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Life in Renaissance Scotland may have been short, nasty and brutish for the majority of the population, but there were degrees of deprivation. Indeed, compared to the hundred years after 1550, things were, economically speaking, much better for the ordinary Scot. That can be put down to a number of reasons:
Population:
The population had fallen to around 700,000 in 1500, which meant there was less pressure on resources.
Famines:
Famines were rare compared to the second half of the 16th century.
Living standards:
The living standards were higher.
The economy was one of subsistence – people generally laboured to supply their own needs, some of which was used to pay rent to landowners. Indeed, the land conferred status and influence on the holder, but the nobility had no way of marketing and profiting from the sale of the produce of the land. The way to increase one’s cash balance was to find a post within the government or procure a pension, preferably from England or France. Thus, the market had little place in providing greater income for the nobility, far less the necessities for the bulk of the population. What trade there was in luxury goods was for the aristocracy, all of which was irrelevant to the peasantry.
The diet of the common people consisted of oatmeal, meat (mutton and beef), dairy products and a little fish. As the 16th century wore on, the poorer Scots in rural areas were forced, because of rising prices, on to an oatmeal diet, while in the towns it was bread and ale. However, they weren’t on the brink of starvation. There was periodic feasting associated with harvests, weddings and funerals.
Social life
The social structure in late medieval Scotland was hierarchical. Everyone knew their place and, more importantly, how to keep it. Here’s what the hierarchy looked like, from top to bottom:
King or monarch:
He was at the top of the pyramid.
Dukes and earls:
Immediately below the king or monarch was a small number of dukes (usually descended from very close relatives of the king) and earls. They formed the senior nobility.
Barons and lords of Parliament:
Below the senior nobility came the barons, and, from the 1440s, fulfilling the same role, the lords of Parliament, the lowest level of the nobility (but given the right to attend the meeting of the
Estates
(all the ranks listed above who comprised the Scottish Parliament). They amounted to about 50 or 60.
Lairds:
Below the nobility were the lairds, roughly equivalent to English gentlemen. Most were in some sense in the service of the senior nobility, either in terms of land or military obligations. Although serfdom had died out in Scotland in the 14th century, through a system of justice these lesser nobles still exercised a great deal of control over their tenants through their right to try them in what were called
barony courts.
Peasants:
At the bottom of landed society came the peasantry, who made up about 80 per cent of Scottish society. They had no rights and could be evicted at short notice. They also, unlike in England, had no access to common land or free pasture.
In the towns, the wealthier merchants were the ones who held local office as burgesses, bailies or members of the town council. But don’t run away with the idea that they were the Richard Bransons of their day. Most merchants lived with their families in one room, usually above their shops or business premises. They owned few material possessions – perhaps a towel, a tablecloth, a basin, at least one cup, a bed for sleeping in and a bench to sit on. The very wealthiest – the burgesses – might have a feather bed with sheets. They were hardly wealthy in the way we recognise the urban elite today, but they were represented in the Scottish Parliament as the Third Estate. Below them were the craftsmen and workers who made up the majority of the urban population.
Scotland was barely urbanised in this period. In 1550, only 2.5 per cent of Scots lived in towns of more than 2,500, one of the lowest rates in Europe. The towns or burghs themselves were small, usually consisting of one street, the High Street, with lanes or
wynds
off it. Glasgow had a population of between 2,500 and 3,000 in 1500, compared to Edinburgh’s 10,000. The royal burghs had the right to monopolise foreign trade and to send a representative to the Scottish Parliament. However, like the smaller burghs, of which there were many, their main function was to act as markets for locals and those from farther afield to sell their produce. As early as 1500, the town council of Edinburgh complained of the ‘greitt confluence of simpill peipill’(great gathering of common people), who thronged daily through the burgh’s 14 markets from as far away as Perth or Dumfries.
The city, through its port in Leith, also was the main centre of the export trade in Scotland, which mainly consisted of primary products such as coarse wool, animal skins and hides, and fish. In fact, a staggering number of animals entered along Edinburgh’s Cowgate to be slaughtered and their skins exported. In 1499,the burgh exported 44,325 sheepskins, 28,740 skins of other animals and 24,347 hides. It may have brought in some much needed foreign cash, but did that compensate for the stench? No wonder that when installed as regent Mary of Guise vacated the Cowgate for other less smelly parts of the city, as did Cardinal Beaton!
Although women played a subservient role to their fathers, husbands and sons, in the burghs they enjoyed certain rights and privileges. The wives and widows of burgesses controlled the brewing trade and 288 female brewers were recorded as active in 1530. Moreover, one in five households was made up of single women. Domestic service was the main occupation for women with three out of four working in this part of the economy. Nearly all worked only for board and lodgings but then so did most men.
For those women who survived childbirth (and at least one-third did not), they could generally expect to live longer than men. Because of this, a woman having three or four husbands in her lifetime was not exceptional. Plus, females were allowed to marry from the age of 12; for boys, the minimum marriage age was 14, but in the 16th century this increased to their 20s. On marriage, women kept their own surnames, but there were barriers to marrying a member of one’s kin group. For noble families, a papal dispensation was required for a marriage to take place. Divorce was unheard of, but in cases of adultery there existed the practice of ‘separation from bed and board’.
In late medieval Scotland, life was short, and when death occurred, all the windows and doors were opened immediately, to let the spirit escape. The clock was stopped and not started again until the burial was over. Unlike today, everything was draped in white (black in the great houses) and a wake was held, known as the Lykewake, lasting for two or three nights. During that time, respect was paid to the dead, but it was also an occasion for eating and drinking and even dancing. It was important to have a good send-off, but funeral expenses could impoverish a family. Thus, for the poor, there were coffins, known as
biers,
which had a hinge that allowed the body to be dropped into a grave, allowing the coffins to be reused.