Chapter 8 Middle Ages

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Chapter 8 Middle Ages
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After the Fall of Rome - 476

• Europe a frontier
• Little population
• Large underdeveloped areas
• Dense forests
• Great soil resources from the sea
• Long rivers for trade routes

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Germanic Tribes

• Made up of farmers herders
• No cities- lived in small communities
• No written laws unwritten customs- social
  conventions carried on by traditions
• Ruled by elected warrior kings

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Germanic Tribes 400-700

• Carved up Europe in to small kingdoms
• The Franks were the strongest

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FRANKISH KINGDOM

• 481 Clovis becomes king of the Franks
• He is ruthless cunning
• Gained control of Gaul (France)
• Converted to Christianity along with his
  warriors- gains support of people Roman
  Catholic Church

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511 Clovis dies

• Kingdom divided among his 4 sons- Do Nothing
  Kings (fight among themselves, hunt, drink etc.)
• Real power became the Mayor of the Palace

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Charles the Hammer Martel

• 622 Muslims followers of Islam- gained
  control of Spain started into France
• 732 Battle of Tours Charles the Hammer
  Martel defeats the Muslims

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Charles Martel

• Starts the Carolingian Dynasty
• 751- Pepin the Short son of Charles elected
  King of the Franks
• He is approved (anointed) by the pope
• Close ties between Church Frankish kings
• Pope Stephen II asks for help from Lombards
  Papal States

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Charlemagne 768 to 814

• Unites the empire that stretched from France to
  Germany to Italy
• Most of the old Western Roman Empire
• Greatest political figure for a 1,000 years

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Charlemagne

• Ruled for 46 years most of it at war 53
  military campaigns
• Becomes the strong right arm of Godthose who
  would not convert put to the sword
• 12/25/800 Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as
  Emperor of the Romans important unites
  Christian community in Western Europe

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Charlemagne

• Built a capital at Aachen
• Appointed powerful nobles to rule regions of
  empire
• Missi dominici spies
• Encouraged missionaries
• Encouraged church to educate clergy
• Encouraged education throughout empire appoints
  Alcuin to create a curriculum (Latin Education)

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Charlemagne

• Encouraged the payment of tithes to the
  Church10
• Development of Carolingian minuscule

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Charlemagne Legacy

• 814 Charlemagne dies son Louis the Pious
  takes over ineffective ruler
• Three sons will fight over land
• Treaty of Verdun - 843
• Louis the German Germany
• Charles the Bald France
• Lothar title emperor land between brothers

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Invaders Move into Western Europe

• The Muslims late 800s conquered SicilySpanish
  Muslims known as Moors
• Magyars From Asia over ran eastern Europe -
  settled in Hungary

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The Vikings (Swedes, Danes, Norwegians)

• Came from Scandinavia
• Excellent sailors fighters

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Vikings

• Traveled the rivers of Europe in their long boats
  (Dragon Ships)20 tons used sails and oars40 to
  60 men and horses
• Loot burn cities from Ireland to Russia
• Leif Erikson around 1000 sets up a colony in
  North AmericaGreenland and Iceland
• Also traders some settle in France, England,
  Ireland become Christians

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Age of Feudalism

• Started in the 8th 9th centuries
• Political system where kings powerful nobles
  grant land to lesser nobles called vassals in
  return for loyalty, military assistance
  services
• Oldest son inherits the fief (land) - younger
  sons join church or become a knight for hire

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Feudalism

• Came about because no strong central government
• Lords granted vassals a fief or estate
• Both lord vassal had certain obligations
  Feudal Contract
• Lord protection justice
• Vassal military service financial obligations

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Feudal warfare

• Knights mounted warriors
• Trained from boyhood
• Age 7 sent to his lord learned to ride fight
  keep armor weapons of knight in good
  condition
• Teen years squire knights assistant
• About 21 ready to become a knight

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Feudal warfare

• Most battles small ( few hundred to couple 1000
  knights)
• Hand to Hand combat typical few killed captured
  held for ransom
• Complicated because a vassal could owe loyalty to
  more than one lord

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Feudal warfare

• As warfare decreased Tournaments mock battles
  to show off skills

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Castles

• Fortified homes of the lords surrounded by a moat

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Castles

• Castles unpleasant place to live
• Siege of a Castle very bloody

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Women in the age of Feudalism

• Noblewomen could inherit fief but couldnt rule
  it
• Marriage arranged dowry provided by fathermain
  cause of death for noblewomen was child birth
• Main duty to raise family supervise household
• Girls learned practical skills spinning etc..

