Feudalism is a system in which a few winners lord it over a mass of losers. As such, it has to be justified with arguments which claim that it is God's will. 'Servitude is ordained by God, either because of the sins of those who become serfs, or as a trial, in order that those who are thus humbled may be made better,' writes one theologian, justifying the system in the 1100s.

About 300 years later, the strictness of this hierarchical class system is breaking down. John de Bromyarde, a humble Dominican friar, looks back in anger at the system's inequalities: 'O just God, mighty judge, the game was not fairly divided between them and us. Their surfeit was our famine; their jousts and tournaments were our torments; their feasts our fasting.'

Feudalism

Class differences increase with the arrival of the Normans. The feudal system – aspects of which pre-date the Norman invasion – is a tiered order of social status where people know their place.

The king owns all the land, and lets out it out to barons, bishops and abbots. In return, they pay homage to the king and supply trained mounted soldiers – knights – to fight or provide any other services stipulated by the king. The knights are given land by the barons in return. At the bottom of the heap are the peasants, who farm strips of land, usually for the 'lord of the manor' who can be a baron, a knight or a senior churchman. Farming communities or manors grow their own food. Some peasants are free men but others – villeins or serfs – are effectively slaves. Because they are not free, their children are not free either. They are not allowed to leave the village and must pay fines if their daughters move away after marrying. When a peasant dies, his son must give his best animal to the lord and his second best to the priest.

Although the Black Death wipes out half the population by 1350, those who survive benefit from the devastation. Wages are driven up by the shortage of labour and there are opportunities for social advancement. Unfree men become free since labourers are able to name their terms. Property and money become important, rather than just noble birth. Even the king is now forced to hire knights from nobles for money rather than simply demanding their services.

By the end of the 15th century, the English country gent has emerged, living in a manor house. The changing order of things is evident in the Paston letters, the earliest surviving private documents written in English. They show the Norfolk Paston family's rise from the peasantry to knight of the shire over three generations.

Town and country

At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, there are only 10 towns in England with a population larger than 2,000. More towns grow up as a result of the wool trade. They are noisy, dirty and controlled by curfews. In 1476, the 'stink and badness of the air' is still of concern in towns such as Beverley in Yorkshire.

Merchants' houses are wooden at first and the upper floor usually juts out over the street (this can be seen in the Shambles in York). Open drains run down the centre of the muddy streets. As tradespeople become wealthier, they start building in stone. By the 13th century, the better-off sleep in wooden beds instead of on the floor and have glass window panes.

By 1300, manor houses in the countryside are generally built of stone, around an enclosed courtyard, with a gatehouse and moat. Penshurst Place in Kent is a good example. Privacy is non-existent and comfort not a priority.

Meals are highly flavoured and also brightly coloured with saffron or blood. Sugar and spices such as pepper are introduced by people returning from the Crusades; prices for these fluctuate hugely, unlike bread and ale whose prices are pegged.

Peasant homes are one- or two-roomed timber-framed houses, with walls made of twigs and mud ('wattle and daub') and covered in limewash; roofs are thatched and floors are mud or clay with straw on top. Food is cooked on an open hearth. Peasants share their homes with their livestock, which lives in a fenced-off section.

Peasants eat lots of course bread, cheese, eggs, vegetable stew and drink ale (which households brew themselves). Herring-pie is a favourite snack at fairs and markets.

London life

In the mid-1100s, London has a population of about 25,000. Class distinctions are less pronounced there. There is even a 24-hour eaterie catering for all incomes: 'coarser meats for the poor, more delicate for the rich.'

It is not to everyone's taste. According to Richard of Devizes's Chronicle of the 1190s, the town is full of 'stage-players, buffoons, musical girls, druggists, lustful persons, fortune-tellers, extortionists, nightly strollers, magicians, mimics, common beggars, tatterdemalions'. London doesn't improve. In 1444, a citizens' petition referring to the grotty state of London notes: 'Swans, geese, herons, and ewes and other poultry whereof the ordure and standing of them is of great stench and so evil savour that it causeth great and parlous infecting of the people and long hath done.'

Trade and industry

In 1300, there are 15 million sheep in Britain. Wool – and, by 1450, woollen cloth – is the nation's most lucrative export and some villagers and merchants grow fat on the profits. 'I thank God and ever shall/It was the sheep that paid for all,' says one happy clothier.

Another merchant who does well out of the cloth business is Richard Whittington (Dick in later pantomimes), a Gloucestershire merchant who is lord mayor of London three times before his death in 1423.

In the 1300s, guilds are formed to protect and regulate various trades. Boy apprentices are taught by master craftsmen for up to seven years, at which point they become journeymen and are paid for their work. They must then produce what is judged to be a competent piece of work before calling themselves a master of their trade.

Prices and standards of work are set by the guilds. They also establish schools and organise entertainment in the towns. But it is also an élitist arrangement. In 1406, an Act declares that a man must be worth at least 20s a year before he can send his son to be an apprentice. One journeyman who refuses to join a guild in the late 1300s is violently assaulted.

Fun and games

'All manner of men, the mean and the rich, go to the fair,' writes poet William Langland in 1370. Stourbridge Fair near Cambridge lasts three weeks and attracts traders from as far afield as mainland Europe.

Bear-baiting and cock-fighting are popular spectator sports. Bear-baiting, for which the animals are imported, takes two forms: either a pack of dogs is set on a bear and people bet on the survival of the creatures, or someone prods the bear and everyone watches it get agitated.

A popular sport for villagers is camp-ball ('camp' meaning a battle), in which two disorganised sides of players (often whole villages) run with or throw a cricket-sized leather ball towards two opposing goals, sometimes several miles apart. Points are scored by trapping an opponent or getting the ball in the goal. The game evolves into one where kicking only is allowed. This is called kicking-camp, becoming football in the 15th century. The ball in this case is a pig's bladder filled with dried peas.

As well as tournaments, hunting and falconry are favourite pastimes for the nobility. William I is said by one scribe to have 'loved the stag as dearly as though he had been their father'. William decrees that much of England's woodland be set aside as royal forests to raise deer and wild boar exclusively for his pleasure. But by 1217, the nobility insist to King John that their own hunting rights should be extended.

Hunting is seen as an essential apprenticeship for the young nobleman, teaching him courage, quick thinking and strategy. Edward, duke of York, writes The Master of Game in the early 1400s, pointing out that, by keeping a man busy, hunting prevents his mind from turning to sinful deeds.

Après-hunting feasts are held in the great hall of the castle where guests tuck into venison, wild boar, swan, heron, peacock, gull and wine. Servants can expect salted meat and ale. Meat is dried and salted as a means of preservation because there is no refrigeration.

In falconry, the birds wear hoods decorated with bells and their owners' heraldic emblems. Peregrine falcons are considered the kings of the sport, fit only for princes and dukes; lesser hawks and falcons are reserved for lesser ranks.

In the 1270s, Edward I establishes a special place for his falconers and birds of prey at Charing Cross in London. A leopard-head fountain provides water for the bird bath, doves are raised for bird food and cranes brought in for practice.

Tennis emerges in the late 14th century and is referred to by Geoffrey Chaucer in his poem Troilus and Criseyde as 'pleyen racket to and fro'.

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