A Conversation Between a Lord and a Serf
The time:about 850 A.D.
The place: a farm in what is now northern France.
The action: Lord Ramsey is out riding one afternoon when he comes upon a serf named Bodo.
Lord Ramsey:Well, Bodo, I see you have already finished your spring planting. You are a good, steady fellow, Bodo. Work hard and we will all have plenty to eat.
Bodo:Oh. Hard work never bothered me, sir. I start working in the fields at dawn and I don’t stop until sundown. That’s not the problem.
Lord Ramsey:Well, what is the problem?
Bodo: It’s all the fighting that goes on, sir. Take last summer, for example. Count Raymond gets mad at you because, he says. You are taking fish from his stream. So what does he do? He comes over here with several of his knights to get revenge. Well, he can’t attack your castle. It’s too strong. So he sets fire to the fields and burns all the crops. Then he kills all of your serfs he can find and burns their huts. Now, sir, what’s the good of working hard when something like that happens?
Lord Ramsey:Yes, you are right about that. It was a great shame. But you see, Bodo, that stream really belongs to me. It is on my land, and I can prove it. But don’t you worry about that. I will take care of Count Raymond in my own way. My knights and I will pay him back for what he did here last summer. I’ll tear down his castle stone by stone.
Bodo (to himself):God help us- more fighting! (Aloud): Well, sir, that’s not the only things that bothers me. It’s being tied to this piece of land all my life. The law says that I must stay here and work for you three days a week. My father did it before me, and his father before him. And what do I get in return? You let me have a small part of your land for myself. But I can only work on it when I’m not working for you. That gives me just three days, for Heaven forbid that I should work on Sundays! Do you know how hard it is to feed a family that way? I can’t let up for a minute, even in bad weather. It’s work, work, work, all the time. Now is that fair?
Lord Ramsey:Bodo, it is a good thing for you that I am a kind man. Other lords would cut your tongue out for talking like that. The trouble with you, Bodo, is that you don’t know your place. It is God’s Will that noblemen must be soldiers. And it is His will that common people must serve us.
Bodo:Forgive me, sir, I did not mean to forget my place. It’s just that sometimes a man gets very tired.
Lord Ramsey:Do you think, Bodo, that my life is easy? I am responsible for law and order here. I must protect my serfs against all enemies. And don’t you think that I have a lord and master also? This land doesn’t really belong to me. It belongs to my lord, the duke. The duke lets me hold on to it, but in return I must serve him as a soldier. I am sworn to fight for him any time he needs me. But that’s not all. I must bring 10 other knights with me. And I have to pay for their horses and armor! That costs a lot of money. That’s why you must work for me, and pay me rent besides. Buts it’s really not so bad, Bodo. On Sundays and hold days, you have plenty of time to enjoy life.
Bodo:Yes, but it’s such a short life, sir. Hard work, sickness, and hunger wear a man down. I’ll be lucks if I live to be 40.
Lord Ramsey:What are you complaining about? How many soldiers live that long?
Bodo / Advantages: / Disadvantages:Lord Ramsey / Advantages: / Disadvantages:
Soldier / Advantages: / Disadvantages: