Chapter 8 Middle Ages
After the Fall of Rome - 476
 Europe – a frontier
 Little population
 Large underdeveloped areas
 Dense forests
 Great soil & resources from the sea
 Long rivers for trade routes
Germanic Tribes
 Made up of farmers & herders
 No cities- lived in small communities
 No written laws – unwritten customs-
social conventions carried on by
traditions
 Ruled by elected warrior kings
Germanic Tribes 400-700
 Carved up Europe in to small kingdoms
 The Franks were the strongest
FRANKISH KINGDOM
 481 – Clovis becomes king of
the Franks
 He is ruthless & cunning
 Gained control of Gaul
(France)
 Converted to Christianity
along with his warriors- gains
support of people & Roman
Catholic Church
511 Clovis dies
 Kingdom divided among his 4 sons- Do
Nothing Kings (fight among
themselves, hunt, drink etc.)
 Real power became the Mayor of the
Palace
Charles “the Hammer” Martel
 622 – Muslims –
followers of Islamgained control of Spain
started into France
 732 – Battle of Tours
– Charles “the
Hammer” Martel –
defeats the Muslims
Charles Martel
 Starts the Carolingian
Dynasty
 751- Pepin the Short – son of
Charles elected King of the
Franks
 He is approved (anointed) by
the pope

Close ties between Church &
Frankish kings
 Pope Stephen II asks for help
from Lombards – Papal States
Charlemagne – 768 to 814
 Unites the empire that
stretched from France to
Germany to Italy

Most of the old Western
Roman Empire
 Greatest political figure for a
1,000 years
Charlemagne
 Ruled for 46 years – most of it at war –
53 military campaigns
 Becomes the “strong right arm of
God”—those who would not convert put
to the sword
 12/25/800 – Pope Leo III crowned
Charlemagne as Emperor of the
Romans – important unites Christian
community in Western Europe
Charlemagne
 Built a capital at Aachen
 Appointed powerful nobles to rule
regions of empire
 Missi dominici – spies
 Encouraged missionaries
 Encouraged church to educate clergy
 Encouraged education throughout
empire – appoints Alcuin to create a
curriculum (Latin Education)
Charlemagne
 Encouraged the payment of tithes to
the Church—10%
 Development of Carolingian
minuscule
Charlemagne Legacy
 814 – Charlemagne dies – son Louis
the Pious takes over – ineffective ruler
 Three sons will fight over land
 Treaty of Verdun - 843
Louis the German – Germany
 Charles the Bald – France
 Lothar – title emperor & land between
brothers

Invaders Move into Western Europe
 The Muslims – late 800s conquered
Sicily—Spanish Muslims known as
Moors
 Magyars – From Asia over ran eastern
Europe - settled in Hungary
The Vikings
(Swedes, Danes, Norwegians)
 Came from Scandinavia
 Excellent sailors & fighters
Vikings
 Traveled the rivers of Europe in their long
boats (Dragon Ships)—20 tons used sails
and oars—40 to 60 men and horses
 Loot & burn cities from Ireland to Russia
 Leif Erikson – around 1000 sets up a colony
in North America—Greenland and Iceland
 Also traders – some settle in France,
England, & Ireland – become Christians
Age of Feudalism
 Started in the 8th & 9th centuries
 Political system where kings & powerful
nobles grant land to lesser nobles called
vassals – in return for loyalty, military
assistance & services
 Oldest son inherits the fief (land) younger sons join church or become a
knight for hire
Feudalism
 Came about because no strong central
government
 Lords granted vassals a fief or estate
 Both lord & vassal had certain
obligations – Feudal Contract
Lord – protection & justice
 Vassal – military service & financial
obligations

Feudal warfare
 Knights – mounted warriors
 Trained from boyhood
 Age 7 sent to his lord – learned
to ride & fight – keep armor &
weapons of knight in good
condition
 Teen years – squire – knights
assistant
 About 21 ready to become a
knight
Feudal warfare
 Most battles small ( few hundred to
couple 1000 knights)
 Hand to Hand combat typical few killed
– captured & held for ransom
 Complicated because a vassal could
owe loyalty to more than one lord
Feudal warfare
 As warfare decreased – Tournaments
– mock battles to show off skills
Castles
 Fortified homes of the lords surrounded
by a moat
Castles
 Castles unpleasant
place to live
 Siege of a Castle very
bloody
Women in the age of Feudalism
 Noblewomen – could inherit fief but couldn’t
rule it
 Marriage arranged – dowry provided by
father—main cause of death for noblewomen
was child birth
 Main duty to raise family & supervise
household
 Girls learned practical skills – spinning etc..
Eleanor of Aquitaine
 Married to 2 kings – Louis
VII of France & Henry II of
England
 Mother to a king – Richard
the Lion Hearted of
England
Chivalry
 11th century – code of conduct for a
knight to follow
Fight bravely for 3 masters – feudal lord,
heavenly lord, chosen lady
 Loyalty to your masters
 Fight fairly
 Protect & defend noblewomen
 True to your word

