The Middle Ages

1066-1485

Questions about the Middle

AgesWhat was life like in the Middle Ages?

Why was the church important?

How did the Black Plague kill so many people?

FEUDALISM

1) A political, economic, and social system

based on loyalty and military service.

2) In other words, the king awarded land grants or "fiefs" to his

most important nobles, his barons, and his bishops, in return for

their contribution of soldiers for the king's armies.

Feudalism Continued

Serfs:

Bound to lord for life.

Needed permission to marry

Under protection of lord

Not allowed to leave land

Castles

could only be built by the approval of the king

Used for defense

Everything the king or nobles needed would

be found inside the house

Concentric Castles- Why were they called

concentric castles?

Deal Castle

The Church

Knighthood: professional

soliders

KNIGHT – 20 yrs

SQUIRE – 15 or 16 yrs

PAGE – 8 yrs

Code of Chivalry

Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches, and shalt observe all its directions.

Thou shalt defend the Church.

Thou shalt repect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them.

Thou shalt love the country in the which thou wast born.

Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.

Thou shalt make war against the Infidel without cessation, and without mercy.

Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God.

Thou shalt never lie, and shall remain faithful to thy pledged word.

Thou shalt be generous, and give largess to everyone.

Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.

Education

In 1300, 85-90% of the population of England

was illiterate.

Memorizing 1200 lines, about 100 pages, was a

common assignment for a schoolboy.

A grown man who was well educated could often

recite a whole book of 185,000 lines!

Medieval Barbarism

Cannibalism of dead bodies were eaten by

starving peasants in the 1200-1400s in England.

Grave robbery was common

Revenge was taken on corpses.

A murderer’s dead body would be mutilated by

the victim’s relatives.

Prisons

Everyone was together in one cell.

Prisons were wiped out due to diseases

Prisoners paid for their own food.

Torture devices such as the rack-stretcher http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Se3knPozM

If you charged someone with murder and they were found innocent, you were killed!

Mortality Rate of Children

2/3 of all children died before age 7.

1/3 of the remaining population died before

reaching the age of 14.

½ of those remaining died before reaching age

21.

Treatment of Women:

1300-1400sMen could whip servants, women, and

children without penalty.

Divorces were unheard of until the 1500s

Fidelity of the wife was extremely important.

Result of infidelity: stoning

Husband and children get to throw the first stones

MarriageMen would test future wives to see if they would be faithful to them after marriage.

Marriage was only acceptable within the same social classes

If a man committed a crime out of love for a woman (if he murdered someone in a jealous rage over a woman), the courts and society would blame the woman.

Death was preferred to dishonor or public shame

Women who were raped were encouraged by their families to commit suicide instead of dishonoring their family’s name.

Clothing No zippers or buttons in the

1400s

Clothing tied with

crisscrossing like shoe laces

at the front of

chest, pants, sides of

legs, and sleeves.

Dresses were expensive

Rich women bought 6 per

year

Middle class bought 4 per

year

Poor women bought 1 per

year or the fabric to sew 1

Food People ate moldy spoiled meat (no refrigeration or salt), scraping off the mold, or creating a spicy sauce to cover the flavor.

Instead of eating a chunk of meat for dinner as we do it, they would stretch what little meat they had by chopping it in tiny chunks, making lots of gravy and pot pies.

Ate two meals a day (no breakfast or snacks).

The Black Death

(The Black Plague)Historians think that the plague arrived in

England during the summer of 1348. During the

following autumn it spread quickly through the

south west. Few villages escaped. Churchyards

were full with bodies.

The plague spread quickly during the winter of

1348-1349 to the north of England. By

1350, nearly the whole of Britain was infected

with the plague.

At the end of 1350 nearly two and a half

million people were dead!

Where did the Black Death

come from?

What were the symptoms of the

plague?

What Caused it and How

Was it Transmitted?http://www.history.com/topics/black-

death/videos#life-after-people-plague

Medieval “Cure” #1:

The swellings would be softened with figs and

cooked onions. The onions whould be mixed

with yeast and butter. Then, they open the

swellings with a knife.

Medieval “Cure” #2:

They took a live frog and put its belly on the

plague sore. The frog would swell up and burst.

They repeated doing this with further frogs until

they stopped bursting. Some people said that a

dried toad would do the job better.