Transcript Spotlight on Medieval Times

The Middle Ages
The Huns
Germanic Barbarians
Charlemagne
Religion
Feudalism
The Vikings
The Norman Conquest
Knighthood
Housing
Women
Arts and Entertainment
Town Life
The Black Death
The Middle Ages
In 476 CE, warriors attacked the city of Rome
and ended more than 800 years of glory for the
“eternal city.” Historians mark the fall of Rome as the
end of ancient history. The next one thousand years
were called the Middle Ages. The Latin term for Middle
Ages is "medieval."
The beginning of the Middle Ages is often
called the "Dark Ages". Life in Europe during the
Middle Ages was very hard. Very few people could
read or write and nobody expected conditions to
improve. The only hope for most people during the
Middle Ages was their strong belief in Christianity, and
the hope that life in heaven would be better than life on
earth.
The Dark Ages were anything but dark in other
parts of the world. The Muslims in the Middle East and
North Africa studied and improved on the works of the
ancient Greeks while civilization flourished in subSaharan Africa, China, India, and the Americas.
The Huns
The Huns were possibly the most destructive people in history. They originally
came from Central Asia. About 200BC, the Huns overran the Chinese Empire. Chinese
emperor Shih Huang-ti built the massive Great Wall of China to keep the Huns out.
The Huns were pastoralists, which means they tended to animals. Throughout history,
pastoralists have generally been more warlike than
farmers, and the Huns were no exception. The Huns were skilled horsemen who used
their skills to plunder more settled people. They moved into the
land west of the Caspian Sea, forcing the Visigoths and other
Germanic tribes to move into the Roman Empire. The Huns
were illiterate and had no interest in the lands they raided.
They simply attacked and plundered.
In 445, Attila became the sole leader of the Huns after
murdering his brother. The Romans called Attila the
“Scourge of God.” He forced Rome to pay tribute, or
payment for protection.
Attila died suddenly in 453. Attila had taken a
beautiful young wife, though he had several other wives. The
day of the wedding there was a huge drunken celebration.
The next morning, the new bride was found quivering after
finding that Attila had choked to death from a nosebleed. The
threat of the Huns died with Attila. His sons were weak and
quarrelsome. Within two years the Ostrogoths and other
Germanic tribes combined to remove the Huns as a threat to
more civilized people.
Germanic Barbarians
The Romans saw themselves as having a highly advanced
civilization, and they looked down on the cultures of the people who lived
beyond the borders of their empire. In 122 CE, Emperor Hadrian built a
wall separating the Roman part of Britain from the mountainous land now
called Scotland. The Romans called the Scottish people “barbarians,”
possibly because their native Celtic language sounded like the bleating of
sheep. The term was eventually used to describe anyone who lived beyond
the borders of the Roman Empire.
The people who lived northeast of the
Roman Empire spoke languages
similar to modern German. These
“Germanic tribes” included the
Vandals, Lombards, Alamanni, Goths,
Franks, and Burgundians. Most of the
tribesmen did not know how to read,
but unlike the Huns, they tended to
farms and were not nomadic. Most
of the tribes gave up their pagan beliefs
and became Christians.
In 376, the Huns forced the Visigoths (western Goths) to leave their
homeland near the Danube River in modern Austria. The Visigoths asked the
Romans for permission to settle inside the Roman Empire. The Romans unfair
prices for food and other supplies. The Visigoths protested, and formed an army.
Alaric was a Visigoth who joined the Roman army and rose to a high rank.
He became king of the Visigoths. In 410, Alaric’s soldiers formed a siege around
Rome. When the city was close to starvation, the Roman citizens opened the gates
and allowed the conquering army to enter. The Visigoths rampaged through the
streets for three days, pillaging and burning. Alaric ordered his army not to molest
women or destroy churches. Rome was not completely destroyed,
but for the first time in nearly 800
years, the “eternal city”
had been
defeated.
Germanic tribes overran what was
left of the Roman Empire. The
Ostrogoths, or “eastern Goths,”
came from land we know call the
Ukraine. The Ostrogoths
conquered most of Italy, Greece,
and the western Balkans. The
Vandals took control of the Roman
territory in North Africa. The
Franks overran France, while the
Saxons conquered the southern
part of England.
Charlemagne
Charlemagne or Charles the Great, was the
greatest of the Frankish kings. In an era when most men
were little more than five feet tall, Charlemagne stood six
feet, four inches. He expanded the kingdom of the Franks
into Spain and Central Europe. Charlemagne’s goal was
to unite all of the Germanic tribes into a single Christian
kingdom.
