Download CHY4U Intro online

With your classmates discuss which quotations
you agree with the most.
Which do you disagree with? Why?
WHAT IS HISTORY?
Medieval Life
What do you know?
The Middle
Ages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV7C
anyzhZg&list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9&inde
x=15
The beginning…Early Middle Ages
Decline of Roman Empire
 Rise of Northern Europe
 New forms of government
 Heavy “Romanization”
(religion, language, laws,
architecture, government)
 Latin- “medium aevum”
means “middle age” and is
source of English word
“medieval”

Early Middle
Ages

Dark Ages (500 CE- 1000 CE)- scholars named
this as a time when the forces of darkness
(barbarians) overwhelmed the forces of light
(Romans)

Rise of influence of barbarians as Roman
Emperors had granted barbarian mercenaries
land with the Roman Empire in return for military
service and it was these barbarians who
eventually became the new rulers
The Feudal and Manorial
System
Read your document and answer
the question(s) with a partner
If no question answer “what do
these documents tell us about
feudalism and manorialism?”
The Feudal System

Under the feudal system, the
king awarded land grants or
fiefs to his most important
nobles, barons, and bishops,
in return for their contribution
of soldiers for the king's
armies.
Origins of Feudalism
• Feudalism originated partly as result of
Viking and Muslim invasions
• Kings unable to defend their lands, lands
of their nobles
• Nobles had to find way to defend own
lands
• Built castles, often on hills
• Not elaborate structures; built of wood,
used as place of shelter in case of attack
Knights and Lords
• Nobles needed trained soldiers to defend
castles
• Knights most important, highly skilled
soldiers
• Mounted knights in heavy armor best
defenders
• Being a knight expensive; had to maintain
weapons, armor, horses
• Knights demanded payment for services
The Lord of the Manor

For safety and
defense, people in the
Middle Ages formed
small communities
around a central lord
or master.
The Manor

Most people lived
on a manor, which
consisted of the
castle (or manor
house), the church,
the village, and the
surrounding farm
land.
The feudal system was a political and social system. A related system governed
medieval economics. This system was called the manorial system because it was
built around large estates called manors.
Lords, Peasants, and
Serfs
Manors owned by
wealthy lords, knights
• Peasants farmed
manor fields
• Were given
protection, plots of
land to cultivate for
selves
Serfdom
• Most peasants on
farm were serfs, tied
to manor
• Not slaves, could not
be sold away from
manor
• But could not leave,
marry without lord’s
permission
Free People
• Manors had some free
people who rented
land from lord
• Others included
landowning peasants,
skilled workers like
blacksmiths, millers
• Also had a priest for
spiritual needs
Hard Work & High Taxes


Peasants worked hard to
cultivate the land and
produce the goods that
the lord and his manor
needed.
They were heavily taxed
and were required to
relinquish much of what
they harvested.
Self-Sufficiency


Each manor was largely selfsufficient, growing or producing
all of the basic items needed for
food, clothing, and shelter.
To meet these needs, the manor
had buildings devoted to special
purposes, such as:



The mill for grinding grain
The bake house for making bread
The blacksmith shop for creating
metal goods.
Consider:
Lords' farmlands were taken care of, produced food; peasants were
provided protection from invaders
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.
The Culprits
The Symptoms
Bulbous
Septicemic Form:
almost 100% mortality rate.
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.
Boccaccio in The Decameron
The victims ate lunch with their
friends and dinner with their
ancestors.
Death Triumphant !:
A Major Artistic Theme
Attempts to Stop the Plague
A Doctor’s
Robe
“Leeching”
Attempts to Stop the Plague
Flagellanti:
Self-inflicted “penance” for our sins!
Attempts to Stop the Plague
Pogroms against the Jews
“Jew” hat
“Golden Circle”
obligatory badge
A Little Macabre Ditty
“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 Ditty
“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 Ditty
“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 Mortality Rate
35% - 70%
25,000,000 dead !!!
The Church
Read your primary document and
answer the question(s) with a
partner
Introduction
• Center of religious and social life
• All Christians belonged to one
church – Roman Catholic Church
• Provided leadership in an unstable
time
• The church was as important, if not
more important, than many
kings/queen
The Catholic Church
• The Catholic Church
was the only church in
Europe during the
Middle Ages, and it
had its own laws and
large income.
• Church leaders such
as bishops and
archbishops sat on the
king's council and
played leading roles
in government.
You scratch my
back…
I’ll scratch yours….

Church was granted favours by
Kings (land, exemption from taxes,
immunity in courts, positions in courts) and
in return the Church would endorse kings to
help secure their rule

Kings looked to Church to supply educated
administrators to help run kingdoms and in
return kings would enforce laws that
prohibited other religions
Power of the church
• Owned 1/3 of all land in Europe –
largest landholder in Europe
• Collected a tithe – 1/10 of income or
1 penny from peasants
Pilgrimages
• Christians tried to make a pilgrimage
to Jerusalem and Rome at least
once
Pilgrimages
• Pilgrimages were an
important part of
religious life in the
Middle Ages. Many
people took journeys
to visit holy shrines
such the Canterbury
Cathedral in England
and sites in Jerusalem
and Rome.
• Visited churches that supposedly
housed relics (holy items)
Art & Architecture
• Most art was for
religious purposes
• Most people couldn’t
read, art helped tell
Christ’s story
• Towns spent 50 – 100 years building
cathedrals
• Gothic style was popular
• Libraries and “scriptoria” to copy
books and illuminate manuscripts
Medieval Universities
Monks
• Monks were required
to perform manual
labor and were
forbidden to own
property, leave the
monastery, or become
entangled in the
concerns of society.
• Daily tasks were often
carried out in silence.
Monastic Life
• Monks and nuns
went to the
monastery church
eight times a day in
a routine of worship
that involved
singing, chanting,
and reciting prayers
from the divine
offices and from
the service for Mass.
A Medieval Monk’s Day
• Complex
community of
many different
buildings
–Granaries
–Breweries
–Bakeries
–Wineries
–Abbey church
–Library /
scriptorium
–Hospital
–School
Monastery
Self contained like a town
Pope Urban Calls for a
Crusade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0zud
TQelzI&list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9