Feudal Life in Scotland
How People Lived Under the Feudal System
From: 400 C.E. To: 1500 C.E.
Location: Scotland
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From A Short History of Scotland by Peter Hume Brown, 1908.
How People Lived Under the Feudal System
We have seen that under the Feudal System there were three classes of people, the greater and lesser barons, the free tenants, and the serfs in the country; and now let us see how these different classes lived leaving out the towns, of which something will be said in another place.
First, let us take the barons, as they were the most important class.
When the vassal received land from the king, he went into his presence, fell on his knees, and put his hands in those of the king, who then kissed him on the mouth. At the same time he took an oath that he would be the king's faithful vassal all his life.
Images from book, by P. Hume Brown.
Let us now follow him to the lands which he has got from the king. If there was not a castle already on the lands, he would at once set about building one. At first these castles had been built of wood, but by King David's time, they were usually built of stone. The chief thing thought of in building them was that they should be so strong that they could not easily be taken by an enemy. They were, therefore, built in some place which made it difficult for an enemy to attack them such as a hill, or the middle of a lake or even of a bog.
The walls were made so thick that, except with cannons, which did not exist in those days, they could not be broken down. For windows, which at this time had no glass, they had small holes from which stones could be thrown and arrows shot. Round the castle there was a high, thick wall, and outside the wall there was a deep and broad moat or ditch, over which was the draw-bridge, which could be raised or let down, so as to keep people out or let them in. Near the castle there was a hamlet, where the people lived who worked the ground from which the lord got food for himself and his household.
In this castle, then, the baron lived with his family and his retainers, that is, the armed men who were kept by him, and who were ready either to defend the castle or ride out with him against any enemy. At time of meals, everybody, both the lord and his family and the retainers, sat down at one table in the great hall of the castle; those of higher rank sitting at the upper end, and those of lower rank at the other.
And how did the great lord spend his time?
First, he had business to attend to. When the king needed him in war or required his; advice, he had to put himself at the head of his retainers and march to wherever the king happened to be. Every baron, also, had a court on his land in which criminals were tried, and he had the right of "pit and gallows"; which means, that he could hang men and drown women when they were found guilty of crimes that deserved death. Usually, however, the baron had an officer, called a bailie, who tried the persons who were brought before the court.
The great lord, therefore, had not much business to look after, and so he had to fill up his time with amusements. His chief amusement was hunting, and in those days hunting was much more exciting than it is now, as there were wolves and wild boars to be killed, and not merely foxes, and hares, and rabbits.
In addition to hunting there was hawking, in which the ladies also took part the sport being to see a falcon fly above a heron and then swoop down and kill it. But there could not be hunting and hawking at all times of the year, and so the baron must often have found it difficult to know how to fill in the day.
A writer who lived in those times gives this list of the amusements of a feudal baron: hunting, fishing, fencing, jousting, chess-playing, bear-baiting, receiving guests, talking with ladies, holding his court, keeping himself warm, and watching the snow fall.
But the great amusement of those times was the tournament or tourney. As fighting was the chief thing about which the barons thought, to be brave and skilful fighters was their great ambition. So their very play was a kind of war, and sometimes the play was very much in earnest. A king or some great baron would send out heralds through the country, and even into other countries, to say that on a certain day he would hold a tournament.
Then as many knights as wished to show off their skill and courage would come to the place appointed. Sometimes the tourneys lasted several days, when many champions came, and it must have been a gay sight all the time it lasted. The fighting took place in what were called the lists a long, broad piece of level ground, enclosed by barriers, to prevent people from getting inside. All around were the tents and pavilions of the great persons who had come to see the sight, and of the champions who were to take part in the tourney. On the tents and on trees were hung the standards and the shields of the combatants, so that everybody might know who they were.
For the chief people, of whom many were ladies, there were raised seats from which the lists could easily be seen. At the one end of the lists were the challengers, and at the other end those who were to fight them.
All the champions were armed just as in time of war; they were covered from head to foot in mail; in their left hands they carried their shields, and in their right long lances, and a sword or a battle-axe hung at their sides. Usually the fighting took place on horseback.
