What Was City Life Like in the Middle Ages?

Summary

This episode of 'Medieval Madness' explores the complex lives of medieval city dwellers, contrasting the bustling trade and cultural activities with the squalor and crime. It delves into the rise of cities as economic hubs, the transformation of serfs into freemen, and the challenges of waste management and disease. The video also highlights the social hierarchy, the importance of guilds, and the grandeur of cathedrals, which were not just religious centers but also economic drivers. Despite the hardships, cities were essential for spiritual, economic, political, and cultural activities, offering a glimpse into the vibrant, yet harsh, medieval urban life.

Takeaways

• 🏰 Medieval cities had governing bodies, educational structures, bankers, lawyers, hospitals, merchants, and were centers for trade and exchange of goods and services, similar to modern cities.
• 🌍 By the 11th century, more Europeans moved to towns and cities due to increased business opportunities and overseas trade, leading to urban growth.
• 🚧 Cities were enclosed within protective walls with towers for defense, and access was controlled through gates.
• 👥 The majority of city dwellers were either freeborn or peasants who had escaped from rural servitude.
• 🏛️ Cities offered the chance for peasants to become Freemen after residing there for a year and a day, potentially gaining freedom from feudal obligations.
• 🌆 Medieval cities were small compared to today's megacities, with some housing as few as 10,000 to 25,000 people, though London was an exception with 80,000 to 100,000 inhabitants.
• 🏙️ Cities were crowded, noisy, and unsanitary, with narrow streets and a mix of residential and commercial buildings.
• 🚾 Waste disposal was a significant issue, and cities like London implemented strict regulations and fines for waste management, eventually leading to organized refuse collection.
• 🛡️ Cities had high crime rates, including murder, theft, and assault, and implemented curfews and other measures to try to maintain order.
• 🏛️ Cathedrals were central to medieval cities, not only for religious purposes but also as economic drivers, employing many craftsmen and contributing to the city's economy.
• 🎭 Despite the challenges, medieval cities were also hubs for culture and pastimes, offering a variety of activities and experiences for their inhabitants.

Q & A

What were some of the similarities between medieval cities and modern cities?

Medieval cities, like modern ones, had governing bodies, educational structures, bankers, lawyers, hospitals, merchants, and an exchange of goods and services. They also had extraordinary cathedrals that still stand today.

Why did Richard Devy's view of London in the 1190s differ from the general perception of cities during the Middle Ages?

Richard Devy's viewed London as a place where all the world's evils could be found, highlighting the negative aspects of city life such as crime and immorality, which was a stark contrast to the general perception of cities as centers of opportunity and progress during the Middle Ages.

How did the migration to cities during the high Middle Ages change the demographics of Europe?

By the high Middle Ages in the 11th century, the number of Europeans living in cities had increased as more business opportunities and trade overseas expanded, leading to a decrease in the percentage of the population living in the countryside and feudal lands.

What were the incentives for peasants to migrate from rural areas to medieval cities?

Peasants were incentivized to migrate to cities by the prospect of becoming Freemen, which offered them freedom from serfdom. If they could reside in the city for a year and a day without being claimed by their lord, they could gain their freedom.

How did medieval cities manage waste disposal, and what regulations were in place to maintain cleanliness?

Medieval cities managed waste disposal through strict regulations. For instance, in London, waste could no longer be thrown out of windows onto the streets after 1371. Instead, it had to be disposed of in central drainage channels. Householders were held liable for keeping the area outside their homes clean, and fines were imposed for violations.

What were the social classes in medieval cities, and how did they differ from rural areas?

The social hierarchy in medieval cities was different from rural areas. At the top were landlords with governmental positions, followed by merchants and lawyers, then artisans and traders, and finally unskilled workers and laborers. This was a contrast to the rural areas where the hierarchy was more focused on land ownership and serfdom.

How did the construction of cathedrals in medieval cities contribute to the local economy?

The construction of cathedrals provided employment for stonemasons, glaziers, engineers, architects, and various craftsmen, thus fueling the city's economy and providing a source of income for many residents.

What were some of the challenges faced by medieval city dwellers in terms of sanitation and public health?

