Chapter 10 - Europe in the Middle Ages
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Chapter 9 - Emerging Europe and the Byzantine Empire
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Medieval times is a block of time in history from 500 CE to 1500 CE. This block of time is also called the Middle Ages.
Have you ever heard the nursery rhyme called ring around the rosie? "Ring around the Rosie. Pocket full of poesy. Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down." This nursery rhyme is actually about a disease from the 14th century that the people called the plague or Black Death. This disease was highly contagious. It spread across Europe. It was so widespread and so deadly that it is estimated to have killed one fourth of all the people in Europe.
If you break down the poem you can actually understand the effects a bit more.
"Ring around the Rosie": Infected people broke out in a rash on their arms and neck that had red ring shaped marks with dark center spot that looked like a rose. They would then get a a high fever, become unconscious, and finally die.
"Pocket full of posey": People carried flowers, often posies, to cover the smell of the dead and dying.
"Ashes, Ashes": People would burn the houses of people with the disease in order to try and stop it. Whole villages were burned down. The sky was dark with the ashes of the burnt buildings.
"We all fall down": The plague filled villages and cities alike with dead and dying victims. People would collapse in the streets and be left lying there. People were afraid to touch them or near them.
Medieval people thought that the plague was a punishment from God. They did not know that fleas transmitted the disease from infected rats to people.
Today we have a vaccine against the plague.
After Charlemagne died, the Frankish empire fell apart. Without the empire to keep things going, each part of the empire fell to fighting. With each city and state fighting each other, some way had to be found to end it. Feudalism grew out of the chaos. Feudalism was a way to get an army together quickly but it was more then that. It was a way of life.
Under the feudal system everyone served someone above them. The feudal system was based on a pyramid of vassals. A vassal meant some one who serves. At the bottom and making up most of the pyramid were the peasants. The next layer up were the knights. The next layer up were the nobles and officials. The King was at the peak, at the very top of the pyramid.
MORE ON FEUDALISM
In Medieval times land was broken up into fiefs. But a fief was more then just a piece of land. A fief had to include at least one village with huts for the serfs, a manor house or castle for the noble, and land to grow or catch food.
A fief was not ownership. A fief was actually a loan from the king and the king could take it back.
Sometimes fiefs were given as reward for bravery in battle. To get a fief you had to promise the king several things. First, you would give your loyalty to the king; second, you would fight or send men to fight if the king needed them; third, you would provide money to ransom the king if he was captured; finally, you would take care of the serfs working the land.
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In medieval times, most of the people were peasants, farmers who worked all the time just to grow food. They were protected by the Nobles. But who made up the nobility? The Nobility included the landowners, the King, Lords and Ladies, and Knights of the kingdom.
The King: The King was the highest noble of the land. In theory, the king owned all the land. The King gave out fiefs to his followers, which put them in charge of a portion of the land. The fief holder had to pay the king rent, taxes, and provide soldiers whenever the king needed them.
A Lord: A Lord was given a fief by the king. The lord was expected to pay taxes to the king and provide soldiers when needed. To do that, the lord was given absolute power over his fief. Within it, a lord's word was the law. Whatever the lord said, the people had to do.
A Lady: A Lord also needed a wife who was called a Lady. Her job was to take care of the manor, run the house, and most importantly to have children. Women in medieval times had no rights. They were property. They belonged to their father, husband or even eldest son. This is not to say some women didn't take charge, but the law said they were property.
Children: A boy learned how to be a Knight starting at about seven years old. Sometimes they were even taught how to read and write. Girls were not. They were instead expected to learn from their mother all the skills of being a good wife.
Castles: A Nobles power depended on his ability to defend his land. Walls were good, Castles were better. The first castles were made of mud and wood. But wood burns so around 1100 CE people switched to building castles out of stone. Thick stone walls surrounded the manor house. Some walls were 20 feet thick. Most peasants did not live in the castle, but when trouble came they would hurry inside the castle and close the gates. Castles had openings high in the walls so that archers could shoot at invaders.
