Day to Day Life During the Middle Ages

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Recommended: Chapter 14 the high middle ages

Modern day culture glorifies the Medieval moments of heroism and thrill of knights fighting in battle, promiscuous love affairs between royalty and commoner and adventure to grand discovery. However, no one focuses on the hardships of the average community in the Middle Ages. Medical care was scarce due to the lack of knowledge, therefor each day was lived in hopes of surviving another year. Day to day life revolved around a very structured calendar, based on agricultural activities and tasks. Most days were spent working in the fields, often to produce food for an upcoming Church hosted event. A sense of community was cherished amongst citizens, and social events were nearly mandatory to attend. They would included activities such as fairs, tournaments, games and weddings that the entire town was expected to join. Chivalry was a vital part of knighthood to inspire the followers and impose control. Because there was no democracy and only a feudal system, law was extremely difficult to enforce and many revolted quite frequently. The life of an average civilian was harshly spent working to survive, despite their engrained sense of pleasure and socialization within communities.
During the early Middle Ages, farming was the primary occupation of the quintessential citizen’s day. A system called two-field rotation became popular amongst farmers, which was a more efficient way of surviving in an agrarian dominated society. As one crop was being manipulated and used for product development, the other was left unplowed for animal grazing and nutrient production. Later on the three field rotation system was created which allowed even more variety and an increased income of product within a limited amount of time. Most peasants worked on ...

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...ies, the Middle Ages was a time of powerthirst and desperation to evolve agriculturally, economically and socially. It was controlled by government officials who had direct affiliation with the Church themselves, thus causing Christianity and Catholicism to lose integrity and misuse the faith of their followers. This chain of association influenced the road to an elitist society, causing ingrained segregation and discrimination amongst average communities. The extensive list of corruption and flaws within the larger picture was influential to the methods of survival for those who lived simply through hardships. Despite the negativity, the Middle Ages was still full of thrill and mindless joy. Without the celebrations, sense pleasure, faith and beauty amongst the people, survival would have become needless and we would not be nearly as developed as we are to this day.

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