---
title: Peasant Life in a Medieval Manor: The Family of Bodo, Carolingian Farmers
author: Ruisen Zheng
source: https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2826/peasant-life-in-a-medieval-manor/
format: machine-readable-alternate
license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)
updated: 2025-11-07
---
# Peasant Life in a Medieval Manor: The Family of Bodo, Carolingian Farmers
_Authored by [Ruisen Zheng](https://www.worldhistory.org/user/ruisenzheng/)_
Bodo was a early 9th-century Frankish farmer. He and his family hailed from a manor owned by the monastery of St.-Germain-des-Prés near [Paris](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/paris/) and worked as its tenants. He ploughed the farmlands while his wife, Ermentrude, took care of their household. Their lives give us a lively image of what daily life was like as [peasants](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/Peasants/) living in a manor in the Carolingian world of the early Middle Ages.
Manors formed the very basic economic and social structure of early medieval [Europe](https://www.worldhistory.org/europe/). A land estate owned by a feudal lord, not only was the manor the heart of agricultural production, it was also a centre for local political, social, and cultural activities. The monastery of St.-Germain-des-Prés kept a detailed list of the names of the tenants and other people doing business with them of this period, called the *Polyptych*.
[  Detail of March from Les Très Riches Heures Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/21286/detail-of-march-from-les-tres-riches-heures/ "Detail of March from Les Très Riches Heures")To manage their large estate, the then abbot of the monastery, Irminon (c. 820s), compiled this list, and the text is now preserved in a 9th-century manuscript in Paris (*Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms Latin 12832*). Along with Bodo were 10,000 other names located in 25 different villages, detailing their names, occupations, and most importantly, the sort of obligations (rent and labour) owed to the monastery. It was from this fiscal data that we can track and reconstruct the life of Bodo and his wife as well as their three unnamed children.
### Social Status & Experience
Before discovering details of their daily lives, it is important to first note the social status of Bodo and his family, as this was very important in determining what was expected of them. Bodo and his family were not slaves and thus enjoyed a degree of freedom, but it is also true that the state of being enslaved and free was not binary in the Middle Ages, and often, it is more precise to talk about the degree of (un)freeness or freedom a person enjoyed under various circumstances.
[Christianity](https://www.worldhistory.org/christianity/) formally forbids slavery, but in actual practice it was more about how free and (un)free was one's experience in social, economic and political spaces since the breaking down of the western parts of the [Roman Empire](https://www.worldhistory.org/Roman_Empire/). In the old Romanland that now belonged to the various Germanic tribes and the kingdoms they established, there were *coloni*, free framers only in a sense that they were not subjected to anyone’s servitude, but they were, nevertheless, bounded by and depended on their lands and thus had little mobility. Then we have *serfs*, who were attached to and depended on the estates of their owners. While a [serf](https://www.worldhistory.org/Serf/) could not be sold as a person, they were sometimes exchanged during a land transaction. Other than the land labour, serfs also had to perform other household work for their owners. Lastly, there were free peasants who owned the land and were responsible for their own gains and losses. As freemen, they did not owe any rent or labour and could even provide paid work to feudal rulers. Their independence, however, was fragile, as any crop failure or any unfortunate circumstances like the population plundering from other lords could lead to them being subjected to a feudal ruler and becoming *coloni* or even *serfs*.
[  Polyptych of Irminon, folio 2r Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits (Public Domain) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/21232/polyptych-of-irminon-folio-2r/ "Polyptych of Irminon, folio 2r")Bodo and his family were attached to the monastery and had a variety of obligations to it. This was what the *Polyptych of Irminon* recorded. They lived in one of the villages with other peasants of similar status. We know some of Bodo's neighbours’ names: Frambert, Ermoin, and Ragenold, and they all had their own family. The circle of peasant farmers and workers was likely the most common social relationship Bodo could forge. He might meet the estate manager from time to time, and even the people from the monastery itself. But the monastery was a closed community, and outside visits were a rarity. Only a traveling merchant might visit the monastery on occasions, although even a royal visit was not impossible, and for someone like Bodo, the sight of a great king or noble marching on the road, perhaps with a newly received gift from a distant Caliph such as an elephant, could be the view, talk, and memory of a lifetime.
