Let' Fight for Equality for Peasants! By: Penelope II
The daily life of a group of peasants.
ENGLAND- A simple, peasant man is in his tiny hut in the winter. He is sleeping on straw and without a pillow. He rests his head on a log and brings all of his cattle into his one to two room hut for warmth in the cold air. He is cold and his back hurts from the cool, hard earth floors. He does not have glass windows, but some simple wooden shutters. This is the daily struggle for a peasant.
Peasants have short lives, which is due to poor living circumstances. This is aggravating. They are people just like any baron or lord, so they deserve to live better.
Peasants are considered the lowest class of people. They are looked down upon and considered inferior.They live a simple and tough life. They work constantly for the land of a lord and sometimes aren’t given much for what they do. They serve the lord and that is what they believe is what they must do. Peasants in a way “were beholden to the lord of the manor” and are unable to own much land.
The lowest rank of peasants would be serfs. They constantly are fighting for survival. They struggle everyday. They even face starvation everyday. They have to provide food by themselves, and that is a constant struggle for them. Peasants have a high risk of death every winter. Winter is their worst enemy because of their lack of good living conditions and clothing.
Some wealthy folk may say, “Aside from all this, some lord’s are kind to their peasant workers and celebrate with them. Peasants still have celebrations just like any other wealthy person which shows some sort of equality. Although peasants have a tough life, they still can have their happiness.” Just imagine how much more happy a peasant would be with better living conditions and rights.
Many peasants live a quite normal life with some struggle, but there are many peasants who struggle on a daily basis. If peasants aren’t given the rights that they need, their conditions could get even worse. Many peasants who aren’t struggling as much, might just struggle just as much as a poorer peasant. The rights of peasants can completely go away in all if they are continually treated as inferior.
With that being said, fight for your local peasants and lead them a hand in their hard working day. Help them out in any way you can. If you are struggling, fight for yourself and your family. Everyone must work together to create a better society for everyone. Take a stand and be an upstander, not a bystander.
Should Shields be Checked? By: Lady Primeveire
A broken shield;
not ideal for battle
England- A knight strides on his noble horse into battle with another rival knight. The rival knight has an amazing shield, no different than all the other ones in his kingdom. After a battle of no more than a few minutes the first knight crumples to the ground. His shield! The strap has been broken, the front dented, and the metal ripped to shreds, and the knight is seriously injured. The other knight goes home, leaving his kingdom with a good, nay, a better name. Shields are a main necessity to any knight. The wrong shield can cost a noble knight his life. This is why the royal shield makers should test every single shield made, to not only protect our knights but also ourselves and our royal family.
For centuries, men have died because of faulty shields. According to the royal coroner, 14 men have died in the past 6 moons, due to causes that could have been prevented with a better shield to protect them. In Fact, a knight lived and won a battle with a tested shield that the Daily Knight provided him with. That specific shield had been tested and improved by an ordinary blacksmith. The same losing knight of that battle had also battled someone without a tested shield and the former losing knight won! This experiment, as the “scientific field” is calling it, proves that a tested and improved shield will help a knight in combat to win.
Even though testing all these shields can take a while and might use up some resources those resources will not be wasted. Not only will these fully tested shields help protect our knights, they will also give our knights the upper advantage in combat. The shields will allow our brave men to use them as bludgeoning weapons! And maybe these shields aren't always needed, but with combats, not only one on one, becoming more intense and ruthless better shields are a necessity. We simply can not stand for these trashy shields to protect our young sons, husbands, and nobles any longer. Even Mr. Whitey, one of the most famous blacksmiths of our time, as well as 9 out of 10 blacksmiths agree these old and unsafe shields need to go. Also some may say testing and improving the shields will mask the true bravery, strength and chivalry of the knight. But is it worth it to see who is truly strongest, when it is treason to suggest we aren't the best, than to let our own die, without the proper shield.
