Daily+Life,+Amanda

Society in the early middle ages was classified in different groups, it was the king and leaders within the church. Peasants that lived in the country and merchants and artificers that lived in the city, they were the ones that had to pay taxes.  I’ve concentrated on women and their daily life. Almost every woman was dominated by men in her life during the middle ages. The middle ages woman’s duty was mainly to look after the household, so I’m going to tell you a little bit more about how women lived during the middle ages and how different they lived depending on whether they were a noblewoman, peasant woman or a nun.  PEASANT WOMAN: The daily life of the lower class people in the middle ages was hard. A peasant woman was expected to help their peasant husband with all the different chores and help out in the fields. Her mainly duties were to look after children and small animals, tend the vegetable plot, weaving, spinning and making of and mend clothes, cooking and she also needed to have some knowledge about medicine and herbs for treatment.   NOBLEWOMAN: Within the noble it was common that some girls were put in monastery, there they learned among other things how to read and write. They were also sent away to live with another noble family. They were taught manners and etiquette how to curtsey and also how to dance and ride. They got to learn some housewife duties to prepare them for the life as a married woman. These girls were supposed to obey the older ladies and assist them with dressing and hair.  Women whose work was necessary had a much freer position than those who didn’t the noble for example. Women in the country was needed, no peasant could manage without a woman to run the household. Within the noble they married to bring families together and to increase the wealth as much as possible and noble women did not have any choice in who her husband might be. Marriage because of love was unusual and the woman was expected to bring a dowry to the marriage. The law gave the husband full rights over his wife, weather she was a noble woman or a commoner. A wife’s duty was to run the household, but also to provide children. Child mortality was high in the middle ages and a middle ages woman was expected to lose at least one child. Pregnancy and childbirth was risky and backbreaking for the woman. It was important to get many children in every family, in that way you got more labor and especially within the noble it was important that the family lived on and therefore also important that many children were born.  NUN:  <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Medieval nuns life was based on three main vows: <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The vow of poverty, the vow of chastity and the vow of obedience. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The nuns dedicated their life to worship, reading, and working in the monastery. Women in the middle ages were not well educated but some nuns were taught how to read and write. It was only the monasteries and nunneries who provided education for women during the middle ages. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Some of the daily chores for a nun: washing and cooking for the monastery, producing wine, ale and honey, providing medical care for the community and providing education for novices. But not all nuns had to do the hard work, the ones from wealthy families got lighter work such as spinning. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The daily life also included different jobs for the nuns, here is a list over those jobs in the monastery: <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Abbess – the head of an abbey who was elected by the nuns for life <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Almoner – an almoner was a nun who dispensed alms to the poor and sick <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Cellarer – the cellarer was the nun who supervised the general provisioning of the monastery <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Infirmarian – the nun in charge of the infirmary <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Sacrist – the sacrist was the nun responsible for the safekeeping of books, vestments and vessles, and for the maintenance of the convent’s buildings <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Prioress – in an abbey the deputy of the abbess or the superior of a priory that did not have the status of an abbey <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Some women were placed in monasteries by their families and they brought a dowry to the church, it was common that also elder women became nuns after they’d lost their husband. A woman that had once joined remained a nun for the rest of her life. She was seen as married to god and she even got a ring placed on her finger. Many women chose to become nuns by themselves, they weren’t in the need of a man in the same way other women were. Women needed a man to be able to learn the work and also to have the chance to own the land/ take over the work when her husband died, because that was the only way for a woman to own and take over something. Nuns also didn’t have to worry about the risks with being pregnant and childbirth. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A woman that never been married was minor and it was her closest male relative that was her “guardian” she couldn’t do anything without his approval. For a married woman it was her husband who decided, only a widow got to do as she wanted. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> There were differences between men and women also legally, for example a girl couldn’t marry without her “guardian’s” permission (which was her father or closest male relative). Men married as they pleased but widows did too. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As the woman helped her husband in his work, she learned how to do it and could manage on her own if she ended up alone. The only way for a woman to take over the land was if her husband died. Men never did “women work” and could therefore not manage by themselves, they always needed a woman in the house. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Summary: <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The middle ages life was hard with hard work, especially for the peasants. A peasant woman would do her own work (look after the household and children) and then help her husband with his work. It mattered who your family was and who you were related to. Women had no special rights and she had a man that decided over her. She was his “property” and had to do as he wanted. Women couldn’t do anything without a man’s approval but she still needed him to be able to do anything at all. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">There were differences between men and women but also between women and women. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> The women with the freest position were the nuns. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">These are my sources, websites that I thought had interesting facts and that seemed trustworthy. You can read more about the middle ages and the life of women during the middle ages on these pages. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"> @http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/noble-women-in-the-middle-ages.htm <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">