There is a wealth of evidence indicating that many Medieval Peasants could in fact read and in this video I present some of that evidence to you.
Sources:
Studying Medieval Urban Literacy, A Provisional State of Affairs. 2013:
https://medievalliteracy.wp.hum.uu.nl/wp-content/uploads/sites/34/2013/01/Medieval-Urban-Literacy.pdf
Literacy, reading, and writing in the medieval West:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130412183631/http://www.heuristiek.ugent.be/sites/default/files/historiographical%20essay.pdf
Birchbark letters:
https://www.medievalists.net/2018/08/medieval-daily-life-birchbark/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_bark_letter_no._292
Middle English literature:
https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_ME_Writings.htm
A decent summery article:
http://medievalcolloquium.sewanee.edu/ask-a-medievalist/aam-columns/literacy.php
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