Study Guide: Unit 2 “The Middle Ages”
The Middle Ages (1066 - 1485) Background
Textbook notes
I.
William the Conqueror and the Normans conquered England.
A. William, from Normandy France, was a cousin who claimed to be heir to the
throne of England (Anglo-Saxons).
B. William let the Anglo-Saxons keep their English language and democratic
tendencies.
C. William brought administration, created the Domesday Book, an inventory of
census and property.
II.
William and the Normans changed England.
A. Normans imposed the European system of feudalism
1. social system based on:
a) the king, next to God, as all-powerful overlord
b) vassal, aristocratic tenant who received land (fief) in exchange for
military service and loyalty, bound by oath
c) lords, nobles who had power to grant land to vassals
d) knights: armored warriors
e) serfs: peasants who worked on and were bound to vassals’ lands
2. caste system: landless knights and serfs were not free to leave the land
they tilled
3. property system: distribution of land
4. military system: required service based on oath in exchange for land and
protection
B. The word “chivalry” is based on the French word “cheval” for horse; the knight
was a horse riding warrior; the code of the knight became a code of conduct:
1. oath to defend his lord, the king, the Christian faith
2. code of how to treat a lady, how to be of service to others, and how to
keep integrity
C. Women in Medieval Society were practical and idealized: gave rise to the
Romance
1. had no rights
2. had administrative responsibilities for the husband’s fief
3. became idealized under the Code of Chivalry
4. initiated the emergence of the Romance as a form of literature
III.
Christianity as a political force
A. The Crusades: a series of holy wars waged by Europeans to keep Jerusalem
and the Holy Lands in Christian control rather than Muslim control (1095 - 1270)
B. Crown and Church were political forces, often feuding
1. Thomas a Becket was ordered murdered by King Henry
2. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer depicted the corruption and irony of the
Church clergy
3. The Church was a powerful force for unity in traditions, rituals, and
language of Latin (the European’s international language of the educated)
IV.
The Crown underwent dramatic change in balance of power
A. The signing of the Magna Carta: limited the king’s powers and formed the basis
of the English constitutional system that provides for rights such as trial by jury
and taxation with representation
B. The Hundred Years’ War (1337 - 1453) between England and France, squabbles
over claims to the throne; warfare changed from chivalry to long bow yeoman.
V.
The end of Feudalism … 1485
A. New Cities signaled the end of Feudalism
1. Population movement from farm to city
2. City classes: lower, middle, upper
3. City employment: trade, merchants, artisans / craftsmen
4. New literature expressed through ballads and dramas
B. The Black Death, or bubonic plague struck England 1348-1349) reduced the
English population by ⅓ causing a labor shortage and increasing the workers’
bargaining power with overlords
Class Discussion:
Key ideas about Dante’s Inferno:
 Dante wrote The Divine Comedy to satirize the corruption of the Church and the
Black Guelph political party
 Comedy is a quest divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise
 It’s called a “comedy” because it ends happily for the main character
 Dante mapped Hell into three parts:
o sins committed against Self (incontinence, lack of self-control)
o sins committed against an Other (violence)
o sins committed premeditated against the Community and God (fraud)
 Dante is guided by Virgil and protected by Beatrice
 Written in Italian, not Latin, accessible to all people, and it questions Christian
doctrines about justice
Class Discussion:
Key ideas about Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales:
 Geoffrey Chaucer
 1343 - 1400
 Father of English poetry
 wrote literary works in English, not Latin
 vernacular - common language
 influenced by Dante:
- common everyday language
- criticized the Church
 The King of England had Thomas murdered; the pilgrimage to his shrine is
further criticism
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- understandable language
- relatable characters
- beautiful poetry
Chaucer used rhythmic meter (beats per line):
iambic pentameter - series of unstressed + stressed beats
Rhyme in couplets (2 sets of rhyming lines)
Logic for his narrative is the frame story:
like a window frame that holds all the panes together; each pane is separate, but
together we see the whole picture
Device: Prologue… story that introduces the story
Magic of Chaucer’s writing: poetry and spirit infused into characterization
Describes the characters, and satirizes the social and religious systems:
- feudal
- Church
- merchant / professional class
Entertaining
Satire
Message: universal quest from birth through death and everlasting life
Vocabulary Power Plus Book 1 Lesson 1 (8/29/14) Week 2
Word
Definition
ALIENATE
(v.)
