Brainstorm
• List everything you associate with the
Middle Ages also known as the Medieval
Period.
Medieval Period
England
1066-1485
Background
• King Harold II of England vs. William the
Conqueror of Normandy at Battle of Hastings
1066
• William the Conqueror won!
– Established a feudal system
– Eradicated slavery – replaced with serfs
– Blended the Anglo-Saxon & French Norman
cultures = language began to change
Signs of the Times
• Tensions between archbishops and rulers =
– Church power vs. Royal power
• Multiple civil wars between the Anglo-Normans = lost
the territory of Normandy
• 14th-century saw the Great Famine & the Black Death
= killed about half of England’s population
• Peasants’ Revolt- 1381
• Desertion of small towns and population booms in the
big cities
• Social unrest and recession towards the end of the 15thcentury as a result of The Hundred Years’ War & The
War of the Roses
• Rise of the Middle Class & trade unions
Signs of the Times
• Anti-Semitism in England = led to expulsion of Jews
from the country until the 1600s
• Great medieval philosophers & advances in natural
science
• Huge military successes at times
• Profits from international wool and cloth trades
• Varied rights for women– still mostly limited but more
opportunities opened up in areas after the Black Death
• Rise of Christianity = more monasteries and cathedrals
• Illuminated manuscripts
• King Arthur stories = inspired by French court
Medieval Catholic Church
Center of life for medieval society
• Influence
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Education: Cambridge, Oxford
Architecture: cathedrals
Ecclesiastical courts
Excommunication: denied reward of heaven
Corruption of Catholic church with selling of holy
relics
• Struggle between Henry II and Thomas a
Becket (remember that name!)
Feudalism
• Feudalism (system of allegiances)
– Fiefdom = castle, chapel, farms, surrounding land,
etc.
– King- owns the land & leases it to nobles
– Nobles- protect land and fight for King/ give him tax
$
– Knights- protected castle and fought for their noble
in exchange for protection and land
– Serfs = peasants– gave income to noble in exchange
for protection
Chivalry
Stages
A code of conduct for knights
– Page: 7-14 years of age
– Squire: 14-21 years of age
– Knight: 21 or above
(usually knighted in
church)
Code of Chivalry
– Allegiance to King: fight
for or support king
– Service to church: God is
spiritual master
– Reverence to women:
protect them; master of
the heart
– Christian principles
Activities
– Jousts
• Tournaments
• Archery
• Melee: last day of
tournament; last
standing wins
• Queen of love and
Beauty
Wars
• The Crusades- 11th through 13th centuries
– Regain holy land from Muslims
– Introduced trade
– Discovery of new world
• Hundred Years War- 1337 to 1453
– Joan of Arc
• War of the Roses
– Between the houses of York and Lancaster
– Henry (Lancaster) defeated Richard (York)
– Henry married Richard’s niece to unite both houses
to form new house = TUDORS
Magna Carta
• 1215
• First document forced onto a King of England
by his subjects (ruling Barons)
• Root of:
– constitutional law in English speaking
countries
– The writ of habeas corpus
– The Bill of Rights
Torture Devices
• No laws supported the rights of prisoners
• Torture was seen as a legitimate way to
obtain confessions and testimonies
• Most castles and fiefs had some sort of
torture chamber
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Ripping out teeth / nails
Beating
Blinding
Boiling
Bone breaking
Branding and Burning
Castration
Choking
Cutting
Disfigurement
Dislocation
Drowning
• Flagellation, whipping and
beating
• Flaying
• Roasting
• Genital mutilation
• Limb/finger removal
• Starvation
• Tongue removal
• Tickling
• Compression of the limbs by
special instruments, or by ropes,
• Injection of water, vinegar, or
oil, into the body
• Application of hot pitch
• Starvation
Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
(1343-1400)
• Greatest English Poet = to Shakespeare
• Background:
– Chaucer was a page and later a knight
– When captured in France, he was ransomed by the
King
– Married lady-in-waiting to queen
– Fluent in French, Latin, Italian, and English
– Buried in Westminster Abbey- first person in the
poet’s corner
• Father of poetry, short stories, novels
Thomas a Becket,
Saint Thomas of Canterbury
• Venerated as a saint and a martyr by the
Catholic and Anglican Churches
• Murdered in 1170 for speaking out against
King Henry II (Henry wanted power over
the church)
• Murdered inside Canterbury Cathedral
• Pilgrimages to Canterbury Cathedral
became one of the most common during the
Medieval Period through today
“...The wicked knight leapt suddenly upon him, cutting off the top of the
crown which the unction of sacred chrism had dedicated to God. Next he
received a second blow on the head, but still he stood firm and immovable.
At the third blow he fell on his knees and elbows, offering himself a living
sacrifice, and saying in a low voice, 'For the name of Jesus and the protection
of the Church, I am ready to embrace death.' But the third knight inflicted a
terrible wound as he lay prostrate. By this stroke, the crown of his head was
separated from the head in such a way that the blood white with the brain,
and the brain no less red from the blood, dyed the floor of the cathedral. The
same clerk who had entered with the knights placed his foot on the neck of
the holy priest and precious martyr, and, horrible to relate, scattered the
brains and blood about the pavements, crying to the others, 'Let us away,
knights; this fellow will arise no more.”
The Cantebury Tales
• Frame = a 70 mile
pilgrimage from London • Style = couplet (two
to Canterbury Cathedral
lines, later called heroic
to visit the shrine of
couplet), iambic
martyr St. Thomas a
pentameter, MIDDLE
Becket
ENGLISH
• Original plan = of 29
• Point of view = Chaucer
pilgrims, each was to tell
as a naïve pilgrim who
4 stories: 2 on the way
“admires” his fellow
and 2 on the return…
travelers/ Chaucer as a
Chaucer only finished 24
sophisticated poet,
tales
observing and
• Setting/ Time = Tabard
understanding human
Inn in Southwark south
emotion and motivation
of London and
continuing on the
journey; Easter, spring
• Feudal Class: includes
nobility and peasants
– Upper class- code of
chivalry (honor to God,
King, and women)
– Lower class- service to
Lord of the castle and
King, tithing to church,
paying rent to Lord
• Ecclesiastical- Church
– Vows of poverty
– Vows of chastity
– Vows of obedience to God
• Urban: new working
class and trade guilds
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Honesty in business
Hard worker
Good moral character
Congenial
Levels of
Society
Chaucer’s judgment
of pilgrims was
determined by how
well they followed
the ideal
characteristics of
their level of society.
Pilgrim Chart – Notes Section
• 7 columns:
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Pilgrim
Level of Society
Juxtaposition
Contrast
Repetition
Shift
Favor/ Disfavor
Pilgrims to add to Chart
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Squire
Knight
Nun
Monk
Friar
Wife of Bath
Parson
Miller
Summoner
Pardoner
Host