Artistic professions of the Middle Ages. Heroes and professions in Sims Medieval What were the professions in the Middle Ages

“All professions are needed, all professions are important,” the woman who was responsible for servicing the chamber pots of the king and his entourage must have reassured herself. Pronounced social inequality and the way of life in general gave rise during Antiquity and the Middle Ages to a wide variety of at least strange positions. Now they seem wild, but then they were quite ordinary, and some even honorable.

1. Whipping boy

In the 15th-16th centuries in England, a whipping boy was assigned to each prince. Only the monarch himself could punish the son of the king, but due to the fact that he was rarely around, his deputy received cuffs and other joys for the naughty prince. It was assumed that the royal offspring felt ashamed, because instead of him the innocent suffered. Sometimes work in this specialty brought considerable profits. For example, King Charles I, having ascended the throne, made his whipping boy William Murray an earl.

2. Fuller

In ancient Rome (and in medieval Europe too), fabric for the further manufacture of clothing was processed in a very original way. The fuller stood for days in a tub filled with water and alkaline chemicals, tirelessly trampling the strips of cloth, removing excess substances. It would seem nothing special, but there is a nuance. The most available alkaline solution was standing urine. The fullers collected it from the surrounding farms, and also put up special containers near their homes so that passers-by replenish their stocks.

3. Court stylist

How hard life was fuller, the ancient Roman servants-slaves, who mastered the technique of hair styling, knew best of all. Not only did they make curls on the heads of their mistresses for several hours in a row, they also dealt with ingredients that were difficult to process. They made hair sprays from a mixture of rotten leeches, squid ink liquid, pigeon droppings and, of course, urine.

4. Collector of leeches

If we are already talking about leeches, we cannot ignore another wonderful profession. The more doctors believed in the healing properties of bloodletting, the more popular leeches became. They were considered a panacea for almost any disease. Accordingly, the profession of a collector of these creatures has come into fashion. Usually, their own feet were used as bait. Specialists roamed the swampy ponds, unhooking leeches from their ankles as they drank blood. Nothing complicated! True, from time to time the catchers lost consciousness due to profuse blood loss.

5. Corpse Snatcher

Doctors needed not only leeches, but also corpses in order to study how everything works there. And the church did not allow autopsies in the old days. Therefore, unsqueamish people hunted by exhuming the bodies of dead compatriots under the cover of night, by order of a doctor they knew. This profession existed until the end of the 19th century and caused violent protests.

6. The necessary woman and the courtier at the ship

A team of professionals followed to ensure that the English autocrats emptied their intestines in comfortable conditions. A specially trained woman at any time of the day or night was ready to throw away the contents of the pot and rinse it thoroughly. No career growth, but the pay was good.

Much more prestigious was the position of a courtier at the royal ship. It was established by Henry VI when a novelty appeared at his disposal - a chair with a built-in pot. The courtier everywhere carried the prototype of the toilet for His Majesty, was responsible for the availability of water and towels. To be always ready, he kept track of the monarch's diet, predicting his schedule and planning his day accordingly. The manager of the chair had almost continuous and, in fact, intimate access to the king, which automatically elevated him above almost all other courtiers.

7. Armpit plucker

The desire to get rid of excess body hair is not a new trend at all. Smooth skin was considered an essential attribute of a handsome man in ancient Rome. The aristocrats trusted the servants to control the cleanliness of the armpits and other areas of the body. Most often they wielded bronze tweezers, but sometimes resorted to alternative methods. For example, they smeared their armpits with special substances in the hope that the hair would fall out by itself.

One of the problems of historical art history, according to the researcher of medieval musical culture M. Saponov, is the limitation of the study of the Middle Ages to the sphere of official - scholarly and church music. Purely "the Christian Middle Ages is a legend," says the French scholar J. Delumeau. In the spiritual culture of society, official (religious) and unofficial (secular) traditions coexisted. It is secular folk culture that makes it possible to present all aspects of medieval life. Evidence of the diversity of the latter is the literature of the 12th-13th centuries, where there is an abundance of data on the most diverse musical traditions of medieval life: folklore, rural, palace, tower, military, tournament, domestic music.

