There was a good deal of variation, of course, within each of the three segments of society. The classification of clergy included everything from bishops and abbots whose lifestyles resembled those of wealthy barons, to the poorest monk who had renounced all worldly things.

The peasant class, at one extreme, consisted of wretched serfs who owned nothing, not even themselves; at the other extreme were prosperous, free yeomen farmers who owned sizable estates. The ranks of the nobility had to make room for all degrees, too, as Barbara W. Tuchman notes:

Not all nobles were grands seigneurs .... They ranged from the great dukedoms with revenues of more than 10,000 livres [pounds], down through the lord of a minor castle with one or two knights as vassals and an income under 500 livres, to the poor knight at the bottom of...