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The Artios Home Companion Series Unit 8: The Feudal System Teacher Overview L e a di ng I de a s Roland pledging his fealty to Charlemagne After the Fall of Rome and the conquests and raids of the Northmen, the people of Europe needed protection and security. It was out of this need that the Feudal system arose. Lesser lords and knights would pay tribute to more powerful nobles in exchange for their protection. While this sounds good in theory, the resulting system had its disadvantages, such as abuse of the poor. In this unit we will study the effects of Feudalism. K e y Pe o pl e William the Conqueror Vassal Chaos Fealty Vassal An individual’s character will be reflected in his leadership. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he There is power in the spoken word to do evil or to do good. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh The rise and fall of nations and leaders is determined by God. God’s word is the supreme source of God’s revelation to man. II Timothy 3:16-17 V o c a bu l a r y Lesson One: homage vassal fief chaos fealty R e a d i n g a n d A s s i g nm e nt s Based on your student’s age and ability, the reading in this unit may be read aloud to the student and journaling and notebook pages may be completed orally. Likewise, other assignments can be done with an appropriate combination of independent and guided study. In this unit, students will: Complete one lesson in which they will learn about The Feudal System. Define vocabulary words. Read selected chapters from Stories of Beowulf: Told to Children. Learn about Direct Quotations and complete corresponding grammar exercises. . Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 1 Literature, Composition, and Grammar Stories of Beowulf: Told to Children Literature for Units 7-10 by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall from The Medieval Literary Period “Peacefully they slept with arms and armour thrown aside, having no fear of any foe.” – From Chapter 1 U ni t 8 A s s i g nm e nt s Literature and Composition Read chapters 4-6 in Stories of Beowulf. Continue the outline you began last week, and outline chapters 4-6. Grammar Read the notes on Direct Quotations beginning on page 3. Complete the corresponding exercises on the Artios Home Companion website. Continue adding buzzwords to your grammar rule cheat sheet. C o nt e x t R e s o ur c e s There have been many adaptations of Beowulf over the years, and many students find his adventures to be fascinating. You will find a collection of websites with extra activities, as well as links to other versions of this story, within the resources section of the Artios Home Companion website. Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 2 Grammar Notes for Unit 8 U sed by pe r mi ssi o n: w ww . an al y ti c al gr a m m ar. co m Direct Quotations Buzzword: Direct Quote When you’re reading something, how do you know who is saying what? “Bill, I want to go home,” said John. In the sentence above, who is speaking? John! Right! In English we use punctuation called quotation marks to show when words are being spoken by someone in particular. What about in this sentence? “John, I was hoping to stay a little longer,” I said. Assuming these two sentences form a little story, who is speaking now? That’s right ... Bill! Buzzword: Quotation Marks “” These, are QUOTATION MARKS. You always put them around the words people speak. Whatever is inside the quotation marks (words and punctuation) is called DIALOGUE. The rest of the sentence (said John or I said) is called the NARRATIVE. The narrative tells us who is speaking and sometimes gives us more information about what is happening. EXAMPLE: As I walked in the room, I yelled, “Is anyone here?” There are a few specific things to know when using quotation marks. Pay attention to these examples and look back at them during your exercises if you need help. A. Always begin your dialogue with a capital letter if the quote is a sentence. EXAMPLE: James said, “Tell me more about your trip.” B. The BROKEN QUOTE: When a quoted sentence of dialogue is divided into two parts with narrative in between, the second part of the dialogue begins with a lower case letter. EXAMPLE: “I really was hoping,” said Pam, “that you would come.” C. Sometimes the speaker has more than one sentence to say. EXAMPLE: “The state fair is great!” cried Janie. “Don’t you want to go? I do!” Each time you write dialogue, you must enclose the entire speech in quotation marks, even if the dialogue consists of fourteen sentences! Please also note that when you have a complete sentence in front of the narrative, you must have a period after the narrative. So this is different from the broken quote we described in part B of these notes. D. Suppose you are writing a sentence which begins with dialogue and ends with narrative. And then suppose that your dialogue is a statement, which would ordinarily end with a period. Here’s how you might think it should be done: Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 3 EXAMPLE: “I wish I could go to the state fair.” said Bob. Now, I think that sentence looks confusing. We know that a period is a signal to the reader to come to a full stop, right? So, if the reader comes to a full stop after fair, then is he supposed to come to another full stop after Bob? Here’s how we solve this problem: we change the period after fair to a comma, so it looks like this: EXAMPLE: “I wish I could go to the state fair,” said Bob. Now it’s not confusing at all! We only do this if the punctuation would have been a period. If it is an exclamation mark or question mark, you leave it there. Buzzword: Change Gear Comma E. When you go from dialogue to narrative or narrative to dialogue - unless there is other punctuation present - you need a comma to “change gears” from one to the other. EXAMPLE: I asked, “Who is your science teacher?” (note the location of the comma after “asked”) “He is my favorite science teacher!” yelled Roger. (note there is no “change gear” comma because there is an exclamation mark) More Copy-editing Symbols: Insert quotation marks and capitalize the word “this”: I said, this is my quote. The edited sentence would be (edits in yellow): I said, “ This is my quote. ” Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 