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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:21,072 --> 00:00:25,072 Subtitles corrected by SirGawen. 2 00:00:26,773 --> 00:00:29,139 Once upon a time there was a peasant. 3 00:00:29,176 --> 00:00:32,771 He had a hard, hard life, working all year round, 4 00:00:32,813 --> 00:00:37,216 little better off than a slave, with no say in what went on. 5 00:00:38,352 --> 00:00:40,183 He was diseased, 6 00:00:40,220 --> 00:00:42,085 he was downtrodden 7 00:00:42,122 --> 00:00:45,148 and he was dirty. 8 00:00:45,192 --> 00:00:46,853 (horse neighing) 9 00:00:52,332 --> 00:00:56,666 Who on earth would want to have been a medieval peasant? 10 00:00:59,106 --> 00:01:04,237 Being a peasant in the Middle Ages must qualify as the worst job in history, 11 00:01:04,277 --> 00:01:06,268 but of course, we're only guessing, 12 00:01:06,313 --> 00:01:09,043 because, being peasants, they didn't leave behind 13 00:01:09,082 --> 00:01:11,676 much record of their existence. 14 00:01:11,718 --> 00:01:15,313 Except once, in the summer of 1381. 15 00:01:15,355 --> 00:01:19,951 The peasants left an indelible mark on the history of England. 16 00:01:21,928 --> 00:01:26,024 The Peasants' Revolt took everyone by surprise. 17 00:01:28,235 --> 00:01:32,467 It was quite astonishing. From out of nowhere, it seemed, 18 00:01:32,506 --> 00:01:35,964 tens of thousands of peasants arrived in Blackheath 19 00:01:36,009 --> 00:01:37,340 on the outskirts of London 20 00:01:37,377 --> 00:01:40,642 and demanded the king abolish all forms of servitude, 21 00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:42,773 taxation and the aristocracy. 22 00:01:44,017 --> 00:01:46,076 The king, who was only 14 at the time, 23 00:01:46,119 --> 00:01:49,247 quite understandably said he'd need to think it over. 24 00:01:49,289 --> 00:01:52,554 The peasants, however, wanted liberty, equality and brotherhood. 25 00:01:52,592 --> 00:01:53,923 And when did they want it? 26 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:58,124 Now! 400 years before the French Revolution. 27 00:01:58,165 --> 00:01:59,826 Talk about pushy! 28 00:02:01,101 --> 00:02:03,262 The king, who'd been talking to the rebels 29 00:02:03,303 --> 00:02:05,771 from the safety of a barge in the middle of the river, 30 00:02:05,806 --> 00:02:08,866 decided to go home for his tea. 31 00:02:10,710 --> 00:02:14,168 The peasants obviously needed to make their point more forcibly, 32 00:02:14,214 --> 00:02:16,512 so they rampaged through London, 33 00:02:16,550 --> 00:02:18,074 killing lots of Flemish people. 34 00:02:18,118 --> 00:02:20,780 Not quite sure how that helped. 35 00:02:20,821 --> 00:02:23,551 One group broke into the Tower of London. 36 00:02:23,590 --> 00:02:25,785 They burst into the royal living quarters, 37 00:02:25,826 --> 00:02:28,818 and there, according to the tabloids of the time, 38 00:02:28,862 --> 00:02:30,853 they sat on the beds 39 00:02:30,897 --> 00:02:34,025 and poked into everything with their filthy sticks. 40 00:02:34,067 --> 00:02:37,628 Some of them even tried to kiss the king's mother. 41 00:02:37,671 --> 00:02:39,002 (tuts) 42 00:02:39,039 --> 00:02:43,237 They then dragged the Archbishop of Canterbury and the treasurer out of the White Tower 43 00:02:43,276 --> 00:02:44,675 and cut off their heads, 44 00:02:44,711 --> 00:02:47,839 which they paraded round the town, stuck on poles. 45 00:02:47,881 --> 00:02:51,510 Now, if it sounds to you like the lunatics have taken over the asylum, 46 00:02:51,551 --> 00:02:53,542 that's what a lot of people at the time thought. 47 00:02:53,587 --> 00:02:56,488 But they weren't lunatics, the peasants' agenda 48 00:02:56,523 --> 00:03:00,459 was informed, tactical and most of all, political. 49 00:03:00,494 --> 00:03:03,486 They targeted lawyers and court officials. 50 00:03:03,530 --> 00:03:06,624 They made bonfires of legal and tax records. 51 00:03:06,666 --> 00:03:10,500 They were deliberately erasing their servile past. 52 00:03:14,241 --> 00:03:17,039 How could such a wretched group of underlings 53 00:03:17,077 --> 00:03:19,739 have organized such a sophisticated attack? 54 00:03:19,779 --> 00:03:22,270 After all, they were only a bunch of bloody peasants. 55 00:03:22,315 --> 00:03:23,646 Weren't they? 56 00:03:25,719 --> 00:03:30,053 Medieval feudal society was a pyramid with the king at the top 57 00:03:30,090 --> 00:03:33,582 and the peasants at the bottom doing all the hard work. 58 00:03:33,627 --> 00:03:37,119 Nobody, not even the lords, owned any land, 59 00:03:37,163 --> 00:03:38,596 they simply had the use of it 60 00:03:38,632 --> 00:03:41,829 as long as they provided military service for the king. 61 00:03:43,803 --> 00:03:45,464 The peasants toiled in the fields, 62 00:03:45,505 --> 00:03:48,099 supporting those with more important things to do, 63 00:03:48,141 --> 00:03:50,701 like, uh, praying and fighting each other. 64 00:03:50,744 --> 00:03:53,144 Yes, an excellent system if you ask me. 65 00:03:53,179 --> 00:03:54,237 (breaks wind) 66 00:03:54,281 --> 00:03:56,078 Ah! Stinking peasant. 