Unit
8: The Late Middle Ages
Ø
After the raids of the Vikings there was no strong, central government
in
Ø The main leaders were nobles who owned a lot of land and they set up feudalism (government by landowning nobles).
Ø Feudalism (FE) divided people into 3 different groups.
Ø 1) clergy – help poor/sick and teach Christianity.
Ø 2) nobles – protect, govern, and enforce laws.
Ø 3) peasants/townspeople – support other 2 by farming and doing service.
Ø Franks were the first to
give fiefs (estates) in exchange for service & loyalty and this became the
practice in
The
Rise of Feudal Territories
Ø After Charlemagne’s death
there was no central authority so nobles became more powerful and kings were
weak.
Ø Some nobles became more
powerful than the kings.
Ø ~1000 AD there were many
small feudal territories that were ruled by a noble.
Ø Noble had power to make and
enforce laws.
Ø Most people were
peasants/townspeople but they did not have any power.
Ø People believed nobles ruled
because God wanted it that way.
Lord
and Vassal
Ø Vassals (a noble who served
a lord of higher rank) were protected and given a fief by their lord in return
for service and loyalty.
Ø Act of homage (ceremony
making an official tie between lord and vassal).
Ø Vassal had to help their
lord in battles, make payments on special occasions, and pay a ransom for the
lord if he was captured.
Ø Vassals also had to entertain
the lord when he visited and serve on the lord’s court.
Ø A vassal’s land could be
taken away if he did not do his job.
Ø When a vassal died the fief
went to the oldest son after an act of homage.
Ø 800-1000 AD had wooden houses
with only one room for everything and palisades (wooden fences) for protection.
The
Castle
Ø ~1100 AD nobles lived in
stronger stone houses called castles.
Ø Castles had drawbridges and
a portcullis (iron gate) to prevent entry.
Ø The keep (tall tower with
thick walls) was where the important people lived and it could be defended if
the rest of the castle fell.
Ø Castles were set up to be
self-sufficient for months in case of a siege.
Ø Many other people worked in
castles including servants and officials.
Castle
Life
Ø Nobles would hold courts,
hunt, fish, and played games like chess.
Ø Ladies (noblewomen) were
expected to obey their husbands.
Ø Marriages were usually
arranged to unite powerful families.
Ø Often women married by 12
and women with large dowries were considered the most desirable.
Ø Most of the time the women
raised the children but if the lord was away they had more say in the way the
castle ran.
Ø Most nobles had trained to become knights
(soldiers on horseback).
Ø Knights had to follow a code
of chivalry (certain rules for knights) that emphasized loyalty, bravery,
respect, and compassion to the poor.
Training
Ø A noble started training as
a knight at ~7 years by being a page (person who helped knights’ horses and
cleaned his armor).
Ø After learning by being a
page they became a squire (person who aided one knight) at 15 years old.
Ø If he fought well, he would
be made a knight by a ceremony named dubbing.
Tournaments
Ø Knights trained for fighting
in tournaments (special contests that test skill, strength, and endurance)
including jousts (battles between knights with lances).
Ø Tournaments helped to show
who were good fighter but sometimes knights got killed so they were expensive.
Ø Land was very important to
feudalism.
Ø Fief was given to nobles and
they established manors
Ø Peasants, knights, and
nobles all lived on manors
Daily
Life
Ø Nobles needed help so had a seneschal
(visited each of the nobles fiefs to check on them) & a bailiff (made sure
peasants were working hard).
Ø Manors were isolated
(fighting and poor transportation) and had to do most things for themselves.
Ø Noble lived in nice
house/castle and peasant lived in nearby villages in one room houses
Ø Villages usually had a
church, mill, oven, and wine press
Freemen
and Serfs
Ø Freemen – could move around
and were not stuck on land but could be thrown off land
Ø Serfs - were a nobles
property along with their kids, had to provide service to the noble but
couldn’t be kicked off land
Ø Serf could become a freemen
by escaping to a town and staying there for a year or later could buy freedom.
Ø Sunday was the only day off
Ø By 1200’s better farming
techniques were available that allowed people to grow more food.