Location: Most castles were designed to defend a location. So they were usually located on top of a hill or at the ford of a river, or entrance to a bay or harbor. But the preferred location was at the highest point around, so if there was a hill the castle went on top. This meant you could see trouble a long way off. You could also throw things down at any attacker. Some castles were surrounded by a moat which was a deep ditch filled with water. A small bridge was built to lower and raise as needed over the moat. This was the drawbridge.
Interior: The interior of a castle contained staircases, bedrooms, hallways, priveys (rather like an outhouse built inside the castle), women's rooms (small areas used for chatting and embroidery), possibly a laundry, other household rooms, and
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The common people were divided into peasants and serfs. There was a huge difference between being a peasant and being a a serf.
Serfs were bound to the land. They were almost like slaves. The people could not be bought and sold, but they could not leave their land without permission. Their land could be bought and sold. The land and all the food they grew belonged to the manor (noble). A serf's job was whatever the noble told them it was, carpenter, blacksmith, baker, farmer, and tax collector, serfs did it all. A serf could buy their own freedom if they could get the money, but where could they get the money? They were uneducated and mostly unskilled.
Peasants were free sort of. Sometimes they owned their own business or small plot of land, again most were uneducated and unskilled. They were in the same boat as the serfs.
Taxes: Everyone had to pay taxes. The peasants paid taxes to the lord or noble; they paid taxes up to the local duke or count who paid taxes to the king. Sometimes the taxes were paid in crops, sometimes in money, plus they had to set aside a number of days every year to work for the noble.
Festivals: Festivals were a big deal. This was the only time a peasant or serf could relax and socialize. All Festivals were church festivals usually to honor a saint or holy day. At a festival, a peasant could watch a play or take part in contests like archery or wrestling, and maybe even see a juggler or magician. The noble paid the local church to put on the festival.
Power of the Church: During medieval times, the church was all powerful. The only way to get to heaven was to follow the Bible. However, since most people couldn't read. the local priest had to read it to them. The local priest could tell people that the Bible told them how to behave, who to obey, even who to marry.
New Ideas: Since most people never left their village area, ideas spread thoughout Europe through the priests and wandering musicians and traders. This was a slow process.
Commoner Homes: Peasants homes were usually one room huts, made of logs held together with mud, with thatched roofs. There was a hole in the roof for the smoke to get out so people could cook inside. Homes had little furniture, perhaps a three-legged stool and beds made of straw covered with a leather toss. There were pegs on the walls to hold clothes. They usually had iron cooking pots and pans.
Food: Peasants grew their own food. Three days a week, they worked to provide food for the lord of the manor. Three days a week they worked to provide food for themselves. Sunday was a day for prayer. They kept bees to make honey. They drew water from the village well, or if they were lucky, from a nearby stream. They kept fruit trees. They grew vegetables. They kept chickens. A peasant might own a cow for milk.
Animals: Because winters were cold, animals were brought inside at night, to keep them warm.
Clothes: Their clothes were made of wool. They were held together with a rope tied around their waist. They usually went barefooted, even in the winter. Shoes took leather to make. Leather was made, but it was used to make shoes and clothing for the lord of the manor and his family. If there was any leather left over, they could make shoes for themselves.
On a typical day: Peasants and serfs got up, while it was still dark usually. The first thing they did was say their morning prayers. Then the men left to get their assignement for the day from the reeve, the manor lords' who directed their work. Usually the peasant's wife stayed home, fed the livestock, collected eggs, milked the cow, pulled water from the well or river, and cooked and washed. Women were responsible for weeding the garden near their home, picking vegetables, and spinning cloth. Kids did not go to school. Children worked with their mother. When the boys got old enough, they worked with their father. At night, they ate a simple meal of stew and black bead and sometimes cheese. Right after sunset, they went to bed.
Peasants were content. They knew nothing else. The Middle Ages was time of violence. Peasants and serfs were glad to have the protection of the manor lord.
What was a Knight? A knight was a special warrior. Most knights were of noble birth. You didn't have to be a noble to become a knight, but it was a lot easier since you needed money to get the training and to buy the armor. But anyone who proved themselves in battle could be knighted. A knight pledged loyalty to their liege lord, promised to be brave in battle and protect the church and those weaker than themselves, and to be courteous to noblewomen.
