MY HISTORY FACTFILE.. The Middle Ages 1066 1484
The Manor Who lived in the manor house? The LORD and LADY What rooms would you find in a manor house? Great Hall, Kitchen (often in a separate building to avoid fires), Buttery (to store ale and wine in butts), Pantry (to store bread), Chapel, Tower: storeroom /office/solar(lord s sitting room/ bedroom). The Beginning of Towns Where did they spring up and why? By a castle The LORD lived in the castle. The Lord needed people to work on his land. So the lord asked people from local villages to move and live outside his castle and do his work. Huts were built around the castle. Other tradesmen would come and settle down to supply the people with their skills, food, craft, ale etc So the town kept growing bigger and bigger Other places a town might start: By a bridge or ford over a river By a crossroads
Telling the Time How did people tell the time in the Middle Ages with no watches or clocks? Church Bells When did they ring the church bells? 5am. Angelus bell, get up. 6am. Mass bell. Start of work at the market. 9am. Mass bell. Market opens for outsiders. 12 noon. Lunch break. 6pm. Evensong bell. End of work for some people. 8pm Winter: Curfew bell. Everyone had to be inside, town gates closed. 9pm Summer. The night watch begins to patrol the streets. Craft Guilds What is a guild? When all the master craftsmen in a town formed themselves into clubs called guilds. Why did they have guilds? To look out for and care for its members. To make sure that everyone was treated fairly. What happened if you broke the rules of the guild? Fined Expelled from the guild you would end up having to leave the town because you d have nowhere to work in the town. Other facts: Boys as young as 7 could learn a skill from a craftsman. They would learn the craft for 7 years as an apprentice. After 7 years, the boys could become a journeyman and earn a small wage. After many years the journeyman might want to set up his own shop and join the guild. He would make a masterpiece to be judged by other guild members and if it was good enough he would become a master-craftsman.
Punishment How were people punished in the Middle Ages? Stocks and pillory for small crimes. If a criminal being hunted could reach a church Sanctuary Ring Fines. even the door handle, he could claim the right of Banishment to foreign lands. Sanctuary. He could stay in the church for 40 days Dungeons in castles. and no one could touch him. Whipping, chopping off hands, ears & noses, branding, execution by hanging for serious crimes. Law and Order There were no police in the Middle Ages so it was down to the people to keep law and order. They did this in several ways. A constable would be in charge in daylight hours. He would be voted by his fellow villagers to do the job and would not get paid so would have to do his own job too. As a result he would probably do it poorly so he didn t get voted to do it again. The tything system. All males over the age of 12 were put into groups of ten and the senior man in each group had to keep a record of the behaviour of all of the men in their group. They then had to report twice a year to a special court. The Hue and Cry would be raised by anybody witnessing a crime. They would have to shout very loudly and give chase to the suspect, anybody nearby would be obliged to join in the chase and could be fined for not doing so. Anyone caught by the hue and cry could be punished on the spot without trial. The Night Watch would be in charge after dark and would enforce the curfew. Every man had to take a turn unless he had a very good reason for not doing so. It would be made up of a group of guild members, with a different guild taking charge each night or each week. The night watch often were ineffective as they got drunk and made too much noise, giving any criminals a warning that they were on their way.
THE CHURCH Everyone went to church in the Middle Ages. Why did they go to church? Hell: they believed that if you did not go to church you would go to hell. How did the church help them? Comfort: people lived miserable lives, worked very hard and died young; the church gave them comfort by promising them eternal life in Heaven. Provision: food, shelter, clothes for the very poor and needy. School: a few boys had the chance to go to school. Hospital: not as we know it today but a place to be cared for. Monasteries A place where nuns and monks lived In the monastery: Church: they had to go to lots of services during the course of the day to pray. Fields: they ran farms to provide their food. Some monks worked in the fields when not praying. Writing room/scriptorium: some monks copied books before the invention of printing. Cloisters: where the monks were allowed to talk and socialise. Hospital Dining room/refectory Dormitory
Murder in the Cathedral The murder of Thomas Becket by Henry II in 1170. Henry II is King. Thomas Becket, his best friend is Archbishop of Canterbury. They argue about the church, Henry yells, Who will rid me of this turbulent priest? Four knights overhear and thinking they are doing Henry a favour, they rush off to Canterbury to kill Thomas Thomas is murdered on the altar steps Two years later the Pope canonises Thomas and he becomes Saint Thomas Two years after this, in 1174, Henry returns to England and serves his penance. He walks barefoot through the streets of Canterbury to the Cathedral where he is whipped by the monks and bishops. The four knights were sent to the crusades to fight where they all perished. Heraldry The study of shields and coats of arms. Knights needed to know who was on whose side in battle. They would use their family name, skill or interests to make an arm (badge) They used only 7 colours: red(gules), blue(azure), green (vert), purple (purpure), black (sable), gold (or), silver (argent) The arm would then be worn on the special coats they wore. This is how they became known as a coat of arms. The design would also be put onto their shields and pennons (small flags). Now the knights could recognise each other by their coat of arms and see who was on their side.
