Life in a Medieval

Town

Key Terms

• Town Charter• freedom• liberties

• Guilds

• Midden

• Goliardic Poetry

Friesach, Austria

Medieval Town

Government

Town ChartersBirmingham Charter

Craft and Merchant Guilds

•Master craftsmen

•Journeymen

•Apprentices

Daily Life

Medieval Sanitation

Illness and Infection

Food in Medieval Cities

Leisure Time

Goliardic Poetry, In taberna

• When we are in the tavern, we do not think about mortality, but get right down to gambling, which always raises a sweat. What goes on in the tavern, where a penny gets you a drink, if that is what you want to know, then listen to what I tell you.

• The mistress drinks, the master drinks, the soldier and the cleric drink, he drinks, she drinks, the servant and the handmaiden drink, the white man and the black man drink, the steady and the capricious drink, the illiterate and the professor drink.

Cheater’s Dice, Museum of London

Medieval Sport

Dangers