Middle ages/Medieval times daily life

Question 1

When were the middle ages?

Answer 1

The 15th and 16th centuries.

Question 2

How were people divided?

Answer 2

Those who fought
Those who worked
Those who prayed

Question 3

What was the feudal system?

Answer 3

The feudal system was the ownership and control of land was organised through the feudal system.
The king kept land for his own use and split the rest between barons (lords) and bishops. They were his tenants-in-chief.

Question 4

What was the ceremony for handing over the land called? Describe this ceremony.

Answer 4

it was called a fief. The lord would kneel before the king and placed his hands in the kings, he swore an oath to become a vassal of the king. They promised to fight for the king and provide him with knights who were given manors.

Question 5

What were knights given in the feudal system?

Answer 5

They were given manors (villages with land around them). They kept some of the land for themselves (demesne). The rest was divided among the tenants who were called peasants or farmers.

Question 6

Explain the role played by the Lord of the castle

Answer 6

The king divided his land up between the main lords. each lord built castles and ruled their area.
They organised the business of the castle, kept his territory under control and carried out the king’s wishes.
he had to fight for the king and help him rule.
The lord had to attend the king’s court when called for.
He would pass on his land to his eldest son when he died.

Question 7

Explain the role played by the Lady of the castle

Answer 7

Noblewomen were married off by their parents. Marriage forged links between families. The bride’s father provided gifts to take to her new family. This was her dowry.
The lady of the castle had to ensure the daily running of the castle went smoothly.
She was in charge of the stores, the baking, the brewing and the cellar.
She gave directions to the servants and pages who came to the castle at about 7 years old.
She spun flax and wool for thread with other ladies and she was responsible for her daughter’s education.

Question 8

What were the first castles built as? What were they later built with?

Answer 8

Some of the first castles were built as motte and bailey castles. Later castles were built out of stone and were much larger.

Question 9

Medieval people- who and what was a knight

Answer 9

The lord provided soldiers for his king. he got these soldiers from his sub-tenants or under-tenants who were knights.
Knights were specially trained fighters in the middle ages. They were usually the sons of lords or other knights. They went through three stages of training.

Question 10

Explain the three stages of training a knight went through

Answer 10

At seven, they became pages and were fostered by another lord and went to live in his castle. There they learned good manners, music, dancing, horse riding and helped the lady of the castle.
at 14, they became squires. They helped the lord dress for jousts and battles. They practised with lances, swords and shields, and bows.
at 21, they were dubbed knights by their lord. As they knelt before their lord, he struck them on the shoulder with the flat of the sword. The knight followed the code of chivalry. he promised to be truthful, generous and loyal, to be courteous to the poor and to protect women and children.

Question 11

Explain the medieval peasant and knights and their relationship with land.
What two things could peasants be? What is the difference?
What did peasants have to do? Who and how much produce did the peasants have to give away?

Answer 11

A knight received a manor which was a village with land around it. A knight kept some of the land for his own use (demesne) and rented the rest to peasants.
Bailiffs and stewards were used to run the manors.
The peasants lived in a village, in small houses with a plot of ground for growing vegetables or vines.

The peasants were either freemen or serfs. Freemen paid a money rent and could move away whenever they wanted to. Serfs weren’t free and they needed the permission of the lord to travel to the nearest town.

All peasants had to work on the lord’s demesne at certain times. They also had to pay a tithe (1/10 of their produce) to the parish priest. They had to grind their corn in the lord’s mill.

Question 12

What was given by the king to allow a town to what?

Answer 12

Towns were given royal charters by the king, which gave them permission to have a town government or corporation, fairs and markets and their own courts. They also collected taxes to pay for repairing the walls.

Question 13

What were the two main groups of people in towns?

Answer 13

The two main groups of people in towns were merchants/traders and craftsmen

Question 14

What were merchants and traders?

Answer 14

The merchants bought and sold goods. Some traded far distances. They attended fairs and markets.

Question 15

What were craftsmen?
Describe a craftsmen’s workshop and an apprentice.
What were guilds?

Answer 15

The craftsmen made and sold goods. They had workshops on the ground floor where they made and sold their goods. Their quarters were over the shops.

