What was it like to live in the Middle Ages?

The 3 languages in the Middle Ages

– Clergy• Latin chiefly spoken, those who

pray

– Nobles• French chiefly spoken, those who

fight

– Commoners• English spoken, those who work

feudalism• Feudalism created ties of

obedience and a sense of loyalty between the vassals and their lord.

• Commoners (peasants) lived on a feudal manor. The lord of the manor gave his vassals (the peasants) land to farm.

• In return, the vassals received protection. Yet they were taxed and had to give a portion of their crops to the lord.

A tenant (vassal) renews his oath of fealty to his lord

Chivalry • A product of feudalism,

chivalry was an idealized system of manners and morals– Restricted to nobility

• The Medieval knight was bound to the chivalric code to be loyal to…– God

– his lord

– his lady

• Chivalric ideals include...– benevolence

– brotherly love

– politeness• Sir Gawain is an example

The crusades• 1095 First Crusade to

reclaim Jerusalem from the infidels– Open trade routes– Peasants (the vassals) are

liberated from their lords to fight, and die, in the Holy Lands

– Cities spring up along the crusade routes

– Feudalism dies out– the transition to the

Renaissance begins

• Sadly, with the Crusades, the Church becomes incredibly corrupt.– Popes fight for political

power– Greed is rampant

• selling of indulgences• Crusades for $

With the Crusades comes The Black Death

• spreads along trade routes

• kills much of the population

• the plague outbreaks occur through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance

• Paradoxically, the Plague provides for continued growth in cities– Afterwards, hundreds of new jobs

available

– Many debts “died off” with creditors

• also contributed to society’s culture

Late Middle Ages• The rise of the merchants

• Usury

• Towards the bourgeoisie: The guilds

• The printing press: William Caxton: Spread of education beyond the monasteries and the church

• Important Middle Ages technologies

Water Wheel

Eyeglasses

Gunpowder

Mechanical Clock

Literature During the Medieval Period

Characteristics of Medieval Literature

• Prose (French influence): Romance

– Le morte d’Arthur

– A narrative in prose that tells of the adventures and heroic exploits of chivalric heroes at the court of king Arthur

• often a supernatural element involved

• Poetry: A new literature in English: The Canterbury tales verse tales (Chaucer); the ballad

• Drama (Christian influence): mistery, miracle & morality plays