Transcript History of the Middle Ages

 In October of
1066, Duke
William of
Normandy,
France defeated
King Harold of
England, the last
of the AngloSaxon kings.
William built The White Tower around 1075 to
show the power and strength of the Normans.
 William the
Conqueror
wanted to rule
the Anglo-Saxon
people, not
eliminate them.
The most notorious
entrances to the Tower is
Traitor’s Gate. One can only
imagine the dread of ill-fated
prisoners arriving through this
gate.
 William created the
Domesday Book, which
inventoried everything the
Anglo-Saxons owned and,
thus, could be taxed.
On the first floor of the White Tower is
St. John’s Chapel, one of the most
elegant and best-preserved AngloNorman church interiors. During Henry
III’s reign (1216-1272), the church was
embellished with stained glass
windows. Later, it was used to store
records.
 He brought not
only a new
language,
French, but also
a new social
system,
feudalism.
Surrounding the White
Tower are the ravens.
Legend has it that if the
ravens leave, the kingdom
and the tower will fall.
 Feudalism was a pyramid
system based on a
religious concept of
hierarchy. Expected to
serve as warriors, males
above the serf class were
trained as knights.
The large armor is that of John of Gaunt,
son of the 14th century king Edward III. The
small armor is thought to be that of Richard
of York, prince of Edward IV, who was
believed to have been murdered in the
Tower when he was only 9 years old.
The Middle Ages saw the
rise of the knight who
fought on horseback. In
return for service, they
were granted land by the
king. Young noblemen
trained to be a knight by
acting as a squire
(servant) of a knight.
They learned
horsemanship and good
manners.
 Women in the Middle
Ages had no political
rights. A woman’s
social standing
depended on her
husband’s or father’s
status.
 Chivalry is derived from the
French word chevalier
which means a knight who
rode a horse. It is a system
of ideals and social codes
governing behavior of
knights. Chivalry led to an
idealized attitude of women
and gave rise to a new form
of literature, the romance.
 At first, medieval society
centered around the
feudal castle, but as
populations grew so did
the towns and cities.
People then began to live
and work outside of the
feudal system.
 The Crusades was a
series of wars waged by
European Christians
against the Muslims over
Jerusalem and the Holy
Lands. As a result,
Christian Europe was
exposed to Middle
East’s sophisticated
civilization.
 King Henry II wanted to gain
power in the Catholic Church.
He appointed his friend
Thomas à Becket as
archbishop of Canterbury
Church in hopes of gaining the
upper hand in disputes with the
Church. Thomas did not
comply and was murdered by
the king’s knights. There was
public outrage over the murder
which weakened the king’s
power struggle with Rome.
 In 1215, English
barons forced King
John to sign the
Magna Carta as an
effort to curb the
Church’s power.
This document later
became the basis
for English
constitutional law.
 The English lost the
Hundred Years’ War
with France, but by the
war’s end, small
landowners had
replaced the knights in
armor. With this
emergence of the
yeomen class,
modern, democratic
England was born.
 The Black Death,
or bubonic plague,
spread by fleas
from infected rats.
The disease
reduced the
nation’s population
by a third. This led
to the serfs’
freedom and to the
end of feudalism.