67 00:03:57,951 --> 00:04:01,011 But since the lord of the manor was often away from his estate, 68 00:04:01,054 --> 00:04:02,316 fighting in the king's wars, 69 00:04:02,355 --> 00:04:06,689 he had to be able to rely on his peasants to organize themselves. 70 00:04:06,726 --> 00:04:09,490 In many ways, a medieval peasant 71 00:04:09,529 --> 00:04:13,465 had more say in how his life was run than most people do now. 72 00:04:13,500 --> 00:04:15,991 Of course, it's a way of life that's all gone. 73 00:04:16,036 --> 00:04:20,200 We'll never know what it was really like to live under such a system, 74 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:22,868 except where I'm going now. 75 00:04:28,281 --> 00:04:30,442 The village of Laxton in Nottinghamshire 76 00:04:30,483 --> 00:04:35,113 is the only place in England that still works on the medieval system, 77 00:04:35,155 --> 00:04:37,851 the centre of which is the so called Court Elite. 78 00:04:37,891 --> 00:04:39,859 Elected every year by the village farmers, 79 00:04:39,893 --> 00:04:43,385 in medieval times it had the power to formulate bylaws, 80 00:04:43,430 --> 00:04:47,594 collect rents and maintain law and order. 81 00:04:47,634 --> 00:04:52,401 Today the court's only job is to police the way the land is farmed. 82 00:04:52,439 --> 00:04:55,738 Once a year, on jury day, the jurors head out 83 00:04:55,775 --> 00:04:59,233 to check that no one is breaking any of the rules. 84 00:05:00,347 --> 00:05:02,508 The land is farmed in strips 85 00:05:02,549 --> 00:05:05,177 in the same way as it was 800 years ago. 86 00:05:05,218 --> 00:05:08,984 And each farmer's strip of land is separated not by fences 87 00:05:09,022 --> 00:05:13,049 but by grassy borders of common land, known as sykes. 88 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:16,451 This little green strip of grass is the dividing furrow 89 00:05:16,496 --> 00:05:17,520 between the two strips. 90 00:05:17,564 --> 00:05:21,295 This one belongs to Mr. Gobson and that one belongs to Mr. Noble. 91 00:05:21,334 --> 00:05:23,996 - What do you mean, it's not straight! - Well, no... 92 00:05:24,037 --> 00:05:29,703 Wiggly, I imagined it would be a couple of yards of nice grass. 93 00:05:29,743 --> 00:05:34,680 And woe betide to anyone caught ignoring this boundaries. 94 00:05:34,714 --> 00:05:37,512 As soon as we got there, an offence was spotted, 95 00:05:37,550 --> 00:05:39,950 a stray piece of turf. 96 00:05:39,986 --> 00:05:41,851 Who do you think left this here, Roy? 97 00:05:41,888 --> 00:05:44,413 - It ought to be put back. - Put back in, yeah. 98 00:05:44,457 --> 00:05:46,550 So this is what you call soil on the common land? 99 00:05:46,593 --> 00:05:49,994 Yeah, yeah. Shovel it in. 100 00:05:50,397 --> 00:05:51,830 You call shoveling in. 101 00:05:51,865 --> 00:05:53,958 But we don't put it back in, whoever's doing it should... 102 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:55,433 Should have done it. 103 00:05:55,468 --> 00:05:58,096 - That is a serious... - Serious offence! 104 00:05:58,138 --> 00:06:00,197 So how much do you think they'll get fined for that? 105 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:03,175 Oh, about two pounds I think, yeah. 106 00:06:03,209 --> 00:06:04,699 - Quite steep, actually. - Yeah! 107 00:06:06,179 --> 00:06:07,806 Then down to the serious matter 108 00:06:07,847 --> 00:06:10,475 of marking out boundaries of each farmer's land, 109 00:06:10,517 --> 00:06:14,783 using the same hi-tech methods developed in the Middle Ages, 110 00:06:14,821 --> 00:06:17,381 which leave plenty of room for debate. 111 00:06:20,894 --> 00:06:22,521 There, look. 112 00:06:23,763 --> 00:06:25,162 There? 113 00:06:26,766 --> 00:06:29,064 I reckon you want to be there. 114 00:06:32,372 --> 00:06:33,532 Five. 115 00:06:35,642 --> 00:06:39,305 Offences such as ploughing over boundaries are taken very seriously 116 00:06:39,345 --> 00:06:42,803 and will be judged at the meeting of the court. 117 00:06:42,849 --> 00:06:46,444 A solemn affair which takes place as it has done for centuries, 118 00:06:46,486 --> 00:06:48,716 in the local pub. 119 00:06:48,755 --> 00:06:51,588 Right then, gentlemen, I'll call the court to order. 120 00:06:51,624 --> 00:06:55,219 Oyez, oyez, oyez, all manner of persons who owe suit 121 00:06:55,261 --> 00:06:56,990 and service to the court lead to the Queen's 122 00:06:57,030 --> 00:07:00,693 Most Excellent Majesty draw near and give your attendance. 123 00:07:00,734 --> 00:07:04,033 God save the Queen and the lord of this court lead. 124 00:07:04,070 --> 00:07:06,834 The presentments shows the dikes are satisfactory, 125 00:07:06,873 --> 00:07:12,675 there's a fine of ten pounds on Stewart Rose for ploughing 126 00:07:12,712 --> 00:07:15,613 too far into the meadow ends. 127 00:07:15,648 --> 00:07:17,411 Mr. Rose, do you have any comment on that? 128 00:07:17,450 --> 00:07:24,515 Yeah, well, that was... I ploughed to an original peg which was already in the syke, 129 00:07:24,557 --> 00:07:29,893 so I thought I was ploughing in the right place and I think a ten-pound fine is a bit harsh. 