Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mr. Sellin.

Welcome back to this second lesson, looking at mediaeval peasants and the sources we use to find out more about their lives.

Today's lesson as always is going to need a pen and something to write on.

Make sure that there's no distractions nearby, so turn the phone on silent and make sure please that you've got the title down correctly.

It's Mediaeval Lives in the "Luttrell Psalter".

And if you need to skip back to the start of the video to remember how to spell it, do so now, and then once you're ready, off we go.

You'll hopefully remember our inquiry question from last lesson.

That's this big question at the bottom, which sources reveal the most about mediaeval peasants? Remember a source is something from the past that survives that we can use to learn about the past.

Last lesson we looked at "Domesday Book", that incredibly impressive source which was a record of all of England in 1086.

And a peasant is that 85% of the country, the ordinary folk that we might call them.

We've got our peasants all around us.

These people up here are still looking after cows.

We learned from "Domesday Book" last lesson that cows were really common.

Farming was a massive part of a peasant's year.

These people here are still doing something, not quite sure yet, but I want to find out.

Down here, he's still watching birds, better do some work soon, mate.

And then these people here, that is still tremendously difficult work by the looks of things.

And this is the thing with the peasants.

They're interesting, and the reason they're interesting is because they had interesting lives.

You will remember from last lesson, however, that there is a problem with the source record for mediaeval peasants.

Unlike Knights and Nobles and those who work in the church, the vast majority of peasants were not able to read and write, and therefore they didn't write things down about themselves.

They were too busy farming or watching the birds in the field.

Last lesson we did look at one source, "Domesday Book" that can tell us something about the peasants.

It told us that there was a large number of them in England.

It told us that the vast majority of them worked in farming in agricultural communities and villages around a manor that was probably run by a Lord.

However, it didn't tell us all our answers.

Okay, Domesday can tell us that there's a number of peasants in England, 85% of the country, probably several million, but it doesn't tell us what a peasant's life looked like.

We know that there was farm buildings near them, but what did those look like? What were they made out of? Come to think of it, what does a peasant look like? Now, we might have our own images in our head that we conjure up when we read "Domesday Book" last lesson, but wouldn't it be fantastic if we had a source with pictures from the mediaeval period itself, somebody who saw the peasants, knew the peasants, and drew the peasants.

Thankfully, that's exactly what we've got here.

This is the "Luttrell Psalter".

A Psalter is a prayer book.

It's written in Latin, and I'd just like you to take a moment to look at it carefully.

It's magnificent I think, this "Luttrell Psalter".

Always do it the wrong way around.

This "Luttrell Psalter" here is handwritten.

It's handwritten in Latin, but not the abbreviated Latin that we saw from "Domesday Book" last lesson.

This is full Latin, and it was handwritten over many, many years.

Why would someone want a "Luttrell Psalter"? Who is Luttrell? What's his Psalter all about? Well, what do you think? Why would someone want something like this? If it took years to make and the equivalent nowadays of hundreds if not thousands of pounds to make, what's the point of the book? The value of a book to a mediaeval person was far more than just the information that it contained.

Nowadays, books are very common.

You can pop down to Waterstones to buy a book.

You can go online, download one onto your Kindle.

However, for a mediaeval person, it was months of work.

Now, the person who paid for this book to do that work himself, he was far too busy being a Lord, but he did pay somebody, we don't actually know who, to make it for him.

Historians have studied this book very carefully, and they think that there was one writer and five different illustrators.

You can tell that there are different illustrators because they've got slightly different artistic styles.

The book itself is a collection of Latin prayers taken from a book in the Bible called the Psalms, hence Psalter.

The P at the start of Psalm and Psalter is actually silent.

So it's the "Luttrell Psalter".

Luttrell was the name of the man who owned it.

"Luttrell Psalter".

There he is right there.

This illustration is from the "Luttrell Psalter" itself, and it's an example of the incredibly intricate detailing in the illustrations.

It's an astonishing piece of artwork, I think.

You don't really get a sense of scale, but this is an incredibly intricate way of drawing a picture.

