When people go and see a movie dealing with a high school or a college what is one of the first things that people notice? They will notice cliques between people. The different type of cliques will usually lay down a format of who the different characters are in the social standards of the school. There could be a group of athletes in one corner, a group of musicians in another corner, and a group of brainiacs at a table. They know there place in that high school by what they do around the school. The same can be said about people in the Middle Ages. The “cliques” as stated before were just as easy to point out. The Middle Ages were subdivided into three major classes: those who fought, who prayed, and who worked. They first major class of the Middle Ages was those who fought. These men were usually the ones with the most money that included the King, the Dukes, the Earls, the Barons, the Knights and the Esquires (Mortimer 40). The reason that most of the people that fought were also wealthy was because they would have to be wealthy to be able to afford all of the equipment used in fighting (Lecture). The most important fighter was the King. The title of those who fought was a little misleading for the king because he usually did not do most of the fight he was just a person that could pay for military expeditions. The next social tier was the three ranks of lords: the dukes, earls, and barons. These were men who had to fight directly for the king for at least forty days each year at their own expense. The Lordly status was a correlation with their income. Their income came from their estates that would brings in at least £1000. The third social class dealing with those who fought were the knights, esquires, and gentlemen. The knights were usually lords that would work indirectly from the king which meant that they did not have the baronial title like the lords above did, they were just lords over their own manorial tenants (Mortimer 41). The biggest difference was there income and the number of knights compared to the other lords. The knights would usually at least get around £40. There were also around eleven hundred men that were knights, but they were dubbed a knight by the king. If you were not dubbed by the king then you would be called an esquire. The gentlemen or local gentry were also fights that made up the biggest group of those who fight with an annual income between £5 and £40. The hierarchy of the lords was similar to that of those who pray. There are spiritual noblemen: archbishops, bishops, and the abbots in the top class while the subordinate level clergyman: archdeacons, deans, canons, and the lesser clergy were on the bottom of those who prayed. The two most important people at the time were the archbishops of Canterbury and the archbishops of York (Mortimer 43). They both resided over their own bishops in their province. Every bishop in turn resided over its own diocese. The next class of spiritual noble men were the abbots who were like monks in a way that would deal with monastic business outside of their Order. They would be invited to meetings of Parliament so that they could acquire things like manuscripts for their monastic library or just to exchange news about the daily life of many people. The next class of people was the most abundant class including hundreds of chaplains, priests, friars, and nuns. When comparing the people who fought with the people who prayed we can see that both are very similar in the wealth that they acquire and the number of people that are involved in their social group. The last of the three ranks of people were the peasants which for most people seem pretty one dimensional with no type of hierarchy in the social classes of people who work. In the Middle Ages the people who work would not know each other as peasants more of countrymen. The single biggest division between peasants was which people had true freedom. The people who had freedom were the countrymen while peasants that were known as villeins did not have the freedom to make the choices of where they worked. The standard expectations for peasants was a three days a week work week of manual labor. The tasks of the day would include plowing and harrowing a certain acreage of land as well as collecting firewood and picking up nuts that could be found in the woods. The peasants were not paid money for their services, but was given land by their owners that they could make a living off of. They would usually have to pay rent for that land as well as give a little bit of their earnings from the land to their owners. Not only did the lords have control over their peasant’s livelihood, but they also had control over their life. Many times the lord was the law over their manor which means they were the judgement in life or death situation so it was all up to the lord whether or not his peasant would live. The Middle Ages included people who were in three different social ranks: those who fought, those who prayed, and those who worked. These social classes put you into the place that they belong during their life. Whether they were born into it or had the money to luckily find themselves in a certain class it was ultimately the factor that made the person who he or she was going to be just like characters in a high school. The cliques were made to put people into their own friend group for their next four years of school. These natural classes work their way into the lives of people to force them in the way that they needed to go. Luckily it was only about what friends they had not there who livelihood like the people in the Middle Ages.