Medieval Life And Culture

Medieval Life And Culture

Class Structure Feudalism was practiced in the middle ages, it is a society where the landholding Lords rule over there own estate, or city, and have Peasants work the land for them. They have mutual protection treaties with the other Lords and are loyal to a king.

King Feudal Classes Lords with allegiances sworn to a king and treaties with each other Vassal s or Liege, someone who enters into a mutual obligations with a Lord, usually military support in exchange for certain guarantees. Fief, he is given inheritable lands or revenue producing property by a Vassal, in return for a form of allegiance, usually military duty Knights, lowest class of gentry, warriors with allegiances sworn to a Lord and/or other knights. Peasants, the poor ordinary people who worked the Lords Lands, and had bad food, pay, and life.

A Feudal Estate On each estate, you had the manor house, the peasants village, a church, a Blacksmiths shop, and everything else you would find in a normal city. The Manor house was at the center of the village/estate, a church was nearby and the rest of the peasants were spread out over the grounds.

The Medieval Church In Medieval times society was predominately Catholic. The Vatican held more power than most of the kings, and they exercised it. They started the Crusades, they also were responsible for the destruction of the Templar Knights, and the Pope was the most powerful man in the world. Every city, village and large estate had it s own cathedral or church. The most famous Cathedral built in the Middle Ages was Notre Dame de Paris, construction began in 1160 and was structurally completed in 1250, and then some extra interior work was done from 1250 1345.

Religion in the Middle Ages Many People were drawn to monastic life in the middle ages. Life in a monastery was one of rigorous schedules and self sacrifice. Monks often wrote, copied and decorated books. The monks also took care of the poor, sick, and dying.

The Knights Knight is a term used to describe a social position in the Middle Ages. The Knight was part of the gentry even though he was not a noble. His job was to lead the cavalry in war. The title indicates prosperity and the ownership of a war horse. It was from the Knights that the notion of chivalry emerged. They were required to swear an allegiance to a lord or a superior noble. Knights could also knight other knights, but only if that person was from the gentry, only Kings and royalty could knight peasants. Knights would often band together to form knighthoods, or military orders like the Teutonic Knights of Prussia, or the more famous Knights Templar; the background is their headquarters, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Teutonic Knights ruled in Prussia until 1525, and they still exist today.

The Tournament Tournament reinactment The Tournament in the Middle Ages consisted of the melee and the Joust. Oddly jousting was never the main event of the tournament, the melee, a general fight, where the knights were divided into two sides and charged each other, was. Tournaments were usually held on Mondays and Tuesdays, and never on Friday and Sunday. They couldn t be held during Lent, and were only held in peacetime as a way of keeping knights skills sharp.

The Bubonic Plague The plague arrived in Europe in October 1347 and spread all the way to England by June 1348, and Russia by 1351. It was carried by rats on Genovese merchant ships. A smaller outbreak of it in 1665 1666 in England killed between 75000 100000 people. The first recorded case was Margaret Porteous on April 12, 1665. The Great Fire of London from Sunday Sept. 2, 1666 to Wednesday Sept. 5, 1666 seemingly stopped the spread of the plague and helped sanitize the city, it burnt all the buildings and the contaminated clothes, and items in the city. Incidentally, this was also the fire that burnt down the Globe Theatre where Shakespeare preformed.

New Inventions Most people don t realize that the Dark Ages were as productive as they were. The compass (12 th century), cannon (1324), blast furnace (1150 1350), corned gunpowder (late 14 th century), counterweight trebuchet (12 th century), grindstone (834), heavy plough (5 th 8 th century), hops (11 th century), horizontal loom (11 th century), horse collar (6 th 9 th century), Horseshoe (9 th century), hourglass (1338), mirrors (1180), magnets (12 th century), mechanical clocks (13 th 14 th century), paper (13 th century), segmental arch bridge (1345), silk (6 th century), stern mounted rudders (1180 s), spectacles (1280 s), watermark (1282), and the wheelbarrow (1170 s) were all Medieval inventions. The 1586 Tsar Cannon, the largest Howitzer ever built. Built by Andrey Chokhov. Weighs 18 metric tons, 5.34 meters long, 890 mm caliber, outer diameter of 1200 mm. It was intened to fire grapeshot in defense of the Kremlin, but was never used.