Pre-Reading Activity

1
The Canterbury Tales

• Pre-Reading Activity

2
The Middle Ages span what years?

• Approximately 500-1500
• Early Middle Ages 500-1000
• High Middle Ages 1000-1250
• Late Middle Ages 1250-1500

3
What event began theNorman Conquest?

• Sept 28, 1066
• Invasion of England by William the Conqueror
• Battle of Hastings
• Oct 14 1066

4
Who was William the Conqueror?

• Duke of Normandy
• First Norman King of England

5
What culture survived under the Normans? Why?
What impact did this have?

• Anglo Saxon Culture
• Majority of the population
• Many nobles fled to Scotland and other areas
• Christian/Religious Influence
• Impact on language
• Onset of/increase in feudalism

6
What is feudalism?

• Political and social system
• Based on granting of land in exchange for
  loyalty, military assistance, and other services
• Developed as a result of frequent invasions
• System of social behavior
• Three social classes
• Those who fight
• Those who pray
• Those who work

7
When did the feudal structure break down?

• Began to breakdown due to the Black Death
• Wiped out 1/3 population in England
• 1348-1349

8
Describe the life, ideals, and morals of a knight.

• Primary duty of the male above the serf class was
  a military obligation to the King.
• Based in the feudal idea of loyalty and related
  to a system of social codes
• chivalry
• Breaking a code would undermine the knights
  position

9
What was a womans place in the feudal system?

• Peasant woman
• childbearing
• Housework
• Hard field work
• Women of higher station
• Household supervision
• Childbearing
• A woman was always subservient to a male, whether
  husband, father, or brother.
• No political rights
• Depending on the standing of her father or
  husband she commanded a certain respect,
  especially under the chivalric system of the 11th
  and 12th centuries.

10
What is chivalry?

• System of ideals and behavior codes that governed
  both knight and gentlewoman.
• Loyalty to overlord
• Honesty
• Fairness in battle
• Proper treatment of women

11
What is courtly love?

• Behavior between knights and ladies
• Often between a knight and a married woman
• Usually unconsummated
• Revering and acting in the name of a lady
• Wears colors of lady in battle
• Glorify her in words and be inspired by her

12
What would eventually render the feudal system
obsolete?

• Decrease in population
• People living in towns and cities would
  eventually render feudal system obsolete.
• Development of lower, middle, and upper class
  (evident in Canterbury Tales)

13
What were the crusades?

• A series of wars in the 11th, 12th, and 13th
  centuries by Christian Europe against the
  followers of Muhammad with Jerusalem and the Holy
  Land as the prize.
• Began in 1096

14
How did they impact medieval life?

• Europeans failed to hold Jerusalem, but they
  benefited from the contact with the higher
  civilization of the Middle East.
• Mathematics
• Astronomy
• Architecture
• Crafts

15
Who is Thomas Becket? Discuss his relationship to
Henry II.

• Archbishop of Canterbury
• Close friend and appointee of King Henry II
• Becket ignored Henrys wishes to allow Royal
  Courts to punish people convicted in Church Court
• Four knights under Henry II assassinated Becket

16
Why was Thomas Becket important in the Middle
Ages?

• He was murdered at Canterbury Cathedral
• He was sainted and martyred
• The site of his death became a popular place for
  pilgrimages

17
Describe the state of the Church during Chaucers
Middle Ages.

• Church dominated life
• All people believed in heaven and Hell
• Could only get to heaven through the Roman
  Catholic Church
• People paid tithe (church tax) to church
• Church was wealthy and powerful

18
What is the Magna Carta? What historical impact
did it have?

• The Great Charter of the Liberties of England
• Signed in 1215
• Became the basis for English constitutional law
  in which trial by jury and legislative taxation
  were established
• First document imposed upon a King of England by
  his subjects
• Attempt to limit his power
• Protect their rights

19
When was the Hundred Years War? Who fought in
it? Why is it important?

• Fought by England and France
• Lasted 116 years 1337-1453
• Development of Yeomen (use of longbow and arrows)
• End of knights and castles as significant
  military power
• Two kingdoms at the beginning of the war two
  nations at the end of it.
• Modern democratic England was born

20
How did the bubonic plague help bring about an
end to feudalism?

• 1348-1349
• Spread by fleas from infected rates
• Plague reduced the nations population by one
  third
• Labor shortage freedom of serfs (last support
  of feudalism)

21

• The End