MEDIEVAL EUROPE CITY/TOWN LIFE

By: Tina Sawyer and Danielle Rocheleau

VIKING/BARBARIAN INVASIONS

Created walled cities

They were known as bourgs, burghs, and bouroughs

Citizens were called bourgeois

http://qed.princeton.edu/index.php/User:Student/Viking,_Magyar_and_Saracen_Invasions_in_9th_and_10th_Century_Europe

http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/voyage/subset/westernisles/pop_history2.html

http://www.imperialteutonicorder.com/id43.html

RICH CITY/ TOWN CITIZENS

Considered rich “burger” families

Possible to take up four floors (attic to basement)

POOR CITY/TOWN CITIZENS

Fit into one room (whole family)

Not much better than peasant living styles

Dependent on charities

Orphans, widows, elderly, handicapped

UNCOMFORTABLE LIVING

Heating problems

Little light: narrow windows, low-light candles

Wooden furniture

Beds littered with bedbugs, ticks, and fleas

SOCIAL CLASSESMiddle classes formed:

―manufacturers

―food sellers

―tavern keepers

―lesser merchants

―bakers

―journeymen

―Apprentices

SOCIAL CLASSES(CONT.)

Women active in household

Men worked physical jobs

Population: low but slowly building

DIET

Ate:

― Fish

― Eggs

― Breads

― Small creatures

Drank:

― Goats milk

― Wine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pypbyC548dw&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

"Cities and Towns." Exploring the Middle Ages. Marshall Cavendish Digital, 2011. Web. 07 "Medieval Life." Medieval Life. 2000. Web. 06 Dec. 2011. <http://www.medieval-life.net/city_life_2.htm>. Singman, Jeffrey L. Medieval Europe. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 1999. Print. World Eras. Jeremiah Hackett, Ed. Vol. 4: Medieval Europe, 814-1350. Detroit: Gale Group, 2002. 519 Pp.