For the first time, everyday music of the Middle Ages was described and systematized in a treatise “ De musica” John de Groqueio. In it, the author distinguishes three types of music:

Church music is the tradition of Gregorian chant regulated by the norms of liturgical practice and fixed in the institutions of the Roman Catholic Church.

Scientific music (canonica), following the rules, ordered (regularis) - the author's professional creativity, in line with which the techniques of composer technique are developed.

Popular(cantus publicus)or household music(musica vulgaris, musica simplex, musica civilis).

B

Minstrel professionalism

In written sources of the 12th-15th centuries, there are various definitions of carriers of artistic professionalism: the words “juggler”, “spielman”, “minstrel” are used, and they are used in the same range of meanings. So at Chrétien de Troyes 25, even within the same stage, musicians are called either jugglers or minstrels.

Juggler(French jongleur, from lat. joculator) in translation means a joker and this word denoted wandering comedians and musicians in medieval France. Sometimes they were called histrions. In Germany they are related shpilmans, in Russia - buffoons. Word minstrel comes from the Latin menestrallus, derived from mestier - "skill", "craft", "profession". And, perhaps, it is this term that is most logical to use as a defining concept for the artistic professions of the Middle Ages, which form the basis of medieval folk culture and represent a stable professional tradition.

M. Saponov combines the main varieties of minstrel artistic professionalism into 4 groups:

Spectacular and circus professionalism (acrobats, tightrope walkers, tightrope walkers, illusionists, trainers, dancers and dancers.

The professionalism of singing poets accompanying themselves on stringed instruments.

The professionalism of the minstrels-instrumentalists, who owned the game on several instruments, as well as the skills of ensemble music-making.

Synthetic, intermediate forms of professionalism based on mixed, inter-craft skills.

The genre sphere, which characterizes the professional activity of singing poets, is summarized in the Grokeio treatise in the concept cantus publicus. Grokeiocantus publicus differ in two ways: "they are performed either by voice or on manufactured musical instruments." “Those [forms] that are sung differ in two ways. We call them either edging or chanson ... We share both edging and chanson in three ways. Kant refers either to gesture, or ornamented (crowned) singing, or couplet, and to chanson - either rondelle or induction.

Withantus publicus

Vocal S.R. Instrumental s.r.

Kant Chanson

Gesta Rondel

Ornamented chant

couplet singing

Let us briefly explain each of the genres mentioned by Grokeyo.

gesture- singing of the heroic epic and plot narratives close to it.

ornamented singing – cantus-coronatus – exquisitely virtuoso style with improvised diminutions 26 .

couplet singing- syllabic-distinct unassuming cantus-versiculatus (strophic tune).

Group chanson(cantilena). The rondel (“closes in itself like a circle”) obeys a strict norm: its melody and rhymes must be fully expressed already in the refrain, without changing further in the stanza. Estampi, like induction, is freer; the melody of the stanza and its rhymes do not have to follow the refrain in everything. “The refrain is what every chanson begins and ends with. Additions differ in rondelle, in duction and in estampi. In the rondel they coincide with the refrain in the melody and rhyme. In induction and estampi, some differ, while others coincide melodically and in rhymes.

Chanson de carole- song with dance Another name for induction is dance chanson.

"

