Middle Ages 11: The Pulsating Body -- The Medieval World View
Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong
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What Is Serfdom?
The people of this rural mediaeval society were mostly peasants, which basically just means people who have control over a small portion of land. People held portions of land on all sorts of different terms and understandings,. Those terms of land tenure were usually not written down. Rather, they were set by custom and precedent. And again, the presumptive authority of the past. If this was what previous generations had done, then it was understood that you should continue it. So there were many peasant rebellions, especially in the 14 hundreds, where lords were accused of rack renting. Which all that rack renting meant was raising the rent.
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