"I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective."
@arminiusofgermania
2 жыл бұрын
"You're fooling yourself. We live under an autocracy where we are exploited"
@RideAcrossTheRiver
2 жыл бұрын
"Dennis! There's some lovely filth down 'ere."
@joeturner8184
2 жыл бұрын
How d'ye know he's a king? Easy. He's the only one not covered in sh*t. And then you learn about wattle and daub.
@RideAcrossTheRiver
2 жыл бұрын
@@joeturner8184 Must collect me berries, get back to me cave, and chastise meself ...
@bkbj8282
2 жыл бұрын
yep that's a reference to a movie
@HelloFutureMe
3 жыл бұрын
Genuinely one of the best history channels on YT. Thank you for doing all this great work.
@MrBribomb
3 жыл бұрын
Hey I know you
@Dee-nonamnamrson8718
3 жыл бұрын
Weird seeing you here. How's the cat?
@gabrielpottebaum5249
3 жыл бұрын
Agreed
@ovrair6340
3 жыл бұрын
Wow, crossover time I guess (also I agree)
@thebitsanpiecesman4423
2 жыл бұрын
Oh shit off ponse
@gunnar6674
3 жыл бұрын
"You either die a villein, or live long enough in the town to be declared a free man."
@fedupwelsh7211
2 жыл бұрын
Maybe villein not villain. Two separate things. Bloody English language!
@gunnar6674
2 жыл бұрын
@@fedupwelsh7211 Thank you for the correction.
@forickgrimaldus8301
2 жыл бұрын
Villein is basically farmer
@neiloflongbeck5705
2 жыл бұрын
If you were a villein and ran away, if your lord didn't catch you within 4 days the lord would have to go to court to get you back.
@ajajaja4862
2 жыл бұрын
@@fedupwelsh7211 same root.
@SamBrickell
Жыл бұрын
*video description:* "What's the difference between a Serf and a Slave?" *video content at the beginning:* "Here are 15 ways in which you are basically still a serf today."
@GALA89
8 ай бұрын
Worse, they can take your house if you go bankrupt and you have to work far more than a serf today
@Quincy_Morris
8 ай бұрын
@@GALA89 we absolutely work far less than slaves and serfs had to.
@GALA89
8 ай бұрын
@@Quincy_Morris wrong, he literally said it in the video, other than being a quick google search away. Serfs worked 160 days a year
@LordVader1094
8 ай бұрын
@@Quincy_MorrisAnother lie you've been sold
@modelsnstuffreveiws6628
8 ай бұрын
@@GALA89 on one hand, yes, on the other hand, no, they worked longer hours as the work had to be done in a time frame which was short, but outside of that they had fewer tasks for their job, they just filled it with things others do for us now, preparing food, any projects that need to be done, etc
@jameslawrie3807
2 жыл бұрын
A medieval saying was "the miller's collar is the bravest man in the village as he has caught a thief by his neck". Miller's had the right of "quernage", this means he could seize and destroy querns, or hand grain mills, and destroy them. If the miller presented the remains of the quern to the lord he received a bounty. Millers were infamous for stealing some of the grain given to them to mill, true or not, and then reselling it and this illegitimate tax was resented far more then the dues paid to the lords. In times of strife the miller was probably the first to flee the area until order was restored for obvious reasons.
@k.v.7681
2 жыл бұрын
I mean, people tend to displace anger, rightly or not, on people close at hand. When famine hit Paris during the revolution, citizens were lynching bakers in the streets convinced they were hiding bread.
@dfpguitar
2 жыл бұрын
@@k.v.7681 in psychology terms, this is the difference between anger and rage. Rage is wild, uncontrolled and typically taken out on whatever is within reach.
@gunnar6674
2 жыл бұрын
Interesting. In the game Kingdom Come Deliverance, the millers are treated like a sort of mafia, so maybe that has a basis in reality then.
@gwkiv1458
2 жыл бұрын
@@gunnar6674 if you read the codex in KCD, they explain how millers were the victims of unsubstantiated rumors.
@gunnar6674
2 жыл бұрын
@@gwkiv1458 Ah, just like certain Sicilian businessmen.
@metatronyt
2 жыл бұрын
Splendid work. I love the level of information you present, the accuracy of your research and your presentation style, but I have to Say, GOSH that forest shot Is beautiful. Is that a grove near where you live?
@RockstarRacc00n
2 жыл бұрын
It's on his estate. He's a british millionaire.
@ModernKnight
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks, oh elfin one. Yes, it's woodland on my farm. I am very lucky to live where I live.
@starrcitizenalpha7847
2 жыл бұрын
You two could do worse than to collaborate on a video. Just saying..😉.
@colinp2238
2 жыл бұрын
@@ModernKnight And I was thinking you had been demoted from a knight or earl to a peasant 😹
@vladimirputout2461
2 жыл бұрын
@@ModernKnight Now that he knows where it is, Metatron is going to rob your medieval stuff, pretty sure about it
@SheepWaveMeByeBye
2 жыл бұрын
Denmark also had geographic differences in the amount of freemen vs serfs (at least in the 19th century). The western, less fertile part of the country had more freemen, while the fertile east was more organised in large manors. The population density of the western part was lower, so people got used to being independent and taking care of their own affairs. The liberal movement in the 19th century also found more backing among the people in the western part of Denmark. The cultural distinction between the more independently minded westerners and the rest of the country still exists up to this day. Funny thing is the difference in fertility was caused by the distribution of ice in the last ice age. The east got the clay from the glaciers, the west got sand from glacier streams. So you could say the political and cultural landscape of Denmark was caused by an ice age 12.000 years ago.
@ModernKnight
2 жыл бұрын
Wonderful bit of infomation, thanks.
@sanjivjhangiani3243
2 жыл бұрын
So, people in Jutland are the Danish equivalent of cowboys :) ?
@memyself4852
2 жыл бұрын
this is the cool thing about historical materialism - you can often trace the social structure of a society to the geography that they were born into.
@Joe--
2 жыл бұрын
Very interesting. Thanks for the info about Denmark
@herewardthewake5433
2 жыл бұрын
@@memyself4852 Only if you like simplistic reductionism.
@Tiger74147
2 жыл бұрын
"As you can imagine, with human beings, the situation is quite complicated." A phrase for the ages.
@etholus1000
2 жыл бұрын
Lol when I scrolled down to see comments I read yours just as he spoke those words. So true though
@steven_003
5 ай бұрын
How every historical argument starts, really.
@1112viggo
4 ай бұрын
We often make simple things complicated when we wish to obscure our evil selfish actions.
@MarkelMathurin
3 ай бұрын
@@1112viggo no we dont
@1112viggo
3 ай бұрын
@@MarkelMathurin Denial is of course the more popular option...
@grahamcarpenter5135
2 жыл бұрын
Lord: "Rent!" Serf: "YOU'LL GET YOUR RENT WHEN YOU FIX THE GODDAMN MOAT!!!"
@bryanstickley9134
8 ай бұрын
Gold, if only lol!
@townview5322
6 ай бұрын
Thank you. That will keep me chuckling for days
@ddelarosa96
5 ай бұрын
“Shall I flog him, Sir?” “No… he is good boy.”
@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana
5 ай бұрын
Why does the serf care about the moat anyway?
@jai-kk5uu
5 ай бұрын
@@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana renters just need any reason to shout. Their lives are sad. They want to take it out on you
@klausgartenstiel4586
2 жыл бұрын
"how servile are you?" one of the standard questions in every job interview
@somethingelse4424
2 жыл бұрын
My servility increases relative to monetary compensation... so very much so, but that's up to you.
@The_Crimson_Fucker
2 жыл бұрын
Also in the preamble to any good marriage.
@tamlandipper29
5 ай бұрын
I have often thought that an IQ test is essentially a test of servility. Perform these abstract tasks just because we tell you to.
@petersteenkamp
5 ай бұрын
@@tamlandipper29 An IQ tests determines whether you were smart enough to practice doing IQ tests beforehand.
@mikeyfreeman5776
5 ай бұрын
@@tamlandipper29 lmao that is just an insane comparison
@BryanBarcelo
Жыл бұрын
“What's in a name?” If you are a Slave, you pay, if you are a Serf, you pay, if you are a Free person, you pay.
@PhantomSavage
2 жыл бұрын
Lord: I expect 10 chickens by the end of the week. Peasant: What?! I pay rent, I'm a freeman! Lord: No you're not. You're my Serf. 10 Chickens. Peasant: Nonsense! I'm taking you to court! Lord: You don't have the shilings for the legal fees. Peasant: We'll see about that! Man... things haven't changed much, have they?
@NLTops
8 ай бұрын
Ahh the beauty of language. You could be a freeman but are you a free man?
@shadeburst
8 ай бұрын
When you took your lord to court it was in the lord's manor court. Evidence as we know it was almost unknown and guilt or innocence were proven by ordeal. Transmutation of boon work into rent only happened owing to a shortage of labor resulting from one of the regular plagues, or when the king had conscripted a whole bunch of the lord's laborers for one of the regular wars, and the laborers found that they liked being soldiers more than they liked being serfs. Back at the ranch opportunities for rape, looting and pillage were limited.
@marocat4749
8 ай бұрын
@@shadeburst pretty sure tennäntsusually arent favouredin court? Also the money on court. Also why do you guesssubscribe m8stly im theus army,poorpeople, 🤔 🤔tedthey tied alot bons to being in the army and pay for college, but still.
@MuricaTurkey
8 ай бұрын
They did, for a little while, but we backslid into things we used to do. It's the story of humanity; We keep making the same mistakes and trying to trick ourselves and those around us that were doing something new by calling those same things by some other name. But it's still the same 💩
@ribbitgoesthedoglastnamehe4681
7 ай бұрын
@@shadeburst You know, in the middle ages the peasants would not have made such silly claims and would have known that while court might be situated at the manor, for convenience, the lord would not preside the court for himself, but a judge. The peasants would have laughed at you for suggesting the lord could judge a case where he was the one being accused. Did you know, btw, that medieval hoaxes that were easily disproven in the medieval times go around the internet because apparently, medieval peasant can outsmart a modern internet user. In short, dont believe everything you see in a Hollywood movie.
@susanwoodcarver
3 жыл бұрын
Missed you! So glad to see you back. Always interesting content. Still wondering about the mule with no name. Can we see him again?
@rtyria
3 жыл бұрын
Yes, inquiring minds would like to know.
