One medieval life pathway that I’ve ignored so far is that of the peasant farmer. He hasn’t entered into our stories yet because his life had so few transitions from infancy to adulthood. He didn’t go to school or get formal training, nor did he join an organization. He just started going to work and kept on working.
The peasant typically had two types of field; his own, and the lord’s. The rent for his field strip was a work requirement to plow and sow the lord’s. Peasants did some of their work individually and some together, in particular when they yoked six or eight oxen to get all of the plowing done. They were usually organized to work certain days on the lord’s land, with their time free on other days. In addition to farm work, peasants owed the lord a certain number of days to help with roads, bridges, or walls.
It’s a myth that the lord slept with the bride on her wedding night; if that famous custom was ever practiced, it certainly was not widespread. But the peasant did have to pay a tax when he got married. Getting married was a sign of prosperity, and it also robbed the lord of a field or house servant when a girl became a wife. So to compensate the lord, the peasant paid some customary or negotiated fee of animals or grain.
Peasants spent their lives on the land, literally. As horses became more common in the 12th century, some could travel to the nearest town and back for market. They were free to sell whatever they produced on their own time and land, so some peasants got ahead. As towns grew, peasants began saving to buy a son’s freedom from service. With a fee paid to the lord, the son could go to town and find lodgings while he attended school and then apprenticed for a craft.
Peasants lived right on the edge of survival, mostly living on bean porridge. They suffered from bad weather; the end of the Medieval Warm Period was a curse to their lives as the Little Ice Age dropped the average winter temperatures while peasants still could not afford fur coats.