Middle Ages

The Middle Ages in Europe stretch roughly from the fall of the Western Roman Empire around 500 to about 1500. It was not one unchanging dark age: the period saw new towns and universities, Gothic cathedrals, long-distance trade, and also wars, crusades and repeated famines.

Most people worked the land. Many were serfs, bound to a lord's estate and owing him labour or produce, while a small elite of nobles and clergy held most of the power. Towns grew from the 11th century onward and created new roles: merchants, craftsmen organised in guilds, innkeepers and minstrels.

The Black Death of 1347–1351 killed an estimated third to half of Europe's population. Its consequences, from labour shortages to new attitudes to death and faith, reshaped the late medieval world that many of these lives belong to.