![]() ![]() translation „field constraint“), which hindered innovation. It forced everyone to farm in the same way at the same time in what was called „ flurzwang“ (lit. (See image Plan of a Medieval Manor) If your World has a different number or order of seasons, I recommend you invent your own crop rotation, or otherwise decide how much and how often one could yield crops from the ground until it needs to be left fallow. The open field system is thought to have been quite inefficient. Each farmer owned part of the land in each block. The village’s fields were divided into 3 blocks: Fallow land that is left unused so it can replenish nutrients spring planting and autumn planting. The farmland was worked in an open field system with 3 field crop rotation. Often there was a shared meadow or „ common land“ that the villager’s animal could use for grazing- thus the name “commoner”. ![]() Most farms and houses had a small garden and a small plot of land for the livestock to dwell. How much land a farmer had varied greatly. This also led fields to feature a „ ridge and furrow“ pattern- small dams building up to the left and right of the plow. The farmland was divided into rectangular patches because turning the plow was cumbersome. ![]() In western Europe, the dominant feature of the medieval hamlet and village were the fields surrounding it. Fields a framer plowing a field, source: wikimedia commons Thus the location and layout of towns may vary based on the time period and location. Over that timespan, progress was made in the realm of farming and housing during the medieval times, albeit slowly. The Middle Ages cover a very long period, ranging from about 500 AD to 1500 AD, depending on who you ask. This article focuses on the late Middle Ages. If your world does not know serfdom and feudalism as western Europe had it, this information will probably not apply to your game. I want to give you an idea of how a village in the post-Roman Manorialism looked on a map,so you can draw and describe such settlements in a way that makes sense. The Lord received goods, services, and some cash to keep the manor running while the peasants received justice, protection, and services that would have been too expensive for a peasant to provide himself.This article is for game masters of tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons. The peasantry and nobility lived in a symbiotic relationship, each providing something the other needed. The Lord also provided land the peasants could use to graze their pigs for a small fee called pannage. ![]() The Lord provided a mill for the villagers (for a portion of the grain ground, of course), a bakery, a court of justice, protection, and sometimes a parish church. The Lord also owed services to the peasants. Imperatively, not all the services in the village were owed by the peasants to the Lord. However, these residents of the village also owed fees and services to the Lord but usually not as much as those who worked a large amount of land.Īlso, some free peasants owned their land outright and therefore did not owe any service to the Lord of the Manor. There were blacksmiths, tapers, ale makers (usually women), potters, and all-around handymen. However, furrow stealing often led to fines levied by the Lord's Court.Īlthough, not all peasants in the village farmed. As a farmer plowed the edge of his land, he might move over into his neighbor's land and plow a few furrows, claiming them as his own. The unscrupulous farmers would sometimes try to pick up a little bit of precious land by swiping some of their neighbor's land in a process called furrow stealing. The following day, the farmer would turn his team around and plow back in the opposite direction. Because of the difficulty of turning a plow and its team around, farmers plowed a straight line as far as they could in a single day. In their daily lives, most peasants worked their land with either horses, oxen, or a combination of the two. Imperatively, most peasants never ventured out of the village during their lifetime. The village was usually part of a manor run by a Lord or someone of noble birth or a church or an abbey. For most peasants in the Middle Ages, life centered around the village. ![]()
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