Settlements

F

Population Sizes

Type	Population
Hamlet	50-100
Village	100-500
Town	500-5000
City???	5000+

Hamlet

Village

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Typical Crafts/Tradesmen and their Shops

Job Title?	Description	Establishment

Occupations

Baker

Bakes bread for sale and charges a fee for others to use the oven. The price of bread is strictly regulated to ensure even the poorest can afford a loaf.

Barber

Cuts, grooms, and shaves hair of the head and face, performs surgeries, and extracts teeth. Barbers operate under a guild-system.

Butcher

Slaughters livestock, dresses their carcasses, prepares and then sells cuts and sausages. Livestock is usually slaughtered in the open-air, far from the city-centre due to the smell. Butchers operate under a guild-system.

Cartwright

TBA

Carpenter

TBA

Cobbler

Repairs shoes, not to be confused with a cordwainer (see below) who manufactures shoes. Indeed, cobblers are often prohibited from making shoes by law. Crafty cobblers might attempt to circumvent such prohibitions by making cheap shoes from salvaged leather. Cobblers operate under a guild-system.

Cordwainer

Makes new shoes from new leather. Cordwainers operate under a guild-system, and jealously guard their craft against enterprising cobblers.

Glazier

TBA

Locksmith

Manufactures, repairs, and replaces locks, and can pick locks as well should need arise (apprentice 25%, journeyman 50%, master 75% chance). Locksmiths operation under a guild-system.

Printer

Operates a printing-press for the purpose of publishing and distributing books, broadsides, and other texts.

Smith, Black-

TBA

Smith, Copper-

TBA

Smith, Gold-

TBA

Smith, Silver-

TBA

Smith, Tin-

TBA

Feudal and manorial system A landowner inherited a the right to occupy and use a certain allottment of land--the landholding--under certain terms. Theoretically, all land actually belong to the monarch and was passed down in a hierarchical chain, each landowner providing a service or payment in exchange for the landholding. The upper ranks of society were supposed to pay for their land in military service. When their lord called upon them, they were expected to come to him fully equipped as mounted knights with a following [retinue] of soldiers. Gentle status went hand-in-hand with political influence, social privilege, and cultural prestige. Part of a gentleman's holding was demesne land -- land that he himself administered, hiring workers to cultivate it. The rest was rented out as landholdings to tenants. This rental was likewise determined by inheritance: a landlord's tenants inherited the right to their landholdings, and paid for them according to the custom associated with the holding, typical a combination of labour service and rents in kind. The gentlemanly class was subdivided into its own hiearchy. At the top was the titled nobility. Below these was the title of knight, which was never inherited; it had to be recieved from the monarch or designated military leader. At the bottom of the gentlemanly hierarchy were the esquires and simple gentlemen. Below the gentlemen in the manorial hiearchy were the landholding commoners. The most privileged, called freeholders, held their lands in perpetuity; their holdings were passed on from generation to generation with no change in terms. The rent charged for freehold lands had generally been fixed, and inflation had rendered the real cost of these holdings minimal. Less fortunate than the freeholders were the leasholders. Their tenancies were for fixed periods, sometimes as much as a lifetime, sometimes as little as a year. When the tenancy ended, it was usually renewed, but the landlord was able to change the terms of the lease; he might charge a higher rent from the tenant or his heir, or even terminate the lease altogether. At the very bottom among landholders were the copyholders, also called tenants at will. Their holdings were simply by custom, and the rent could be altered or the tenancy terminated at any time. This does not mean that all such tenants were in constant danger of homelessness or impoverishment. Not all landlords were inclined to raise rent or evict tenants. There was a genuine belief in tradition and social stability, and many landlords were reluctant to engage in behaviour that would so obviously disrupt the social system. Freeholders whose lands yielded revenues of at least 40 shillings a year were considered yeoman, a title than not only implied a fairly high degree of economic prosperity, but also entitled the holder to vote in Parliamentary elections. Lesser landholders were known as husbandmen, a term that might also be applied generally to anyone who worked his own landholding. The smallest landholders were called cottagers; these held only the cottage they lived in and perhaps a few acres of land. Their holdings were too small to support them, so they had to supplement their income by hiring themselves out as labourers. The rural hiearchy was the most prominent, but there also existed a fully developed and independent social structure in the towns. Towns were indepedent of the feudal hieararchy, owing allegiance directly to the monarch, and they enjoyed extensive privileges of self-government. They were semi-demicratic, being in control of the citizens. Citzenship in a town was a privilege restricted to male householders who were not dependent on others for their wages, typically craftsmen and tradesmen who had their own sop. As towns were self-governing, they relied heavily on their own population for filling public offices: perhaps 1 freeman in 4 or 5 held office at any given time. Whereas the rural hierarchy was centered on agriculture, the urban hieararchy was based on trades and crafts. Each craft and trade had a hieararchy of its own, based on the guild system. [explain how guilds work] At the base of both the rural and urban hieararchies were the labourers and servants. In the country, there was a need of shepherds, milkmaids, harvesters, and other hired hands; the towns required porters, water carriers, and other unskilled workers. In the country, paid labour sometimes went to cottagers, but increasingly it fell to a growing class of mobile and rootleess labourers who followed the market in search of employment. In addition, there was a small but increasing demand for labour in a few industries, notably coal and iron production. Such people were always at risk of slipping inot the ranks of vagrants and chronically unemployed. Both rural and urban families hired servants; a quarter of the population may have been servants at any given time. The relationship of servants to their employers in many ways resembled that of children to their parents. They were not just paid employees, but subordinate members of their employer's household who actually lived with the family. Servants might be in a better position than labourers, since service was often a temporary stage on the road to a better social position. For young people, service could be a means of accumulating money, making useful contacts, and acquiring polish in the ways of polite society. Even aristocratic youths might spend some time as pages, gentlemen-ushers, or ladies-in-waiting in a prestigious household. At tge very base of the social hieararchy was a substantial and growing number of unemployed poor. The poor particularly included children, widows, abandoned wives, the elderly, and the infirm. There was also a significant commnunity of permanent beggars and vagabonds. In combination with gypsies, they were beginnning to create an underworld culture of thheir own. In response to growing concerns over the problems of poverty and vagrancy, Poor laws were passed which established a national system for assisting the poor.

