The Medieval Period
(1100-1500)
pp. 79-83
Norman England
1. Who was Edward the Confessor?
-King of England 1042-1066
-son of King Aethelred of England and Emma, daughter
of Duke of Normandy (northern part of France)
-he was 1/2 Norman blood but held a full Norman
political and cultural outlook
Norman England
2. Who was William Duke of Normandy and describe
the reasons for the Norman Conquest (1066):
-Edward died without an heir in 1066
-William Duke of Normandy claimed the Eng. Throne (said
the King picked him before his death) along with
Englishman Harold Godwinson, who was picked by the
Witan (the King’s counsel)
-Harold took the throne
-William Duke of Normandy decided to fight him for it
Norman England
Describe the Battle of Hastings:
-William Duke of Normandy came across the channel in
late Sept. 1066 with between 4000-7000 Norman men
and other nobility/adventures from Europe
-William Duke of Normandy built a castle at Hastings;
King Harold gathered his men to oppose WDN at the
grey apple tree; Harold fought valiantly but was killed;
William Duke of Normandy won
Norman England
4. What did William do to the Anglo-Saxon
nobility?
-killed them; and redistributed their land to his
followers in exchange for vows of loyalty and
military service (= feudalism).
Norman England
5. What was the Doomesday book? Why was it
given this name by the people?
-it was a survey of all the land, land owners,
workers on the land, size of parcels of land,
value of land, etc…in all of England
-a.k.a. formally as “The Description of England”
-called the Doomesday Book because there was no
appeal from its judgment
Norman England
6. What were the “Nineteen Terrible Winters?”
-the 19 year reign of Stephen of Blois; he was an
ineffective and mild king whose reign led to
anarchy and the rise of abusive feudal lords who
robbed, tortured and imprisoned people for
money
Norman England
7. Define feudalism:
-all landowners were tenants (vassals) of the king;
Lords got the use of the land in exchange for
loyalty and military service to the king
Norman England
8. Define chivalry:
-it was a code of behavior for knights (fighting
men) requiring bravery, honor, courtesy,
protection of the weak, respect and courtly love
for women, generosity, fairness to enemies (i.e.
the use of “might for right”— NOT “might
makes right”)
-if the code of chivalry was violated by a knight he
would lose his honor among his fellow warriors
Norman England
9. The First Crusade:
- year:
1095
- purpose: nobles and commoners alike went to
Palestine to liberate Christian shrines from
Muslim Turks who held it since 1071
England Under the Plantagenets
10. Who was Henry II? (list 3 highlights of his
reign)
-King of England as of 1151
-restored order and power of the monarchy after
weak King Stephen
-subdued the feudal lords
-reformed the judicial system
-he was excommunicated by the Pope because of
the murder of Thomas Becket by his men
England Under the Plantagenets
11. Who was Thomas Becket?
-Archbishop of Canterbury who struggled with
Henry II over the issue of the legal rights of the
clergy
-killed by Henry II’s knights (allegedly unknown to
Henry)
-became a martyr of the faith; pilgrims came to his
shrine in Canterbury on his feast day to pray and
hope for miracles, etc…
England Under the Plantagenets
12. Who was Richard the Lionhearted?
-Henry II’s son and heir; fought in the 3rd Crusade
and held hostage by the Holy Roman Empire
Who was his brother?
John
What kind of King was the brother?
 evil and overreaching; English nobles rose up
against him and made him sign the Magna Carta
England Under the Plantagenets
13. What was the Magna Carta?
-it is “The Great Charter” which limits the power of the
king and establishes a representative form of
government in England
List four elements of the Magna Carta:
1. it defined and safeguarded the basic rights of nobles,
clergy and freemen
2. established “habeas corpus” (the protection against
unjust imprisonment)
3. trial by jury
4. gave the general council (the forerunner of Parliament)
the power over expenditures
England Under the Plantagenets
14. The Hundred Years War
-began in what year: 1337
-fought between who? why?
-England and France went to war because England controlled
large tracts of French land; Henry V was once the King of
both England and France
-how did it end?
