You also know that there are other people, mean
people, who live on the hill right next to yours.
You have never actually seen these people, but you
have heard about them. You have heard that the people who live on the
other hill burn down houses just for the fun of it. They would burn down
yours if they knew where you lived.
You are really afraid of the people who live on the
other side of the hill. You do not want to travel past them. Instead,
you stay home where things are pleasant. You make your own shoes. You
bake your own bread. You live among people you have known all your life.
You never travel anywhere because to do so you would have to pass the
mean people who live on the other side of the hill, and that would be
too scary.
One person in your community is the leader. He is a
warrior. He has weapons. You did not know this person all your life. He
is not from your community. He showed up one day with some men with
weapons. Pretty soon, he had taken on the job of protecting all the
people on your hill. He promised that if trouble came, if the mean
people who lived on the other side of the hill came and tried to burn
down your house, he would protect you. You believe him. He has weapons.
He knows other people with weapons. You agree that if he will protect
you, you and all the other good people who live on your hill will
promise to work together to grow the crops, tend the livestock, bake the
bread, sew the clothes, make the tools, and do the work. That is your
job.
In Medieval Europe, that's what the common people
believed for a very long time. They lived on their hill or in their
valley. They never went anywhere. They made everything they used. They
grew all their food. They worked very hard and gave a great deal of what
they produced to the lord of the manor. In exchange, the lord of the
manor, who lived in the best house and did none of the work, promised to
protect them. In these violent times, that was a really important
promise. The people did not believe the lord would live very long
anyway, going off to war all the time they way he did, but better him
than them.
This was called the Manorial System. It was the
smallest unit of feudal government.
Although this sounds as if peasants in the Middle
Ages were very foolish to believe such tales, they weren't all foolish
tales. Not all the people were mean, of course, but these were extremely
violent times.
Explore
Commoners
- Serfs and Peasants
Nobles
Life
on the Manor
Feudalism
- Feudal Government
Glimpses
of Medieval Life
(illuminated pages, interactive, audio)
Free
Presentations in PowerPoint format
Free
Online Games for the Middle Ages
Free
Clip Art
Middle
Ages for Teachers
Return
to The Middle Ages for Kids