14 Ch. 1 • Medieval Legacies and Transforming Discoveries

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: The Peasants Wedding (1568). On that special day, they

would probably eat as well as they ever would.

In contrast to the emergence of a free peasantry in the West, most peas­
ants in Eastern and Central Europe lost their freedom during the six­
teenth century, forced to become serfs as landowners sought to assure
themselves of a stable labor supply. This in itself was a sign that nobles
there were carving out territorial domination virtually independent from
that of kings and other rulers, as in Poland.
Many people were constantly on the move in Europe. Free peasants
moved toward the frontiers of Europe in search of land, which they brought
under cultivation. Peddlers, artisans, and agricultural laborers traveled great
distances in search of work. Shepherds led their sheep from the plains to
summer pastures at higher elevations, and then back down in the fall (trans­
humance). Hundreds of thousands of rural people also migrated seasonally
from the Pyrenees, Alps, and other mountainous regions to undertake con­
struction work in towns, or to follow the harvests. Roads were also full of
vagabonds and beggars.
Most poor families survived by eating bread and not much else. For
peasants, meat was something that lords and burghers ate, fruit was rare,
and vegetables were poor; rye bread, soup, and perhaps peas, cabbage, and
beans were the staples of the peasant’s diet, depending on the region. In
southern France, grain made from chestnuts served as the bread of the
poor. The Mediterranean lands produced olives and wine, as well as wheat.