Early Middle Ages

What Was Life Like in an Early Medieval Town?

Streets, houses, markets, churches, and crafts in the early medieval town, from cathedral cities to Viking emporia and Byzantine Constantinople.

Question & answer

Early medieval towns were small, crowded, and smelly by modern standards, but they were vibrant centers of trade, government, and religion. Their populations ranged from a few hundred in the smallest market towns to perhaps fifty thousand in the largest cities (Rome, Constantinople, Córdoba, and a few others). They were dominated by their churches, their bishop’s palace, the remains of the Roman city walls, and - in the most important - the royal or imperial palace. Their streets were narrow, their houses were built of timber, and their crafts were produced in small workshops. By the tenth century, towns were growing again across Western Europe, and the foundations of the great medieval cities were being laid. The daily life of an early medieval town was very different from the world of the surrounding countryside, and it was a world in which a new kind of society was being created.

For the economic system in which the town existed, see the Towns, Trade, and Currency. For the world of the village, see the Agriculture and Rural Life. For the Byzantine capital, see the The Byzantine Empire. For the Scandinavian towns of the period, see the Viking Society and Culture.

The shape of the early medieval town

The early medieval town was not a planned creation. It was the product of centuries of organic growth, often built on the remains of a Roman city, sometimes on the site of a new foundation. The Roman street grid, where it survived, was broken up by new buildings, new market squares, and the gradual infilling of the old public spaces. The Roman walls, where they were still standing, were maintained as a defense, and the gates of the city were the main points of entry. Inside the walls, the city was a maze of narrow streets, small houses, gardens, workshops, and the great churches and palaces that gave the town its character.

The center of the early medieval town was almost always the cathedral or the chief church, and the bishop’s palace or the archbishop’s residence. The church was the largest and the most elaborate building in the town, and it was the focus of civic life: the site of the bishop’s court, the place of the great religious festivals, the center of learning and the keeping of records. Around the cathedral clustered the houses of the clergy, the schools, the libraries, and the hostels for travelers and pilgrims.

The market was the other central feature of the town. It was usually held in the old Roman forum, or in a square near the cathedral, and it was the chief economic event of the week. The market was surrounded by the stalls of the merchants, the workshops of the craftsmen, and the warehouses of the traders. The fair, an annual or semi-annual event, was the largest commercial event of the year, drawing merchants from a wide area and providing an opportunity for the sale of cattle, horses, and other goods that could not be moved easily.

Houses and households

The houses of the early medieval town were built primarily of timber, although stone and brick were used in the surviving Roman cities and in the more important buildings. The typical house was a single-story timber frame, with wattle-and-daub walls, a thatched or shingled roof, and a single room that served as kitchen, living room, and bedroom. The better houses, especially those of the merchants and the clergy, were larger and more elaborate, with multiple rooms, a separate kitchen, a cellar, and (sometimes) an upper story. The house of a wealthy merchant in a town like London or York in the tenth century might have a stone foundation, a tiled roof, and a separate workshop or warehouse.

The household of a town dweller was a smaller unit than that of a peasant or a noble, but it was still a complex institution. It included the family itself, the servants, the apprentices, and (in the wealthier houses) the slaves or the unfree dependents. The household was the basic unit of production in the town, just as in the countryside. The merchant’s household included his clerks, his porters, and his warehouse workers; the craftsman’s household included his apprentices, his journeymen, and his assistants. The wife’s role in the household was crucial: she managed the domestic economy, supervised the servants, and (in many cases) participated directly in the production of goods, especially in the textile trades.

The smells and sounds of the town

The early medieval town was a noisy, smelly place. The streets were narrow, the houses were crowded, and the waste was thrown into the open gutters that ran down the middle of the streets. The smell of the town was dominated by the smoke of wood and peat fires, the smell of animals kept in the houses, and the smell of the tanneries and the open sewers. The sound of the town was the sound of workshops and markets: the clang of the smith’s hammer, the rattle of the weaver’s loom, the cry of the street vendor, the bells of the churches. The town was also a center of news, gossip, and political discussion.

The town and the surrounding countryside

The town was not an isolated world. It was tied to the surrounding countryside by a thousand threads. The town required the food of the surrounding villages, the raw materials of the countryside (wool, flax, leather, timber, iron), and the labor of the rural population. The countryside required the goods of the town (salt, iron tools, pottery, the products of the specialized workshops) and the market for its surplus. The relationship was one of mutual dependence, and it was the foundation of the economic life of both town and countryside.

The town was also tied to other towns, and to the wider world, by the network of roads, rivers, and sea routes that crossed Europe. The great emporia of the North Sea and the Baltic - Dorestad, Quentovic, Birka, Hedeby, London, York - were the nodes of an international network of trade. The great cities of the Mediterranean - Rome, Constantinople, Ravenna, Venice, Amalfi, Barcelona, Córdoba - were the centers of a separate, Mediterranean network. The two networks met in the great fairs of the period, especially the fairs of Champagne in northeastern France, which were the meeting point of the north-south trade from the eleventh century onward. For the trade in which the towns participated, see the Towns, Trade, and Currency.

Crafts and workshops

The crafts of the early medieval town were produced in small workshops, often in the front of the craftsman’s house. The most common were the metal trades (blacksmith, goldsmith, silversmith), the textile trades (weaver, fuller, dyer, tailor), the leather trades (tanner, cobbler), and the food trades (baker, brewer, butcher, fishmonger). The workshop was a place of production and training: the master craftsman, with apprentices and journeymen, produced goods for the local market. The apprentice lived with the master for years (usually seven) and learned the craft. The craft guild, the association of the masters of a particular craft, was a feature of the central and later Middle Ages rather than the early period; in the Early Middle Ages, the craftsmen were organized by the bishop or the count.

Markets, fairs, and the merchant

The market was the most important economic institution of the early medieval town. It was held at regular intervals (usually weekly), it was supervised by the bishop or the count, and it was the place where the goods of the surrounding countryside were exchanged for the goods of the town. The market was also a place of news, of gossip, and of social gathering. The market cross, the central monument of the market, was a symbol of the town’s commercial life.

The fair was a larger, less frequent market, usually held annually or semi-annually, and it was the chief event of the year for the long-distance trade. The fair attracted merchants from a wide area, and it provided an opportunity for the sale of goods that could not be moved easily, such as cattle, horses, and slaves. The fair was also a place of entertainment, with jugglers, musicians, and storytellers, and it was a major social event. The great fairs of Champagne, which emerged in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, were the most important of the period.

The merchant was a central figure in the early medieval town, but he was a more marginal and more suspect figure than he would become in the later Middle Ages. He was often a foreigner, a Frisian, a Syrian, a Jew, a Lombard, an Italian, a Scandinavian, and he operated under special royal or episcopal protection. The Church was suspicious of the merchant’s trade, both because of the patristic suspicion of commerce and because of the practical problems of usury. The result was that the merchant was often a member of a distinct community, living in a separate quarter of the town, with his own laws, his own customs, and his own places of worship. For the broader context, see the Towns, Trade, and Currency.