@torianholt2752
3 жыл бұрын
I could hear him braying in the distance late in the video LOL
@billmiller4972
3 жыл бұрын
Read: Mule with no name ... Brain: Cue "A Horse with no name"
@susanwoodcarver
2 жыл бұрын
@@billmiller4972 Now you’ve got me singing that in my brain! Probably for the rest of the day. 😊
@vikkirobinson4131
2 жыл бұрын
@@billmiller4972 Perhaps the mule was left in the desert?
@badweetabix
2 жыл бұрын
Regarding a serf becoming free because of military service, this reminds me of a similar thing in feudal Japan where a peasant could be elevated to the class of samurai. A supreme example of a spectacular rise in social ladder is a peasant, Hiyoshi-maru, who became an ashigaru (peasant foot soldier) for the Oda clan and was promoted to a samurai and eventually changed his name to Toyotomi Hideyoshi.. When he died, he held the title of Taiko instead of Shogun because he began his life as a peasant and therefore could not claim to be from a samurai lineage traceable to the ancient Minamoto clan which is a requirement to be a Shogun although he was in reality the true ruler of Japan and as powerful as any Shogun. The irony is that as Taiko, he locked down the class system so that no one born a peasant could be promoted to the rank of samurai.
@nidohime6233
2 жыл бұрын
Is not that strange, in both cases it was a time filled with violance, where one day you would be ok and the next your village could be burned down by invaders of another land. Everyone was in war with everyone. So anyone who could fight back and participates in the battlefield can get enough prestige and power to even change their status, but very few did really see that happend to them. People tend to forget that for any winner there where thousands of losers behind. And reason why Hideyoshi Toyotomi make the class system so rigid so no lowborn could be promoted, along with removal of weaponry among the peasant class, it was for the sake to maintain peace, even at the cost of the rights of the citizens.
@hilskalaludwig3561
2 жыл бұрын
yeah,only his boss Oda Nobunaga were considered have an actually will to make some changes of feudal system of japan,and therefor he murdered by his own trusty vassel(un able to spell the name) which is a classic samurai having a decent lineage.So,I think Hideyoshi may have to make some compromise with his powerful samurai Daimyos.
@nothuman3083
2 жыл бұрын
Usually they don't come back, but the English did.
@justanimage5012
2 жыл бұрын
@@hilskalaludwig3561 your looking for akechi mitsuhide ?
@GreatBeeman
2 жыл бұрын
@@hilskalaludwig3561 both Oda Nobunaga and Ieyasu Tokugawa were very fond to name foreigners as samurai
@felixnimo
8 ай бұрын
Definitely not more than today's low income workers!
@EMCPetsku
3 жыл бұрын
I find it really interesting how the class system really worked. It's nowhere near as plain as it was taught in school.
@exploatores
3 жыл бұрын
Is their anything in history. That is as simple as it was taught in school?
@EvidensInsania
3 жыл бұрын
Start off with the basic assumption that everything teachers tell you in school is a lie, especially now.
@JustinL614
2 жыл бұрын
@@EvidensInsania That's what happens when the government takes control of education. They're not going to tell you anything that goes against their version of history.
@cabroncete
2 жыл бұрын
Aye, as much as we like things being black or white, it's often a tricky grey what serves as an explanation. One that comes to mind, is 'people in ancient times died at 30-40', well, there was a lot of miscarriages and kid mortality which brings the mean down, but for sure there were healthy men living more than 50 years old.
@EvidensInsania
2 жыл бұрын
@@cabroncete William Marshall successfully led the charge against invading French forces despite being in his 70s. And this is after 70 years of brutal fighting in tourneys, wars and the crusades.
@celebrim1
2 жыл бұрын
Despite him trying to demonstrate how complicated it was, he's actually simplifying things, because if you read the Doomsday book in the original Latin, or at the least in a translation that preserves the Latin when there is no direct translation, you find that there were two different ranks of servile, each apparently with their own set of rights based on the type of serf that they were. One of the most important reasons for proving you are Free, is if your are Free, then your children don't need anyone's permission to move away and start their own life. They can head off to London and seek their fortune, or take a longbow and serve as mercenaries in Europe for good wages (if they aren't cheated of their pay), or board a ship and go to the Holy Land, or take your tools and contract to work on the great Cathedrals, or whatever. Which again, shows that while 90% of the population probably never went more than 20 miles from their birthplace, there was a class of people even in the Middle Ages who were quite cosmopolitan. And another level of complexity to this is that economic status and social status were not so well tied as you might think. There are example in the Doomsday book of quite poor Lords and quite wealthy Serf families that own a lot of land and paid comparatively low taxes. At it's heart, Feudalism was government by private contract, and this extended all the way down to serfdom. All that court going was often to renegotiate the terms of your legal contract, and it would work both ways. A poor Lord that didn't manage his affairs well, could effectively be taking out loans from his serfs in return for improved social status, legal status, or better long term contracts. While there were broad customs and standards, every relationship was basically privately encoded and therefore legally unique.
@Vexarax
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the insightful comment :) I am wondering, why is it called Doomsday book do you know? That sounds like something bad, like it's about the apocalypse or something! But it sounds more like a record of the land and the people who dwell there (I had never heard of it until I watched this video) :)
@Comradez
2 жыл бұрын
@@Vexarax I am fairly sure that the word "doom" in Old English originally meant something like "fate" or "destiny." So the "Doomsday book" could better be translated "Book of Destinies," which could be a fitting title for a book about people's statuses.
@AmirAli-of6zf
2 жыл бұрын
Do you know where i can read the book ? I would be thankful
@Vexarax
2 жыл бұрын
@@Comradez thanks for the reply, I only just saw it as I was notified of the new comment here!
@Vexarax
2 жыл бұрын
@@AmirAli-of6zf - I am on my phone so can't check Google for it right now, but have you tried typing "Doomsday book in modern English full text online free" - it might be archived somewhere!! I've found extremely rare very old books that way :D
@rheingold4885
3 жыл бұрын
It is exactly the same phrase in Germany: "Stadtluft macht frei." - "Town air sets you free"
@arkenarikson2481
3 жыл бұрын
Just what I was going to remark! And the rule of a year and a day was the same, too.
@TheRisskee
3 жыл бұрын
Very interesting! German is a semi second language to me and I say semi because there's still a lot I don't know, especially little sayings and idioms like this. Did Germany have a hand fast ceremony as well? Hand fasting was akin to being married but without the church vows. It also lasted a year and a day. At then end of it, you either chose to marry in a proper church ceremony or go your separate ways. It gets me wondering if there were other year and a day arrangements.
@magister.mortran
3 жыл бұрын
Of course it's the same laws that applied to England and Germany, because neither of these nations existed during the Middle Ages. It was all formally the Western Roman Empire. William the Conqueror took as Duke of Normandy (dux = Roman title of a commander of several provinces, i.e. counties) orders from Pope Alexander II and the Roman Emperor Henry III. All of Western Europe was one complex hierarchical feudal empire. And the Church made sure that certain laws were universally followed.
@arkenarikson2481
3 жыл бұрын
@@magister.mortran That's interesting. I mean, I know about pretty much of Europe being united in the Holy Roman Empire, and I was aware that this rooted in the conquest of the Franconian Empire some centuries before. But I was never aware that England was so closely connected to continental reign and law. Obviously there was a lot of intermarrying between the leading houses over all of Christian Europe. But that doesn't automatically mean there are identical laws pushed by a central power. Does anyone know if there are surviving documents from the period, attesting to this law taking its origin with a pope or emperor of the time? (edit: grammar)
@BerenMace
3 жыл бұрын
@@magister.mortran Im sorry but the Crowns of England and France were not part of the Roman Empire at that point. The HRE was mainly the german lands, the low countries, bohemia and italy.
@Janthony92
Жыл бұрын
Another thing thats interesting about northern England is that the survival of Anglo-Saxon landowners was higher than other parts of the country. The domesday book and the cartae baronum lists a higher number of knights and landowners with Anglo-Saxon/Norse first names than there was in the south.
@jakepeckart1481
Жыл бұрын
Everyone that's existed since agriculture, besides rich people, has been a slave. Serfdom never ended.
@beardedgeek973
2 жыл бұрын
I saw a comment from Denmark. Swede here and for most of our history we have had a rather unique situation where not only were the vast majority freemen, but they paid taxes directly to the crown, not the local lord. Swedish nobles had few freemen and even fewer serfs. We also had elected kings all up to Gustav I in the mid 16th century. This meant that unlike in a lot of Europe the farmers often voted with the king when there were tings or "Riksdags" and the king used the farmers as support to keep the noble families in check. Even after Guatav I the farmers usually sided with the king.
@cetus4449
Жыл бұрын
But what about Nils Dacke and his men? If it was as you describe, then the actions of the Swedish king, imposing Lutheranism on his subjects, must have embittered the Swedish peasants.
@kirgan1000
8 ай бұрын
The farmers usually sided with the king, because they demanded that the king would promise to continue to upheld the farmers rights and freedoms, or else.
@katm8128
5 ай бұрын
That’s fascinating, thank you for shedding some light on this history in this part of the world!
@albion6087
4 ай бұрын
@@cetus4449 actually the rise of Lutheranism was quite popular among the peasantry, the church tithes and political whims of members of the upper clergy were heavily disliked. the result was the removal of the higher cleargy with the imposition of Lutheranism was fairly popular.
@noahway13
4 ай бұрын
Quite advanced and fair.
@lupus_in_fabula
3 жыл бұрын
I NEED more shots and videos like those clips of you in full laborer garb walking through the woods. I LOVE it. And the general videos of daily life and the small stuff like this? Perfect. You make learning fun, and you bring the lives of ages long past to life. And THAT is the work of a truly great scholar. Thank you.
@Just_Call_Me_Tim
3 жыл бұрын
If I could upvote your comment more than once to show how much I agree... I would!
@yeraycatalangaspar195
3 жыл бұрын
I quite like it too, knights and soldiers are flashier (and heck, I still love them) but as I age I'm getting more into what the lay people lived like, is quite fun to learn about it and how they lived.
@strydyrhellzrydyr1345
2 жыл бұрын
Oh.. u mean u need more of him in his everyday life... Lol. That's maybe part of why he doesn't so much... Would youuuu.. want to Flaunt and show off your everyday life.. noo. You will just wanna do.. LIFE
@weaksause6878
2 жыл бұрын
Why is so much of history focused on warfare? Im more interested in what life was like than the battles fought. Edit: I get it, that was rhetorical. Just thought I'd clarify since this is the internet.