Heavy northern soils needed to be ploughed with a heavy plough in order to dig deeply and provide drainage. The land was ploughed in land strips because turning the oxen was cumbersome and slow. In order to share good and bad land equally each peasant's holding was made up of long and narrow scattered plots in open fields. The villages had to agree to grow the same crop on all the strips of a field. The land was kept fertile by resting it for a year and by putting animal dung on it. Land was divided in thirds. A third was sown in the autumn with winter wheat, a third was sown in the spring, with barley or oats, and a third lay fallow. Animals grazed on the fallow and on the stubble after the harvest was cut. In Southern France, Spain, and Italy, light soils and summer droughts produced different crops and field patterns. A light plough and spade was all that was needed to work the soil. The plough was simply made and could be pulled by one ox, so a moderately wealthy peasant could own his own plough and be indepedent of his neighbours. He could enclose his land grow whatever suited him There was not enough spring rain for a second grain crop, so Med. farmers relied on loves, vines, and fruit trees. Pasture was poorer than in the north so there were fewer animals. In places flocks were driven long distances to find summer grazimg. In warmer regions, the soil is lighter and thus more easily ploughed, affording individual peasants greater independence. It was too dry for a second grain crop, so they supplemented their cereal diet with olives, vines, and fruit trees. Woodlands were maintained and exploited for wood, fruit and nuts, and acorns for swine. In the new year animals which had been grazing on last year's stubble were driven off and ploughing began. Seed was scattered by hand with braod sweeps of the arm, and the harrow was dragged across the land to cover it. The corn was hand-weeded as it grew. June was haymaking time. The lush rivermeadows reserved for hay were protected by a special officer, the hayward. He looked after the movable hurdles which kept the animals out of the meadows and cornfields, for there were no hedges. Hay was cut close to the ground with scythes, and gathered up and stacked with long wooden rakes and pitchforks. From August onward the corn was harvested. Unless straw was needed for thatching the ears were cut off high up, leaving plenty for grazing. The corn was tied into sheaves and carted home for threshing during the winter months. Then the fallow field, which had been ploughed during the summer, was sown with winter corn. The hayward let the animals on the next year's spring cornfields and fallow, and the year began again. ---- Trade fairs were strictly organised. Superintendants, with a staff of clerks, inspected goods and sales. Disputes were settled in the fairs' commercial courts. Each of the six fairs lasted for almost two months, forming a continuous year-long market. For the first week the merchants set p their stalls in allotted places, Then there was a twelve-day cloth fair, followed by an eight-day leather-and-fur fair, and lastly a fair for everything that was sold by weight. Reckonings were made in local money; after the cloath fair the money changers were allowed to trade for a month, so that merchants could change their profits into the coin of their own country. Mediaeval people had many holidays to look forward to. All these, except May Day and the New Year, celebrated religious festivals, The number of festivals grew until there were up to fifty a year, plus Sundays. All work stopped, and after everyone had worshipped in church and watched the big church procession, they had the rest of the day to enjoy themselves. They sang, danced and drank ale, and watched the travelling performers who came to town -- jugglers, acrobats and tightrope-walkers, and men leading performing bears or monkeys.

