Samuel Peterson’s Reviews > Life in a Medieval Village > Status Update

"It was a system that suited an age of low productivity and scarcity of markets, and one that hardly fostered the spirit of innovation. The lords were content to leave things as they were, the villeins had little power to change them. When change came, it came largely from outside..."

"Among the last guardians of the old communal traditions were the English colonists who settled in New England..."At least for a little while before that too became an archaic practice like in early 17th century England.

"The accumulation of tax levies (for the wars), the Statute of Laborers, and other burdens, afflictions, and irritants resulted in the Peasant Rebellion of 1381...the English revolt was part of a larger pattern. 'A chain of peasant uprising clearly directed against taxation exploded all over Europe.'" And there it is. When the ruling class presses too hard on the working class until there is nothing left to squeeze.

"Grain production on Ramsey manors was reduced by one half. In desperation, stewards and bailiffs strictly enforced work services on the surviving tenants, and sought to hold down the cost of labor...back by the threat of stocks. The main result they achieved was to stir resentment among both tenants and hired laborers." This sort of thing is done again and again and again when you demand more from less people.

"The Black Death, sweeping through England in the summer of 1349 via the rats that infested houses, barns, and sheds, left so many holdings vacant that it was impossible to collect rents or enforce services. The manorial accounts read like a dirge..." This would be common all throughout Europe during this period of the Black Death.

"Prison as punishment was virtually unknown to the Middle Ages. The Church courts dealt in penances and pilgrimages, the manor courts in fines, and the royal court in death penalties, abjuration, and outlawry. The outlaw could be captured or slain by anyone, and his goods confiscated." Interesting. Something to consider when watching period pieces or inspired works.

"Excluded were notorious offenders, traitors, heretics, sorcerers, clerics, perpetrators of felonies in church, criminals caught red-handed, and minor offenders in no danger of loss of life or limb." No Romani/gypsies, I see, like in Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I suppose like any law, it can be twisted by the accuser. Then again, this is English interpretation. We see other interpretations of this elsewhere.

"One popular technique for evading punishment was the claim of 'benefit of the clergy,' meaning that the accused was a cleric and could only be tried in Church court..." Ha! I think this is seen in some Hollywood productions.
"The same limitation applied to the other Church-related evasion of justice, the sanctuary. All consecrated buildings...were sanctuary, on a one-time basis, but not for everyone."

"Trial by combat was by now archaic, as was trial by ordeal (immersion in water or exposure to fire), condemned by the Church in 1215." Something to think about when you see historical pieces depicting this era (13th century), although I think that the latter would be lifted during the time of the Inquisition. They did a lot of that when it came to heretics and witches.

"In cases of accidental death, the object that caused the accident was adjudged the 'deodand' (gift to God) and was sold and the price given to the king—a Norman adaptation of an Anglo-Saxon custom of selling the deodand to buy prayers for the soul of the victim. The deodand might be a horse that threw its rider, the timber of a wall that collapsed,..." Royalty find all sorts of ways to get money from the peasants.