Medieval Information

Farming a thousand years ago was very different from what it is today. Medieval farmers earned just enough to survive - this combined with the 12 hours per day an average farmer had to work - made them very poor and unhappy.

Farms back then were small. They normally surrounded a small town which depended in the food produced by these farms so if the farms failed, so the towns. Farms were never property of the peasants - they were property of the lord and he would exchange farming land if he got back taxes in return.

A lord would normally appoint a noble to look after the working peasants. This generally worked very well as a farmer was to work and give tribute to the noble and then the noble tribute to the lord who was the wealthiest of all.

During times of war, farming was halted outside. Fortunately for modern castles, some farming land was kept inside the castle to still produce food. These castles were normally concentric (consisting of many walls) and thus; they were only a minority.

Make sure to read the how were women treated article for additional information.

Famines were disastrous for farmers as they would lose their job and subsequently, there would be almost no food available for the kingdom. There were only a couple of famines - but when they happened, they were very deadly.

Animals

Poor peasants could only dream of ever having an ox or horse to help them in their daily tasks. Since an ox was very expensive, villagers would very often cooperate each other to buy one or two oxen for the whole village. They were then shared by everyone as help was needed.