r/AskHistorians • u/Glormm • 1d ago
How do I learn everything about life in medieval europe? What's the most trustworthy sources?
I want to learn everything there is to know about medieval Europe. What life was life for nobles and peasants alike. What are some trustworthy sources?
Some examples of what I want to learn:
-What food peasants and nobles ate
-What they did for fun
-What level of knowledge the average peasants or noble had about the rest of the world
-Common phrases they used
-How often they got sick
-what every single profession that existed during the time was and what they did during their workdays and who they worked for
-common superstitions they had
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u/BagelBumboy 1d ago
Medieval history spans a large time period and as you likely mean Europe, it covers a large geographical and cultural span. It would be beneficial to divide your search up into different regions e.g. England and then work your way through that region with a theme.
Sticking with England, you could look at something along the lines of: when did the monarchy change from kings of the English to King's of England. You would then look at narrative sources. These range from singular works done by one historian, usually a monk, that will generally cover the history of the house the monk belonged to but also wider history of the time they lived in. Examples of this would be Orderic Vitalis and his historica ecclesiastica. He wrote a multi volume history that grows in detail during the reign of Henry I of England as that was when he was alive.
There are many other narratives of this type of varying quality. There are gaps in history where we have very few detailed accounts as either the works have not survived or were not written. These sources provide a very specific view from a type of man that usually lived some what removed from the world as monastic communities were not expected to deal with the secular world. Although they did receive visitors and pilgrims and sometimes travelled to have documents signed or go to court. As such they can provide quite moralistic viewpoints on the events of the world due to their back ground and intended audience.
Similar to these we have chronicles which are lengthy descriptions of events of the year, similar to a summary of the major events. These are again likely written by the clergy but tend to focus more on the what happened as opposed to the why. They may have been written by multiple scribes and can vary from a lot of detail to 'and in this year nothing happened.' An example would be the anglo saxon chronicle or the brut y twysogion.
We also have acta. They are Charters and writs where a king or aristocrat is either instructing people to do something or granting land to a specific person or religious house. Some periods have had a lot of acta translated into English from Latin but not all and this gets more difficult when looking at other areas. They're very useful for telling us what medieval people valued as it often covered rights and responsibilities. E.g panage was the right to allow animals to feed in the forests to fatten for winter and was clearly important or it wouldn't be in so many acta.
One acta from charlemaigns reign covers what he expects to find in each of his estates and from this we can learn of the diet of the political elite as it covers the sort of food stuffs that needed to be stores. He also expected peacocks to be present at all his estates. Presumably because they look nice and demonstrate his largesse.
There is a lot more such as lives of saints, or poetry that can tell you how people lived. Moving on from written sources you can also look at buildings such as castles and churches to get an idea of how people displayed wealth and what they valued. Monreale cathedral in palermo has a very interesting mosaic depiction of a variety of scenes such as the life of Christ. It's also made of solid gold! Other scenes are depicted, such as the twelve labours of the year reflected each month. This shows what life was like for peasants as the growing of food and religious festivals was 99% of their life.
In terms of trustworthiness, then every source has issues but it depends what you're looking for. Secondary sources written by later historians are your best bet for understanding the primary sources as they will have spent years researching the topic. The next challenge is understanding which historians to base your views on. This takes time and will come down to your own interpretation of the primary sources and the overall historiographic arguments.
Unfortunately, so far, we have not dug up many secret diaries of medieval people. Therefore, you're unlikely to get many personal accounts outside of what has been described. Half the fun of medieval history is trying to piece together a complex picture from what can often amount to the equivalent of a series of tweets and a poem about someone's death.
Good luck, enjoy the process, and avoid a surfeit of lamprey.
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