-England did well at first, but the French didn’t give up; Joan
of Arc helped turn the tide of the war and France finally
prevailed and got back all its land from England, except
the channel port of Calais
England Under the Plantagenets
15. What is a crossbow and how was it relevant
to the end of Feudalism?
-it was an innovative weapon (cross between the
regular bow and a weapon with a trigger device)
that along with the cannon helped put an end to
feudalism because mounted knights were no
longer needed to win military victories
England Under the Plantagenets
16. What is the Black Death? How was it
relevant to Feudalism?
-Bubonic Plague; it killed about 1/3 of England’s
population and helped to end feudalism because
the serfs escaped the feudal lords in all the chaos
and went to the bigger cities for work;
consequently, their wages rose
England Under the Plantagenets
17. When did the Peasants’ Revolt take place and why
did it start?
-1381; the government levied a poll tax in a fixed amount
on each person to be paid equally regardless of the size
of a person’s income (it was used to pay for a very
expensive war with France)
-were the peasants successful?
-no; the revolt collapsed when its leader (Wat Tyler)
was killed
England Under the Plantagenets
18. The Great Schism- (1378)
-a fight in the Church over papal succession; at one point
there were three rival popes
Wycliffe’s English translation of the Bible- (1381)
-the Bible was now written in English, the vernacular (or
language of the common people) instead of Latin;
people could see God’s Word for themselves; this first
step ultimately leads to the Reformation
England Under the Plantagenets
19. Name two things that helped legitimize
English as a literary language during this
period:
-upper classes adopted English as their language
over that of French or Latin
-popularity of the King Arthur legends and The
Canterbury Tales
England Under the Plantagenets
20. Which mythical folk hero was the subject of
the common people ballads of the day?
-Robin Hood
England Under the Plantagenets
21. Anglo-Saxon alliteration, like we see in
Beowulf, is replaced with what type of verse
(as a result of French influences)?
-end rhyming verse
England Under the Plantagenets
22. What were miracle or mystery plays? What
did they evolve into?
-they were plays performed in and just outside of
churches and dealt with Bible stories or
devotional stories about the saints
-they became cycles of plays presented in large
towns on feast days and ultimately aided in the
development of drama
England Under the Plantagenets
23. War of the Roses
-began when? 1455
-lasted how long? 30 years
-fought between whom?
-Two families were vying for the English throne; the
Lancasters (emblem=red rose) and the Yorks
(emblem=white rose)
-how did it end? who prevailed?-King Richard III (a
York) fought Henry Tudor (a Lancaster) for the throne;
Henry prevailed and became King Henry VII; he
married Elizabeth of York, ending the war; this new
family (the Tudors) ruled England for the next 100
years
Geoffrey Chaucer Notes
1. Chaucer’s family had sufficient social status for
him to receive a courtly education.
2. Chaucer was in some connected to the royal
family all his life.
3. He married Philippa Roet, a lady in waiting to
the Queen.
Geoffrey Chaucer Notes
4. One of his duties was to act as a government
envoy on foreign diplomatic missions,
something like an ambassador.
5. Chaucer had French and Italian influences in his
writing because of his travels abroad as an
ambassador/envoy.
6. In Italy, he was influenced by Italian
Renaissance writers (like Bocaccio who wrote
The Decameron: Federigo’s Falcon).
Geoffrey Chaucer Notes
7. Upon returning to London, he became a customs
official at the Port of London.
8. When he died in 1400, he was buried in
Westminster Abbey in a section that became
known as Poet’s Corner.
9. Chaucer lost or gave up his job in 1386, the year
in which it is believed that he began composing
The Canterbury Tales.
Geoffrey Chaucer Notes
10. The major literary masterpiece is unfinished.
11. It is a concoction of character sketches,
conversations, and stories.
12. It is set within a frame or larger narrative of a
Pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Thomas Becket
in Canterbury undertaken by 29 intrepid
pilgrim’s. Chaucer planned to include 120
stories, but managed only 24, some of them
incomplete, before his death.
Geoffrey Chaucer Notes
13. They represent a cross-section of the 14th
Century population, ranging in rank from a
knight to a poor plowman. Only the very highest
and very lowest ranks are missing (namely, the
nobility and the serfs).