At all times, professions were divided into prestigious and non-prestigious. It seems that many will be interested to know what professions were popular, for example, in Ancient Greece, and how people of past eras differed in this respect from our contemporaries.
Every profession has had its ups and downs in history, but at all times the most prestigious professions have not always been the most profitable ones. For example, in ancient Babylon the most prestigious wasmedical profession, and although he received much less than, for example, a merchant, it was the doctors who were the most respected people in Babylonia. It was then said about the merchant: “He trades and takes interest ... he feeds on the sweat of others.” The profession of a doctor was characterized as follows: "He heals ... and the Gods help him."
The profession of a doctor in ancient Babylon was no less difficult than it is today. In order to become a doctor, it was necessary to study for at least ten years and so intensively that the student moved to the house of his teacher and managed to visit his parents only a few times a year.
The working conditions of the doctors of Ancient Babylon were much worse than the current ones - they had to use bronze tools, which were much less convenient and functional than modern steel ones. Nevertheless, the removal of cataracts was so common that the fee for such an operation was fixed in a special article of the law.During the treatment, the doctors of Babylonia took into account not only the age and other individual characteristics of the patient's body, but even what ailments his parents suffered from. However, if the operation ended in failure, then, according to the law, the same injury was inflicted on the doctor that the patient received. Despite this, the profession of a doctor remained popular, which is the best evidence of the high professionalism of the doctors of Ancient Babylon.
In ancient Egypt, the profession of a scribe was the most popular.In practice, the scribe of ancient Egypt performed the same functions as the modern manager . His main duty was the distribution of work (as they said in those days - "lessons") between farmers and artisans who lived in the territory entrusted to him. In addition, the scribe oversaw how these tasks were carried out and collected the finished product. He also imposed penalties on those who did not cope with the work and encouraged those who achieved noticeable success. As a rule, the scribe himself was not involved in office work - this duty lay with his assistants.