How did one get to be a knight? It was not easy. You started off by becoming a page. A noble's son could start training to be a knight when he was seven years old. Nobles' sons had to train with weapons of course, but they also had to learn how to ride a horse, how to behave towards their liege lords and ladies, and even about music and the other arts. It was just like going to school, only their teachers were the squires. Once they reached a certain point in their training, they would be appointed as a squire.
A squire, who was generally a teenager, had a different set of duties. They had to teach the pages of course, but they also had to wait on the knights. They continued their training in battle, but also were assigned to a specific knight who completed their training. As a squire you went into battle with the knight and fought at his side. This was where you proved if you had the ability to be a knight. Once you had proved your ability, you were made a knight in a very formal ceremony.
Each knight had his own coat of arms that identified him. The pattern and colors of his coat of arms was on his shield and any other items that belonged to the knight. Knights even had flags with their coat of arms on it.
All pages, squires and knights had to follow an elaborate code of conduct. This was called Chivalry.
Chain mail, plate armor for men and horses, the longbow and flail were some of the advances during the Middle Ages. Other weapons included battering rams, daggers, knives, battle axes, and glaives (spears). A lance was a long spear with a metal tip used by knights on horseback.
A flail was used for close combat. It referred to any weapon that was attached to a rope or chain and swung against the enemy. The portion that actually hit the enemy could be made of wood or metal or anything you had. One type of flail was called a mace. A mace is a flail with a round metal ball with spikes at the end of short chain. Flails were invented as an agricultural tool. But it was soon recognized as a useful as a weapon. If you had a piece of wood and a piece of rope, you could make a flail and have something to use to defend yourself.
Archers used longbows and arrows, the arrows tipped with poison for battle. Longbows were usually as tall as the user, which is how they got their name. A smaller weapon was the very lethal crossbow. Crossbow arrows were made of metal and considerably smaller in size than longbow arrows. Because the arrows were smaller, you could carry more of them at one time. Unlike longbows, crossbows could be hidden and used in a surprise attack.
The caltrop was a metal spike that you threw on the ground in front of an advancing army. Any man or horse that accidently stepped on a caltrop would be injured and slowed down.
Shields were hand held and used to protect fighters.
Chain mail was worn to protect the body. It was made of thousands of interlinked rings of metal. Chain mail was expensive, but it did help the wearer survive a glancing blow. A direct hit, with a sharp point, however, could penetrate chain mail.
Armor started as metal helmets and shields. Then metalsmiths began making metal plates of steel that covered the chest. Over time, a suit of armor was developed that covered the wearer from head to toe. These suits were expensive, hot, heavy, and took a great deal of practice to use. They added a lot of weight for a horse to carry, which was a drawback. Because a full suit of armor was so heavy, the wearer often had trouble getting up again without help. This, too, was a drawback.
Gunpowder entered the Middle Ages around the 1300s. It took time to create weapons and techniques to effectively use this new weapon - gunpowder.
One of the ways a knight could practice and improve his skills without actually going into battle was to enter a tournament. In addition to practice, a knight could win public acclaim as well as money by winning a tournament.
The tournament area would be either walled off with a temporary fence or maybe just roped off. The nobles sat in wooden stands while the commoners would sit in the fields nearby to watch. A tournament was a big event and people came from far away to watch.
A tournament's activities included all the skills a knight was supposed to have. There would be fighting of all types as well as contests of poetry and song. The two favorite events were the joust and melee.
Jousting was combat between two knights. The two started from opposite sides of a field and charged their horses towards each other. The goal was to knock the other knight off his horse. They started with lances then when the lances broke they used swords or axes. Broken bones and even death were normal to the joust.
Melee was combat between two teams of knights and squires. The goal was to capture the flag each knight and squire had on their back. They wore armor and used swords, axes and clubs to do this. Again broken bones and deaths were common.
Jousting is still practiced today (with a lot more safeguards in place to limit injury) at many Renaissance fairs and tournaments.
