What Was Life Really Like For Medieval Peasant Women? | History Hit
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- Опубліковано 4 чер 2024
- Dr. Eleanor Janega investigates one of the least recorded aspects of medieval life - working women. But dig deep and you can find the evidence - proving the medieval period is a fascinating window into the true history of women…and work!
Eleanor takes on the jobs and businesses of real medieval women, from Domina Agnes Ramsey, a highly skilled stonemason with a flourishing business making royal tombs, to Katherine of Bury, a blacksmith plying her trade inside the Tower of London during the Hundred Years' War.
And Eleanor gets hands on in the medieval kitchen with experiential archaeologist Caroline Nicolay to explore the jobs of country women, from dairymaids to cheese-sellers to bakers, uncovering some crooked practices along the way...
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Every time someone says "That job was too physically demanding for women in medieval times" and claims they couldn't have done it, I argue that they need to watch Ruth Goodman kneading huge mounds of dough, doing laundry, and then helping in the fields in all the Farm series of vids (Tudor Farm, Edwardian Farm, Victorian Farm). What she is doing is every bit as back-breaking as what the boys are doing.
Ahh-kinda like child bearing?
OMG please, for the love of God. Please use the word too, not to. They're not interchangeable
@@petuniab.222 and there is NO chance that was a simple typo on my part instead of interchanging the words out of ignorance, right?
You don't have anything BETTER to do with your day? Go to hell. I'm done with you.
@@petuniab.222 and there is NO chance that was a simple typo/keyboard not registering the 2nd click rather than me interchanging the two words out of ignorance?
@@petuniab.222Really? this is what you managed to glean from this?😂
I loved seeing all these strong beautiful women telling the histories of our ancestor mothers and sisters. Thank you so much!
CALLING THE WOMEN PROTITUTES. ?
I could appreciate that despite using some AI images, they did take the time and effort to put together a set, wear the clothes and do the actual manual tasks too.
Its far from youtubers who just narrate auto generated research text over a completely AI art slideshow.
I think of the common people a lot. The unspoken heroes of humanity.
How good of you to spare a crumb of your thought
I love this kind of topic. Real life. And especially women. The people usually erased from history.
thank u king
Same
Exactly. I hated history in high school because it was all about dates and wars. It wasn’t until I was 26 that i started watching videos like this. Now I love history
It's good to see them recognized for their hard work at last.
If they were erased from history then how do you know this is true and not just a made up story?
Digesting all the research and scripting it into something somewhat comprehensible for the somewhat intelligent viewer must have involved Herculean effort by everyone involved with its presentation. I am awed and offer a hearty “thank you” for all your work.
My daughter was in the Peace corps in Ethiopia. The way of life that she described in the village she was in was so interesting. A had life but she said they were Happy
Yes as there's a much stronger sense of community so people feel very connected instead of isolated
I love these documentaries, and really do appreciate all the work that goes into them - that we can enjoy for free... But the frequent use of AI images was really, really jarring! I would have been happy with stock images of rural England or a snippet from a medieval manuscript...
omg i thought i was seeing things! this really takes my interest off any documentary...
@@edenn1278 I had the exact same feeling...
@@edenn1278 They really looked out of place.
On the one hand I get it, because AI is often overused but in this case I think it’s great because we get to see accurate (or as accurate as AI can get) examples.
They mentioned several times how it’s hard enough to find documentation of these women so I’m sure trying to find period accurate examples of artistic depictions is even harder. Personally I prefer the AI images over the renaissance era stock art when talking about the Middle Ages, or time accurate stock art showing few to no women at all we’d likely otherwise get.
@@blaznskais2048 I would rather have no pictures than know thousands of artists had their work stolen to make a crappy jarring AI image. AI is stealing, full stop.
My grandmother had a bread trough like that. My sister took it when the estate was being dispersed by my aunt.
The fact that BABIES who are born of sex workers are considered “slightly sinful” is wild to me.
Why would that surprise anyone?
People *still* call innocent children "b-stard", and blame the *child* for being born "inconveniently early".
My religious family relishes and savours the opportunity to transfer the blame for their own poor choices on to the children they forced to be born.