The workshop was run by a master craftsman who trained apprentices in the trade. Apprentices began at 14 and lived with the master’s family and slept in the workshop. At the end of the 7 years, the apprentice made a masterpiece to prove his skill. He then became a journeyman, who travelled looking for work and got paid by the day.
All trades formed guilds to control the business of the trade or craft. They also controlled the standard of craftsmanship and decided who could be a craftsman. They took care of their members when they fell on hard times.

Question 16

Explain the street and family names

Answer 16

In larger towns/cities, craftsmen worked on the same street. For this reason, streets were given names such as baker street, carpenter street and miller street. Some family names also came from medieval trades like smith, potter, Taylor, farmer.

Question 17

What were markets and fairs?

Answer 17

Markets were held once a week. People from outside the town came to sell their produce (eggs, veg, milk, etc). They bought from the traders who sold clothes, shoes, pots, pans, etc.
Fairs were much bigger, and they lasted much longer. They were held only once or twice a year. They were usually held outside the town walls, in the fair green, and merchants and traders came from far and near.

Question 18

What were crime and punishment like during the medieval period?
What happened to thieves? What were punishments like?

Answer 18

The king organised judges to travel around the country to try certain crimes. This was in an effort to get rid of trials by combat and trials by ordeal. In the trial by combat, the winner was proved right. In the trial by ordeal, the innocent would survive the pain.

A watchman was paid to patrol the streets, but no one was allowed out after curfew.
Thieves could have their hands cut off, and executions were in public. Some were put in pillories or stocks, and some were ducked into water.

Question 19

What were monks? Explain in detail. How did people become a monk or a nun? What was a day in their life like?

Answer 19

Many men and women became monks and nuns. Monks lived in monasteries and nuns lived in convents.
There were many different orders of monks and nuns. Monks and nuns followed the rule of St Benedict, which was drawn up in Italy in the fifth century. Many nuns came from the upper classes.

A boy or girl who wanted to become a monk or nun joined one of the orders as a novice. They learned the rule of St Benedict and helped with work there. If the abbot or abbess was satisfied with their progress, he became a monk or she became a nun.
They both took three vows.
poverty: They would give up all possessions.
chastity: that they would not marry or have children.
Obedience: They would obey the orders of their Abbotts or abbess.

They prayed six times a day and ate, worked, slept in between them.

Question 20

What were the facilities in a monastery?

Answer 20

Refectory- canteen
Dormitory- sleeping quarters
church- the place of prayer
chapter house- discussion of jobs
scriptorium- where scriptures were written 
infirmary- if sick

Question 21

What was health and medicine like in the middle ages?
What did doctors believe?
Who treated who?

Answer 21

Many of the ideas about medicine in the middle ages were based on the writings of Galen in ancient Rome.
The dissection of human bodies was banned, this time by the catholic church.
Medieval doctors believed that when the four humours (black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm) were unbalanced this caused sickness and disease. Some also believed that sickness was the will of God or the stars.
There were very few doctors at this time, and these were usually used by the rich.
Most people were treated by wise men and women or barber-surgeons who pulled rotten teeth.
There were very few hospitals and these were usually attached to monasteries and convents.
Some gave advice that depended on prayer and on superstition. Others distrusted the doctors.

Question 22

What was public health like?
What role did death play?
What new laws were introduced?

Answer 22

Towns in the middle ages were unhealthy as people lived close together and the streets were narrow and dirty. There was no waste disposal so waste was thrown on the streets. There was also no sewers. Animals were common and they dirtied the streets as well. This led to breakouts of cholera (from dirty water or food) and typhus (from fleas).
Death was a part of everyday life. The average life expectancy was 35 years as many children died at birth or within a year of birth. Women lived a little longer than men.
New laws were passed on cleaning streets and some towns had bathhouses. In surgery, some doctors used wine as an antiseptic to stop the spread of infection and disease. They also used opium as a painkiller.

Question 23

What was the black death and what were the consequences of the black death?

Answer 23

The black death was a plague/disease that spread across Europe in the middle of the 14th century. It began in Asia and was believed to have been spread by fleas on the backs of rats, who carried the disease from person to person. dead bodies had a black/grey appearance from boils and ulcers on the skin.
30-60% of Europe’s population at the time was killed. It had a huge effect on the economy of Europe. It took almost 150 years before the population of Europe was back to the levels before it.
In some places, Jews were blamed for causing the black death, there was a rise in antisemitism.
The plague returned at various times over the next few centuries.