Medieval city dwellers faced challenges such as squalor, noise, overcrowding, and disease due to poor sanitation. Waste disposal was a significant issue, and cities had to implement strict regulations and waste management schemes to maintain cleanliness and public health.

How did the Black Death pandemic impact the population of medieval cities?

The Black Death pandemic led to a significant dip in the population of medieval cities. For example, London's population, which had grown to accommodate between 80,000 and 100,000 people by 1300, was severely affected by the first wave of the pandemic in 1339.

What role did guilds play in medieval cities, and what benefits did they provide to their members?

Guilds in medieval cities were established for skilled artisans and provided members with special privileges such as workman's compensation, the right to trade in the market, and the ability to limit the number of specific trades within a city, thus protecting their members' livelihoods.

Outlines

00:00

🏰 Life in Medieval Cities

This paragraph delves into the structure and lifestyle of medieval cities, highlighting their similarities to modern urban centers with governing bodies, educational institutions, and various professional classes. It discusses the migration of people to cities for better opportunities, the growth of towns from villages, and the protective walls around cities. The social hierarchy within cities is explored, with a focus on the transition from serfdom to freedom for those who migrated to urban areas. The paragraph also touches on the size of medieval cities compared to today's metropolises and the economic and social dynamics that shaped them.

05:01

🚮 Sanitation and Crime in Medieval Urban Life

The second paragraph focuses on the challenges of sanitation and crime in medieval cities. It describes the crowded and unsanitary conditions, the disposal of waste, and the measures taken to maintain cleanliness, such as fines for littering and the organization of refuse collection services. The paragraph also details the rise in crime rates, particularly murder, theft, and assault, and the implementation of curfews to enhance safety. It provides examples of violent incidents and the protective attitudes of citizens towards their cities, as well as the social and economic activities that contributed to the cities' vibrancy.

10:03

🏗️ Cathedrals and Cultural Life in the Middle Ages

The final paragraph emphasizes the cultural and economic significance of cathedrals in medieval cities, which were not only religious centers but also economic drivers due to the craftsmen they employed. It contrasts the negative view of London by Richard Davies with the more positive perspective of William FitzStephen, who celebrated the city's entertainment and pastimes. The paragraph concludes by acknowledging the multifaceted roles of medieval cities as hubs for spiritual, economic, political, and cultural activities, and it invites viewers to subscribe for more historical insights.

Keywords

💡Medieval Cities

Medieval cities were urban centers during the Middle Ages, characterized by their governance, economic activities, and cultural significance. They were hubs for trade, education, and religious life. In the video, it's mentioned that these cities had governing bodies, educational structures, bankers, lawyers, hospitals, and merchants, illustrating their complexity and importance during that era.

💡Governing Bodies

Governing bodies in medieval cities were the authorities responsible for maintaining order and making decisions for the city. They could include kings, mayors, or councils. The video script refers to these bodies as having a role in encouraging people to migrate to cities and offering them the opportunity to become Freemen, which shows the influence these bodies had on the social structure and urban development.

💡Freeman

A Freeman in medieval society was a person who was not bound to a lord or manor and had certain rights and privileges. The video explains that peasants could become Freemen by living in a city for a year and a day without being claimed by their lord, which was a significant social mobility opportunity and a reflection of the evolving class system.

💡Serfs

Serfs were peasants bound to the land they worked on and were required to provide labor to the lord of the manor in exchange for protection and the right to cultivate their land. The video describes how many serfs sought to escape this bond by moving to cities, highlighting the harsh conditions and lack of freedom they faced in rural areas.

💡Cathedrals

Cathedrals were large and important churches, often serving as the seat of a bishop in the Catholic Church. They were not only religious centers but also significant architectural achievements. The video mentions that some cathedrals still stand today, indicating their enduring legacy and the central role they played in the spiritual and cultural life of medieval cities.

💡Trade Routes

Trade routes were the paths or networks used for the transportation of goods and services. They were crucial for the economic development of medieval cities. The video script mentions that villages grew along trade routes, which later became towns and cities, emphasizing the role of trade in the growth and prosperity of these urban centers.