There's Jeffery there, getting on his horse and being passed his large helmet from probably his wife or his daughter, we're not entirely sure.

And this is his coat of arms on his shield, which is also on his horse's livery.

The "Luttrell Psalter" is valuable not really because of the Latin prayers, to be honest, we've got loads of copies of those, but the illustrations.

Around the outside of all the Latin texts are fascinating illustrations in the margins.

The margin is of course the outside of the page and these drawings, these doodles, you might call them, are marginalia.

Marginalia are fascinating sources to study because they offer a little insight into that playful side of a mediaeval person.

Sometimes marginalia, like on this pig down here, are actually just quite fun.

Sometimes in other books, they're actually quite rude as well.

And they may have been made because the person making the book was just doodling.

Who hasn't done that? Who hasn't written something a bit boring and just ended up doodling while they're doing it? You might even think I'm doing it now.

I'm not.

However, the Luttrell Psalter's marginalia is fascinating because it's an insight into peasants' lives.

This woman here.

Oh, that was awkward.

This woman here is a spinner, she's spinning wool.

And we wouldn't normally get that record.

The text is far too important to write about a woman spinning, but the drawing is.

The drawing shows it, and Jeffrey Luttrell wanted to show peasants in his marginalia we can assume because it showed that he was a good Lord.

Everyone working happily in that place, him as the Lord, them as the peasants.

It wasn't designed to be a record for historians, more just a way to show off to Jeffrey's guests, but it does serve as an interesting record for us.

It's quite rare and quite unique.

And it's brilliant.

Time for a question, what is a Psalter? Hopefully you will remember right now, but if not, here are four options.

Is it a collection of myths and legends passed down over generations? Is it a collection of instructions covering how to run a manner and farm the land? Is it a collection of Bible verses songs, prayers, and stories? Or is it a collection of children's stories to be read at bedtime? Pause the video if you need to and look back, but you should have the answer.

It is of course, number three, a collection of Bible verses songs, prayers, and stories.

I strongly recommend writing that down in your book.

So I'd pause now.

Fantastic, next question, who was Jeffrey Luttrell? Was he a talented illustrator who designed the pictures in the Psalter? Was he a scribe who wrote the text of the Psalter with a quill and ink? Was he a peasant featured in the Psalter completing his daily tasks all year round? Or was he a knight and Lord of the Manor who paid for and owned with the Psalter? Again, pause if you need to think, but you should have the answer.

The answer is of course four, a knight and Lord of the Manor who paid for and owned the Psalter.

So I'd like you to pause the video and write your definition of Jeffrey Luttrell, and then together the "Luttrell Psalter", what actually is it? Do that now, please.

But enough of questions.

Let's look at the illustrations.

I can't obviously show you the real "Luttrell Psalter".

I'm not allowed anywhere near it.

It's locked away in the British library because of its value.

This here isn't even the real one.

This is a replica, found in a church in England, and they've locked away this one as well.

The "Luttrell Psalter" however is available online as digital pictures, and I've collected a few of those together for a bit of a montage in what I'm going to call a speed read of the "Luttrell Psalter".

I'd like you to just look closely at these details, try to remember things, but don't get caught up trying to write everything down.

It's not about writing for now.

It's about immersing yourself in the world of the "Luttrell Psalter".

There you go.

Isn't it charming.

The "Luttrell Psalter" is, in my view, one of the best insights we have into the mediaeval world.

We do need to answer a question though.

And it's this one above me right now? What does the "Luttrell Psalter" or at least what can, I'll read it properly this time.

What can the "Luttrell Psalter" reveal about mediaeval peasants? To answer this question, you're going to need probably about this size of A4.

If you're working in A4, at least.

If you've got a traditional school book, you might need a double page.

Basically, it depends on how large your handwriting is.

You'll need some space to write this down.

We're going to be looking at some of these pictures again, and because we don't want to forget any important details, we are going to start writing things down.

So I'm going to go away, and I would like you to record this table in your book.

