The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages

The middle ages is a time commonly associated with castles, kings, crusaders, and knights, but the group of people that made up the majority of the population is hardly recognized at all. The peasants in the middle ages made up about ninety percent of the people, and had very rough and, for the most part, short-lived lives. The peasant class was the greatest influence on medieval life. Feudalism was the system of class organization that was used by most of the empires, nations, and territories in the European area during these times. Therefore it also held a great impact on life in the middle ages. Finally the castles of the medieval times had a great effect on life. Life in the middle ages was influence by the peasant class, feudalism, and castles.

Peasants in the middle ages lived in the area that was owned by their lord, and were taxed heavily for protection and the right to live on his/her land. They mad up a mass majority of the populations and are the large base at the bottom of feudalism. They lived outside of the Lord's castle and either farmed the land of lived in the town. They were the source of agriculture for castle fortifications where people lived, and were the most important part to the people. They supplied most of the food, but were often treated poorly. The peasant class was the base of feudalism and without them the system would never be even semi-functional. Although the lords did control them they could have survived without the lords, and all others above them, but the other classes didn't have the man power to survive without the peasants.

Secondly, feudalism was the idealistic system for the middle ages, most likely the reason it became so popular. This way kings were able to easily break up their land and maintain through the lords that were each given a piece as long as they paid their certain monarch. The lords were in charge of their