Peasants

The peasants were the poorest class of people. They had a hard life. Not many peasants managed to pay their debts, much less save money for a new start. There were taxes and charges on everything they did. Their bread had to be baked in the lord's oven at a charge, their flour ground for a fee, their firewood bought from the lord's forester, and their grapes pressed from his lord's wine press with tax on every gallon!

The villeins were the lowest class of peasant. They worked on farms for strips of land where they could grow their own crops. They lived in huts made of mud and wattle (wooden rods).