Those children are neglected, starved, beaten, abused, neglected, denied medical care, denied education, abused, exploited, trafficked... And the religious bigots who force marriage on others, and who not only excuse but *participate* in child r-pe, those same religious "authorities" ignore the harm they cause.
There are religious nuts who believe in the present day that everyone is born a sinner. It's just yet more irrational nonsense.
@@delilahhart4398 nuts? Please don’t speak on things u don’t understand. A child born to a sex worker is likely to have a much different upbringing than being born to a husband and wife with morals. That’s proven true daily!
Been there, done that! I grew up on two small farms and milked two cows all through high school, so I KNOW! :))
I have been waiting for something like this for ages! Thank you!!
Loved your book and love these History HIT videos with you. I’m here for whatever material you create. I appreciate your authentic and factual sharing of what life as a woman was and what is has meant to be female in different time periods and how it impacts what it means to be female now
Such a fun and informative documentary; thank you!
I'm subscribed to this and the other affiliated HH channels as I've been excited by history since I can remember myself. And when I discovered YT, I felt so grateful for the access to information.
However, now I am getting increasingly weary of these kind of 'new' YT videos with false click-bait titles consisting of discombobulated mash-up of existing videos..
And now they have added the AI images to make these videos even longer..
It's just sad and disappointing.
Take notes people we may all need these skills very soon.
my milk maiden days are over! i aint never going back and aint nobody ever gonna see my elbows again!
i'll reluctantly tend to the hearth and perhaps some light mending...
@@NIGHTGUYRYAN😅
😂@@NIGHTGUYRYAN
The wokeness will be gone though, almost looking forward to it.
If women were like this now, there would be a higher birth rate
The costuming really got my goat. “ I’ll pretend to be a peasant wearing my black work coif based on a literal rich woman’s headgear. And agitating cream with one’s hands? The wooden paddles are called butter hands because the warmth of one’s actual hands caused the butter to not be firm.
Wonderful! Thank you Dr. Janega!
So very informative, thank you very much for this excellent quality history lesson!
Wonderful, educative documentary🙌
I’m 44 and I did all these jobs at my grandparent’s farm every summer. So am I a medieval woman in modern times??🤷🏽♀️
Wow! You were a dairy maid, brewer, baker, blacksmith and a stone mason at your grandparents? Very cool.
Growing up in Moldova this is all still the way of life in the rural areas
History is about rich people and a little bit about the average Joe.
@@myka788very modern 38, and I did animal feeding, egg harvesting, etc. The milking was done by someone else, we still buy fresh cow's milk from the farmer. I baked to sell cakes and sweet breads, helped with the building of buildings and did alot of gardening. I still garden and preserve food. I've done alot of brewing, including elderberry wine, and elderflower champagne and mead too. Now I still fish too and would help as a child and teen to harvest clams and sea snails from the reefs. So I'm then medieval, as I have friends who also make cheese and butter every few weeks.
@@myka788Don't forget the sex workers! Apparently the grandparents had a fairly diverse little operation going. 😉
Really great new information!
Very informative,,loved it
Thank you for this. If anyone loves peasants' history I recommend the relative Schwerpunkt's playlist
Honestly it is a sad joke how many times I have read this exact comment. Mr Schwerpunkt spends his whole life creating new UA-cam accounts and writing the same thing. You are pathetic and so many people have realised this. Bu the way, your videos are shit.
You mean that white supremacy channel?
fake spam account from you as usual
One reason I love Eleanor: 2:25 "Ooooh"
Wonderful presentation. I love this channel!
One of the best documentary I’ve ever seen.
What a wonderful video. I love hearing how capable women are.
Beautiful architecture! I love it!!!
Excellent documentary
I love the fact that this is true history. Women in industry. Forgotten history! Finally someone speaks the truth with no spin or victim mentality
Very interesting, thank you!
I love all these videos
Great documentary
12:30 You could put the herb costmary into the brewing beer.
The Knights Templar were suppressed on Friday, 13 October, 1307 by king Philip (“the fair”). Your date of 1312 applies only to England, where they were never suppressed actually, but rather simply relocated to Scotland. In any case, the date of 1312 is inaccurate.
