Day to Day Operation of Towns and Villages

The below is a series of concepts and ideas that can be used to construct a random settlement.

These ideas stem from the beautiful work of Dimitris Romeo Havlidis , as well as the books *The Medieval Underworld* by Andrew McCall and *The Timetraveler's Guide to Medieval England* by Ian Mortimer.

# Crime Reduction Efforts

## Town Curfew

If you came into a medieval town with an aim to stay the night you would be expected by the people to stay inside after the ringing of the curfew bells.  These would be rung by a volunteer group, called the night wardens, at dusk.  The night wardens would then patrol to keep order and would take curfew breakers into custody.  In addition to this, if the town had gates these would be closed at dusk too, with entrants being thoroughly questioned before being given a cautious entry.

If persons stayed at a reststop, inn, or alehouse they became the legal responsibility of the owner of the roof after the ringing of the bells.  Keepers of such places would often turn people out for arrest if they were unruly.

Night laborers, and those whose normal trade saw them having to step out would not face trouble.  However, for the average person, there would or could be a penalty if one was outside as an unrecognized or unpapered individual.  At the minimum if they didn’t have a good answer or reason for being out they might be escorted back home or to their current residence.  It would be illegal to travel without a lantern to mark yourself unless you had a very good reason for such.

## Tithings and Wardens

Groups of citizens would be divided into compulsory groups of shared self-responsibility called tithings (or boroughs).  A tithing would be about 10-15 people of an adult age (over 12).  The individual was called a tithingman (boroughman) and would have a head man amongst them referred to as a chief tithingman (or head boroughman) who would act as their chief representative.

Often these would be within families, but would certainly include others.  Each member of the tithing (borough) was required to raise the hue and cry if they saw evidence of a crime, were victim of or witnessed a crime.  All crimes must be reported or the individual would pay a 500 gold piece fine (better than a year's worth of a skilled tradesman's work).

**The Tithingman’s Oath** - “I will be lawful and bear loyalty to our governance (State Government) and our lords (Local Government), and I will be justiciable to my chief tithingman, so may the gods aid me.”

**Stratification of Legal Society** - As mentioned above, there were layers to the ordination of local society down to the familial level.

* Tithingman
* Chief Tithingman
* Constable - Chief law enforcement officer - the only full time lawman.
* Bayliff (Vogt/Amtmann) - Local level executor or custodian of legal authority and jurisdiction.  Managed lower court concerns and executed warrants.
* Reeve - Middle level executor or legal custodian.  Managed middle to high courts.  Would be called in for higher crimes.
* Judge - A manorial personage at the lord’s disposal who would travel from county to county on six week cycles executing trial cases.
* Lord - The master of any given region.  In Hilden for example the City-Region has the Region-Sovereign.

# Financials of an Ancient City

## Dockside Shipping/Lending

**Lending** - A city with a significant sea trade will have bankers and lenders down at the docks.

Effect on the Players - the PCs might well be accosted by overeager bankers or scribes assuming them to be part of the ship's investment.

**Lost Ships** - Ships lost at sea would drop the loan used to allow their purchased loads to set sail.  However the thirty percent interest loans would be diversified.  So if a load was lost at sea another would not likely be on a caravan and so forth.

Effects on the Players - the PCs might well be bonded to aid such a crew, or to insure success or to hire such aid for themselves.

## Weights and Measures

Trade of objects, weights and measures would be watched by officials as well as paid plain clothes informants.  This knowledge would be used to fight scammers as well as those who would price fix.  (See Positions of Import)

Effect on the Players - if the PCs attempt major commerce, or anything that might upset the price of a major commodity, price fix, deceive etc. the state's officials might well call them out or have them arrested.  Fixing markets in some locations might be a capital offense.

## Investment

Ships, caravans, mines etc will be privately owned by investors.  These investment interests might well not be sole owners but part of a company to defray the massive equipment costs.  The city or state would parcel then auction the land or resource in a public auction for transparency.

Effects on the Players - The PCs might be required to identify investors, might wish to become investors or to compete with them.

## Taxes

A complex system of gate tolls was part of entry to towns.   These would be a main source of income for councils.  With the closing of gated cities at night, as well as the regulation of the watchful tithings and warden systems, these would be lucrative on trade roads and fairly straightforward and easy to collect.

Entry-right  and leave-right was part of citizenship, and locals would not be accosted with such tolls.  However, any visitor or traveler would have to pay a fee to enter the town or city and do commerce.  Most such tolls were collected with those traveling to market in mind.  It was assumed that waresellers would be able to afford such a cost.  Various rates would exist for various types of goods and would demonstrate need as well as possible embargo action.

International Trade would generally be a decima (10%), more localized trade might call for a quinima (5%).  Vigintiquinima (25%) up to Trigintima (30%) and upwards quadragintama (40%) and even possibly as high as quinquagintima (50%) might be incurred for high value, competitive or embargoed goods.