### Daily Routine
Bodo and Ermentrude had busy days throughout the year, and only on rare occasions and important festivals or religious holidays could they find some rest and enjoy a break from the many obligations they had. Bodo had to wake up early and go to the farm of the monks with the other peasants, as this was their main labour. They had to bring their own tools for ploughing and certain gifts (eggs, vegetable etc) to bribe the steward there for an easy day. The obligations Bodo shared were divided into the following: *Field work*, which was a fixed amount of labour on the land, *Corvée*, meaning unfixed ploughing when needed, and lastly, *military service*, in the form of paying money or supplying livestock to the soldiers. There was, too, *public service*, that is, participating in the maintenance of the village infrastructure whenever needed. Any day could be a trial of hardship for Bodo, and the work must often have seemed endless from morning to evening, as one early medieval writer imagined:
> ‘Oh sir, I work very hard. I go out in the dawning, driving the oxen to the field and I yoke them to the plough…every day I must plough a fall acre or more, after having yoked the oxen and fastened the share and coulter to the plough… Yes, indeed it is very hard work!'
> (Aelfric, Colloquium, in The Welding of the Race, 449-1066, p95)
[  The Feudal Society in Medieval Europe Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15424/the-feudal-society-in-medieval-europe/ "The Feudal Society in Medieval Europe")Ermentrude also had a busy life. She had to work in the workshop with other [women](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/women/), spinning, dyeing, and sewing garments as well as making other daily accessories. Carolingian kings, in their legislation, provided a very detailed list of what was expected of a peasant woman’s daily labour:
> For our women’s work, they are to give at the proper time the materials, that is linen, wool, woad, vermillion, madder, wool combs, teasels, soap, grease, vessels, and other objects which are necessary. And let out women’s quarters be well look after, furnished with houses and rooms with stoves and cellars, and let them be surrounded by a good hedge, and let the doors be strong, so that the women can do out work properly.
> ([Charlemagne](https://www.worldhistory.org/Charlemagne/)’s capitulary, De Villis, c.45)
After fulfilling her part of the tenant’s obligations, Ermentrude then needed to go to the small family farm and work on it. This included looking after the livestock and watering the vegetables. Only after all these tasks had been completed could she return to her own household to look after the children, prepare meals for them, clean the house, and make new clothes for the family for the winter to come.
When Bodo returned at the end of the working day, the family would immediately eat supper and then go to bed, for a day’s labour was physically exhausting for both adults, and opportunities for rest did not come too often during the working day. Nor would they have much by way of evening entertainment, for after sunset, darkness shrouded the entire house. Sleep was what both men and women who worked tirelessly on the farmlands, workshops, and household needed, for tomorrow would be no different than today or yesterday.
[  February, Les Tres Riches Heures Limbourg Brothers (Public Domain) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/9559/february-les-tres-riches-heures/ "February, Les Tres Riches Heures")### The Medieval Agricultural Revolution
There was a substantial decline in agricultural intensity across the post-[Roman](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/Roman/) West which can be measured by the decrease in buildings, [trade](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/trade/) networks, and the quality of the agricultural production, both primary like grain and secondary such as coins or [pottery](https://www.worldhistory.org/pottery/). However, by the later first millennium, at least in northwestern Europe, some major trends that had slowly taken place allowed a recovery, if not intensification, of agricultural production. First, instead of the Two-field System, farmers began to adopt the Three-field System. The Two-field System meant farmland was divided into two sections, with crops growing on one half of it while the other half was left ploughed and harrowed but not sowed. Under the new pratice, one third of the land would be sown with winter crops and one third summer ones, allowing greater food production through a more fertile land. As a result, food surpluses became increasingly common and there was a stable growth of population that saw the number of households almost doubled.
More farmlands were cultivated and trade beyond the local community started to appear. There was also a small and localized [urbanization](https://www.worldhistory.org/urbanization/), as either the villages located in the pre-existing key trading route or recently brought into the commercial network experienced a fair degree of population and infrastructural growth.
