What+were+the+Middle+Ages?

Medieval England was a very busy place, it had growing population. It was the time of knights and slavery. But also the age of death, and the age of faith. It was the age of saints and sacrifice. There whole world was dived in society. You just hope you weren’t at the bottom,

Entertainment in the Middle Ages: It was never uncommon for the wealthy to have big feasts. They had always excluded the poor from these feasts. It was also common to exchange gifts at these parties. Middle ages entertainment also included, banquets, jousting tournaments, fairs games and sports, hunting and animal entertainment using dogs. The middle age entertainers were jugglers, jester (a fool or buffoon at medieval courts), mummers (masked or costumed merrymaker or dancers at festivals), acrobats, jugglers and conjurers.

Life In The Middle Ages: A day in the middle ages was mostly spent working the land and trying to grow enough food to survive another year. Social activities were important, and every person in a middle age town were expected to attend. Fair with troubadours and acrobats performing for very one. The merchants would be selling goods in the town square. Chance game held in local taverns. Jousting tournaments featuring knights from near and far.

Religion Christianity in the catholic form was the religion that was followed by the people. Monks and nuns taught and informed people of this religion, and Jesus was the god of this religion. A church would determine where you fit in life from birth until death. This included whether you were to be a knight, a peasant, a noble lord, etc. The gods were a very important part to the society as well because even the food that was eaten was sacred to the gods and praying was an event that went on all day.

Food In the Middle Ages food was very different compared to the way we eat today. Mostly cattle and sheep were used for meat and were smoked and dried out over winter. Fruits and vegetables were pickled or dried out over winter. That way they had food all year round. Sometimes, mostly in castles, honeybees were stored so that they could sweeten up some of the foods. Banquets were usually a 6-course meal where everyone was to eat, not just the king and queen. Proper manners were used and it was a very fancy, social event.

Woman- Woman in the middle ages were to obey the men even if they were family or enemies. However, if woman were beaten harshly of disobedience that was viewed as a crime against religion. Woman were expected to get married at a young age and marriage was lucky if it was because of true love. The youngest marriage was at 7 years old, the husband was 11.

Middle Age Punishment

There were many different methods of torture including the wheel, the rack torture, Scavengers daughter, torture by dislocation and water torture.

The rack torture: The rack was a machine consisting of a rectangular wooden frame. The wooden frame had a roller at each end. The victim’s feet were attached to the rolls on one end and on the other end the victim’s wrists were tied to rollers as well. The victim was pulled in opposite directions were the rollers are turned.

The water torture: The water torture was the least dangerous torture. The victim was tied to a table and there was horn acting like a funnel and the victim’s nose was plugged and water was poured into the victim’s mouth and they were forced to swallow nine pints it would be more or less depending on the crime.

The thumbscrews: The thumbscrews were a device use to crush what ever was inserted usually thumbs but sometimes fingers and toes were inserted. It was easily portable so it was not only restricted to the torture chamber. Robert, Cora, Tori 8SB Haasen The middle Ages were a period of time, which lasted almost a millennium in the European history. The middle ages lasted from the 5th century to the 16th century. It was the time when great cathedrals and castles of inland were built, the time of crusades, knights, and the time of the Black Death. In the medieval time they used leaches as aspirin, the leach would suck the badness out of the wound. People introduced religion in books. Life in the middle ages was dictated by wealth and status. [|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZrE1mVcB2k]

Devon And Natalie 8S Tournaments And Jousts:

The middle ages were the time of the renaissance. The time of Knights, Kings, Queens, Castles, Crusades, and tournaments. Jousting tournaments started in France in the 11th Century. They were public contests of courage and skill. Usually they were held to entertain royalty. They fought on an enclosed field. Many knights died, and also many peasants when the horses went out of control. The joust was a medieval sport that consisted of two horses charging at each other from opposite ends holding a sharp lance. A low wooden fence only separated them. Once one of them fell of their horse, they were either hurt or killed. The object of the joust was to knock your opponent of their horse, which was pretty hard considering the back of the saddle was one foot tall. If the knight fell over, their squire (knight in training), would make sure they were alright. If a knight splintered 3 lances it was either a draw, or his choice to fight on the ground. The Joust could last for days considering all knights would compete in this medieval sport. The armor was hot and stuffy, and it weighed about 50 pounds. The horses the knights had were stallions. They were strong and nimble. The ladies would give their favorite knight a scarf or a glove to show him that he was her “special” Knight.

There was another kind of tournament called the Melee. This consists of two teams with flags on their backs using clubs and blunt swords. The object was to knock the flags off. One of the less popular tournaments was on water. Where one Knight had a lance and tried to knock his opponent of their boat, while other people rowed forward. They also had martial arts, and kickboxing. Knights made lots of money competing in tournaments. Tournaments were the highlight of castle life. A herald or a knight issues a challenge. People made wooden stands decorated them with pennants for royalty. Small tents were made for the peasants. Anyone was allowed to enter a competition, as long as they had a suit of armor, a horse, a sword and a shield.

