Question
Write a note on a 'Manorial estate'.
Solution
Manorial Estate:
i. A lord had his own manor-house. He also controlled villages - some lords controlled hundreds of villages - where peasants lived. A small manorial estate could contain a dozen families, while larger estates might include fifty or sixty.
i. A lord had his own manor-house. He also controlled villages - some lords controlled hundreds of villages - where peasants lived. A small manorial estate could contain a dozen families, while larger estates might include fifty or sixty.
ii. Almost everything needed for daily life was found on the estate: grain was grown in the fields, blacksmiths and carpenters maintained the lord’s implements and repaired his weapons, while stonemasons looked after his buildings.
iii. Women spun and wove fabric, and children worked in the lord’s wine-presses. The estate had extensive woodlands and forests where the lords hunted. They contained pastures where his cattle and his horses grazed. There was a church on the estate and a castle for defence.
iv. From the thirteenth century, some castles were made bigger for use as a residence for a knight’s family. In fact, in England castles were practically unknown before the Norman Conquest, and developed as centres of political administration and military power under the feudal system.
v. The manor could not be completely self-sufficient because salt, millstones and metalware had to be obtained from outside sources. Those lords who wanted a luxurious lifestyle and were keen to buy rich furnishings, musical instruments and ornaments not locally produced, had to get these from other places.
v. The manor could not be completely self-sufficient because salt, millstones and metalware had to be obtained from outside sources. Those lords who wanted a luxurious lifestyle and were keen to buy rich furnishings, musical instruments and ornaments not locally produced, had to get these from other places.
