• Royalty• Clergy

– 1% of population• Nobility

– 1 % of population– rural

• Everyone else– Bourgeoisie• ~10-15% of population

(but growing)• urban

– Peasants • ~85-90% of population• rural

• urban class traders, merchants, bankers, artisans: name comes from “town dweller” (like Burger)

• Product of guild system of middle ages

• Have money• Increasing

urbanization means their place in society continues to rise

• Peasantry ~85-90% of the population

• Sustenance farmers but have own land

• Can also lease lands from rural nobility

• Can have servants

Household is basic unit, with Male at head

Usually live in a small stone/wood house with thatched roof

Close physical contact with animals

Superstitious Primogeniture

Amount of land

Amount of animals

Size of Dung heap

Trade skill

• Male: Outside– Sowing crops– Maintaining crops– Maintaining animals– Harvesting crops

• Female: Inside– Children– Cooking– Cleaning– Animal maintenance

that deals with cooking

• Marriage key to success – start later in W. Europe than East– Usually in early twenties– Accrue enough to support

family– Why widows headed

households frequently the poorest

– Common wedding first, then Church Wedding

• Children– Only 6-7 babies, usually only

2-4 live to adulthood– 6-7% chance of women die in

childbirth– Average life expectancy 30-

32. – Brought down by 40-50%

mortality rate in children

• Village is the center of Rural life

• Larger villages may have a tradesman – blacksmith especially

• Church• Village assembly

– In many ways ran day to day business of the village

– In E. Europe, have even more control.

• Life with lord– Usually rent land from

lord – tenet farmers – but can bequeath their rights to anyone, and can grow anything – rent

• Increased trade and urbanization leads to increase in price of grain

• Those that have decent amount of land to begin with, have more opportunities, more successful

• Those with less continue to get less and less– buy grain, sell labor when

price of grain goes up and price of labor goes down

– increased poverty, malnutrition, etc

– Interestingly, this happens less in E. Europe!

1550-1750 age of global cooling

Very cold winters “We are terrified of

the glaciers” This happens as

peasants living more and more off of grain Peasant life West/East Plague – sweeps

Europe again, killing 5% of France’s population between 1628-1632

Vernacular bible

Increased focus on education

Increased poor relief

Marriage – have to be married in the church

Married couple is to be model of order and respectability – microcosm of the church› Women can seek

divorce › But much more

ordered role in life