The Canterbury Tales Notes
Literary Terms
1) Frame-story format: A situation that brings a group of
people together and gives them an opportunity to reveal their
individual characters by reacting to stresses placed on them
by the vagaries of the plot or interpersonal relationships.
2) Characterization: (p.898): The methods an author uses to
develop the personality of a character in a literary work. An
author can describe a character’s appearance and personality,
speech and behavior, thoughts and feelings, and interactions
with other characters. Characters may be “round” or “flat”--as
is a stereotype—and dynamic or static.
The Canterbury Tales Notes
Literary Terms
3) Exemplum: A moralized tale. Just as modern day preachers
use illustrations, Medieval clergy used historical and
legendary stories or tales to teach morals and doctrines. In
addition to the moral instruction they provided, the people
liked the exemplum device very much because of the reality,
story line and human interest quality. Collections of exempla,
classified according to subject were prepared for use by
preachers. At times these sermons degenerated into a mere
series of anecdotes that were humorous in nature.
The Canterbury Tales Notes
This Middle English work of poetry uses an imaginative framestory format to present twenty-four tales. As we have already
seen, a group of pilgrims meet at a tavern on their way to the
shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury.
They agree to pass the long hours of their journey in a story
telling contest to be judged by the innkeeper. The stories
range from bawdy burlesques to tales of chivalry, from local
folk legends to sermons. Chaucer’s genius is such that the
tales reveal the personalities of the tellers; additionally, the
pilgrims’ distinct personalities come out as they converse and
argue between stories.
Notes on the Principal Characters
This Middle English work of poetry uses an imaginative framestory format to present twenty-four tales. As we have already
seen, a group of pilgrims meet at a tavern on their way to the
shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury.
They agree to pass the long hours of their journey in a story
telling contest to be judged by the innkeeper. The stories
range from bawdy burlesques to tales of chivalry, from local
folk legends to sermons. Chaucer’s genius is such that the
tales reveal the personalities of the tellers; additionally, the
pilgrims’ distinct personalities come out as they converse and
argue between stories.
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Knight, a courtly medieval fighting man who has
served the king and religion all over the known world.
1. He is one of the “purest” of the characters; he loves
chivalry and has fought in many lands to defend his
beliefs; he has a deep sense of moral responsibility to
defend his faith and to be fair and just even to his
enemies (i.e. he will not steal from the Turks).
2. He is modest in dress and speech, even though he is the
highest in rank of the group of pilgrims.
3. He rides only with his son and a yeoman in attendance.
4. He tells the first story of the group, a story of courtly
love where two noblemen compete in a tournament for
the hand of a beautiful maiden.
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Squire, the Knight’s son, a young man of
twenty who has fought in several battles.
1. He is full of knightly courtesy like his father, but
he also likes to have a good time.
2. He tells a story of adventure and enchantment in
a foreign land.
3. While his father’s concept of love focuses on
love of God, the Squire’s concept is the more
down to earth love between a man and a woman.
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Yeoman, the Knight’s attendant.
1. He is a forester (perhaps something like a forest ranger,
he knows his way around that type of wilderness
environment)
2. He takes excellent care of his gear; his precision and
neatness with regard to his weapons show his
appreciation of how they may be all that stand between
him and death.
3. He wears a medal of St. Christopher on his breast
(invoked to protect against sudden death) (patron saint
of horsemen and today’s police officers).
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Nun (or Prioress), Madame Eglantine, travels
with another nun and three priests the shrine at
Canterbury. She is like a Mother Superior of
today. Her story is of a child religious martyr.
1) Her name means “honeysuckle”-- this is not a
religious name that would be fit for a nun.
2) She pretends to have a French accent, showing
her exposure to a worldly life at court.
3) She is supposed to be a woman of conscience
and sympathy by vocation, yet things about her
indicate ambiguity on this point, for example:
Notes on the Principal Characters
-her pets eat better than most people; she is prideful and
overly conscious about her manners
-she wears a gold necklace and coral beads (what about
her vow of poverty?)
-she wears a “Love conquers All” brooch-- because she
is a bit of a flirt, this phrase may not be talking about
religious love but carnal love (what about her vow of
chastity?)