Knights and Tournaments Tournaments were competitions that happened in peace time to keep knights battle skills up to scratch. Tournaments included jousting where two knights charged towards each other using a lance. A knight would have the following items: Crest, breastplate, helmet, chainmail, visor, lance (long pole used to joust with), dagger, sword Don t forget they would have a horse to ride. The horse would also be wearing armour and a helmet. What happened when a knight won the competition? He could take the armour and the horse off the losing knight and take him prisoner until a ransom was paid. The Crusades The Crusades were medieval Wars. Crusade means war of the cross (remember the design of the crusader shields). The Christian countries in Europe fought against the non-christians, in particular the Muslim countries to win their land, fame and fortune. Christians tried especially hard to win back the holy city of Jerusalem from the Turks, as it was where Christians went on pilgrimage. After visiting all these Middle Eastern countries many items were introduced into Europe for the 1 st time: rice, apricots, spices, cotton, tapestries, rugs, lemons, melons, mirrors, Arabic numbers (including for the first time zero), perfume, enamel, dates, figs, black pepper, porcelain, sugar. Biological warfare was seen for the first time, particularly during sieges where rotting and diseased corpses were catapulted into castles to spread disease among the besieged. Castles and weapons became much more sophisticated.
Richard the Lionheart King of England for 10 years between 1189-1199 Only visited England twice during his reign for a total of five or six months. His wife never came to England. He spoke only French and considered himself to be French even though he was King of England. His tomb is in France. He loved fighting and spent most of his reign at war in the Holy Land fighting in the Crusades. He was arrested and held in secret and for ransom by the Duke of Austria. His faithful minstrel Blondel, travelled in disguise to all the castles in the area and sang Richard s favourite song outside each one. He discovered which castle he was being held captive in, when Richard, from the dungeon, joined in. Richard was not released however until a King s Ransom was paid, almost bankrupting England. He was killed by an arrow while besieging a French castle. The Conquest of Wales Edward I or Edward Longshanks was crowned King of England in 1272. (Longshanks means tall). At this time most of southern Wales had already been conquered by English barons and the people of North Wales accepted the English King as their overlord. Llewellyn ap Griffith became ruler of North Wales in 1270 and with a strong army and the mountains to protect him, felt that he could defy the English. Edward was one of the wisest and bravest kings of the Middle Ages. When he was crowned all the great lords came and swore to be faithful to him except Llewellyn. Edward decided to punish him and marched his great army to the foot of Mount Snowdon. Llewellyn did not try to fight in open battle but defeated the English by stealth, ambushing bands of English soldiers and raiding the English camps at night.
Edward decided not to follow the Welsh into the mountains as they knew every hiding place. Instead he surrounded them and waited until starvation forced the Welsh out. Llewellyn realised the English army was too strong for him so surrendered and swore to accept Edward as overlord. The peace lasted several years until 1282 when the Welsh rose in revolt and the English Barons struggled to hold them back. Edward led a powerful army to fight the Welsh and finally defeated them. As a warning, the head of Llewellyn was cut off and fixed to the top of the Tower of London. The Welsh surrendered again. After his victory, Edward built castles at Conwy, Harlech, Caernarvon and Beaumaris to keep an eye on the Welsh. He told the Welsh he would give them a non-english speaking prince, which pleased them as they assumed the prince would be a welsh speaker but in fact he arranged for his son to be crowned Prince of Wales. He was a baby and so didn t speak any language yet. To this day the first son of the English monarch is called the Prince of Wales.