What did all this mean for peasants like Bodo? For once, they would have another way out of the very land that provided their life but also tied them to it. All of Bodo and Ermentrude’s three children would have a better chance of surviving the world and more opportunities to explore it. This was not to paint a better picture in general, because by all accounts peasants like Bodo were still very much subjected to economic, social, and political oppression from the powerful. But in some ways that would be eventually transformative of the entire medieval European world, peasants firsthand experienced the benefits of the changes in land production, and their lives became somewhat improved.
### Conclusion
The story of Bodo was reconstructed from the manorial record of the monastery of St.-Germain-des-Prés. Other than being an important spiritual centre, the monastery also operated as the economic hub of the newly formed Carolingian [Empire](https://www.worldhistory.org/empire/). Keeping a detailed and accurate record of tenants like Bodo was essential for the purposes of taxation, military service, land transactions, and other forms of economic exchange between the peasants, the monastery, and the court. Regarding the kings and emperors, whose luxurious lifestyle had to be sustained by the labour of the peasants, much has been written on them. Yet 99 percent of medieval people were just like Bodo, or Ermentrude and their three unnamed children, whose destinies were closely tied to the fortune of the land in early medieval Europe, and all we have on them, and on their world, is the Polyptych. While this was but a glimpse into their lives, the Polyptych makes possible to see the working of an early medieval manor, and the people who spent their entire life in it with very little possibilty of ever experiencing the greater outside world.
#### Editorial Review
This human-authored article has been reviewed by our editorial team before publication to ensure accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards in accordance with our [editorial policy](https://www.worldhistory.org/static/editorial-policy/).
## Bibliography
- [Bennett, H. S. *Life on the English Manor–1400.* Cambridge University Press, 1937.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/0521091055/)
- [Duby, Georges & Postan, Cynthia. *Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West.* Univ of South Carolina Pr, 1990.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/0872493474/)
- [Gareis, Dr. Karl. *Die Landgüterordnung Kaiser Karls des Grossen.* Leopold Classic Library, 2016.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/B01LON4YAS/)
- [Power, Eileen. *Medieval People.* Independently published, 2022.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/B0B28KGZZZ/)
- [Rio, Alice. *Slavery After Rome, 500-1100.* Oxford University Press, 2020.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/0198865813/)
- [Verhulst, Adriaan. *The Carolingian Economy.* Cambridge University Press, 2002.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/0521004748/)
- [Wallis, John Eyre Winstanley. *The welding of the race ("449"-1066).* Ulan Press, 2012.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/B00B2FX0E0/)
## About the Author
Ruisen Zheng is a fourth-year History PhD student at King's College London funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. He works on the comparative studies of Song dynasty China and Macedonian Byzantium, and on the global Middle Ages in general.
- [Linkedin Profile](https://www.linkedin.com/ruisen-zheng-709576171/)
## External Links
- [The Project Gutenberg eBook of Medieval People, by EileenPower.](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13144/13144-h/13144-h.htm)
- [The Peasant Rusticus: Life near Paris in the Time of Clovis - Medievalists.net](https://www.medievalists.net/2010/10/the-peasant-rusticus-life-near-paris-in-the-time-of-clovis/)
- [60 – Life in the Carolingian Empire](https://www.thefrenchhistorypodcast.com/60-life-in-the-carolingian-empire/)
- [Village and Peasants in the Middle Ages | Florin Curta](https://people.clas.ufl.edu/fcurta/village-and-peasants-in-the-middle-ages/)
## Cite This Work
### APA
Zheng, R. (2025, November 07). Peasant Life in a Medieval Manor: The Family of Bodo, Carolingian Farmers. *World History Encyclopedia*.
### Chicago
Zheng, Ruisen. "Peasant Life in a Medieval Manor: The Family of Bodo, Carolingian Farmers." *World History Encyclopedia*, November 07, 2025. .
### MLA
Zheng, Ruisen. "Peasant Life in a Medieval Manor: The Family of Bodo, Carolingian Farmers." *World History Encyclopedia*, 07 Nov 2025, .
## License & Copyright
Submitted by [Ruisen Zheng](https://www.worldhistory.org/user/ruisenzheng/ "User Page: Ruisen Zheng"), published on 07 November 2025. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en). This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.