@Laotzu.Goldbug
Жыл бұрын
@@weaksause6878I think it has to do with both simplicity and impact. Simplicity because discrete dates and events are easier both to remember and to digest. Impact I think because of time frame. obviously all the small activities and nuances of daily life have tremendous influence on everyone, but that influence tends to operate over very long and consistent time periods, the arcs it traces may be tremendous, but they take a while to properly view. on the other hand, a war, or even a battle, can completely change the fortunes of a people or a kingdom overnight, and so for a moment to moment measurement their influence is far greater. e.g. Twisting your ankle hurts and can ruin your day, so you will remember it, even if sleeping on a bad mattress for many years can disfigure your spine in a way that will change your entire life.
@jbailey514
2 жыл бұрын
This man has taken the time to read the Manor rolls. They aren't hard to find, and really I wish, wish, wish that Fantasy authors would take the time to learn HOW the medieval period actually was. We have all these stupid misconceptions about the medieval world thanks to the lazy authors of the 80s.
@ModernKnight
2 жыл бұрын
They are fascinating (if a little boring!), same as the court records too.
@celebrim1
2 жыл бұрын
While some of this is the writer's failure of education and failure of imagination, this often as not is actually a problem of the reader's failure of education and failure of imagination. If you are writing your Fantasy novel or even your Historical novel, how much time do you really want to spend on technical exposition to explain a world that is so alien to the readers current norms? How much time do you really want to spend trying to get the reader to realize just how differently the characters see the world and think about the world, especially when in the end you just might end up making the reader relate less to your character? When you start talking about modern Fantasy novels, quite often the writer's concepts were invented after exposure to modern Fantasy RPGs. But even in this situation, where you can really dig in and simulate an alien society, how much does it help the enjoyment of the game to dwell on the technical details of the game world. You run into problems if you make your game too realistically Medieval, that your players need a PhD in history in order to pretend successfully to be characters within that world. And if you add to that all the other things that make your game world unique, you find you are really demanding too much of the players and slowing the pacing of your rousing adventure story. So, even if you really know a lot about the real history, you usually accept anachronisms and simply things or push them aside to dole out in small amounts as color for the sake of the story. Fantasy writers are often doing the same thing, even those in the 1980s.
@vidard9863
2 жыл бұрын
@@celebrim1 you don't have to explain the intricacies to your reader, like everything else you show it to your reader. further, much like in your daily life you don't need someone to explain to you how the power grid, computers, or cars work, you just have know the rules, you pay your power bill, you need to know what a monitor keyboard and mouse is, but the rest is magic for most people, you buy gas maintenance and repairs for your car, but if i gave most people a screw driver and told them to work on it people who use these things every day would not know where to start. the core problem is the authors don't know enough to make the worlds "real" or believable.
@celebrim1
2 жыл бұрын
@@vidard9863 Imagine the situation reversed and you are trying to explain the life of a person in the modern world to a medieval person. You wouldn't necessarily need to explain how the power grid, computers, or cars work, but you would have to explain that those things exist, and then you'd have to explain that none of it was magic, that was is just a complicated application of natural philosophy no more mysterious than a grist mill - if you knew enough about the middle-ages to use terms like natural philosophy and grist mill. So would you then choose as part of your story to explain what a mouse and keyboard were, sufficiently well that the medieval person would grasp the rudiments of them if he then encountered them, knowing for example enough to explain that when he was right clicking or left clicking? Would this really help your story? In the same way, you might have in your medieval story that the yeoman's son goes to town to sell a cow on behalf of his father, and he falls into argument with a pair of drovers near the gate who complains that they ought to have the right of the road, but just then the Fuller's Guild led by a church father carrying the icon of their patron Saint , James the Less, because this being the 3rd of May is the feast day of James the Less, and therefore the Fuller's Guild is having a parade. And the Guild Apprentices are cavorting in their ceremonial sheep skin robes, and the masters are marching the the symbols of their trade, and behind them children are dancing and screaming and hoping to be thrown a present like a sweet roll or a pomegranate. And our protagonist sees his friend, who ran away from the master a year ago to make his fortune in the town among the apprentices. And a fight breaks out between the drovers and the fullers, and the priest is chastening them mightily their un-Christian behavior. And at this point you might have to explain what drovers, fullers, saints, feast days, and guilds are unless your audience is particularly well read.
@gutsbadguy50
2 жыл бұрын
@@celebrim1 ok, now where do i get this fantasy book?
@jeremyirons7367
4 ай бұрын
We are still slaves. Fields have been replaced with office buildings and kings with CEOs
@conniead5206
3 ай бұрын
Kings and nobles replaced with elected leaders. You forgot to mention them. While you can quit your job and possibly be your own boss, you still have to “serve” the government. Too many of them seem to believe we are supposed to be servile to them.
@Aconitum_napellus
3 ай бұрын
@@conniead5206 No Gods, no masters!
@GrizikYugno-ku2zs
Ай бұрын
Kids are still having emo phases, these days? I guess some things really don't change.
@nevimH
Ай бұрын
That is called job. And if you want be homeless.
@winrawrisyou
29 күн бұрын
Ridiculous. Maybe when your boss is whipping you for not working hard enough, and sics dogs on you when you try to leave, then you can call yourself a slave.
@C_F_M
3 жыл бұрын
Another great lesson from my favorite historian on the tube, I could listen all day
@ModernKnight
3 жыл бұрын
Glad you enjoy it!
@rebeccawayman4219
2 жыл бұрын
He is quite wonderful to listen to.
@jamie_d0g978
2 жыл бұрын
I have always loved cooking and I was living in a very rural area of Spain a few years ago. One day I started to think about how medieval peasants were capable of doing the work I used to do (but without modern equipment) eating only mud and squirrels. So I searched in KZitem medieval peasant food and find your amazing videos with that lovely lady about medieval classes food. I subscribed immediately and this is still the best channel for me. What a treat
@ModernKnight
2 жыл бұрын
thanks for your kind words and support!
@Laotzu.Goldbug
Жыл бұрын
"A steady diet of mud and squirrels"
@nodarkthings
3 жыл бұрын
Fascinating video delivered with great passion! The first scenes of you in the woods in medieval garb would look so different if you were in modern dress. Our eyes pick up on the cues of the clothes from those remote times and the woods behind you somehow suddenly feel like a place of mystery and adventure. That's the way I see it anyway. Probably played too much D&D as a kid and watched too many 80s fantasy movies :)
@bradleyheck7204
Ай бұрын
They were 'bound to the land', so legally I think they were regarded more as fixtures than chattel. They could garden for themselves, cut wood for fuel, draw water from streams and wells and raise certain livestock like chickens and pigs.
@mjbull5156
2 жыл бұрын
Part of it also depended on where you were. England apparently had some of greatest rights for serfs, but Russia's version was toeing the line of outright slavery.
@samaraisnt
2 жыл бұрын
Yes definitely. Reminded me a lot of sharecropping, which many people consider an extension of slavery.
@kinsmart7294
2 жыл бұрын
Yes. The medieval era wasnt homogenous. You learn about medieval monarchy at school, normally centered on french or british feudalism. But these don't explain how the system works in places like the italian republics.
@joeturner8184
2 жыл бұрын
Probably depends on which part of the medieval period you were in and who owned the land you were on (predominantly church or nobility, I think)?
@MrMarkjams
2 жыл бұрын
Toeing the line is perhaps a little conservative. Russian serfs that were not state serfs (belonging to the monarchy) could be bought/sold/gambled away, could not get married without their lord's permission, didn't have free right of travel, and could be abused and often times even murdered with no repercussions. They technically had some rights but I think it is hard to say that they amounted to much.
@wwxluvr2643
Жыл бұрын
I'm pretty sure Russian version is just slavery 💀
@bryanpeters5034
2 жыл бұрын
Interesting to learn how they thought about social arrangements. So, yeah, a serf is tied to the land and he can't leave it, but he is also tied to the land and nobody can sell it without including him and his right to work it. Splitting the concept of ownership of the land and ownership of the right to work it is an interesting concept.
@dfpguitar
2 жыл бұрын
I suppose this is a bit like "landlords" today selling homes which have ongoing tenants in them. The rent paying tenants are passed from one landlord to the next. Makes you realise, that today we might not be as free as we think! I wonder how the labour of a serf compares to rent for a typical home today? In this video it is described that you could buy your freedom or run away to a town. That is a bit like buying a home so that you no longer have to pay rent. I suppose we have one area of freedom that definitely did not exist back then, which is the welfare state.
@jeffersonclippership2588
2 жыл бұрын
No, it's splitting the concept of nobles having to eat food with making someone else do the work of producing it.
@kinsmart7294
2 жыл бұрын
Yeah, he is not "cattle" to be bought and sold to the highest bider. He's not an commodity.
@AnhNguyen-hn9vj
2 жыл бұрын
I think it is like game sort of. Lowest level of people like farmers consume lowest resource and without any skills. Most civilization will try to make sure that they don't die of starvation, disease, robberies, and natural disaster. More resource will pour more into more skills people as carpenter, blacksmith, and so on. more resource will pour more into knight, smart people, and royals, as they will protect the land from attacks from aggressive outlanders, robbers, and thieves and decide where resource will pouring into to produce better plans for the civilization.
@remilenoir1271
Жыл бұрын
@JeffersonClippership Yes, nobles were human and needed to eat. Incredible I know.
@jabolmax
8 ай бұрын
if you don't have personal freedom you are a slave, what difference does it make whether you can be bought separately or with a piece of land? In Eastern Europe, Serfs gained personal freedom in 1864 two years after slaves in the USA
@zhain0
3 жыл бұрын
This is completely off topic but can you get your company to make you a henchman in evil genius 2? With the suit of armor lol
@worldtraveler930
3 жыл бұрын
I'm definitely a Big fan of the game evil genius!!!
@natfoote4967
2 жыл бұрын
It was the Normans who brought the concept of noblesse oblige, the duty of nobility to treat the common people well. In the strict definition of a monarchy all lands and people ultimately belong to the Crown. Nobles don't actually own the land, they are given possession of the right to hold the land, in service to and at the pleasure of the Crown. Because the monarch is the nation and embodies the people, any insult to even the least of subjects is an insult to the Crown. Nobility was not immune to having their titles and lands repossessed by the Crown. All license is by order of the Crown, which is illustrated today by the fact Queen Elizabeth needs no driver's license: It is by her own permission she is allowed to drive.
@bbgun061
2 жыл бұрын
Does she ever drive though? (Or did she when she was younger?)
@natfoote4967
2 жыл бұрын
@@bbgun061 She was in the British Military, as all Royals are obliged to be, and she served as an Army vehicle mechanic, so she presumably did drive those vehicles. And I believe I recall seeing a picture of her driving a Land Rover recently. Not needing a driver's license may not seem like much of a perk, but it does symbolize the fact that, even in today's Constitutional Monarchy, the Queen actually possesses vast powers she never uses, in the interest of upholding the Constitution.
