Name: How Much It Sucked to Be a Medieval Serf
Uploaded: 2021-05-21T03:44:37.000Z
Duration: 13 min 10 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Of all the positions one could attain during the Middle Ages,

the one least desirable was probably that of the serf.

of an already bleak totem pole of lower class

Though a landowner could sell the labor of a serf,

it could not, and it cannot be stressed enough,

sell the serf themselves, making them technically not slaves.

At one point, a whopping 75% of the medieval population

Today, we're going to explore how much it

But before we get started, you lowly serfs,

we order you to subscribe to the Weird History channel

and let us know what you would do with a parcel of land.

the law allowed for lords to chastise their serfs

like the recommended consumption of Taco Bell while sober,

could be served to a serf with or without cause.

Unfortunately, their definition of torment was pretty loose.

It was perfectly legal to throw a serf in prison

for an indefinite amount of time or to take

a misbehaving toddler and their toys, but worse and forever.

In Notre Dame, it was legit legal to murder a serf

should they get into an argument with the tenants,

a law thankfully not extended to modern-day landlords.

and varied substantially from region to region,

to do when it came to disciplining serfs.

This led to many lords acting in bad faith

and skirting the rules with technicalities.

For example, in Aragon, a lord could technically

kill a man who killed one of his own dependents,

So technically, an Aragon lord could and did dispose of serfs

through starvation, thirst, or exposure to the elements,

as in being tossed out during a very cold night.

by the lord within the estate they were living on,

which allowed them to harvest and provide

Typically, this included just a small plot of land,

around 12 acres per family, plus their own personal living

the fruits of their labor, according to law,

everything a serf owned was possession of the lord

and could be taken or repurposed with no warning at any time.

Serfs were responsible for building their homes

But technically, even those tattered rags

Even the food they harvested for their own personal groceries

belonged to the lord since he owned the land.

But it's hard to say how often a lord snatched

the food from a serf's harvest like they were a cartoon

around taking all of their serfs' possessions for fun.

What's a wealthy lord going to do with a serf's little shovel,

One are the main differences between a serf

and a peasant was the ability to leave the land.

Serfs were bound to the manor they served,

while a peasant was free to roam around and be

Peasants were poverty-stricken and relied heavily

on the affluent community to provide sustenance,

but serfs legally had to pay taxes, rent,

and other random payments to their lords.

There was no general rule for what financial dues

a serf was responsible for, as it varied by region.

was treated as part of the estate and came with the land.

Serfs weren't seen as slaves during this era

but their labor could be sold, though this too

For example, in Russia, a serf was totally up for sale,

Some countries saw serfs as poor, little babies

whose only purpose in life was to tend to manors and castles

But others saw an opportunity to beef up their military numbers.

were extremely dependent on serf and peasant labor,

boosting the amount of soldiers to over 1 million men

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How Much It Sucked to Be a Medieval Serf

weird

extremely

opportunity

term