Social orders were a very bad thing, they caused problems and they were very unfair. Social orders are,” a concept used in sociology, history and other social sciences. It refers to a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce "normal" ways of relating and behaving.” (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_order) In the middle ages the social orders were terrible and it was very unfair to the people.
The social orders in the middle ages were unfair but also uncontrollable to the people. When you were born you were born into a specific class and you had no control over it. So you could be born into a peasant family and you would be a peasant for the rest of your life. If you were born into an upper class family you would always be in the upper class. In the middle ages there was also feudalism. Feudalism is “a social system based on a society in which peasant agriculture is the fundamental productive activity; in which slavery is non-existent or marginal but peasants are tied to the land in some way; and in which a small elite defined by military activity dominates.” (
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1i.html) Feudalism was unfair to the people and it made the people in the lower class angry.
In the feudal system there was the upper class and the lower class. The upper class had control over all the lower class. The upper class was more of the kings and nobles. The lower class were the peasants and the serfs. They were born into their class so no matter what they did they would never move up to the upper class. These social orders were discriminating because it was not fair to the lower class people. The lower class was much bigger than the upper class. The peasants were about ninety percent of the population of the middle ages. The peasants weren’t slaves but they were pretty much treated like that. They could even be sold. They would also be punished terribly of they did something wrong. It was terrible to be born into a lower class family. (
http://library.thinkquest.org/10949/fief/hifeudal.html)
There were three orders in medieval society. These three orders were those who work, those who fight, and those who pray. Those who work were the serfs, peasants, and slaves. They would work on their lord’s land. They didn’t travel much farther than the estate that their lord lived on. Most serfs were not free but eventually when the economy was changing more and more serfs started to become free, but a lot of them were still not free. Those who fight were the medieval nobility. They had to protect the weak and poor. They also had to conduct chivalry. The members of nobility were free but they still had some limitations. They had military obligation to their lord. Those who pray were the clergy. They were at the top of the medieval society. The village priest had to administer the sacraments. There were also many monks. These social orders were a bad thing because it was extremely unfair to the people who worked because they would do a lot of work and not have as much money as the people who fight who did not have to work but still had more money. (
http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture23b.html)
Overall social orders were a bad thing which also led to the peasant revolt. It was very unfair to the lower people because they probably worked harder than the upper class people but they got much less in return. All of the different parts of social orders were bad in the middle ages.
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