Research: Medieval Times

A few things I want to research around medieval times to help me with backstories for my characters and so on.

• The various clothing styles

• The types of jobs people had

• What life was like in general

• Weapons

What were the medieval times?

http://www.historyforkids.net/medieval-daily-life.html

Medieval Daily Life

The daily life of a man, woman, or child could be very different based on whether he or she lived during the Early, High, or Late Middle Ages and depending on what sort of status in society he or she held. For instance, the life of a noble was very different from the life of a peasant, or even from that of a knight.

During the Early Middle Ages (550-1000), nobles lived more comfortable lives than the lower classes (peasants), but this did not mean that they were always easier. Nobles had a lot to think about: governing their lands, keeping the loyalty of their workers, and staying in favor with the king. There was quite a lot of pressure on a noble to make sure that his vassals were loyal to him. It also meant that a lord had the finest house (aside from his king) and ate foods that the peasant class could not afford—especially meat, and lots of it.

Serfs, the term for the lower classes during the Early Middle Ages, were very busy people, but in different ways. Rather than looking over other people and keeping order, they spent their time planting crops and making clothing for the manor (and everyone who lived there). Keep in mind that making clothing or any sort of cloth was a big chore at this point in history. Yarn had to be spun, and a steady hand for needlework was necessary not only to make designs on clothing, but to make clothing itself.

Monks lived inside monasteries, where (unless invaded) they were safe and had food to eat, though their lives were devoted to religion and education, and they spent long hours reading and writing texts—the same texts to which we owe a lot of our knowledge of the Middle Ages. Meanwhile, if a boy wanted to become a knight, he very often had to be of noble birth (born into a noble family), and spend years in training, during which he was given more and more responsibility. Noble boys would begin their training as early as age seven. Can you imagine becoming a page so young?

Aside from all of this training and work, the nobles and peasants were still allowed to have fun. and often watched plays to learn about what was going on in the world or to hear stories and legends being passed around.

During the High Middle Ages (1000-1300), education became more widespread, but still, it was far more likely for a male to go to a university to learn than a female, although girls of the noble class were still often taught to be ladies of the household, which meant they learned needlework and account keeping. If they became nuns, reading and writing were also taught. Overall, young noble boys had a lot going on around them during the High Middle Ages. They might feel driven to fight in the Crusades, they might decide to attend universities, train to become priests, or decide to learn a craft and become an apprentice to a guild master. There, they would spend many years learning a profession (or skill), until finally, they gained master craftsman status.

The Late Middle Ages (1300-1500) saw great losses of life, and so the daily life of anyone living during this period might have been focused on trying to eat as well as possible and avoid catching the plague. Adventurers wishing to live the life of a crew member of a ship could sail to discover new lands, trade with new places meant more interesting spices for food and items never seen before, and education was even more important in a world filling with tales, poems, stories, and news from far-away places.

Clothing

Peasant clothing

Knee length tunics were the most practical form of dress for Medieval peasants

Tunics were made of very coarse wool, linen or hemp materials.

Early medieval clothing for peasants was not dyed and didn’t have much styling

Northern European peasants wore warmer clothing such as breeches or long trousers

Early Peasant shoes were made of calfskin or goatskin

Some Medieval peasant shoes had wooden soles like clogs

Knee length boots and gaiters were also worn by medieval peasants

Some early medieval women would make home spun clothes for their peasant families

Medieval peasants did not have pockets and used pouches or purses made of cloth or leather

Hats were not commonly worn in medieval times

Peasants wore shoes made out of cloth felt or leather in later medieval times

A Capuchon was type of medieval hood that looked like a cape and was popular fashion clothing for peasants

The Black Death led to an improvement in peasants clothing as they could now afford better clothing

Womens Clothing

Medieval women of the lower classes commonly wore wool, linen and sheepskin clothing

Velvet, fur, silk and cotton were common materials used in upper-class medieval women’s clothing

As trade with the rest of the world increased so did the availability of different women’s clothing materials

Medieval noble women often wore a full-length cloaks over their clothing

Fashion existed for medieval women from noble families but not for medieval peasants and commoners

Weapons

Bladed Weapons

This group of weapons includes swords, axes, and knives. They came in different sizes and were designed to cut or puncture an opponent. These weapons were designed for one-on–one combat and required enemies to get close to one another.

Axe: Axes were typically used by common soldiers although they were occasionally used by knights. It is mainly used as a cutting weapon and could penetrate armor plate and shields. An axe could cut off an opponent’s arm in one blow.

