Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If you were a lowly peasant in the Middle Ages and say you decided to travel so you packed up what you could and just started heading out on a journey how safe would you have been from say looters or being randomly attacked/killed for your belongings?
Feudal system peasants belonged to the land and the land belonged to the local noble, so they were never free to just pick up and go somewhere, permission was required.
Most peasants seldom traveled far from their homeland and those that did get permission for travel most likely would be setting off on a pilgrimage to one of the multitude of European towns which advertised some sacred relic. This village had the "Three True Nails" from the cross, that village had the bones of some saint who was supposed to have worked some fantastic miracle 5 or 6 hundred years earlier, across the river might be the town with the table used at the Last Supper, further up the valley was the city with the piece of leather which came from the whip used to scourge Jesus before his execution, travel another 30 miles and you come to the other town with the "Three True Nails" etc. And you could hardly go anywhere without encountering some place with pieces of the True Cross.
It was a relic happy, extremely superstitious culture and tourism was based on the fame of your town's relic.
Traveling in groups to these sites was relatively safe, traveling alone left one prey to whatever highwaymen might be about.
If you were a lowly peasant in the Middle Ages and say you decided to travel so you packed up what you could and just started heading out on a journey how safe would you have been from say looters or being randomly attacked/killed for your belongings?
This is too broad of a question. There were all sorts of variances.
Are you looking for reading material ? It would be impossible to
correctly answer a question without at least some specifics of
time and place.
Feudal system peasants belonged to the land and the land belonged to the local noble, so they were never free to just pick up and go somewhere, permission was required.
Most peasants seldom traveled far from their homeland and those that did get permission for travel most likely would be setting off on a pilgrimage to one of the multitude of European towns which advertised some sacred relic.
Traveling in groups to these sites was relatively safe, traveling alone left one prey to whatever highwaymen might be about.
This, the bolded part.
The Canterbury tales is an interesting read which describes people from different socio-economic levels traveling on a pilgrimage. Mainly people of the highest classes, church men and women, and proto-middle class such as skilled tradesmen, clerks, merchants, etc. Your average muck digging peasant rarely had the opportunity to go out on the road. Yeoman farmers, where they existed would be the exception.
There might be an abundance of something or other in one town while a mere 20 miles away it was rare or unknown. You could make a fortune travelling that short distance.
Depends on where/when the good peasant lived, who their lord was and if a war or plague was going on.
It's like asking if it's safe to be alive in 2014; Idaho= pretty safe and Liberia= not so great at all.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
