Transcript Life in the Middle Ages

Life in the Middle Ages
- Explain the role of serfs in feudalism.
- List and describe the different levels of feudalism.
- Explain the purpose of the craft guilds.
- Explain how feudalism and the manor system affected
the lives of the nobility in medieval Europe.
- Explain how the manor system led to the growth of
towns and cities.
The Church
• Christianity was an important part of daily life.
• Not all Europeans were Christians, but most
were.
• Christians went on a pilgrimage – to Rome or
Jerusalem.
• Rome was considered the “kingdom of the
Christians.”
– The pope, or Christian leader, lived in Rome.
– He was just as powerful as the king.
Building Cathedrals
• Cathedrals had magnificent stained
windows.
• Entire towns worked to build these large
churches.
• The Chartres Cathedral in northwestern,
France began in 1145 and was completed
in 1260.
The Church
Devotion to Christianity
• Some young people devoted their lives to
religion.
– The men who did this were called monks.
• They studied, prayed, and lived in communities called
monasteries.
– The women who did this were called nuns.
• They lived in convents.
• Monasteries and convents served as centers for
religion and education.
• In addition to studying and praying, monks and
nuns cultivated the land.
• Some monks became missionaries, or people
who teach a religion to people with different
beliefs.
Feudalism
• Because of not having strong
governments, people formed their own
system to meet their need for protection
and justice.
• Feudalism was a political, social, and
economic system that began in the 800s.
• It provided the needed protection for
people.
The Feudal System
Feudalism – A Social Structure
• At the top of this social pyramid was the
monarch, a king or queen who was the
supreme ruler.
• The next level included lords who pledged their
loyalty to the monarch and military support in the
event of a conflict.
– In return, the monarch granted the lord an estate.
• The lord maintained the land, collected taxes,
enforced order, and protected the serfs.
– The serfs were the people who lived on the land and
farmed it.
The Knights
• Many lords had knights, or warriors
trained and prepared to fight on
horseback.
• Knights had a code of behavior called
chivalry.
– A true knight had deep faith, was ready to die
for the church, gave generously to all, and
used his strength to stand against injustice.
A Knight’s Armor
Feudalism Declines
• Serfs formed the base of the society in the
Middle Ages.
• Serfs did not have to be loyal to anyone.
• They were not slaves, but could not become
knights.
– They could not be bought or sold separate from the
land.
– They could not leave the land without the lord’s
permission.
• Feudalism began to decline when lords began to
build up their own military power and became
independent of the monarch.
The Manor System
• The manor system was a way to manage
feudal lands.
• Manors had four parts:
– The manor house and village
– Farmland
– Meadowland
– Wasteland
• The manor house or castle was home to
the lord of the estate.
The Manor System
• Most manors contained gardens around
the castles.
• They also included a church and a mill for
grinding grain into flour.
• Serfs cottages were clustered together
forming a small village.
– A cottage usually consisted of a single room
with little floor space and a low ceiling.
– They had small vegetable and fruit gardens.
A Serf’s Cottage
The Life of a Serf
• Many serfs shared their cottages with
other serfs.
– They shared livestock and other animals on
the manor.
• They warmed themselves with wood they
chopped from nearby forests.
• Many serfs worshiped in churches.
• Serfs worked the land using the threefield rotation system.
Three Field Rotation System
• Each serf was assigned a strip of land in each of
the manor’s three fields.
• In the fall, the field was planted with wheat or
rye.
• In the spring, the second field was planted with
oats and barley.
• The third field was left empty so the soil would
stay fertile.
– Each year, the fields were rotated.
• This system met the needs of the lord, the
knights, and the serfs that lived there.
• It even allowed for crop surpluses.
– With a surplus, towns and cities grew.
Three Field Rotation System
Guilds
• A guild was a group of people united by a common
interest.
• A merchant guild included all of the traders in a town.
• The guild worked together to buy large quantities of
goods and cheaply to control the market.
• Workers such as bakers, goldsmiths, tailors, and
weavers formed craft guilds
• The guilds controlled the quantity and quality of
production.
• They protected the town’s merchants and craftspeople
from having to compete with those from outside the
town.
Medieval Women
• Most women had few rights.
• Unmarried women who owned land did have rights, but
once they married they had to give them up.
• A lady or a woman of noble birth, was given little
opportunity to make decisions about her life.
– She had little to do with the land.
– Nurses took care of the children.
• A woman living in the village had more work to do.
– They worked with their husbands on the land.
• Christine de Pisan was one of the few medieval women
to earn a living by writing.
– She wrote poetry and books protesting the way women were
both glorified and insulted by male authors.
Christine de Pisan