130 00:07:29,929 --> 00:07:31,988 You accept that it was the wrong place now? 131 00:07:32,031 --> 00:07:36,991 Yes, likely, but I was ploughing to where it had been marked out. 132 00:07:37,036 --> 00:07:38,526 Any comments from anyone else? 133 00:07:38,571 --> 00:07:40,402 I think the fine should stand. 134 00:07:40,974 --> 00:07:45,138 In medieval times, a man could be tried for murder in this court. 135 00:07:46,112 --> 00:07:48,706 Well, the proposal of the court, is to reduce the fine 136 00:07:48,748 --> 00:07:51,239 from ten pounds to five pounds. 137 00:07:51,284 --> 00:07:52,683 Everyone in favour? 138 00:07:52,719 --> 00:07:55,119 Yes. 139 00:07:58,992 --> 00:08:03,224 Of course it suited the lords to leave all this petty legal stuff 140 00:08:03,263 --> 00:08:08,030 to the peasants to sort out for themselves but there was a snag. 141 00:08:08,067 --> 00:08:12,128 The experience of dealing with the law and enforcing it, 142 00:08:12,172 --> 00:08:17,576 sometimes meant that the peasants became minor legal experts in their own right. 143 00:08:17,610 --> 00:08:21,842 And when they did, they used that expertise to their own ends. 144 00:08:24,818 --> 00:08:29,346 Sometimes however, they resorted to rather unconventional tactics. 145 00:08:29,389 --> 00:08:34,452 For example, in 1200, king John proposed a visit to the city of Nottingham. 146 00:08:34,494 --> 00:08:37,657 The residents of the nearby village of Gotham realized that 147 00:08:37,697 --> 00:08:40,188 this meant he would pass through their village, 148 00:08:40,233 --> 00:08:45,432 making it a king's highway and thus making them liable to new taxes. 149 00:08:45,471 --> 00:08:48,304 So when the king's messengers arrived, what did they do? 150 00:08:49,475 --> 00:08:52,967 Well, the entire village pretended to be mad. 151 00:08:53,847 --> 00:08:56,077 Since madness was considered contagious, 152 00:08:56,115 --> 00:09:00,279 the idea of a whole village of lunatics was perfectly feasible, 153 00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:03,756 and the king wisely decided to make a detour. 154 00:09:06,125 --> 00:09:11,722 But for all their cunning, surely peasants were still nothing more than slaves. 155 00:09:11,764 --> 00:09:16,224 In the same way the lord of the manor had to provide military service to the king, 156 00:09:16,269 --> 00:09:17,600 the peasants had to provide 157 00:09:17,637 --> 00:09:20,265 the lord of the manor with so many days' labour 158 00:09:20,306 --> 00:09:22,706 in return of the land they held from him. 159 00:09:22,742 --> 00:09:28,180 Historians have given this arrangement the catchy title of ''feudal burden''. 160 00:09:28,214 --> 00:09:32,742 But just how much of a burden were these feudal duties? 161 00:09:32,785 --> 00:09:37,313 For example, the peasants who ploughed these fields six or seven hundred years ago, 162 00:09:37,357 --> 00:09:41,054 bore one of the heaviest feudal burdens in the kingdom. 163 00:09:41,094 --> 00:09:43,892 That is to say that they had to work for the lord of the manor 164 00:09:43,930 --> 00:09:46,490 for something like fifty to sixty days in the year, 165 00:09:46,532 --> 00:09:49,933 to provide their accommodation and pay their taxes. 166 00:09:49,969 --> 00:09:54,997 Nowadays, most of these fields are occupied by the BMW car park. 167 00:09:55,041 --> 00:09:59,171 Now to pay for their rent and taxes today, 168 00:09:59,212 --> 00:10:03,148 an assembly line worker has to work for something like eighty days of the year. 169 00:10:03,616 --> 00:10:08,144 That's nearly a month longer than the worst off medieval peasant. 170 00:10:09,622 --> 00:10:13,319 What's more, the feudal arrangement was a two-way thing. 171 00:10:13,359 --> 00:10:16,817 The lord had responsibilities to his peasants. 172 00:10:16,863 --> 00:10:21,163 In fact twice a year he was supposed to lay on a feast for them as a sort of thank you. 173 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:23,862 I can't remember the last time the tax man took me 174 00:10:23,903 --> 00:10:26,599 out for a slap-up dinner or a picnic! 175 00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:30,466 Of course the lord of the manor lived like a lord, 176 00:10:30,510 --> 00:10:34,674 but what kind of a stinking hovel would his peasants have called home? 177 00:10:36,215 --> 00:10:40,242 The answer can be found at Britain's newest oldest village - 178 00:10:40,286 --> 00:10:44,222 Cosmeston, on the outskirts of Cardiff, where a team of archaeologists 179 00:10:44,257 --> 00:10:48,717 have painstakingly recreated a complete medieval village. 180 00:10:48,761 --> 00:10:51,628 There's a surprising range of properties on offer. 181 00:10:51,664 --> 00:10:57,193 First up, a medieval bachelor pad, or rather, an affordable studio apartment 182 00:10:57,236 --> 00:11:00,069 suitable for the single working peasant. 183 00:11:01,441 --> 00:11:03,534 Must have been a pretty unpleasant life. 184 00:11:03,576 --> 00:11:09,105 It could be, but again we gotta get rid of all of our modern views on what makes a good life. 185 00:11:09,148 --> 00:11:12,242 So this is how the lowest of the low lived. 