Download Middle Ages Test Study Guide

Middle Ages Test Study Guide
Be sure you know the following information:
Definitions for:
� Tribe: A group of people who are dependent on their land for their livelihood
� Vandal: An East Germanic tribe who moved around Europe establishing
kingdoms
� Invade: To come into a country by force
� Feudalism: A system of government in which land is exchanged for loyalty and
services
� Vassal: A person who receives land from a ruler and in return promises aid
� Fief: A plot of land exchanged for loyalty to a ruler
� Knight: A military servant of a feudal king
� Serf: A farmworker who was bound to live and labor on his lord’s land
� Peasant: A poor farmer of low social status who owns or rents a small piece
of land
� Page: A traditional young male servant
� Squire: A young nobleman acting as an attendant to a knight
� Code of Chivalry: A set of rules for knights
� Bishop: An ordained minister in the Catholic Church
� Pope: The leader of the worldwide Catholic Church
� Jury: A group of people who hear evidence in a trial and then vote on the
guilt or innocence of the accused
� Truce: An agreement to stop fighting
� Plague: A highly contagious disease that affects large numbers of people
Understand the following facts and systems:
 The Roman Empire ended due to poor roads.
 The Hundred Years War was a series of wars fought between
England and France.
 The Bubonic Plague or Black Death was a disease caused by
fleas on rats that killed many people during the Middle Ages.
 Parliament in England is made of the House of Commons and
the House of Lords.
 The Magna Carta, which means “great paper”, is a basis for the
U.S. Constitution.
 Feudal System Pyramid
1. king or queen
2. nobles
3. Vassals/knights
4. peasants/serfs
 Three stages of knighthood
1. page
2. squire
3. knight
 Be able to tell the purpose of the Knights Code of Chivalry
IMPORTANT PEOPLE:
• Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Roman Empire.
• William the Conqueror became king of England in 1066 after
defeating King Harold’s army.
 Eleanor of Aquitaine was a woman with great power during
the Middle Ages. In her lifetime, she married a French king
and English king.
 Henry II, king of England was Eleanor of Aquitaine’s second
husband.
 Henry II was the great grandson of William the Conqueror.
 Due to a conflict with Henry II, Thomas Becket, an
archbishop at the time, was murdered in the Catholic Church.
 Eleanor and Henry II had two sons who each became king:
Richard I and John.
 King John was forced by a group of barons to sign the Magna
Carta – a document which limited the power of the king in
ruling over the people, and said that the king was not above
the law.
 John’s son, Henry III became king after John, and he did not
have a good relationship with the barons. The nobles rebelled
and formed a Parliament.
 Once King Henry III was captured, representatives from each
branch of the Feudal System met together as parliament to
form a new system of government.
 Joan of Arc was fought on the French side of the Hundred
Years’ War and was burned at the stake by the English.