The return of Martin Guerre is a true story dealing with identity theft. This event took place in Artigat in Southern France. Martin Guerre was a peasant that disappeared for several years and was believed to have returned. However, it turned out to be an imposter. People believed the imposter was Martin until a few people stated they knew that it was not him. The imposter was later executed. At the same time the real Martin Guerre showed up. In this era peasants did have some power in shaping and re shaping their own lives. Some of the best examples come from the Guerre family. The kinds of power they had were: being a part of a village with no manorial dues or owed manorial services (), being a rural merchant, and owning enough land …show more content…
The inhabitants of Artigat did not have to pay manorial dues or services. In result they had free and allodial lands. () These lands belonged to the community or the king if there was one. The second kind of power peasants had in shaping and reshaping their own lives is becoming a becoming a rural merchant. The fake Martin Guerre was a rural merchant. He became a rural merchant by developing the Guerre holding in a commercial direction. () The fake Martin would deal with grains, wine, and wool. () Fake Martin also became involved in buying, selling, and leasing land. () He later tried to take advantage of the properties is uncle acquired and passed to him. () The third kind of power peasants had in shaping and reshaping their own lives was owning enough land too free themselves (). They then became independent farmers (). As independent farmers they were the leaders of the peasant village(). They employed the poor, rented out livestock and tools. () They also were agents of the …show more content…
Churches at this time had a large amount of power over people’s villages and God was considered the center of everything. Churches decided what books were ok for its people to read and what services didn’t pollute the community. () The church would sometimes have the final say over kings as well. Churches were the on the highest part of the social scale. Laws were even made based on religion. The churches were so powerful they would even go to war with people of different religions. Peasants were expected to follow the “Great Chain of Being” which meant they were expected to show humble deference to their betters(). The second reason that the modern world highlights the limitations of peasants is they were constantly threatened by scarcity and famine (). A small ice age affected the farming season creating food shortages. () After several famines the population was reduced. In result the price of bread increased and peasants rioted in anger. () Peasants would steal bread and sell it at the price they felt was appropriate and attacked convoys carrying grains.
The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis can be argued as a work of “good history” in today’s society. “Good history” is information from both recent and distant past that society can directly learn from in today’s culture. Carl Becker quotes that “History is the memory of things said and done”(Becker 223). The Return of Martin Guerre takes place during the sixteenth century in Artigat, a small town in Southern France. The story focuses on Martin Guerre and the peasants that live within the town.
They had to defend themselves from invasion, since there was no leader and nobody to rule or control the land and to protect it the nomadic tribes came and took peoples land (Richardson). (CS)Feudalism: Economy (MIP-1) The king had lords controlling parts of his lands. (SIP-A) As lords they were given things.
Remarque wrote this story so that common people would know the true treachery of war and how war is only a device to achieve greatness. War is portrayed as a waste of valuable time and human life that in the end, only corrupts and destroys the minds and lives of the many military families- all because a political power wanted something that somebody else had and couldn't come to a peaceful
The income was declining in this time period, which led to inflation. Moreover, kings asked lords and peasants to pay taxes; peasants had to pay dues as well to their landlords. Labor shortages also led to inflation. While nobles started to bribe and cheat peasants, peasants began to attack monasteries (Document 4). Monasteries were probably attacked because they were fancy, and priests and monks had everything in there.
On top of the peasants or other lower classes there were
In return, the villagers would pay tribute to their konohiki, or overseer. The people would also give a portion of their harvest to their governing ali’i who would keep a portion for himself before giving the rest to the highest ali’i. Some ali’i had to attend to the king’s every command and constantly be at his side. Several ali’i were of the ali’i rank because of a special skill or strength. Because of this, the ali’i status could not be passed down to their children.
Europe in the fifteen hundreds was a dangerous, local, hierarchic, tradition-bound, slow moving, and poor filled with the tasks of providence, salvation and community. Europe during the fifteen hundreds were a dangerous place; disease, famine, and violence all prevented the population of the era to live a long life. One of the major killers during the time was disease. Disease and plagues killed major parts of the population, the bubonic plague, for example, claimed the lives of perhaps a third of Europe’s population in five years.
During the archaic period, power and wealth was concentrated in the hands of the aristocratic class, a small group of wealthy landowners. Wealthy aristocrats came to monopolize the best land and political power. Small farmers fell into debt to aristocrats and were forced to sell their land or even themselves into slavery. Later, Solon divided the Athenian population by wealth and made it possible for wealthy but non-aristocratic Athenian men to have more say in the political system and even stand for public office. The Athenian
The peasants, included of farmers and fishermen, was the largest social group of whom were all legally bound to by the person who owned their land. Chonin, last on the
They had social systems based on ownership of property, schools and governmental
Peasants have never been treated as equal, but at the time of the revolution the rich were specifically demanding and were oblivious to the damage their selfishness was causing the poor. The wealthy were keeping their money while the hard working peasants were burdened by heavy taxes that they could not fully pay. “We state that there should not be any tax men. It would be better if His Majesty laid a small tax on each young man” (Document 3). This document by the rural peasants of Menouville is directed towards the nobles so they might see what their taxation doing to their own country.
They had the least wealth and respect but without them the two kingdoms couldn’t continue. There were three sub-categories of peasants in both societies: Farmers were the wealthiest peasants as they had their own land where they would dwell and also harvest crops to sell to the rest of the kingdom. The craftsmen/artisans were the second wealthiest peasants. They would craft armour and weapons and make work with metal and wood. The merchants were the least wealthy of all the peasants because they were completely dependent on other people to give them work.
“The young men who fenced and boxed with Martin must have darkened their faces, put on women’s clothes, and assembled in front of the Guerre house, beating on wine vats, ringing bells, and rattling swords.” Due to local traditions Davis speculated what the neighbors and community would have done to embarrass and humiliate Martin for his impotence. The Return of Martin Guerre is written as a microhistory, because of its specific concentration on a small region and specific people of low birth. It is also a narrative due to the way Davis writes.
The main question of this thesis is that how the socio-economic changes caused the French peasant revolts during the French wars of religion? To understand why the peasant revolts happened in this way, we need to look at the economic and social conditions of the French peasantry in the late sixteenth century. In order to fulfill it, I will look at the peasant revolts through two macro and micro perspectives in the framework of the comparative economic history. The 16th and 17th century Europe was an agrarian society with the peasant economy.