Have you ever heard the nursery rhyme called ring around the rosie? "Ring around the Rosie. Pocket full of poesy. Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down." This nursery rhyme is actually about a disease from the 14th century that the people called the plague or Black Death. This disease was highly contagious. It spread across Europe. It was so widespread and so deadly that it is estimated to have killed one fourth of all the people in Europe.
If you break down the poem you can actually understand the effects a bit more.
"Ring around the Rosie": Infected people broke out in a rash on their arms and neck that had red ring shaped marks with dark center spot that looked like a rose. They would then get a a high fever, become unconscious, and finally die.
"Pocket full of posey": People carried flowers, often posies, to cover the smell of the dead and dying.
"Ashes, Ashes": People would burn the houses of people with the disease in order to try and stop it. Whole villages were burned down. The sky was dark with the ashes of the burnt buildings.
"We all fall down": The plague filled villages and cities alike with dead and dying victims. People would collapse in the streets and be left lying there. People were afraid to touch them or near them.
Medieval people thought that the plague was a punishment from God. They did not know that fleas transmitted the disease from infected rats to people.
Today we have a vaccine against the plague.
After Charlemagne died, the Frankish empire fell apart. Without the empire to keep things going, each part of the empire fell to fighting. With each city and state fighting each other, some way had to be found to end it. Feudalism grew out of the chaos. Feudalism was a way to get an army together quickly but it was more then that. It was a way of life.
Under the feudal system everyone served someone above them. The feudal system was based on a pyramid of vassals. A vassal meant some one who serves. At the bottom and making up most of the pyramid were the peasants. The next layer up were the knights. The next layer up were the nobles and officials. The King was at the peak, at the very top of the pyramid.
MORE ON FEUDALISM
In Medieval times land was broken up into fiefs. But a fief was more then just a piece of land. A fief had to include at least one village with huts for the serfs, a manor house or castle for the noble, and land to grow or catch food.
A fief was not ownership. A fief was actually a loan from the king and the king could take it back.
Sometimes fiefs were given as reward for bravery in battle. To get a fief you had to promise the king several things. First, you would give your loyalty to the king; second, you would fight or send men to fight if the king needed them; third, you would provide money to ransom the king if he was captured; finally, you would take care of the serfs working the land.
advertisement
In medieval times, most of the people were peasants, farmers who worked all the time just to grow food. They were protected by the Nobles. But who made up the nobility? The Nobility included the landowners, the King, Lords and Ladies, and Knights of the kingdom.
The King: The King was the highest noble of the land. In theory, the king owned all the land. The King gave out fiefs to his followers, which put them in charge of a portion of the land. The fief holder had to pay the king rent, taxes, and provide soldiers whenever the king needed them.
A Lord: A Lord was given a fief by the king. The lord was expected to pay taxes to the king and provide soldiers when needed. To do that, the lord was given absolute power over his fief. Within it, a lord's word was the law. Whatever the lord said, the people had to do.
A Lady: A Lord also needed a wife who was called a Lady. Her job was to take care of the manor, run the house, and most importantly to have children. Women in medieval times had no rights. They were property. They belonged to their father, husband or even eldest son. This is not to say some women didn't take charge, but the law said they were property.
Children: A boy learned how to be a Knight starting at about seven years old. Sometimes they were even taught how to read and write. Girls were not. They were instead expected to learn from their mother all the skills of being a good wife.
Castles: A Nobles power depended on his ability to defend his land. Walls were good, Castles were better. The first castles were made of mud and wood. But wood burns so around 1100 CE people switched to building castles out of stone. Thick stone walls surrounded the manor house. Some walls were 20 feet thick. Most peasants did not live in the castle, but when trouble came they would hurry inside the castle and close the gates. Castles had openings high in the walls so that archers could shoot at invaders.
Location: Most castles were designed to defend a location. So they were usually located on top of a hill or at the ford of a river, or entrance to a bay or harbor. But the preferred location was at the highest point around, so if there was a hill the castle went on top. This meant you could see trouble a long way off. You could also throw things down at any attacker. Some castles were surrounded by a moat which was a deep ditch filled with water. A small bridge was built to lower and raise as needed over the moat. This was the drawbridge.