Many Egyptians aspired to get the position of a scribe, but Egypt experienced, rather, a lack of people in this specialty, because in order to become a scribe it was necessary to pass a serious exam - to confirm knowledge of more than five thousand hieroglyphs and the ability to count in the mind a little worse than a modern calculator, and for this and not many are able to do it these days. One of the reasons for the high popularity of the profession of scribe was that his efforts were very well paid. The scribe received about the same as the priest of a prosperous temple.
Professions in ancient Egypt were inherited. The only exception was the profession of a scribe, since the selection for this position was carried out solely on the basis of professional competence.The position of a scribe was practically the only one that provided real career opportunities. . It is no coincidence that many aristocratic houses of Ancient Egypt traced their genealogy to some enterprising scribe.
In ancient Greece and Rome, the profession of a lawyer was the most popular. Such famous people as Cicero, Guy and Tiberius Gracchi were engaged in the practice of law. Although attorney fees often skyrocketed,the main reason for the popularity of this profession was that it provided its owner with the widest fame . In fact, the profession of a lawyer in ancient Greece and Rome was valued not in itself, but as a necessary step towards a career in public politics. No wonder the reward for a brilliant performance in court could be not only a fee, but also a laudatory poem written by one of the famous poets. Thus, the Roman poet Catullus devoted an ode to one of Cicero's speeches, beginning with the words: "O most eloquent of all the sons of Rome, of all who lived, lives and will live in the Eternal City ..."
Ancient lawyers were in an incomparably more advantageous position than their modern counterparts, because in those days there was neither a forensic medical examination nor a detailed judicial procedure, and to practice law it was enough to master all the techniques of eloquence. In ancient Rome, the very outcome of the trial depended mainly on the oratory of lawyers.
The prestige of a lawyer in ancient times was so great that even after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. AD The legal profession continued to be one of the most respected. Thus, at the law faculties of medieval universities, the art of composing court speeches was studied precisely on the example of the speeches of famous ancient lawyers.
In terms of the popularity of the legal profession, England is the heir to Greece and Rome. In the British Isles, the profession of a lawyer remains one of the most popular to this day. Already in the XV century. every self-respecting wealthy person used the services of his own lawyer, to whom he paid a lot of money. The fact is that the system of land tenure in England has always been extremely complicated, therefore, if desired, it was possible to challenge in court the rights of ownership of any person, with the possible exception of the king. For example, historians believe that the so-called "Wars of the Roses", which cost the lives of more than one king and lasted more than thirty years (1455-1492), were caused precisely by endless land disputes among the provincial nobility. Even in the 19th century, within the framework of land law alone, there were several dozen legal specialties, andtoday in England the percentage of lawyers is greater than in any other European country .
In the Middle Ages, one of the most popular was the profession of a diplomat. In those days, it was even more prestigious than today, because for the people of that era, the ambassador was, as it were, identified with the country he represented, and he was given almost the same honors as the sovereign. The most important element of diplomatic art then was the external design of the negotiations. And if the ambassadors were not given proper honors, this could lead to the disruption of the diplomatic mission, which in those days automatically meant, if not a declaration of war, then a complete break in relations between the two states.
Usually, the parties tried to surpass each other in the accuracy of observing the most complex diplomatic etiquette. . Of great importance was not only the clothes of the participants in the embassy, ​​but also their every gesture. One of the rules of good manners was the greatest possible pomp of the ceremony. So, for negotiations with the King of France, Louis XI, the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, arrived on a boat, completely covered with carpets, the sails of which were made of golden brocade. The duke's shoulders were adorned with a cloak embroidered all over with gold and precious stones, and even his boots were upholstered with brocade and pearls.
If it were possible to rank the popularity of professions throughout the history of mankind, then the profession of a diplomat would have occupied one of the first lines in it over the past seven hundred years. Roughly the same can be said forabout the profession of a banker .
The first banks appeared in Italy at the end of the 12th century. For almost three centuries, this profession was almost the exclusive privilege of the inhabitants of one of the regions of Italy - Lombardy, it is no coincidence that in the Middle Ages all bankers were called Lombards. In the XIII century. Lombards launched their activities not only in Italy, but also in England, France, Germany, Spain and other European countries. Perhaps the main reason for their financial success was that the banking houses of Italy provided a service that was unique for those times - the accounting of bills. Traveling on the roads of medieval Europe was far from safe, so the ability to take with you instead of gold a few sheets of paper could save the traveler not only money, but also life.
Compared with their modern counterparts, medieval bankers were in a much less advantageous position. Their relationship with the authorities was not easy -almost all the kings were indebted to one house or another, but none of them cared about repaying this debt . In addition, the king could at any time demand the renewal of a banking license, which cost the banking house about half of its annual income. For example, during the reign of King Philip IV of France the Handsome, the Lombards were offered four times to pay for the right to conduct banking operations in the kingdom. Howeverbanking operations in those days were more profitable than they are today. With minimal inflation, the annual interest on loans ranged from 25 to 60%. Over time, the profession of a banker has only become more popular, and today the very service in the bank is considered prestigious.
In the era of geographical discoveries (XV-XVI centuries), the profession of a navigator was very popular. In those days, she was one of the highest paid, because sailing to India, although it lasted almost two years, brought at least 500% of the income. From India in the XV-XVI centuries. mainly spices were exported, which were sold in Europe literally worth their weight in gold. No less income was brought by the export of gold from America. Quite profitable in those days was the profession of a corsair. Despite the fact that many pirates of the XV-XVI centuries. robbed the ships of hostile states in full accordance with the license issued by their own government, it is rather difficult to call this profession prestigious in the modern sense of the word.
In the XVII-XVIII centuries. one of the most popular was the military profession. This concerned, first of all, service in the elite units. As an example, we can cite the famous A. Dumas personal guard of the French king - the musketeer regiment, which the best swords of the kingdom aspired to get into.In Russia, the military profession remained the most prestigious throughout the 19th century. . It is no coincidence that the Russian nobles sought to send their sons primarily to the army.
The modern Russian military has something to envy to officers of the 19th century. At that time, service in the army brought no less income than a medium-sized estate. One of the reasons for the popularity of the military profession in Russia in the XIX century. was that for an officer of the 19th century, ensuring a decent existence for his soldiers was a matter of honor - it was assumed that the officer should first take care of the soldiers, and then about himself. During military campaigns, one of the duties of an officer was to ensure that his soldiers received good food, shelter, and sufficient ammunition.
In the XVIII century. the profession that we call fashion designer is becoming popular . Two centuries ago, these people were simply called tailors, although they were mainly engaged in the development of new models of clothing. They themselves almost never took up the needle - this was the work of their many assistants. The only serious difference between the fashion designers of that era and their modern colleagues is that in the 18th century. they worked only to order and created not collections of models, but individual things that fully corresponded to the taste and figure of the customer. No one was interested in how the dresses, sewn by one or another tailor, look on their own. The thing had to fit the customer, make him younger, slimmer, more attractive.Two centuries ago, fashion designers preferred to suffer losses rather than let their client show up in a bad toilet. . A good reputation was their "main capital", and such an oversight could cost the tailor a career.
Already in those days, Paris was the recognized capital of high fashion. No matter how bad the roads were then, many women of fashion still wrote out their toilets from the French capital, and even if they then had to be adjusted to fit, this fact was kept secret. The popularity of Parisian fashion designers is evidenced by at least the fact that in the 18th century. to get to a fashionable dressmaker the day before the big ball was impossible for any money. On other days, for the first acquaintance with the fashion designer, it was necessary to recommend one of his regular clients, otherwise the meeting had to wait at least several weeks.
One of the most prestigious professions of our days is the profession of an actor. Stage art in the modern sense of the word originated in ancient Greece, where the craft of the actor was one of the most prestigious. The names of famous actors were known throughout Greece, and the audience at their performances often did not have enough space. In those days, playing on stage was much more difficult than it is today. After all, the faces of the actors, dressed in the same spacious white cloaks, were covered with masks that depicted sorrow in tragic performances, and joy in comic performances. At the disposal of the actor was only the voice, which should have expressed all the emotions, to convey the tense course of action.

