Download Europe in the Middle Ages - Huntington Local Schools

Chapter 5 Section 1
The Middle Ages
began with the
collapse of the Roman
Empire.
 The term “Middle
Ages” (also called the
“Medieval” period)
describes the years
between ancient times
and modern times.

Invaders destroyed
Roman towns and cut
off trade routes
 By about 500 A.D., the
Roman Empire in
Western Europe had
completely collapsed
 It was replaced by a
patchwork of small
kingdoms.
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They claimed the area
called Gaul (modern
day France)
 The name “France”
comes from the word
“Franks”

In 768, a skilled military
leader named
Charlemagne became
king of the Franks.
At the time, many
small kingdoms in
Europe were often at
war with on another.
 Charlemagne
expanded his kingdom
by conquering these
weaker kingdoms
 He ruled an empire
that stretched across
Western Europe

Charlemagne ruled for
nearly 50 years
 During his reign he
worked hard to keep
Western Europe united
 He established schools
to promote learning,
issued money and
improve the economy
and spread
Christianity.
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After Charlemagne’s
death his empire was
divided among his three
sons.
They fought each other,
weakening the empire.
Other groups also
attacked the weakened
empire, perhaps the
fiercest attacks were
made by the Vikings
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The Vikings came from
the far north of Europe
(present day Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway)
They were skilled sailors
and tough warriors
Relying on surprise, the
Vikings burned and
looted European towns
They also reopened
trade routes throughout
Europe
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Under feudalism, land
was owned by kings or
lords but held by vassals
in return for their loyalty
In medieval Europe,
power belonged to those
who controlled the land.
They gave a share of
land, called a fief to each
of their vassals
 A vassal promised to
follow the landowners laws
and fight for him
Kings
Knights and
Nobles
Priests
Peasants

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Feudalism was the way
medieval Europeans organized
power and government.
Manorialism was the way they
organized their economy
The Manor was a large estate
that included farm fields,
pastures, and often and entire
village
 It also included a large house called
the manor house, where the lord,
or ruler, of the manor lived

The lord of the manor was typically a vassal
of a king or of a more powerful lord.
 The manor was part of his fief

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Most manors were far from towns, villages
and other manors so they had to be selfsufficient (or able to supply their own needs)
Food, clothing, and other things needed by
the people who lived on the manor were
made there.
Women of the noble class
also played an important part
in the feudal system
 She managed the household,
performed necessary medical
tasks, and supervised
servants
 When her husband or father
was away fighting she often
served as “lord of the Manor”
making important decisions.

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The majority of people in
medieval Europe were peasants
Peasants made their living as
farmers or laborers
They were often very poor and
did all of the work on the manor
They farmed the lord’s fields to
raise food for the household.
They were only allowed to farm
a small strip of land for
themselves (even so they had
to give part of their own
harvest to their lord)
Serfs were peasants
who were considered
to be part of the manor
 When a noble was
given a manor as part
of his fief, its serfs
became his
 They could not leave
the manor or even get
married without his
permission
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Medieval peasants lived and
worked a hard life
Men, women and children
were all required to work
They often lived in one-room
huts
For heating and cooking they
built a fire on the dirt floor
Smoke filled the dark,
cramped interior before
drifting out of a hole in the
roof
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Peasants ate simple
foods such as black
bread, cabbage, and
turnips
They rarely ate meat,
since animals of the
manor and surrounding
the land were reserved
for the lord
At night they slept on
mattresses made out of
cloth and stuffed with
straw
Chapter 5 Section 2

Most Gothic cathedrals
were built in Western
Europe between 1100 and
1400.
 Gothic refers to the style of
architecture

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A cathedral was the
church of a bishop (an
important leader of the
Roman Catholic Church)
During the Middle Ages,
nearly all people in
Western Europe were
Roman Catholic.
During the Middle
Ages life was short and
hard for most people
 They were comforted
by the Christian belief
that they would enjoy
the rewards of heaven
after death if they lived
according to the
Church teachings

The Church also held
that if people didn’t
obey those rules, they
would be punished
after death.
 The promise of reward
combined with the
threat of punishment
made most people
follow the teachings of
the Church

The Church gained
great wealth by
collecting taxes
 It also took fiefs from
lords in exchange for
services performed by
the clergy

 In fact the Church was
the single largest owner
of land in Europe during
the Middle Ages!
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The combination of religious
and economic power allowed
the church to grow politically
They made laws and set up
courts to enforce them
People who did not obey the
Church were threatened with
excommunication
 Excommunication means being
from membership in the Church
and participation in Church life
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The Church was highly
organized
Almost every village had a
Priest
Bishops supervised the
Priests
An Archbishop supervised
several Bishops
Archbishops were under
the authority of the Pope
The Papacy was based in
Rome
The Medieval Church
touched nearly all
aspects of life
 During the Middle
Ages, the clergy were
almost always in
attendance to offer a
blessing or to perform
a service

Some religious men
felt that they should
dedicate their lives to
God by living together
in religious
communities called
monasteries.
 Religious women,
called nuns, lived in
similar communities
called covenants
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Some Christian scholars
studies ancient Greek
texts that said people
should use reason to
discover truth
 This went against the
teachings of the Church

So medieval scholars
made a system that
used reason to support
Christian beliefs
As people felt safer
they began to travel
more and learn more
about distant places
 Ancient trade routes
came into use again
bringing goods from
Africa and Asia into
Europe
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At first, local goods were
traded in markets of small
villages
As trade grew so did these
markets
Traders chose convenient
locations for travelers
Also at this time manors were
becoming overcrowded
 Many lords gladly allowed
peasants to buy their freedom and
move to the new growing towns
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Town life was very different
than the farm or manor life
Towns and cities were not
self-sufficient
 Their economies were based
on the exchange of goods and
services

A new class developed
between nobles and
peasants made up of
merchants, traders and craft
workers
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A guild included all the people who practiced a certain
trade or craft
Guilds set prices and prevented outsiders from selling
goods in town
It took a long time to become a member of a guild
Between the ages of 8 to 14, a boy who wanted to
learn a certain trade became an apprentice (an unpaid
worker being trained in a craft)
He would then work in the home of the master of that
trade for as long as 7 years
Then he could become a journeyman (salaried
worker), in time if guild officials judged that the
journeyman’s work met their standards, he could join
the guild
The growing cities
attracted traveling
scholars and young
men flocked to schools
 Knights also lived by a
code of honorable
conduct called Chivalry
 Many stories were told
about knights and their
brave deeds
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Medieval towns and
cities were extremely
crowded
These towns also had a
lack of sanitation
The Bubonic Plague,
called the Black Death,
killed 1/3 of Europe's
population between 1347
and 1351
 It was spread by fleas living
on rats that thrived in the
unsanitary towns