The Middle Ages1066- 1485 Begins with William of Normandy

(France) who conquered England He granted land to lords. Lords

granted land to knights. This created hierarchies and a rigid

class structure

British Class Structure in the Middle Ages

Ruling class

Clergy Class

Middle Class

Trade Class

Peasant Class

Chivalry Knight is the symbol of chivalry Well-born boys left home at age 7 to

train Page –> squire -> knight Learned manners, courtesy,

horsemanship, and use of sword, shield, and lance

Society All classes came together in church Afterlife emphasized over worldly

life Education was handled by the

church Church was tied to politics (the king)

National Government Two families ruled England for over

4 centuries – the Normans (William) and the Plantagenets (Henry II)

Three important events: Judicial reform Magna Carta Parliament

Geoffrey Chaucer 1343 - 1400 “The Father of English Poetry” Wrote in vernacular Vernacular = common everyday

language – the emerging standard English

Everyone else was writing in Latin and French

Traveled to Italy Read Boccaccio’s Decameron and

was greatly influenced Came home and modeled The

Canterbury Tales after it

The Canterbury Tales Is Chaucer’s greatest work because

1. His language (vernacular) 2. It left a concise portrait of an entire

nation – young, old, high, low, male, female, lay, clerical, learned, ignorant, rogue, righteous

The Canterbury Tales Chaucer uses iambic pentameter

U/ five beats (iambs)per line (10 syllables total)

Ex. It happened in that season that one day

Heroic Couplet = rhymed couplet in iambic pentameter

The Canterbury Tales Premise = stories told on a

pilgrimage from London to the shrine of Thomas a Becket at Canterbury Cathedral (70 miles)

The group begins at the Tabard Inn 30 pilgrims embark together

The Canterbury Tales Host of the Inn suggests that they

exchange tales on the way (2 each) and on the way home (another 2)

30 pilgrims x 4 tales each = 120 tales

Chaucer died before completing the tales