@bbgun061
2 жыл бұрын
@@natfoote4967 I had no idea she was an army mechanic. I assumed once she became queen, she was chauffered everywhere.
@jeffersonclippership2588
2 жыл бұрын
Really convenient for the nobility, and even powerful people today, that the serfs couldn't write their side of the story. I'm sure they'd have a lot to say about how noblesse oblige worked in practice. Here in the US, there are plenty of southerners who want to talk about how slavery wasn't that bad because some slavers were nice.
@wodenravens
2 жыл бұрын
@@jeffersonclippership2588 I don't think anyone is claiming it was a good system. But the Normans did improve the lot of the average serf in some ways. The Norman Conquest has a very negative reputation among the public, for many good reasons. But it is also worth pointing out where there were social advancements. As an Englishman, it took me a long time to acknowledge the benefits that the Normans brought with them. This has nothing to do with justifying their rule over serfs.
@g3heathen209
3 жыл бұрын
It blew my mind when I found out our host here develops video games..
@AdamJorgensen
3 жыл бұрын
Wait what? Links please!
@yuritrasimaco5201
3 жыл бұрын
@@AdamJorgensen He's one of the CEOs or one of the founder members, I don't remember the details, of the game Dev of the Sniper game franchise. People talk about it sometimes here in the comments.
@somersethuscarl2938
3 жыл бұрын
@@AdamJorgensen Jason is the CEO of Rebellion Developments Limited, famed for Sniper Elite, he is also CEO of Rebellion Developments the publisher of 2000AD, (Judge Dreed etc.).
@EvidensInsania
3 жыл бұрын
Steam had the full Rebellion catalogue on sale recently and a bought it mainly out of support for Jason who seems like a great guy. Also especially with how the game and movie industry is so heavily infected with wokeness and run by absolute scum I feel it's important to back those who aren't like that.
@minerwaweasley1008
3 жыл бұрын
10 types of comments that absolutely must appear under every video: 1. Compliments. They are always well deserved, so I mention them only for an equal account :) 2. Discovery. “Wow, so this is THIS Jason Kingsley? (here appears a list of Rebellion's flagship) Really? I had no idea!” 3. Curiosity. “What does OBE mean?” 4. Good advice. 172 suggestions on how to name a Mule With No Name. 5. Comparison. “This is better than Default History Channel!”. 6. Cogitation. “Why is it not on TV?” 7. Fiscal control. “I'm curious where he gets the money for it all” (the answers lead inevitably to point 2). 8. Manifesto.“Knights were robbers, rapists, fascists, sexists, carnivores, Christians, fetishists, philatelists, oppressed their subjects and enforced ius primae noctis!” 9. Ignorance. “How many is an inch, a yard, a hand, a mile, a stone etc.” Google bites! 10. Dunning Kruger Effect. “I saw once the horse/sword/bow/lance in the picture, so I know better.” And as a bonus - "wow, he looks like Denethor" :)
@BF-I-II-V-V-III-VII
8 ай бұрын
Short answer: yes Long answer: no Very long answer: yes but its complicated...
@MadManchou
3 жыл бұрын
About church law and the death penalty : in France at least, the only "crime" the Church could condemn you to death for was for being "relapse" (no idea how to translate that), that is falling back into ill ways you had officially renounced (such as heresy - or being a woman in men's clothes as a certain saint was informed). Most people who got condemned to death in relation to religious trials were so by the civil court, generally on grounds of disturbing the peace or rebellion.
@TheRisskee
3 жыл бұрын
It never ceases to amaze me how much power the church had at that time. (They still do but it's quite different now) I'm Protestant Christian myself but I feel terrible about things the church did. I also would have been screwed because I hate wearing dresses because they're so impractical to things I need to get done. Haha
@Knoloaify
3 жыл бұрын
I have some doubts about that because the trial that condemned that woman in men's clothes to death was later declared null after a (post-mortem) retrial. Even a relapse wouldn't have condemned her to death since it was merely about clothes. With that said, I can see the rationale for executing someone relapsing into heresy, especially if rebellion charges are attached to it.
@elizabethjansen2684
3 жыл бұрын
@@TheRisskee oh they are just much subtler now. Mossad is envious of the Vatican's spy system and acknowledged they are superior spys.
@clpfox470
3 жыл бұрын
Joan of arc 'what its not my fault armor doesn't come in womans sizes' lol
@MadManchou
3 жыл бұрын
@@Knoloaify Well that particular trial was not exactly the fairest ever, since there were important people (the English) who really really wanted "that person" dead. It doesn't change the fact that the legal basis for her execution was her supposedly being relapse.
@gracesprocket7340
2 жыл бұрын
Abandoning land and buildings and allowing them to fall into disrepair without releasing title was injurious to the ville and to the manor. Land abandoned for a year and day is forfeit, and the rights of the serf to hold it are extinguished. While the air of the town is free, and freedom, the *typical* lot of a 'free' serf with only the shirt on his back was one of a labourer, living in relatively cramped conditions, and in a location where (as the settlement size (minor) and density (major factor)) increased famine and pestilence were more prevalent than in less the rural environment at large. A peasant here 'gains the freedom' to breathe town air, but at the cost of his rights to hold and use the land and messuage he inherited. The land holder might want to hold a skilled tenant on the land, but also might want to clear up intent to leave, rather than sloping off in the night - the land in waste harms other tenants, the desmene and glebe lands, and risks the surplus which collectively can be produced. If farmed (rights to work the land passed to another), then another tenant can work the land to their profit and to the benefit of all. If the rights to the land are granted away, the land can be gifted to other hard working peasants who will remain. The serf is also 'stealing' the rents, the works due within that year and day, and perhaps other dues payable (including heriot) and may be seeking compensation for those losses. It may have a lot more to do with contractual law and profits than it does with the *man*. At least in some cases.
@rottenmeat5934
2 жыл бұрын
On another note, isn't that last bit about Henry V translate closer to, "if you fight with me and win, I release you from your yearly dues so you can come pillage with me. Also, I'll probably settle things with your lord."
@harrymills2770
2 жыл бұрын
Yes. "The greater good" is the clarion call of tyranny and oppression.
@nidohime6233
2 жыл бұрын
So the free peasants are the medieval equivalent of a freelancer while serfs where similar to employees? Kinda makes sense, if you where a serf you wouldn´t have many rights, but at least you had some kind of protection in the land you worked unlike a free one. Plus back in the day nepotism was a common practice, people would rather hire a family member, even if there are bad at the job, way more than a complete stranger. Don´t forget this was a time where wars are rampant, and people usually where very cautious to anyone who doesn´t belong to their community. For someone of the Middle Ages being part of one it was a very big deal.
@comradesillyotter1537
2 жыл бұрын
@@harrymills2770 everyone's got to eat in the winter
@cosmonaut9696
2 жыл бұрын
they were slaves, see I explained it in one sentence....
@viatorinterra
3 жыл бұрын
A few notes One may contrast English freemen from the French. The former were taxed and made to pay rent, forced to learn learn archery, made to be ready to enlist as mercenaries in campaign, the latter were truly free. Stabilis, a serf of Fleury on the continent, worked his way to marrying a noble lady (nobility pertaining to wealth and respectability than peerage in medieval times) and owning an entire freehold. Society was more like a trifle than a sandwhich: visible layers yet overlapping and blurry borders, like the sherry seeping through a trifle's layers. Distinction between nobility and commoner mattered far less than servile vs free - a clerk in a royal household could be more "noble" than a rural judge. Social mobility was strong and alive in Medieval times, with econometric estimates for Paris determining human capital to be the greatest predictor of income based on tax rolls. Good reasings are Reynolds - Fiefs and Vassals, Epstein - A Social and Economic History of Latter Medieval Europe, Reynolds - Communities and Kingdoms in Western Eurooe 900-1300, Crouch - The Birth of Nobility: Constructing Aristocracy in England and France, 900-1300 Source for the last note is Income Inequality in Paris in the Heyday of the Commercial Revolution by Sussman
@somni2246
3 жыл бұрын
I really like that trifle analogy 👍
@stevenobrien557
2 жыл бұрын
Do you have a channel?
@viatorinterra
2 жыл бұрын
@@stevenobrien557 I'm writing the script for my first video (about the Great Famine, 1315-1322). Taking a long time with the combined research (have to shift through studies not just about the Famine itself but also about socio-economic conditions in 1300s Europe), work, and graduate school.
@stevenobrien557
2 жыл бұрын
@@viatorinterra I was half joking, you have a really good way of explaining for a midwit such as myself. I look forward to anything you end up posting to KZitem.
@Laurentius1099
2 жыл бұрын
TBH England was a proto Prussia and was in constant war with literally all its neighbors so they needed a constant supply of funds and men
@guccipucci3941
4 ай бұрын
Your take away from this shouldn’t be „peasants weren’t slaves“ but rather „the average worker today is worse off than the average medieval peasant“.
@andrewrackliff8223
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you. I have some school work I reviewed with my kids about how literally all non-royals in the medieval period were serfs, and that's just a fancy way to say slaves connected to land. How they were stuck there, always mistreated, and weren't ever allowed to leave their backbreaking drudgery. Also, their food was bland and uninteresting, while the nobles eat Peacock and other things. I had to correct this. It drives me crazy how "experts" write books blatantly wrong.
@Likexner
2 жыл бұрын
It is an unfortunate fact that people suffer from a normalcy bias and most of us dont realize it. We like to look down on our ancestors and imagine that everything must have been worse back then. We like to think that the way they organized society must have been inferior to ours and that they were mistaken about what is right or wrong while we are so much better - smarter, wiser and more righteous. This kind of thinking is where the classic trope of the permanently shit-stained peasants in grey rags comes from. Regarding this topic specifically, i believe the misconceptions you describe are common partly due to this mindset, which occurs naturally, and party due to intentional indoctrination. We in the west are taught liberal democracy and egalitarianism with all of their dogmas since childhood. Few of us ever really question and ponder this philosophy. We are subtly conditioned to think of democracy as a guarantee or synonym of freedom and righteousness. It does not surprise me in the slightest that schools teach kids to look at medieval societies the way you describe.
@Thunderdumpe
2 жыл бұрын
There was also a lot of protestant porpaganda which the enlightenment later doubled down on. Both factions were anti-catholic, so it was in their interests to make the catholic dominated medieval period seems as ignorant and miserable as possible - with historical revisionism to make things look much better in ancient greece.