Chivalry
 Noblewomen held in
high regard
 Troubadours helped to
elevate women with
poems and songs
Chivalry
 Disgraced Knight
 Armor stripped off
 Shield cracked
 Sword broken over his head
 Spurs cut off
 Thrown into a coffin and dragged to a
church
GERMANIC JUSTICE
 Germanic concept of family affected the way Germanic law
treated the problem of crime and punishment
 Example murder: crime against society while Germanic law
made it personal
 Could lead to blood feud—injured family sought
revenge against the wrong-doer’s family
 Savage acts of revenge—cutting off ears, noses, hands or feet,
couching out eyes
 Fine called wergeld (money for a man) developed to
cut down on blood feuds—this was the amount paid
by wrong-doer to family he or she injured or killed
GERMANIC LAW
 Two common means of determining guilt:
compurgation and ordeal
 Compurgation was the swearing of an oath
by the accused person, backed up by a group
of 12 or 25 “oath-helpers” who would swear
accused was truthful
 Ordeal was a means of determining a
person’s guilt based on the idea of divine
intervention (divine forces would not allow
and innocent person to be harmed)
Feudal Justice
 Lords provided justice for both vassals
& peasants

2 courts one for peasants – one for vassals
 Each tried by his peers
 A bailiff presided over the manor court
Feudal Justice
 Nobles – Trial by combat
 Peasants – Trial by ordeal
TRIAL BY FIRE
 The defendant on trial must pick an object out from
within flames, or walk over hot coals. If they were
burned in the process, they were presumed guilty. In
the Hindu version of the trial by fire, a woman
suspected of adultery must stand in a circle of flame,
or on top of a pyre, and not be burned. This was
exemplified by the trial of Sita in the Ramayana, who
was said to have not had a single flower petal in her
hair be wilted by the heat of the flames, for she was
so pure the flames avoided her.
TRIAL BY HOT IRON
 A one-pound iron was heated in a fire, and
pulled out during a ritual prayer. The
defendant had to carry this iron the length of
nine feet (as measured by the defendant’s
own foot size). Their hands were then
examined for burns. If the crime of the
accused was particularly egregious, such as
betrayal of one’s lord, or murder, the iron
would be three pounds.
TRIAL BY WATER
 The defendant was bound in the fetal position and thrown into a
body of water. Contrary to popular belief, those that sank
weren’t drowned but were hauled out of the water, and those
that floated didn’t float because they could swim: If he or she
floated, they were guilty, and if they sank, they were presumed
innocent. This was the most common ordeal undergone in the
New World, and was seen during the time of the Salem witch
trials. A surprisingly high number of people were deemed
“innocent” by this method, but it was largely the younger women
and the men who were exonerated in these trials. Their lower
body fat levels probably helped them sink down in the water.
TRIAL BY HOT WATER
 The arm was plunged elbow-deep into hot
water, often to grasp a ring, stone, or holy
object at the bottom of a cauldron. After
several days, if no blistering or peeling was
present, the defendant was presumed
innocent. Since it was not always boiling
water that was used, this was one of the most
easily-manipulated trials for the ordealists to
work over.
TRIAL BY HOST
 Relegated to priests accused of crimes, or suspected
of lying regarding someone else’s crime (perjury).
The priest would go before the altar and pray aloud
that God would choke him if he were not telling the
truth. He would then take The Host (the Holy
Eucharist), and if he was guilty of perjury or the
crime, he would either choke or have difficulty
swallowing. This had a degree of psychosomatic truth
behind it, if the priest truly believed in the trial, but it
was one of the easiest of the “trial by ordeal”
ceremonies to overcome by the defendant.
TRIAL BY DIVING
 This trial, found in India, Thailand, Burma,
and Borneo, involved a test of breath-holding,
and was most often used in disputes of
contested cock-fights. Two stakes were
secured beneath the water of a clear pond,
and both parties involved in the dispute would
dive and grasp onto a stake. Whichever
claimant stayed beneath the water longest
was declared to have truth on his side.
TRIAL BY SNAKE
 A cobra and a ring are placed in an
earthenware pot, and the defendant is tasked
with retrieving the ring from beneath the
snake without being bitten. This trial was
most commonly used when someone was
accused of making a false accusation against
another person, or lying to get another person
punished (the equivalent of perjury in the
Western court system).
MEDIEVAL TORTURE
 Definition of Torture
 The definition of torture is the deliberate, systematic,
cruel and wanton infliction of physical or mental
suffering by one or more torturers in an attempt to
