500-1500 AD

Question 1

How many crusades were there in total?

Answer 1

Nine

Question 2

Why did so many European knights join the crusades? What motivated the average citizen in the medieval world to join?

Answer 2

Knights had the opportunity to test their skills through participating in the crusades.

Furthermore, for regular people and knights, they were motivated to to join the crusades, since the Pope had claimed that their participation would cleanse them of all past sins.

Question 3

Several counties are established by the Europeans following their victorious first crusades. These include the County of tripoli, the principality of Armenian Cilicia. What other counties were established?

Answer 3

County of Edessa

Principality of Antioch

Question 4

How did Europeans accept the various defeats in the crusades?

Answer 4

Many looked upon it as a sign from god. Others believed that the devil may have meddled, leading towards their losses.

Question 5

The treaty following the third crusades allowed Christians and Jews to do what?

Answer 5

Make pilgrimages to Jerusalem (ONLY, if they are unarmed).

Question 6

In the fourth crusade the crusaders changed plans on going to the holy land and chose to attack and loot where?
Why was this considered to be ironic?

Answer 6

• The City of Constantinople.

- Its a Christian city.

Question 7

Who organized the seventh crusade?

Answer 7

Louis IX of France.

Question 8

What are some goods and ideas that Europeans gained from the crusades?

Answer 8

Rice, spices, gingers, mirrors, carpets, ship compasses, chess, arabic figures 0-9, negative numbers, drugs, advanced chemistry.

Question 9

Where does the plague originate from?

Answer 9

China

Question 10

How can the plague be transmitted?

Answer 10

• Direct contact
• Rats
• Mosquitos

Question 11

The plague killed off about 50% of which state/continents population?

Answer 11

Europes population

Question 12

What were the Jewish people accused of doing during the Black Plauge?
Why were they less prone towards getting the disease?

Answer 12

• Poisoning the wells.

- Better hygiene than the rest of the population, and they lived close to each other.

Question 13

What were some methods doctors used to try to fix those with the plague?

Answer 13

1. Rub feces into the wounds.
2. Rub frogs into the wounds.
3. Baking wounds.
   are possible examples.

Question 14

What were the overall effects of the plague?

Answer 14

1. Town populations fell.
   
2. Trade declines, prices rise.
   
3. Serfs would leave the manors
   
4. Nobles resisted higher wages, leading towards small revolts.
   
5. Jews were falsely blamed for brining on the plague.

2. The church lost prestige, because their priests were not able to cure people.

Question 15

How do the Tartars relate to the plague?

Answer 15

They would throw dead bodies of plague victims over walls of cities they attack. This was in a sense the first form of “biological warfare”.

Question 16

What is the status of plagues today?

Answer 16

The bubonic plagues still exist.
However, there are no plagues equivalent to the ones from the middle ages due to the fact that people are far more hygienic and that modern medicine is far more advanced.

The ones that do exist, are primarily in remote areas of Africa where medical supplies and knowledge in regards ot the issue are low.

Various national governments are concerned that a plague like symptom could be utilized in the form of bio-terrorism.

Question 17

Who is Alfred the Great?

Answer 17

Alfred the Great was an Anglo-Saxon, and one of the few leaders that were able to fight off the Vikings. He was able to begin to unite the Anglo-Saxons in the 800’s and served as the King of Anglo Saxons until the late 800s.
(The Anglo-Saxons would later on be conquered by the Danish King Canute, and merge with the Vikings into one people)

Question 18

Who were the Normans?

Answer 18

A group of people who lived in what would be the northern parts of modern day France.
The Normans would go on to conquer the southern parts of what would be modern day England.
The most famous battle being the Battle of Hastings (1066) where the Normans led by William the Conquerer would defeat the Anglo-Saxons led by Harold Godwinson.

Question 19

What is the relationship between Herny II (Norman) and Eleanor of Aquitaine (French). How is this relationship important in medieval history?

Answer 19

They were married.

Their marriage helped the Normans increase their territory.

Question 20

What is the Magna Carta? How did it come to form?

