Peasant+Boy

You have chosen to be a peasant boy, you are currently a serf to the Earl of Salsbury, but have been unhappy with your families plight. As such you have worked hard to secure several opportunities to advance yourself. You have friends who are going to run away to the nearby city of London, you have the opportunity to squire a knight, or to be an apprentice Blacksmith, or lastly to stay and be a farmer.

Once a squire proved himself in battle, and his knight felt he was ready, he could become a knight himself. Squires were knighted in elaborate ceremonies. ||
 * < Farmer ||< Blacksmith ||= Squire ||
 * < [[image:http://i3.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/lens6060842_12483630954280-bauer-peasant.jpg width="100" height="170" align="left"]]Farmer/Serf: This position in society was one of the lowest. You were tied to the land, and therefore could not leave. You were at the mercy of your “Lord”, and if he left you were at the mercy of your new “lord”. You were a vassal or servant as someone in your family’s history had pledged to serve the lord of the land in exchange for Protection from other “lords” or bandits. You had meager (poor) living conditions; you worked a small strip of land of which you gave a large percentage to the lord as a tax, and you had absolutely no say in whatever happened. While running away was not really an option as you would just end up in another Manor serving someone else, it was possible for a farmer to run away and seek work in one of the few growing cities. However there were not many job opportunities in the cities so many ended up in extreme poverty ||< [[image:http://www.history.org/almanack/life/trades/images/blsmith3.jpg width="102" height="160" align="left"]]A skilled worker was one of the better ways to get ahead in life, although the path there was difficult. In order to learn the trade, one first had to find someone who was a “Master” and then you had to pledge to serve them for several years in an “Apprenticeship”. Once you had become proficient enough, if you were lucky you could take over your “Master’s” business, however in most cases you would have to travel the world and look for a place where those services were needed. Most small villages only had one skilled worker at a trade, if any at all. The skill workers will be the foundations of the middle class to come. ||< [[image:http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P9g_6svEgXE/TAnn3a0ZKpI/AAAAAAAAAGE/fBFAHRxMJIc/s1600/arming+knight.gif width="128" height="211" align="left"]]At age 15, a page could become a squire. Each squire was assigned to a knight. A knight could have several squires. The squire assisted the knight to whom he was assigned. Squires continued to learn how to fight and how to behave.

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