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Life and Literature
of
The Middle Ages
The Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages: 500 – 1000
High Middle Ages: 1000 – 1250
Late Middle Ages: 1250 – 1500
Middle Ages
• Middle Ages/Medieval Period: 476 to
1453 A.D. (Also known as the Dark
Ages)
• "Middle Age:” invented by Italian
scholars in the early 15th Century.
Until this time it was believed there
had been two periods in history, that
of Ancient times and that of the
period later referred to as the "Dark
Age.“
Medieval Period (Fast Version)
• Rome attacked in 476 A.D.
• The beginning of the Middle Ages is often called
the "Dark Ages”
– Fall of Greece and Rome
– Life in Europe during the Middle Ages was very hard.
– Very few people could read or write and nobody
expected conditions to improve.
– Only hope: strong belief in Christianity; heaven would
be better than life on earth.
Medieval Period (Fast Version)
• In contrast:
– The Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa
studied and improved on the works of the ancient
Greeks
– Civilization flourished in sub-Saharan Africa, China,
India, and the Americas.
• Great change by about 1450
–
–
–
–
–
Columbus & America
literacy spread
scientists made great discoveries
artists created work that still inspires us today.
The Renaissance is the beginning of modern history.
Renaissance means “rebirth”
– The humanistic revival of classical art,
architecture, literature, and learning
that originated in Italy in the 14th
century and later spread throughout
Europe.
– The period of this revival, roughly the
14th through the 16th century,
marking the transition from medieval
to modern times.
Middle Ages: General Timeline
10951291C.E.
Crusades
1066 C.E.
Norman
invasion of
Britain
450 C.E.
AngloSaxons
invade
England
476 C.E.
Fall of
Rome
306 C.E.
Constantine
comes to
power in
Eastern Roman
Empire;
beginning of
Byzantine
Empire
1306-1321
Dante’s Divine
Comedy
1375-1400 Sir
Gawain &
Green Knight
1455 C.E.
Printing
Press
1386 C.E.
Chaucer
begins
writing
Canterbury
Tales
Beowulf
Composed
sometime
between
850 C.E.
1347
Bubonic
Plague
900 C.E.
1453
Fall of
Byzantine
Empire with
invasion of
Ottoman Turks
With the Fall of Rome…..
• Barbarian tribes were slowly taking over
Britain and Western European lands
• Emperors became more like kings
• Feudalism: involuntary peasant labor on lands
not their own; personal bonds and personal
law beginning to replace impersonal law
common to large expanses of territory
• Medieval Guilds
• the Catholic Church, would provide spiritual
and moral direction, as well as leadership and
material support, during the darkest times
of the early Medieval period.
Key Concepts of the Middle Ages
Church became deeply involved in government
Christianity provided the basis for a first European
"identity," unified in a religion common to most of
the continent until the separation of Orthodox
Churches from the Catholic Church in 1054.
Crusades: Popes, kings, and emperors unite and
defend Christendom from the perceived aggression
of Islam
From the 7th century onward, Islam had been
gaining ground along Europe's southern and eastern
borders.
Feudalism
• Feudalism: system of loyalties and
protections during the Middle Ages. As
the Roman Empire crumbled, emperors
granted land to nobles in exchange for
their loyalty. These lands eventually
developed into manors. A manor is the
land owned by a noble and everything
on it. A typical manor consisted of a
castle, small village, and farmland.
Feudalism
• Serfs would often have to work three
or four days a week for the lord as
rent. They would spend the rest of
their week growing crops to feed their
families. Other serfs worked as
sharecroppers. A sharecropper would
be required to turn over most of what
he grew in order to be able to live on
the land.
Definition of Feudalism
• fragmentation of political power
– the county is the largest viable political unit
• fragmented power treated as a private
possession
– managed by private contracts
• military force: “knights”
– secured by private contracts between
individuals
– no “national armies”
Feudalism
A political, economic, and social
system based on loyalty and
military service.
The Road to Knighthood
KNIGHT
SQUIRE
PAGE
Chivalry: A Code of Honor and Behavior
The Medieval Manor
Life on the Medieval Manor
Serfs at work
The Manor
•
•
•
•
•
based on the fief
one or more manors to a fief
each manor had a village
freemen and serfs
provided the economic support for
the lord
Carcassonne: A Medieval Castle
Parts of a Medieval Castle
Crusades
For almost 200 years Western
Europe under direction from the
Popes attempted to “recapture” the
Holy Lands, especially Jerusalem
What did the Crusades
do?
• Depopulated parts of Europe
• Introduced Europe to a more cultured,
learned civilization
• Opened trading routes
• Introduced Europeans to spices and
perfumes
• Eventually broke the power of the
Catholic church (helped to) by ushering
in the Renaissance
The Church
• Christianity became the universal faith
of almost all of the people of Europe.
• The Church was often the only way to
get an education.
– It also allowed poor people to escape a
dreary life and possibly rise to power.
– Religious workers are called clergy.
– In the Middle Ages, the Pope ruled the
Christian Church. Other clergy included
bishops, priests, nuns, and monks.
Catholic Church
• Most influential and powerful institution in
Europe
• Dictated even the most insignificant
details of individuals’ lives
• Participated in Inquisitions
• Controlled intellectual thought until the
Renaissance
• Place of power and education
Monks
• Monks: men who lived in monasteries, or
small communities of religious workers.
– devoted their lives to prayer
– Monasteries produced many well-educated men
prepared to serve as administrators for
uneducated kings and lords.