Answer 20

The Magna Carta (1215) is a document written by nobles in the medieval times, which states various civil rights that they believed should be protected. These include, but not are exclusive to;

• Separation of church and state,
• Citizens rights to own property,
• Citizens rights not to be over taxed.

*Hundreds of years later, the first US government would use the Magna Carta as one of their basis when creating laws.

Question 21

Are the Normans English?

Answer 21

Yes: They inter-married with the English as did the Vikings a hundred years earlier. There is no such thing as an “English gene”, and those who are born and live in what would be modern day England in the early 1000’s should all be considered “English”.

No: The Normans clearly originate from what would be modern day France. In fact, their origins (Normandy) is still an existing city in France today. Even though they eventually inter-married with the Anglo-Saxons, their first 50 years of rule clearly had enough of a divide to conclude that the Normans are not naturally English.

Question 22

What did the Capetian family accomplish?

Answer 22

Increasing the territory for the French.

Question 23

Describe Philip II.

Answer 23

After watching his father lose land to King Henry II to France, soon after being crowned at the age of 15, Philip set out to take back the loss land.

During his time in power, he had tripled the lands under his direct control.

Question 24

What is Philip IV (the Fair) remembered for?

Answer 24

• Having several disputes with the pope in regards to taxation of the church. Resulting in him asking for the Popes arrest.
• Creating a new system where three groups meet at the estate-generals (group 1: church, group 2: lords, group 3: everyone else). This system would create great inequality amongst people, eventually leading towards the French Revolution in 1700s.

Question 25

What type of divisive issues did the Church face during the later medieval ages?

Answer 25

Great Schism (1378): 
Where there were multiple popes and each declared the others as a false pope. The situation was only solved once all the popes resigned and Pope Martin V took over as Pope.

The church moves their base from Rome to Avignon.

Pope Bonafice VIII has problems with King Philip IV of France who orders the Pope to be arrested.

These events show how the church was beginning to lose support and legitimacy in the Western world.

Question 26

Who was John Wycliffe and Jan Hus?

Answer 26

John Wycliffe:
Challenges the church that Jesus is the true head of the church, not the pope.

Jan Hus: Inspired by Wycliffe, taught that the authority of the 
bible was higher than the Bible. 
He was seized by the Church 
and burned at the stake at 1415.

Question 27

How did the Hundred Years War begin?

Answer 27

Following the death of French King Philip the Fair (Philip IV) there was not definitive heir for his throne.

As a result, there was a power struggle for his position.

English king, Edward III invaded France in 1337 claiming that he should rule France, because he is the rightful heir (being the grandson of Philip IV).

Question 28

Describe the Battle of Agingcourt? Why do so many historians coin this battle as the battle which “ended chivalry”?

Answer 28

The Battle of Agincourt was a decisive victory for the English. The English who were outnumbered 1:6 against the French were still able to win because they had archers, despite the fact that many of their fighters were peasants, and many of the French fighters were knights.

Question 29

Describe the longbows effect in medieval history.

Answer 29

The longbow significantly affected knights. The longbow with its large arrow and strong force could penetrate knight armor from a distance.
Therefore, it made warfare far easier for non-skilled fighters such as peasants to participate in wars.

Question 30

What was Joan of Arcs upbringing like?

Answer 30

Born into a peasant family.
Has visions at an early age that God has chosen her to lead France to victory over the English.
At first, no one takes her seriously, but some of her prophecies and images (such as the French losing a decisive war to the English come true), she is granted the right to meet King Charles VII.

Question 31

What made Joan of Arc such a polarizing figure?

Why did people admire or hate her?

Answer 31

Admiration:
Led a French military regiment at a very young age (17) as a female.
Helps liberate the city of Orleans from the English.
fierce fighter on the battle-field, stories say that she continued to move forward after being shot in the leg.

Criticism: 
May have been lying about the "visions from god".
May have been delusional.
Accusations of witchcraft.
Accusations of manipulation.

Question 32

What was the legacy of the Hundred Years War?

Answer 32

-An emergence of nationalism

-The power and prestige of French Monarch increased
-


Most historians look at the end of the Hundred Years War as also the end of the Middle Ages alltogether 1453. A new era of “Nations” had begun.