Medieval England was ruled by a feudal system which ruled over the nobility and peasants. The peasants were underfunded farmers who could barely afford food and the land they lived on. In contrast, the lords of the land lived an aristocratic and luxurious lifestyle. The difference between was gigantic, but how gigantic was it?
A key difference between the classes is the quality of the meal they both ate. The nobility ingested “lots of freshly killed meat…as well as fresh fruits and vegetables” (Bovey 3). This shows a vast contrast to the peasants. Which had so little food that “if their crops did not grow they would not have food to eat” (The Middle Ages 4). This shows a contrast to between the lords and peasants. The peasants could not afford a terrible harvest. Peasants would sometimes starve if they had a horrendous harvest.
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They both ate pottage. Pottage was a type “of soup-stew made from oats.”(Food and Drink in Medieval England 5). Nobility had access to richer meats such as “deer, boar, hares, and rabbits” (Food and Drink in Medieval England 6). Peasants mainly relied on pigs (which were cheap and could be killed all year long) to provide meat. Nobility also had foods that were “heavily flavored with valuable spices such as caraway, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, and pepper” (Bovey 1). English nobility and richer farmers had the ability to grow wheat and have access to an oven to make white bread. Peasants had to grow rye or barley because they did not have the money and ability to grow wheat for white bread. On top of that, peasants had to pay to use a lord’s oven to even bake the bread. They could hunt but were limited in what they could