WAYS OF LIFE

SOCIAL CLASSES

LIEGE LORDS:

The new social divided society into nobility and vassals. Five different groups can be established within the nobility:

Counts: At the top of the hierarchy.

Viscounts: their political role diminished and some families became extinct.

Comdors: Members of the military aristocracy. They were the largest body within the nobility. They came from a double origin: on the one hand, they were the descendants of the old nobility; on the other hand, they were the children, grandsons and great-grandsons of those who had revolted, those called " veguers."

These 3 groups would form what we call the upper- nobility. On the other hand, the lower-nobility was numerically superior but they were less powerful.

Castlans and knights: They were in an intermediate position between the barons and the peasants and they had to subject the peasants to the lords.

Militate: they were to be found in the castles. In many cases they had a humble origin, they came from the rural world.

Two were the requirements for a peasant to become part of the lower-nobility:

• To have a worthy economic position.
• A knighting ceremony where the vassal swore his fidelity to the liege lord.

THE DAILY LIFE OF THE LIEGE LORDS .

Not all the inhabitants of the castle shared the same social condition. It is difficult to specify the number of people that lived in a castle. The number of beds could be a hint, but in many occasions several people slept in the same bed .

In Winter the liege lords spent most of the day in bed because of the darkness and the cold. Their bedrooms were large and the bed the main element. The bedrooms of the servants were usually collective.

The living room was used as a dining room and a place were to gather. Bread and wine were staple food. Vegetables, poultry, and pork were also basic foods. Honey was used as a sweetener while apples, dry figs and nuts were the most abundant fruits. During the summer the liege lords enjoyed more free time although they were in charge of administrative tasks, since this period coincided with the harvest.

The liege lords received from the peasants rural tithes and censuses in species. The castle was also the centre of the farming estate. Book-keeping was also carried out by the lords. Apart from that the liege lords devoted their free time to their main hobbies: chess, hunting, reading and writing .

On the other hand, the ladies devoted their free time to their physical aspect and to the care of their bodies.