The basic features of European society

European society in the Middle Ages and the early modern period was character­ized by social inequality. There were great differences of wealth and status between the inhabitants and most countries were ruled by small elites.

Throughout our period, European society was basically agrarian, although trade and manufacture eventually became increasingly important. The central zone of Europe, between the North and Baltic Seas to the north and the Alps and the Pyrenees to the south, has a mild, temperate climate, a sufficient amount of rain and large, relatively flat areas of deep, fertile soil. It is also little exposed to natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes and periods of draught. During the Middle Ages, the agricultural resources of this zone were fully exploited for the first time in history. Over large areas, forest was cut down and replaced by cultivated fields and the population increased nearly threefold between 1000 and 1350. The same happened in the northern zone, whereas the population south of the Alps also increased, but only doubled. Although the central zone was poten­tially very fertile, the soil was heavy and labour-intensive. Whereas in the Medi­terranean, the plots were usually small and the soil light and easy to turn with the light ploughs that were usual in this area, the soil north of Alps needed deep ploughing, which was achieved by the introduction of the heavy plough, drawn by horses or a large number of oxen. Together with other changes, such as the three- year rotation, according to which one-third of the field lay fallow at any time, this seems to have led to a slight increase in the yield, from 3 to 4 or 4.5 to 1, and some places, such as in Flanders around 1300, as much as 15 to 1.

Socially, by far the largest part of the population consisted of peasants. There had been a tendency already in late antiquity in the direction of large estates owned by members of the elite and cultivated by unfree peasants; these had replaced slaves as the main working force. The continuity between the kinds of labour force is expressed in the English term serf for the agricultural labourers in the Middle Ages, a word derived from Latin servus = slave. Although there were various kinds of agricultural labourers in the early Middle Ages, including free men who worked on their own land, the main trend in the central agricultural areas was in the direction of large estates, cultivated by unfree peasants and owned by lay or ecclesiastical lords. However, there was no sharp distinction between free and unfree; the latter status included a great variety of conditions. English lawyers defined the right to marry off one’s daughter without permission from the lord as the essential criterion of freedom, but such criteria varied from place to place. Over most of this zone, peasants lived in villages, with up to 1,000 inhabitants. The cultivated land was divided between the inhabitants, normally not in the form of solid blocks but in plots interspersed with each other, this in order to secure an equal division of better and worse soil. This land could be transferred to heirs. Outside the cultivated land were the commons, available to the whole village community. Although normally under the rule of a lord, a village community governed itself in many respects, elected its own leaders, employed artisans of various kinds, issued by-laws for its members and with greater or lesser success sought to defend its interests against the lord or other forces. Socially and economically, the peasantry was by no means a homogeneous class. There were considerable differences from small, wealthy elites to cottars (living in a cot) without permanent plots or with plots too small to make a living, so that they had to work for others to survive.

There was a significant difference between the central agricultural areas, with large farms on relative flat and fertile land and the outskirt areas in or near the Alps, Pyrenees and Carpathians and in the Scots or Scandinavian mountains, as well as areas along the coast or on small islands on the coasts towards the North and Baltic Seas, to which access was difficult. In the latter areas, the peasants often had a freer status and to a greater extent governed themselves.⁵ As we shall see, this in some cases resulted in independent peasant communities able to defend themselves against neighbouring areas or attempts by the elites to suppress them. Nor were the village communities in the central areas purely passive receivers of the commands and demands of kings and nobles. They were well organized and reacted against what they regarded as injustice and even if their rebellions were always put down, they might often achieve some of their aims. The peasants were in a sense a poli­tical class but their main influence was on the local level, which is why they will not be dealt with very much in the following.

The population growth came to a dramatic end in the years 1347—50, mainly because of the Black Death which raged throughout the Continent during these years. Between one-third and half the population is supposed to have died. Moreover, the disease came back repeatedly in the following centuries; the last outbreak, which only affected part of the continent, took place in 1711—12, but there were outbreaks in Russia and in the Ottoman Empire later in the eighteenth century. The mortality caused a drop in land-rents and agricultural production but led to higher salaries and better conditions for peasants and workers. The nobility was hit particularly hard, although this is not obvious from the political history of the period, in which the nobles had a strong influence. Here, however, we have to distinguish between the class and its individual members.

Concerning the elite, we can take our point of departure in the well-known contemporary description of society as consisting of ‘those who fight, those who pray and those who work’.⁷ This is one of several divisions of medieval society, formulated for the first time in England in the tenth century and then the subject of more detailed treatment by two French bishops around 1030. Somewhat later, a division into four is to be found, with the merchants as the fourth category. This corresponds to the increasing importance of towns and trade from the eleventh and twelfth century onwards. A larger population, more surplus from agriculture and more wealthy landowners led to increased demand for luxury goods which sti­mulated long-distance trade. However, the most important part of the urbanization was the emergence of smaller towns which catered for local markets. For the first time in history, Europe north of the Alps had a substantial urban population, although this is not always reflected in the official ideology.

The statements about the orders clearly reflect the point of view of the elite — the common people rarely give the definitions of social structure. More interesting is what is tells about the character of the elite, which is either military or religious. Both elite classes are landowners and in this capacity rule the third one. There is no professional governing class and the one who is in principle the leader of society, the king, is just one of several members of the warrior class, although, at least in some versions of the description, it may be implied that he is actually its head. By contrast, both in Byzantium and the Muslim world, the ruler (emperor, caliph or sultan) had a far more central position. The state owned more of the land, there were permanent taxes and landholding was more often a temporary grant from the ruler. The division thus points to a characteristic feature of Western society in the early Middle Ages and to some extent later, the absence of a civilian governing class and the relatively subordinated position of the king. In Europe, the king was one of more landowners who only gradually managed to assume the position as an authority qualitatively different from the nobles and the churchmen. Thus, the king is the logical starting-point for discussing the formation of the European state.