Slavery in Medieval Europe

[fodder]

i was reading some fiction on william de hauteville. i think it says saracens captured in the Sicily were hauled off as slaves for the Byzantium empire

mind you... it was saying the Byzantine general trying to put down the lombard revolt went around massacring and razing towns to encourage others to surrender.

[MaleMaldives]

I forgot the name of it exactly may have been indentured servants(but I think that is more towards people colonize America), but wasn't there a slave like system in medieval times that was similar to India's class system? I think it only applied to farmers though where if your parents were farmers then you were forced to by law to also be one. No one owned you, you earned money, and you could do whatever you want so long as you also farmed.

[vonGenf]

I forgot the name of it exactly may have been indentured servants(but I think that is more towards people colonize America), but wasn't there a slave like system in medieval times that was similar to India's class system? I think it only applied to farmers though where if your parents were farmers then you were forced to by law to also be one. No one owned you, you earned money, and you could do whatever you want so long as you also farmed.

You're thinking of serfdom, which is quite different than slavery and also the indian caste system.

[MaleMaldives]

You're thinking of serfdom, which is quite different than slavery and also the indian caste system.

O right serfdom, can't believe forgot that name after all that civ playing. Well yeah it is different, but there are clear connections. You are born into your caste and you are born into serfdom. If you fled serfdom you were hunted down, just like if you fled slavery.

[vonGenf]

Yes, but serfdom meant, in a nutshell, that you couldn't change your job and you couldn't move to the next door village. You could still have your own house and family, and you were free most hours of the day. Slavery, on the other hand, meant that you had no personal possessions and no control over your own time, you were under orders 24hrs a day.

[Haerthorne]

mind you... it was saying the Byzantine general trying to put down the lombard revolt went around massacring and razing towns to encourage others to surrender.

That happened way more than you'd like to think.

[fodder]

oh no doubt. happens everywhere in the world.

i'm thinking italy at the period would serve a rather interesting basis for titles and hierarchy. there's no such thing as realm really, there weren't even kings (though many wanted to be one).

according to the novel, anyone can call themselves this that or other title.. but only 3 people can officially bestow/confirm it. pope, western emperor (holy roman), eastern emperor (byzantine).. and the norman dude and his brothers (principle characters of the book) were all basically mercenaries who then carve out their own bit of land.

[Haerthorne]

They did, in history, ally with the Pope against the Holy Roman Emperor. That legitimised their ownership of the land.

[Chenier]

The catholic church shunned the slavery of christians by christians. Or at least catholics by catholics, or something to that effect. I seem to remember reading that there was still slavery of/amongst the norse and slavic people during that time period, but I'm not all too sure about that, and to what extent it happened.

Slavery could indeed bring an interesting dimension to the game, though.

[Tom]

There is no slavery in BattleMaster because it really doesn't matter what exactly the peasants are. We don't deal with that kind of low-level details in the game. If you like, you can for flavor call a quarter of your population "slaves". The game mechanics for slaves and peasants are really identical, on the level BM simulates the world.

[Chenier]

There is no slavery in BattleMaster because it really doesn't matter what exactly the peasants are. We don't deal with that kind of low-level details in the game. If you like, you can for flavor call a quarter of your population "slaves". The game mechanics for slaves and peasants are really identical, on the level BM simulates the world.

That works too, I guess. Does give RP venues I hadn't considered.