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The medieval household was, like modern households, the center of family life for all classes of European society. Yet in contrast to the household of today, it consisted of many more individuals than the nuclear family. From the household of the king to the humblest peasant dwelling, more or less distant relatives and varying numbers of ...
A glass of real ale from an English pub. Ale is a type of beer, brewed using a warm fermentation method. [1][2] In medieval England, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. [3] As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to balance the malt and act as a preservative. Ale was originally bittered with gruit, a mixture of ...
Alewife (trade) Mother Louse, a notorious alewife in Oxford during the mid 17th century, by David Loggan [1][2] An alewife, also brewess[3] or brewster, [4] was a woman who brewed ale for commercial sale. Women have been active in brewing since before the process's industrialisation.
Small beer (also known as small ale or table beer) is a lager or ale that contains a lower amount of alcohol by volume than most others, usually between 0.5% and 2.8%. [1] [2] Sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like, it was a favoured drink in Medieval Europe and colonial North America compared with more expensive beer containing higher levels of alcohol. [3]
The Parish ale or church ale was a party or festivity in an English parish at which ale was the chief drink. It was typically a fundraising occasion for the parish that might include music and dancing. Very common in the later Middle Ages, parish ales encountered some opposition after the English Reformation, though some survived until modern ...
The economy of England in the Middle Ages, from the Norman invasion in 1066, to the death of Henry VII in 1509, was fundamentally agricultural, though even before the invasion the local market economy was important to producers. [1] Norman institutions, including serfdom, were superimposed on an existing system of open fields and mature, well ...
During the Middle Ages, advancing to different social classes was uncommon and difficult, and when it did happen, it generally took the form of a gradual increase in status over several generations of a family rather than within a single lifetime. One field in which commoners could appreciably advance within a single lifetime was the Church.
Peasant homes in medieval England were centered around the hearth while some larger homes may have had separate areas for food processing like brewhouses and bakehouses, and storage areas like barns and granaries. There was almost always a fire burning, sometimes left covered at night, because it was easier than relighting the fire.