To cause to turn away
ELATED
(adj.) Very proud or happy, or in high spirits
EPIGRAM
(n.)
FATALISTIC
(adj.) Believing that everything is determined by fate and is inevitable
A short, witty saying or quip
LACKADAISICAL (adj.) Without spirit or interest or effort
LICENTIOUS
(adj.) Ignoring rules or morals; Uncontrolled and immoral
NUMISMATIST
(n.)
One who collects coins
OBTRUDE
(v.)
To force something upon another person, To intrude upon
PAUCITY
(n.)
Smallness of number or scarce
PENSIVE
(adj.) Deep in thought
Vocabulary Power Plus Book 1 Lesson 2 (9/5/14) Week 3
Word
AMALGAMATE
ANTIQUATED
Definition
(v.)
To combine; To mix or blend together
(adj.) Old-fashioned and obsolete, Not useful anymore, Old
BELEAGUER
(v.)
To annoy persistently; harass
CARICATURE
(n.)
/ (v.)
A picture or representation in which natural characteristics are
exaggerated or distorted; To make a distorted representation of
someone or something
DALLY
(v.)
To waste time idly, To fool around or delay
DEMENTED
(adj.) Crazy, mentally ill, insane
FELONIOUS
(adj.) Involving or concerning criminal activity, law breaking
GORGE
(v.)/(n.) To stuff with food, to swallow; A small canyon with steep walls
HONE
(v.)
To make sharper, to make more effective or improve
OPIATE
(n.)
A narcotic drug that causes sleep and relieves pain
Vocabulary Power Plus Book 1 Lesson 3 (9/12/15) Week 4
Word
Definition
AMBIDEXTROUS
ANIMATE
(adj.)
Having the ability of using both hands with equal skill or ease
(v.)/(adj) To give life to; To move or stir to action; Possessing life or
alive
BELATED
(adj.)
After the expected or usual time; Delayed or tardy
BERSERK
(adj.) / Violently or destructively enraged; Destructively or violently
(adv.) enraged
CHAUVINIST
(n.) /
(adj.)
One who is prejudiced in the superiority of their gender, group,
or kind; Prejudiced belief in the superiority of one's own
gender, group, or kind
DELUDE
(v.)
To mislead the mind or judgment of; To deceive
EDIFICE
(n.)
An impressively large, overwhelming building or structure
EGALITARIAN
(adj.) / Belief that all people should have equal rights; One who
(n.)
believes that all people should have equal rights.
KNEAD
(v.)
OSTENTATIOUS
(adj.)
To work clay or dough into a uniform mixture by pressing,
folding and stretching
Showy and intended to impress others
Vocabulary Power Plus Book 1 Lesson 4 (9/19/15) Week 5
Word
Definition
BLIGHT
(n.) /
(v.)
Something that impairs growth, withers hopes and ambitions or
impedes progress and prosperity; To destroy, ruin or frustrate
DENIZEN
(n.)
An inhabitant or resident; A person who visits a place often
ELUDE
(v.)
To avoid or get away from; To escape understanding
ENTICE
(v.)
To attract by arousing hope or desire; To lure or tempt
FALLOW
(n.) / Land that has been plowed but not yet seeded; To plow land but not
(v.) seed it; plowed and left unseeded, uncultivated
(adj.)
FEALTY
(n.)
Faithful obligation to a lord, allegiance to a ruler
GAMBIT
(n.)
A maneuver, stratagem, or ploy
GRATIFY
(v.)
To please, as by satisfying a physical or mental desire or need; To
satisfy or appease
LAGGARD
OBSEQUIES
(n.) / One who falls behind others because of moving slowly; Moving,
(adj.) developing or responding slowly, sluggish
(n.)
Funeral rites