4 Lesson One History Overview and Assignments The Feudal System R e a d i n g a n d A s s i g nm e nt s Read the article: The Feudal System, pages 6-9. Define each vocabulary word in the context of the reading and put the word and its definition in the vocabulary section of your notebook. After reading the article, summarize the story you read by either: ▪ Retelling it out loud to your teacher or parent. OR ▪ Completing an appropriate notebook page. Either way, be sure to include an overview of key people, dates, and events in your summary. Explore the following websites: Ploughing on a French ducal manor in March Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, c.1410 In this unit we will discuss how the Feudal system was organized and how it worked. The Feudal system arose out of the common man’s need for protection, and the Lords and Kings need for men to work their land and serve in their military. While this system of government may have served a need in its day, it came to the detriment of many. The Common man did not own land in the Feudal system. It also allowed many conflicts and wars to breakout between different nobles who sought after power. In truth, the Feudal system arose out of desperation and it lasted for many years. http://www.angelfire.com/hi5/interactive_learning/ NormanConquest/the_middle__ages.htm http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/ http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=111779 http://www.btinternet.com/~mrfield/Conquest/intro .htm In order to understand the sequence of events, examine the bayeux tapestry website (in the assignment list for Lesson 1) and examine the tapestry scene by scene. Make your own”tapestry” by either drawing or painting the events of 1066 scene by scene. You can also make a timeline of the events of 1066. V o c a bu l a r y homage vassal fealty fief chaos Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 5 Adapted from the book: The Story of Europe H.E. Marshall The Feudal System In 911 King Rollo of the Vikings became Robert, Duke of Normandy. He did homage to Charles the Simple. Charles was the king of the Franks. At the homage service Rollo would not kiss the king’s feet. He most likely got on his knees in front of the king. He let the king hold his hands. He promised to be the king’s man. The word “homage” comes from the French word for man. The French word for man is “homme.” Doing homage meant to be loyal and belong to someone more powerful. There is nothing written about Rollo’s ceremony. But we know it must have happened. The feudal system was in use at this time in France. Rollo became the Duke of Normandy. He and his people lived in the area of France called Normandy. This land did not belong to him, though. It still belonged to the king. The king gave it to Rollo as a fief. A fief is a piece of land given to someone to use. In return the person would serve in the king’s military. Rollo became a vassal of the king. A vassal is a servant. Feudalism is a type of government. Feudalism began after the end of the Carolingian Empire. All of the countries in western Europe were in chaos. Feudalism came from both Roman and barbarian customs. In a feudal system, a person could live on a piece of land if he promised to serve in the military. All of the land in a country belonged to the king. But even the king could not farm all the land in the country. He gave it to other people to live on and farm. But he did not give it completely. He let people use his land if they promised to be loyal to him. They promised to help the king in his wars. This promise was made during a special ceremony. The person knelt before the king. He put his hands in the king’s hands. He vowed to be the king’s man. Then the king kissed the man and raised him to his feet. The act of homage was done. The person was now the king’s vassal. Next, the vassal would put his hand on a holy item. He may have put it on a book of the Gospels. He took an oath of fealty. This meant he would always be true to the king. The king then gave his vassal a chunk of sod. He also gave him a tree branch. They showed that the man was now in charge of his part of land. Only great vassals or vassals-in-chief got their land straight from the king. These men then divided the land. They gave the land in fiefs to other men. A fief is a section of land. These men were called lesser lords. The lesser lords did not do homage to the king. They did homage to the vassal-inchief. These lords divided the land again among even lesser lords. This went on over and over again. At the end of the chain was a poor man. This man did homage to a lesser lord for a few acres of land. A vassal had many responsibilities to his lord. He had to provide a certain number of soldiers if there was a war. He also had to give aids to his lord. Aids were amounts of money. The overlord could ask for aids in four situations. One was when his eldest son was knighted. Another time Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 6 was when his eldest daughter got married. He could ask for money if he set out on a Crusade. Last, the lord asked for aids for his own ransom. This was needed if he became a prisoner during a war. The vassal also had to give advice to his lord if he was asked. The fief was supposed to belong to a vassal until he died. But fiefs were often passed down from father to son. When a vassal died his eldest son would do homage for the fief. He would now have the same overlord as his father. Sometime a vassal died without anyone to inherit the fief. Then the overlord would keep the land. An overlord could also take the land away if a vassal did not do his duties. The vassals would give aids and military help to the overlords. The overlords would give protection to the vassals. Protection was greatly needed at that time. Powerful men took advantage of poorer men. Sometimes weaker men would even be killed for their land. There were still some nobles who owned their land. They were afraid of getting killed by a robber. They often chose to give their land over to an overlord. Then the nobles would hold the land as a fief. They would also have protection provided by the overlord. The feudal system seemed like a good way to keep an army together. Kings often went to war and needed an army to