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Eleanor of Aquitaine

• Married to 2 kings Louis VII of France Henry
  II of England
• Mother to a king Richard the Lion Hearted of
  England

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Chivalry

• 11th century code of conduct for a knight to
  follow
• Fight bravely for 3 masters feudal lord,
  heavenly lord, chosen lady
• Loyalty to your masters
• Fight fairly
• Protect defend noblewomen
• True to your word

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Chivalry

• Noblewomen held in high regard
• Troubadours helped to elevate women with poems
  and songs

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Chivalry

• Disgraced Knight
• Armor stripped off
• Shield cracked
• Sword broken over his head
• Spurs cut off
• Thrown into a coffin and dragged to a church

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GERMANIC JUSTICE

• Germanic concept of family affected the way
  Germanic law treated the problem of crime and
  punishment
• Example murder crime against society while
  Germanic law made it personal
• Could lead to blood feudinjured family sought
  revenge against the wrong-doers family
• Savage acts of revengecutting off ears, noses,
  hands or feet, couching out eyes
• Fine called wergeld (money for a man) developed
  to cut down on blood feudsthis was the amount
  paid by wrong-doer to family he or she injured or
  killed

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GERMANIC LAW

• Two common means of determining guilt
  compurgation and ordeal
• Compurgation was the swearing of an oath by the
  accused person, backed up by a group of 12 or 25
  oath-helpers who would swear accused was
  truthful
• Ordeal was a means of determining a persons
  guilt based on the idea of divine intervention
  (divine forces would not allow and innocent
  person to be harmed)

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Feudal Justice

• Lords provided justice for both vassals
  peasants
• 2 courts one for peasants one for vassals
• Each tried by his peers
• A bailiff presided over the manor court

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Feudal Justice

• Nobles Trial by combat
• Peasants Trial by ordeal

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TRIAL BY FIRE

• The defendant on trial must pick an object out
  from within flames, or walk over hot coals. If
  they were burned in the process, they were
  presumed guilty. In the Hindu version of the
  trial by fire, a woman suspected of adultery must
  stand in a circle of flame, or on top of a pyre,
  and not be burned. This was exemplified by the
  trial of Sita in the Ramayana, who was said to
  have not had a single flower petal in her hair be
  wilted by the heat of the flames, for she was so
  pure the flames avoided her.

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TRIAL BY HOT IRON

• A one-pound iron was heated in a fire, and pulled
  out during a ritual prayer. The defendant had to
  carry this iron the length of nine feet (as
  measured by the defendants own foot size). Their
  hands were then examined for burns. If the crime
  of the accused was particularly egregious, such
  as betrayal of ones lord, or murder, the iron
  would be three pounds.

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TRIAL BY WATER

• The defendant was bound in the fetal position and
  thrown into a body of water. Contrary to popular
  belief, those that sank werent drowned but were
  hauled out of the water, and those that floated
  didnt float because they could swim If he or
  she floated, they were guilty, and if they sank,
  they were presumed innocent. This was the most
  common ordeal undergone in the New World, and was
  seen during the time of the Salem witch trials. A
  surprisingly high number of people were deemed
  innocent by this method, but it was largely the
  younger women and the men who were exonerated in
  these trials. Their lower body fat levels
  probably helped them sink down in the water.

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TRIAL BY HOT WATER

• The arm was plunged elbow-deep into hot water,
  often to grasp a ring, stone, or holy object at
  the bottom of a cauldron. After several days, if
  no blistering or peeling was present, the
  defendant was presumed innocent. Since it was not
  always boiling water that was used, this was one
  of the most easily-manipulated trials for the
  ordealists to work over.

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TRIAL BY HOST

• Relegated to priests accused of crimes, or
  suspected of lying regarding someone elses crime
  (perjury). The priest would go before the altar
  and pray aloud that God would choke him if he
  were not telling the truth. He would then take
  The Host (the Holy Eucharist), and if he was
  guilty of perjury or the crime, he would either
  choke or have difficulty swallowing. This had a
  degree of psychosomatic truth behind it, if the
  priest truly believed in the trial, but it was
  one of the easiest of the trial by ordeal
  ceremonies to overcome by the defendant.

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TRIAL BY DIVING

• This trial, found in India, Thailand, Burma, and
  Borneo, involved a test of breath-holding, and
  was most often used in disputes of contested
  cock-fights. Two stakes were secured beneath the
  water of a clear pond, and both parties involved
  in the dispute would dive and grasp onto a stake.
  Whichever claimant stayed beneath the water
  longest was declared to have truth on his side.

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TRIAL BY SNAKE

• A cobra and a ring are placed in an earthenware
  pot, and the defendant is tasked with retrieving
  the ring from beneath the snake without being
  bitten. This trial was most commonly used when
  someone was accused of making a false accusation
  against another person, or lying to get another
  person punished (the equivalent of perjury in the
  Western court system).

