The Life of Poor Men in the Middle Ages

Poor men in the Middle Ages didn’t have it easy. Their lives could be arduous and potentially dangerous. However, they weren’t all bad.

Poor men in the Middle Ages worked, had families, and attended church. They did their best to provide for their families and give their children the best chance of a happy life. Compared to modern people, they were indigent but also pretty devout. Their marriages weren’t always good, but they made them work. They were resilient but loving. Good at farming, but also fighting. They were either serfs or freemen.

How were their childhood activities and learning opportunities different than today? What jobs did poor men have? What were their lives like?

Childhood of Poor Boys in the Middle Ages

One common myth about the Middle Ages is that medieval people didn’t love their children. That is entirely false. Parents loved their children, whether they were rich or poor.

Therefore, poor boys in the middle ages didn’t usually have terrible childhoods. At a young age, boys had to help around farms or businesses. Today, children do daily jobs in their own homes. Also, helping around the farm or business was their schooling. They had to know how to provide for themselves when they were adults.

Despite having to work alongside their parents, children had time to play. They enjoyed racing, wrestling, and playing with toys. Some of their toys, like stick swords and little boats, they made themselves. People say that it takes a village to raise a child. In medieval times, this was true.

Depiction of a Medieval Village

The church could provide food and sometimes schooling to local children. Some of that instruction helped boys become priests or other church officials later in life. Lords generally had to look after their tenants. Godparents also helped with the children. Childhood was a decent time to learn, grow, and have fun in the Middle Ages, just like now.

Marriage

Marriage in the Middle Ages could happen at a very young age. Boys reached the Age of Consent when they were fourteen years old. The Age of Consent was the legal marriage age.

However, poor men in the Middle Ages could wait until they were a little older. They had to have a place to live with their new wife and a way to make a living. Before their weddings, boys could continue working on their parents’ farms. That made parents happy and gave the boys more experience for later life.

Most poor men in the Middle Ages didn’t usually get married until their late teens or early twenties. Even by today’s standards, that isn’t that bad. They also got much more choice about who their wives were than rich men (see my post about rich men in the gothic period here).

Work of Poor Men in the Middle Ages

There was much to do on a peasant’s farm or in their shops. The main job of peasants was farming or raising animals for themselves, their lord, and whoever else bought their food. Food is essential to life, so the largest portion of the population grew or raised it.

Reeve and Serfs

Peasants worked for lords, bishops, monasteries, or colleges on strips of land assigned to them. Everything had to be planted, weeded, watered and harvested on a farm. Work days started when the sun came up and ended when the sun went down. Therefore, workdays during the summer could be very long.

A Medieval Calendar for the Month of August

Sometimes, peasants would work together to do big jobs like plowing. Other trades were basket weaving, beekeeping, blacksmithing, doctoring, carving, and other things that provided food, service, or anything for which people would pay.

Some of the wealthier peasants could afford to take on servants. Young people would work for others to learn more and earn money at the same time. Unmarried girls could put their wages towards a dowry or whatever they wanted, but they did work for other families (see my post about medieval girls here).

Boys could save their wages for a variety of things. They would eventually want to marry, but they had to have a little money for that. A serf boy might also dream about buying himself free of his obligations to the lord to whose estate he belonged.

Houses, Lands, and Villages

Peasants had a social hierarchy just like noblemen. At the bottom of that hierarchy were serfs. They were legally tied to the land on which they were born. They belonged to their lord in a way, had to give him a portion of their harvest, and had to do any additional tasks he ordered.

On the top of their hierarchy were the freemen. They weren’t tied to the land. Sometimes, they still rented from their lord, but in more prosperous cases, they might even own their small parcel of land. Their houses looked very different than ours today. The floor was just dirt, and the windows didn’t have glass.

They shared their home with animals to prevent their theft and provide warmth for themselves and the animals. They had one or maybe two rooms. Beds were full of biting bugs such as bedbugs, fleas, and lice, and furniture was simple.

Most poor men in the Middle Ages lived in small villages based around a manor. The villages provided safety in numbers. Even small towns were safer than out on your own. Many people married others in their villages because they knew them. Villagers helped look after each other.

Food

Food is one of the most necessary parts of life. Without food there is no life. Poor men in the Middle Ages ate a lot of grains and vegetables.

One of their main foods was pottage, a thick stew made out of grains like rye, oats, and any other grains they may grow and vegetables. Homemade rye bread was on the table a lot, along with cheese if the family had a goat, sheep, or cow.

They didn’t eat a lot of meat because they needed all the animals they had. Water wasn’t always safe, so they drank alcoholic beverages like ale or maybe wine and fresh milk.

As you can see, poor men in the Middle Ages had hard lives, but they weren’t all bad.