@kinsmart7294
2 жыл бұрын
Its entirely fabricated to attack the era where christemdom was mostly united and the catholic church "ruled the states". Look into an peasant or an slave during the classical era and you will find he lives the same or worse than medieval peasants, but for some reason they never bring it up. We have an glorified version of the classical era while the medieval era is vilified. Just wait until you realise the inquisition wasn't some monty python sketch and that it was more lenient than the medieval secular courts or "vigilante" justice of the era and that there's no proof about "millions of people burned at the stake by the inquisition. Its incredible easy to create facts in the past if you have the media behind you, like the canadian "native kids mass graves in the homeschools", no real mass graves were found, not one skeleton was showed or even tested nor any proof of foul play was shown. They just went to cemeteries and concluded that there were bodies there(duh).
@J_n..
3 жыл бұрын
in central europe (holy roman empire) only freeman were mandatory to military service, with their own equipment, while Serfs were not part of a muster. the equipment requiremnents dependet upon the wealth of each man. Many of the poorer free man transcended into serfdom because military service was to expensive to maintain. from many (late) mediveal german towns are records avaible what equipment was required to maintain as part of your citizenship, depending on the individuel wealth. Most citys required an average craftsman to maintain a crossbow, a sidearm and some basic body armor, while master of a craft on average was required basic plate armor, a crossbow, a sidearm and sometimes a polearm. citizens with less income than a craftsman to maintain at least a spear. these average requirements varied over time and places. For rural communities are less records avaible. These armament requirments and military service were additional to taxes, to be free was an expensive endeavour.
@dango470
2 жыл бұрын
I was looking for the difference between the rights and duties of freemen and serfs. Possibly same thing in england. I am also reminded of the polish system, where freemen were exempt from taxation but were required to provide military service (schlahtia i think its spelt) But i forget what the word for the taxed peasant is
@aemeth5418
2 жыл бұрын
@@dango470 "szlachta" was polish nobility.
@dango470
2 жыл бұрын
@@aemeth5418 correct. And sometimes all these "nobleman" had to their name was a rusty saber passed from their grandad and a small cottage
@aemeth5418
2 жыл бұрын
@@dango470 yeah, the Polish nobility was a very large and very diverse part of the population compared to other countries. This is quite unique, the only similar situation I know was in feudal Japan.
@dango470
2 жыл бұрын
@@aemeth5418 that's why it feels like their nobility is simply closer to tge idea of freeman, or patrician vs plebian
@Arkantos117
3 жыл бұрын
In regards to the Doomsday book the north of England was substantially depopulated by the Harrying, which was essentially a genocide.
@cv4809
2 жыл бұрын
What is harrying
@alexmag342
2 жыл бұрын
@@cv4809 William the conqueror wiped out those who would not submit to him after the battle of Hasting due to massive popular revolts to drive the norman invaders away, extremely extremely common thing, people never did bow to foreigners easily, nationalism unlike many disingenous people and outright liars claim has always existed, and so you, if you were a foreign invader cannot take land without signficantly taking a toll on the population which will take arms against you. Machieavelli speaks of this aswell. The commenter is mentioning specifically the "Harrying of the North"
@voiceofraisin3778
2 жыл бұрын
@@cv4809 To Harry of Harrying, to carry out repeated and persistant attacks to wear somebody down. Which leads to a stupidly maccho nickname which then becomes just a normal name.
@forickgrimaldus8301
2 жыл бұрын
@@alexmag342 I don't think Nationalism was a thing yet or at least not yet a popular belief, people were more concerned with local issues as the issue with William was less because he was Norman but because he was a conqueror and most of the Lords are Saxon. (thus endangering the Saxon nobility and because Will is also a Bastard.) While people have an attachment to their people it was less because they believe in a rule of the people and thus the Nation but more who the next King would be (Monarchy is built on the Mandate of God while Nations are buit in the mandate of the people which wasn't really common back then.) P. S people back then while yes have a love for their people that doesn't mean they believe in building a Nation with that people like how we see it.
@forickgrimaldus8301
2 жыл бұрын
Genoside is really not that uncommon back then especially when it comes to wars between people of different faiths and ethnicities, but its also rare as wars are usually on the small scale.
@tadsklallamn8v
8 ай бұрын
came for the history subscribed for the horsemanship
@voteZDLR
2 жыл бұрын
They wouldn't have thought of themselves as slaves. They probably felt fortunate to be part of the community at all. In exchange for their labor, they would also get the benefit of living near the castle (or in the case of some privileged laborers like blacksmiths, they actually got to live in a lot of cases AT the castle) and their payment was literally just protection. Most of them would have been farmers, so in exchange for their crops they would get to live "under the umbrella" so to speak. Some lords probably took better care of their peasants than others, but generally speaking an attack on them was an attack on the vassal himself and would be treated as such. They weren't educated so their opportunities were limited as far as doing much else with their lives. I don't think the vast majority of them cared nor did they view themselves as slaves.
@timothyamor
2 жыл бұрын
Those who lord it over others are invariably less loved by those they oppress and exploit than they'd like to imagine. Nobody wants to slave the fields to provide luxuries for some nob in a manor house.
@berilsevvalbekret772
2 жыл бұрын
Would they have even understood the concept? I mean considering the amount of uprisings and attempted uprisings I don't think their lives were particularly great. And expecting a lord not to abuse their positions...1 in a 1000 maybe.
@sandrafrancisco
2 жыл бұрын
i think they were well aware of how weak and powerless they were, and there's a good reason why peasants had revolts that killed lords.
@jeffersonclippership2588
2 жыл бұрын
On the other hand, if a lord just didn't feel like spending the time and effort protecting his serfs from bandits or whatever, there was nothing the serfs could do to make him. Same is true if the serfs were threatened by their own cruel or greedy lord. This idea of noblesse oblige only survives because serfs didn't have the ability or chance to leave records of their side of the story.
@Spartan322
2 жыл бұрын
@@berilsevvalbekret772 There's a limit to that and most lords understood their position and weren't willing to abuse their power and contracts, you have to consider the amount of lords that existed compared to the amount of revolts and you'd notice how uncommon it was for your average lord to so anger his subjects that they'd be willing to revolt. Its similar to today in many cases, do most people revolt (peaceably or not) over slightly subpar work environments? Not really, only when you see exceptional cases of decrepit workplaces does that happen, usually when they have a way too much central power over too wide a swath that you start to see corruption and the allowance for more wicked actions for which people generally revolt over. Same happened in serfdom and feudal cases, a lord with a relatively small amount of serfs did not have much power and was incapable to just abuse them because they could go so far as to revolt and easily win, but a lord with a rather large amount of serfs would have a lot of power and over time would be more likely to become corrupt and abuse some serfs, which may cause revolts but wouldn't always result in a successful revolt.
@graysuka
3 жыл бұрын
In terms of the military service one, I believe the Roman Empire did something of the sort. It was some 20 years of service in a legion, and then you’d be granted ownership of land somewhere, and maybe a pension? Of course, there weren’t so many standing armies in the medieval period, so it couldn’t really be done in years of service, but it might’ve been a similar sort of idea.
@LazyLifeIFreak
3 жыл бұрын
Yeah I do as well recall something about that, a legionary would be granted a bit of land to live on, unless he wished to continue in service or was recalled post-service as evocati.
@marth8000
3 жыл бұрын
Yup, that particular topic of rewarding Veteran soldiers is pretty much what caused the Roman Civil war, Caesar had an obscene amount of soldiers he needed to pay after his Gallic campaigns (with Land or coin of equal value) and my history is a little fuzzy but as i remember. the Senate did not think to pay them as well as they; the veterans. thought they deserved, and also it was 'expected' that Generals had to pay their own men... (See Crassus's folly) and Caesar was not nearly rich enough, So Caesar argued that the Senate should pay them in a complicate legal contract. Of course whether you think Julius used this as a plight and excuse to stage a civil war. or if he just genuinely wanted to provide for his veterans is up for the poets. point of the story being that Caesars veterans didn't just cross the Rubicon because they just "loved Caesar sooooooo much" no they did it because they wanted money & land and felt cheated.
@omarkusturica3174
3 жыл бұрын
@@marth8000 right. After 20 years of service, where is your land and where is your wife ? The land is probably not kept and the wife is probably remarried. Those issues did not begin with Julius Caesar to be sure.
@helenagreenwood2305
3 жыл бұрын
How great would it be now if on leaving service after 20 years or so our military were given a house or plot of land to build on
@АлексейШле
3 жыл бұрын
Roman Empire had people with status similar to serfs but it is not about Legion service.
@rallyny
2 жыл бұрын
This is my first MH video. I loved the personal nature of it; I felt like he was talking to me directly and certainly not giving me a boring lecture. Learned quite a lot they missed way back in grade school! It was also interesting to learn that you may have had a better situation if you were a serf rather than free. Which of course triggers a very complex and interesting philosophical question. Anyway, looking forward to lots more of these - going to queue them up!
@ModernKnight
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching, and yes the subject is complicated and requires a shift in perspective from today.
@CorTec
10 күн бұрын
So just like today then, mostly a financial slave but free to move around.
@Flukeallday
3 жыл бұрын
One of THE best KZitem channels out there. Just superb.
@Frostblast7
3 жыл бұрын
About the military service...imagine you are a noble. You are expected to maintain a retinue of a certain size. Some of your men died during a war and you need replacements and the sons of your existing retainers are too young to join. It would make sense to look at the serfs who have followed you to war as part of their feudal obligation and offer the most well-performing and loyal ones a spot in your retinue, which would naturally lift them out serfdom. Though this is probably not the same becoming a freeman as the former serf would then become a retainer instead.
@HiragamaIkunai
3 жыл бұрын
Freedom through military service is pretty common in many cultures from large swathes of asia (china and japan specifically) to Greek and Roman
@thebitsanpiecesman4423
2 жыл бұрын
Oh shut up
@connorperrett9559
2 жыл бұрын
@@thebitsanpiecesman4423 Who are you talking to and why?
@connorperrett9559
2 жыл бұрын
@@HiragamaIkunai Service guarantees citizenship!
@Sieffre_Tawr
2 жыл бұрын
The right to bear arms is also complicated. You could be a Freeman but not have the right.
@miguelsuarez-solis5027
2 жыл бұрын
I'm fairly confident a Lord who killed or maimed a serf could get away with it
@comradesillyotter1537
2 жыл бұрын
Why's that
@miguelsuarez-solis5027
2 жыл бұрын
@@comradesillyotter1537 for the same reason a billionaire could... Politics and economics... I'm not saying every Lord could in every circumstance but let's not pretend lords don't have WAY more political pull than a peasant
@HonestDepression101
16 күн бұрын
@miguelsuarez-solis5027 I think it would have been rare for a lord to face any consequences for beating, making or killing a serf.