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Monk, a fat hedonist who prefers to be out of his
cloister on hunting trips.
1) He hates books and learning and prefers to eat and hunt.
2) He is not supposed to have materialistic goals, yet he
owns a stable, wears fur-lined gowns and has jewels.
3) He is the picture of a selfish and egotistical person.
There is a tremendous irony here because the man
freely took a position where he was supposed to devote
his life to God and others, then decides to live a life of
ease for his own purposes.
4) The Monk is crafty because he takes the best from both
worlds (ecclesiastical and secular), yet participates
directly in neither.
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Friar, a merry chap who knows barmaids better than
the sick, poor people to whom he is supposed to
minister.
1) A Friar was licensed to hear confessions and beg for
money
2) This Friar had a reputation of being the best beggar in
the house, but is also a venal and worldly man. He
profits personally from his rich clientele by giving them
light penance for their sins when they make their
confessions to him.
3) Chaucer’s characterization of the Friar shows the corrupt
nature of the penance system when in practice the
degree of penance depended on the social condition of
the sinner.
Notes on the Principal Characters
4) The Friar despises the lower classes, calling them
“vulgar scum.”
5) The Friar lisps to be more fashionable,
committing the first of the Seven Deadly Sins,
pride.
6) He tells a tale of a summoner who loses his soul
to the Devil.
Notes on the Principal Characters
 The Merchant, a tight-lipped business man.

1) He is unhappily married.
 2) He tells a story of the evils of marriage between old
men and young women.
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Clerk of Oxford, a serious young
scholar.
1) He heeds philosophy and prefers
books to worldly pleasures.
2) His tale is an answer to the Wife of
Bath’s idea that in marriage a woman
ought to have dominion. His story is of
a patient wife who endures a lot of
trouble from her husband.
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Sergeant of Law, a busy lawyer.
1) He is a man who seems busier than
he really is (like many
lawyers).
2) He makes a great show of his
learning, citing cases all the way back
to William the Conqueror.
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Franklin, a rich landlord who loves
to eat and keeps his table always full
of things on which to nosh.
1) He was formerly the sheriff of his
county.
2) He tells a story of chivalry and the
supernatural; then apologizes for his
story and its telling, saying he is an
uneducated man.
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Shipman, captain of a ship out of
Dartmouth.
1) He is a good skipper and a smuggler.
2) He tells a bawdy tale about a
merchant who is cheated of his wife’s
favors and his money by a sly monk
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Doctor of Physick, a materialistic
man greatly interested in money. He
knows all the great medical and
astrological authorities and seldom
reads the Bible.
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Parson, a poor but loyal
churchman.
1) He teaches his parishioners by his
good example.
2) He refuses to tell an idle tale, and
instead tells what he calls a “merry
tale” about the Seven Deadly Sins.
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Plowman, an honest man, the
Parson’s brother. He tells no tale.
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Miller, a jolly, somewhat drunken
reveler.
1) He leads the company playing on his
bagpipes.
2) He tells a bawdy story about a
carpenter who is cuckolded by his
young wife and her witty lover (it has
a sort of Three Stooges air about it).
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Reeve, a slender, choleric (badtempered) man.
1) He was formerly a carpenter, so he
is angry about the Miller’s Tale.
2) To get back at him, the Reeve tells
a story about a miller cuckolded by
two students who sleep with the
miller’s wife and daughter.
Notes on the Principal Characters
The Summoner
1) He is a lecherous drunk who loves
food and strong drink.
2) Angered by the Friar’s tale about a
summoner, he tells a tale about a friar
who becomes the butt of a harsh joke.
Notes on the Principal Characters
Harry Bailey, the host at the Tabard Inn
in Southwark.
1) He organizes the storytelling among
the pilgrims, with the winner getting a
meal at the expense of the others
upon their return.
2) He is a natural leader as his words
and actions show.
Notes on the Principal Characters
 Geoffrey Chaucer, the author who puts himself
into the poem as a quiet, mild mannered person.
He tries to recite a dreary tale, which is interrupted
by criticism by the others that it is dull. He starts
a different story in an effort to please his listeners.
