In towns the authority would go something like
The kingdom is generally a feudal society with freemen tending to congregate in the towns. Unlike 14th Century England their are additional factors to take into account in a fantasy setting namely magic.
The guilds are the organisations who look after the interests of the merchants. In smaller towns there will only be a single guild for all the professions whereas in the larger towns and cities there will be a guild for each profession and sometimes one for the masters and one for the journeymen. There are many guilds in towns which are devoted to the various professions such as wool merchants.
There are no special fighting guilds, however in some towns you may find informal bands of mercenaries with a tenuous contact system.
When the wizard has gained the ability to cast 7th level spells in any discipline they may attempt to enter the circle of mages.
Thieves are generally brought up in the back streets of the town living in the pseudo world of thief masters, guilds and a nocturnal lifestyle. Occasionally you do get the high living thieves using their station in society to gain access to the houses but these are very few and far between.
The fee to become a citizen would be from 3s (8 marks) to £5 (250 marks depending upon the wealth of the person and the town involved). The person would have to prove that they had a yearly income or build a house of at least 12' frontage and 1 acre. They would forfeit their citizenship if they left for more than a year and a day and would have to prove their residence by appearing at the court once or twice a year. If their house was dangerous it would be pulled down at their expense.
If they sold their land their neighbour would have the right to buy it up to a year and a day after it had been sold.
Towns would have radically different laws depending upon their current political experiment and wealth. They would forbid outside traders, forbid all strangers from entering, say only citizens could buy from travelling merchants, force merchants to sell their goods, set the price for any good, set the watch and taxes…
Each house would hold on average about 5 ½ people
Streets would generally start off cobbled or paved in towns but often degenerate to stones and thence to mud as the money ran out. Pot holes would abound and if the city was built on clay the potters would have no compunction in digging up the street to get the clay if they were short of money. People would live above their shops and be responsible for the cleanliness of the street in front of their shop. This generally meant sweeping the rubbish on to the next door neighbour who would then sweep it on. At the end of the street the last in line would sweep it into the next street. When streets were repaired they would lay another layer on top of the last one. Over time the centre of the street would rise by several feet and steps would be cut down to the houses. Unwary travellers would often fall down these steps.
The major streets would be about 8-10 feet wide, enough for one cart. This meant that all the carts followed the same track and created deep ruts. Carts with small wheel diameters would be unable to negotiate the streets as they would get stuck.
Other streets would be 3-4 feet wide.
Streets would have shelves sticking out from the shops narrowing the way and signs hanging from poles would connect with any unwary horseback rider. Shops of a particular type would be located next to each other and the guilds would control the prices. Thus you would often pay the same for a bad shoe as for a good one. If there were only one or two shops of a given type in a town there would not be a guild to control them. Generally shops would be about 8' wide with the owner living above the shop. The upper stories were built out over the lower ones to protect the goods from the weather.
Guilds were very strict about what a craftsman could produce. A shoemaker couldn't make gloves or mend shoes as this would be another persons work. Similarly one craftsman would skin the animals, another tan them and a third dye them.
A curfew would exist from 8pm in winter and 9pm in summer. People out after this time had to carry a torch to advertise their presence. Anyone caught carrying a dagger or sword would be jailed. However the nightwatch tended to be noisy and any undesirables would be incompetent if caught.
The nightwatch would consist of the general townsfolk drafted in at regular intervals. This would be decided differently in different towns but would be for example a set group of merchants or those who lived or were staying on a given street on a given night. This would of course be unpaid. The day watch would be a completely separate group of people.
Dogs were banned from the streets
Taverns - These places provided no food or lodgings, they supplied the opportunity only to drink (wine), gamble, sing and whore.
Alehouses provided only ale (a thick even chewy soup like substance made from barley).
Inns would be the only places to have lodgings and food (bread, vegetable soup, and water)
On a estate the lord could
The serving men usually consists of a number of knights with each knight accompanied by a number of men at arms and page boys. The weapons and armour necessary for each type of man will be proscribed. This would typically be mail, lance and 3 horses each.
