Apprenticeship In The Middle Ages

By Lucie Laumonier

In peasant families of Western Europe, the tradition of passing on the farm to one of the children, ideally a male, prevailed. But what happened to the other children? Some received a few pieces of state simply would have to complement their earnings by leasing their work to employers. Other children were entrusted to a chief to acquire a trade, either in their customs or in a more than distant town or city. Existence from the humble milieux of society, the sons and daughters of medieval peasants had few chances to learn the art of commerce. Indeed, sources prove that they usually received formal training in middling trades, such every bit shoemaking, carpentry, or the food industry. Peasants' daughters were often indentured as servants, while sons were indentured every bit apprentices.

The present article focuses on the south of France, more specifically the region of Montpellier, where I conduct my inquiry. It is based on the assay of apprenticeship and work contracts I've studied for the past 10+ years. I have gathered 450 piece of work contracts spanning the years c. 1300-1500 drafted in the diocese of Maguelone, of which Montpellier, which counted over 30,000 inhabitants earlier the Blackness Death, was the main city. Only 3% of these contracts were planning for employment in the rural areas of the diocese. Written piece of work contracts, so, were more common in the city of Montpellier than in the smaller communities. Only 60% of the employees were immigrants coming from the rural areas of the diocese or from adjacent dioceses and who had moved to the urban center looking for piece of work. Among the employees were a big number of children, teenagers and young adults born to peasant families and who were placed in apprenticeship or service to various employers.

Urban and Rural Peasants and Their Children

Ii-thirds of the employees contracted in the sources were either explicitly underage (under 21) or were indentured past a parent, a relative, or a guardian, to a master (304 contracts out of 450). The fact that an adult concluded the contract on behalf of the immature or canonical the placement signals that the employee was deemed to be young enough to be under parental authority. Among the 304 young employees identified in the sources, the begetter's profession is known in 55% of the cases (165 contracts). Most one-quarter of the fathers whose occupation was known were peasants (39 contracts). The high rate of under-recording of the father'south profession suggests that the number of children who came from a peasant family was much higher, specially in the instance of the immature immigrants who had travelled from rural areas. These immature immigrants from rural areas brand up most sixty% of the young employees.

Choices had to be made when peasant parents were to decide who, amid their children, would inherit the family farm, and who would have to detect employment elsewhere. In a recent article, I accept shown that the average number of children per married couple was adequately high in the rural areas of the diocese of Maguelone. Married testators from the backcountry had for instance shut to three children on boilerplate between c. 1325-1348. The Black Death and following waves of plague impacted the size of families and reduced the number of children in rural hearths counted. But, from c. 1425 onwards, the family unit coefficient rose again and exceeded two children per family. In addition, about xxx% of the rural families who had children alive counted four and more than kids.

When rural parents decided to transmit their estates to their children, they normally endowed their daughters with cash or a few pieces of country. In two-thirds of their wills, they donated their subcontract and the majority of their lands to only one male person son. The other sons received money (a smaller sum than their sisters had got) or/and a few pieces of land. In general – but in that location were exceptions to this dominion – neither the daughters' dowry nor the sons' endowments sufficed to brand a living from. While the daughters were expected to be married off, the sons were oft trained in artisanal trades or would work as employees on others' farms. Maybe, one day, they could purchase enough state to ain a farm.

Apprentices and Servants

An important simply frequently overlooked fact about apprenticeship and service contracts in the Middle Ages is that drafting a contract was probably not the norm. Indeed, parents and relatives often trained the children of their kin, without drafting any written contract. A proof of this argument is that sources rarely show work contracts concluded between related individuals, only that craft statutes from Montpellier – framing the fees due by workers – exempted from fees the training of relatives. For instance, a main cobbler taking in a nephew as an apprentice wouldn't pay any fees to the arts and crafts. Merely if they were to train a stranger, then they would have to pay fees. Likewise, a master cobbler would not pay whatever fee for his son if he was to train him.