In ancient Rome, the profession of an actor was already much less prestigious. Only those who achieved truly outstanding success in this craft enjoyed respect. By the first centuries of our era, this profession becomes frankly unpopular. They began to look at the game of actors in the same way as at the performances of gladiators. This tradition was fully adopted by medieval Europe, in which secular ideas were considered demonic for a very long time. In Russia, in those days, acting was not only unpopular, but sometimes downright dangerous. Zealous Christians could break the buffoon's tools, release his beasts, and beat him up.
The attitude towards the theater changed only in the Renaissance, but the actors could not count on the respect of their neighbors for a long time. For example,when in the 19th century one of the famous Russian entrepreneurs - Savva Mamontov - during his stay in Italy wanted to choose a career as an opera singer, Russian business circles were extremely scandalized . Savva's father not only ordered him to immediately return home under the threat of a parental curse, but also sent his manager to him, so that he would even forcibly bring Mamontov Jr. back to Moscow. The profession of an actor became truly prestigious only in the 20th century.
In the 19th century, the profession of a journalist gained popularity. In those days, there were relatively few people in this specialty - even in the capitals no more than two dozen newspapers were published. However, 19th century journalists enjoyed no less respect than their modern counterparts. In the 19th century Russian journalists were in the most disadvantageous position. In order for their articles to be published, they had to pass the approval of not only the editor, but also the censor, and politically incorrect statements could well end up in jail. Despite this, Russian journalists could express their thoughts much more freely., than their Soviet counterparts. However, the truly prestigious profession of a journalist in our country became only in the nineties of the XX century.
At all times, people have recognized that almost any occupation can become prestigious - it all depends on how a person will work. It seems that this idea was best expressed by Mikhail Zakharovich Tretyakov, the father of the famous Tretyakov, the founder of the Moscow Picture Gallery. He said: “Every profession should provide means of subsistence. Every profession is honorable if conducted honestly: an honest shoemaker, industrious and skillful in his work, is better than a dishonest or untalented scientist.

Heroes are characters that you can control and play through quests . At the very beginning of the game, only one hero is available to you - the monarch. Then, with the development of the kingdom, you can build new buildings and create new heroes. There are a total of 10 such characters in the game, each with their own profession, building, and specialization. What heroes are in Sims Medieval”and what are their distinguishing features, you will learn further in the review.

Making money

Each of the heroes has different opportunities for earning money. Heroes not only receive a down payment when constructing a building, but they can also earn daily through their profession. For example, with the help of such types of work as the manufacture and sale of specialized items (a doctor has ointments and medicines, a blacksmith has swords and armor), you can earn good money every day for your personal treasury. In addition, each of the heroes can fish and collect colors, and then sell them for Simoleons, but only heroes specialized in such things will be able to collect all types of herbs and understand the types of ore. And, if it doesn’t work out at all, you can make money on gambling with the help of card tables, such as in the Throne Room. But be careful, gambling is always risky and you can lose money.

Whatever the hero does, he will have to pay taxes to the royal treasury. The amount of tribute depends on the profession and level of the character. You can pay the required amount through any mailbox in the Kingdom.

