The English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
Life for the revolutionary peasants was structured by feudal ties and obligations. The villein was tied to the soil until he could buy his freedom. He lived in a wattle and daub hut with his family and animals on a floor of mud. Work began at dawn on his few (often separated) strips of land; he was obligated to work on his lord’s land three days a week, tend and shear his sheep, feed his swine, and sow and reap his crops.
The Trends Toward Serfdom in Mediaeval England
The bald theory of progressive subjection during Anglo-Saxon times does not appear possible of definition; and even as a hypothesis, it would seem inadequate.
Peasant Society as Revealed by a Thirteenth-Century Manorial Extent
Peasant Society as Revealed by a Thirteenth-Century Manorial Extent By Donald R. Abbott Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Vol. 11…
The Prudent Village: Risk Pooling Institutions in Medieval English Agriculture
The prudent peasant chose to scatter his farm fields to protect himself and his family from idiosyncratic agricultural shocks because better alternatives did not exist. Peasants had no better way of protecting themselves from idiosyncratic agricultural shocks.
The Mind’s Eye: Reconstructing the Historian’s Semantic Matrix Through Henry Knighton’s Account of the Peasants’ Revolt, 1381
The Mind’s Eye: Reconstructing the Historian’s Semantic Matrix Through Henry Knighton’s Account of the Peasants’ Revolt, 1381 Sarah Marilyn Steeves Keeshan Master of Arts,…
Risk, Asset Markets and Inequality: Evidence from Medieval England
During the 12th and 13th centuries the English peasantry experienced large increases in poverty and inequality.
Lords Ask, Peasants Answer: Making Traditions in Late Medieval German Village Assemblies
The lord summoned the assembly on traditional dates, often three times a year. On the evening prior to the assembly the lord arrived at the village and received food and lodging from the peasants.
Crusaders in Crisis: Towards the Re-assessment of the Origins and Nature of the “People’s Crusade” of 1095-1096
In his Historia Ierosolymitana, completed within one generation of the First Crusade, Albert of Aachen tells a curious story about some rustics, guided by divinely inspired goose and a she-goat to take the holy path to Jerusalem.
Technological Change in Medieval England: A Critique of the Neo-Malthusian Argument
The last two sections will address this issue by dividing the material into two periods preceding and following the great epidemic. The interpretation that will be provided is heavily indebted to Brenner.
The Gallic Aristocracy and the Roman Imperial government in the fifth century A.D.
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 medieval peasant house in Bohemia – continuity and change
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.
Gender Equality in Wage Labour Relations: the example of statutory regulation in late medieval and early Tudor England
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.
The Women of the Wars of Independence in Literature and History
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.
Labor Markets After the Black Death: Landlord Collusion and the Imposition of Serfdom in Eastern Europe and the Middle East
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.
Peasant Mobility and Freedom in Mediaeval England
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 cost of enclosure and the benefits of convertible husbandry among peasant holdings in medieval England
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.
Prayer in Peasant Communities: Ideals and Practices of Prayer in the Late Medieval Ecclesiastical Province of Uppsala, Sweden
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.
A Hotbed for Dissidence: Southeast England in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
What were the causes and circumstances that led not only to the ebullient revolt in Southeast Europe, but also to ist relative success?
Famine for Profit: Food Surpluses in Medieval Germany
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…