– Monks were responsible for keeping the Greek
and Latin “classical” cultures alive. Monks
copied books by hand in an era before the
printing press. Though few in number, monks
played a significant role in the Middle Ages.
A Medieval Monk’s Day
A Medieval Monastery:
The Scriptorium
Illuminated Manuscripts
Medieval Guilds
Guild Hall
First labor unions made up of skilled craftsmen. Guilds are the
beginning of the middle class.
Commercial Monopoly:
 Controlled membership
apprentice  journeyman  master craftsman
 Controlled quality of the product [masterpiece].
 Controlled prices
Medieval Guilds: A Goldsmith’s Shop
Crest of a Cooper’s Guild
Bubonic Plague strikes
England 1348
Called the Black Death– estimates
about 33.3% of the European
population died of the black death. So
many people died that there was a
shortage of labor which eventually
helped to bring about the middle class.
The place, Europe, the time
1347, a ship traveling from
the Black Sea port of Kaffa
docks in Sicily. Aboard this
ship was death, though the
people did not know it.
Over the next 4 years 25
million people or 1/3 of the
population of Europe died
of this dreaded affliction.
The disease was caused by a bacteria
known as the Yersinia Pestis.
It was transmitted by an insect known as
the rat flea.
METHOD OF
TRANSMISSION
• FLEA DRINKS BLOOD OF A RAT
WHO CARRIES THE DISEASE
• BACTERIA DEVELOPS WITHIN
AND CLOGS THE FLEA’S GUT
• FLEA LEAVES RAT HOST, BITES
HUMAN, AND REGURGITATES
BLOOD INTO OPEN WOUND
• HUMAN IS INFECTED
The Disease Cycle
Flea drinks rat blood
that carries the
bacteria.
Bacteria
multiply in
flea’s gut.
Human is infected!
Flea bites human and
regurgitates blood
into human wound.
Flea’s gut clogged
with bacteria.
SYMPTOMS OF THE PLAGUE
Painful swellings in Blood vessels burst
armpits, neck, and under skin turning it
groin called buboes black.
(boo-bows).
Untreated mortality
High fever
rate- 75%
The Symptoms
Bulbous
Septicemic Form:
almost 100%
mortality rate.
TREATMENT FOR THE
PLAGUE (14TH CENTURY)
In the 14th century, knowledge of disease
was non-existent. They believed it was
caused by bad vapors or blood imbalances.
The treatment used to ‘cure’ plague would
seem bizarre by modern standards. Bathing
in human urine. Placing dead animals in the
home. Use of leeches or bleeding
the
individual.
TREATMENT FOR PLAGUE
TODAY
Since the plague is caused by a bacteria,
we have a very effective means of treating
outbreaks.
What type of medication is used to treat
most bacterial infections ?
ANSWER: Penicillin or Antibiotics
HISTORY CHANGED
The outbreak of plague and subsequent
death of 1/3 of the population of Europe
had very profound social and historical
consequences.
In your notebook, list some of the possible
historical changes that occurred as a
result of the plague.
HISTORY CHANGED
POSSIBLE ANSWERS
Government halted
Loss of labor force
Commerce ceased
Loss of knowledge
Trade was disrupted
Religious beliefs altered
Food production slowed
From the Toggenburg Bible, 1411
Lancing a Buboe
Medieval Art & the Plague
Medieval Art & the Plague
Bring out your dead!
Medieval Art & the Plague
An obsession
with death.
Attempts to Stop the Plague
A Doctor’s
Robe
“Leeching”
Attempts to Stop the Plague
Flagellanti:
Self-inflicted “penance” for our sins!
Ring Around The Roses, A pocket full of
posies, Tisha! Tisha! We all fall down.
It is probably from the 1600's and is a reference to
the bubonic plague.
The "ring" was the rash typical of having the plague.
The "posies" were herbs and spices carried to
freshen the air from the stench of death. Tisha
(later Ashes) is the "tissue" that you held across
your mouth to breathe through, although it could be
"sneezing".
"All fall down" is dying from the plague.
Ring-a-Ring o'Rosies
A Pocket full of Posies
"A-tishoo! A-tishoo!"
We all fall Down!
Ring around the rosy
A pocketful of posies
"Ashes, Ashes"
We all fall down!
A Little Macabre Song
“A sickly season,” the merchant said,
“The town I left was filled with dead,
and everywhere these queer red flies
crawled upon the corpses’ eyes,
eating them away.”
“Fair make you sick,” the merchant said,
“They crawled upon the wine and bread.
Pale priests with oil and books,
bulging eyes and crazy looks,
dropping like the flies.”
A Little Macabre Song
“I had to laugh,” the merchant said,
“The doctors purged, and dosed, and bled;
“And proved through solemn disputation
“The cause lay in some constellation.
“Then they began to die.”
“First they sneezed,” the merchant said,
“And then they turned the brightest red,
Begged for water, then fell back.
With bulging eyes and face turned black,
they waited for the flies.”
A Little Macabre Song
“I came away,” the merchant said,
“You can’t do business with the dead.
“So I’ve come here to ply my trade.
“You’ll find this to be a fine brocade…”
And then he sneezed……….!
The Famine of 1315-1317
By 1300 Europeans were farming almost all the
land they could cultivate.
A population crisis developed.
Climate changes in Europe produced three years
of crop failures between 1315-17 because of
excessive rain.
As many as 15% of the peasants in some English
villages died.
One consequence of
starvation & poverty
was susceptibility to
disease.
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