Additionally, in times when the crops required less care (so not planting or harvesting) peasants were required by their lords to do various amounts of labor. Like “build X feet of fences per year, mend Y feet of fences, serve Z days of conscripted labor”, etc.
So on the one hand, peasants weren’t ruled by the tyranny of the clock like we are, but on the other: work still had to get done, was much less efficient than today (bc technology), and was often unpaid
At the other hand, the lord did have obligations to the peasantry as well. Providing protection is a fairly well known one, but it could also be stuff like providing their people with meat at least once a week. An example that we know of is a case where a complaint was raised by peasants (and won!) because their lord had only provided fish (or maybe duck, as that was considered fish as well) for too long a period.
Additionally, in times when the crops required less care (so not planting or harvesting) peasants were required by their lords to do various amounts of labor. Like “build X feet of fences per year, mend Y feet of fences, serve Z days of conscripted labor”, etc.
So on the one hand, peasants weren’t ruled by the tyranny of the clock like we are, but on the other: work still had to get done, was much less efficient than today (bc technology), and was often unpaid
At the other hand, the lord did have obligations to the peasantry as well. Providing protection is a fairly well known one, but it could also be stuff like providing their people with meat at least once a week. An example that we know of is a case where a complaint was raised by peasants (and won!) because their lord had only provided fish (or maybe duck, as that was considered fish as well) for too long a period.