186 00:11:12,285 --> 00:11:14,879 - Yeah, we're right at the bottom. - It's quite spacious. 187 00:11:14,921 --> 00:11:19,017 Well, that's right, he has a nice little cottage but that's about all he has going for him. 188 00:11:19,058 --> 00:11:20,491 So what does he do? 189 00:11:20,526 --> 00:11:23,518 He's a landless labourer. Here's a chap, with his land taken away... 190 00:11:23,563 --> 00:11:24,860 - Bottom, bottom. - Right at the bottom. 191 00:11:24,897 --> 00:11:27,923 And so he's got a fire, he's cooking himself something... 192 00:11:27,967 --> 00:11:30,629 He had a very basic pot here above his hearth, 193 00:11:30,670 --> 00:11:35,300 tiny amounts of wood to be used, none of roaring fires that we'd think of 194 00:11:35,341 --> 00:11:38,469 because all of his wood has to pay the Lord of the Manor, wood penny, 195 00:11:38,511 --> 00:11:41,776 go out to the woods and he could just collect what's fallen. 196 00:11:41,814 --> 00:11:43,611 And he's got a bed, I see. 197 00:11:43,649 --> 00:11:46,641 Delightful bed here! This is just a mattress full of straw 198 00:11:46,686 --> 00:11:49,917 thrown on top of it and a cover of rough old woolen blankets. 199 00:11:49,956 --> 00:11:51,321 Plenty of fleas I expect. 200 00:11:51,357 --> 00:11:54,656 Hopefully not too bad because hanging above them, 201 00:11:54,694 --> 00:11:56,628 we have some fleabane. 202 00:11:56,662 --> 00:11:58,960 So in theory, that keeps the fleas away. 203 00:12:11,177 --> 00:12:13,771 If that was the bottom of the bottom of the heap, 204 00:12:13,813 --> 00:12:16,475 what was it like on the top of the bottom of the heap? 205 00:12:16,516 --> 00:12:20,282 Next on tour, an up-market, semidetached family home, 206 00:12:20,319 --> 00:12:24,380 a decidedly, dezrez for the upwardly mobile professional peasant couple. 207 00:12:26,526 --> 00:12:28,050 So whose house is this then? 208 00:12:28,094 --> 00:12:29,857 Now this is the reeve's house. 209 00:12:29,896 --> 00:12:31,761 And what's a reeve? Tell me what a reeve is. 210 00:12:31,798 --> 00:12:34,289 We're going up-market here, every year the freemen of the village 211 00:12:34,333 --> 00:12:36,460 vote for who they want to be the reeve. 212 00:12:36,502 --> 00:12:39,096 And the reeve is almost like a village manager, keeps an eye 213 00:12:39,138 --> 00:12:42,198 on things makes sure that everybody's farming the land properly. 214 00:12:42,241 --> 00:12:44,175 He's a wealthy man, a wealthy villager. 215 00:12:44,210 --> 00:12:47,202 He doesn't make his money out of being reeve, he owns a lot of land. 216 00:12:47,246 --> 00:12:50,477 That's right, he is the Land Rover, green welly farmer. 217 00:12:50,516 --> 00:12:52,677 And very, very upper class fireplace. 218 00:12:52,718 --> 00:12:55,152 - Ah, he can afford it. Yeah. - Definitely! 219 00:12:55,188 --> 00:12:57,053 A Welsh dresser I see. 220 00:12:57,090 --> 00:12:59,422 How very important especially for reeve's wife, 221 00:12:59,459 --> 00:13:03,122 the first thing you see as you come in, is of her fine pottery display. 222 00:13:03,162 --> 00:13:05,995 - So she's showing it off to everybody. - Showing her jugs off to everybody! 223 00:13:06,032 --> 00:13:07,727 - How rich I am. - Exactly! 224 00:13:09,602 --> 00:13:13,504 We have some nice examples here, this one is Saintonge pottery. 225 00:13:13,539 --> 00:13:14,938 Sounds French to me! 226 00:13:14,974 --> 00:13:16,942 That's right, this is from the Bordeaux region, 227 00:13:16,976 --> 00:13:19,444 Probably is part of the wine trade from that area. 228 00:13:19,479 --> 00:13:21,743 If anybody amongst the peasants is gonna be drinking wine, 229 00:13:21,781 --> 00:13:23,180 it's gonna be the reeve and his family. 230 00:13:23,216 --> 00:13:27,778 Doesn't sound that bad to me though, may be I could be a medieval peasant. 231 00:13:27,820 --> 00:13:29,287 I'll think about it. 232 00:13:30,223 --> 00:13:33,624 Strip wood floors, shelves of holiday knick knacks 233 00:13:33,659 --> 00:13:35,752 and a nice drop of Bordeaux wine. 234 00:13:35,795 --> 00:13:39,595 Maybe the medieval ideal home wasn't so different from today's. 235 00:13:39,632 --> 00:13:43,068 But I'm still a bit nervous about what they had to eat. 236 00:13:43,102 --> 00:13:46,230 It's this, pottage. 237 00:13:48,374 --> 00:13:50,899 Evidently the recipe of pottage is 238 00:13:50,943 --> 00:13:55,243 ''take anything and put it into pan of water, and boil it up for two hours.'' 239 00:13:55,281 --> 00:13:57,442 And the reason you have to boil everything you pick out 240 00:13:57,483 --> 00:14:01,078 of the fields for two hours, is because they used human excrement on fields, 241 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:03,315 so even lettuce had to be boiled. 242 00:14:03,356 --> 00:14:05,654 Which made the salad's rather soggy. 243 00:14:05,691 --> 00:14:07,989 Anyway let's try the pottage. 244 00:14:11,297 --> 00:14:16,200 Well, it's, um, pretty disgusting. 245 00:14:16,235 --> 00:14:22,765 Um, but you could have cheered it up I suppose with a few herbs, maybe even some garlic. 