What was life like in medieval cities?
IIN THEIR BACKGROUNDS AND ABILITIES, townspeople represented diversity and change. Their occupations and their preoccupations were different from those of nobles and peasants. Cities were crowded and polluted, though people flocked into them because they offered the possibility of economic advancement, social mobility, and improvement in legal status. Some urban residents grew spectacularly rich, but the numbers of poor swelled as well.
Young Men Playing StickballWith their tunics hitched up in their belts so that they could move around more easily, young men play a game involving hitting a ball with a stick. Games involving bats and balls were popular because the equipment needed was made from simple, inexpensive materials. (The Granger Collection, NYC.)