Housing

Housing was going through a transition during Medieval times, at least for those who couldn't afford castles and stately manors. For most of the Medieval period the majority of people lived in one storey wood frame homes. Increasingly, there was a stone foundation, which made it less likely that the wood uprights would rot and have to be replaced. The wall spaces between the beans and crossbeams were filled in with wattle and daub (a mud and twigs combination that dried and was waterproof, fire proof, and a good insulator). This is the "half timber" style still seen in many parts of Europe. The high pitched roof was thatch (bundles of reeds). The floor was usually dirt, but increasingly wood planking was used. In the middle of the main room was the hearth, a low stone platform that held the cooking and heating fire. There was a "smoke hole" that was surrounded by tiles or stones, to make it less likely that sparks would set the thatch roof on fire. Windows had shutters, but rarely glass. The typical home had two rooms, one for cooking and eating, and often sleeping. The other room served as a storeroom and/or bedroom and often had a small hearth for heating. Rooms, and buildings, were small by modern standards. If you've ever seen American colonial period houses, you have a good idea of the size. Your average peasant house had less than a thousand square feet under the roof. Within would live as many as ten people. There would be a married couple, their children, and one or more grandparents, and perhaps other kin. It was cozy, to be sure. But this had advantages in the winter, when there was no central heating and only a hearth to add to the body heat. In good weather, the shutters were opened and it wasn't all that bad.

Some homes were longer, allowing some of the animals to come insider (to add their body heat, and odor, to the household), or, in areas where stone construction was used, a house might have two storeys, with the ground floor being the barn. Older style homes were longer still and contained more than one family. Other farm buildings, particularly storage sheds and banrs, were built in the same style.

Wealthier farmers, especially after the Plague, lived in a fancier version of this type of house. The upscale version had two storeys, a stone or brick fireplace (but often no chimney, the smoke was vented out a wall opening), and a tile roof. If the owner were really wealthy, there might be glass in some of the windows. But glass was difficult to make and expensive. It came in small pieces and had to be assembled to look like a stained glass window.

Your basic peasant house would be built in a month or so using family labor and the help of some hired specialists (thatchers, carpenters, and stone workers). A farmer would have to obtain permission (and often pay for it too) from his landlord to cut timber and gather other materials from the lord's forest. Total cost for wages and materials (like hinges and nails) would be a few thousand ducats for your average house. The fancier, two storey, models would take longer to build, require more specialized labor, and could cost as much as 10,000 ducats.

Some nobles lived in stone castles, which would cost several million ducats to build and require many months, or years, to construct. A large, well fortified, castle could cost 10-20 million ducats. But most nobles lived in "manor houses" (or "chateaux" in France). These were basically more elaborate wooden or stone homes, containing several thousand square feet of space on two or more levels. These manor houses could still cost up to 100,000 ducats, depending on how many windows and how much expensive stonework (for foundation and fireplaces) were included. One type of manor house developed during the Hundred Years War in France was the "fortified chateau." More stonework, heavier shutters, larger food storage capacity, and perhaps some walls and fighting positions in the upper storeys for archers, would make a chateau more defensible against brigands or small armies. Even armies with siege specialists (who could build stone throwing devices and movable towers) would have a hard time entering a region containing many fortified chateau. Each of these chateau could hold a hundred or more armed men and reducing a dozen or more in one area would tax the resources of any Medieval army (which was usually not more than a few thousand men in size).