What Do You Think?

Thinking is a very important part of our day as humans. Think about it. All day, no matter where you go, who you meet, and what you experience, you will always be thinking, and encountering people think. Thinking is a very complicated process, and we could not survive as humans without thinking. The thing that sets us apart from one another is thinking. We all think in different ways, and just like the people in medieval times, they thought according to their situation and their social classes.

Living in Medieval times was not an easy task for the slaves. They had to work all day, and were barley given any credit. Back then, different groups of peasants live on a single manor, and the slaves were sold and bought. The serfs, who were people who could neither leave the manor or be forced to leave, made up most of the peasant’s population. Free man could move freely, hence their name, and they made up only a small portion of the population in medieval times. (http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/middleages/prole.html) Most likely, because of the peasants versus the Lords living conditions, they both thought differently about the work and how things were run in the world. For example, the lords might of loved the way things were run, with themselves on top of the social class running everything and having to do nothing but enjoy themselves, well, on the other hand, the slaves and peasants must of hated how things were run back them because they were on the bottom of the social latter, and they had to do all the work, and they were treated as nothing, bought and sold like food or materials. "A man of great vanity, swollen with pride, shameless in his arrogance, who acted towards those subject to him as though he were without any spark of human kindness, raging against them beyond the bounds of malice and stupidity and doing unspeakable injuries to them", explains how the slaves were treated back in medieval times.

Other people who may of thought as the time and how things went were the knights. Knight was a term used that referred to a nobleman or a warrior. When a high social status family had a son, and when he reached the age of seven, he was sent to go and live in a castle with another lord, a lord who usually was a close friend with the family of the son. There, he began his education, doing chores and performing services for the people of the castle. At the age of thirteen he apprenticed to a knight and he became a squire. He was taught all the basics of a knight like the skill with sword lance, and shield. He then also learned his duties and responsibilities. The squires also engaged in mock battles, which where battles with a dummy, and if he hit the dummy in the center, it would fall over, if they hit it anywhere else, it would swing around and hit the squire in the back. The squires where judged and ready to become a knight at the age of eighteen or twenty one, and at that time a ceremony time and date were set. At the ceremony, the squire would take a bath and become cleansed, and then he would make a confession, and spend the night in the chapel praying. (http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/middleages/knighthood.html) The squires and Knights probably thought that life was pretty good, and maybe they like their life, most likely unlike the slaves who would do anything to get out of doing chores for the lords, and barely owing anything of their own.

Thinking is probably one of the most important things we have today, and we see from the past that the squires, knights, peasants, serfs, and Lords. They all thought differently on how the world was won, and they all thought differently on their life and their jobs. Maybe squires thought that they had it bad with themselves being forced into knighthood, but maybe the peasants wished they could become a knight of high social standard. Maybe all the people had to do was spend a week in each other’s shoes and see what it was like to be in a different social position. Thinking was very important part of life, and nobody could live without it, and we know that everyone thinks differently and sees life differently, like the peasants versus the Lords


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Think_different.png
Knighthood." Web. 03 May 2010. http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/middleages/knighthood.html.
Roles and Rights of A Peasant." Web. 03 May 2010. http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/middleages/prole.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/575Rauching.html- Medieval SourceBook