The Ties That Bound

by Barbara A Hanawalt

  The fifteenth century brought changed conditions that somewhat modified this earlier pattern of reciprocity. The wealthy peasants, moving toward the social class of yeomen, tended to have even fewer ties of mutual dependency with other peasants. They continued as employers, but their political and social ties turned more toward the county than the village. The laborers were more mobile than they had been, and so, too, were members of the middling group. The new economic opportunities of the fifteenth century may have loosened the traditional bonds of networks to some extent, but debt litigation continued and many families had to rely on neighbors for aid, so that the breaking away from an economy based partly on reciprocity was probably only at the upper and lower margins of wealth.

  Strategies for Economic Improvement

  The inflexibility of demands on the peasant and the resources that the family had to meet those demands meant that either the peasant had to be wealthy initially to begin a strategy of economic improvements or the conditions had to change substantially. During the lean years of the early fourteenth century most of the population was doing well just to survive. Since rents could not be reduced and cutting out ceremonial expenses meant loss of status, only the caloric minimum and the amount of goods distributed to family members were flexible. These conditions meant that some of the poorer members of society did not survive and even some of the younger children of wealthy and middling families were subject to downward mobility. But even during this bleak period, villagers with more resources than others were able to improve their economic circumstances. Following the population loss, new opportunities opened for selling labor at a competitive price and for purchasing or renting vacant lands. The possibilities of maneuvering for economic improvement became more open.

  Those who could afford the extra capital to invest in strategies for economic improvements or who had the good luck to prosper unexpectedly could look to several basic areas that might give them the edge: acquisition of more land or a change in agricultural techniques; advantageous marriages; education and officeholding; lawsuits and credit transactions.

  Acquisition of additional land was the most common route to greater prosperity and community prominence. Land in small parcels was available to anyone who could raise the entry fines and, as we have seen, young single men and women often purchased such pieces, or their parents did for them, in order to permit them to marry. Other reasons for entering the land market were either that the family had the labor to work additional land or that they were releasing or selling land to meet other expenses. All levels of wealth participated in these small land transfers.27 Acquiring half-virgates or virgates before the depopulation, however, was reserved for the wealthy villagers; and even after land became readily available few cottars could aspire to a virgate. For a family unit as a whole to profit from additonal land, they had to have sufficient family labor to work it or money to hire paid labor. In the fifteenth century the conversion of former arable land to pasture permitted families and individuals to accumulate considerable landholdings without being concerned about finding laborers to cultivate it. Herding was much less labor-intensive. Thus a shift in agricultural practices brought new opportunities to those who could rent land and had the capital to invest in livestock.

  Advantageous marriages could also increase landholdings and status in the community. Since daughters could inherit the family holding if they had no brothers, these heiresses were much in demand for marriages. Widows also might be considered highly desirable marriage partners, although, as we shall see, they were less attractive after the Black Death, when more land was available. Marriages could bring prosperity even if the bride was not an heiress. John Love, for instance, wanted to enter a vacant holding but could not afford the ;E3 entry fee. Agnes Bentley offered to pay the fine if John married her daughter. John's name was, perhaps, derived from reputation, because the marriage was not allowed since he had had sexual relations with a kinswoman of the bride. The wealthy widow or heiress would probably be married to one of the prominent village families, for she would expect a substantial dower to match her inheritance.28

  Another avenue to greater economic benefits was to seek skills or influential offices that would enhance economic opportunities. One time-honored tactic was to educate one son, often the eldest, so that he could move into a management position on the manor. Family fortunes that have been traced, such as the Cellarer family already mentioned, indicate how many benefits could accrue to the whole family if a son became a bailiff or manorial official. These men knew when pieces of land would be available and how the price of grain and livestock was doing in the market. Also, they usually received gifts for good service. On the manor of Newark-on-Trent such gifts were routine, as no doubt they were on other manors. Walter Shayl, a reeve on the bishop of Worcester's manor of Hampton Lucy, cultivated both his own yardland and a second one that belonged to the demesne but for which he paid very little. Thus, like the Reeve in the Canterbury Tales, he turned a nice profit working for the lord.2'

  Domination of village offices, such as juror, capital pledge, ale taster, and so on, not only offered social prestige but gave the officeholder a greater opportunity to manipulate competitors and further his own ends. In case of arrest, the officeholder could use his ties to ensure acquittal. In addition, some money could be made in petty corruption. So important were these positions that the primary village families jealously guarded access to these village offices and became village oligarchs. 30

