Peasants in the Middle Ages

356 Pages·1992·16.466 MB·English

by  Rösener, Werner

PEASANTS IN THE
MIDDLE AGES
Werner Rosener

PEASANTS IN THE MIDDEE AGES
To Barbel, Anne and Benno
PEASANTS
IN THE
MIDDLE AGES
Werner Rosener
Translated and with foreword and glossary
by Alexander Stiitzer
University of Illinois Press
Urbana and Chicago
mini Books edition, 1992
©C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung (Oscar Beck), 1985
First published in Germany as Bauem im Mittelalter
This English translation (© Polity Press, 1992
Manufactured in Great Britain
ISBN 0-252-06289-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available from the Library of Congress
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Translator’s Foreword x
Part I Medieval Peasantry: Origins and Development
Introduction 3
1 The Foundations of Medieval Peasantry 11
2 Transformations in the High Middle Ages 22
Part II Patterns of Peasant Settlement and Dwelling, 1000-1400
3 Nature and Environment, Clearance and Settlement 33
4 Changes in the Village 45
5 Peasant House and Holding 63
Part III Peasant Clothing, Food and Work, 1000-1400
6 Clothing and Food 85
7 Agricultural Implements, Land Utilization and Agrarian
Development 107
8 Peasant Labour and Economy 122
Part IV Social Patterns, 1000-1400
9 Neighbourhood and Village Community ^ 147
10 Peasant Family and Kinship 169
11 The Social Stratification of the Peasant Population 191
Part V Manorial Relations and Law, 1000-1400
12 Manorial Dependence 211
13 Peasant b’reedom and Independent Peasant Communities 224
14 Peasant Revolts and Resistance, 1000-1400 237
Contents
VI
Part VI The Upheavals of the Late Middle Ages
15 The Peasants and the Agrarian Crisis 255
Notes 276
Select Bibliography 316
Glossary 326
Index 328
V
■s
Illustrations
1 The Diemel area. From W. Abel, Geschichte der deutschen Landwirt-
schaft vom friihen Mittelalter bis zum 19. Jahrhundert, 3rd edn,
Stuttgart, 1978, p. 33.
2 Settlement types. Design by Werner Rosener, drawing by A. Hermes,
Gottingen.
3 Model of a nucleated village. Design by Werner Rosener, drawing by
A. Hermes.
4 The village of Heudorf. Badisches Generallandesarchiv, Karlsruhe.
5 The village of Konigshagen. From W. Janssen, ‘Dorf und Dorfformen
des 7. bis 12. Jahrhunderts’, in H. Jahnkuhn et ah. Das Dorf der
Eisenzeit und des friihen Mittelalters, Gottingen, 1977, p. 316, plate 5.
6 The village of Gossau near St Gallen. From the illustrated chronicle
by Diepold Schilling (1513). Korporationsgemeinde Luzern.
7 Cattle-stall farmhouse. From W. Haarnagel, ‘Das eisenzeitliche Dorf
Feddersen Wierde’, in Jahnkuhn et ah. Das Dorf der Eisenzeit, p. 261,
plate 4.
8 Roof types. Design by Werner Rosener, drawing by A. Hermes.
9 Farmhouse types. Design by Werner Rosener, drawing by A. Hermes.
10 The prodigal son. Copperplate engraving by Albrecht Diirer (1497).
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg.
11 Neidhart of Reuental. Miniature from the Manesse collection of
ballads. Heidelberg University Library.
12 Three peasants. Copperplate engraving by Albrecht Diirer. Bildarchiv
Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
13 Bread-baking and pig-slaughtering. From a Flemish sixteenth-century
calendar.
14 Peasant open-air banquet. Copperplate engraving by D. Hopfer.
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
15 Hook-plough and wheeled plough. Design by Werner Rosener,
drawing by A. Hermes.
Illustrations
viii
16 Ox team harnessed to plough. From Herrad of Landsberg, Hortus
deliciarum, ed. R. Green et ah, London, 1979, p. 184.
17 Harvest cart. From the dlummated manuscript of the Saxon Code at
Heidelberg. Heidelberg University Library.
18 Grain harvest. From Herrad of Landsberg, Hortus deliciarum, ed.
Green et ah, p. 201.
19 Work in the fields. Wood engraving from Virgil, Georgies, Strasburg,
1502. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg.
20 Work in the fields and gardens. Wood engraving from Virgil,
Georgies, Strasburg, 1502. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg.
21 Sheep-farming. Wood engraving from Virgil, Georgies, Strasburg,
1502. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg.
22 A cattle deal. Wood engraving by Hans Leonhard Schaufelein.
Staatlich Graphische Sammlung, Munich (no. 14632).
23 Haymaking (Flanders). Miniature by Simon Bening. Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek, Munich.
24 Village enclosed by village boundary fence (Etter). From a Swiss
chronicle by Johannes Stumpf. Photograph by Schweizer Landes-
museum, Zurich (no. 93964).
25 The foundation of a clearance village. From the illuminated manuscript
of the Saxon Code at Heidelberg. Heidelberg University Library.
26 Setting the territorial boundary between neighbours. From the
illuminated manuscript of the Saxon Code at Heidelberg. Heidelberg
University Library.
27 Wedding scene. From a wood engraving by Hans Sebald Beham
(1535). Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
28 Peasant wedding. Wood engraving by Nicolas Solis, around 1550.
29 Grain harvest. Sixteenth-century wood engraving. Bildarchiv Preus¬
sischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
30 Peasant woman. Etching by Marcus Geeraerts the Elder. Staatliche
Graphische Sammlung, Munich (no. 150118).
31 Peasant inheritance customs. Redrawn by A. Hermes after B. Huppertz,
Rdume und Schichten bduerlicher Kulturformen in Deutschland,
Bonn, 1939, map IV.
32 Peasant dance. Copperplate engraving by D. Hopfer. Bildarchiv
Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
33 Payment of peasant dues. Wood engraving, Augsburg (1479).
34 Schedule of dates for payment of peasant dues. From the illuminated
manuscript of the Saxon Code at Heidelberg. Heidelberg University
Library.
35 Peasants under the linden tree at the village centre. From the
illustrated chronicle by Diepold Schilling (1513). Korporationsgemeinde
Luzern.
36 Dance under the linden tree at the village centre. From the illustrated
chronicle by Diepold Schilling (1513). Korporationsgemeinde Luzern.