Estate Sales

 In the US it is common to see ads for estate sales, where the older generation has died (or gone into a Home) and the younger generation is selling everything off: the recliner chair, the china, some old jewelry, miscellaneous vinyl records from the '40s or '50s, the canning jars, a lawn tractor, a collection of miniature toy cars.

They didn't have estate sales in the Middle Ages.  So, you ask, is this going to be a very short blog post?  No, actually, because the topic opens up a discussion of medieval material culture and inheritance.

One of the sharpest differences between a modern middle-class household and a medieval household, even a wealthy household, is how much Stuff we all have compared to medieval people.  Industrialization (made possible initially by an abundance of mined coal) means that material objects are far, far cheaper and more abundant now than when everything had to be made by hand, without power tools (and of course a lot of goods for sale in the US are made in parts of the world where labor is cheaper).

Medieval people had far less furniture, far less clothing, far fewer kitchen utensils, and far, far fewer books (plus of course fewer miniature toy cars or lawn tractors....).  This meant that when the older generation died (or perhaps went off to a monastery for their final time on earth) there was very little Stuff left behind.  And rather than saying, "What are we going to do with all this old Stuff?" the younger generation wanted it.

In fact a lot of people wanted it.  In a castle or manor house, the heir just took over, treating everything in the place as theirs now, furniture, tapestries, cooking and eating utensils, weapons, linens, and so on.  Old-fashioned or broken jewelry would not be sold for a few bucks just to get rid of it, but either treasured as it was or reset to look more modern.

Peasant households also had goods that everyone wanted.  If the heir was living with the parents, she or he would just take over everything (recalling that "everything" was a pretty skimpy selection once one got past the ox and the plow).  Landlords wanted those goods too, and although they would rarely just seize them from the heir, they would if there were no heir in sight.  After all, everyone could use another table or storage chest or cook pot, to say nothing of the ox and plow.  Some peasants negotiated deals with their landlords, that an heir would have a year to make an appearance before the landlord just appropriated the goods.

Who were these heirs?  Generally the child or children of the deceased (oldest sons had a certain priority, or at least they thought so, but like most legal requirements in the Middle Ages, any dispute started with a big discussion and usually ended in compromise).  Otherwise uncles and cousins  were usually next in line.  If a peasant had no obvious heirs, a landlord would just take over.  If a great noble had no heirs (or if the heir was a young girl) the crown would step in to take charge of the Stuff.

© C. Dale Brittain 2023

For more on medieval inheritance and social history, see my ebook Positively Medieval, available on Amazon and other ebook platforms.  Also available in paperback.

Homesteading

 Ever since the Industrial Revolution, when millions of people left farming for work in the factories, there has been some sort of "back to the farm" movement.  People lose track of why they left the farm in the first place, and people who have never farmed, but want to break away from factories and urban life, think of farming with a sort of golden glow.

In recent years this "back to the farm" concept has been branded as "homesteading."  Originally American homesteading meant people getting a certain number of acres of unoccupied frontier land (at least land that was unoccupied once the indigenous people had been driven off), and they could keep it if they farmed it successfully for a certain number of years.  But more recently the term has come to mean making one's living on a farm, after having had a quite different sort of career.

It's easy to be nostalgic for a rural past, without the hurly-burly of modern life, without the noise and industrial pollution, living as self-reliant, close to home, interacting with one's family most of the day rather than just after work, eating wholesome home-grown food.  The rural population is often described as being the "real Americans."  Popular "country music" evokes the rural (or at least small-town) life.  The Middle Ages, when almost everyone was involved in farming, is often seen as epitomizing this rural past.  On this blog, the entry about medieval farm animals has been the most popular for nine years, ever since I first posted it.

 

 But farming is very hard work, and if you're imagining the fresh scent of clover as greeting you in the morning, add to that the fresh scent of the manure pile.  Modern homesteaders have advantages medieval peasants never dreamed of.  Starting with the fact that they live in the twenty-first century, even if they're engaging in activities that have roots going back ten or twelve thousand years.

Their farms have electricity, TVs, internet connections, and modern plumbing.  Their kids ride the school bus to get educated.  They have cars and/or trucks to get to town, for shopping, for entertainment, to settle legal issues, and to get medical assistance if needed.  Driving a tractor is a lot easier than walking back and forth across the field behind a plow.  They can sell their hand-crafted honey (or whatever) on their website for extra money.  If they haven't canned enough vegetables to last through the winter (recalling that modern canning was invented in the nineteenth century) they can buy fresh produce at the grocery store, imported from California or South America.

You've got to admire our ancestors.  They were tough and resourceful, and it's a wonder enough of them survived to produce the generations that led to us.  Few of us would survive a year as a medieval peasant.

Fortunately we don't have to!

© C. Dale Brittain 2023

 For more on peasant farming and other aspects of medieval history, see my ebook Positively Medieval, available on Amazon and other ebook platforms.  Also available in paperback.

Roy Fox and the Palmatian

 I've got a new book!  It's called "Roy Fox and the Palmatian" (as you probably already guessed from this post's header), and it's what's called a "first chapter book," a book for kids who have advanced beyond picture books but who aren't ready for YA (Young Adult), kids roughly 7-10 years old.

It can also be enjoyed as a read-aloud, and I hope that adults will get a chuckle from it too.

As you have also doubtless figured out, it's about a fox, and in fact it opened on Amazon as #1 in New Release Fox Stories (who knew there was such a category?)  Roy is a trickster fox, so the story doesn't exactly have a Strong Moral Message, and if you want your kids to have stories in which they are taught to Always be Honest and Keep your Things Tidy it's probably not for you.  But it is very funny!

 

What's a Palmatian? you are doubtless wondering.  Well, it might be something like a Dalmatian, or it might be something like a spotty fox, or it might even be an old mongrel dog.  Whatever it is, it's part of Roy Fox's cunning plan.

It's available on Amazon both as an ebook and a paperback.  It can be ordered as a paperback from any bookstore, and the ebook version is coming soon to other platforms.  Here's the US Amazon link:

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGJMLCG7

And here's the opening to whet your appetite.

****

Daisy Fox was arrested as a chicken thief and thrown in the King’s dungeon. And I, Roy Fox, had to save her.

Now of course any fox will tell you that foxes are not really chicken thieves. We may take a chicken out of the hen house to protect them, in case there’s a bear or a weasel nearby. And if the chicken happens to die, because of old age or something, it would be a shame not to eat it.

But Daisy was locked up as a chicken thief, and it was up to me to set her free.

Fortunately I had a cunning plan. 

 © C. Dale Brittain 2023