Hero level and experience points

Any profession has 10 levels of development. With each level up, the hero usually discovers something new for himself, such as a previously unknown recipe or a new activity.
The level of the character can be tracked in the player's panel in the "Symology" tab. You can increase the level due to experience points (EP), which are accumulated when completing the main quests. But you can also get experience points for performing professional duties, for example, a blacksmith accumulates BP when forging metal, a priest - when reading a sermon, and a bard - when playing the lute. And there are a lot of such opportunities for gaining experience for each hero. For example, a bard can play the lute, but will also gain experience points when writing poems, plays, when inspired by other Sims, or from nature.

Manufacturing

You may have already noticed that many professions allow you to craft specialized items such as swords or potions. There is a creation of things on a special desktop, which is automatically placed in the building of the heroes involved in this activity in their profession.
Crafting requires two things: recipes and ingredients. At the first level of the hero, a list of recipes for creating some things is available, but with an increase in skill, this list grows. Some recipes can be obtained by traveling to other countries or adventuring while walking in the village. Work tables can serve as storage for ingredients, so you don't have to carry them in your luggage.
The success of crafting depends on the concentration of the hero, his level and the complexity of the recipe. To determine the chances of success, you can look at the background color in the recipe. Green is the key to good luck, yellow is the average chances, but red can be a problem. To fix this, increasing the focus or level of the character will help. Whatever the case, don't worry if you fail to create an item and fail, the ingredients won't be consumed. The only thing you waste is time and energy.

sword fight

Sometimes, honor and the throne must be protected by the edge of the blade. In The Sims Medieval, such battles serve to resolve various disputes. There are duels until a complete victory over the enemy, and there are duels without the need to inflict fatal blows.
Characters who are proficient in swordsmanship, that is, the monarch, knight and spy, can fight.

Battles are of 3 types:
a training battle that accumulates experience points (EP), builds relationships between rivals and does not lead to injury,
a duel (duel), which also accumulates experience points (BP), builds relationships, but can lead to serious injury,
and a deadly duel, one of the participants of which dies.

Tip: You can get the Watcher's Blessing from a Peterian Priest before the fight. Then, if your health drops to zero, you will miraculously return 75% health.

Also, during the battle, extortion of money is available if the victim you attacked does not know how to fight. In this case, you can easily profit from small coins, but, however, robbery is not the best way to make friends.

Sword combat uses two indicators of success: health and stamina. The health indicator shows the damage received from the battle, and the endurance bar shows the character's fatigue. The heavier the armor and equipment of the hero, the faster he gets tired. Special moves also drain strength. If your health or stamina level drops to zero during the duel, you will lose.

Don't forget to sharpen your sword before the duel! Click on the sword in your inventory and select Sharpen. A sword with a high attack rate deals more damage to the opponent's health, and an armor with a high defense rate reduces the damage received. But be careful not to choose too heavy equipment, otherwise your hero will quickly get tired and lose!
By the way, spies don't wear armor, they naturally have a high level of protection.

There are 5 positions that will be available at high levels of the hero:
"Balanced stance", in which the actions of attack and defense are balanced with each other.
"Furious Assault", in which the emphasis is on attack, not defense.
"Slow dance", where a relaxed stance is used without reducing stamina.
"Deaf Defense", which is aimed at powerful defense, but attacks are infrequent.
"Smashing Strikes", where the emphasis is on the accuracy of strikes, and not on their strength.

Keep an eye on your health and stamina levels during combat to determine which position is best to use.

In addition to the main positions, it is also possible to use additional techniques. There are only 3 of them:
A "hilt strike" that deals little damage but consumes less stamina.
A Mortal Strike that deals less damage, but if you're lucky, it can end the fight.
A Bladestorm that deals massive damage but consumes more stamina.

Tip: To make the battle more successful, do not forget to increase the focus of the character, in addition, it will be useful to work out for a couple of hours before the training dummy to prepare for the battle.

Common Significant Objects

Each profession has its own unique objects, thanks to which the heroes perform their professional duties. However, there are also items that are common to several professions and can be used by different heroes for their professional purposes. Let's look at them in order.

tactical map

It is used for issuing decrees, working out strategies and reviewing the political situation.