On Christmas Day, 800, Pope Leo III placed a
crown on his head and proclaimed him “Augustus,”
emperor of the “Holy Roman Empire.” The coronation
united Christendom under Charlemagne’s rule.
Charlemagne never learned how to read or
write, but he wanted to recapture the glory of the Roman
Empire. He set up schools throughout his empire and
provided funds that allowed monks to copy the works of
Greek and Roman authors. Charlemagne’s empire
crumbled soon after his death, and the promise of
returning the glory of Rome to Western Europe soon
faded. The term Holy Roman Empire was used to
describe different Frankish and German lands for
another ten centuries, but it could be argued that after
Charlemagne, it wasn’t holy, it wasn’t Roman, and it
certainly was not an empire.
Religion
The Catholic Church was the
only church in Europe during
the Middle Ages, and it had its
own laws and large coffers.
Church leaders such as
bishops and archbishops sat on
the king's council and played
leading roles in government.
Bishops, who were often
wealthy and came from noble
families, ruled over groups of
parishes called "diocese."
Parish priests, on the other
hand, came from humbler backgrounds and often had little education.
The village priest tended to the sick and indigent and, if he was able,
taught Latin and the Bible to the youth of the village.
As the population of Europe expanded in the twelfth century, the
churches that had been built in the Roman style with round-arched roofs
became too small. Some of the grand cathedrals, strained to their
structural limits by their creators' drive to build higher and larger,
collapsed within a century or less of their construction.
Christendom
By the later Middle Ages, Christianity
became the universal faith of almost all of the people
of Europe. People did not think of Europe as a distinct
place until the Middle Ages had passed. Instead they
spoke of “Christendom,” or the community of Christians.
Christianity was the most important influence of the
Middle Ages.
Religious life attracted many people during the
Middle Ages. The Church was often the only way to get
an education. It also allowed poor people to escape a
dreary life and possibly rise to power. Religious workers
are called clergy. In the Middle Ages, the Pope ruled the
Christian Church. Other clergy included bishops, priests,
nuns, and monks.
Monks were men who lived in monasteries, or
small communities of religious workers. Monks devoted
their lives to prayer, and their behavior influenced the
entire church. Monasteries produced many well-educated
men prepared to serve as administrators for uneducated kings and lords. Monks were
responsible for keeping the Greek and Latin “classical” cultures alive. Monks copied
books by hand in an era before the printing press. Though few in number, monks
played a significant role in the Middle Ages.
The Byzantine Empire
In 330 CE, the Roman emperor, Constantine, moved his capital
from Rome to the Greek city of Byzantium. He wanted the capital of his empire to be
safe from barbarian invasion. Constantine renamed the city Constantinople, but we
refer to the civilization centered in Constantinople as the Byzantine Empire.
The Byzantine Empire began to look less like the Roman Empire as the years passed.
The empire covered Greece, the Balkans, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. By the seventh
century, Greek had completely replaced Latin as the language of the empire. The
Byzantine emperors still thought of themselves as the successors of Caesar
Augustus, but over the years Roman influence gradually
disappeared. Seljuk Turks began moving into the
Byzantine Empire from Central Asia in the eleventh
century. The Turks had recently become Muslims, and the
Byzantine emperor feared they would soon overpower his
Christian empire. He asked the leader of the Christian
church—the Pope—to assist in a holy war against the
Turks. In 1095, Pope Urban II launched the first of many
Crusades, or “wars of the cross.” Urban hoped that in
addition to expelling the Turks from the Byzantine Empire,
he would also be able to reclaim the holy city of Jerusalem
from Muslim control. Soldiers from western Europe left
their homes to free the Byzantine Empire of the
“unbelievers.” This was the first time many Europeans left
their homes. Their exposure to new and different cultures
was a factor that led to the Renaissance
Muslims in Europe
In 622 CE, an Arab named Muhammad
preached that an angel had visited him. The
angel told Muhammad that he was the last of
a long line of prophets that included Moses and
Jesus. Muhammad called on people to
renounce all other faiths and to submit to the
will of Allah. Allah is an Arabic word that means
God. He called the new faith Islam, which
means “submission to Allah”; the people who
practice Islam are called Muslims (sometimes
spelled Moslems). The faith spread quickly
through the Middle East and across North
Africa, eventually reaching people in northwest
Africa that the Romans called Moors.