@KP3droflxp
14 күн бұрын
So you are weighing your hunch against historical research and law?
@miguelsuarez-solis5027
14 күн бұрын
@@KP3droflxp I'm weighing my hunch on logic and and historical evidence
@sammysoppy3361
7 ай бұрын
when mid evil peasants had a better working schedule than you do in 2024…..
@dannypeck96
2 жыл бұрын
6:00 40 shillings would be around 480p or 2 old pounds (12 pennies to the shilling, 20 shillings to the pound). at 2 pennies a day for a basic labourer (around the 1300's that was the going rate, by the 1400's it was up to around 3 pence a day) you'd be talking around a year's wage fined. assuming the closest approximation of it being a minimum wage job, that's £71.28 a day in 2021, or £35.64 for an old penny. so, the fine of "40 shillings" in modern money is, by that estimate, £17.107.20. very interesting channel and I've subscribed! just got me interested in how much a penny was worth back then
@yeraycatalangaspar195
3 жыл бұрын
Oh man that will be interesting,as it varies a lot all around Europe what rights and duties they had.
@phodon129
3 жыл бұрын
A thousand years of history in dozens if not hundreds of different communities is impossible to have simple answers for.
@yeraycatalangaspar195
3 жыл бұрын
@@phodon129 Rightly so, also learned some stuff in this one, like the Normans actually getting ride of slaves (bondsmans, but baby steps).
@DieNibelungenliad
3 жыл бұрын
It seems that in feudal kingdoms, the most important right was the right to use land which came with the duty to either pay rent to the landlord or become a servant for the landlord
@meri_teri_82
3 жыл бұрын
Teachers/professors take notes; this is how you teach a subject. Love these videos! Entertaining and educational. Bravo, Jason. And... 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 A standing ovation for Kasumi's mad editing skills! Superb, seamless transitions. 👏👏👏 Thank you both for this great video and great content. Hope you're all keeping well.
@ModernKnight
3 жыл бұрын
Glad you enjoyed it!
@meri_teri_82
3 жыл бұрын
@@ModernKnight Loved it!
@Chuubii
3 жыл бұрын
calm down, dude's a video game CEO who's a history hobbyist, not some history professor
@ericwilliams1659
3 жыл бұрын
@@Chuubii where might we see your contributions to society? Can you please list your achievements or accomplishments?
@meri_teri_82
3 жыл бұрын
@@Chuubii I'm very much aware of what Jason does for a living. My point is that he makes history interesting where as there are professors who will put you to sleep!
@MartialGlobe
8 ай бұрын
I love to compare life nowadays with some of the structures from back in the middle ages, it's kinda cynical but also very entertaining, it's how I explain to myself how some of the politicians these days end up at their position, they just get born into it like the kings and queens of the middle ages, right? Atleast that's the only way I can wrap my head around this incompetence sometimes.
@999mi999
2 жыл бұрын
17:20 in medieval Romania, especially in the principalities of Muntenia and Moldova, peasants were awarded with land for their military service. Historical records show us that the vast majority of peasants were free, mostly thanks to this system, by the times of Vlad the Impaler and Stephen the Great, and that the backbone of the army were free peasants (called răzeși/părtași in Moldova, moșneni in Muntenia and Oltenia). The situation in Transylvania was similar up until 1438, when Ius Valachicum and Universitas Valachorum were removed and the romanian peasants became permanent serfs/slaves to the hungarians and later to the austrians.
@kincaidwolf5184
5 ай бұрын
Feudalism ended in Britain pretty much in the 14th century
@ruthd7274
2 ай бұрын
@@999mi999 the Romans would give a piece of land to a soldier when he retired.
@jedidiahpavlik6260
3 жыл бұрын
Very educational. Puts in perspective different definitions of "slavery". Much different than what Americans think of slavery. Maybe the Egyptians had a similar sort of system?
@IamOutOfNames
3 жыл бұрын
I don't know about Egypt specifically but it seems it was somewhat similar in ancient Roman and Greek societies, many layers of social classes with more freedom and rights higher you went, and slaves simply being at the bottom of the ladder with neither freedom or rights.
@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367
3 жыл бұрын
@@IamOutOfNames romans had layers of slavery and many freed slaves were bound to their masters family like a serf
@SepticFuddy
2 жыл бұрын
According to Genesis, "slavery" in Egypt originated as Pharaoh taking 10% of his subjects' future produce in exchange for access to his stored food during the 7 year famine. So by that standard we are all slaves for paying taxes. Of course, the slavery that later befell the Hebrews was of a much harsher nature.
@Stroggoii
2 жыл бұрын
The modern conception of slavery is that of the Ottoman empire which started the Iberian slave trade and later the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Other forms of indentured service had different amounts of rights and benefits, and were almost all notoriously more benign.
@MonkeyJedi99
2 жыл бұрын
@@SepticFuddy I watched some history shows about Egyptian archaeology and paleontology where the Egyptian (and other nearby countries') accounts of the "slavery of the Hebrews" was a whole lot closer to indentured servitude or an exploitative communal work contract than 'whips and chains' slavery. But that Charlton Heston movie pretty much jelled the Biblical version of "truth" in a the minds of a couple of generations.
@Moodymongul
2 жыл бұрын
My great grandmother, who was alive when I was a child in the 1970's (she, 106 or so - they didn't record births and deaths too well in Russia back then, for the lowest class). She started life as a peasant in Russia (a serf ..by 'Russian' standards!) When she escaped genocide and came to Britain (still really, just a child). In the UK, she then became what was called an 'indentured servant'. However, this really meant you were 'owned' by the household you worked for (and a slave to whatever they decided). Thankfully, because it was the 19th century in Britain. Her owners were kind (and against classic Slavery per se). And so, like many other privileged families at that time, gave her a full education and treated her well (compared to anywhere, globally). That education, allowed her to break a cycle. And, later start a family. It allowed her to create stable generations going forwards (rather then future generations of poor and uneducated). It'd hard for some to understand, but we still truly thank that family who saved our great grandmother. It will be a debt MY family never forgets. Its why, as a family, we will always be proud of the British. And, to be British ourselves!
@ModernKnight
2 жыл бұрын
lovely history.
@lordnelsonmc.billionberg9166
2 жыл бұрын
thats awesome. what genocide were your granfma fleeing from exactly?
@Moodymongul
2 жыл бұрын
@@lordnelsonmc.billionberg9166 The ones in Russia where ethnic minorities were either mass murdered or had to flee to the ports to look for safe passage to other countries. Given the wording of your comment, I trust you can research these massacres yourself. Russia though, aren't that big on remembering this history (and like to 'revise' it). Peace.
@shanethompson3180
2 жыл бұрын
@@lordnelsonmc.billionberg9166 Most likely the Holodomor or a similar man made famine, they were quite common in Soviet russia around the time frame they specified or, if far enough back, the german invasion of the Soviet Union. Quite horrific events and the posters grandmother was very fortunate and likely strong of character to survive and later thrive.
@sirallenrider8796
2 жыл бұрын
That is incredible!
@Yeoman1346
3 жыл бұрын
I really enjoy your channel. I am an American and amateur medieval historian. Your channel is so very informative and I savour every episode. My family came from South Oxfordshire. All that to say thank you.
@ModernKnight
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you very much!
@boogeh3630
2 жыл бұрын
Hope you have or will come and visit your homeland Brother.
@Yeoman1346
2 жыл бұрын
@@boogeh3630 there’s no place in this world I would rather visit than England. 🏴 I want to see Stonehenge, the Tower, Hastings, the land of Edward I and III, Henry the Vth, and I could go on and on. That isle set in the sea, this land this realm this England. Thank you, I pray that I might visit soon. 🙏🏻🏴🇬🇧
@billythedog-309
2 жыл бұрын
l'm sorry l don't understand - when you say your family came from South Oxfordshire do you mean just one generation ago or was it further back than then? lf the latter then how much research did you make to establish that all your family came from that one location. l've done some checking on my family history and, in my family's case, came across far more diversity in the origins of them.
@Yeoman1346
2 жыл бұрын
@@billythedog-309 hi, I understand. It was on my mother’s side of the family that came from England. My great grandparents came over in the 1880’s into Canada. My mother was the first American born child in Michigan. Her father was British in citizenship back then Canada was part of Britain still. I am adopted so I did a DNA search and found what areas we originally came from as well as getting in touch with my biological mother. It’s been a long haul. My great grandparents left the south of England and moved to the Isle of Man. From there immigrated to Canada. My father’s side is Native American. I hope I haven’t confused you.
@Taccar
4 ай бұрын
You will lose all of that wonderful history if you let your culture get replaced by immigrants. We will look at those videos and say, oh really ? That was England?
@ModernKnight
4 ай бұрын
The beaker people were displaced by the Picts who were changed by the Britons and Celts, who were changed by the Angles and Saxons then the Normans, the Vikings settled too, as did the Huguenots etc. etc. the history of these islands, and most places, is in the migration and movement of people.
@Treblaine
2 жыл бұрын
There may have been a distinction between serfs and slaves back then but with the modern meaning of the term "slave" serfs would be considered slaves. If police found out serfdom was still being practised the perpetrators would be prosecuted under modern anti-slavery laws.
@LOgomon20
Ай бұрын
I agree serfdom is a slave system, even if not as rigid as others.
@coop5329
Ай бұрын
consider "sharecropping" in America
@spinecho609
Ай бұрын
Uhhhh, have you heard of landlords?
@Treblaine
Ай бұрын
@@spinecho609 Have you heard of a landlord using the government to force you to stay? No. That's because a tenant is not a serf, a tenant is a massive upgrade over a serf. Serfs don't pay, they stay. Serfs are outside of the economy, they are subsistence farmers who are coerced to make a small surplus that is robbed from them by barons who don't just own the land, they own the serf.
@DeanStephen
23 күн бұрын
@@TreblaineThe Barons neither owned the serfs or the land. They were merely entitled by their aristocratic position to manage the land and the serfs on the behalf of the Royal.
@hiccacarryer3624
2 жыл бұрын
The 10c Bodmin Manumissions well predate the Norman conquest and actually occur at the end of fashion for Anglosaxon manumission of slaves in England and then Cornwall. So the process had already been ongoing for up to 200years before the Norman - Bretons turned up. It was infact the pagan Vikings in Ireland who maintained the slave trade.
@yes.1921
3 жыл бұрын
Well I believe that in Russia, serfdom was pretty similar to slavery. I think that in the rest of Europe peasants had rights. Great video once again!
@АлексейШле
3 жыл бұрын
This only comes for the Modern Period (XVII - XVIII centuries). Before that time Russian peasants didn't had many differences from the rest of European countries.