The overwhelming majority of the population lived in the country, typically in villages of 200 to 500 people. The village consisted of a clusster of crofts around a central street; there might be a village green and a parish church. If the village had a major landowning gentleman, his manor hall might be nearby too. There was probably a good source of water near the village center, whether a river or a well. Around the clustered crofts were the village fields, pastures, and meadows, and beyond that were waste areas such as woods or marches. The village was primarily a phenomenon of champion farmland. In areas of woodland agriculture, houses were likely to stand alone in the midst of their holdings, or in small clusters that were sometimes called "hamlets". Village society varied greatly. Some villages were still dominated y a manoor lord, who owned most or all of the local land and still held judicial powers over his tenants. Where the old manorial system had broken down, the village might be dominated by the local gentry, or, in the absence of the gentry, by the most substantial landholders. Towns were generally of 500 to 5000 people, and only about 8% of the population lived in towns of more than 5000, London was the foremost city, with some 120,000. Towns were primarily commercial centers. They invariably had at least one regular market, and in many cases an annual fair as well. Important towns were located on navigable rivers, usually at the site of one or more bridges. The larger towns were usually walled. There were generally few public buildings. If there was a municipal government, there would be some sort of town hall. Otherwise, the only public buildings were churches and their associated buildings which often served secular as well as religious functions: meeting hall, courtroom, school, business place, muster hall, and armoury. Specific crafts and trades tended to cluster in certain areas of the town, which facilitated guild administration. Town streets had names, although houses were not numbered. Settlements were small enough that it was possible to identify individual buildings by their principle occupants and functions. City streets were also the notorious haunts of pickpockets and cutpurses. The cutpurse typical wore a horn sheath on his thumb and carried a small knife, so he could cut people's purses off their belt by slicing against his thumb. Waste dispoal was a perennial problem in the towns. Refuse would be collected by "scavagers" once or twice a week, and there were rubbish tips, called "laystalls" outside the town. There were strict ordinances against fouling the streets, but they were not always effective. Although the roads were bad, travelling accommodations were surprisingly good. The better inns had private rooms with fireplaces and food service; the lodger was given a key, and could expect clean sheets on the bed. Of course, people travelling on a tight budget might ot be so well accommodated. If you were not travelling on a main road, there might be no inns at all, in which case you would have to make arrangements with a local alehouse or at a private home. Even a seemingly good inn might have its drawbacks. It was generally know that inn employeees such as tapsters (who served the drinks) and ostlers (who recieved the guests at their arrival) were often in cahoots with nearby highway roobers, and would send report of particularly promising victims who stayed at their inn.

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