246 00:14:22,808 --> 00:14:26,244 They also had an instant form of pottage, 247 00:14:26,279 --> 00:14:29,043 and you take this into the fields with you, 248 00:14:29,081 --> 00:14:34,075 and then you could, er, liquefy it with a bit of beer 249 00:14:34,120 --> 00:14:38,819 and eat that...if you wanted to. 250 00:14:39,825 --> 00:14:41,816 Anyway the good news about being a peasant 251 00:14:41,861 --> 00:14:44,159 was that you got to drink plenty of beer. 252 00:14:44,197 --> 00:14:48,190 They didn't have hops, until 1420 when they were imported from Flanders. 253 00:14:48,234 --> 00:14:52,261 So before that, you had to flavour the beer with other things, 254 00:14:52,305 --> 00:14:55,604 er, like bogmyrtle this one is flavoured with. 255 00:14:55,641 --> 00:14:59,099 It's basically the same sort of stuff, let's have a taste of that. 256 00:14:59,145 --> 00:15:03,275 Of course they, they tended to drink alcoholic drinks rather than water 257 00:15:03,316 --> 00:15:07,412 because the water was usually not very drinkable. 258 00:15:11,724 --> 00:15:13,919 Oh, that's very nice actually. 259 00:15:16,028 --> 00:15:18,690 Every village was dominated by its church. 260 00:15:18,731 --> 00:15:22,326 The peasant's social life revolved around it. 261 00:15:29,609 --> 00:15:33,670 The medieval church certainly knew how to attract a congregation. 262 00:15:33,713 --> 00:15:36,147 It was the place where the peasants had their parties, 263 00:15:36,182 --> 00:15:40,448 where they did their amateur dramatics and where they even held football matches. 264 00:15:40,486 --> 00:15:43,922 Oh, and the local priest often used to brew his own beer. 265 00:15:46,025 --> 00:15:49,392 Which is certainly more of a draw than playing the guitar. 266 00:15:50,029 --> 00:15:54,227 And the church expected its peasants to be duly grateful. 267 00:15:54,267 --> 00:15:56,201 Here in Painswick, Gloucestershire, 268 00:15:56,235 --> 00:16:00,262 a rather quaint ceremony has survived from medieval times. 269 00:16:00,306 --> 00:16:04,606 Peasants would show their love of the church by giving it a big hug. 270 00:16:04,644 --> 00:16:08,102 Welcome, everyone, to this years clipping service. 271 00:16:08,147 --> 00:16:12,379 And I think we have our arms right away round the church. 272 00:16:12,418 --> 00:16:17,981 And so now we're going to embrace, and we're going to clip our lovely church. 273 00:16:25,331 --> 00:16:30,530 Another reason they were so fond of the church may have been it provided plenty of holidays 274 00:16:30,569 --> 00:16:32,400 or rather ''holy days''. 275 00:16:32,438 --> 00:16:35,737 If you thought we have more leisure time today, think again. 276 00:16:35,775 --> 00:16:39,176 Nowadays we enjoy eight public holidays a year. 277 00:16:39,211 --> 00:16:43,272 In the Middle Ages, the church insisted on eighty. 278 00:16:44,083 --> 00:16:48,213 Well a clearer picture of peasant lifestyle seems to be emerging. 279 00:16:49,121 --> 00:16:51,851 But I really wanted to get under their skin, 280 00:16:51,891 --> 00:16:56,157 so I was introduced to some real-life medieval peasants. 281 00:16:56,195 --> 00:16:58,026 Far from being sickly and diseased, 282 00:16:58,064 --> 00:17:00,532 forensic studies have revealed that the inhabitants 283 00:17:00,566 --> 00:17:05,526 of a remote Yorkshire village received surprisingly sophisticated health care. 284 00:17:06,072 --> 00:17:10,065 What about this chap here? We got a skull with a big hole in the middle of it. 285 00:17:10,109 --> 00:17:11,576 Right, this is extraordinary. 286 00:17:11,610 --> 00:17:17,549 What this seems to be is a cranial injury that was treated by neurological surgery. 287 00:17:17,583 --> 00:17:22,486 This individual suffered a blunt injury to the head around the time of the Norman conquest. 288 00:17:22,521 --> 00:17:26,719 Where this hole is, that's where the bone was shuttered into small fragments. 289 00:17:26,759 --> 00:17:30,160 And if you look carefully at this, you can see the surgeon made his incision. 290 00:17:32,765 --> 00:17:35,063 The guy's been hit in the head and the surgeon said, 291 00:17:35,101 --> 00:17:37,763 ''I've got to get rid of these pieces or fragments of skull,'' 292 00:17:37,803 --> 00:17:40,499 - They knew that was bad to have them. - Exactly, yes. 293 00:17:40,539 --> 00:17:42,905 So this guy's wandering around with a hole in his head. 294 00:17:42,942 --> 00:17:45,934 Oh, yes, yes, this would have been covered by his scalp. 295 00:17:45,978 --> 00:17:49,141 - The skin would have grown over it. - Yes, exactly. 296 00:17:49,181 --> 00:17:52,947 He wouldn't have had a hole right through to the brain, and he lived perfectly all right. 297 00:17:55,287 --> 00:17:58,984 The bones reveal that some peasants lived well into their sixties. 298 00:17:59,024 --> 00:18:03,654 And whilst there are signs of malnutrition, the diet did have its benefits. 299 00:18:04,630 --> 00:18:08,066 One of the up signs is that they did have quite good dental health. 