The Middle Ages

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The Middle Ages

• A Time
• of
• Knights, Ladies,
• and Literature

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The Battle of HastingsOctober 14, 1066

• William Duke of Normandy defeated the Anglo-Saxon
  King Harold.
• This defeat radically changed English history and
  the English language.
• The French language became a strong influence on
  the English language.

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William the Conqueror

• Claimed that the English throne had been promised
  to him
• Efficient and ruthless soldier
• Made French the official language of the kings
  court and of the government

• Great administrative feat was an inventory of
  nearly every piece of property land, cattle,
  buildings recorded in the Domesday Book
• People could be taxed based on what they owned.

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The Norman Influence

• Brought administrative ability
• Emphasis on law and order
• Encouraged cultural unity
• Brought England into mainstream European
  civilization
• Borrowed French words and incorporated them into
  the English language

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Feudalism

• A pyramid system based on a social system.
• It also was a caste system, a property system,
  and a military system.
• The king appointed vassals and then allotted them
  portions of his land in exchange for their
  loyalty.
• Those vassals appointed vassals under them, who
  they required to take an oath of fealty, and so
  on.
• Serfs were landless peasants who were not free to
  leave the land they worked.

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People of the Feudal System

• At the top of the pyramid is the king who held
  land as a vassal by divine right.
• Next were the barons who pledged allegiance to
  the king.
• The system worked its way down to the landless
  knights and serfs.

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The Knights

• Expected to serve as warriors, males above the
  serf class were trained as knights.
• Primary duty - military service to their lords
• Knights lived by a code of chivalry that governed
  their conduct in all situations.
• Loyalty was the most important code of the knights

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• The knight carried an array of weapons lance,
  dagger, sword, battle-ax, and club-headed mace.
• A suit of armor could weigh as much as 120
  pounds.
• Battle during hot weather was extremely dangerous
  for the knight. Heatstroke, heart failure,
  suffocation, and even drowning were always a
  possibility.
• Only aristocratic knights could afford the cost
  of armor and the other trappings that were
  necessary.
• The knight and his horse were considered
  invulnerable. The invention of the longbow and
  later the musketball drastically changed medieval
  warfare, and the knights role became a courtly
  one instead of one of a combatant.

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The Code of Chivalry

• A code of conduct
• A knights first obligation was to defend his
  lord, the king, and the Christian faith.
• The code also included how to treat a lady, how
  to help others, and how to resist the urge to run
  away if captured.
• The word chivalry comes from French and is
  related to cheval, the word for horse. Riding
  was an important skill for any knight.

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Women No Rights

• Women in the Middle Ages had no political rights.
• A womans social standing depended completely on
  her husbands or fathers status.
• Even the Church viewed women as inferior to men.

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• For peasant women life was a ceaseless round of
  childbearing, housework, and hard fieldwork.
• Women of higher station were occupied with
  childbearing and household supervision. When the
  husband was away, the wife might manage the
  entire estate until his return.
• Chivalry brought about an idealized attitude
  towards women, but it did little to improve their
  actual position.

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The New City Classes

• Development of city classes lower, middle, and
  upper-middle
• Emerging merchant class had its own tastes in the
  arts plus the ability to pay for what it wanted
  (peoples art)
• Expression of their point of view (merchant
  class) of life was evident in the mystery and
  miracle plays

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The Crusades

• A series of wars waged by Eastern
• Europeans against the Muslims with Jerusalem
  and the Holy Land as the prize.
• Exposed the Crusaders to a more sophisticated
  culture than they knew at home
• Introduced the Crusaders to new foods, spices,
  academics, and medical techniques
• Also, the Crusaders discovered that Arab
  universities were established before their
  European counterparts.

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The Magna Carta

• In 1215, the English barons forced King John to
  sign the Magna Carta in an effort to curb the
  Churchs power.
• The signing was a defeat for central papal power.
• The document later became the basis for English
  constitutional law.

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Important Events

• The Hundred Years War England fought with
  France over the French throne. The English lost,
  but with this war came the yeoman (small
  landowner) being held as the ideal instead of the
  knight. This ideal led to a more democratic
  England.

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Important Events

• The Black Death - The bubonic plague killed a
  third of the English population. It was spread by
  fleas from infected rats and was highly
  contagious.
• The plague caused a labor shortage and helped
  bring feudalism to an end.

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