Year 8 Test 1- Middle Ages

Question 1

What is a fief?

Answer 1

Land was broken upon to fiefs

They included at least one village, huts for the serfs, the manor house or castle, fields for growing and woods

Question 2

What is a vassal?

Answer 2

A knight

A person granted the use of land, in return for rendering loyalty, work, and usually military service or its equivalent to a lord or other superior

Question 3

What is a serf

Answer 3

An unfree peasant, bound to the land. If his lord sold the land, the serf was passed on to the new landlord

Question 4

What is a villein?

Answer 4

One of a class of feudal serfs who held the legal status of freemen in their dealings with all people except their lord.

Question 5

What were nobles vassals of?

Answer 5

The king

Question 6

Why were castles built in a hill?

Answer 6

So they were harder to attack and they could see everything

Question 7

What was the bailey

Answer 7

A store house with an inner wall and outer wall

Question 8

Why were the castles built with stone?

Answer 8

So they couldn’t burn

Question 9

What was crenellation

Answer 9

The up and down part at the top of the castle. You would shoot out of the gaps and hide behind the bits of stone when someone shot at you

Question 10

Why did castles have a rounded wall?

Answer 10

Because it was harder to climb up

Question 11

Why were moats useful?

Answer 11

It could stop ladders up the wall

Question 12

What was a siege tower used for?

Answer 12

Attacking castles. They would be rolled up and would sometimes be level with the castle wall

Question 13

What was a mangonel?

Answer 13

A type of catapult

Question 14

What are two different types of catapults?

Answer 14

Mangonel and trébuche

Question 15

What did the catapults fire over the wall?

Answer 15

Stones, dead animal, heads of the enemy

Question 16

What was crop rotation?

Answer 16

It was when common land was divided into three fields and they rotated around, allowing the other fields to repair.

Question 17

What was a knight?

Answer 17

Knights were skilled fighters. They served their lord in many ways, but mainly by going into battle for him.

Question 18

What is a page?

Answer 18

A 7 year old boy who went to serve another castle and learnt the basic skills of knighthood

Question 19

What was a squire?

Answer 19

A 14 year old boy who who trained to become a knight.
They learnt about horsemanship, how to use a sword and lance etc.
They aided knights in battle and looked after their horse and armour

Question 20

Feudal hierarchy

Answer 20

Pope, king, lords, lesser nobles, serfs

Question 21

What was a peasants life?

Answer 21

They worked in the fields in all seasons. Their tasks included manual ploughing, sowing, weeding, harvesting and threshing

Question 22

What were some medieval siege weapons?

Answer 22

Two types of catapults
- Trebuchet
- Mangonel
Other weapons
- Crossbow
- Longbow

Question 23

Types of castles

Answer 23

Stone castles, wood castles

Question 24

What was trial by ordeal?

Answer 24

Trial by ordeal was when a person’s innocence was tested by putting them in a dangerous position through the use of torture. Examples of ordeals were
•swallowing poison
•pulling an object from boiling water
•walking over red-hot coals
•carrying red-hot piece of iron over a certain distance
•In these ordeals if you were burnt, then you were guilty.

Question 25

What were the crusades?

Answer 25

a volunteer army whose goal was to retake Jerusalem. Many people volunteered. About 30,000 men left Western Europe to fight in Jerusalem.

Question 26

What was the sign of the crusade?

Answer 26

A Red Cross

Question 27

Why was the church so important

Answer 27

The parish church was the centre of village life. People went there nearly every day.

• Villagers went there to pick up news.
• People had lessons with the priest.
• People believed strongly in heaven and hell. They hoped that by going to church they’d get to heaven.
• Markets, festivals and games were held here.
• Criminals could seek sanctuary in a church.
• The things going on in and around the church often entertained and amused people as villagers’ lives could be quite dull!

Question 28

What did they believe happened after death

Answer 28

They believed there were three stages
HEAVEN
You needed to be sorry for your sins and get people to pray for you
PURGATORY
This was not as good as heaven but not as bad as hell. Most people went here
HELL
bad

Question 29

What were tithes

Answer 29

They were a tax of %10 things you recieved that went to the church

Question 30

Villeins

Answer 30

Villein were in the social space between serfs and free men. The help with finance?