be ready. With the feudal system there were always soldiers ready to fight. From the greatest vassals to the lowest, men would come to fight. In truth the feudal system was not a good system. Only the vassals-in-chief paid homage to the king. The other vassals just paid homage to their overlord. To some people the king did not seem as powerful as the overlord. Sometimes the overlord would be stronger than the king. At times they rebelled against him. It was hard for the king to fight them. WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR AND THE FEUDAL SYSTEM A strong government could not work in a feudal system. The countries where it was popular were not strong. They became just a group of smaller states. Each state was like a tiny kingdom. England did not have this problem. William the Conqueror made sure it would not happen. As the Duke of Normandy he was powerful. He might have been stronger than the French king. He decided that no English vassal would be as strong as him. He gave Norman vassals land in England. He did not give a large amount in one place. He would give the vassals little pieces of land all across the country. This made it hard for a vassal to gather an army. The vassals could not rebel as easily. Also, William made all vassals swear fealty to him. Even the lowest vassal swore to be loyal to only William. The overlord had complete power in his fief. He was the ruler. He was the judge. He could decide if one of his vassals lived or died. He could make war if he wanted to. Men who were rich were usually soldiers, or knights. Being a priest was their other choice. Most decided to be soldiers. Simple knights on up to the king were soldiers. They were not supposed to work with their hands. They did not have much to do. They wanted adventure. They would go off to war whenever they could. Below the richer men were the workers. There were many classes of workers. The Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 7 lowest were outlaws and slaves. The slaves were considered to be part of the land. When a fief was passed on the slaves were passed with it. They were property like cattle. They could not get married. They could not move to another town. The slave had no rights. Slaves could be sold by their overlord. They could even be killed if their overlord decided to do so. The criminal was not a slave. But he could not leave the land either. He stayed there as long he paid his dues. He paid his dues by working a certain number of days for the overlord. He also had to give the lord some of his harvest. He had to give him some of his cattle. TOURNAMENT AND FEUDAL WARFARE The feudal system split the world into two groups. The upper class was made up of knights. The lower class held all the workers. There were levels of rank in each class. It was almost impossible to move up in the ranks during feudal times. Working was for the lower classes. The upper classes fought in wars. Sometimes there was no real war going on. The upper classes would make war games to keep themselves busy. These pretend battles were called tournaments. Tournaments were usually fought in front of the king or some great lord. The soldiers put on their full armor. They carried dull weapons. The knights would ride on horses straight at each other. They did not try to kill each other. They tried to knock the other soldier off his horse. The knight who knocked off the most opponents was the winner. He got a prize. Sometimes tournaments were less formal. Young men pretended to fight in tournaments for fun. They acted out a pretend war. They fought with dull weapons. They even used horses. Sometimes a large crowd came to watch these tournaments. The sons of noblemen practiced their war skills. Tournaments were meant to be a game. They were meant to help knights work on their skills. But sometimes tournaments were more deadly than real battles. Many soldiers died while competing in tournaments. In war the soldiers did not try to kill their enemies. They tried to knock them off their horses just like in the tournaments. They did not do this because they wanted to save lives. They did this because they could make money. If they captured a knight alive, his vassals would pay a lot of money for his ransom. They would not pay anything if he was dead. The feudal wars were not honorable. They were not about freedom or morals. They were about greed and power. Men gained land by fighting. If a man was not strong enough to defend his land, someone else took it from him. The weakest men died. The strongest men got stronger and richer. Every neighbor was a possible enemy. Castles were built with strong walls for defending against attacks. The castles were built on hills. This made it hard to attack them and easy to defend. Thick stone walls were built around the castles. Moats were dug to surround them. The moat could be crossed only by a drawbridge. The castles were so strong that there was almost no way to defeat them. The only way to do so was to starve the people inside. As a result sieges were common in feudal wars. Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 8 FEUDAL ESTATES OF THE CLERGY Many abbeys and monasteries were forts. They also had to defend against enemies. There were many men who were clergy as well as feudal lords. Some clergymen tried to add to their monastery’s land. They would fight wars to get more land. They did this instead of ministering to people. THE TRUCE OF GOD There were a few churchmen who fought wars. Most of the churchmen were upset by all the fighting. These clergymen created the Truce of God. They worked hard to put it into practice. The Truce of God was a new rule. People could not fight from Wednesday evening through Monday morning. War was also banned on Lent and Advent. Other holy days were also warfree. The Truce was broken many times. The Church was powerful enough to sometimes punish people who broke the truce. The Church became more powerful. The fact it could enforce the Truce of God shows its power. Kings were supposed to keep their kingdoms peaceful. They could not do it. The Church came in to keep the peace instead. The Truce of God was carried out until the thirteenth century. Then the kings gained more power. The “King’s Peace” took over for the Church. Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 9