The Middle Ages

Introduction to the Middle Ages

Historians use the phrase “Middle Ages” to describe Europe between the fall of Rome in 476 CE and the beginning of the Renaissance in the 14th century.

Many scholars also call the era the “medieval period”

The rise of the Church

After the fall of Rome, no single state or government united the people who lived on the European continent. Instead, the Catholic Church became the most powerful institution of the medieval period. Kings, queens and other leaders derived much of their power from their alliances with and protection of the Church.

Ordinary people across Europe had to “tithe” 10 percent of their earnings each year to the Church; at the same time, the Church was mostly exempt from taxation. These policies helped it to amass a great deal of money and power.

The feudal system

In medieval Europe, rural life was governed by a system historians call “feudalism.”

In a feudal society, the king granted large pieces of land called fiefs to noblemen and bishops. Landless peasants known as serfs did most of the work on the fiefs: They planted and harvested crops and gave most of the produce to the landowner. In exchange for their labor, they were allowed to live on the land. They were also promised protection in case of enemy invasion.

The Black Death

Between 1347 and 1350, a mysterious disease known as the "Black Death" (the bubonic plague) killed some 20 million people in Europe—30 percent of the continent’s population. It was especially deadly in cities, where it was impossible to prevent the transmission of the disease from one person to another.

  1. The Middle Ages empires

Activity 1. Who was in charge in the Middle Ages?

To do: Create a PowerPoint titled - The World in the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages began in the 5th CE with the fall of the Roman Empire and ended with the Enlightenment in the 15th CE.

We are going to create a PowerPoint with some examples of important empires around the world during the Middle Ages. Each slide should be titled and include a map and some photos.

Include the following empires in your timeline.

  • The Byzantine Empire - Turkey

  • The Mayan Empire - Central America

  • Wagadu Empire - Africa

  • The Arab Caliphate

  • Rashtrakuta Dynasty - India

  • The Chola Dynasty - India

  • Angkor Empire - Cambodia

  • The Tang Dynasty - China

  • Aboriginals - Australia

  • Vikings - Europe

Using Google Image Search:

By using keywords in your searches you will improve the relevance of your results.

 For example:

Daily Life - Songhai Africa

Art - Ottoman Empire

2. Daily life in the Middle Ages

The Peasants life

About nine tenths of the people were peasants--farmers or village labourers. Only a few of these were freemen--peasants who were not bound to a lord and who paid only a fixed rent for their land. The vast majority were serfs and villeins who were tied to the land.

A peasant village housed perhaps ten to 60 families. Each family lived in a dark, dank hut made of wood or wicker daubed with mud and thatched with straw or rushes. Layers of straw or reeds covered the floor, fouled by the pigs, chickens, and other animals housed with the family. The one bed was a pile of dried leaves or straw. All slept in their rough garb, with skins of animals for cover. A cooking fire of peat or wood burned drearily day and night in a clearing on the dirt floor. The smoke seeped out through a hole in the roof or the open half of a two-piece door. The only furniture was a plank table on trestles, a few stools, perhaps a chest, and probably a loom for the women to make their own cloth. Every hut had a vegetable patch.

Famines were frequent. Plagues depleted the livestock. Frosts, floods, and droughts destroyed the crops. Bursts of warfare ravaged the countryside as the lords burned each other's fields and harvests.

The peasants' lot was hard, but most historians consider it little worse than that of peasants today. Because of the many holidays, or holy days, in the Middle Ages, peasants actually laboured only about 260 days a year. They spent their holidays in church festivals, watching wandering troups of jongleurs, journeying to mystery or miracle plays, or engaging in wrestling, bowling, cockfights, apple bobs, or dancing.

Activity 2.A guide to daily life in the Middle Ages.

Include the following points in your guide:

What did people do for work?

2. Organising society in the Middle Ages

When William, Duke of Normandy (William the Conqueror) conquered England in 1066, he confiscated all the land from the Saxons who owned it, and distributed it amongst the Barons who had supported his invasion.

After this, historians say, England became a 'perfect' feudal government.

 

William the Conqueror, created the Domesday Book (1086). He sent officials to all parts of England to assess and value the wealth of the land and who owned it. 

All medieval people paid homage, a promise to be loyal, to their 'lord'.

There were no rules or restrictions on the power of the king.

Activity 3. The Feudal System

The feudal system was a way of organising society

The feudal system was introduced to England following the invasion and conquest of the country by William I, The Conqueror.

 The feudal system had been used in France by the Normans from the time they first settled there in about 900AD. It was a simple, but effective system, where all land was owned by the King. One quarter was kept by the King as his personal property, some was given to the church and the rest was leased out under strict controls.

To do:

  1. Use this example to draw a diagram that shows the structure of Feudal society.

  2. Describe the responsibilities of each of the four levels from the king down to the peasants

Feudalism extra activities

Use the article on Time Maps to write an article explaining the reasons for the decline of feudalism and how this led to the development of modern Europe.

  1. Feudalism - Timemaps

Middle Ages sources

 Source 1. From ‘Medieval History’, Cantwell et al. 1998

After William conquered England in 1066, he made himself King and organised a land ownership system called the feudal system. It was created to help William manage the land and people. He placed loyal nobles all over England. They were to look after the land and, especially, the farm workers (peasants) who might cause trouble. William kept some land for himself and divided the remaining land among the high noblemen (lords or barons) in exchange for their loyalty, services and taxes. Each lord had a manor, which included his castle or large manor house, a village and the land around it. The lord gave some to each of the lower nobles, knights, in exchange for their loyalty, duties such as military service, and taxes. Other knights were provided with food and shelter and paid in return for their military services.

Questions 

  1. Explain why the Source states that “the farm workers (peasants)… might cause trouble” for William.    

  2. How were loyal nobles and knights rewarded for their service?

Source 2. Quote from a medieval record. 12th C England

'It is to be noted that none of the above named villeins can give their daughters in marriage, nor allow their sons to become monks, nor cut down timber growing on the lands they hold, without permission of the bailiff or the lord.  And after the death of anyone of the aforesaid villeins, the lord shall have as a fee his best animal if he had any.'

Questions

  1. What evidence is there in Source 5 that the whole of a villein’s family was valuable to the lord, not just the villein himself

  2. Can you find any evidence that the villeins might be extremely poor?

  3. Is the source primary of secondary

Source 3. Medieval painting of peasants making a rush fence for the lord’s land in winter.

Questions

  1. What other type of common peasant work is shown in Source 4 in addition to making a fence?

  2. What types of important work done by peasants don’t we learn about from Source 4?

  3. Is the source primary of secondary

Source 4. From ‘A history of Medieval Europe’, Richards and English, 1992.

 At the bottom of the feudal structure were the peasants.  These people made up about ninety percent of the population, but had no power and controlled practically no wealth.  All the power and wealth were in the hands of the king and his nobles.  Many nobles believed that the role of the peasants was to make their lives as pleasant as possible.

… (one type of peasant was) the villeins, who had no land of their own but were granted land in the big fields around the village, which they farmed to keep themselves and their families fed.  On three days a week, however, they had to work for the lord in return for their grant of land.  …  Villeins were not free, and were bound to one lord permanently.

Questions

  1. How did the nobles view the peasants?

  2. Explain the difference between the Villeins and the Peasants