The Visigoths had ruled Spain until 711, when the Moors crossed into
Spain from North Africa. For the next three centuries, the Moors
controlled most of Spain. Spain enjoyed a “golden age.” The Moors
built Spain into a thriving center of culture and scholarship. The
Moors were Muslims, but they were generally tolerant of the
Christians and Jews who lived in Spain. Spanish Jews benefited from
the tolerant policies of the Moors. This enabled them to have one of
the most prosperous periods in their history.
Feudalism
Feudalism was the system of loyalties and
protections during the Middle Ages. As the Roman
Empire crumbled, emperors granted land to nobles
in exchange for their loyalty. These lands eventually
developed into manors. A manor is the land owned by
a noble and everything on it. A typical manor
consisted of a castle, small village, and farmland.
During the Middle Ages, peasants could no
longer count on the Roman army to protect them.
Germanic and Viking tribes overran homes and farms
throughout Europe. The peasants turned to the
landowners, often called lords, to protect them.
Many peasants remained free, but most became serfs. A serf was bound to
the land. He could not leave without buying his freedom, an unlikely
occurrence in the Middle Ages. Life for a serf was not much better than the life
of a slave. The only difference was that a serf could not be sold to another
manor.
Serfs would often have to work three or four days a week for the lord
as rent. They would spend the rest of their week growing crops to feed their
families. Other serfs worked as sharecroppers. A sharecropper would be
required to turn over most of what he grew in order to be able to live on the
land.
The
Vikings
The Vikings were fierce
warriors
that threatened the security of
Charlemagne's empire. The Vikings came from Norway, Sweden, and
Denmark, lands we now call Scandinavia. The Vikings were skilled sailors
whose advanced methods of shipbuilding gave them an advantage over
other Europeans. The largest Viking ships could hold as many as 100
sailors and travel at high speed. Viking ships required a depth of only
three feet, so they could be used on rivers to travel inland. The Viking
ships were strong enough to withstand the fury of the sea, but light
enough to be carried around waterfalls.
The Vikings used their sailing skills to attack without warning and quickly
escape. At first they attacked and left with as much as they could carry.
Later, they settled down and colonized areas they conquered. By the
tenth century, the Vikings
controlled
parts of Britain, France,
and Russia, and
raided lands as far away
as Egypt.
Other Vikings sailed west and
discovered Iceland. About 980,
Erik the
Red sailed further west
and began a
settlement on icecovered land he called
Greenland. Viking
legends indicate that
Erik’s son, Leif
Eriksson, reached North
America.
The Norman Conquest
One group of Vikings settled in Normandy,
a section of northwest France. They adopted the French
language and Christian faith, but they retained their
ancestors’ taste for adventure. William the Conqueror
was a powerful Norman ruler who invaded England in
1066. For the next three hundred years, England
would be ruled by kings who did not speak English.
The Normans imported French-speaking craftsmen,
cooks, and scholars. The modern English language
reflects the high status of the French Normans and
the low status of the English field hands. We refer
to animals in the field by their English names (cow,
ox, sheep), while food that has been prepared and
brought to the table generally has French names (beef, veal, mutton).
The Norman Conquest destroyed English rule and created a French
military state. The Normans seized English lands and destroyed any English
opposition. William paid for his projects by imposing taxes. He completed a
thorough census, or survey of the land, wealth, population, resources, and
taxable capacity of England. The result was what the English people called the
“Domesday Book”. The English hated the harsh Norman rule, but the taxation
records survive to this day.
The Norman conquest was the beginning of centuries of hostilities
between England and France. The nations fought the “Hundred Years’ War”
between 1336 and 1453.
Knighthood
Knights in the Middle Ages fought for their lords in battle. They
even had to protect the castle before the year 900 AD. Before you
become a knight, you must go through these stages: page, squire, then
armiger. The sons of the nobles were sent to a lord's house at the age
of seven to serve him as a page. As a page he is taught manners, skills
in serving food, and he also learns how to read and write. When the
page turns thirteen he will be named a squire. At the stage of squire
prepared himself by learning how to handle a sword and lance while
wearing forty pounds of armor and riding a horse.
Once the lord thought that you were skilled
enough to go with him into battle, he turned
you into an armiger. After the armiger stage,
the youth could become a real knight. At the
granting ceremony, the lord who trained him
will dub him with the flat surface of his sword
and he is now officially a knight. A young man
could also become a knight for valor in combat
after a battle or sometimes before a battle to
help him gain courage.