force another person to yield information, to make a
confession, as part of a punishment or for any other
reason. Torture devices or tools are used to inflict
unbearable agony on a victim. The objectives of
torture were to intimidate, deter, revenge or punish.
Or as a tool or a method for the extraction of
information or confessions.
MEDIEVAL TORTURE
 Definition of Punishment
 The definition of punishment is to impose or
inflict something unpleasant or aversive on a
person in response to disobedient or morally
wrong behavior. Punishment means to
impose a penalty for a wrong committed.
MEDIEVAL TORTURE
 Medieval Torture Chambers and
Dungeons
 The torture chambers were located in the lower parts
of castles. The entrances to many torture chambers
were accessed through winding passages which
served to muffle the agonizing cries of torture victims
from the normal inhabitants of the castle. Torture
chambers and dungeons were often very small some
measured only eleven feet long by seven feet wide in
which from ten to twenty prisoners were often
incarcerated at the same time.
MEDIEVAL EXECUTION
METHODS
 The Wheel
 The Wheel or Breaking Wheel where the unfortunate
victim had his limbs systematically broken. Catherine
wheel or breaking wheel, an instrument of execution
often associated with Saint Catherine of Alexandria
and adopted as one of the European execution
methods.
MEDIEVAL EXECUTION
METHODS
 Quartering
 Quartering where the legs and arms were separately
tied to four horses and as each horse moved away
the body would be torn to bits.
MEDIEVAL EXECUTION
METHODS
 Hung, drawn and quartered
 One of the most terrible methods of execution ever invented and used
extensively in England as the punishment for traitors. The condemned
was hanged till they were half dead, and then taken down, and
quartered alive. After that, their members and bowels were cut from
their bodies, and thrown into a fire, while they were still alive. They
would finally be killed by decapitation.
MEDIEVAL EXECUTION
METHODS
 Pressing
 Prisoners were crushed to death as heavy objects
were slowly loaded on top of their bodies.
MEDIEVAL EXECUTION
METHODS
 Boiling to death
 Prisoners were boiled to death in a huge cauldron. This
punishment was often reserved for poisoners.
MEDIEVAL EXECUTION
METHODS
 Decapitation
 Prisoners were sentenced to having their head struck off their body.
The axe was used for this purpose which resulted in the head often
being roughly hacked off the victim, requiring several blows. When
clemency was granted a sword was used which removed the head by
one swift cut.
MEDIEVAL EXECUTION
METHODS
 Burning
 Prisoners were chained to a stake surrounded by wood and
faggots which were set alight at the point of execution and the
person suffered the agonizing pain of being burnt to death.
MEDIEVAL EXECUTION
METHODS
 Hanging
 Prisoners were hung at the gibbet and died either by
breaking their necks or by choking to death.
MEDIEVAL EXECUTION
METHODS
 Impalement
 Impalement was frequently practiced in Asia and
Europe throughout the Middle Ages.
MEDIEVAL TORTURE
DEVICES
Boot or Spanish boot
Judas Cradle
Strappado
Brodequin
Branding Irons
The Collar
The Rack
Thumbscrews
The Wheel
Foot press
Foot screw
Heretic's fork
Water Torture
Brank
The Collar
Drunkards Cloak
The Iron Maiden
Pillory
The Scavenger's daughter
Scold's bridle
Stocks
Ducking stools
Manorial System
 New economic system - tied to
feudalism – the manor
 Included manor house (demesne),
pastures, a mill, church, fields & a
village of a few dozen 1 room huts
 Large fiefs had several manors where
bailiff managed smaller estates
Manorial System
 Manors tried to be self-sufficient –
produced everything they need except
salt, iron or millstones
 Serfs – peasants – tied to the land but
not slaves
 Paid the lord to farm the land – labor,
crops, animals, eggs, etc.
 Received housing, land & food
Medieval Church
 After the fall of Rome – Christian church
split into eastern & western churches
(main issue was icons)
 Western Church headed by pope –
became known as Roman Catholic
Church
 Became very powerful force not only
spiritual but also secular (worldly) force
Medieval Church
 Pope claims power over all secular
(worldly) rulers (monarchs)
 Many high ranking church officials were
also feudal lords
 Church had absolute power over the
religious life of Christians
Medieval Church
 Church had its own laws – Canon law –
as well as own courts
 Anyone who refused to obey church law
faced excommunication—could not
receive the sacraments
 Powerful nobles could face an interdict
Medieval Church
 Local parish priests – held mass, cared
for sick, aided poor etc.
 Most were commoners
 Church served as social centers of
villages & towns
Medieval Church
 Church taught that men & women equal
before God but women on earth were
inferior
Weak & easily led to sin – Eve
 They must be modest & pure--Mary
 Women punished more severely for their
transgressions

