What is a Peasant Anyway?
We all to a certain extent know what's implied by the term 'peasant': grubby, poor but honest, having to work long days just to put bread on the table. It's not that bad a starting place, but we might as well get a better idea of what they're like. Get inside their heads and you'll soon find reasons for making them do the craziest shit.
There are Peasants and Peasants
Medieval and Dark Age society is far more class-conscious than you might otherwise think. It's a society of orders. You get those who pray (priests, scholars, monks), those who fight (knights, nobles and the king) and those who work (everyone else). That last category is, naturally, the largest, and it ranges all the way from the lowliest beggar to the wealthiest merchant who hasn't got round to buying a title.
Naturally, being a class-conscious lot, no-one wants to be lumped in with the likes of mudlarks, thieves and beggars. Within that lower order you've got even more stratification. A master craftsman is higher up the ladder than an apprentice, a cook is higher up than a scullery maid, and a poor farmer will explain at great length why society considers him better than a mudlark!
To over-simplify, you can group peasants into two sections: serfs, who are tied to the land and need permission from their lord to travel outside the demesne; and freemen, who aren't.
Freemen
There's not a lot to say about freemen. Well, alright, there's probably a lot to say about them, volumes, even, but I can't be arsed to write it, and you can't be arsed to read it. Freemen tend to be farmers who pay rent to the lord in order to hold land. In the main they owe the lord no service. A tenth or less of the peasant population is made up of freemen.
Serfs
As I said, serfs are tied to the land. They may not move away without permission, and they are expected to serve their landlord. The degree of servitude they perform and privilege they receive depends on their status as there is more than one kind of serf.
Villeins
Like freemen, villeins rent land from their lord, but in addition to land rents, they also provide service, whether it's farming the lord's fields, domestic servitude or hard labour. Villeins tend to have a hard lot in life, but as they get land and land means sustenance, it could always be worse.
Some villeins may try to move to the city in an attempt to escape service. After all, who likes being ordered around by someone who thinks he's fundamentally better than you just because he's got a castle? The problem is it's difficult for a poor farmer to make a living in the towns, unless he's got a trade. Luckily for some, crime is a trade. It's from this scenario that we derive our word 'villain'.
Cottars
Below the villeins were the cottars, or cottagers. Naturally, the term cottager had a different meaning than it did now! No solicitation of illicit gay sex in a public lavatory at this time![1] Cottars worked for their lords, but received no land for their troubles: merely their keep, a hut and the ability to earn an income.
Slaves
There isn't much mention of slaves in D&D, is there? Slavery is evil, so only the orcs, drow and evil humans do it. All very laudable in that post-American Civil War climate, of course, but also a bit disingenuous. Right at the bottom of the hierarchy is the humble slave. It's not much of a life at all, really: no land, dependant entirely upon the lord's whim for their living. Slaves were chattels, pure and simple.
- Because there weren't any public lavatories in those days, obviously. (return)