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MEDIEVAL TORTURE

• Definition of Torture
• The definition of torture is the deliberate,
  systematic, cruel and wanton infliction of
  physical or mental suffering by one or more
  torturers in an attempt to force another person
  to yield information, to make a confession, as
  part of a punishment or for any other reason.
  Torture devices or tools are used to inflict
  unbearable agony on a victim. The objectives of
  torture were to intimidate, deter, revenge or
  punish. Or as a tool or a method for the
  extraction of information or confessions.

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MEDIEVAL TORTURE

• Definition of Punishment
• The definition of punishment is to impose or
  inflict something unpleasant or aversive on a
  person in response to disobedient or morally
  wrong behavior. Punishment means to impose a
  penalty for a wrong committed.

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MEDIEVAL TORTURE

• Medieval Torture Chambers and Dungeons
• The torture chambers were located in the lower
  parts of castles. The entrances to many torture
  chambers were accessed through winding passages
  which served to muffle the agonizing cries of
  torture victims from the normal inhabitants of
  the castle. Torture chambers and dungeons were
  often very small some measured only eleven feet
  long by seven feet wide in which from ten to
  twenty prisoners were often incarcerated at the
  same time.

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MEDIEVAL EXECUTION METHODS

• The Wheel
• The Wheel or Breaking Wheel where the unfortunate
  victim had his limbs systematically broken.
  Catherine wheel or breaking wheel, an instrument
  of execution often associated with Saint
  Catherine of Alexandria and adopted as one of the
  European execution methods.

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MEDIEVAL EXECUTION METHODS

• Quartering
• Quartering where the legs and arms were
  separately tied to four horses and as each horse
  moved away the body would be torn to bits.

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MEDIEVAL EXECUTION METHODS

• Hung, drawn and quartered
• One of the most terrible methods of execution
  ever invented and used extensively in England as
  the punishment for traitors. The condemned was
  hanged till they were half dead, and then taken
  down, and quartered alive. After that, their
  members and bowels were cut from their bodies,
  and thrown into a fire, while they were still
  alive. They would finally be killed by
  decapitation.

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MEDIEVAL EXECUTION METHODS

• Pressing
• Prisoners were crushed to death as heavy objects
  were slowly loaded on top of their bodies.

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MEDIEVAL EXECUTION METHODS

• Boiling to death
• Prisoners were boiled to death in a huge
  cauldron. This punishment was often reserved for
  poisoners.

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MEDIEVAL EXECUTION METHODS

• Decapitation
• Prisoners were sentenced to having their head
  struck off their body. The axe was used for this
  purpose which resulted in the head often being
  roughly hacked off the victim, requiring several
  blows. When clemency was granted a sword was used
  which removed the head by one swift cut.

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MEDIEVAL EXECUTION METHODS

• Burning
• Prisoners were chained to a stake surrounded by
  wood and faggots which were set alight at the
  point of execution and the person suffered the
  agonizing pain of being burnt to death.

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MEDIEVAL EXECUTION METHODS

• Hanging
• Prisoners were hung at the gibbet and died either
  by breaking their necks or by choking to death.

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MEDIEVAL EXECUTION METHODS

• Impalement
• Impalement was frequently practiced in Asia and
  Europe throughout the Middle Ages.

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MEDIEVAL TORTURE DEVICES
Foot press Foot screw Heretic's fork Water
Torture Brank The Collar Drunkards Cloak The Iron
Maiden Pillory The Scavenger's daughter Scold's
bridle Stocks Ducking stools
Boot or Spanish boot Judas Cradle Strappado Brode
quin Branding Irons The Collar The
Rack Thumbscrews The Wheel
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Manorial System

• New economic system - tied to feudalism the
  manor
• Included manor house (demesne), pastures, a mill,
  church, fields a village of a few dozen 1 room
  huts
• Large fiefs had several manors where bailiff
  managed smaller estates

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Manorial System

• Manors tried to be self-sufficient produced
  everything they need except salt, iron or
  millstones
• Serfs peasants tied to the land but not
  slaves
• Paid the lord to farm the land labor, crops,
  animals, eggs, etc.
• Received housing, land food

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Medieval Church

• After the fall of Rome Christian church split
  into eastern western churches (main issue was
  icons)
• Western Church headed by pope became known as
  Roman Catholic Church
• Became very powerful force not only spiritual but
  also secular (worldly) force

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Medieval Church

• Pope claims power over all secular (worldly)
  rulers (monarchs)
• Many high ranking church officials were also
  feudal lords
• Church had absolute power over the religious life
  of Christians

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Medieval Church

• Church had its own laws Canon law as well as
  own courts
• Anyone who refused to obey church law faced
  excommunicationcould not receive the sacraments
• Powerful nobles could face an interdict

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Medieval Church

• Local parish priests held mass, cared for sick,
  aided poor etc.
• Most were commoners
• Church served as social centers of villages
  towns