 The popularity of Chaucer’s work is due to the
variety of stories and characters he portrays.
 He does not condemn any of the characters he
presents. Instead he allows them to reveal their
own faults or makes clever comments on the side
that subtly suggest a viewpoint.
 The reader is allowed to see each pilgrim as a
human being, with both vices and virtues to which
the reader can relate.
Notes on the Principal Characters
There is no single theme to the
tales; it is more likely that The
Canterbury Tales give its readers
a representative view of humanity
(or the human comedy) in the
fourteenth century, as well as in
all ages.
The Pardoner’s Prologue
and Tale
During the Medieval Period, the Church
employed pardoners to collect money in
exchange for the pardons of specific sins.
The money was supposed to go to support
the Church, but often some, or all, of the
money remained in the pardoner’s pockets.
Pardoners were also known to sell false
religious relics to make extra money for
themselves on the side. The Office of
Pardoner was abolished in 1562.
The Pardoner’s Prologue
and Tale
The Pardoner is a womanish man with long,
blond hair. He boasts of his success in
preaching against avarice (greed), “the very
vice,” he says, “ I make my living out of.
The Pardoner is a fake who admits his evil.
He brags of his bad treatment of the people
he is supposed to serve. It is important to
note that Chaucer never says the Pardoner
is a bad person. He allows the Pardoner to
reveal his character through his fights with
other pilgrims and through the story he
tells.
The Pardoner’s Prologue
and Tale
The Pardoner’s Tale is actually a sermon
on the evils of the unnatural love of
money, which can lead one to his or
her death (i.e. an exemplum).
Ironically, the Pardoner follows up his
sermon with an attempt to sell phony
relics to his fellow pilgrims.
The Pardoner’s Prologue
and Tale
 Irony: (p.912-913): A contrast between
what appears to be and what really is.
 In verbal irony, words imply the opposite
of what they literally mean. Irony of
situation presents a state of affairs that is
the opposite of what is expected. Dramatic
irony occurs in fiction or drama when the
reader knows more than a character or
characters do.
The Wife of Bath’s
Prologue and Tale
 Irony: (p.912-913): A contrast between
what appears to be and what really is.
 In verbal irony, words imply the opposite
of what they literally mean. Irony of
situation presents a state of affairs that is
the opposite of what is expected. Dramatic
irony occurs in fiction or drama when the
reader knows more than a character or
characters do.
The Wife of Bath’s
Prologue and Tale
Her name is Alice. She is a cloth-maker and five times a
widow. Chaucer also slyly adds that she knew lots of
“other company in her youth.” Apparently wealthy
from her marriages, she has traveled a great deal,
including three trips to Jerusalem. She is well versed
in the ways of marriage, and strongly puts forth her
theory that the woman must dominate in marriage.
To make her point, she tells a story set in King
Arthur’s day. Ironically, her story is a romance
stressing the Arthurian virtues of courtesy and
gentility. It is centered around a knight who has
dishonored his calling by raping a woman. He is
sentenced to death unless he can, in a year and a
day, discover “what women most desire.”
What is the answer? Who tells him the answer? At
what potential cost to the knight? What happens at
the end of the tale?
The Wife of Bath’s
Prologue and Tale
The Wife of Bath is Chaucer’s most
complex character:
1) she is gaudy, bold, crude and brash
2) she is a champion of oppressed
womanhood;
3) an outrageous misinterpreter of the
Bible;
4) she has a lusty appetite for
whatever the future may hold.
The Wife of Bath’s
Prologue and Tale
She defies the conventional ideas of her
time and believes that celibacy is not
superior to active sexuality; that a
woman need not be passive within
marriage; that philandering is not only
for men to partake of; that women
should have equal ownership of
property and money with their
husbands; and that husbands have no
right to control the movements and
activities of their wives.
The Wife of Bath’s
Prologue and Tale
Her good humor, skepticism and vigor in
the face of such a long tradition of
complete male dominance are truly
remarkable. While some of her ideas
would improve the society of her day,
which clearly are not spiritually
sanctioned? Certainly on the issue of
philandering, society would be better
off if both men and women abstained
from such activities.