If shields aren't improved more men will die. The economy will fall apart and we will have less men to defend our castle, we will be more prone to attack and defeat by another kingdom! During toes attacks thousands could die, including the royals! Then, one kingdom might even discover the fact that testing shields is best thing their castle could do, and go off and defeat all the other kingdoms. Their would be complete mayhem in Europe. If you don’t want this “end of the world” situation to happen, support and start testing shields and only use shields that have been tested. Don’t let Europe fall into another dark ages over ten minutes of work to test a shield.
It’s time to start testing out shields! You, the people of this Kingdom, have a responsibility, not only to yourself but to your lords, nobles, knights, and royal family to change the level of safety provided to our knights and allow yourself to be better protected with a safer made shield. If more people supported the testing and improvement process of making shields our kingdom would be better off. We must ask the royal family to provide the testing resources to test these shields. We must also begin to test and improve the shields that are used in important battles. We can save lives with these improvements to these wonderful, protective and important combat devices.
Independent Women? By: Ellen Hardcastle
Peasant girl forced into marriage
When I was a young girl, I was considered lucky. Coming from a poor peasant household, I was chosen out of all of my peers to be the maidservant for the lord’s daughter. Lady Elizabeth, the lady of the house at the time, saw potential in me and thus decided that I must be educated. I grew wise and I was wise enough to rise in the rankings and become an advisor of the Lord of Hardcastle.
Sadly, not all women live in such luxury as I do. From day one, girls are expected to bow down to the mercy of a man, be it her father, brother, uncle, or grandfather. We are put in restricting skirts, told to stay quiet, and our only purpose in life is to bare babies and tend to a home.
Almost all peasant girls are married around age 7 to 12 to a much older man of 24 or older years of age. If a girl tries to refuse the biddings of her male superior, she is beat into submission. Way too many times I have seen young girls walking around with bruises and cuts.
“Where’d you get these?” I would ask. She would begin to open her mouth but just like a king’s hawk, her father or husband would swoop in and tell me to bugger off. But what’s the reason why girls are being pushed down to such a lowly status?
Education. They have no education. The only thing they learn is the ways of a household. And if they are born into nobility such as my lady, Lady Isabelle, they are still taught how to run a household but on a scale where they learn how to boss around servants. They are still expected to marry at a young age and to bear an heir.
They aren’t taught the philosophy of thinking for themselves. Once you give a person an education, that gives them the freedom to think freely. Give a girl an education and we can go far. That filthy plague we just had? It could have been swept out faster if we educated women. More great minds together solve a problem faster!
Now, you might be saying, “But Ellen! The Church says that it is a sin for a woman to fill a man’s role!” That may be, but women are not necessarily filling the roles of a man. I am not saying that women have to armor up and run into battle. Women already do so much for our society. As stated before, we give birth to your children and we tend to the household. It is only fair that we should be allowed to speak freely and decide who we want to marry.
Now, if this doesn’t happen, take some time to imagine your mother. Yes, your mother. Now you might be wondering why must you be picturing your mother. Presumably, you love your mother. Now imagine her as a young girl.
Your mother used to have dreams of her own. But all the sudden, it’s just taken away from her grasp. And if she tries to get it back, you have to smack her across the face. If she keeps trying, you keep hitting her, no matter if she’s all red and bloody. This is absolutely barbaric! Who would do such a thing?’ you might be thinking. But believe it or not, this is what happened to her. And this is what is happening to girls all over Europe right as you read this.
For as long as we can remember, this unjust crime has been occurring all over Europe. We are civilized folk, why don’t we start acting civilized today by giving a woman a stand in what she wants in life? So put down that whipping belt and take a stand in women’s rights.
LETTERS TO THE EDITORS
Dear Lady Penelope II,
I’d like to start off with saying you are completely wrong in every way. Peasants are peasants. They are the lowest of the low. What more rights do they need? They can eat, drink, and work right? Isn’t that all someone needs? Peasants are basically as low as the dirt that we are standing on at this moment. Peasants aren’t dying of starvation are they? Why do you even care about peasants in the first place? The only important people in this world are the rich and powerful. Everything should go to the kings and the most wealthy. Everyone else in the world doesn’t matter. The king controls everything and he hasn’t said anything about the rights of the peasants so I don’t even know why you are trying to turn on our king. Are you a traitor? A spy? Maybe you should be reported to the king directly. I am a man who puts all his faith in the king and I trust him with my life. Maybe you should too. Hey, I’m just looking out for you. All the king wants to do is look out for us and he really does want to make sure he does whatever he can to make all of our lives easier. Maybe you should treat him with a little more respect. Nice job just putting your life on the line. Good luck with trying to convince the king to give peasants more rights. Not.