# Positions of Import

## Ale-Conner or Ale-Taster

People sworn to examine and assay the beer and ale, and to take care that they were good and wholesome, and sold at proper prices according to the assize; and also to present all defaults of brewers to the next court-leet.  As a giver of fines they were not well liked.

## Hayward

Officer of the locality assigned with the duty of maintaining fence and hedgerows that the local grazers cannot damage the areas crops.

# Daily Life

## Fast Food

Only about 5% of poor to middle class households would have a formal kitchen.  Ovens too space, were expensive and were a fire hazard.

When we think of medieval cuisine, we don’t think of fast food. But for many medieval townies, this was the only option.

Kitchens required more room in medieval times as ovens were a lot bigger and a fire risk. Therefore, most people back then opted not to have one. In medieval Colchester, for instance, only 3 percent of households had a kitchen. It was much more common for people to take their unbaked food down to the local bakery where they would pay the baker a small fee for the privilege of using their oven.

Even more frequently, medieval people headed to their local pie shops or bakeries and bought ready-cooked food to eat on the move. In fact, some employers offered their workers time and an allowance to buy lunch in the middle of the day. These fast-food shops often had their own quarters within town and frequently stayed open after dark. So even those laborers who worked all day could grab a bite on the way home.

Pies, hotcakes, wafers, and pancakes were particular favorites, but meat pies were sold most frequently at these establishments. Until the modern era, pies were smaller and deeper. The pastry was much thicker and not intended for consumption.

Instead, the pastry was more like a container for the food inside, which the hungry worker would scoop out and eat with his hands or his knife. This made meat pies a high-energy and very portable food.

## The Spice of Life

We often assume that medieval food was bland and boring. While it’s true that rural peasants in villages mainly ate homegrown vegetables and porridge, even this was made more interesting by adding some herbs from the vegetable garden. In towns, food could be just as exciting and interesting as it is today—if you had the money.

The best place to find the flavors we’re used to now would have been London where the merchant ships from the continent would dock first. The farther you were from London, the more expensive the spices.

In the town markets, you could find modern-day staples like ginger, pepper, cumin, and cloves as well as spices like cubeb that have fallen out of use in the Western world today. Judging by some of the recipes from the time, it was not uncommon to find things like rice in the town market that was imported all the way from Asia.[3]

If you were rich enough to own a townhouse with its own cooking facilities, you almost always had enough money to afford the spices needed to keep your food interesting. And if you were a traveler stopping by a well-to-do inn or a high-end pie shop, you can be sure that they were also stocking up on spices to make their food more desirable than that of their competitors.

On the other hand, if you were a lowly craftsman or apprentice, it’s likely that your main meal of the day was a bit of bread and maybe a cake or doughnut sweetened with honey but not with pricey sugar.

## The Game of “Ball”

When we think of medieval sports, we think of things like archery and jousting. There is considerable evidence, however, that one of the most popular sports enjoyed by medieval people was a form of football which they called “ball.”

The game was similar to modern-day soccer but with some key differences: The ball could be propelled with any part of the body (including the hands), teams were usually made up of 300–500 people, and fighting, kicking, punching, and generally playing people off the ball were normal.

The game was popular and well-organized even at the start of the medieval period. When William FitzStephenin visited London in 1170, he remarked that the city’s youths loved to go out after dinner and play ball. He even noted that each trade had its own team.

The game of ball was usually played between large teams of opposing professions—for example, the thatchers against the carpenters. But it seems that social differences could also be the basis for football teams. For instance, in the women’s-only version of the sport, it was common to see the married women line up against the unmarried women.

Football was popular in medieval towns. Although the players usually retreated to the fields to play their games, they sometimes took to the streets, which often resulted in damage to property and widespread chaos.[4]

In 1314, King Edward II tried to ban the sport in London. He encouraged people to take up the more respectable sport of archery instead. Ball continued despite the ban and survived further prohibitions during the reigns of Edward III and Edward IV to become the modern sport of soccer.

## Legal Prositution

We might begin to think that medieval towns, much like the lords in the countryside, were highly restrictive of the activities within their walls. But there were some freedoms allowed that even today are illegal or, at the very least, highly regulated. One of these areas was prostitution.

Medieval society had very different views on gender, sex, and people’s behavior than we do now, and medieval individuals were altogether a lot more violent and used to hostile interactions. Thus, we see the widespread tolerance of brothels in medieval towns, even though sex outside of marriage was seen as sinful.

Brothels were permitted for a rather simple reason. To the medieval mind, male lust needed to be sated in a safe way to protect the innocence of women.

Prostitution was still monitored and regulated. In fact, brothels were required to keep detailed records of their operations that were freely accessible to council officials. Brothels also had to turn a profit to be viable. They certainly weren’t funded by the government or the church.[7]

But in many places, the presence of a bawdy house wasn’t seen as a bad thing. It wasn’t entirely uncommon to see such institutions frequented or even owned by wealthy or high-ranking members of the clergy, even bishops.

