Meet the Middle Ages
BackThe Peasants
During late Iron Age, the habitation of the Emå valley was concentrated to the areas which could be farmed. The other parts of this district were more or less uninhabited. During the early Middle Ages, people moved inland and new land was cleared. In the districts on the plains, where people had lived for a long time, there were villages. The people who had cleared new land in the woods lived on single farms. Place-names with –ryd ( cleared land), -hult ( meadow) and –måla (claimed territory) indicate such settlements.
The clearing of new land continued until the second half of the 14th century. In the summer of 1350, the plague struck Kalmar and by autumn it had reached the wood-lands of Handbörd. The first victims of the Black Death had fallen by Christmas. The effects of the plague were very severe, particularly so in areas with a small population. One effect of the plague was a decrease in farming during the latter part of the 14th and first part of the 15th century. The plague struck time and time again; in 1363-66, in 1393-99, in 1404-06 and in 1411-16. Because of this, farming did not recover until the end of the 15th century.
Many of the Handbörd farmers had their own property and paid taxes to the Crown. They were free-holders – "skattebönder". Others rented land from the gentry. The peasants who farmed this land were tenant farmers –" frälsebönder". They leased the farm from the nobleman and paid taxes to him. The lease would usually be renewed every six years. When the lease was up for renewal, an additional fee was often claimed. It might have been rather more troublesome to have been a tenant farmer than a free-holder. The church, the bishop and the convents were land-owners, too. Their tenant farmers were called church- bishop- or convent-farmers. The convents of Vadstena and Kalmar owned a great deal of land in Handbörd.