This far into the Middle Ages, we
have looked at horses and how they have affected warfare and their uses for
knights. But what about their other uses? Horses were significant and played a
major role in the development and expansion of the agricultural revolution in the
11th and 12th centuries. Rather than just being used for show and war, these horses were used to till fields. This was possible due to improved technology; the most important development that
allowed for the use of horses on a more wide scale aspect was the tandem
harness. Pictured below, the harness moved the collar from around the neck of
the horse to the breast to increase the force the horse was able to put out without choking.
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| Tandem Harness |
Not only
was the horse important for its power, but also important for its waste. As Bennett in Medieval Europe: A
Short History outlines, fertilizers were hard if not impossible to come by.
Technology did not exist for the average individual to create their own ratios
to replenish the nutrients that the crop had taken from the soil, so they
needed to use naturally occurring ones. The best one available to them was the
uses of manure for the nutrients. Despite this benefit though, manure was not readily
available because not every household had a horse. Because of this, there was even a
case being fought over rights to manure (Bennett 140). Horses were more
important in the Middle Ages than just being used as an accouterment of
knights.
Sources:
Bennett, Judith. Medieval Europe: A Short History. 11th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2011. Print.
Very interesting. I never really did pay attention to the collar. Nor would I have guessed that it actually increased the horse's performance. I guess you learn something everyday. Good blog!
ReplyDeleteChristina,
ReplyDeleteYou mention that the harnesses horses were adorned with were moved to their torso in order to increase the weight they could pull without choking or causes damage to them. You further go on to mention that their waste could be used in order to fertilizer the ground and promote agriculture.
You make the point that technology didn't exist for the average medieval citizen to replenish the nutrients depleted from the ground after specific harvests, but I'm not entirely sure I agree with that. Crop rotation is a practice that's been in use since 6000 B.C. by Middle Eastern and Asian farmers. Charlemagne himself advocated a shift to three-field crop rotation which allowed increased productivity and the replenishing of nutrients in the soil. I wouldn't go as far as to say it was impossible for a farmer to replenish the nutrients used, nor would I say that a horse was required to do so. Simply rotating the areas of fields or acreage that one owns would naturally replenish these, and the planting of certain crops such as beans and other legumes often naturally fertilized the land due to the amount of carbon released in their cultivation.
Thanks for a great post! You promoted quite a bit of thought through it!
Graham