In some places, a brothel keeper had to be sworn in by the mayor of the town and would serve for a preset term. Afterward, a new one would be chosen. In some towns, such as medieval Vienna, only women were allowed to run a brothel. These measures were introduced to ensure the safety of both workers and patrons. Cheaper and sleazier establishments almost certainly existed in these towns, although they were unknown to the town councils.

# The Buildings of a Village

* Cottager’s cottage
* Bordar’s house
* Villein’s house
* Freeman’s house
* Manor house (small)
* Manor house (large)
* Knight’s motte and bailey
* Priest’s parsonage

##### **Workshops**

* Blacksmith
* Woodcutter
* Mill
* Charcoal Maker
* Fishery
* Bake house
* Brewery
* Furrier
* Carpenter
* Tailor & Cobbler (shoe maker)
* Barber
* Mason

##### **Arable land**

* Grain Field
* Vegetable Patch
* Orchard
* Vineyard

##### **Manorial Buildings**

* Church
* Monastery (satelite Manor)
* Well
* Barn (Tithe Barn)
* Granary
* Cattle Barn
* Stables
* Warehouse
* Market
* Tavern
* Inn
* Almshouse
* Great Hall

###### **Non-arable Land**

* Meadow
* Pasture
* Woodland / Forest
* Marsh
* Field (Fallow)
* River and Pond

# The House of a Poor Citizen

## The Cottage

In a medieval village, buildings like houses were usually built by using a wooden frame which was filled with wattle and daub and then covered with plaster made of chalk, or lime and earth. The roof was almost exclusively made of thatch. The serf could use an amount of land appropriate to the serf-class to which he was assigned; that amount of land defined the amount of livestock he could own, the size of family he could support and, of course, his ability to generate any form of revenue.

The house would be about 25’ X 12’ or 8 X 4 m.  It would generally have two unglassed windows which would be closed by shutters or a thatched hatch.  The door would be a snug wooden operation.  The structure is cream-colored because of the earth and limestone plaster.

In the house, the family mostly sits and sleeps on the **pile of straw** at the south side of the cottage, away from the door, but there is also a **wooden table** and **two wooden stools**. Most of the family’s clothing is kept in a big, oak **chest**. All the cutlery is kept in a **wooden tub,** which is also used to wash both the cutlery and the clothes by the river side. There are **9 wooden bowls**, **11 wooden spoons** and one **brass ladle**. The family has only a **medium sized copper pot** in which to cook, less poor families might have a large **cauldron**.

A **wooden bucket with a lid** is used to defecate during the evening hours; it’s emptied first thing in the morning in a nearby stream. The hearth is positioned in the middle of the house and it’s surrounded with large, rather tall, stones (10” high) to contain the fire. The logs are also stored in a pile close to the fire, in order to keep them dry. Most of the family’s tools are hanging by the western wall, from the three structural wooden columns of the house.  These include **1 iron axe, 2 flails, 2 forks (haymaking), 3 bronze sickles, 1 iron spade** and **one oak ard (ox-plough)**.

## General Foodstores

This provisioning is for a poorer family, it can be roughly doubled for better-to-do people:

* **6 sacks of Wheat** (25kg each) 2 of those sacks to be used as seed for 1 acre
* **4 sacks of Barley** (25kg each) 2 of those sacks to be used as seed for 1/2 acre; the rest to feed the chickens for another 2 and a half months
* **3 sacks of Oats** (25kg each) 2 of those to be used as seed for 1/2 acre
* **6 bales of Hay** to feed the sheep, Didi and Hen (enough for 4 more weeks)
* **2 kg of Salt** stored in a linen pouch hanging from the ceiling
* **1 kg of Honey** stored in a linen-covered clay pot
* **5 litres of Vinegar** in a leather flask hanging from one of the support columns
* **18 Eggs** in a straw basket
* **3 Trout** (2kg each) preserved in salt
* **20 Onions** smoked in a straw basket
* **15 Beetroots** pickled in a clay jar
* **5 Garlic garlands** (10 heads each) hanging by the support columns
* **100 Carrots**

## Within the Garden of a Commoner

The garden is separated into squares, each almost five by five feet. With less than 330 square feet of garden, the family can support around 13 squares of fruits and vegetables. Some vegetables grow quite quickly and will allow the family to replant them twice, or even more frequently, within the year and all the way to the first snow. This month the family planted:

1. 100 Lettuce heads (500 within a year including late autumn hardier crops)
2. 400 Carrots (1200 – 1600 within a year)
3. 400 Leeks
4. 100 Broad-bean plants
5. 400 Onions (800 within a year)
6. 25 Cabbages
7. 25 Cabbages
8. 300 Pea plants
9. 225 Spinach plants (hardy greens)
10. 100 Artichokes
11. 400 Beetroot (1200 within a year)
12. 400 Radishes (2000 within a year)

## Animals

A given poor family might have **1-2 sheep** and **a lamb**. In addition to that, the family might have **1 cockerel** and **6 chickens** with **4 tiny chicks**.