Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The middle English period
The development of social classes in medieval England affected life for the people in many positive ways. It served as a means of organization to base their daily lives off of, and also gave the peasants and trade classes protection from the rulers and the clergy class in return for their labor and allegiance (“Quizlet”). Life in the Middle Ages was based on the framework of social classes so they could flourish socially and economically. The British class structure was a configuration of five main classes. The King owned all the land and distributed portions of it to his nobles. He was part of the ruling class, along with the Pope and the rest of the royalty (Pattie). The Pope was the religious ruler and had power over the church and the whole town (Newman, “Clergy in the Middle Ages”). He was viewed as the human version of God, so he was extremely respected and the townspeople followed his advice and direction. Queens, princes, and princesses made up the rest of the ruling class (“People of the Middle Ages”). The King counted on the queen to support and encourage him, and also as someone he could trust with confidential information. The queen also was responsible for hosting town events and social gatherings. Princes were next in line to be King, and princesses were forced to marry a prince of her parents’ choice (Newman, “Social Classes”). The class below the rulers was the clergy class. This class consisted of the Pope, bishops, priests, monks, and nuns (Newman, “Clergy in the Middle Ages). The church backed up the system of the social classes. Bishops were leaders of the church who also held wedding ceremonies, and dealt with conflicts between the people (“Middle Ages: The Medieval Social Classes”). They were under the ... ... middle of paper ... ...le Ages: The Medieval Social Classes." ThinkQuest. Oracle Foundation, 1997. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. "The Middle Class." The Middle Class. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. Newman, Simon. "Clergy in the Middle Ages." The Finer Times: War, Crime and History Resource. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. Newman, Simon. "Social Classes in the Middle Ages." The Finer Times: War, Crime and History Resource. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. Pattie, Tammy. "Medieval People." Lscacamp.org. N.p., 2011. Web. "People of the Middle Ages." The Middle Ages. N.p., 2011. Web. 08 Dec. 2013. "Quizlet." Middle Ages: Development of Feudalism-Essential Questions Flashcards. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. Schwartz, Debora. "The Three Estates." The Three Estates. N.p., 2009. Web. 07 Dec. 2013. Trueman. "The Lifestyle of Medieval Peasants." The Lifestyle of Medieval Peasants. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
Life during the middle ages (1066-1485) was dictated by how much money you had. Were you a noble? Or were you a peasant. Your quality of life was in direct proportion to your status. Lords of the Noble class ruled territories, also known as villages. These villages mainly consisted of one room houses, with maybe a church and a blacksmith shop. Peasants or serfs lived in these villages and worked under said Lord. Daily life was all about survival. The days were spent planting and growing food, harvesting the crop, sewing clothes, and making any supplies that were needed to survive. Trading between different villages was something that was only done as a last resort. People in each village worked together to make their own village successful. Life also depended on what kind of Lord you had. If he was a fair Lord, they were treated reasonably well, and didn’t suffer. As long as the crop was good, they would have plenty to eat, and work was shared equally. If he was an unjust Lord the villagers were subject to his whims. If he demanded money or product from them they must give it, whether it would hurt their own survival or not. Likewise, if he was a Lord that liked to pick fights with neighboring Lords, the villagers would be subject to pillage and plunder by the other Lords that were trying to get back at their particular Lord. Any revenge sought out against a Lord by another Lord would mean that the people of said Lord’s village paid the price. Crops would be destroyed, houses burned and sometimes the villagers were killed. This was known as the Feudal System. The Feudal System was based on the rights of the Nobles, not the serfs. Nobles had preferred seating in the churches, and special hunting privileges. They h...
Web. The Web. The Web. 13 Nov. 2013. Bartlett, Bruce.
...g the aristocrats, the middle class being the businessmen and the lower class being mostly the poor farmers. Also the colonies had a very distinct system of the social class, starting with the aristocrats, lesser professional men, farmers, hired hands, indentured servants, jailbird and slaves. These slaves had no equality with the whites and whites often feared their rebellion. The slaves were the closest to Europe's lower classes. But compared with contemporary Europe America of the 1700's was a place of equality and opportunity except for slavery.
If you have ever read the book 1984 by George Orwell, then an interesting topic may have crossed your mind. The way the classes of people break down can be quite similar, and very different at times. In the United States, we have classes like the lower class, the working class, and the middle class. In 1984, there were such classes as the Proles, the Outer Party, and the Inner Party. The way the classes are broken down in 1984 reminds me a little bit of my old history class. When I studied medieval times and the classes back then were broken down into the nobles, the bourgeois, and the serfs.
The upper echelons belonged to the aristocracy whose positions were granted them by birth and within this group there was a hierarchical system. The king was at the top of the hierarchy and the gentry at the bottom. Wood describes the gentlemen of the gentry as a help to the commoners. These men lent money to those of lower social standing and also purchased goods from them as well as acted as their representatives to the higher social structures. In turn the commoners paid allegiance to the gentlemen through conscription and political support.