  Finally, pursuing legal cases, particularly debts, could bring great advantages without great losses. It cost little to bring a land or debt case into the manorial court, and if the plaintiff won, he gained considerable profit, perhaps as much as a whole inheritance of land. Losing meant only a small outlay for a fine to have the case tried. Furthermore, if one's friends and relatives among the primary villagers were on the jury, the chances of an advantageous decision was higher. Prosecution of debt cases in Writtle, Essex, in the fifteenth century brought a profit to eight out of ten plaintiffs. About a third of the debt litigations indicate that primary villagers pushed some of the less fortunate villagers into a position of dependency by extending credit to them. Thus they established a vertical dependency that ensured them labor and also profit on their unused plow teams and other capital.31

  Peasant families' strategies to supply basic needs and perhaps accumulate a bit extra were multifarious. Every avenue that could be pursued was. Thus their economy appears much more complex than that of a simple wage earner. A few examples will help to clarify the interplay of the different strategies above and beyond simply tilling the soil. William was the son of Stephen Algor and probably a teenager in 1290 when he and his mother Douce were presented for subletting land without permission. William and his widowed mother apparently could not work all their land and so resorted to leasing part of it for a short term, until William was grown. Later they were in mercy for not bringing tithing money to court, an attempt to stint on dues to the lord. William was an adult when he paid a tallage of 12d. with other customary tenants in 1303. He married and had three sons: Reginald, John, and Simon. Simon followed his father's strategy of improving his economic position by reducing dues he owed the lord. He refused to pay toll at the mill; he got the tithingmen to question the right of the lord to require service on land that he acquired and he defaulted on services. He finally improved his position by paying a 20s. fine to marry a widow and acquire the third of a virgate that she held in dower.

  The Scaly family consisted of three competitive brothers, Stephen, Walter, and John. Stephen inherited the messuage and eighteen acres and did a certain amount of lending. He died in 1313, leaving a widow and a daughter. Walter bought three acres of land from a freeman with his settlement from the family. But he was eventually forced to alienate land and was fined for not keeping up the dower house on his property. He was envious of his brother John, who married a woman from a neighboring village, and slandered John's father-in-law. John had his own shrewd
ways of cheating, and when required to plow for the lord, he substituted another ox for his own in the plow team.32

  This chapter provides an outline for understanding the different economic strategies that the various status groups in the village used in pursuit of a livelihood and perhaps some economic betterment. Subsequent chapters in this section flesh out the bare outline presented here. Wealthy families had prosperous inheritances and, because of better diets, had more children to work their land, or they hired labor. They participated in supplemental economic activities, both legal and illegal, and were at an advantage in having capital to purchase additonal land, make lucrative marriages, and invest in some industry such as milling or brewing. They could also participate in the local credit market and be assured of winning court cases because of their influence as jurors.

  Middling villagers faced a more difficult economic situation. Their lands and family labor could provide a livelihood, but distributing family wealth to all children could leave some of the younger ones deprived of full shares. The middle-status villagers relied more heavily on reciprocity with neighbors and credit arrangements to tide them over difficult seasons. They, too, participated in hunting and gathering and occasional petty theft. Some areas for economic improvement were open to them, such as a good marriage, renting bits of land, and pursuing lawsuits. They were not, however, likely to be jurors and receive the added advantages that being a village oligarch brought.

  The cottagers were in a somewhat disadvantaged position, but not necessarily so if they successfully pursued a trade or craft in addition to cultivating their few acres of land. The small holders were in the worst position in the early fourteenth century, but with labor being highly paid during the population slump, their opportunities increased.

  The husbandman's year had both honest and romantic qualities for those who wrote poetry and illustrated books of hours. The plowman became a symbol of good in such works as Piers Plowman, and the various tasks of the husbandman's cycle of labor appeared in sculpture and illuminations. The men who made their living by pen and brush could admire the husbandman's expertise in using his plow and sickle. In "How the Ploughman Learned His Paternoster" the skills and tasks of successful husbandry were outlined:

  In addition, he could plow with ox and horse, shear sheep, strip hemp, graft trees, fell wood, thatch a roof, and daub a wall.' But these skills were only part of the various economic activities in which peasant men participated. They also sold goods in market, made loans to one another, and worked for wages either selling their skill as husbandmen or practicing some other craft.

  The agricultural calendar imposed a strong seasonal pattern on men's work that influenced the course of their lives. A poem on the occupations by months sums up the activities:

  If one looks at adult males' activities and places of accidents, January was a period when they spent more time at their hearths and in play. While activities involving leisure-time pursuits and games usually only accounted for 3.7 percent of men's accidents, they were involved in 23 percent of them in January. (See Appendix, Table 2.) In January as well, men were less likely to have accidents related to agriculture and construction, but the ordinary work around the house, getting fire wood and turves, and personal activities continued as usual. Of the adult males whose ages are recorded, January was the most dangerous for those over forty-five years old. (See Appendix, Table 3.) They were more likely to die from exposure or to stumble and fall into bodies of water.

