Name: Alexa Ryan and Rose Iannuzzi
Date: November 3, 2011
Humanities
6C
The middle ages were approximately between A.D. 500 and the 1400’s. Charles Martel was a Frankish war leader that defeated Muslim army at Tours, in present day France. He came from a small kingdom in Western Europe. Martel’s grandson was
Charlemagne. Charlemagne his greatest achievement was when he arrived in Rome with his army. Pope Leo III crowned
Charlemagne and made him emperor. Charlemagne spread
Roman Christianity throughout Europe. Charlemagne had conquered kingdoms in the southwestern part of France, which is now Italy and Germany. Charlemagne was crowned when he arrived in Rome with his army.
Feudalism was started in Europe around A.D. 800. It was a system of organizing and governing society, based on land and service. Feudalism was started in Europe around
A.D. 800. Feudalism worked to keep peace in Europe. It helped control their lands and Kings divided them into fiefs.
In return the nobles swore to give the king their loyalty, support when they were in war, and they promised to keep the peace in the country of Europe. Feudalism helped maintain peace and order by the nobles gave the king loyalty, support in the war, and promising to give peace to the country. Nobles that took the oath of loyalty to their lords were called vassals. A lord is a noble that received a fief and had serfs that lived in the fief. The relationship between the lord and the vassal was that the lord owned the land and the noble had to swear to give the king loyalty, support for the war, and give peace to the land to receive the land.
Then the noble would become the lord and own the land. A fief is land a king or other powerful landowner would give to

nobles. An oath of fealty was an oath of loyalty that nobles took to their lords. The oath stated that the nobles had to give their loyalty, support, and their promise to keep peace.
These nobles were called vassals. Chivalry was the code of conduct that knights believed they should follow. Knights were “those who fought.” The knights were actually nobles that agreed to fight for the king in return for land. Knights were soldiers that fought for their kings. Besides fighting, knights also believed they had to know music and poetry and have good manners. Knights were also responsible for defending the church. Serfs were basically farmers that worked for their lords. They couldn’t leave their manor without their lord’s permission. Serfs had to pay their taxes in crops and by working for their lord. A manor was a settlement in a village. A house belonged to the fiefs owner, or lord. A manor would also have a church. Vikings were raiders that came from the Norse culture. Norsemen were mostly peaceful farmers. They were best known for when
William, Duke of Normandy, crossed into England with 5,000 knights and defeated Harold, the Saxon king of England, and made himself king. When William Duke of Normandy crossed into England with 5,000 knights defeated Harold, the Saxon king of England, and made himself king. William defeated Harold, the Saxon king of England. William came to be known by William the Conqueror. A strong government was established in England. It brought many elements of
French culture to the island. The new kingdom that was made was a blend of Norman and Saxon.
King John was the king of England during the middle ages. King John was forced by his vassals to sign the Magna
Carta because he demanded more taxes and the power to imprison people without a trial. The Magna Carta stated that he could not violate the rights of the free men and women and established legal rights that made the people happy.

The Magna Carta stated that he could not violate the rights of the free men and women and established legal rights that made the people happy. The Magna Carta gave rights such as the king could not violate the rights of free men and women by settling unfair taxes or making unfair demands of goods and labor.
The primary religion in the middle ages is Christianity. A monk is a man who devotes his life to a religious group, often giving up all he owns. Monks spent most of their time in prayer. But, they also farmed, studied, made craft goods, wine, and medicine.
They also wrote books of prayer and copied old Greek and roman texts. They also had to obey the head monk, the abbot. A monastery is a community in which monks lead lives devoted to religion. The role monks had in learning and education is copying beautiful decorated books, called
Manuscripts. Monasteries served as centers of learning in the middle ages. Beautiful decorated books were called manuscripts. Manuscripts had such value that they were chained to desks. The room monks would copy ancient
Manuscripts were in a scriptorium, which is a room for making books. Monks would copy Roman texts down onto scrolls. Nuns were women who devoted their lives to religion, who often live in a convent. Convents are houses that nuns live in. A convent is in a community. A cathedral is a large Christian church that is the official church of the bishop and a bishop is an important member of the clergy.
The role a cathedral had was to hold a church ceremony. A
Crusade is any of the journeys and battles undertaken by
European Christians between 1095 and 1270, to win control of the Holy Land from the Muslims. The Christian Crusaders did battle with the Muslims and the Muslims held onto the holy land for about 100 years. Later Muslims took back their

lost lands. More crusades followed but the Muslims still held onto the holy land.
The Reconquista was a war that fought from 718 to 1492 by
Christians to recapture Spain from Muslims.
Merchants and craftsman was people that lived with their families, but were crowded together in a little amount of space. Merchants went on travels and when they did they were usually accompanied by armed guards. Craftsman, for example tailors, shoemakers, drapers, bakers, locksmiths, painters, joiners, stonemasons and master builders all that belonged to groups or associations which are called guilds.
If I were an apprentice the things that were typically expected of me were that items were well built and the owner of the shop was to treat them well and do his best to uphold the good name of his trade and his town.
A journeyman craftsman was a person that served their time as an apprentice and then they became a journeyman and went on travels in order to get to know other towns and other ways of working. The relation of a journeyman and a craftsman was that a journeyman had to become an apprentice to be a journeyman and a craftsman had to make or create items to sell and they had to treat their apprentices well. You could become a master craftsman by traveling around the world and making a masterpiece. A guild is a group or association that includes stonemasons, shoemakers, tailors, drapers, bakers, locksmiths, painters, joiners, and master builders. A guild is a medieval association, which a merchant or artisan organized and maintained standards and protected the interests of the members.
The Black Death was a disease that halted the construction on the 1100s. It was caused by bacteria spread by rats and fleas.
The Black Death killed at least one third of the European

population during the next 130 years. That means millions and millions lost their lives to the disease.