The king can call on the days service whenever he likes for anything ranging from guard duty to oversees expeditions. All expenses except those of transport are carried by the serving men.
Barons are not allowed to build castles or other fortified residences without a specific charter from the king. No non-magical persons of any class are allowed to use magical defences of any kind to protect their property. Although the Baron generally sets the laws within his own lands the king would have absolute control within 12 miles of wherever he was camped regardless of the owner.
In reality the Kings request the assistance of the mages and thank them if they turn up.
The coinage of the d&d world is kept standard to avoid unnecessary complications. This does not mean though that all the coins will be the same everywhere. As in medieval Europe there were many currencies in existence simultaneously and the foreign coins were accepted by weight. This causes other problems like what happens when the monarchy debases the coinage, this too will be assumed to not happen.
Owing to the relatively small time period involved in a campaign (< 10 years) most factors affecting the currency can be safely ignored and assumed to be static. This does not preclude their use for special events but generally inflation, debasement, increase in number of pennies to a pound and change in relative values of gold and silver should not occur.
Coin |
Equivalent |
Modern Equivalent |
Size |
Thickness |
1lb weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copper penny | 10p |
1.2 cm |
2 mm |
100 |
|
| Silver schilling | 12 pennies | £1 |
1.5 cm |
2 mm |
100 |
| Gold mark | 10 schillings | £10 |
0.7 cm |
1 mm |
1,000 |
| Gold crown | 10 marks | £100 |
1.5 cm |
1 mm |
100 |
In order to make values of less than a penny the coins are cut in half or quarters. Quite how this works when coins were regularly clipped to extract silver is unknown. Clipping will be assumed to not noticeably affect the size of the coins.
Coins from other realms than a characters starting point will be assumed to be of the same value and freely exchangeable.
On this world gold is twice as dense as silver and worth 50 times as much by weight.Copper weighs the same as silver but is worth only a tenth of the value. For most of the time only copper and silver are used, though some gold coins are in circulation.
In general most workers were not paid an annual or monthly wage; instead farmers (most of the population) would be expected to provide their labour free to their lord for a given number of days each week (2-3) with additional at harvest as the lord required it. In return they would be given a hut and rights to use a portion of the village common land. This would be typically 30 acres or so. Most of their crops would be used to feed their families with a cut going to the church (10% tithe), possible some to their lord and any excess sold or bartered for other goods.
Comparing this to a current average wage of around £18,000 including overtime payments is awkward. The modern consumer has to rent a house and purchase all their own food as well as other items. Assuming the rates of taxation are comparable a modern consumer has £1500 per month to spend which after tax is about £1,000 per month.
For campaign use I am assuming that costs in schillings are equivalent to modern costs in pounds.