Weapons and Armor
Protecting oneself in battle has always been a concern
for any soldier, and medieval knights were no
exception. At first the armor was made of small metal
rings called chain mail. A knight wore a linen shirt and
a pair of pants as well as heavy woolen pads underneath
the metal-ringed tunic. A suit of chain mail could have more
than 200,000 rings. However, chain mail was heavy,
uncomfortable, and difficult to move in. As time passed,
knights covered their bodies with plates of metal. Plates
covered their chests, back, arms, and legs. A bucket like
helmet protected the knight’s head and had a hinged metal
visor to cover his face. Suits of armor were hot, uncomfortable, and heavy to wear. A
suit of armor weighed between forty and sixty pounds. Some knights even protected
their horses in armor.
A knight also needed a shield to hold in front of
himself during battle. Shields were made of either wood or
metal. Knights decorated their shields with their family
emblem or crest and the family motto.
A knight's weapon was his sword, which was about
thirty-two pounds. It was worn on his left side in a case
fastened around his waist. A knife was worn on the knight’s
right side. Knights used other weapons in combat as well. A
lance was a long spear used in jousts. Metal axes, battle
hammers, and maces were also used to defeat the enemy.
Tournaments
Tournaments provided a means for knights
to practice warfare and build their strength in times
of peace. Tournaments were essentially mock
battles with audiences. They were an essential part
of military and social life. Lances and swords were
blunted, but tournaments were a place where
reputations were made, so the fighting was hard
and dangerous. Challengers erected tents at one
end of the ground and hung a shield outside. A
knight accepting the challenge rode up and touched
his lance to the shield. If two people fought a
tournament, it was usually by jousting. The two
knights would gallop across the list at each other. They carried long, blunt lances
and shields. The objective was to knock the other person out of his saddle. Many
people did get hurt or die by accident. These "war games" consisted of individual
contests (jousts), and group combat. Prizes were given to the winners, and some
knights made their fortunes on the tournament circuit.
The armor worn in tourneys was different from regular battle gear. It was
very heavy and padded inside. It was also extremely cumbersome.
The winner of the jousts was awarded a prize by the Queen of Beauty,
elected for the occasion from amongst the women present. By the 14th century
tournaments became rousing fairs complete with singing, dancing, and feasting
which might last for several days.
Heraldry - Coat of Arms
Heraldry (symbols identifiable with individuals or
families) or coats of arms originated as a way to
identify knights in battle or in tournaments. With
the advent of the "great" or "barrel" helmet, an
individual's face became concealed. It therefore
became necessary to create a method to
distinguish ally from enemy.
Heraldic symbols ranged from simple geometric
shapes such as chevrons, to more elaborate drawings of real or mythological
animals. As with the honor of becoming a knight, heraldic insignia became
hereditary, being passed on from father to son, or with the family name. Eventually
heraldic symbols also came to signify kingdoms, duchies, or provinces as a
medieval forerunner to our modern national flags.
Heraldic symbols were often worn on the knight's
surcoat (thus the term "coat of arms"), shield,
helmet, or on a banner (standard) that could serve
as a rallying point for knights and others scattered
in the chaos of battle. The standard was always
to be elevated as long as the battle continued,
and therefore was guarded well. A standard
taken down would signal the allied combatants
that the cause was lost and it was time to flee the
field of combat.
Housing
Most medieval homes were cold, damp, and dark. Sometimes it was
warmer and lighter outside the home than within its walls. For security
purposes, windows, when they were present, were very small openings with
wooden shutters that were closed at night or in bad weather. The small size
of the windows allowed those inside to see out, but kept outsiders from
looking in.
Many peasant families ate, slept, and spent time together in very
small quarters, rarely more than one or two rooms. The houses had thatched
roofs and were easily destroyed.
The homes of the rich were more elaborate than the peasants'
homes. Their floors were paved, as
opposed to being strewn with rushes
and herbs, and sometimes decorated
with tiles. Tapestries were hung on the
walls, providing not only decoration but
also an extra layer of warmth. Fenestral
windows, with lattice frames that were
covered in a fabric soaked in resin and
tallow, allowed in light, kept out drafts,
and could be removed in good weather. Only the wealthy could afford panes
of glass; sometimes only churches and royal residences had glass windows
Castles
Stone castles first existed in the ninth century. The castle was
held together with mortar. Walls could be as thick as thirty feet. The
structure was often built on high mountains surrounded by a moat, a
ditch filled with water and crossed by a
drawbridge which could be raised to
deny access. The outer walls enclosed
the outer bailey, and then the inner
walls enclosed the inner bailey.
