Terra X

Ways out of darkness - Europe in the Middle Ages (3): From farmers and nobles (2004x14)

Air date: Apr 18, 2004

Everything we know about the Middle Ages we know from books. They tell us what emperors and kings, what knights, bishops and monks, what citizens and nobles have done and thought. The books tell us little about the farmers. They couldn't read and couldn't write. And those who could write and read were not interested in them. So the peasants remained the silent majority of the Middle Ages. And that's why someone tells about the life of the peasant class who got to know their world: Adam, a juggler, one of the traveling people. As a tightrope walker at peasant and princely weddings, he makes his way. And on market days he earns his money in no time when he pulls lazy teeth and pricks cataracts. “Farm work carries the world”, it was said in the Middle Ages. Over three-quarters of the people were farmers, serfs or day laborers who fed the knights and clergy. "For that I praise the farmer who can feed the whole world."