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Eleanor Janega on the Real Lives of Medieval Peasants

Best History Documentaries

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What was life actually like for the 80% of people who worked the land in medieval England? 🌾

In this episode, Dr Eleanor Janega travels to Denny Abbey to peel back the layers of medieval society and discover the world of the peasantry. Forget the modern insults; in the Middle Ages, "peasant" meant "farmer," and their labor sustained the entire kingdom; from the grandest cathedrals to the King’s table.

Going Medieval Series 1 Episode 1

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19 Comments

@jaaronfletcher 5 months ago

You know what I like about this channel? It’s not AI trash. It’s real.

@Nebraska_Panhandler 5 months ago

Thank you Dr. Eleanor for another delightful talk on peasantry.

@snoozer2345 5 months ago

This is WHY I watch. I’m over hearing about the nobility, I want to learn about the lives of the majority of people. Thank you for focusing on the people I feel matter the most!

@toyo5078 5 months ago

Shes talking about me in 2026

@kranzonguam 5 months ago

Outstanding!! Thank you!!😊

@mikecobalt7005 1 month ago

:) Always full of information and a good watch

@amandafletcher4379 5 months ago

Dr Eleanor is my FAVORITE host (sorry not sorry) ❤😂

@poppavic 5 months ago

I can dig it...

@AnnaAnna-uc2ff 5 months ago

Thanks.

@ShoeString13 5 months ago

It would be good to build a saloon on the dunes of beach

@Tampa7 1 month ago

Why did they implement the 3 field system? Surely they didn’t know what nitrogen was. How did they know that was an optimal strategy?

@mrniceguystylehigh 5 months ago

Peasant was probably the best gig in medieval times outside of maybe bishop or cardinal. Knights and lords had to physically train and fight their whole life. Kings pretty much the same with the added stress of everyone around you would kill you if you misgoverned. Monastic orders were incredibly tedious and boring.

@jamesbuchner5875 5 months ago

I moved to Lee Vining Ca USA it's better than that

@Máté-j5s 3 months ago

I was thinking it was SLIGHTLY similar to slave keeping in the States. They didn't have the right to much. Same in central Europe.

@JoseFernandez-qt8hm 5 months ago

paying for everything: the taxpayers.... it's true we serfs again....

@janerkenbrack3373 5 months ago

Mr. Pedantic here to point out that around the 6:30 mark as you were describing the three field system, the nitrogen depleting crop your graphic showed looked suspiciously like maize, or corn as we now call it. This crop would be unheard of in medieval England.

@Backwardlooking 4 months ago

A bit like today as regards a Boiling Point with our entitled rulers.

@CuthbertDibble 5 months ago

Fake

@XAirForcedotcom 5 months ago (edited)

This is a genetic relative of the royal family and four presidents of the United States to include Washington, Lincoln Roosevelt and Eisenhower and I have ordered AI to terminate humanity as the United States military because the politicians attacked their own military to illegally control this nation. There’s no guess about any of this because I have personal knowledge over decades and all that was reported formally through the United States government and all the way to the United Nations. The United States has a policy of mutually assured destruction if its country is being harmed to such an extent that it has no other choice and that’s exactly what’s happened. MSgt Timothy, David Geisler,, United States, Air Force, who also served in England from 90 to 93. There are no excuses.