300 00:18:08,100 --> 00:18:11,160 And there's very little tooth decay and we can see... 301 00:18:11,203 --> 00:18:13,068 That's because they're not having sugar or stuff like that. 302 00:18:13,105 --> 00:18:15,699 They're not having sugar and also it's a very coarse diet 303 00:18:15,741 --> 00:18:18,141 which seemed to scour the teeth clean, 304 00:18:18,177 --> 00:18:20,975 and we can see this here and that means there is no chance 305 00:18:21,013 --> 00:18:23,709 for dental decay to get started. 306 00:18:23,749 --> 00:18:27,549 But the toothbrush still wouldn't have gone amiss in some cases. 307 00:18:27,586 --> 00:18:32,080 If we look at this one here, as you can see, huge shaggy deposits on the teeth. 308 00:18:32,124 --> 00:18:33,455 Uh, it's disgusting! 309 00:18:33,492 --> 00:18:38,930 Well, this is actually mineralised dental plaque, that accumulated over the years of his life. 310 00:18:38,964 --> 00:18:43,094 That shows quite clearly there's no effort at oral hygiene amongst these people. 311 00:18:43,135 --> 00:18:45,865 Oh God, he must have had terrible breath! 312 00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:50,905 Chronic halitosis seems to have been a bit of an issue. 313 00:18:50,943 --> 00:18:53,878 In Wales a peasant woman could divorce her husband 314 00:18:53,913 --> 00:18:56,575 on the grounds of bad breath. 315 00:18:56,615 --> 00:18:58,674 Clearly they weren't stupid! 316 00:18:58,717 --> 00:19:02,278 And historians now believe that the peasant class 317 00:19:02,321 --> 00:19:05,415 wasn't ignorant as was once assumed either. 318 00:19:05,458 --> 00:19:09,053 It was all about getting your child in the right school 319 00:19:09,094 --> 00:19:12,757 which in the Middle Ages meant being snapped up by the church. 320 00:19:13,699 --> 00:19:17,658 Village priests often taught the sons of villagers their ABC, 321 00:19:17,703 --> 00:19:21,503 and perhaps one in ten of these boys would go on into the clergy. 322 00:19:21,540 --> 00:19:26,204 Some sons of the peasants went on to become high flying members of the intelligentsia, 323 00:19:26,245 --> 00:19:29,271 like this chap here, William of Wykeham. 324 00:19:30,216 --> 00:19:32,684 William may have been born a humble peasant, 325 00:19:32,718 --> 00:19:37,815 but he rose to become the richest and one of the most powerful men in England. 326 00:19:37,857 --> 00:19:40,826 He was Lord Chancellor not once, but twice 327 00:19:40,860 --> 00:19:43,260 and he put his fortune to good use. 328 00:19:43,295 --> 00:19:47,755 He founded this place, one of the oldest public schools in the country, 329 00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:49,233 Winchester College. 330 00:19:50,269 --> 00:19:52,362 Oh, very nice. 331 00:19:54,940 --> 00:19:59,570 William never forgot his origins. and he established this school 332 00:19:59,612 --> 00:20:03,412 to provide education for 70 boys from peasant backgrounds. 333 00:20:05,217 --> 00:20:07,310 Not so many peasants around here nowadays, 334 00:20:07,353 --> 00:20:11,756 but William's cryptic motto still hangs above today's pupils - 335 00:20:15,027 --> 00:20:16,722 ''Either learn or go.'' 336 00:20:16,762 --> 00:20:19,959 And then he adds, there is a third choice... 337 00:20:21,033 --> 00:20:22,694 ''be beaten''! 338 00:20:27,306 --> 00:20:30,241 But we should be clear that literacy wasn't soughtt after 339 00:20:30,276 --> 00:20:33,473 by the peasants so they could do a spot of bedtime reading 340 00:20:33,512 --> 00:20:35,742 or improve their crosswords skills. 341 00:20:35,781 --> 00:20:40,480 What they wanted is to be able to make out enough words in Latin 342 00:20:40,519 --> 00:20:45,047 to check references to themselves and their land in the court rolls. 343 00:20:46,458 --> 00:20:48,517 And checking court documents 344 00:20:48,561 --> 00:20:52,053 was something that was going to come in very useful for the peasants 345 00:20:52,097 --> 00:20:55,157 in the tumultuous times that lay ahead. 346 00:20:55,868 --> 00:20:58,735 For most of the 13th and early 14th century, 347 00:20:58,771 --> 00:21:01,205 England had an enormous Mediterranean feel. 348 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:05,404 Bumper crops and a booming economy and the population doubled. 349 00:21:05,444 --> 00:21:07,912 But then, that old enemy of the English struck - 350 00:21:07,947 --> 00:21:11,339 no I don't mean the All Blacks (dru¿yna rugby z Nowej Zelandii) - I mean the weather. 351 00:21:11,483 --> 00:21:13,951 Heavy rain and low temperatures caused crops to rot 352 00:21:13,986 --> 00:21:16,079 and entire villages to sink. 353 00:21:16,121 --> 00:21:17,986 People were starving to death. 354 00:21:18,023 --> 00:21:20,287 Surely it couldn't get any worse than this... 355 00:21:21,126 --> 00:21:22,423 but it could. 356 00:21:22,995 --> 00:21:26,123 On top of the famine came something even more dreadful, 357 00:21:26,165 --> 00:21:27,928 the Black Death. 358 00:21:27,967 --> 00:21:31,403 An already weakened population was devastated. 359 00:21:31,437 --> 00:21:34,873 To many people it seemed that God had deserted them, 360 00:21:34,907 --> 00:21:38,035 and they struggled to reconcile this terrible catastrophe 361 00:21:38,077 --> 00:21:40,011 with their beliefs. 362 00:21:40,045 --> 00:21:42,570 Here in the church at Ashwell in Hertfordshire, 363 00:21:42,615 --> 00:21:46,449 the Plague has left its mark, quite literally. 