What Was Life As A Medieval Serf Really Like? | Life In Medieval Times | Chronicle

Sounds a lot like communism.

Being from the United States I spoke with the lady who was Irish and she said her father told her that everything is owned by the king so even if the feudal system doesn't exist it seems some of that viewpoint still carry on in the British isles

Though there are many cases of people who did leave the funeral system

Hmm. This is a rather dated documentary (just how dated isn't clear but it pre-dates wide screen TV which means it's probably last century) and as was common with such documentaries twenty, thirty or more years ago it presents as "fact" much that is either conjecture, opinion or now discredited

For starters, it presents an overly simplistic view of Feudalism (the king owned all the land, he granted it to his pals, they rented bits out to serfs who were little more than their slaves). It was rather more nuanced than that! Villeins and serfs were not one and the same thing (villeins were of a slightly higher status and had more rights than a common serf although they were still bonded). There were layers of land grants with the monarch granting (as stated) huge swathes of land to the top echelon of the nobility but minor nobles held land from the great lords and then there were tenants who were free men, not serfs or villeins etc. etc. And being a villein (especially) or even a serf was not all bad, as well as obligations you had rights and much depended on who your lord was (there were good and bad lords to be in bondage to, it was ever thus)

Another quibble - the documentary states that a serf had to work three days a week on the lords lands. That's not really supported by historical documents and some scholars today suggest it may, on average, have been as little as one day a week and it would certainly have varied depending on the time of year (the modern concept of fixed working hours and days had no place in a subsistence agricutural economy - when ploughing, harvesting, sowing etc. needed doing, you worked from dawn to dusk, seven days a week but in the depths of winter you probably worked very little with only the over-wintering animals to tend to). It has been suggested that if you regard such service as a form of taxation (in an economy where cash money transactions would, at the level of the peasantry, have been rare), Medieval peasants "paid" less tax than modern workers!

I could quibble on but at this point, about ten minutes in, I gave it up as a bad job! By all means watch and enjoy but just be aware that a great deal of new knowledge, and revision of what used to be thought of as fact, has come to light since this documentary was made

Held down serfs, kept them under thumb

Not a lot different than the direction things are going now if certain organizations have their run of the place.

They owned nothing and were happy
Just like you will be

They never would have roasted a blonde. They would have made her a lady and sold her to a knight. Ugly brunettes were the roasted flesh of the day. Lol.

The amount of commercials towards the end is ridiculous. How am I suppose to learn anything with an advertisement shoved down my throat every 3 minutes. Profits over everything right? Rich elites squeezing every bit of value out of the "lesser" people's rights?

People were brutal then, and people are brutal now. The only difference is, now they can freeze your bank accounts and assets with the push of a button.

Except they worked only 3 months out of the year...

What was going on during the. -Pre air conditioner age?

Spaim : Mexico
France : Canada
England : U.S.A. , any questions?

Feels like im about to go on a quest!!! But m'lord won't let me

Biden’s Shitstain woke Murica

Wow that one so-called expert certainly doesn’t try to hide his clear bias and distain for Christianity. Funny how so many academics are trying to rewrite history.

this feels like the original pyramid scheme

Now we(British people)have to work 6-7 days per week and still struggle to pay the bills.

Uriah Faber???

The picture of the man displayed resembles the guy from Germany I worked with on site at the erection and commissioning supervision project. Nice man in his 50s with 4 kids and a housewife wife. The same expression.

SHOCKER. WE DO LIVE IN A FEUDAL SOCIETY BUT HAVE MORE FREEDPME OF MOVEMENT. YOUR A MODERN SERF WITH THE ABILITY TO MOVE. YOU CAN NEVER OWN YOUR LAND. YOU HAVE TO PAY TAXES EVERY YEAR FOR YOUR LAND IF YOU DONT PAY IT YOU LOSE IT. YOU PAY INCOME TAX WHICH IS dues instead of paying crops you give your money away in taxes. YOU ARE STILL A SERF WITH THE ABILITY TO MOVE AND MARRY WHO YOU WANT. YOUR A SERF OF THE IRS AND US GOVERNMENT. HEY FUN FACTS PEOPLE!!

Went from serf to peasant and then commoner. A serf is a small step up from a slave. Almost unheard of for the majority of the population in Europe to be made up of slaves until Christianity. Serfdom ended when more freedoms and rights where giving to the people. The serf could be rounded up on the whim of a noble or the church and be beaten ,raped or murdered and belonged to whoever owned the land. The word serf is just a fancy word for slave. When a serf ran and was caught he or she was normally beaten or killed. Slavery also continued under the indentured servant and some where so abused when their servitude ended that they where forced into servitude to the church for decades and later periods mental hospitals .Forced prostitution's. rape even tortured.

so 15 minute citys will bring back the medievals pretty much?

The brits in this film are like family guy caricatures but real.

It was one big piece of crap from society

Now they just call it the IRS.

Well so it's england history after all. Only feudalism in the world.

King owns all property and can give out land as he sees fit to nobels who support him and his goals. Sounds like Republicans.

Same as now.

In the USA we would call this the plan of the democrat party

Fake History. Proof of all these CLAIMS are Required.

Same as now

Dr Martin Lowry sounds like Charlie Day trying to sound proper😂

Yep, I'm only 3 minutes in and I'd already rather run away and be a merc or bandit

i own my house and land outright, but if i dont pay the tax, i'll find out who really owns it. same with the car (registration) and the freaking dog for that matter.

Just why did your heading say "Britain" when the only place you then mention is England?

Wow, Iggy Pop as a serf. Would give him more reason to hit that heroin hard

Why they play music of the XVIII Century in a medieval documentary?

I hope the wealthy bring back feudalism for the working class and the poor.

why Iggy Pop is on the thumbnail? :P

Without socialism and/or communism, we would be in the exact same serf position today. At least we now have a few rights. And it all began in France, so vive le France.

Superb documentary. Fantastic info and insight by interviewees.

the stupid flute playing in the background made this unwatchable

Life of a peasant must have been so pleasant

WEF is working hard to implement serfdom 2.0

Thats a road map for America's future under Demo regimes.

Is this a VHS? 🫣

Fine music, but totally inappropriate for the subject, since it's all 18th Century (Classical). Why not use authentic Medieval music?