  Plowing was the peasant man's task. [The British Library, Lutterell Psalter.]

  The spring months of February through May were times of plowing, planting, and tending to crops and garden. In February the husbandman delved the land and set out his crops-first the spring grains of oats and barley and then peas and beans. Plowing was difficult labor, requiring considerable skill and long hours. The husbandman worked behind the plow while his son, wife, or hired boy goaded the oxen. The soil might also be prepared with manure and with marl. Preparing marl was heavy work and digging in marl pits contributed to accidental deaths during this period of the year and also in the autumn, when the winter wheat fields were prepared for planting.3 For the most part, however, plowing and planting were not dangerous activities for the husbandman. Plows and harrows occasionally injured men, and accidents involving animals and carts began to increase in March. But there were few risks in casting seeds from apron or seed lip. Weeding, chasing away birds, and other activities occupied the rest of the time.

  The heavy labor of the agricultural year came in June and continued through the first part of September. Forty-seven percent of all men's accidents occurred from June through September. The greatest increase in accidents was in agriculture, but construction work, transportation, crafts, and even work around the home increased in those months as well. The whole process of harvesting, carting, and storing crops was dangerous, and the men worked such long hours that they were exhausted from their labors and careless of their safety. For women, as well, the harvest season was the most exhausting and dangerous, for they also worked in the fields in addition to their other tasks. In June and early July the husbandmen and laborers cut the hay and stacked it in their closes or in barns. Late July, August, and early September kept all hands busy with the harvest of wheat, peas, beans, barley, rye, oats, and mixed grains.

  The use of the scythe and reaping hook took great skill, and occasionally a person received a fatal cut from one. The reaper, usually the father, gathered the grain in bundles and accumulated these until he had a sheaf, which the women and children tied up. A well-off peasant would hire labor to help with the harvest. The crops had to be tended to immediately. Once cut, grains had to be stacked or turned and could not be left in the field overnight or one day too long or they would shed or mold. Carting the grain from the field was also a skill. The wagons had to be loaded correctly or they would overturn. The sheaves, hay, or straw were piled on and ropes thrown over and tied to the sides of the wagon. The loads were so high that ladders were used to put on the last sheaves. Because of the height of the load, men who fell from ladders or the top of the load frequently broke their necks. Apparently, the workers took great pride in their skills, for one case said that a man had fallen from the top of a load "out of vanity" as he was tying it.4 Another skill was driving the heavily loaded cart across the furrows without overturning it. Sixty-eight percent of the carting accidents occurred between June and September and almost 50 percent of all carting accidents occurred in August and September. Accidents involving animals were higher in harvest, so that over a quarter of them occurred in these two months.

  A few examples give something of the flavor of the harvest field. During a break from work on August 29, 1368, John, son of John Gallerer, and Edith Fohester were sleeping in a field at Wynneslegh and he had a scythe under his belt. When Edith woke up, she cut her arm against John's scythe and bled to death.' A Wiltshire man was trying to tie up a wagonload of straw. In pulling the cord he broke it, and the cart overturned on him. The loads were not only tricky to tie but also to ride. Thus a thirty-year-old man who was riding a cartload of peas from the field, fell off during harvest in Norfolk. Once the cartload had been safely brought from the field, the straw or hay had to be stacked in the close. The straw was stacked around a rick pole, and the stacks were high enough that one needed a ladder to work on the top. The ladders were often unstable and the stacks themselves very slippery, so that many accidents occurred at this part of the harvest. Finally, the grain had to be separated from its stalk with flails and from the husks by winnowing. Peasants stored their precious grain in barns or, more often, in their houses in solars or in sacks in the rafters.'

  Both men and women worked to bring in the harvest. [The British Library, Luttrell Psalter.]

  By Michaelmas the harvest was over and the preparation of fields for winter wheat began. As the poem says of October, "here I saw my whete so rede." November, and St. Martin's day in particular, was reserved for butchering, salting,
and smoking meats. December again brought a lull and a time for relaxation, and with luck some "redde wyne" or at least some heavy ale from the barley harvest.' While most accidents involving males occurred outside the home, there was some increase in accidents in the home in December and January. The drinking and general conviviality, in addition to the dark, inclement weather, led to increased accidents while walking and traveling, especially to those over forty-five.

  In addition to seasonal labor the husbandman had tasks that he tended to throughout the year. Collecting wood for the fire or digging peat turves, where it was available, were not only winter occupations, for fuel was needed in the summer months for cooking. Drainage ditches had to be dug in fields even during harvest in a wet season. The care of the larger farm animals such as horses and oxen was the task of the men in the family. And repairs on houses and outbuildings also occupied the men's attention.8