Monasticism
 Some men & women
withdrew from worldly life
 Men – monks & women –
nuns lived in monasteries
and convents headed by
an abbot or an abbess
Monasticism
 St. Benedict – established
a monastery in Italy
 Created a set of rules for
monks to live by
(Benedictine Rules)




Vow of poverty
Vow of chastity
Obedience to abbot & word
of God
Manual labor
Monasticism
 Monasteries & convents provided basic
social services to people
Tending the sick
 Giving alms to the poor
 Setting up schools
 Lodging for travelers

Monasticism
 Some monks & nuns
risk their lives to spread
the word of God



St. Patrick – converted
Celtic of Ireland
St. Augustine –
converted Angles &
Saxons of England
St. Boniface – converted
Germanic tribes
Church reform
 Church power & wealth created serious
problems
Clergy living in wealth
 Married priests
 Church officials not doing their duty

 Monastery at Cluny (France) under
Abbot Berno – begins reform (Cluniac
Reforms)– back to the rules & only truly
devoted men
Monasticism
 Monasteries were centers of learning
 Monks copied ancient works—could
copy 1 to 2 books a year
 Bede, an English scholar, wrote the first
history of England (introduced B.C. and
A.D. to date historical events)
Church reform
 Another Church problem – simony –
buying & selling of Church offices
 Pope Gregory VII outlawed simony and
married priests
 Insisted Church choose Church officials
and not the nobles
Church reform
 Friars – monks who spent their lives
with the people not in monasteries
 St. Francis of Assisi – Franciscans –
teaching & preaching to the poor
 St. Dominic – Dominicans – educating
people about Church doctrine and
combat heresy
 Both begging orders-- mendicant
Other Missionaries
 Ulfilas—preached to Gothic people—
invented the Gothic alphabet—
translated Bible into Gothic language
 Female religious orders included the
Beguines—this women set up hospitals
and shelters and ministered to the poor
Jews in Europe
 Christians persecuted the Jews –
blamed for the death of Jesus
 Blamed for diseases, famines and
economic hardships – (many were
moneylenders-usury-charging interest
on money borrowed)
 Laid the foundations for anti-Semitism
(hatred and persecution of Jews)
Agricultural Revolution
 Single family farms became the basic
unit of agricultural production
 New plow – iron or steel—horseshoe
 Used horses (collar harness) not oxen –
faster—stirrup helped riders stay on
horse
 Windmill – powered grinding mills
 Three-field system – crop rotation =
more food= population increase
Trade in the Middle ages
 As warfare decreased – trade
increased—weakened Feudalism
 Wool will be the main product in the
beginning
 Trade fairs – feudal lords could make
money on taxing goods sold plus
provided protection & money changers
Trade in the Middle ages
 Trade grew soon not only wool
 Furs from Russia
 Weapons, armor, & horses from eastern
Mediterranean
 Trade fair became big events = spread
of customs, ideas, & technology
 Hanseatic League – 80 towns in
Northern Germany—formed for trade &
protection--had a huge fleet of ships
Growth of Towns & cities
 Merchants began to stay year round at
fairs – artisans moved in and towns &
cities grew up there
 Peasants sold food to towns people &
bought products
 Most early towns on nobles’ land – paid
rent
Growth of Towns & cities
 Townspeople ask for charters
 Guaranteed rights
 Limited control over own affairs
 Own courts
 Freedom for serfs who stayed in town for 1
year & a day
 Lord can’t seize the land
Growth of Towns & cities
 Caused the creation of middle class
– wealth rather than hereditary titles
or land ownership determined a
persons social status
 Church instituted the “Peace of God”
which prohibited fighting from Friday to
Sunday
New Business Practices
 Set up to meet needs of changing
economy
 Merchants formed partnerships,
developed system of insurance and
used bill of exchange (early checks)
Guilds
 Association of merchants & artisans that
governed a town
 First were merchant guilds that
governed prices & wages quality, hours
worked, gave money to needy members
 They had a monopoly only member
could work in that town
Guilds
 Began to restrict membership &
regulated training
Apprentice – boys 7 -8 years old no
wages but room & board spent 7 to 12
years there
 Journeyman – earned wages by working
for a master craftsmen. Submitted sample
of work to Guild to become a master

Town Life
 Surrounded by defensive wall
 Narrow streets closely packed houses
 No sanitation system – waste tossed out the
window – dog & pigs scavenged for garbage
Town Life
 Dangers included fires, thieves &
pickpockets, epidemics
 Main attraction – ability to make money = rise
up in society