The Middle Ages

(aka)
The Medieval Times
An insight into the time of Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, &
Knights in shining armors
 Objective of the Day
I will be able to get an understanding and begin analyzing:

- The history of the Middle Ages

- The romanticism and evolution of the Medieval time period in media portrayal
- The implications history & culture had on the development of literature

Why is this important? How can it be applied?

- History and literature are very closely tied together.

- Understanding the history of a time period helps us conceptualize certain elements that are part of
the writing works.
- History also helps us see the evolution of certain elements by comparing them to ideologies &
notions that exist in our society, culture, and literature today.
 Do Now
Answer the two questions using two words for each. This will help
us conceptualize how the notions that arose from the Middle Ages
have been depicted over time versus what they were actually like in
history.
In order to do this, please visit this link
https://www.menti.com/u579ram1r8 or simply go to
https://www.menti.com/ and enter this code in: 1837 514
 Medieval Depiction in Movies

Comedic Depiction
Romantic Depiction

Historical Depiction
 The Medieval Period: Myth vs. Reality

■ We think of knights in shining armor, lavish banquets, wandering

minstrels, kings, queens, bishops, monks, pilgrims, and glorious
pageantry.
■ In film and in literature, medieval life seems heroic, entertaining, and
romantic. This is true even today when using medieval aspects of life in
media but it will always be overly romanticized.
■ In reality, life in the
th
Middle Ages, a period that extended from
approximately the 5 century to the 15th century in Western Europe,
could also be harsh, uncertain, and dangerous.
■ This does not mean that people were necessarily uneducated, but life
demanded a harsher exterior for survival.
 Life in the Middle Ages: The Lord of the Manor
■ For safety and defense, people in the Middle Ages formed
small communities around a central lord or master.
■ Most people lived on a manor, which consisted of the
castle (or manor house), the church, the village, and the
surrounding farmland.
■ Each manor was largely self-sufficient, 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.
■ These manors were isolated, with occasional visits from
peddlers, pilgrims on their way to the Crusades, or soldiers
from other fiefdoms.
 The Middle Ages – Norman Invasion
■ 1066 – Duke William of Normandy invaded
England with help from Norway
■ One-day long battle
■ Defeated and killed King Harold of England
■ William felt entitled to the English throne since
he was cousin to King Edward (Edward the
Confessor, previous king, left no heirs)
■ Combined Norman emphasis on law and
order with Anglo Saxon democracy and
culture
■
The Feudal System
Caste system (social class)
■ Military system
■ Property system
■ System of social behavior
■ Top of the Ladder: William the Conqueror
○ Barons, vassals, lower vassals, landless knights, serfs
■ 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.
EVENTUALLY…
■ many people left the country and moved to the cities
■ City classes not defined by the feudal system
■ Upper, middle, lower
■ Middle class = merchant class who could afford what they
Nobles and Vassals
■ Nobles divided their land among the lesser nobility,
who became their vassals. A vassal was an
aristocratic dependent tenant who received land
from a lord in exchange for service as a form of
loyalty. No limit to the lords they could serve, and they
could become lords by giving out their land. Many of
these vassals became so powerful that the kings had
difficulty controlling them.
■ For knights, chivalry was a system of ideals that
governed knights.
○ Loyalty to overlord
○ Rules of warfare
○ Adoration of a lady
■ At the lowest level of society were the peasants, also
called serfs.
■ The lord offered his peasants protection in
exchange for living and working on his land.
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.
■ The peasant diet: The wife did
the cooking and baking. The
peasant diet consisted of
breads, vegetables from their
own gardens, dairy products
from their own sheep, goats,
and cows, and pork from
their own livestock.
Women: Household Chores
■ Whether they were nobles or
peasants, women held a difficult
position in society.
■ They were largely confined to
household tasks such as cooking,
baking bread, sewing, weaving, and
spinning.
■ However, they also hunted for food
and fought in battles, learning to
use weapons to defend their homes
and castles.
■ Some medieval women held other
occupations. There were women
blacksmiths, merchants, and
apothecaries.
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.
■ Major positive effect of Church- Cultural
Unity: a system of beliefs and symbols that
transcended the national cultures of
Europe
■ Church leaders such as bishops and
archbishops sat on the king's council and
played leading roles in government.
■ Monasteries in the Middle Ages were based
on the rules set down by St. Benedict in the
sixth century. The monks became known as
Benedictines and took vows of poverty,
chastity, and obedience to their leaders.
■ Church was center of learning, anf Latin
