Social Classes In Medieval Times

In the Medieval era your social classes usually set your daily activities for not only for that day but for your whole life. During this time there wasn't really a lot of social classes you were either royalty,you were poor, or you were a member of the church. And once you were in your social class you are usually stuck there your whole life and if you were to have children then they would be sent to the same fate as you. Once you were in your social class it was nearly impossible to change your social class for example if you were a merchant selling furs then you would most likely not be able to become a knight. While you were in your social class you have duties that you are expected to do as well as things your are forbidden to do. In this paper i'm going to tell you what they would do in these social classes and how they interact. In the higher social classes (KIng, Prince, Knight, Queen, and etc.) they would be the most respected. They would often rule over the lower social classes and their words were unquestionable similar to what Knight Adhemar did to William and when Prince Edward knighted William. As the higher social class they would often have to attend dances and balls with the other member in the higher social class. For the knights it was a little different because they would have to attend the dances but they would also have to participate in jousting, swordsmanship, bowing , and etc. So they weren't required to do too much in the higher social classes. This was mainly all they would have to do besides the fact that they had to govern the lower social classes. On the other hand there are things that they can't do and theyŕe are also things that they could be looked down because of. One example of something they weren't supposed to do is the knights weren't to joust against princes or kings. This is shown in A Knight's Tale whenever Prince Edward was trying to joust against Adhemar. Things that they weren't really supposed to do is hand out with poor …show more content…
They have to work their butt of for seven days a week to get paid little to nothing and they were treated bad as if that wasn't enough they have the most strenuous jobs. This is very well depicted whenever John is giving up William in the flashback because John doesn't want him to have to live the life he had. He wanted William to grow up and be a squire so that he would spend countless hours doing the work he had to do. They weren't allowed many things or even given the opportunity to change their lives. They were allowed to simply go to work and were only allowed to talk to people in their social class. The things they weren't allowed to do was to act like they were of royal blood or in a high social class we were shown that whenever William was proved not to be of royal blood. They were also not allowed to compete in the same activities as Knights such as jousting and swordsmanship. In the movie William was allowed to compete in as a knight in the end because Prince Edward dubbed him a knight because he ẗraced his lineage back to royalty¨. This would be one of the only ways somebody was allowed to advance a social