Interior: The interior of a castle contained staircases, bedrooms, hallways, priveys (rather like an outhouse built inside the castle), women's rooms (small areas used for chatting and embroidery), possibly a laundry, other household rooms, and
- The Keep, a storage space for food in case of siege, also the last line of defense in the Castle
- Barracks which were the homes of the Knights and soldiers of the Noble
- The Great Hall, a place to feast and meet the noble during formal occasions
- The Chapel, a place to hold religious services
- Gatehouses which were secure places that guarded the gates
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The common people were divided into peasants and serfs. There was a huge difference between being a peasant and being a a serf.
Serfs were bound to the land. They were almost like slaves. The people could not be bought and sold, but they could not leave their land without permission. Their land could be bought and sold. The land and all the food they grew belonged to the manor (noble). A serf's job was whatever the noble told them it was, carpenter, blacksmith, baker, farmer, and tax collector, serfs did it all. A serf could buy their own freedom if they could get the money, but where could they get the money? They were uneducated and mostly unskilled.
Peasants were free sort of. Sometimes they owned their own business or small plot of land, again most were uneducated and unskilled. They were in the same boat as the serfs.
Taxes: Everyone had to pay taxes. The peasants paid taxes to the lord or noble; they paid taxes up to the local duke or count who paid taxes to the king. Sometimes the taxes were paid in crops, sometimes in money, plus they had to set aside a number of days every year to work for the noble.
Festivals: Festivals were a big deal. This was the only time a peasant or serf could relax and socialize. All Festivals were church festivals usually to honor a saint or holy day. At a festival, a peasant could watch a play or take part in contests like archery or wrestling, and maybe even see a juggler or magician. The noble paid the local church to put on the festival.
Power of the Church: During medieval times, the church was all powerful. The only way to get to heaven was to follow the Bible. However, since most people couldn't read. the local priest had to read it to them. The local priest could tell people that the Bible told them how to behave, who to obey, even who to marry.
New Ideas: Since most people never left their village area, ideas spread thoughout Europe through the priests and wandering musicians and traders. This was a slow process.
Commoner Homes: Peasants homes were usually one room huts, made of logs held together with mud, with thatched roofs. There was a hole in the roof for the smoke to get out so people could cook inside. Homes had little furniture, perhaps a three-legged stool and beds made of straw covered with a leather toss. There were pegs on the walls to hold clothes. They usually had iron cooking pots and pans.
Food: Peasants grew their own food. Three days a week, they worked to provide food for the lord of the manor. Three days a week they worked to provide food for themselves. Sunday was a day for prayer. They kept bees to make honey. They drew water from the village well, or if they were lucky, from a nearby stream. They kept fruit trees. They grew vegetables. They kept chickens. A peasant might own a cow for milk.
Animals: Because winters were cold, animals were brought inside at night, to keep them warm.
Clothes: Their clothes were made of wool. They were held together with a rope tied around their waist. They usually went barefooted, even in the winter. Shoes took leather to make. Leather was made, but it was used to make shoes and clothing for the lord of the manor and his family. If there was any leather left over, they could make shoes for themselves.
On a typical day: Peasants and serfs got up, while it was still dark usually. The first thing they did was say their morning prayers. Then the men left to get their assignement for the day from the reeve, the manor lords' who directed their work. Usually the peasant's wife stayed home, fed the livestock, collected eggs, milked the cow, pulled water from the well or river, and cooked and washed. Women were responsible for weeding the garden near their home, picking vegetables, and spinning cloth. Kids did not go to school. Children worked with their mother. When the boys got old enough, they worked with their father. At night, they ate a simple meal of stew and black bead and sometimes cheese. Right after sunset, they went to bed.
Peasants were content. They knew nothing else. The Middle Ages was time of violence. Peasants and serfs were glad to have the protection of the manor lord.
What was a Knight? A knight was a special warrior. Most knights were of noble birth. You didn't have to be a noble to become a knight, but it was a lot easier since you needed money to get the training and to buy the armor. But anyone who proved themselves in battle could be knighted. A knight pledged loyalty to their liege lord, promised to be brave in battle and protect the church and those weaker than themselves, and to be courteous to noblewomen.