Edward Rude IV _________________________ Dear Ellen Hardcastle,
I completely feel that same way as you do. We are all human beings which means we are all equal, so why aren’t we treated that way? You are a brave woman to speak about such things. I respect you more and more whenever I read your articles. You are brilliant and state such amazing points. I was married to a man of 23 years when I was just of 6. All I do is cook, clean, and have babies. What kind of life is this? I don’t want this for myself. I want to be successful and wealthy and to be married to someone that I love. I want to live a better life where I am happy and loved. That’s all I want! I want to be loved. It’s not much to ask for. I’m so excited to see that someone has the same views as me. I really hope that you can make a difference in this world. I sadly cannot stand up and change the world, because I want to protect myself. This is why I am anonymous... You inspire me!!! I hope that you accomplish all of your goals in life.
Your number one fan, Anonymous
Coursers Over Pigeons! By: Lady Adela
Two distracted carrier pigeons
ENGLAND - A carrier pigeon was sent to King Fergus’ castle. Unfortunately, the pigeon was distracted by a walnut, and never made it over the moat. Pigeons can easily be distracted by food, prey, predators, and other pigeons. Horse messengers are a better choice for delivering messages.
Coursers are bred for speed. They are the fastest horses, which is why they are chosen as messenger horses. Although they are not trained as well as Destriers, the most expensive and desirable horses, or Jennets, knights and ladies horses, they are trained better than Rouncy, or peasants, horses. Their price reflects this. They are almost as cheap as Rouncy’s.
A Courser and messenger quickly deliver a message.
Carrier pigeons are significantly cheaper than Coursers and messengers, however they are not as reliable as Coursers. Carriers pigeons can only fly home. This means they cannot deliver to multiple places. A messenger can deliver anywhere. Coursers are more reliable and can deliver anywhere.
If carrier pigeons are continually used, less people will receive messages. No one will know what is happening. Peasants will not receive news from the king, and king’s will not receive news of battles. This will hurt a king’s chances of winning tournaments and collecting taxes, which will directly lead to the downfall of a kingdom.
Lords, knights, ladies, kings, and even peasants need to support Coursers and messengers. Carrier pigeons must all be killed for food, and no longer used as carrier pigeons. Lords should invest in messengers before the price raises to the expected 45 shillings.
All nobles in need of a messenger or Courser should report to the meeting house outside of King Fergus’ outer curtain wall on March 29 at high noon.
Carrier Pigeons Vs. Messengers By: Lady Celestia
A carrier pigeon delivering a message.
Winserberry- Winserberry 1174, a terrible war was about to break out between two lands. The king of Winserberry had a very important new tactic that he wanted to try out for this battle that he thought would lead them to the win. He sent out a carrier pigeon to deliver the message to his army. His army received it, and as expected, won the battle, and more territory.
Carrier pigeons have been a huge part of our society. They are known as a simple way to quickly receive messages . A carrier pigeon is a brid, primarily a pigeon, with a note or message tied to. The message is to be delivered quickly to a destination with a purpose with getting a goal reached. Carrier pigeons are used for delivering messages about low supplies, messages to the battlefield, and messages requesting more food.
The other option to get a message delivered is by a messenger. The messenger is usually a man riding on horseback with a scroll to be delivered to a destination. The only difference is that the horses become worn out and tired. These horses work hard and long everyday. It is unfair to them since they eventually become in pain.
However, the pigeons are used to flying naturally and don't need as much rest and care as horses used by messengers. The pigeons are genuinely a better way to deliver messages than messengers on horseback.