My goal, someday, for a side project is to dive into my roots and genealogy. It’s hard to find records but fascinating to learn. I can’t fathom how hard it was to just live back when.
Caroline's my hero
Fascinating!!!
Very good camera chemistry the both of you in the first bit 👍🏻
nice one, well done and thumbs up 👍🙏💥
It’s crazy to think someone can just accuse people of worshipping the devil and take control of all of their riches.
fascinating
I really need to know more about those hats.
I like this kind of documentary because history was made of the lives of regular people, bakers and washerwoman, not just kings.
Bizarre how misogynistic the comments are? I love Dr. Janega! Defo agree that AI images are unnecessary but I guess everyone's doing it now...
Cheese mongering, a sure fire way to advance in the world.
Love this presenter. 😊
A very enjoyable & educational vid, made more interesting by being presented by Carol Burnett look & sound -alike Dr Eleanor. Gives a whole new perspective on Middle Ages womanhood.
Thank you for this incredibly interesting historical revelation! ❤🙏 About the working women, and the courts, and the workers communities, and the knights, and the jews, and the sex workers.
Educating and fascinating information and knowledge!
Eleanor rocks
Fire prevention was around since then, for a reason! Don't want to burn down the neighborhood! 😊
27:10 So the poor people would be the ones who got overrrun if an attacking army got in since their neighborhoods were right against the walls and the rich would be more or less protected.
Well yeah, the peasants were disposable. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Yeah but everybody inside the city would eventually starve to death
yep!
Electric Light Orchestra wrote a song about medieval woman
Sooo, how do I get Caroline's job?
I love these videos but please for the love of god don’t use AI images, they are often inaccurate :(
MOST Medieval women worked IN their own homes, especially when they had kids. Yes...SOME medieval women worked a paid job outside of their homes, especially if they were an "old maid" , single or a widow with kids to feed. But that was the exception not the rule.
YES. No mention of children in the documentary. That's leaving out a woman's most important job
4:07 did she had to keep saying coming when she was doing that 😂
I was surprised to see AI images used in this video. AI image generators cannot depict historically accurate scenery - it most especially cannot depict historically accurate clothing and I personally feel like its inclusion dramatically devalues this content. Of course there is also the consideration that AI art generators are still trained on stolen artwork. I would love to see high quality, historically literate AI programs that made it easier for channels like this to flourish but the moral and quality considerations are too significant for that to be possible as yet.
What are all you people complaining about?
I thought it was a seriously great video!
Exactly. We're going to be going back to these manual labor jobs to survive because companies are taking the lazy route of AI to create content. Stealing from artists and taking jobs away from people who need them.
Please don't stumble and fall from your soapbox. Wouldn't want to hurt yourself trying to activize while watching free content.
Agree, I love History Hit but very disappointed to see the use of AI images.
@@Sarcasmhime I didn’t find it a bad use of AI.
The cost to replicate historical garments might play a role for many channels. Simple wool, silks or cottons would be hard to replicate considering the old ways it was produced vs. the commercial garment industry.
I still enjoyed the video and felt that it gave the viewer a glimpse of the past ways. It wasn’t that many years ago when UA-cam was literally just low quality home videos. We’ve come so far in such a short time. I liked the video!
Once governments figured out that they can tax everyone and not just men the game was on.
Precisely true!
Life was miserable for nearly everyone during this time.
Recommended, Max Dashu's channel, on women's hidden history.
On oregon pioneer ancestor lost a child who fell into a laundry cauldron and died 3 days later😢
The guy she brought in for the crime and punishment didnt even answer her question about what age was someone concidered an adult and Im pretty sure the value of a pig would put people over the threshold of being hanged as alot of the time it was the value of the goods not the actual goods.
I've been to villages in India where the women milk cows or buffalo each day and make bread from scratch. They are very proud of their work.
The food is superior to what passes for food here in the USA.
Also, oranges and bananas taste sweeter.
Everything is fresh!
Where do you live in the US that you can’t get fresh produce? I know we’re luckier in Texas than in most places, but I wasn’t aware anyone in the US had to live on canned fruit and wonder bread.