These five headings all refer to different parts of a mediaeval peasant's life.

And we're going to look through these pictures and use the table to record what the "Luttrell Psalter" reveals about them.

Working life is quite straightforward.

By now you'll know that's mainly farming, but there are other things that a mediaeval peasant would do at work.

And so in this column, record anything which looks like work.

Building and clothing, again also quite straightforward.

What types of buildings can you see? What materials are they made out of? Clothing, again, what can you see? What's it made out of? Sports and leisure, again, quite straightforward.

Sports, maybe games, leisure might be things that you do outside work.

Basically anything that doesn't look like work can probably go into sports and leisure.

Technology and medicine could be quite a broad category.

Medicine will probably look more obvious.

You'll see different people being treated for various different conditions, but technology can sometimes be a of a confusing word.

I don't mean modern technology.

I don't mean iPhones and electronic things.

I just mean tools.

What types of machines or even hand tools were used to help people complete tasks? And lastly, differences in gender roles.

What were the men doing? What were the women doing? Are there any similarities? Are there differences? Whatever there is, you can record it here.

Now you got a choice on how you complete this task.

As soon as you see a picture, you might just want to pause the video, not listen to me at all.

I can understand that to be honest, and just go from what you see, enjoy the silence, enjoy having a look yourself.

On the other hand, you might want to hear me talk a bit about it, to give you a few clues about what to look for.

If I come back now, oh, I'm in the sheep pen, how exciting.

If I come back now, I'll be able to show you a few things.

For example, you might want to look at this chap here who's doing something with the sheep.

He's probably collecting the sheep by the neck so he can take him out the pen and I assume sheer him.

Outside the sheep pen, there appear to be some women, and they are collecting water, or at least carrying a vase to the Lake in order to collect some water.

Again, we don't really know.

Where I've been hiding by the way, someone seems to be milking the sheep.

So I'm interested in work.

I'm interested in clothing.

I'm interested in gender differences, and I'm interested in technology.

I mean, look, this isn't wood.

It's the wobbliest wood I've ever seen, if need be.

I think it's probably something woven.

Maybe it's a sort of woven fence.

It looks great.

I'd pause the video now, now that you've listened to me, and then you can write some of this down.

It might look a little bit like this.

This is just a few of the things I've said.

You've probably written a lot more.

I'll let you into a little secret.

I downloaded these images last night, and I've actually forgotten what they are now.

So we are kind of doing this together.

Again, if you'd like to pause at the start of each picture and do it yourself, go for it.

I'll give a few clues if you want to hear them, I'm not going to do the work for you, and you do still need to obviously do the writing.

So let's go.

Okay, this is interesting.

I'm going to point you to this here.

What sort of action is going on here? I think that's his tongue there.

Might want to write something medical.

We've got washing down here, don't we? Some people would like to think that the mediaeval period was a very dirty period, and people didn't wash.

Just doesn't seem to be that true.

I don't know why she's washing him, but they did wash.

Okay, let's pause.

Write some stuff down.

Here we've got some farmers.

If you haven't paused and done it already, then I draw your attention to the plough.

To the clothing, why do you think they'd need tall boots? What kind of job are they doing which helps with that? Let's write that down.

I think they're both men, what does that say about the type of work.

Again, write it down.

Archery.

We've got some archery going on here.

We can certainly talk about technology, can't we, you might want to write about what sorts of technology they're using here.

The fact that all the men have one of these is important.

The fact that they are shooting.

what looks like a hay bale or at least a wooden target of some sorts.

I think all the holes are where the arrows have hit.

Now, why are they doing this? If it was leisure, if it was purely sport, I wonder if some women would be involved.

Given that it's all men, I wonder if it's practise.

I wonder if it's preparation, either hunting or for work, maybe for defence.

Maybe if they get called up.

I'm sure you can write some excellent stuff down.

I'd like you to have a look, if you haven't already, at the windmill.

What are windmills used for? If you don't know, it's for flour.

So it takes grain and it grinds it down into flour, probably in that sack there, we can talk about technology.