@alexmag342
2 жыл бұрын
Marxist indoctrinate take right here, get out of here with your revisionism, mason
@comradesillyotter1537
2 жыл бұрын
@@alexmag342 ???
@tudorgheorghe8041
3 ай бұрын
You, Sir, are doing a great job at explaining this kind of stuff! I'm very passionate about history and always following your videos with excitement! Thanks!
@martinphilip8998
2 жыл бұрын
Great content. It’s far more interesting to learn about how real people lived than being able to recite a list of dates of the " important " stuff. Could you address how the numerous religious holidays played into this system? I’m glad you mentioned that it was difficult to just pull up stakes and move. We are accustomed to the free right of travel. Besides banditry there were inherent dangers in travel to places where you were not known.
@jackhazardous4008
7 ай бұрын
The cramming of "important history stuff" literally is the reason I couldnt give a shit in school. Ever since discovering these channels that go into the daily lives of people surrounding these events is so much more interesting
@anyascelticcreations
3 жыл бұрын
I clicked pretty fast when I saw the new episode. I wasn't disappointed. 👍
@mcgoose258
3 жыл бұрын
3 day work week huh? sounds nice. I imagine you'd be scrambling to work your own land/animals the remaining 4?
@BuxtonsWater
3 жыл бұрын
Pretty much yeah. Any time you weren't dealing with work ordered by your lord you'd be working on your own farm and family.
@arkthul8872
3 жыл бұрын
Well... that's 42% spent doing work with 0 reward for someone else. Assuming you work an 8h/d 5d/week, that's ~16h20m/week or ~3h20m/d wasted doing hard work. Doesn't sound nice really, sounds exhausting.
@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367
3 жыл бұрын
50‰ tax basically.. sundays you dont work
@Stroporez
3 жыл бұрын
@@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367 Plus the 60 hens, that's more than a hen per week in addition to labor.
@TitaniusAnglesmith
2 жыл бұрын
@@arkthul8872 I would imagine 8 hours is rather generous... Maybe 14 based on my experience growing up on farms.
@tonieja8814
8 ай бұрын
I don't know about other countries, but in mine it happened that peasants were sold or given as a "gift" to other nobles or they were simply thrown out of the land without anything, a peasant could not leave the lord's land without special permission, the penalty for escaping was death by saying and hunts were also organized for escaped peasants, the lord could beat them with a whip or even beat them to death for not taking off their hat or making a weak bow.... in addition to working for the lord, the peasant also worked on the parson's (church's) land, women were often given linen to carry and comb etc., a family of peasants had to give back a certain amount of ready-made material from this flax, if the quality was poor and there were a lot of losses, the peasants had to use their own resources to pay for the material, there was also a tax on owning various things, such as a chimney in a cottage, this tax was so high that people lived very primitively and instead of normal stoves they had fireplaces because they could not afford a regular chimney
@kimfleury
2 жыл бұрын
I wish my landlord would allow us townhouse tenants to grow small gardens outside our doors! The lease that I signed says gardens are forbidden "for your safety" 🤔
@IARRCSim
Ай бұрын
Likely the safety reason is BS. The only danger I can imagine is neighbour pets poo or pee on your plants or someone dumps rat poison on the plants oblivious to the fact that you plan on eating parts of the plants. There have been cases where people have died or nearly died eating grass they harvested in their own back yards because some neighbour put pesticides on it.
@othala7540
3 жыл бұрын
We are still slaves. Actually Even more and more controlled than back then
@EgoShredder
3 жыл бұрын
Oy vey! ;-)
@arkthul8872
3 жыл бұрын
Not really. True, more indirectly fed propaganda & manipulated but not directly controlled as much as back then.
@PositivelyBonkers
3 жыл бұрын
@@arkthul8872Endless lockdowns, need vaccine passports to do anything... seems to me like we are being directly controlled
@EgoShredder
3 жыл бұрын
@@PositivelyBonkers It's amazing that many just refuse to even acknowledge this simple fact. The level of control people are helping to usher in with UN Agenda 2030 is terrifying. It's all been mapped out more or less since before WW I. Many people noticed at the time and are quoted often these days. But still nobody pays any attention. We are all making it too easy for them to usher this dystopian nightmare into our reality.
@LynneFarr
3 жыл бұрын
Terrific video! Always enjoy learning new goodies. After the medieval period early Englishmen & women who came to British America often signed contracts of indenture with land owners who paid their passage for a predetermined period of time. Temporary serfdom.
@michellebyrom6551
3 жыл бұрын
That continued up to the early 20th century for Irish migrants. Seven years for bed, board, work clothes and a little pocket money on top of the passage costs was standard. Many endured gross exploitation even by old standards. Once time had been served they were free to go.
@LynneFarr
3 жыл бұрын
@@michellebyrom6551 That's true. In the Atlantic coastal British colonies they also had headrights. Land was given to land owners for importing indentured workers. Guess who didn't get the land.
@stevenobrien557
2 жыл бұрын
Lol still a better deal than the blackbirders in the Pacific gave at that time.
@SpiritWolf1966
4 ай бұрын
I enjoy all of Modern History TV videos
@elizabethwoodville104
2 жыл бұрын
Such perfect presentation - it is so easy for videos on history to feel dumbed down & patronising. Thank you for your gentle, intelligent and inspiring videos. They are a window into the past.
@joshicus_saint_anger
2 жыл бұрын
So much of history is about countries and the extremely wealthy. I really appreciate anything on the topic of the common people. Great stuff. Truly.
@LuxisAlukard
3 жыл бұрын
10:50 So, it's same today: you want higher social status, you ask bank for a loan, you buy a bigger house, new car, some jewelry, and you are in debt for rest of your life. But you are free.
@Egilhelmson
3 жыл бұрын
I always thought that car loans only lasted three years, and we actually DID have a mortgage for our last house (I forget the term, but less than 20 years). Some were 30 years long, but the rest of your life only if you die too soon. So don’t drive drunk.
@dingusdingus2152
2 жыл бұрын
So sad that a bigger house and new car confer higher social status
@lucemthomas
8 ай бұрын
Of course they were. Not in a slap some chains on them, but all the rest, and some times they slapped some chains on them
@ilfurlano1228
3 жыл бұрын
Video in 500 years: Were modern employees slaves ?
@keylanoslokj1806
2 жыл бұрын
Yes they are
@ilfurlano1228
2 жыл бұрын
@@keylanoslokj1806 yes WE are!
@LILLIASNIFFER
3 жыл бұрын
ITS THE LAD JASON what up man hello from america. glad to see you havent stopped doing this. that tunic fit is lookin FRESH
@T3AMKILL
2 жыл бұрын
This is brilliant! Your videos are wonderful and very interesting to watch. I find peasant and just normal every day life so fascinating. You’ve already done some great videos on food, but do you have any more planned? Perhaps on drinks / wine / ale? Or life in “cities” in London? Medieval life is so interesting. To add: I love the natural setting of your videos. The birds chirping, sounds of stepping on grass, it all adds a lot to the atmosphere.
@ModernKnight
2 жыл бұрын
Glad you like them!
@Xaz-h5b
9 күн бұрын
I don’t think the question should be “did serfs see themselves as slaves.” I think what we should focus on, is can serfdom be compared to slavery? Because class divisions in general rlly is just slavery with extra steps. I mean yeah, I could be compared to a serf, u got me, I am the modern equivalent of a serf. But if you ask me, I’d say being forced to work wages that are exploitative and unfair is the same thing as slavery, or rather it slavery with extra steps. I would say I am a slave today simply because I am peasant. I’m the closest thing to a slave in the U.S.. But ofc, I am certain that many serfs didn’t see themselves as slaves because they were bootlickers with Stockholm syndrome, who bs themselves into believing that they were free. Also there are black Americans with radical, left wing, views suggesting that the idea of comparing class divisions to slavery is actually more woke than what the average liberal wants you to believe. Because if class divisions are comparable to slavery, then imagine how that affects the lives of black Americans, a group of ppl who used to be slaves, imagine how that past affects them today, because black Americans will also agree that they are being treated as the modern equivalent of slaves.
@TheBatt2121
3 жыл бұрын
Jason, can you recommend a book or two about peasantry and serfdom in the medieval period?
@ModernKnight
3 жыл бұрын
I'll grab my reference pile!
@minerwaweasley1008
2 жыл бұрын
In case Jason forgot, the popular book by Frances and Joseph Gies, Life in a Medieval Village (1990) is good.
@trentroth6717
3 жыл бұрын
A new video I'm so excited
@matthiasjagdm3949
2 жыл бұрын
I have two somewhat stupid questions 1. Did the colour of the knight's horse , have a meaning? 2. Could you do a video on colours (on cloth, art, in religion art, coat of arms, flags, houses, stained glass windows, shields, knight/templar over armour cloth, tents, books, and so on)the meanings and symbolism of them+the names of colours and how dyes and pigments was made, (i am a colour consultant, connoisseur and advisor and i want to learn more about colours through history)
@ModernKnight
2 жыл бұрын
I'm not aware the colour of a horse had any significance outside symbolic artwork perhaps? I know from personal experience that white (greyed) horses are harded to keep clean so might indicate higher status perhaps, as it costs more to look after them? we know humility was represented by clergy riding mules or donkeys, even with fancy gold bridles etc.
@mrmoore2050
Жыл бұрын
11:30-40 "As you can imagine with human beings, the situation is quite complicated. Just like today status mattered to some people, but not everybody" That is pretty insightful, this channel is legitimate history explanations.
@vicentesaiz1670
2 жыл бұрын
Great and very interesting video as always! The discussion reminded me of something I read in Guy Bois's "The Great Medieval Depression". It seems among historians there was a confusion because of the translation of the word "villa". TL;DR, it was the tendency to think that serfdom was much more prevalent than free peasants, but it wasn't. I'll attempt a translation since I read the book in Spanish: "(...) One by one, the elements on which our representation of the societies in centuries VIII and X were based (founded, as it was believed, in a structure of great dominions of lords worked on by serfs) has crumbled before the simple impact of empirical investigations. Peasant property (...) actually covered a great part of the soil. The great dominion that was believed to be found in every step in the documents under the latin word "villa" suddenly became scarcer and it diminished even more when it was made clear what the term almost always meant: a village with crops on it." Footnote (49):" Thus, when a field is said to be "in villa X", this doesn't mean that its a great lordship X, but that it is in the area of village X; the indication has a topographic and not a property character (...). Guy Bois, "La Gran Depresión Medieval: Siglos XIV - XV: El precedente de una crisis sistémica" Biblioteca Nueva Universitat de Valencia, 2001.