The 39 children and teenagers whose father was or had been a peasant were divided into 15 girls and 24 boys. We only know the ages of 12 of them, most of whom were teenagers or young adults (age 12-20). Customary practices framing the placement of immature employees unremarkably meant that children were placed from age 12 in a stranger's family. After a few years of work, they moved on to other contracts. Boys in their late teens who had benefited from prior preparation could expect to exist paid when entering another work agreement. Girls were mainly indentured as servants, as we shall see, and often received, in exchange for their piece of work, a dowry. Information suggests that immigrant girls working equally servants in the city of Montpellier got married, on average, when reaching the historic period of 17.

If it was customary to place one's child in service or apprenticeship when they reached their teens, some kids were placed at a younger age. In 1453 for case, a peasant from Montpellier indentured his 8-year-erstwhile son Hugonin to a horse-seller. Hugonin would become the servant of Thomas, the horse seller'southward son, who was studying medicine at the Academy of Montpellier. Hugonin would specifically acquit Thomas' books to and from the university and would serve him when his assist would be needed. In exchange, Hugonin would receive food and shelter, apparel and shoes, likewise as instruction. The contract indeed provided that Thomas would teach his retainer "the scientific discipline of the clerics," probably reading and writing. The prospect of seeing ane'south child gaining these valuable skills had probably provided an impetus to the placement.

Peasant Kids' Jobs and Apprentices

Here is a list of the jobs that the 39 peasants' children would learn or perform:

domestic service = 12
ploughman = 3
blacksmith = ii
butcher = ii
ropemaker = two
tailor = ii
silk cord maker = i
wool-cloths seller = 1
weaver = i
haberdasher = ane
stockings maker = 1
furrier = 1
gold threads maker = 1
cleric = 1
leather maker = 1
cobbler = one
belt maker = one
carpenter = 1
broker / intermediary of trade = one
metal retailer = 1
comb maker = ane
arbalester = 1

First, domestic service represented nearly one-tertiary of the placements. Nine girls and three boys were indentured as servants, making service the most common blazon of chore for peasant girls. A serial of contracts from 1425 shows a farmer placing his three daughters in service in Montpellier with iii different masters. The father was named Johan Paparelli and was a farmer from St. Étienne de Viol, in the diocese of Maguelone. His daughter Catherina became the servant of Sperta, the wife of a Montpellier dyer; later six years of work she would receive 12 livres tournois from her mistress as a dowry. Florencia was hired as the servant of an arbalester of the city, under the same weather condition. Their younger sis Astruga was placed with Peyroneta, a female person mercer, for eight years; her dowry would corporeality to 10 livres tournois.

Farming was the second most frequent avenue of piece of work for the children of peasants. Three male person teenagers were hired specifically to piece of work as ploughmen. They were not apprentices only immature employees. In 1425, Philip, historic period 15, came to Montpellier after the death of his father, a farmer from a distant diocese. Philip landed a job with an urban farmer, for three years. He would work under his employer's orders, he would receive a bed, nutrient and clothing, and a salary of fifteen golden moutons for the iii years of work. Probably trained at their parents' farm, these teenagers leased their services at other people's farms and all received a wage.

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The other jobs show to the great multifariousness and variety of work in artisanal trades and retail in large urban centres. The cloth industry employed seven of these peasant children and teenagers. All the girls indentured as apprentices would learn trades related to clothing, in which medieval women were highly involved. Montpellier did not produce a lot of woollen textiles, but was famous for its carmine dyeing made from the processing of insects called cochineal. The leather industry was also an important source of work in the city. Three apprentices – all male – would learn jobs related to leather. One would learn tannery, another shoemaking, and the third one belt making.

A broad assortment of jobs existed in medieval cities that the children of urban and rural peasants could acquire to hopefully make a life for themselves. Which ane would y'all accept chosen?

Lucie Laumonier is an Affiliate banana professor at Concordia University.Click here to view her Academia.edu page or follow her on Instagram atThe French Medievalist.

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