• Forests and Agricultural Expansion: Between the 5th and 10th centuries in Europe, extensive forests covered much of the land, limiting the available agricultural space. 
• Peasant Flight to Forest: Peasants dissatisfied with their conditions could escape oppression by seeking refuge in these forests. 
• Cold Climate: Moreover, Europe experienced a period of intensely cold climate during this time, resulting in severe and extended winters, a shortened crop-growing season, and reduced agricultural yields.
• Warming Trends and Agricultural Transformation: However, from the 11th century onward, Europe entered a warmer phase with rising average temperatures, which had a significant impact on agriculture. 
  • Peasants now enjoyed a longer growing season, and the soil, less prone to frost, became easier to cultivate. 
• Environmental Shifts: Environmental historians have also observed a notable retreat of the forest line in many parts of Europe during this period, allowing for the expansion of cultivated areas. 
  • These environmental changes played a crucial role in shaping agriculture and society during the medieval period.

• Tools and Techniques: In the early medieval period, agricultural technology was primitive, with wooden ploughs drawn by oxen being the primary mechanical aid available to peasants. 
  • This rudimentary plough could only scratch the surface of the earth, making agriculture labor-intensive. 
  • Fields had to be dug by hand, and crop rotation methods were inefficient. 
• The Two-Field System: Land was divided into two halves, one for winter wheat and the other left fallow, leading to soil degradation and frequent famines, causing chronic malnutrition and hardship for the poor.
• Pressures on Peasants: Despite these challenges, lords sought to maximize their incomes by pushing peasants to cultivate all the land on the manorial estate and perform more labor than legally required. 
• Peasant Resistance: In response to this oppression, peasants engaged in passive resistance by dedicating more time to cultivating their own fields, retaining more of their produce, and avoiding unpaid extra services. 
• Commons Conflict: They also clashed with the lords over pasture and forest lands, viewing them as communal resources, while the lords considered them private property.

• Technological Advancements in Agriculture: The primitive wooden ploughs were replaced by heavy iron-tipped ploughs with mould-boards, allowing for deeper and more efficient ploughing. 
  • Shoulder-harnesses for animals and iron horseshoes improved their efficiency in pulling ploughs.
• Harnessing Wind and Water Energy: Wind and water energy were increasingly harnessed through mills for various agricultural purposes.
• The Agricultural Revolution: A revolutionary change in land use was the shift from a two-field to a three-field system. This system allowed peasants to rotate crops between fields, resulting in increased food production and availability. 
• Increased Efficiency of Agriculture: Peasants’ farms became smaller and more efficiently cultivated, reducing the required labor and providing them with more free time for other activities.
• Peasant-Led Technological Innovations: While some technological changes were initiated by lords due to the high costs involved, peasants took the initiative in areas such as extending arable land, adopting the three-field crop rotation, and setting up small forges and smithies for making and repairing iron-tipped ploughs and horseshoes.
• Emergence of Monetary Economy: The use of money became more prevalent in economic transactions, weakening the personal bonds of feudalism. 
  • Lords began asking for cash rent instead of services, and cultivators sold their crops for money to traders. 
• Monetary Influence on Prices: This monetary influence started to impact prices, leading to higher prices during poor harvest years.

• ‘Because of the inadequacy which we often felt on feast days, for the narrowness of the place forced the women to run towards the altar upon the heads of the men with much anguish and noisy confusion, [we decided] to enlarge and amplify the noble church…
• We also caused to be painted, by the exquisite hands of many masters from different regions, a splendid variety of new windows…
• Because these windows are very valuable on account of their wonderful execution and the profuse expenditure of painted glass and sapphire glass, we appointed an official master craftsman for their protection, and also a goldsmith…who would receive their allowances, namely, coins from the altar and flour from the common storehouse of the brethren, and who would never neglect their duty, to look after these [works of art].’

– Abbot Suger (1081-1151) about the Abbey of St Denis, near Paris.