CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. Introduction

II. The Ecology of Medieval Life: The Medieval

Diet

III. Disease and Demography

IV. The Rural Upper Classes

V. The Evolution of the Chivalric Ideal

VI. Medieval Society: The Village

VII. The Peasant Family

A. Marriage

B. Childhood, Old Age, and Death

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CHAPTER 11

MATERIAL AND SOCIAL LIFE

IN THE MIDDLE AGES

T

hough towns had become important, more

than 90 percent of all medieval Europeans

still lived in the countryside. Because society

was organized along rigidly hierarchical lines,

family and behavioral norms varied greatly according

to class (see tables 11.1 and 11.2). Peasants and their

feudal overlords, in effect, inhabited different worlds. In

some cases, they spoke different languages even though

they lived on the same land. A useful comparison be-

tween these two styles of life must take into considera-

tion not only their physical environments, but also the

impact of chivalric values on the feudal class and the

wide variety of social and economic strategies adopted

by peasants to ensure an often precarious survival.

The Ecology of Medieval Life:

The Medieval Diet

The material life of medieval Europe was not unlike

that of antiquity in several important respects and

would remain substantially unchanged until the in-

dustrial revolution. The biological regime established

by the Neolithic revolution remained in effect. Grain

remained the basic food. Wheat was preferred, but

millet, spelt, barley, oats, and rye were also staples,

especially among the poor. Ground into flour and

then baked as bread or served in the form of gruels

and porridges, grains were the staff of life and

provided most of the calories in the average

person’s diet.

Bread was commonly baked outside the home be-

cause medieval ovens were large brick affairs that con-

sumed great quantities of fuel. Several hours were

required to heat them to the proper temperature, and

economies of scale demanded that many loaves be

baked at the same time. Only the households of the

very rich, with their dozens of servants and retainers, re-

quired ovens of their own or could afford to dispense

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