Life on Manors vs. Life in Towns
Medieval towns were busy with trade!
Life on manors and towns were very different, although they did have things in common. Towns were something new in medieval times, and manors were not as new and very traditional for that time period.
Towns were rising and brand new for the medieval ages; along with new living areas rising a new social class was also coming to medieval Europe. This new social class was called middle class, it was made up of peasants who ran away for a year and one day, then they were officially set free from the manor they lived and worked on. Towns brought something new to peasants and serfs, they brought freedom to them if they got away from their lord, and they no longer had to pay what they made to their lords. Towns built huge walls around them for protection, if a town outgrew its walls then it would simply build a new wall around the new area the town needed. These towns were self-governed which gave nobles less power and then the monarchy had less authority. Diseases spread the streets of these towns; the towns were dirty and smelly. These towns had no sanitary systems, well at least not compared to today.The towns were found along trade routes, they had craft shops. Towns were good for people because it freed them from the social hierarchy system.
Manors were controlled by their lords, and lords had to be loyal to the kings. Land was basically the main way of dealing with wealth, so the more land you owned the richer you were, and peasants owned no land. Peasants had it hardest; they really had a bad life expect they had protection which the knights gave them. That was one reason why these manors were so popular the people living there had great protection provided by from the knights, which was much better than the protection in the towns. Manors are often called a fief which is the same thing as a manor and it means the land given to you by someone higher than you in the social pyramids.