10 - 13th C.:changes that transformed the rural landscape => the most important concentrated on the peasantry (BUT: the common people left no written records => what we know comes from the elite)
10th C.: grows of European population => new forms of social organization and economic activity
    * 1000 - 1300 Europe's population: 38 to 74 million
WHY?
- end of Viking and Magyar raids
- decline of slavery
- agricultural techniques
- improving climate

=> the land was transformed => the forest - cut back; peasants began to drain marshes (Holland and Northern Germany) => the process will continue into 1900s

The Peasantry:

- formed a homogeneous social category => serfs

Serfs: bound to the land;
          depended on the lords
          had to give their lords a fixed portion of their harvest
          were obligated to work a certain number of days the demense, or reserve of the lord
          required to make ritual payments symbolizing their subordination

- the serfs lived in precarious conditions, small houses (huts) in villages  => on manors or large estates

* the serfs => had obligations toward the Church => they had to make donations in order to receive the sacraments

the land: was divided in thin strips of land (worked by the peasants); and a large portion of land that was worked by the peasants for the lord; all land belonged to the lord
* common lands (pasture, woodland)
=> this is an open field system => allotted all peasant households a portion of all different sorts of land (kept peasants at the same economic level)

Innovation in agriculture:

- traditionally the fields were worked with simple plows (broke up light soils but could not turn and aerate the heavy clay soils)
9 - 12th C. => a new, heavier plow became common => increased the productivity (but: the equipment was expensive and required large teams of oxen or horses) (common - in the High Middle Ages)

- a system of crop rotation => traditionally the farmers divided their lands into two parts (one planted the other plowed but allowed to remain fallow)
- 8th C.: a three field system => one third of the land was planted in autumn with wheat or rye, one third remained fallow, one third was planted in the spring with barley, rye, beans or peas (added nutrients to the soil)
    => the result: increased productivity; with minimal increase in labor + an improved diet

Work division: men plowed and worked the fields
                        women - in charge of the domestic tasks => wool carding, spinning, weaving + caring for the family's vegetable garden
BUT: during the harvest time => women worked in the fields alongside the men

12th C:(more demand for laborers than - because of the expansion of arable lands) peasant villages acquired from their lord the privilege of dealing with him and his representatives collectively rather than individually => villages purchased the right to control petty courts and to limit fines (imposed by lord's representative); peasants acquired protection from arbitrary demands for labor and extraordinary taxes

13th C: the labor market stagnated  => Europe's population (in France, England, Italy, and western Germany) reached a saturation point => lay and ecclesiastical lords => could profit more by hiring cheap laborers than demanding customary services and payments from their serfs; their serfs were willing to pay for increased privileges

Peasants - could purchase the right to marry without the lord's consent
              - could move to neighboring manors, or towns
             - could inherit
             - acquired personal freedom from their lord's jurisdiction
             - transformed their servile payments into payments of rent
             - purchased their own land
             - commuted their labor services into annual or even one time payments

the STATE - benefited => the kings and towns could extend their legal and fiscal jurisdictions over the free peasants and their lands at the expense of the nobility
14th C.: serfs => were a rarity in many parts of western Europe
the free peasants were not prosperous => BUT they were free

Eastern Europe and Spain: peasants were loosing their freedom

Aristocracy:

10th C.: in documents => the old aristocracy + miles (soldier)
* miles => knight

Knight : mounted worrier (the term said nothing about his social status)
* some knights were serfs; in Germany knights remained a distinctly lower social group (13th C.)
BUT: in France, Northern Italy, England, Spain => 11th C. => the term knight (chevalier - Fr.; caballero - Sp.) worked its way up the social ladder

12th C.: some kings identified themselves as part of a knightly world

the term knight => would define not only a function; will define a lifestyle

the center of this lifestyle => France
the essence of this lifestyle: fighting => through warfare this aristocracy maintained or acquired its freedom and privileges
Knights => 2% of the population
Social origin => diverse => they descended from the old aristocracy of the Carolingian age => inheritance was limited to the eldest sons; daughters were given a dowry but did not share inheritance; younger sons - had to find service with some great lord or live in the households of their older brothers

12th C.: the nobles lived safely behind the castles walls (independent of the local counts, dukes, and kings)
    the lesser nobility => controlled traditionally public powers => like justice, peace and taxation