Life has got immeasurably better for the average man or woman over the last 700 years, thanks to inventions in technology, medicine, civil liberties and democracy, to name just a few developments.

But it seems that there is one area where the life of a medieval peasant can be envied - their holiday allowance.

The 16-day-a-year vacation of the average American worker is notoriously bad, but compared to the 25 weeks off enjoyed by a 13th century labourer, it is positively shocking.

The American worker took an average of 16.2 days of vacation in 2015

According to Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology at Boston College, before capitalism was invented in the 19th century people mainly worked very leisurely days.

In a paper titled The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, Schor said: 'A typical working day in the medieval period stretched from dawn to dusk work was intermittent - called to a halt for breakfast, lunch, the customary afternoon nap, and dinner.

'Depending on time and place, there were also mid-morning and mid-afternoon refreshment breaks.'

And while their working day was easier, according to Schor, they also had far less of them.

In the 13th century, English peasants enjoyed 150 days off a year

She said: 'The medieval calendar was filled with holidays - official [church] holidays included not only long "vacations" at Christmas, Easter and midsummer but also numerous saints' and rest days.

'In addition to official celebrations, there were often weeks' worth of ales - to mark important life events (bride ales or wake ales) as well as less momentous occasions (scot ale, lamb ale, and hock ale).

'All told, holiday leisure time in medieval England took up probably about one-third of the year.'

Professor Juliet Schor claims life was more leisurely pre-1800s capitalism

As well as these days off for religious and celebratory purposes, evidence has also shown that people used to take further days off as well.

In her essay, the professor revealed that records from 13th century England show many families only worked 150 days a year on their land and in the 14th century, even servants often only worked 175 days a year.