About
the
Title It’s
easy to think of medieval times as a kind of storybook never-never land, with
bold knights riding out on quests, jesters and wandering minstrels entertaining
at sumptuous banquets, and kings and queens ruling from towered castles. But the
real story about the Middle Ages is more fascinating than any fairy tale. Just
like life today, life in medieval times was full of complexity and variety. Most
people were peasants who spent their lives farming in the countryside, but
cities were growing and becoming increasingly important. Numerous women and men
devoted themselves to religion, spending their lives serving in the Church. And
of course there were castles, homes to kings, queens, nobles, and
knights—and to large numbers of servants and craftspeople as well. This
volume looks at all these segments of European society in the High Middle Ages,
1100–1400. The focus is on the everyday lives of both adults and children,
illuminated through artwork, period poems and stories, and fascinating details
of daily living. Although their world was very different from ours, medieval
people had many of the same joys and sorrows, hopes and fears that we do, as
readers of
Everyday
Life in Medieval Europe
will
discover.