Natalie & Devon 8S Religion & Beliefs:

The Catholic Church was the only made and used church in all of Europe that had it’s own laws and big coffers. The church leaders that were also sat on the king’s council and played leading roles in the government area were mainly bishops and archbishops. The bishops that came in to work were quite wealthy, highly educated as far as it went and came from very noble families while on the other hand, parish priests were not as educated and came from humble families and they were known to teach the young, areas of the bible. The village priests helped the ill and indigent, they were often known to teach Latin if they were allowed. When the population of Europe increased in the twelfth century, they had to build more churches called cathedrals because of their Roman round roofs. They believed in one King until he had died or retired. The third bishop, Saint Isidore of Seville was very intelligent and many people had obeyed him.

The term middle Ages refers mainly to the history of [|Christian] and [|Jewish] Europe In the Middle Ages Europe was divided into a variety of states, which had their own government. The kings and emperors in the middle ages were not very powerful. People did refuse to not follow orders, and always two sides to a problem and when they did not agree with each other they would have a war over it. The middle ages were very religious and people would commonly pray. There were many churches and cathedrals. Some of the most powerful people in the middle ages were people involved in Christianity. They believed in been positive and going to heaven every thing including eating was honored to the gods. They believed every one should be a Christian and often had wars over people with different religions. Clothing in the Middle Ages varied among men and women. Men mostly wore tunics, but usually wore pants under. In the medieval times men also wore leather shoes but only if they can afford it. Women wore longer tonics that go down to their ankles, For their legs they wore either tights, or long socks. Clothes can tell a lot about a persons wealthiest, depending what they are wearing. Here is a picture on the men’s leather shoes. [] After a war, people with aching joints would use nettles to take the pain away, but nettles would give it a different pain so they would brew different nettles and rub the juices on the wound, this would take all the pain away. I f you had a sore throat you wound wear a necklaces of alive worms on your skin. Once the worms died and you take them off, the pain would be gone. Cathedrals were used for churches. All of them were build by hands or millions of hands, their was no machines or electric devices.

Medieval people ====In the Middle Ages people had different relationships with different people. Kids usually lived with different family members such as their farther, mother, sister, or brother. Dieses in this time were popular and many kid’s parents died from desises so kids regularly lived with older relatives. There was not much slavery in this time period due to the fact of it dying out. In the middle ages children rarely go to school they usually help take car of the young, or work in the fields. The rich children would have higher priority in life and education because, they were sometimes taught to read and write, by private tutors of really rich men or women. Teen-agers usually went to work else wear, by either doing odd job’s for their neighbors, working as servants for richer families, EXT====

Natalie & Devon 8S

The Crusades

The French, Italian, and German Catholics were the ones that went on crusades. The word crusade meant “war of the cross.” During the first crusade (1095-1097), most of the knights died of hunger, thirst or disease. When they got to Jerusalem, they slaughtered anyone they could find. They took vows before going on a crusade. Sometimes, during a crusade, a knight would forget his vows, and then he would leave the crusade, riding off to live in the nearest village.

In the Crusade there were pilgrims who were going to pray in Jerusalem, groomers that cleaned to horses, wives and children of the knights, and two different kinds of knights; a mounted knight who rode on a horse, and a foot soldier who fought on foot. Some knights went on crusades to get rich or steal a home from the people they were fighting, but most knights went to get healed off their sins. Richard the lion heart was a famous general during the crusades. The forth crusade (1199-1204) started off against the Turks in France, but ended in tragedy. Most of the armies that went were already half destroyed by the Turks. They didn’t reach Jerusalem. All together, there were six crusades in a period of 171 years. The crusades lasted from 1095 until 1271. When the knights in a crusade were attacked, they used huge siege weapons. The ballista was the simplest of the weapons. It was a giant crossbow shoot arrows a distance of 350-450 yards in length. The Romans called the Magonel a wild donkey. It was a medium range catapult. The trebuchet was the most powerful siege weapon. It was a catapult tat could fling rocks long range. A battering ram was a log cut from a heavy tree. The battering ram got its name because Romans said it looked like a ram. It was then tied onto a penthouse to protect the knight from arrows and it took twelve men to swing it. All thee siege weapons were used to get in to Jerusalem by the knights of the Crusades. Other Knights would try to dig underground and then set fire to the wall supports underground in hopes that the wall would collapse.

Natalie & Devon 8S Economy & Environment:

ENVIRONMENT: Many medieval people said that the fall of the Roman Empire was the main cause of sudden weather changes in the West round 400 AD. Around 500 the weather got colder and many farmers could not grown any crops including grapes, olives and wine and their animals started dying. There fore, this left many people hungry and the royal courts were furious with all this starvation. There were many floods in which villagers around that area had to leave and go someplace else like tops of high hills where the water would not reach them but it was not very easy trying to grown food there since the birds kept flying over to eat the seeds that the ground had not taken in. People could no longer use olive oil for their food but instead had to use tasteless butter. They also used tallow or beeswax to light their candles since oil lamps were no longer a use to them anymore. What would an oil lamp be with out oil? Back at around 800, the weather began to improve again and the farmers and local villagers immediately began to plough their fields and plant seeds and at around 1000 AD the weather was what people wanted all along. Around 1400 AD, the “Little Ice Age” began. There was more flooding than ever and it ruined people’s crops once again and people went hungry. The weather was very cold turning almost every thing to ice. Weather played a very important role in the Medieval Ages. ECONOMY: After the Fall of the Roman Empire, people began to use less money, because they more relied on what they had produced and grown themselves on farms and gardens. Between 800 and 1000 AD, the trading started. Two main helpers were the Crusades and the Vandal Pirates and Vikings. Fairs and markets became more popular and important because people who did not have any food began to rely on them to feed them. By 1350 AD, the plague wiped out most of the population around those areas and killed about one of every three people and weakened old relationships between landlords and peasants so it was pretty bad. People began getting out of the country to move onto the cities so then the cities got very popular. It was not long before the city streets were packed with homeless people. The landlords organized something that would deliver the homeless people to other nearby cites and in this case, many families got separated from other families but every one in one family stayed together.

Medieval Clothing:

Clothes in the middle ages were often made at home and were often rough and shapeless. Trousers, tunics and shawls were used to keep away the cold. The shawls were made of wool or fur and put over the shoulder. Most Europeans were dressed like today’s Benedictine monks, except for men’s trousers. Shoes were leather wrapped around the foot. Colours were plan; they were shades of grey, brown, dark blue, and red. Conical hats were commonly worn. TaIn the middle Ages, for the wealthy, tailors created most clothes. Some fabrics tailors used were: Burnet, perse, lincoln scarlet, kersey, russet, chalons, damask, and sandal. (Most of the population, however, made their clothing themselves).

Often, Kings and Queens would wear crowns and brightly colored silks. Obviously, their clothing was very expensive and only they had enough money to afford such beautiful things.

Shoemakers and their spouses often wore borealis hats. The clothes they wore with that were woolen coats with fur-trimmed sleeves. Inside the coat was a woolen doublet.

Holy orders, such as friars, wore cloaks with hoods and habits. On their clothes was a rope belt with wooden beads for counting prayers.

Felt hats with stirrups and brown jackets were the daily wear of manor lords. Peasants' daily wear was simple: straw hats that they made themselves, linen shirts that they made themselves, leather flasks, hoses (pants), and pewter badges or good luck charms.

Natalie & Devon 8S Foods & Games:

FOOD: The middle ages really depended on how rich or poor the people were. Poor people’s meals consisted on barley, which they turned into bread, porridge, oatmeal, pizza, pancakes and barley soup. They tried to make their food seem livelier by growing carrots, mushrooms, apples, onions, potatoes, peas, cabbage, garlic, pears, rosemary and basil to put into their soup or simply just to flavor. They made cheese to melt on their pizzas and to eat with bread. They tried to gather honey from beehives to sweeten up their treats. Rich people ate a whole ton of bread and they made them out of fresh wheat so it tasted much better than boring old barley. And they had more choices of other things to eat with their bread. Rich people ate meat – such as pork chops and roast beef and stew and lamb chops and they also had spices to put on their food that came all the way from India like pepper and cinnamon. Even salt was often too expensive for poor people, and only rich people had it. In fact, when you were eating in a medieval castle, the salt would be on the table in a huge fancy saltcellar, and the rich people would sit near the salt so they could use it, while the poor people sat further down the long table and couldn't use the salt. GAMES: The games that were played during the medieval times were dice, knucklebone, checkers and marbles. Europeans that had sailed around the areas later introduced cards and chess to middle ages. There are still toys that came from back then that we still have going around, such as dolls, little play dishes and whistles. Spectator sports were often played at amphitheaters like the gladiator sports, bull fighting, bear fighting, polo, horse racing, chariot racing, aristocrats and jousting just for the entertainment for the king, queen and public on lookers.

Natalie & Devon 8S Laws & Trials:

Ordeal Trial: When the court believed that somebody had done something wrong, they would put them in trail and torment them with difficult tests such as swallowing poison, having to pull something out of boiling hot oil, walking over red-hot ploughs and carrying a piece of sizzling hot iron over a certain period of time or distance. If the burns got infected or blistered, the judges would immediately accuse that person guilty. Trial by Battle: this trial occurred when two nobles fought, usually until the other noble was dead. Since god only protected innocent people, the winner was declared innocent and was left to stay alive. Only noblemen had the right to trial by battle. Even noblewomen were allowed to pick her best man to fight for her and the enemy, but in this case, the women do not die only the men do. Church Courts: only church courts could judge bishops, deacons, priests, clerks, monks and nuns. Church courts gave out lighter sentences than the Royal courts. Their sentences were from 3 weeks to 8 weeks when on the other hand, the royal courts sentences were from 1 month to 1 year! Royal Courts: took care of serious crimes such as murder, treasons, burglary, poaching, games in the royal forests, used the common law that was used by every body in the kingdom, and were allowed to order execution of thieves and murderers. If anybody had been caught picking up dead wood in the royal forests with out permission, they would be tortured very badly.