Training dummy
Can be used by: monarch, knight, spy
Used by characters who are proficient with swords to train and develop their combat skills.

Desk
Usable by: Monarch, Spy, Bard, Peterian Priest, Merchant
Desks serve as a place for writing, signing and sealing various state or church documents.

Archive
Usable by: Mage, Healer, Peterian Priest
The archive serves as a place to study various books and manuals needed by the hero in his profession.

Housewife, midwife, prostitute. Sometimes it seems that these are the only female archetypes in fantasy with a medieval entourage, unless you have bikini-clad warriors with swords more than their own weight.

So, besides producing children, what were women actually doing? As always with fantasy, the author doesn't have to stick strictly to the facts, but a bit of logic never hurts to build the world. To help extrapolate the role of women in the Middle Ages to your fantasy world, this article aims to give you a basic understanding of the reasons why situations are often portrayed the way they are. The first thing to pay attention to is…

Childbearing is really hard

Ask your mom. Ask any mom. And then ask them what it's like without an epidural.

Thanks to modern medicine, having a baby today is much less likely to bleed and become infected, not to mention painkillers. If you look relatively, then this is a couple of trifles. And yet, any mother will tell you that there is nothing easy about it.

In addition to the severity of childbirth itself, it is important to remember that birth control (1960s) revolutionized women's lives. Suddenly, they could choose not to breed. Prior to this, the jobs women were hired to do were often limited by how much they could do while pregnant or with a baby. One has only to ask the modern parent on maternity leave how much he manages to do during the day, and remember that until the 1950s this parent should have to be a mother, as only she could feel a child. But of course...

There were exceptions to the rule

Infertile, post-menopausal, celibate, and even those who were rich enough to rely only on nannies - they could all engage in professional activities. But remember, as you inhabit your world, that these are the exceptions. If your female character's main time is not spent in reproductive activities, there must be a reason for this.

In addition to people with a vocation for religion, the monasteries provided refuge for women intellectuals and dissidents. Approximately 10% of all women in medieval France and England never married, and "marriage with God" provided many of them with housing and education that were otherwise unavailable. Women writers, artists and theologians were brought up by the church, as were botanists, healers and teachers. The medieval church was a major economic enterprise, and the abbess of a large monastery was a force to be reckoned with.

As for the remaining 90% of women, childbearing and raising were left to their share, although this did not save them from work at all, especially when you consider that ...

Most of the farms were family businesses.

Women with children took part in almost every aspect of the economic activity of the Middle Ages. In most cases, only a man could own a property or a business, but his wife, daughters, mother, and sisters provided invaluable assistance in the management. Often, women conducted all affairs entirely in the absence of male relatives.

As Christina of Pisa (1363-1430), the famous widow of Venice, said:

“Because knights, squires and gentlemen go on journeys or to war, it behooves women to be wise in everything they do, for often they must live in a house without husbands who at that time are at court or in distant countries ... Mistress who keeps the household must be wise and have the courage of a man. It should not oppress servants and workers, but should be fair and consistent. She must follow the advice of her husband and wise advisers so that people around her do not think that no one can tell her. She must know the laws of war in order to command her people and defend her lands if they are attacked. She must know everything that happens in the affairs of her husband in order to act on his behalf during his absence or on her own if she became a widow. She must manage her employees well. To look after the workers, she must have a good knowledge of agriculture. She must check the quality of raw materials for yarn and weaving, since the housekeeper can sometimes work for her own benefit, and not for the good of the household.

Managing a household is not an easy task: it is like running a large hotel, with the condition that sometimes the hotel needs to be mobilized for war. If you have feudalism in your book, then every man with land spends most of the year away, either in war or pleasing his superiors. The character most likely to let your characters sleep in the barn will be the owner of the house, not the owner.

Women and trade

In the cities, the wives of merchants and artisans could help their husbands trade or start their own. Evidence of numerous such enterprises is the London Decree of 1363, which specifies that a man should have one shop, and a woman - as many as she wants.

