Medieval People

Medieval People

By Eileen Power

Eileen Edna LePoer Power was born in Atrincham, Cheshire, England on January 9,1889. Power attended Girton College and the Sorbonne. She was described as "an unconventional woman for her time" one example of this is her open criticism of the foreign policy of Britain and active membership in the Union of Democratic Control (Berg). "Powers was Director of History at Girton College from 1913-21, Lecturer in Political Science at the London School of Economics 1921-24, and Reader of the University of London 1924-31, then returning to the London School of Economics as Professor of Economic History in 1931" (Berg). In 1927, Power founded the Economic History Review and in 1933 with, William Beveridge, started the Academic Freedom Committee that "helped academics fleeing for Nazi Germany" (Berg). In 1937, Power married a fellow historian Michael Postan and a year later became Professor of Economic History at Cambridge University. Mrs. Power, at the age of fifty-one, died of heart failure in 1940 leaving behind several books she wrote during her life and the legacy of a pioneering woman and leading historian of her time. A few more books, and a collection of her lectures, were published posthumously" (Berg).

The sources Power uses are as entertaining, interesting, and historically significant as the stories themselves. She went through the books and records, reading the intimate, romantic, and sometimes hard to read business letters and extensive wills left behind. This must have been at times engrossing and other times frustrating. The extensive research was very time consuming and an obvious labor of love. The objectivity in Power's stories is what makes her books considered, even still, academic and historical sources. Power's books, including this one, are widely regarded as "classics" (Berg).

"Social history sometimes suffers from the reproach that it is vague and general, unable to compete with the attractions of political history either for the student or for the general reader, because of its lack of outstanding personalities" (ix). I really do like history and I find this quote to be so true of the typical view of history. The main purpose of this book is to educate the general reader on the lives of the ordinary, everyday person that lived throughout the period called "medieval." Showing that the stories of the common person, (regardless of sex, class, urban or rural) that lived through the more popularly written about history, are just as historically important, if not more at times, than that of the kings and queens written about.

Living under a monarch with a feudal system was harder on some and easier on others depending on your social class and whether you were female or male. Whether in Venice, England or the land of the Tartars you experienced feudalism. If you were a peasant, you were just a step above the serfs and worked just as hard. Peasants did more to work together and were more conscious about the survival of their families and friends. Noblemen in the upper classes were less involved with any real labor and worried more about what they could do for their social lives and standing in society. Most of the time, the basis of your social standing was determined by how much wealth you had and what trade you were in. Hierarchy among the church officials depended upon what position you held and what you did politically. However, regardless of this, they all had one thing in common and that was the love of socializing with family and friends.

Merchants were of higher social standing because of wealth made trading wool to clothiers all over the world. Clothiers, also merchants, made up most of the middle class and employed citizens of the lower class as well as keeping servants and slaves. Most of these high and middle class merchants lived in urban areas where their trade was concentrated. They developed these areas by building churches and creating employment opportunities within the communities. Wool was the trade that raised England's power and wealth in the world. The clothiers supported the wool merchants, which in turn helped raise England to a better political standing among the world leaders and countries. During the medieval period in history, the political and religious rule shifted from Constantinople to Venice to England. This rule eventually shifted to a newly discovered America,