💡Black Death

The Black Death, also known as the bubonic plague, was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, significantly impacting Europe in the mid-14th century. The video discusses how the pandemic caused a dip in population figures in medieval cities, illustrating the profound social and demographic effects of the disease.

💡Waste Management

Waste management in medieval cities involved the collection and disposal of refuse. The video describes how London implemented the first publicly funded waste management scheme, with regular rubbish collections, which was a response to the squalor and health concerns in crowded urban environments.

💡Guilds

Guilds were associations of craftsmen or merchants who shared a common trade. They provided members with various benefits, including workman's compensation and the right to trade. The video mentions guilds as part of the social and economic structure of medieval cities, reflecting the importance of specialized trades and their organization.

💡Social Hierarchy

The social hierarchy in medieval cities was a structured class system that determined social status and roles. The video outlines this hierarchy, with landlords and government officials at the top, followed by merchants and lawyers, then artisans and traders, and finally unskilled workers and laborers. This hierarchy influenced the distribution of power and wealth within the city.

Highlights

Medieval cities had governing bodies, educational structures, bankers, lawyers, hospitals, merchants, and an exchange of goods and services, similar to today's cities.

Despite the benefits, medieval people like Richard Devys were critical of cities, viewing them as centers of evil and malice.

About 90% of Europeans lived in rural areas during the Middle Ages, but this number decreased as more people migrated to cities for better opportunities.

Villages grew around castles, monasteries, and along trade routes, eventually becoming walled towns and cities.

Peasants and serfs escaped to cities to gain freedom, as authorities offered them the chance to become Freemen after residing in the city for a year and a day.

Medieval cities were much smaller than today's metropolises, with some housing only 25,000 people, while others like London had up to 100,000 inhabitants.

London, Bruges, and Ghent had a close trading relationship, with raw wool being processed and made into clothing across these cities.

Medieval cities were crowded, noisy, and unsanitary, leading to the establishment of waste disposal regulations and the first refuse collection services.

After the Black Death, householders were held liable for keeping the area outside their homes clean, with fines for non-compliance.

Violent crimes like murder, theft, and assault were common, with curfews and city gates being used to try and maintain safety.

Despite the challenges, medieval cities were essential hubs for spiritual, economic, political, and cultural activities.

Cathedrals were not only religious centers but also economic drivers, employing various craftsmen and fueling the city's economy.

The social hierarchy in cities was different from rural areas, with landlords, merchants, lawyers, artisans, and laborers forming the social structure.

Guilds were established for skilled artisans, providing special privileges and limiting the number of specific trades within a city.

Medieval cities had a mix of residential and commercial buildings, with craftsmen often living above their workshops.

Religious houses like parish churches played a significant role in medieval life, with the Catholic Church dominating all aspects of society.

Some cathedrals took centuries to complete, reflecting the long-term commitment and resources invested by medieval cities in their construction.