How did one get to be a knight? It was not easy. You started off by becoming a page. A noble's son could start training to be a knight when he was seven years old. Nobles' sons had to train with weapons of course, but they also had to learn how to ride a horse, how to behave towards their liege lords and ladies, and even about music and the other arts. It was just like going to school, only their teachers were the squires. Once they reached a certain point in their training, they would be appointed as a squire.
A squire, who was generally a teenager, had a different set of duties. They had to teach the pages of course, but they also had to wait on the knights. They continued their training in battle, but also were assigned to a specific knight who completed their training. As a squire you went into battle with the knight and fought at his side. This was where you proved if you had the ability to be a knight. Once you had proved your ability, you were made a knight in a very formal ceremony.
Each knight had his own coat of arms that identified him. The pattern and colors of his coat of arms was on his shield and any other items that belonged to the knight. Knights even had flags with their coat of arms on it.
All pages, squires and knights had to follow an elaborate code of conduct. This was called Chivalry.
Chain mail, plate armor for men and horses, the longbow and flail were some of the advances during the Middle Ages. Other weapons included battering rams, daggers, knives, battle axes, and glaives (spears). A lance was a long spear with a metal tip used by knights on horseback.
A flail was used for close combat. It referred to any weapon that was attached to a rope or chain and swung against the enemy. The portion that actually hit the enemy could be made of wood or metal or anything you had. One type of flail was called a mace. A mace is a flail with a round metal ball with spikes at the end of short chain. Flails were invented as an agricultural tool. But it was soon recognized as a useful as a weapon. If you had a piece of wood and a piece of rope, you could make a flail and have something to use to defend yourself.
Archers used longbows and arrows, the arrows tipped with poison for battle. Longbows were usually as tall as the user, which is how they got their name. A smaller weapon was the very lethal crossbow. Crossbow arrows were made of metal and considerably smaller in size than longbow arrows. Because the arrows were smaller, you could carry more of them at one time. Unlike longbows, crossbows could be hidden and used in a surprise attack.
The caltrop was a metal spike that you threw on the ground in front of an advancing army. Any man or horse that accidently stepped on a caltrop would be injured and slowed down.
Shields were hand held and used to protect fighters.
Chain mail was worn to protect the body. It was made of thousands of interlinked rings of metal. Chain mail was expensive, but it did help the wearer survive a glancing blow. A direct hit, with a sharp point, however, could penetrate chain mail.
Armor started as metal helmets and shields. Then metalsmiths began making metal plates of steel that covered the chest. Over time, a suit of armor was developed that covered the wearer from head to toe. These suits were expensive, hot, heavy, and took a great deal of practice to use. They added a lot of weight for a horse to carry, which was a drawback. Because a full suit of armor was so heavy, the wearer often had trouble getting up again without help. This, too, was a drawback.
Gunpowder entered the Middle Ages around the 1300s. It took time to create weapons and techniques to effectively use this new weapon - gunpowder.
One of the ways a knight could practice and improve his skills without actually going into battle was to enter a tournament. In addition to practice, a knight could win public acclaim as well as money by winning a tournament.
The tournament area would be either walled off with a temporary fence or maybe just roped off. The nobles sat in wooden stands while the commoners would sit in the fields nearby to watch. A tournament was a big event and people came from far away to watch.
A tournament's activities included all the skills a knight was supposed to have. There would be fighting of all types as well as contests of poetry and song. The two favorite events were the joust and melee.
Jousting was combat between two knights. The two started from opposite sides of a field and charged their horses towards each other. The goal was to knock the other knight off his horse. They started with lances then when the lances broke they used swords or axes. Broken bones and even death were normal to the joust.
Melee was combat between two teams of knights and squires. The goal was to capture the flag each knight and squire had on their back. They wore armor and used swords, axes and clubs to do this. Again broken bones and deaths were common.
Jousting is still practiced today (with a lot more safeguards in place to limit injury) at many Renaissance fairs and tournaments.