They were fairly easy to use without the need for a lot of skill although it takes more skill if the soldier wants to throw the axe. The axes were single (one edge) or double-headed (two edges) weapons and could also be thrown if necessary.

The axe could be placed on a short handle of wood (under a meter) or on a much longer wooden shaft (1.5 meters). Most medieval axes had socketed heads which meant the wooden shaft could be placed into the socket of the axe head.

Swords: Swords have both a hilt to hold on to and a blade to attack with. The blade can be either curved or straight and have a single edge or a double edge. The edge is used for cutting and hitting while the point of the blade is used for thrusting.

Swords are popular with knights and could be as one-handed or two-handed weapons. Daggers: Daggers are short knives typically used as a stabbing weapon. It had a hilt and a blade similar to a sword but was a lot shorter. A typical dagger was between fifteen to fifty centimeters long. The knife blade could be sharp on one or two edges and was a a close combat weapon. It was a secondary weapon that was used with one hand.

Blunt Weapons

This group of weapons include maces, hammers, and flails. These blunt weapons were designed in response to the better armor that was being developed. Even if the weapons couldn’t penetrate the armor, the force of the blow from these blunt weapons could still do a lot of damage to a soldier’s opponent. They could shatter shields and break bones through a person’s armor.

Maces: Maces had a blunt, heavy head on the end of a shaft. The head was typically made of stone, iron, bronze or steel and the shaft of the mace was either wood or metal. Maces were easy to make and did not cost a lot of money. The shaft of the mace could be short or long (up to 1.5 meters long).

Maces were mainly used by foot soldiers but could also be used from horseback. War Hammers: The war hammer looks like an actual hammer, just bigger. It also had a longer shaft than a regular hammer. Sometimes, the back of the hammer head had a sharp spike that could be used to attack an enemy’s horse. War hammers had shafts similar in length to maces (30 to 150 cm).

The heads of war hammers were typically made from iron, steel or bronze with wooden or metal handles.

Flails: Flails were popular weapons that were easy to make and use. As with the other blunt weapons, a flail had two parts: a head and a shaft. The difference is that the head and shaft were not directly connected to each other. A length of chain would be attached to one end of the shaft and the other end of the chain would be attached to the head of the flail.

A flail could be used to attack around or over an opponent’s shield with was a good advantage but the flail was not very good for close-up combat since the soldier couldn’t swing it well enough in close quarters.

Ranged Weapons

Ranged weapons were developed to attack a group of enemies from a distance. Longbowmen and crossbowmen were highly effective and were often instrumental to winning a battle. This group of weapons include the longbow, the crossbow, and hand cannons.

Longbows: During a battle, bowmen did not target a single individual. A group of bowmen fired numerous arrows into a group of enemies in order to disrupt the ranks before the cavalry charged. Bows fired quickly and were much quicker than the crossbow or the guns that had been developed up to this point. The longbow took a lot of training and conditioning in order to be able to repeatedly fire arrows at opponents.

Crossbows: The crossbow was similar to a bow but was horizontal. It had a trigger and took only minimal skill or strength to fire. It used a mechanical device to draw back the crossbow string so the crossbow delivered its arrows (or bolts) with much more force. They were not as accurate as a longbow but were much easier to use. Crossbowmen needed very little training.

Hand Cannons: Hand cannons were the first firearms that were effective. They had a range of around 50 to 300 meters. The hand cannon could be carried by one person but it needed two or more soldiers to make it work. The cannon had to be loaded, aimed and the fired by lighting the gunpowder in a small hole in the side of the cannon.

There are a lot more weapons (or variations of weapons) that have been used throughout the Middle Ages. This list only gives you a small idea of some of the weapons used in the many battles that occurred throughout this time period.

Conclusion

As the world I'm creating is fantasy, I don't have to follow everything in the medevial period but it has some things to inspire me. For example the poorer people having more plain coloured clothes whereas the rich nobles having all sorts of colours. I could use that in my world to differentiate between the characters "normal" form.

Looking into weapons has given me insight to the types of "warrior" style weapons there were, which I can apply when designing weapons for the characters.

Learning how people in the Medieval times generally lived has given me ideas on the types of occupations different people had. I can use this as inspiration when creating backstoires for my characters, I could have a clothes maker, maybe an adventure or a female knight (could take inspiration from mulan for this)

This has given me much to think about and I think I'm going to use the idea of having a female knight. She could be disguised as a male as her dream is to become the grand master of knights. I could research Mulan to help me with this idea.