We can talk about buildings.

What kinds of things we've got in this mediaeval village.

Man and woman may be husband and wife here working together to carry the flour.

Don't know what this whip's for, maybe for the horse, maybe for something else.

But I'm sure you can pause the video, write down what you can see, what it can reveal.

Let's do the next one.

Okay, this is a tricky one.

If you haven't worked it out yourself, we've got a water wheel here, technology there, we've got the building materials.

I think a lot of it is wood, but that there, I wonder if you can think what material that might be.

Have a look closely.

It's a door, it's properly attached to the hinge.

I think it might be metal, quite rare in a mediaeval village, by the looks of things, and a lot of wood, not much metal, but there you go.

And I hope by now you've spotted these.

You can see that the river is flowing this way, which would suggest that the water wheel is turning, and because there river's flowing that way, something's going into the these.

What do you think these are? I thing they're eel traps, I think they're baskets that you keep underwater in order to try and catch eels to eat.

Fantastic.

Tells us quite a lot about life, that, doesn't it? Interesting.

I was going to say this is work.

I don't think it is work.

I don't think he's meant to be up there.

Why do I think that? You've probably notice this guy here.

Either he's bringing him up a stick to help reach more apples, or he's going to go and hit him and say, "Get out of my tree.

"Stop stealing my fruit." I don't know.

It's an interesting picture though.

I'm sure you can get some information about something.

Maybe, maybe work.

Maybe it'd be leisure.

I don't know.

We've got technology here.

We've got work.

These women are spinning.

If you're not sure what spinning is, it's taking the wool, brushing all the dirt out of the wall that would have been collected on the sheep or in the field.

There would have been other things caught up in the sheep's wool, things that sheep produce as well as milk would get caught up in the wool.

Not very nice.

Get all the dung out.

And it would spun along this big wooden wheel into thread to make the clothes that they're wearing.

There's so much to write down here, your page should be nearly full by now.

Loads of stuff to write down.

What can you see? What jobs can you see? I think it's all men.

The beards can tell us this.

I think they're preparing rather than eating food, which would suggest that they're working for somebody.

And I think they're working for him.

That must be Jeffrey, Jeffrey Luttrell, the owner of the "Luttrell Psalter".

It's his feast, isn't it? What does this tell us about the peasants? What work did they do? How did they feel divided from the rich? It's a brilliant picture.

There's loads that you can already have written down here.

If you haven't already, pause it.

Now, if you're back with me now, hopefully you would have written about technology.

We've got, I think, a musical instrument here.

I think it's an organ.

I don't know if you were able to work that out.

And I also want to write about leisure, playing the musical instruments.

Here we've got medicine.

This is called bloodletting.

This is where mediaeval people thought that the blood was poisoned or somehow bad, and they would let blood to help you feel better.

Interesting.

Try and work out what this is.

It's a little bit like a salt shaker that you might have nowadays with dinner, but it's actually a seed scatterer.

Quite a simple piece of kip, but it's a good piece of technology to have.

Helps you throw seeds in even scattered way when you're working in the fields, and your dog scaring the birds away.

This is an interesting one.

What I want you to do, have a look at the technology, have a look at the metal wheels, the cart, the horses.

The monkey driving it is of course, slightly nonsense.

And this is where the "Luttrell Psalter" occasionally just went a bit bizarre.

It was having fun.

The illustrator making this wanted to have fun with his drawings.

And I think we can certainly know that monkeys didn't drive carts, but the cart is probably still quite accurate maybe.

If you haven't recorded this, if you've just been looking at the pictures, if you've just been listening to me, please pause, rewind, go through these pictures again.

It might take you 10 or 15 minutes.

This information is vital, okay, go through, record your stuff.

And you should now be ready to move on.

Well done.

That's a lot of stuff that we can write about the "Luttrell Psalter", and it really reveals how good it is at showing mediaeval life.

However, it is worth just pointing out a few issues that limit how much it can fully show us.