Enemies who breached the outer walls
still had to face the inner walls, and
inside them the keep or central tower.
Murder holes in the ceiling and floor of
the portcullis made it possible to see if
the visitor was friendly. Defenders
dropped stone blocks, unslaked lime, boiling pitch, boiling water or hot
sand onto attackers
The castle itself needed to be built to withstand siege, the
armies inside had to be adept at defense and the general citizens of the
castle community, too, had to do their part. After all, during a siege, the
overall medieval castle defense, which included battle plans and food
storage ideas, could make or break the castle’s chance of success.
Women in the Middle Ages
It should come as no surprise that women,
whether they were nobles or peasants,
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.
Others were
midwives, worked in the fields, or
were
engaged in creative endeavors such as
writing,
playing musical instruments, dancing,
and
painting.
Some women were known as witches, capable of sorcery and
healing. Others became nuns and devoted their lives to God and spiritual
matters. Famous women of the Middle Ages include the writer, Christine
de Pisan; the abbess and musician, Hildegard of Bingen; and the patron of
the arts, Eleanor of Aquitaine. A French peasant's daughter, Joan of Arc,
or St. Joan, heard voices telling her to protect France against the English
invasion. She dressed in armor and led her troops to victory in the early
fifteenth century. "The Maid of Orleans" as she was known, was later
Arts and Entertainment
Art and music were critical aspects of medieval religious life and,
towards the end of the Middle Ages, secular life as well. Singing without
instrumental accompaniment was an essential part of church services.
Monks and priests chanted the divine offices and the mass daily.
Some churches had instruments such as organs and bells. The
organistrum or symphony (later known as a hurdy gurdy) was also found
in churches. Two people were required to play this stringed instrument-one to turn the crank and the other to play the keys.
Medieval drama grew out of the
liturgy, beginning in about the eleventh
century. Some of the topics were from
the Old Testament (Noah and the flood,
Jonah and the whale, Daniel in the lion's
den) and others were stories about the
birth and death of Christ. These dramas
were performed with costumes and
musical instruments and at first took
place directly outside the church. Later
they were staged in marketplaces, where
they were produced by local guilds.
Town Life
Following 1000, peace and order grew. As a result, peasants began to
expand their farms and villages further into the countryside. The earliest
merchants were peddlers who went from village to village selling their goods. As
the demand for goods increased--particularly for the gems, silks, and other
luxuries from Genoa and Venice, the ports of Italy that traded with the East--the
peddlers became more familiar with complex issues of trade, commerce,
accounting, and contracts. They became businessmen and learned to deal with
Italian moneylenders and bankers. Merchants took their coal, timber, wood, iron,
copper, and lead to the south and came back with luxury items such as wine and
olive oil.
With the advent of trade and commerce, feudal life declined. As the
tradesmen became wealthier, they resented having to give their profits to their
lords. Arrangements were made for the townspeople to pay a fixed annual sum to
the lord or king and gain independence for their town as a "borough" with the
power to govern itself. The marketplace became the focus of many towns.
The Black Death: Bubonic Plague
Almost half of the people of Western Europe died in a
great sickness known as the Bubonic Plague. The
plague was also referred to as "the Black Death”
because the skin of diseased people turned a dark
gray color. It apparently began in China. When sailors
traveled to Asia, rats returned with them to Europe.
Fleas living on the blood of infected rats then
transferred the disease to the European people.
In 1347, Italian merchant ships returned from the Black
Sea, one of the links along the trade route between
Europe and China. Many of the sailors were already
dying of the plague, and within days the disease had
spread from the port cities to the surrounding
countryside. The disease spread as far as England within a year.
The Europeans were susceptible to disease because they lived in crowded
surroundings with very poor sanitary conditions. The Europeans often ate stale or
diseased meat because refrigeration had not yet been invented. Also, medicine was
primitive and unable to remedy an illness that modern technology might have cured.
Bad medical advice also advanced the plague. People were often advised to not
bathe because open skin pores might let in the disease.
Death from the plague was horrible, but swift. The first signs were
generally aching limbs, and vomiting of blood. Then the lymph nodes found in the
neck, armpits, and groin would begin to swell. The swelling continued for three or
four days until the lymph nodes burst. The swiftness of the disease, the enormous
pain, the grotesque appearance of the victims, all served to make the plague
especially horrifying.