@@erzabetf9544I think freshness of food goes wider than just whatever doesn't come from a can.
"Fresh" food at supermarkets often is days if not weeks old by the time it's sold. Even things that have a shorter turnover time, like bread, I'd hardly call that fresh considering what's in it and how it was processed. It's not necessarily made to be the best for us. As long as it has a long shelf life and it sells.
I think that growing, making and baking your own food often trumps whatever the average supermarket presents us with. When I eat "real" food, I taste and feel the difference.
@@absb.5978 What’s stopping you from growing, making, and baking your own food?
@@erzabetf9544 What's stopping me personally? Nothing. I have a good amount of outdoor space and the skills to make the most of it. I grow/make a fair amount of food, I can bake bread, preserve my own food and am a lover of all things fermented. Skills that I've developed over the years. I also happen to originate from cultures where people are used to eating what their land provides, but that's not the way things work where I grew up and live now.
Anyway, none of that changes the point that was raised about the quality of the food offered in supermarkets. Not everybody is in the same position to grow their own food. I know I wasn't back when I lived in an apartment in the city. Some people rely on stores to feed themselves. And what they have to work with is not the best from a nutritional standpoint, including the so-called fresh produce.
@@absb.5978 One point you’re missing, although you’re actually making it, is that you don’t have time to grow, make, and bake all of your own food. I also have the skills to grow, bake, and preserve my own food. I think we’re all from cultures that used to grow their own food. (My great grandparents were all farmers.) But I also have a job. And I’d much rather go to my office than milk a cow or have to bake bread. The lifestyle the original poster is touting requires other people to devote themselves to feeding her. I doubt she’d be as excited by it if she actually had to milk the cows herself. She might appreciate those apples from cold storage more if she didn’t just assume that the “pride” these women in a developing country took in their skills was enough for them.
Of course a video like that wouldn't go nowadays without suggesting the entire time that men have always had it better, earned more, etc.
You could tell who’s so pampered. Guys back in the day. Everyone regardless of sex Worked to help your family unit. Kids too. Once they were old enough. If you didn’t work. You didn’t eat. They didn’t have a phone to order food and huff n puff in a UA-cam comments about historical documents
10:46 Anyone with a large-scale brewery wasn't a peasant, by definition. An alewife wasn't a full-time brewer, either.
The YT channel Modern History TV is actually all about medieval times and does excellent deep dives into life then, and into what words and terms meant to the people who used them.
The amount of men in the comments section in a huff about woman getting a bit of recognition is appalling.
It's scary how eager they are to tell us they're losers.
Those comments must've quickly been redistributed toward the bottom bc I've so far only seen positive comments by both and women... and I've already scrolled through a lot
I wonder why the one woman had to put a tea cozy on top of her head?
If you worked closely associated with cows, you could get cowpox which would protect you from smallpox.
Unless you where there you won't be able to shatter anything
Wow,these cathedrals would have been the only places peasants could experience real opulences in their surroundings.
Most of the women during this period were experimental archeologists.
Women are strong 💪💪
What Was Life Really Like For Medieval Peasant Women?
I'm curious about the actual amount of work the resident archeologists do. Do they work a full day, of the same duration and effort, as the Mediaeval women did, even if it's just in the tourist season?
I want to compare the work effort because the life of the dairy maid is presented very positively, moisturised hands and all. The pace seems to be very slow. What other work did the dairy maid do? If it was a small holding with just the one cow they must have had other duties; if it was a large, genuine cottage *industry* they'd be working much harder and to strict time constraints. The Dairy Maid would have to hurry, as all the butter pats and cottage cheese would need to be loaded for market by a certain time. Any delays and the farmer would lose income so he was probably pacing about yelling at the maids, and of course you cannot hurry butter!
I was disappointed to see the AI "photos". It took something away from the authenticity of the set up.
Also even the milk maid had to have smooth hands. If they had chilblains or callouses it could cause the cows to get mastitis. This meant their milk was probably not able to be used commercially. Or they just might be "stubborn milkers"
Cows will have a favoured milker for whom they'll behave nicely and let their milk down.