Remember this guy? This is Sir Jeffery, the man who owned and crucially paid for the "Luttrell Psalter" to be made.

There is slight suspicion that the "Luttrell Psalter" might be showing a golden age.

What I mean by golden age is quite simple.

Rather than show the gritty reality of work, rather than show peasants maybe fighting back and refusing to work, The "Luttrell Psalter" shows them in their place, working happy, the Lord in his place, the Lord being served by the peasants.

We don't know if this is a bit of a golden age, a bit of a slightly idealistic view of what peasants lives were actually like.

Ultimately, the Lord wanted to show himself as a good Lord, rather than as a cruel Lord.

And we don't know, maybe it's a golden age.

Maybe it's designed to show his manor as working really well, and maybe the picture wasn't as great underneath the surface.

There's also the issue that it's only one example.

Ultimately the "Luttrell Psalter" is showing one English manor and while we know from "Domesday Book" that lots of manors existed and lots of peasants worked on manors, there's no guarantee from this book itself that all were similar.

We can make a reasonable suggestion that they probably were quite similar, but we don't know for sure.

This source doesn't say that for sure.

It's not trying to tell us what the whole of England was like, like "Domesday Book" was, it's just showing us one rural manor.

And lastly, the thoughts and the attitudes are still quite difficult to ascertain.

We don't know exactly what the peasants felt.

We know how they're drawn.

We've got an insight into what their world looked like.

But again, we don't still get that sense of what it felt like to be a peasant, what they thought, they valued, what was important to them.

The "Luttrell Psalter" is incredible, but it doesn't show us everything.

It's at this point that I'd like you to pause the video.

I'd like you to read the slides on the next page and answer some comprehension questions.

And then very importantly, once you've written those, come back, we'll go through the answers, and we'll talk about what we're going to do next lesson.

Well, I'm absolutely thrilled.

You must be back by now.

We'll go through some of the answers now.

As always, if it's not exactly the same as mine, as long as the general sense is there, well done.

Question one.

Why is this source called the "Luttrell Psalter"? An acceptable answer would be Jeffrey Luttrell ordered it, and a good answer that uses the words of the question, the Psalter was ordered and paid for by Jeffrey Luttrell, a landowner.

He would have used it to demonstrate his wealth.

Question two.

What language is the text of the Psalter? And a bonus, wat does this suggest about the Psalter? An acceptable correct answer would be Latin.

And a good answer would be the Psalter is written in Latin, and this suggests it was designed to be very valuable and impressive.

Latin was the language chosen for the most important documents.

Hopefully you'll remember that fact from last lesson on "Domesday Book".

Question three.

What does the Psalter reveal about women? An acceptable answer would be they worked hard, but a good answer would say the Psalter reveals that women had a range of different jobs.

Some of these jobs like spinning were completed by women alone, and other jobs, like collecting the harvest, were done with the men too.

Question four, apart from farming, what can the Psalter reveal about mediaeval peasants and their surroundings? A good answer.

The Psalter reveals much more than how peasants farmed.

For example, the divide between rich and poor, the lack of particular leisure activities for peasants, the music peasants would sing and hear, the food they prepared for themselves and for their Lords, and the preparations they made for fighting.

Question five.

Why might the Psalter be less helpful for investigating mediaeval peasants? Again, a good answer.

We don't know how exactly.

I'll do that again.

We do not know how realistic the images are.

Jeffrey might have wanted his peasants to look good and therefore life might actually have been tougher than how it is shown in the Psalter.

The Psalter also does not reveal how ordinary people lived in towns, nor if all manors were similar to Jeffery's.

And on that note, we return to these peasants again.

What sources reveal the most about medical peasants? We've looked at two now.

We've looked at Domesday and we've looked at the "Luttrell Psalter", different, both interesting and both useful for different things.

This question is a little bit harder than we originally thought.

Maybe one of them isn't automatically better than another.

Well, on that note, I'll have to see you again next lesson.

So from this chap here bird watching, these people still stirring their pasta, and I got it right this time.

I'll see you next lesson.

Bye for now.