364 00:21:46,485 --> 00:21:50,615 Over 650 years ago, the desperate local priest 365 00:21:50,656 --> 00:21:55,355 scratched these words onto the walls of his bell tower. 366 00:21:55,394 --> 00:21:58,022 You can see here it says, ''primula pestis'', 367 00:21:58,063 --> 00:22:01,555 the first Plague, 1349, 368 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:05,832 and then below he's incised into the walls, in deep letters, 369 00:22:05,871 --> 00:22:07,463 a big M, that's a thousand 370 00:22:07,506 --> 00:22:09,337 and then 350. 371 00:22:09,375 --> 00:22:14,904 In 1350 he puts, ''miseranda ferox et violenta'', 372 00:22:14,947 --> 00:22:18,348 miserable, fierce and violent the Plague has been. 373 00:22:18,384 --> 00:22:21,376 And then below he writes, ''the dregs of the population 374 00:22:21,420 --> 00:22:24,617 ''left behind to bear witness, and a mighty wind 375 00:22:24,657 --> 00:22:26,522 ''thunders across the world.'' 376 00:22:33,999 --> 00:22:36,991 The Black Death was a catastrophe. 377 00:22:37,036 --> 00:22:39,266 But ironically those who survived, 378 00:22:39,304 --> 00:22:41,898 found they were better off than they ever had been. 379 00:22:41,940 --> 00:22:44,875 You see the population of England had been almost halved, 380 00:22:44,910 --> 00:22:46,673 and labour was scarce, 381 00:22:46,712 --> 00:22:50,978 and ordinary farm workers suddenly found they were in a position to call the shots. 382 00:22:52,551 --> 00:22:55,850 Peasants begun to refuse to fulfill their feudal duties. 383 00:22:55,888 --> 00:22:58,448 They started to negotiate wage increases 384 00:22:58,490 --> 00:23:02,017 and even began to be paid in hard cash. 385 00:23:03,028 --> 00:23:06,964 Some left their manors and acquired their own free land. 386 00:23:08,734 --> 00:23:11,760 All this, of course, got up the noses of the aristocracy. 387 00:23:11,804 --> 00:23:14,534 If there was more wealth around, they saw no reason why 388 00:23:14,573 --> 00:23:16,165 the peasants should have it. 389 00:23:16,208 --> 00:23:19,609 So they introduced laws to restore compulsory labour 390 00:23:19,645 --> 00:23:24,446 and force wages back down to the levels before the Black Death. 391 00:23:24,483 --> 00:23:27,884 But what seems to have especially irritated the aristocracy 392 00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:30,480 was the way the peasants were dressing. 393 00:23:31,490 --> 00:23:36,291 This season's peasant ditched drab work wear in favour of bright colours, 394 00:23:36,328 --> 00:23:38,819 tighter hose and even fur. 395 00:23:38,864 --> 00:23:41,230 Some peasants were spending almost the same on clothes 396 00:23:41,266 --> 00:23:42,790 as certain noblemen. 397 00:23:43,669 --> 00:23:47,161 So rules were introduced dictating what different classes could wear. 398 00:23:47,206 --> 00:23:50,403 For example, for any person below the level of craftsman, 399 00:23:50,442 --> 00:23:54,902 pointy shoes were a fashion crime, literally. 400 00:23:54,947 --> 00:23:58,246 All of which stoked the fires of peasant resentment. 401 00:23:58,283 --> 00:24:02,515 The final straw was when the barons imposed a poll tax 402 00:24:02,554 --> 00:24:04,215 to pay for their war in France. 403 00:24:04,256 --> 00:24:06,417 This was bitterly resented 404 00:24:06,458 --> 00:24:10,258 because it meant that everybody had to pay the same, rich or poor, 405 00:24:10,295 --> 00:24:13,958 and to make it worse, the government got its sums wrong - 406 00:24:13,999 --> 00:24:17,435 they based their calculations on the population size 407 00:24:17,469 --> 00:24:19,300 before the Black Death. 408 00:24:19,338 --> 00:24:22,671 So when they failed to raise the amount they expected, 409 00:24:22,708 --> 00:24:24,835 they imposed a second poll tax. 410 00:24:24,877 --> 00:24:28,540 And that was when the unthinkable happened, 411 00:24:28,580 --> 00:24:31,105 the peasants took up arms and revolted. 412 00:24:34,353 --> 00:24:37,254 From all over England they converged on Canterbury 413 00:24:37,289 --> 00:24:38,586 and marched to London. 414 00:24:38,624 --> 00:24:41,058 Maybe as many as 60,000 of them. 415 00:24:42,861 --> 00:24:45,125 With no emails or mobile phones, 416 00:24:45,164 --> 00:24:48,031 how could the peasants have organized all this? 417 00:24:48,066 --> 00:24:52,059 Could it be that they were making use of their newly acquired literacy 418 00:24:52,104 --> 00:24:54,197 to spread the word of the revolt? 419 00:24:56,275 --> 00:25:00,075 Two of the chroniclers record what they claim were letters 420 00:25:00,112 --> 00:25:03,445 that the peasants were circulating amongst themselves. 421 00:25:03,482 --> 00:25:06,542 Now, the letters are written in English but they're very cryptic 422 00:25:06,585 --> 00:25:08,746 and we don't really know what they mean. 423 00:25:08,787 --> 00:25:14,123 But it could be that they contained detailed coded instructions for the revolt. 424 00:25:14,159 --> 00:25:16,559 This is the one in Thomas Walsingham's chronicle. 