@profeseurchemical
2 жыл бұрын
thats a revelation
@andrewmstancombe1401
2 жыл бұрын
I love the details you show in your videos. The things you want to ask, and most historians can't be bothered with, as it's not important enough for them, that we should need to know. I've never heard a better description of serfdom against slavery. Actually, when you think about it, that near enough applied up to 1914 in rural areas, and even when I was younger, farmers often had tied housing in which they lived so long as they worked the land of the landowner. So doff your hat and do as you're told or lose your job and home.
@celtspeaksgoth7251
2 жыл бұрын
that's true. My grandfather bought land from a lord's estate in the early 1920s - prime minister David Lloyd George imposed swingeing death duties on the toffs. My mother knew someone in Cumbria/Yorkshire whose family were prosperous enough but they were tenant farmers and there was surprise that her father owned his own farm.
@carlhicksjr8401
2 жыл бұрын
'Freedom' in a medieval sense was a VERY dangerous thing. For most it meant 'freedom to starve'. The absolute lowest class in the medieval world was the urban day laborer. They were the first to starve in a famine and never earned enough wages to actually prosper. There was **security** in being a serf /peasant. You traded your farming skills and labor for a fair share of the village crop and what you could grow in your own garden, and protection from beasts and bandits from the village lord. A free unguilded day laborer in a city only lived on what few coins he would make that day or week.
@nerodominus7582
2 жыл бұрын
Oh god, how austalopitecs, later on humans lived and thrived without being chained to a land by a guy who was born from a vagina chosen by some guy called himself "cool lord". No idea how humanity thrived without this system, probably leftie propaganda, in fact God created Lords and Slaves and we always lived like this hail God!
@nerodominus7582
2 жыл бұрын
unfortunately by many evidences no one was really protected from bandits so yeah, kinda learn history and stop justification slavery
@carlhicksjr8401
2 жыл бұрын
@@nerodominus7582 I'm not justifying slavery, ND. There is a a wide legal difference between feudalism and chattel slavery, though most modern interpreters have a hard time distinguishing between the two. For one thing, 'Slavery' in a US and UK sense implies an element of racism that isn't present in feudalism. Yes, there was cultural bigotry [say, between the conquering Normans and the native Anglo-Saxons of Domesday-era England] but mostly it is a matter of social class distinctions. And class distinctions are not 'Slavery', either. I'm certainly not arguing that net effect of feudalism wasn't very near chattel slavery, especially when the lords and church were squeezing their serfs for as much as they could get. But there are important legal and social distinctions between the two. And it isn't as if you could form a democracy in Europe before the Protestant Reformation anyway.
@samuelskinner7704
2 жыл бұрын
@@carlhicksjr8401 Nah, it is just people applying connotations to words without caring about the underlying reality. The reason people historically didn't like to be slaves is because slaves 'died out'; that is they didn't have children or were worked to death so needed to constantly be replaced. Unfree labor that doesn't have that downside isn't as unpopular, because you can have it work for generations so people get used and it becomes the normal state of affairs. There isn't a massive difference for most people between 'work or starve' and 'work or be beaten'. However since the connotations of the word are bad, people don't like having it applied to things they might experience. It is why people get upset when you call conscription slavery even though conscription is often worse. "And it isn't as if you could form a democracy in Europe before the Protestant Reformation anyway." The Ciompi Revolt (Florence) was in 1378 and temporary established what amounted to universal male suffrage.
@carlhicksjr8401
2 жыл бұрын
@@samuelskinner7704 'Sufferage' meaning 'every male had a voice in leading the city' or 'sufferage' as in 'every male was no longer bound to a master'? That's an important distinction. In addition, you have the Catholic Church saying that everyone was born to their station as decreed by God, and one should not seek to improve upon it. Lastly, I don't want to make feudalism sound like it was hippie cooperative. So long as the taxes were paid on time, a liege lord didn't give a damn what happened on a fief... including beatings! Oh, there's be low court, if the fief-holder was feeling formal about it, but literally the only punishment he couldn't put on an unlucky and ill-favored serf was death itself. The lord could do what he wished otherwise. BUT a medieval serf DID have rights that an urban unskilled laborer did not have... including a right to his fair share of the harvest.
@charles2521
4 ай бұрын
In the ancient Mediterranean (Mesopotamia, Greece, etc.), the word used to refer to a slave was the same word used to refer to workers in general, from employees to servants. Slaves were not necessarily prisoners in chains, as happened during the colonization of the Americas. The "free men" were the owners of the land, while the title of nobility was not as common as it became thousands of years later. Also, "medieval" isn't very accurate. In the Visigothic Kingdom, for example, the native Iberian population had a different status to the Visigoths and were basically slaves.
@charles2521
4 ай бұрын
Another detail: In the ancient Mediterranean, some people even sold themselves into slavery because, believe it or not, they had some benefits.
@charles2521
4 ай бұрын
The last detail I forgot to mention is that slaves weren't necessarily manual laborers, some were highly educated and worked as advisors to the rulers. Some were so respected that they became kings/emperors and founded their own dynasties. In short, "slavery" is a vague status in historical terms, slavery practiced in the Americas could be completely different from slavery in different cultures and eras.
@faramund9865
3 жыл бұрын
“Arguably nothing much had changed there”. Well in fact, modern day working class isn’t much more than a serf, even middle class people are just serfs with privileges. There are no free men in modern society. The closest you’ll get is people with lots of land and a decent chunk of money.
@nevisysbryd7450
3 жыл бұрын
La Cathedrel del Mar (The Cathedral of the Sea) is an excellent Spanish period piece on this concept.
@foldionepapyrus3441
3 жыл бұрын
The real question is are there ever really 'free' men in any social grouping - humans even at the very top of whatever social structure have always had roles to do, and expectations to meet - be it from those below them, or from their equals and betters (that some of these expectations will to folk today seem like bollocks of no benefit to that society is irrelevant - if the society believes x must do y to appease a god, make crops grow etc they better bloody get on and do it). You might well live more comfortably, have more freedoms than others, but that doesn't mean you were really truly without fetters free - the whole society functions because everyone does something like what they are supposed to do in something approaching the way they are supposed to - they might be gentry with huge amounts of resources and free time so dabble in the sciences or whatever, but they do still have 'real' work to do managing their estates, settling disputes (or finding somebody else capable of doing it for them) etc...
@faramund9865
2 жыл бұрын
@@foldionepapyrus3441 Having no responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s hell. Freedom is being able to stand on your own two legs, without having to bow to anyone that you don’t like. Now go and pay your debt to the bank wagie!
@keylanoslokj1806
2 жыл бұрын
Yes agreed. If you can't feed yourself real, nutritious food, and live in your own home, you are a slave. The masses today are totally slaves. They just also have wifi usually to be distracted of their pains
@АлексейШле
3 жыл бұрын
You should have made it clear that the Medieval serfdom should not be confused with the so-called "secondary serfdom" or "second serfdom". It occurred in the Early Modern period in Central and Eastern Europe (some parts of Germany, Poland, Russia etc.). At that time peasants lost all the rights they previously had and approached to the status of slaves. Although this is what comes to a mind when we hear the word "serfs" there was almost no such thing in Medieval Europe as it used to be in the period of XVI - XIX centuries.
@ModernKnight
3 жыл бұрын
not really my period of time nor geography, but interesting.
@elizabethjansen2684
3 жыл бұрын
Fascinating
@Pihtorich
3 жыл бұрын
Ah the humanist, enlightened renaissance. Not like those medieval barbarians
@carlosmedina1281
3 жыл бұрын
Ah yes Russian serfs were basically slaves with how the nobles treated them
@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367
3 жыл бұрын
@@carlosmedina1281 no they too had a set of rights and could change lands they were tied too and could leave by taking a trade, joining the military, the church ect or just run away... but as a serf you had a stable supply of food and some protection of military pressgangs and other abuses, there was reasons why people stayed serfs. but yes polish or russian serfs worked entirly for their masters almost there was russian laws banning the sale of your children into serfdom more than once e t.. which meant the serfs children were not serfs and he could then sell them to his master with a contract and so too tie them to his land.. ..
@TheSaiyanKing
2 жыл бұрын
16:20 similar to how nowadays, if you are in the French Foreign Legion and get injured in combat, you will get french citizenship, as you are now "French by spilled blood".
@mellissadalby1402
3 ай бұрын
Greetings Sir Knight! The Knights Templar essentially operated one of the earliest forms of banking, protecting the money of pilgrims going to a from the holy land. They also lent money, tragically to King Philip IV of France, who instead of paying back what he borrowed from the Templars, conspired with the Vatican to declare them all to be heritics, resulting in the Templar masscre of Friday October 13, 1307. But who's counting?
@wackywankavator
3 жыл бұрын
I always loved the medieval "and a day" measurement. I'm sure practically it was the baker's dozen of minimum time, one extra day to guarantee one year paid in full. But as an American, it has a fey magical quality.
@darreno9874
3 жыл бұрын
Hi Jason the look at the lower classes was great. If your interested in a topic to really confuse you try looking at medieval mining law. Love the series. God bless
@YanPagh
3 жыл бұрын
17:32 what Shakespeare referred to seem to hold water since there were cases of men who served under him during that war who were caught by authorities breaking the law however were declared exempt from legal punishment because the King promised that they were free from punishment (because of that campaign), so it was common knowledge then that these men became not just free, but "equals with the King" (maybe in rights, as for instance legal punishment) at least while they were alive. In one case of a trouble maker it seems that the King himself personally intervened on his favour during his trial. There was a documentary about that campaign where historians explained their bestowed perk into detail, really interesting stuff. Current politicians would just make promises and throw everyone under the bus.
@contessa.adella
25 күн бұрын
Imagine a thousand years ago…UK had only 3 million people. You would randomly meet people out and about only about a twentieth as often as today. You might walk for miles in the countryside and never see anyone! How I would love that simplicity. Today there is almost nowhere outside the largest moors and Scottish highlands where you can just get away from it all and not bump into people.
@acchaladka
3 жыл бұрын
Great content - more of this please. For a topic, what happened to "foreigners" in different periods, ie those from outside a region or outside the kingdom?
@Ser-Smiley
3 жыл бұрын
Its been a while. Lets gooo! 😋
@lavillablanca
3 жыл бұрын
May I say I love your clothing? (which I presume is authentic - since I wasn’t around in the Medieval).
@crimson1949
5 ай бұрын
Hold up...serviles worked 2-3 days a week? EXCUSE ME. So you're telling me my 5 day a week job is worse than a servant? Hmmm I'm starting to think this "capitalism" ain't so great.
Пікірлер: 4,9 М.