Transcripts

a lot of medieval cities were similar to

ours today in that they had governing

bodies educational structures bankers

lawyers hospitals merchants and an

exchange of goods and services as well

as some extraordinary Cathedrals that

are still standing today though the

medievals themselves were unsure about

the advantages of their cities the

English chronicler and monk Richard

devy's wrote about London in the 1190s

and said quote whatever evil or

malicious thing that can be found in any

part of the world you will find it in

that one city so what was life like for

these medieval metropolitans let's

travel back in time and find out welcome

to Medieval Madness

foreign

of the Middle Ages about 90 percent of

Europeans lived in the countryside and

religious communities or in feudal land

but by the time we reached the high

Middle Ages in the 11th century that

number had fallen as more business

opportunities opened up and trade

overseas expanded then more people

decided to migrate to the towns and

cities in search of a better way of life

many villages had grown up outside of

manners castles or monasteries and along

trade routes over time these Villages

later became towns and cities that were

enclosed within a protective wall in

dispersed with towers that would have

Arrow slits for defense access to a

medieval city was usually controlled

through Gates inside the walls it would

be crowded with streets and buildings

usually with a central Cathedral

safety

most people in the cities were either

Born Free or were a peasant who had

escaped from a manner in the countryside

peasants or serfs who lived on a piece

of land were required to work for the

Lord of The Manor in return for this

they had the right to cultivate that

plot of land for their Provisions but

they also had to work on their Lord's

Fields serfs could not leave the land

that they were bound to and were only

allowed to marry with their Lord's

permission it's no surprise then that

many serfs run away to the cities

whenever they got the chance As Cities

grew the authorities encouraged people

to relocate by offering any peasant the

opportunity to become a Freeman if they

left their rural community and resided

within the city for a year and a day

without being claimed by their lord they

could gain their freedom however the

last thing that someone who was

essentially a runaway slave would want

to do as they entered the city walls was

to announce themselves and record their

name in the date otherwise your lord

could send his Steward or bailiff

looking for you and easily find out that

you were somewhere within the city but

these cities needed workers to function

properly so the hours that bee organized

many hush-hush under the table lists of

people who were waiting for their year

and a day of Freedom some bailiffs and

stewards were even accepting bribes from

the city authorities to encourage serves

to leave their farms and migrate to the

cities

crowded

today in 2023 our idea of a city is

somewhere like Delhi in India with a

population of over 16 million people or

New York with over 19 million medieval

cities were tiny in comparison in Europe

there were about 15 to 20 cities that

housed about 25 000 people in Spain the

cities on the quarter of a million

resident list included Valencia and

Barcelona in Germany cologne and

Nuremberg and in France Bordeaux and

toulou among others in England by 1300

York and Bristol were the second largest

cities but only housed around 10 to 12

000 people each in comparison the

capital London had grown to accommodate

between 80 and 100

000 although figures took a huge dip in

the middle of the century when the first

wave of the Black Death pandemic hit in

1339 King Edward III called London the

mirror and Exemplar of the whole realm

in about 1100 though London shared the

same number of citizens of around 40 000

habitants as its trading cities of Bruce

and gent which were just across the

English Channel this was not a

coincidence as the three cities had a

close trading relationship raw wool was

manufactured in the rural areas of

England before being transported to

London then it would be loaded and

shipped down the Thames river and across

the channel to the textile cities of

Bruges and Ghent where it would be

processed and made into clothing some of

that clothing would be shipped out

across Europe and some would find its

way back to England so it makes sense

that the three cities were roughly the

same size

stinky

most medieval cities might now be home

to great opportunities and wealth but

they were also Rife with squalor they

were noisy crowded places with a

hodgepodge of narrow streets stuffed

full of houses some had yards where pigs

and other animals were kept they were

smelly packed full and a breeding ground

for disease even though the scientific

discovery of bacteria was still

centuries away the medieval soon came to

understand that waste was filthy and

certainly not pleasant to be around

especially in cities on a warm summer's

day this prompted stricter criteria for

the disposal of waste water but from

1371 in London there was no more

throwing it out of bedroom windows onto

the people passing below yes it could be

disposed of in the central drainage

channels that ran down most of the city

streets but get caught chucking it out

rather than walking downstairs with it

and you would be fine two Shillings

following the understandable paranoia of

disease after the black death

householders in London and York were

officially held liable for keeping the

area outside of their own front door

clean in Coventry any man that did not

clean the pavement town out of his home

with a broom and a bucket on a Saturday

was fined 12 Pence that was okay for the

side streets but what about the busy

thoroughfares jam-packed with people and

horses and all of the rubbish that they

created in 1372 London came up with the

