The life of a peasant was one of serfdom, watching too many of your children die before their 4th birthday. The wheat you grew you had to mill in a landlord's mill and they collected a tax from it. There was no light in the evenings because tallow or other wax was far too expensive so when it got dark there were limited things to do. Floors were covered in rushes instead of carpet and were host to bugs. True medicine was not there, surgery unheard of for the peasant class.
The days "free from labour" weren't really free from labour, those "free" days are days spent doing menial boring work that we have industrialised away. days spent butchering animals, repairing clothes and tools, teasing wool.
You'd be lucky to own more than 2 sets of clothes. Work was backbreaking and if you couldn't work, you were a pauper.
Yeah, if you only look at the "good" (only 150 "work" days a year!) and ignore the bad (all of the above), yeah it sounds great. The reality was not so rosy.
For my ancestors, it would undoubtedly have been fucking awful. They'd have loved to this in this world we now have.
The days "free from labour" weren't really free from labour, those "free" days are days spent doing menial boring work that we have industrialised away. days spent butchering animals, repairing clothes and tools, teasing wool.
You'd be lucky to own more than 2 sets of clothes. Work was backbreaking and if you couldn't work, you were a pauper.
Yeah, if you only look at the "good" (only 150 "work" days a year!) and ignore the bad (all of the above), yeah it sounds great. The reality was not so rosy.
For my ancestors, it would undoubtedly have been fucking awful. They'd have loved to this in this world we now have.