A farmer (at subsistence level) today would earn £10,000 but in Medieval times only £4. This is a factor of x2,500
If 1s (campaign)= £1 (now) a farmer's yearly wage of £4 (medieval) would be 10,000s (campaign). Costs are therefore x250 in gold marks (campaign) of cost in pounds (medieval). {This is near enough to 1d (medieval) = 1g (campaign)}
Note :
| Occupation | Equivalent | Equivalent level |
Daily cost (Marks) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 acre of crops | - | ||
| Shepherd / Ploughman | New Trainee | 1 | 2 |
| Farmer | Apprentice | 2 | 4 |
| Man at arms / Archer | 3 | 6 | |
| Parson | Journeyman | 4 | 10 |
| Mounted man at arms | 5 | 20 | |
| Knight | Craftsman | 6 | 40 |
| 7 | 60 | ||
| Baron | Master Craftsman | 8 | 100 |
| Sheriff | 9 | 150 | |
| Viscount | 10 | 200 | |
| Bishop | 15 | 2,000 | |
| Earl | 20 | 5,000 |
Table of daily wages (Campaign)
| Occupation | Income Campaign (Marks) | Income |
Other income | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 acre of crops | 250 | 1 | ||
| Shepherd / Ploughman | 500 | 2 | 5 acres | |
| Farmer | 1,000 | 4 | 20-50 acres | |
| Man at arms / Archer | 1,500 | 8 | Food & lodging on campaign + loot | Normally only 3 months campaign |
| Parson | 2,000 | 7 | 50 acres + tithe of 10% from village (2/3 to church) | |
| Mounted man at arms | 5,000 | 20 | Food & lodging on campaign + loot | Normally only 3 months campaign |
| Knight | 10,000 | 40 | Land at home | In charge of 20-50 troops |
| 15,000 | 60 | Land at home | In charge of 100-500 troops | |
| Baron | 25,000 | 100 | Land at home | In charge of 100-500 troops |
| Sheriff | 37,500 | 150 | Land | |
| Viscount | 50,000 | 200 | Land | |
| Bishop | 500,000 | 2,000+ | ||
| Earl | 1,250,000 | 5,000+ | Land |
Table of wages (Campaign and medieval)
| £ |
Marks Campaign |
|
|---|---|---|
| Wine (cask) | 3d-10d |
3-10 |
| Beer (quart) | 1d |
1 |
| Spices / lb | 2s |
25 |
| Book | 1 |
250 |
| Cart | 4s |
25 |
| Ruby ring | 25s |
300 |
| Diamond ring | 7 |
1,750 |
| Inn bed only (poor) | 1/5d |
2s |
| Inn + food (poor) | 1d |
10s |
| Inn + food (avg) | 15s |
|
| Inn + food (good) | 2d |
20s |
| Inn + horse (good) | 4d |
4 |
| food / day groom | 1d |
1 |
| food / day knight | 4d |
4 |
| Knife | 2d |
2 |
| Axe | 5d |
5 |
| Sword - cheap | 6-8d |
6-8 |
| Sword - good | 5-8s |
40-80 |
| Sword - best | 1 |
250 |
| Leather armour | 5s |
125 |
| Mail (full suit) | 4 |
1,000 |
| Plate | 20 |
5,000 |
| Breastplate | 4 |
1,000 |
| Lance Armour | 4 |
1,000 |
| Total Knights armour | 16 |
4,000 |
| Horse | 1-10 |
250-2,500 |
| War horse (best) | 100 |
25,000 |
| Town House | 5-10 |
1,250-2,500 |
| Luxury town house | 40-100 |
10,000-25,000 |
Costs (actual medieval & Campaign)
Death duties would amount to 250 marks for a knight up to 5000 for an earl. A knights robes for the knighting ceremony would cost between 400 and 1500 marks.
Towns would have taxes for non-residents, merchants would pay taxes to the king for the right to export or to the lord of the land to move goods between towns. In addition they often formed guilds for their mutual benefit with yearly fees.
Those carrying food would generally be citizens as only the burghers would be allowed to trade in the marketplace anyway.
Drawing a knife in public would incur a fine or 40 days in prison. Actually causing a wound with a sword or knife would incur a 60s (150 mark) fine or imprisonment for a year and a day or having the hand pierced with the weapon involved. A thief would have his ear nailed to a post and have to pay a shilling (2 ½ marks) fine.
Town charters would cost the town dearly, the annual cost would be £10 (5,000 marks) up to £100 (50,000 marks) for a city. In addition if the king or lord died the charter would have to be renewed at a cost of £20-£50 (Canterbury was £36)
Only people living within he town walls would actually pay taxes
Towns had to pay the players and troupes that came round giving performances whether they liked it or not.
Buildings are generally thatched.
Most disputes would be about land rights between lords and mayors or lords and lords. there would frequently be armies of hundreds on each side to prove a point armed with bill hooks…
Sports during off days would include Camp ball (with hands); kicking ball; wrestling; knocking maids off a stool and bowls