idea of organizing its first refuse

collection publicly funded by using the

money raised from the fines on dodgy

Brewers 24 horses and 12 carts were

purchased to start a waste management

scheme weekly rubbish collections also

occurred in York and Norwich whilst in

Coventry the cart came by on a Saturday

probably to align with the enforced

cleaning day rubbish was to be kept

inside the home until the carts arrived

demand had grown so much that by the

early 16th century collections in London

had increased to three times a week

despite these measures there was no way

to regulate the behavior of the hundreds

of visitors that came into the towns and

cities every day with their dogs pigs

horses and poultry their litter let an

adequate amount of work for the many

scavengers and nutcrackers who had to

collect their detritus from the filth

ridden streets and take the feces soil

and debris by boat or cart and deposited

outside of the city walls

violent

the murder rate Rose unrelentingly

towards the end of the 14th century

murder along with theft and assault

became a serious problem for the

medieval city dweller curfews were used

to try and keep citizens safe from

strangers and a bell would be wrong to

allow people to hurry back to their

homes before the city Gates were closed

and locked but sometimes the dangers

were a lot closer to home and came from

a citizen's own neighbors many residents

became quite protective over the state

of their cities and arguments would

often break out some becoming quite

heated and violent in London in 1322 the

son of a Goldsmith called William

relieved himself into a pot and then

threw the urine onto the shoes of a

passerby a raw erupted and philipped

acidone who tried to intervene was

killed by a wound that was penetrating

to the brain just for trying to make the

peace an ill seller from Hampton named

Roger styward also met a sticky end he

was caught on Caldwell in a street in

London fly tipping eel skins in front of

two shops one of the shopkeepers chased

him into a nearby churchyard and gave

him such a brutal beating that Roger was

only able to manage to Lurch a few steps

to cheapside before he dropped dead

Simon De Warfield continued to throw his

rubbish into the street despite several

warnings he called his Alderman rude

names after being arrested in 1343.

similarly Beatrice lanbourne called her

Alderman a broken down old Yokel when

she was charged with the same offense 30

years later William Emery a poulterer

known for littering the London streets

with Heron horse and gustung really got

on his neighbor's nose when he threw out

quote horse pissed that had stood under

his horse a month or six weeks so that

no man could pass perhaps it could be

called Poetic Justice then when Johan

Tully fell to his death in 1326 was

urinating out of his window into the

street the authorities at London in 1414

were so set on cleaning up their filthy

streets that they even offered a reward

for snitching on waste dumping neighbors

anyone willing to grasp on a litera was

given two Shillings and four Pence's

payment and an extra 12 Pence out of the

culprit's four Shillings fine that

little incentive would have been worth

about 100 pounds today and probably

resulted in turning many fed up

londoners into still pitch

business and culture

although only a small minority of people

made up the population of medieval

cities they benefited well from the

spending power of those Countryside

dwellers who traveled in to take

advantages of the goods on offer but

they also brought in Goods to sell to

Merchants such as butchers Millers and

furriers without this flow of fresh

goods such as meat and milk neither

manufacturer nor retailer would have

been able to make a living the hierarchy

of cities was different from that in

rural areas at the top of the social

scale were the landlords who usually

held important governmental positions

followed by the merchants and lawyers

then came The Artisans and Traders with

the unskilled workers and laborers at

the bottom of the pile just as today

medieval cities had a mixture of

residential and commercial buildings

many Craftsmen lived with their family

upstairs above the workshops in medieval

cities today we can see the legacy of

their occupation with street names such

as pie Corner beef Lane Apothecary

Street and Fisher row guilds were

established for skilled Artisans which

meant special privileges such as

workman's compensation the right to

trade of the market and limiting the

number of specific trades within a city

Parish churches and other religious

houses were important in cities during

an age when the Catholic Church

dominated all aspects of medieval life

probably the most impressive part of a

medieval city was its Cathedral some

were hundreds of years in the making

York Minster although founded in 627

wasn't finished until 1472 and while

Cologne Cathedral was begun in 1248 it

was the middle of the 16th century

before work was fully completed these

buildings fueled their City's economies

by employing stonemasons Glaziers

Engineers Architects and a multitude of

Craftsmen down through the centuries

Richard Davies saw London as a den of

iniquity full of dangerous Temptations

with its taverns gambling dens and

brothels and there can be no doubt that

most cities in the Middle Ages were

similar in that they were dirty

overcrowded expensive and full of

disease but not long after Davies

maligned London the cleric William Fitz

Stephen praised the city as quote a

place of thrilling spectacles at

devotion and exciting pastimes including

skating and football just like our

cities of today for the medievals they

were essential hubs for Spiritual

economic political and cultural

activities thank you for watching this

episode of Medieval Madness please

subscribe if you haven't and I'll see

you next week for another video cheers