Through the Middle Ages, society was divided into three social classes: the clergy, the nobles, and the peasants. However, as people entered into the Renaissance, these classes changed. The nobles during these times started to lose a lot of income, however, the members of the older nobility kept their lands and titles. On into the Renaissance, the nobles came back to dominate society and w...
All throughout history and even in modern day countries have been structured by a social class system, however sometimes terrible disasters can set off this social balance. The Black Death was an appalling pandemic that swept through Europe killing thousands of medieval Europeans. Feudalism was a social system based on each level giving and getting products and services to keep the medieval society and it’s people alive. All classes during the Black Plague were affected, noble or serf, this caused a monumental power shift and the social classes never to be the same again. With feudalism’s tight social structure, the Black Death in the late 1300s demolished the population and feudal ties in medieval Europe.
IT WASN’T EASY LIVING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. In the middle ages 400 AD thru 1300 AD, there was a system call the hierarchy. The hierarchy was the feudalism system that was based on mutual obligations.The highest person in the royalty system would be the king, the king has all power and control over everyone. The next in the hierarchy would be the clergy, the clergy is filled with Popes, bishops, archdeacons, abbot, priors, deans, priests, and monk. You wouldn’t think their would be any other people under the monks, but they were. After the monks there were friars, clerics, vicars, barber surgeons, chaplains, confessors, scribes, and culdees. The people on the bottom of the hierarchy were the system of peasantry. Some peasants had more rights than others such as, the vallien was the wealthy class of peasants. Serfs and commoner lived in small communities, they couldn't leave or marry without their lord's permission. Next in line came the smallholder, they were the middle class peasants who farmed more than a cottager, but less land than a vallien. Some people owned the farms and worked on it. In the middle ages there were women and men who practiced being trappist. People chose to give their life to the churches because they found it a more appealing way to get closer to God. For the women, they gave up everything to become a nun because they weren’t able to be educated. Once the women became nuns they were able to learn how to read and write. As for men, they became monks because they were being offered a peaceful quiet place to escape from the violence in the world and get more close to their god. Women and men in the middle ages preferred to devote their lives to churches, because they found it a better lifestyle.
The Web. The Web. 23 Nov. 2011. The "Middle Ages - Information, Facts, and Links." ENotes - Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans.
The social classes consisted of the upper class, which included aristocrats and wealthy landowners, the middle class, which was made up of traders, public workers, shop owners, and members of the social work force. Finally, the lower class consisted of farmers and slaves. The differences between each class were quite noticeable, and the reason behind this was the way that the government regulated the flow of the money (Lemann). The upper class, which held most of the power, greatly influenced the creation of laws and the collection of taxes. This led to excessive taxes for the middle and lower class, which then went to the “government” or the upper class. Consecutively, the upper class paid little to no taxes, allowing their wealth to greatly increase (Thacker). Hence, while the middle and lower classes kept on losing money and becoming poorer, the upper class gained more money and exponentially increased their
In simple terms class is the status reached by an individual 's amount of economic assets. In every society people are organized based on their self prestige, self esteem, power to change their surroundings and influence on others (an
Classes were dominated by feudalism. Most of the time, feudalism was defined as a social system that existed in Europe during the Middle Ages. People worked and fought for Nobles who gave them protection as well as the granting of land in return (Merriam Webster). The classes of the Middle Ages were set at birth, and there was no way to escape a certain class other than marriage. Jobs and occupations dictated the quality in life. As a result, clothing played a big part in forming the definition of who a person was in society (Life in the Middle Ages).
Women and men who lived in England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century were categorized into different social classes. Clearly, these ranks and statuses played a significant role for people during this time period because it determined their eligibilities of countless things such as marriage. Having said that, the most superior women and men received precedence for they lived a much wealthier life.
society. That was the class just under the knights and the nobility to which the
The lifestyles of this wealthy class, called the nouveau riche and who emerged in 1783, were considered lavish. Though they weren’t apart of the English aristocracy, they were able to live comfortable lives like them. This new class was able to emerge because of the influx of immigration into the rapidly forming cities; people were in search of employment. As these people arrived to the newly formed cities, factory owners obtaianed a larger labor force that would work for them. Nevertheless, they would continue to pay workers fixed wages and make large profits (Manolopoulou and Eagleton 3). Despite this change of social stratification in England, the society remained patriarchal. For marriage to occur, a woman had to either bring land into marriage or pay a dowry. In addition, any land or property inherited by women had to be passed on to her husband. Furthermore, patriarchal forces were reinforced since women were still restricted to the same low-status, low-paid, and low-skilled jobs they always had. A reason for this continuity was the decrease of employment opportunities given to women during the industrial revolution (Chalus and Barker 82). The dominance of men at the end of this time period was still