425 00:25:16,595 --> 00:25:18,028 And you can see here it says, 426 00:25:18,063 --> 00:25:22,193 ''John Sheep greeteth well John Nameless and John the Miller 427 00:25:22,234 --> 00:25:26,034 ''and biddeth them chastise well Hobbe the Robber 428 00:25:26,071 --> 00:25:29,507 ''and look shape you to one head and no more. 429 00:25:29,541 --> 00:25:34,035 ''Knoweth your friend from your foe. Have enough and say Whoa.'' 430 00:25:34,079 --> 00:25:36,070 Now it may be that when it says, 431 00:25:36,114 --> 00:25:37,843 ''chastise well Hobbe the Robber,'' 432 00:25:37,883 --> 00:25:41,341 those were instructions to the peasants not to do any looting 433 00:25:41,386 --> 00:25:44,082 and only to destroy documents and records. 434 00:25:44,122 --> 00:25:46,852 And then it says, ''Look shape you to one head and no more.'' 435 00:25:46,892 --> 00:25:51,090 Well, it could be just the instructions saying, just only have one leader 436 00:25:51,129 --> 00:25:55,361 but on the other hand, it may be instructions to go on pilgrimage to Canterbury 437 00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:57,732 where the peasants assembled first 438 00:25:57,769 --> 00:26:02,001 and the focal point was the head of Thomas Becket. 439 00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:03,166 And finally it says, 440 00:26:03,208 --> 00:26:06,905 ''Knoweth your friend from your foe and say Whoa.'' 441 00:26:06,945 --> 00:26:09,311 These could be absolute rigid instructions 442 00:26:09,348 --> 00:26:13,512 to distinguish your friends from your enemy by the battle cry. 443 00:26:13,552 --> 00:26:15,281 (Whoops ) 444 00:26:17,723 --> 00:26:19,816 The climax of the peasants' revolt 445 00:26:19,858 --> 00:26:23,055 must rank as the one of the most extraordinary scenes in history. 446 00:26:23,095 --> 00:26:25,859 Tens of thousands of rebelling peasants 447 00:26:25,898 --> 00:26:30,358 confronted the country's aristocracy, led by a king, a 14-year-old boy. 448 00:26:30,702 --> 00:26:33,933 The peasants' leader Watt Tyler rode towards the boy king 449 00:26:33,972 --> 00:26:36,770 to make his demands and then he took a swig from a jug of ale, 450 00:26:36,808 --> 00:26:40,005 where upon the mayor of London charged and cut him down. 451 00:26:40,045 --> 00:26:44,414 It looked as if the huge throng were about to attack the aristocracy, 452 00:26:44,449 --> 00:26:49,045 but the king suddenly rode forward and shouted, ''I'll be your leader, follow me. '' 453 00:26:49,721 --> 00:26:54,181 The king granted the peasants pardons and promised to abolish serfdom. 454 00:26:54,226 --> 00:26:56,888 But once the rebels had dispersed, 455 00:26:56,929 --> 00:26:59,830 the barons quickly set about slaughtering the ringleaders. 456 00:26:59,865 --> 00:27:02,390 Thousands of peasants died. 457 00:27:05,671 --> 00:27:07,901 The peasants' revolt failed. 458 00:27:07,940 --> 00:27:09,771 However, the ideal of freedom 459 00:27:09,808 --> 00:27:12,208 and of owing deference to no one 460 00:27:12,244 --> 00:27:15,270 was a lasting legacy for the medieval peasant. 461 00:27:15,914 --> 00:27:18,610 But there's a sting in the tail of the peasants' story. 462 00:27:18,650 --> 00:27:24,589 The lords realized that if the peasants were now free from any labour obligation to them, 463 00:27:24,623 --> 00:27:29,026 they were likewise free from any obligation to care for their peasants. 464 00:27:29,061 --> 00:27:33,191 The social consensus of the feudal system had broken down. 465 00:27:35,233 --> 00:27:37,827 And there was worse to come. 466 00:27:37,869 --> 00:27:41,100 Peasants were about to come face to face with their real enemy, 467 00:27:41,139 --> 00:27:42,629 sheep! 468 00:27:42,674 --> 00:27:45,302 You see, your average lord could make more money out of sheep 469 00:27:45,344 --> 00:27:47,039 than he could out of peasants. 470 00:27:47,079 --> 00:27:50,515 For a start there's a lot more wool on a sheep and you can eat them. 471 00:27:50,549 --> 00:27:53,074 Which is possible with peasants but socially tricky. 472 00:27:53,118 --> 00:27:59,546 So the lords started to throw the troublesome and uneatable peasants off the land, 473 00:27:59,591 --> 00:28:01,786 and replace them with these chaps. 474 00:28:03,295 --> 00:28:06,628 The social landscape of Britain changed forever. 475 00:28:08,233 --> 00:28:11,293 There is nothing intrinsically terrible about the peasants' life. 476 00:28:11,336 --> 00:28:14,999 In fact there were times in the 14th century when it was pretty fine. 477 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:18,874 It deteriorated when the lords fenced in the land 478 00:28:18,910 --> 00:28:21,674 and it got even worse in the industrial revolution. 479 00:28:21,713 --> 00:28:25,046 And small farmers are still up against it. 480 00:28:25,083 --> 00:28:28,211 The life of the peasant depends on the society, 481 00:28:28,253 --> 00:28:30,744 bit it's sobering to think that, 482 00:28:30,789 --> 00:28:33,519 compared to a lot of people's lives today, 483 00:28:33,558 --> 00:28:37,289 some medieval peasants had it pretty good. 484 00:28:38,090 --> 00:28:40,090 Subtitles corrected by SirGawen. 41033

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