With their lances at rest, they galloped at full speed against each other, and each tried to unseat his opponent If the one unhorsed got to his feet, his enemy leapt from his horse, and then they fought with their swords or battle-axes. Usually both the lances and swords were blunted, so that there might not be so much danger; but if the champions happened to be enemies, they fought with sharp swords and lances, just as in war, and in that case they were often wounded or slain.
When the tourney was over, a lady, who had been chosen as "the lady of the tournament," gave the prize to the champion who had shown himself the bravest and most skilful fighter, and at night there was a great feast, to which the combatants and the chief people were invited.
The times of which we are speaking are called "the days of chivalry." To understand what this means, let us look at the way in which the son of a lord was brought up and educated.
When he was a boy of ten or twelve, he was first sent to be a page to some great lady, so that he might learn how to be courteous, that is, to learn the manners of courts. Then he was put under some lord, whom he had to attend at table, carving his food and doing him other such services. When he grew older he became a squire; that is, he looked after the weapons of his master, and followed him to the wars and defended him in the time of battle. But his great ambition was to become a knight, and to gain this honour he had to show that he was brave and true, and skilful in using his weapons.
Being made a knight was a very solemn thing, and the candidate, as he was called, had to go through a kind of religious service. He had to fast and to bathe, which meant that he was to be pure in mind as well as clean in body; he had to confess his sins to a priest, and watch all night in a church.
When all this had been done, a sword was bound to his side and gold spurs put on his feet. Then he knelt down before the person who was to make him a knight, who gave him a blow on the cheek or on the shoulder, and said, "Be thou a good and faithful knight."
And, last of all, the new knight took an oath that he would defend the weak and helpless, and never do anything that was mean or dishonourable. This, then, is what was meant by chivalry skill and bravery in war; gentleness towards the weak, especially women; and hatred of what was not fair and just.
The free tenants lived a very different life from that of the barons.
They are called free, because they were not slaves like the serfs, but could remove when they pleased from the lands of one lord to those of another. As was said, they rented a piece of ground from some lord, and paid him with sheep or cattle, or poultry or grain, or other things that the land produced. At certain times of the year, also, as, for instance, at seed-time and harvest, he and the men he employed had to work on the lord's own farm. Then he had to have all his corn ground at his lord's mill, and had to give him a certain quantity of it for having it ground.
When the lord went to war, the tenant had to go with him, and provide his own weapons and his food. The free tenant, therefore, was not so free after all, and it must have been hard work for him to provide for himself and his family.
But the lot of the serf was far worse. He and his family were all slaves, and could be sold at any time. Not only the lords but even the clergy had slaves. Very often the serfs tried to run away, but there were laws that ordered them to be sent back to their masters wherever they were found.
We have seen that every baron had a court, where persons accused of any crime were tried and punished. But the ways of trying whether persons were guilty or not were very different from ours.
One way was this: if you wished to prove yourself innocent, you got a number of persons living in the neighbourhood to take an oath that you were not guilty, and if they did so, you were then allowed to go free. This way of trying accused persons was called compurgation.
But there were other ways that were more curious. To prove that you were innocent, you plunged your naked hand and arm into boiling water or took hold of red-hot iron, and, if the skin were healed within a certain time, you were supposed not to have committed the crime with which you were charged. This was known as trial by ordeal.
But the strangest way of all was this: if anyone accused you of a crime, you could challenge him to fight a duel, and if you conquered, you were thought to be innocent, but if you were beaten, you were judged guilty. This seems a strange way of deciding whether a person was guilty or not, but it did not seem strange to the people of those times, as they believed that God would never allow an innocent person to be punished. In course of time, however, men found that innocent persons were sometimes punished instead of the guilty, and even in the time of David they had begun to think that trial by compurgation, or by the ordeal of fire or by combat, was not the right way to find out whether a crime had been committed or not.
Brown, Peter Hume. A Short History of Scotland. Oliver and Boyd, 1908.
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