remained the language of educated
Europeans
 Education
● Education during the Middle Ages
was heavily dependent on the
teachings & writings of Christianity/
The Bible, as that was one of the only
& most early pieces of literature to be
widely adopted during this time.
● Between prayers, the monks read or
copied religious texts and music.
Monks were often well educated
and devoted their lives to writing
and learning. Aristocrats were the
only ones who may be educated.
Peasants never got the opportunity to
be educated or get an education since
they were required to work most of
the time.
■
Health & Hygiene
As the populations of medieval towns and cities increased,
hygienic conditions worsened, leading to a vast array of health
problems.
■ Medical knowledge was limited and, despite the efforts of
medical practitioners and public and religious institutions to
institute regulations, medieval Europe did not have an
adequate health care system. Antibiotics weren't invented
until the 1800s and it was almost impossible to cure
diseases without them.
■ There were many myths and superstitions about health and
hygiene as there still are today. People believed, for example,
that disease was spread by bad odors. It was also assumed
that diseases of the body resulted from sins of the soul.
Many people sought relief from their ills through
meditation, prayer, pilgrimages, and other non-medical
methods.
■
Four Humors
The body was viewed as a part of the universe, a
concept derived from the Greeks and Romans.
Four humors, or body fluids, were directly
related to the four elements.
■ Fire: yellow bile or choler
■ Water: phlegm
■ Earth: black bile
■ Air: blood.
■ These four humors had to be balanced. Too much
of one was thought to cause a change in
personality--for example, too much black bile
could create melancholy.
■ Medicine was often a risky business. Bloodletting
was a popular method of restoring a patient's
health and "humors." Early surgery, often done
by barbers without anesthesia, must have been
excruciating.
 Medical Treatment
■ Medical treatment was available
mainly to the wealthy, and those living
in villages rarely had the help of
doctors, who practiced mostly in the
cities and courts. Remedies were often
herbal in nature, but also included
ground earthworms, urine, and
animal excrement.
■ Surgery was performed as a last resort,
surgery was known to be successful in
cases of breast cancer, fistula,
hemorrhoids, gangrene, and cataracts,
as well as tuberculosis of the lymph
glands in the neck (scrofula). The most
common form of surgery was Worst Jobs in History:
bloodletting; it was meant to restore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPgkfxuyB
the balance of fluids in the body. gM
 Crusades & Hundred Years’ War
■ Crusades (1095-1270):
■ Series of religious wars to
spread Christianity throughout
Europe
■ Struggle against Muslims
■ Ultimately a failure and the
death toll of Jews & Muslims
was enormous
■ Europe benefited from
contact with higher
civilization of Middle East
■ Hundred Years’ War
■ Battles between
England and France
■ Lasted over 100
years (1337-1453)
■ Feud stemming from
Norman Invasion
■ Militarily
unsuccessful for
Britain; did increase
sense of nationalism
 Martyrdom of Sir Thomas a Becket
■ Thomas à Becket was a Norman who had
great power in England as well as Catholic
church (prime minister and Archbishop)
■ King Henry helped him reach this position
hoping that he would have more control in
the Church
■ Sided with the Pope rather than the King
■ King Henry II (half joking) said he
wanted Thomas put to death - “Will no one
rid me of this turbulent priest?”
■ Three of King Henry’s knights took the
order as truth and killed Thomas in the
cathedral at Canterbury
 Martyrdom of Sir Thomas a Becket
■ Saint Thomas the Martyr
■ Made a saint and martyred by a cult following who
opposed the king
■ People made pilgrimages to Canterbury to honor
Saint Thomas’s memory
■ The Canterbury Tales are a fictional collection of
stories from a group of people making this
pilgrimage to Canterbury. This setback allowed
critics like Chaucer to begin commenting on the
political corruption, violence, and greed.
 The Magna Carta “Great Charter”
■ In 1215, the English barons
formed an alliance that forced
King John to sign the Magna
Carta. It limited the king's
powers of taxation and
required trials by jury. It was
the first time that an English
monarch was subject to the law.
Served as the basis for English
constitutional law
 Black Death
■ Highly contagious plague- also known as the
Bubonic Plague (1348-1349)
■ Spread through cities from fleas of infested rats
■ Killed 1/3 of people in England
■ Gave more power to people in lower classes
■ Caused labor shortage
■ Lower class workers willing to work could negotiate
wages and working conditions
■ Start of the end of the Middle Ages and fourth would
come Elizabeth I & the Age of the Renaissance
 Test Your Knowledge
You will have a quiz on these notes next class so please prepare by studying
before our next class!

Also please complete the following assignment on Google Classroom

titled as “Middle Ages Critical Thinking Questions” and complete the
short-response, as well as, the true or false questions. Submit your answers for
a grade before Wednesday 24th.

Any questions?