“Peasant” was basically a farmer. Some peasants had land, many didn’t. If you were a tenant farmer not only did you not own the land, in many cases the land owned you. In many cases you were born on the land and you “rented” it from the manor lord. That meant that you were allowed to grow crops on that land, but you owed the lord for letting you use his land. You’d pay that back with shares of your crop and/or labour on his crops. In return, he was responsible for defending you… but that meant he’d conscript you into his army and you’d fight the invaders.
If you didn’t like that deal, too bad, if you were a villein you couldn’t leave the land without the lord’s permission. You weren’t a slave exactly, but you weren’t free to go find work elsewhere.
There were peasants who did own land, but it wasn’t common. The equivalent today would be if you rented from a landlord, but you had to use a uber-jobs app that required you to do odd jobs for your landlord for free for 1-2 days a week.
“Peasant” was basically a farmer. Some peasants had land, many didn’t. If you were a tenant farmer not only did you not own the land, in many cases the land owned you. In many cases you were born on the land and you “rented” it from the manor lord. That meant that you were allowed to grow crops on that land, but you owed the lord for letting you use his land. You’d pay that back with shares of your crop and/or labour on his crops. In return, he was responsible for defending you… but that meant he’d conscript you into his army and you’d fight the invaders.
If you didn’t like that deal, too bad, if you were a villein you couldn’t leave the land without the lord’s permission. You weren’t a slave exactly, but you weren’t free to go find work elsewhere.
There were peasants who did own land, but it wasn’t common. The equivalent today would be if you rented from a landlord, but you had to use a uber-jobs app that required you to do odd jobs for your landlord for free for 1-2 days a week.