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Medieval Church

• Church taught that men women equal before God
  but women on earth were inferior
• Weak easily led to sin Eve
• They must be modest pure--Mary
• Women punished more severely for their
  transgressions

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Monasticism

• Some men women withdrew from worldly life
• Men monks women nuns lived in monasteries
  and convents headed by an abbot or an abbess

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Monasticism

• St. Benedict established a monastery in Italy
• Created a set of rules for monks to live by
  (Benedictine Rules)
• Vow of poverty
• Vow of chastity
• Obedience to abbot word of God
• Manual labor

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Monasticism

• Monasteries convents provided basic social
  services to people
• Tending the sick
• Giving alms to the poor
• Setting up schools
• Lodging for travelers

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Monasticism

• Some monks nuns risk their lives to spread the
  word of God
• St. Patrick converted Celtic of Ireland
• St. Augustine converted Angles Saxons of
  England
• St. Boniface converted Germanic tribes

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Church reform

• Church power wealth created serious problems
• Clergy living in wealth
• Married priests
• Church officials not doing their duty
• Monastery at Cluny (France) under Abbot Berno
  begins reform (Cluniac Reforms) back to the
  rules only truly devoted men

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Monasticism

• Monasteries were centers of learning
• Monks copied ancient workscould copy 1 to 2
  books a year
• Bede, an English scholar, wrote the first history
  of England (introduced B.C. and A.D. to date
  historical events)

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Church reform

• Another Church problem simony buying
  selling of Church offices
• Pope Gregory VII outlawed simony and married
  priests
• Insisted Church choose Church officials and not
  the nobles

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Church reform

• Friars monks who spent their lives with the
  people not in monasteries
• St. Francis of Assisi Franciscans teaching
  preaching to the poor
• St. Dominic Dominicans educating people about
  Church doctrine and combat heresy
• Both begging orders-- mendicant

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Other Missionaries

• Ulfilaspreached to Gothic peopleinvented the
  Gothic alphabettranslated Bible into Gothic
  language
• Female religious orders included the
  Beguinesthis women set up hospitals and shelters
  and ministered to the poor

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Jews in Europe

• Christians persecuted the Jews blamed for the
  death of Jesus
• Blamed for diseases, famines and economic
  hardships (many were moneylenders-usury-charging
  interest on money borrowed)
• Laid the foundations for anti-Semitism (hatred
  and persecution of Jews)

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Agricultural Revolution

• Single family farms became the basic unit of
  agricultural production
• New plow iron or steelhorseshoe
• Used horses (collar harness) not oxen
  fasterstirrup helped riders stay on horse
• Windmill powered grinding mills
• Three-field system crop rotation more food
  population increase

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Trade in the Middle ages

• As warfare decreased trade increasedweakened
  Feudalism
• Wool will be the main product in the beginning
• Trade fairs feudal lords could make money on
  taxing goods sold plus provided protection
  money changers

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Trade in the Middle ages

• Trade grew soon not only wool
• Furs from Russia
• Weapons, armor, horses from eastern
  Mediterranean
• Trade fair became big events spread of customs,
  ideas, technology
• Hanseatic League 80 towns in Northern
  Germanyformed for trade protection--had a huge
  fleet of ships

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Growth of Towns cities

• Merchants began to stay year round at fairs
  artisans moved in and towns cities grew up
  there
• Peasants sold food to towns people bought
  products
• Most early towns on nobles land paid rent

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Growth of Towns cities

• Townspeople ask for charters
• Guaranteed rights
• Limited control over own affairs
• Own courts
• Freedom for serfs who stayed in town for 1 year
  a day
• Lord cant seize the land

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Growth of Towns cities

• Caused the creation of middle class wealth
  rather than hereditary titles or land ownership
  determined a persons social status
• Church instituted the Peace of God which
  prohibited fighting from Friday to Sunday

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New Business Practices

• Set up to meet needs of changing economy
• Merchants formed partnerships, developed system
  of insurance and used bill of exchange (early
  checks)

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Guilds

• Association of merchants artisans that governed
  a town
• First were merchant guilds that governed prices
  wages quality, hours worked, gave money to needy
  members
• They had a monopoly only member could work in
  that town

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Guilds

• Began to restrict membership regulated training
• Apprentice boys 7 -8 years old no wages but
  room board spent 7 to 12 years there
• Journeyman earned wages by working for a master
  craftsmen. Submitted sample of work to Guild to
  become a master

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Town Life

• Surrounded by defensive wall
• Narrow streets closely packed houses
• No sanitation system waste tossed out the
  window dog pigs scavenged for garbage

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Town Life

• Dangers included fires, thieves pickpockets,
  epidemics
• Main attraction ability to make money rise up
  in society