However, this indulgence suggests that although a woman could learn a trade, they were rarely allowed to manage. In the records of medieval guilds there are many references to women, but rarely in the position of owner or manager, and often with admission only to the lower levels of production due to specific laws. For example, a female dyer was not allowed to take fabric out of vats, and a pastry chef could not carry more than one box of cookies around the city at a time.

Most likely, the residents of the city worked at many strange jobs to make ends meet, while carrying a child on their backs. It is quite probable that the competent wife of a baker, a cooper, or a wheelbarrow driver practically did the whole thing for him. Everyone in the city knew they had to go to her to get the job done, even if her husband was the official speaker at the guild meetings.

Women in charge

The textile industry was run by women. Medieval silk spinners were a notable exception among the guilds, where women controlled every aspect of production and were guild masters and stewards. In other activities, the best loophole was the death of a spouse. Many prominent widows have inherited property or business, often achieving notable success.

A noteworthy fact: the famous house of champagne "Veuve Clicquot", where the widow herself was a much more successful business woman than her husband and therefore the best wine, respectively, is called "Grand Dame".

Women's professions in medicine

While English universities forbade women from practicing medicine (the Holy Roman Empire didn't, by the way, and that's why there were German female doctors), men have historically been terrified of childbirth. Midwives helped at birth and monitored women's health, being, in fact, midwives / gynecologists of the Middle Ages.

Famous women of the 12th century who made a significant contribution to medicine were the abbess Hildegard of Bingen, who wrote a treatise Causae et curae, and the midwife Trotula of Salerno, whose work De passionibus mulierum still used by modern obstetricians.

Other unusual female professions

While it is easy to picture a woman who works either as a midwife or in the weaving industry or as a cook or laundress, here is a list of unexpected occupations from the records of Parisian guilds around the 1300s. In any case, there were fewer women than men, and some professions subsequently became only male, but at least there is a historical precedent for women to work in all of the following areas:

Apothecary

Gunsmith

Hairdresser-surgeon

Brewer

A carpenter

shipbuilder

door master

gravel miner

Mason

Spurnik

Tailor

So what about Joan of Arc?

She was not as much of an exception as you might think, although history is certainly full of prejudices. Pope Urban II convened the first crusade in 1095 using predominantly masculine address, and an account by an unknown author of the third crusade reads: "Great men send each other wool and enterprise, they are suitable only for women's work. Muslim sources, however, testify to the active participation of Christian women, not only as canteens, but also as strategic advisers and participants in battles.

Don't underestimate the importance of canteens. Historically, all the household needs of the army have been heavily dependent on the informal service of the canteens in everything from cooking and washing to healing the wounded. The canteens weren't necessarily prostitutes; often the wives and children of the soldiers simply followed them.

Also, the canteens, most likely, could pick up any weapon and join the battle. Female knights were rare, as were knights in general. It is important to remember that in the Middle Ages there were mixed armies, and only a small percentage of the participants were professionals. Most of the forces were drawn from the lower classes, and among them a woman armed with a spear was as useful as a man in the same place.

Formally, the need for stooges in connection with the development of the army supply service did not dry up until the end of the 19th century, so if your fantasy world is modeled from any period up to this point, it will certainly have an army assembled from various rabble with shanty girls all along their way.

Women of high status

On the other side of the spectrum, highborn women often raised and commanded their own armies. In the early 12th century, Empress Matilda was the first woman to claim the English throne, and in the late 12th century, Eleanor of Aquitaine accompanied her first husband on a crusade, subsequently revolting against her second. In the 14th century, Margaret of Anjou commanded the Lancastrian forces almost single-handedly on behalf of her mentally handicapped husband.

While it is important to remember that in the Middle Ages there were just as many nobles who played a prominent role in the economy as we now have the Sam Waltons, Elons Musks, Bill Gates and Warren Buffetts, among this small number it is quite realistic to place at least one fearless high-born woman on generation.

Conclusion

Despite many severe challenges, such as childbearing and caring for them through birth control, modern medicine, and the sharing of responsibility, women were active in every area of ​​medieval life. The wives of farmers, artisans and soldiers worked alongside them, often inheriting their business after death. High-born women ruled everything from the economy to the kingdom on behalf of their husbands, and "marriage with the church" allowed women to practice art, literature and medicine.

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