HISTORY IN ENGLISH
POINTS TO REMEMBER: Feudal society
-Feudal society was divided into the priviledged and the unpriviledged. Among the
privileged were nobility and clergy. Among the unprivileged, the peasants. Most
Europeans in the Middle Ages were peasants.
-The king´s power in the Middle Ages was based on the obedience and fidelity that their
vassals vowed to noblemen or clerics.
-Noblemen were warrior-knights. They lived in their castles from where they watched
their peasants and trained for war.
-The castle was the lord´s residence. It was surrounded by strong walls and towers. The
lord´s apartments were in a fortified tower where he lived with his family.
-Peasants lived miserably in hamlets or isolated houses. They depended on a noble lord
or a cleric (bishops, abbots) whom they paid tax in the form of cash, farming produce or
their unpaid work.
WHAT WAS A KNIGHT´S LIFE LIKE?
Knights: the combatants
Medieval society was organised into three groups: knights, clergymen and peasants.
-Knights were the owners of weapons, and their mission was to protect the rest
of the population in the event of an attack.
-Clergymen were monks and priests. They prayed to guarantee the spiritual
salvation of the people.
-Peasants and other workers were in charge of producing food and necessary
objects.
The knights were noblemen. They fought on horseback and their weapons were lances,
shields and the mace. In times of peace, the kinghts held tournaments.
Life in the castle
Castles were the dwelling-places of the nobility, where not only the noble family lived,
but also servants, soldiers and some craftsmen, especially blacksmiths. They controlled
their vast territories or manors as well as the peasants living in small villages at the foot
of the fortress.
Life in the castle was monotonous. From time to time minstrels and troubadours
entertained the evening parties with songs and poems. Women rarely left the castle.
They took care of the children and spent their time embroidering.
Knights and vassalage
Not all the knights had the same wealth and power. There were small, modest knights
and rich powerful knights.
Knights were linked through vassalage. This consisted mainly of a ceremony in which
both, the lord and the vassal took part:
-The vassal paid homage to the lord, that is to say, piedged fidelity; the vassal
was required for life to help and support the lord, especially in military conflicts.
-The lord committed himself to protect the vassal and house him in his dwellings
and give him a castle whit his territory. This donation was called a fief, the term
which feudalism derives from.
In the beginning, the fief was given on a temporary basis, depending on the fidelity of
the vassal. In the course of time, it was held for life and inherited from father to son.
The great noblemen piedged fidelity to the king and he rewarded them with fiels in
return. At the same time, the great noblemen divided up lands among other noblemen of
lower ranks in exchange for fidelity.
ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS
What was a knight´s life like?
1-Which social group was in charge of people´s protection?
2-Where did peasants live? What was their role in society?
3-What was a woman´s role at the time?
4-What entertainments did people have?
5-What relationship was there between knights and vassals?
6-How did a king reward a loyal nobleman?
THE VIKINGS
From the mid-VIII century to the beginning of the IX century, Europe was subjected to
new invading peoples, who, on board of small and fast vessels, spread horror in all the
coasts of the continent. They called themselves Vikings, which means “peoples from
the bay” and they were known by the Christian countries as Norsemen, which means
“peoples from the north”, because they originated from Scandinavia. Not only were they
pirates who looted, but they were also great seamen, feared warriors and good traders.
The Vikings did not form a nation, but were a group of peoples united by a language,
Norse, a religion and the same customs. They lived in settlements and lived mainly on
fishing and, to a lesser extent, on agriculture and stockbreeding. They used otter and
bear fur, and from tusks and walrus skin, they obtained ivory and excellent leather.
The family was the central nucleus of the society. Each man usually had several wives
who lived together under the same roof. They were polytheists and very tolerant.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
1-Who were the Vikings?
2-When did they originate?
3-What did they do (occupations)?
4-Were they a nation?
5-What did they live on?
6-How was their society organized?
7-How were they as for religion?
THE CRUSADES
Christendom also expanded outside Europe through the crusades, which were military
interventions to conquer the Holy Land from the Muslims.
The first crusade, which was followed by another seven crusades, started in 1095, when
Pope Urban II urged the Christians from the East to conquer Jerusalem. Many men,
driven both by faith, the urge for adventure and enrichment, took the city in 1099.
In the crusades, kings as well as the poor and the children participated. The word
crusader derives from the cross they all had painted on their clothing.
The crusaders founded kingdoms in the Holy Land and created military orders, formed
by monk-soldiers, to defend themselves, such as The Templars and Hospitallers.
The crusades established closer links between the East and the West and promoted
trade.
ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS
The Crusades
1-What were the crusades?
2-How many crusades were there on the whole?
3-What reasons did Christians have to carry out crusades?
4-What positive aspects did the crusades have?
POINTS TO REMEMBER: The church
-The church had an enormous influence and power in the Middle Ages: it intervened in
social life and ruled the believer´s spiritual life, imposing religious obligations on them.
-Between the XI and XIII centuries, the European Christians initiated military
expeditions (crusades) to free the Holy Land from the Muslim presence.
-From the XI century religious life had monasteries, located in the countryside, as its
main centre.
-During this period Romanesque Art developed all over Europe. Many churches were
built following a Latin cross plan, with semicircular apses, barrel vaults, round arches
and solid walls with few windows.
-Romanesque paintings and sculptures had both a decorative and educational function.
As well as decorating churches they served to inform believers on religious facts.
MONASTIC LIFE
There were many monasteries or abbeys in the Middle Ages, where the maximum
authority was the abbot. Monks and nuns formed the regular clergy becoause their daily
life was organised according to a rule.
The activities carried out in the monasteries were mainly: prayers, meditation and
manual jobs. Therefore, although the monks and nuns were mainly committed to
praying they also copied manuscripts in the library of the monastery, decorated these
manuscripts with miniatures and worked orchards with the help of many serfs who
depended on the abbot.
The most powerfull monastic orders were the Order of Cluny, wich was founded in the
X century, and the Cistercian Order, founded in the XII century.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
The monastic life
1-What activities did monks and nuns carry out?
2-Say the two most powerful monastic orders in the Middle Ages.
POINTS TO REMEMBER: the growth of towns
-In the XI and XII centuries technical advances and the increase in farming yield
resulted in a great demographic increase.
-The increase in population and in bartering favoured the growth of towns.
-Guilds were made up of artisan masters of each trade, to defend their rights and
regulate their production.
-Medieval towns were walled and had a low level of hygiene. Their inhabitants, the
bourgeois, no longer depended on the land to make their living, but on trading, banking
and craftsmanship.
-Monarchs wanted to impose their authority on the feudal lords and they found the
support of the high urban bourgeoisie.
-In the XIV and XV centuries, hunger, plague and war provoked important urban and
farmer revolts.
POINTS TO REMEMBER: The gotic style
-From the XII century cultural development took place in towns and the first
universities were founded.
-Mondicant orders lived on public charity and stayed at urban monasteries.
-Urban revival involved the building of cathedrals, palaces, etc, in a new style: Gothic.
-Gothic architecture was characterized by three main elements: ribbed vault, lancet arch
and flying buttress.
-Gothic paintings and sculptures were more realistic and showed, more details than
Romanesque art. They became independent from buildings, thus paintings on boards
and free standing sculptures appeared.