The unfortunate maid with chilblains might have to punch the cow's side or descend to yelling at them. And even then, if rhe cow seriously disliked the maid they'd bide their time then kick the milk bucket over!
(Cows are people too)
Dan is handsome!!!
Gotta find myself a Dairy Maid
In America, you will only find a Dairy Queen!😅
I just realized that milk maids delivered milk and not THEIR milk.
Dairy maid had the highest death rate of all occupations throughout history. I looked it up, because my husband's grandmother was killed by a Holstein dairy cow in 1928.
A) the "Dairy Maid" would not be milking cows, that was the work of the milk maid b) Dairy or Milk maids had by no means the highest death rate throughout history - Mine workers for instance were far higher c) The fact your grand mother was killed by a cow does not make a historical trend
@@davehopkin9502They said they looked up the history because of the family history.
women had higher death rates throughout history, but its because of death by childbirth and not from farm work
@yerabbit6333 childbirth is a condition, not an occupation. Thank you for your response. Nice that people are interested in history.
Through the ages high sea fishermann and seaman have the highest deathrate. If you do it right you cannot be killed by a cow, they cannot kick forward and in will not roll on you when you milk them.
is that billie eilish in the thumbnail😂😂😂 i knew she was an old soul!
Shout out to the South African potjie pot ❤️
❤❤❤❤❤
A detail that shouldn't go overlooked is that many of those women showcased took over the role from their husbands or fathers. While I'm sure that wasn't always the case, it does suggest women's work" was still supportive rather than leading.. Which, regardless of how it sounds, is certainly as important as everything else. The work they did in the home undoubtedly was.
I don’t believe they had safety eye wear back then :)
Hmm, just thought of another use for fine lace veils...
♥️♥️
Time line say different
Couvre-feu!! I never knew 🙂
there was no wastage everything was fed to the pigs or the chickens
"The oldest profession." Gardening?
It was great until after 13min
I kinda like the AI images
And think of what was happening in America during these times
American natives living in peace😅
@@Margriet101Apart from fighting rival tribes and stealing their women, you mean!
Not fun, I can tell you that right now!
....this was barely about women...
with the first story with the milking cows, i just know how the sexism must have been hard. I’m wondering if others get what i mean. Maybe it’s because i have woman experience but i just feel the creepy vibe to have this job.
Love the theme and material but the use of AI generated art is extremely disappointing from yall
I love the modern aesthetics of AI generated art visualizing supermodels as medieval women
😂
The biggest myth of the 20th century - that women “didn’t work”. Rural women were the main field laborers right up until the end of the 19th century in Europe, and still are in many parts of Africa, Asia and the Americas. (Boys were when possible apprenticed out, to get a skilled career.) Only when farming is mechanised does it become a male preserve.
And women made up the majority of the newly industrialised workforce in (and also at home to supply) factories.
Among my own ancestors - collier wife (ie sorting and carrying to customer 1 to 1.5 hundredweight loads of coal: 125-175lb)
Steam-loom weaver (notoriously shortlived, my ancestor died at the grand old age of 45 because she started late in life) “bondager” - rural field worker “bonded” for a season, paid at the end.
Stocking-maker (at 87 years old and almost blind, had a “stocking frame”.)
Midwife and brewer, making the beer sold in the public house run by her husband.
(This was 19th century. But beer was almost the sole liquid intake and, for many, a major source of nutrition, in medieval Europe: by law in many burghs, brewers were women.)
And Viking women *literally* made money. The cloth they produced was strictly regulated by size and weight, was given a specific value in silver, and was actually used as currency.
And of course slaves. Women made up the majority of slaves everywhere (and still do) and cloth production and field labor was what most of them spent most of their waking hours doing.
Here in the USA, about the closest we can come to medieval life is the Amish and Mennonite communities. Such a simple, sometimes hard, but rewarding lifestyle, everyone looks out for each other and when times are tough, everyone bands together. Sadly this level of self-sufficiency is now under attack in Penn. with the Amish coming under fire for daring to refuse government overreach. The "old ways" are more important than ever these days, and as things continue to crumble, those humble folk who know the land, and can work with little will be the ones to survive.