy, predicting the sex of the foetus and ensuring the future wellbeing of the child, as well as practices to avoid sickness and cures for various ailments.
The first part of the podcast provides an overview of how a typical medieval economy worked, including the role of guilds, knights and peasants.
The excavations have exposed a very interesting series of building techniques and revealed that the medieval peasant houses at Wharram Percy were rebuilt about every generation suggesting that they were very flimsy structures.
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