WORKSHEET FOR MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION

A. Identify WHO OR WHAT is being described below:

1. A noble who pledged his services to another noble in exchange for a grant of land and serfs was
called a vassals.
2. The economic system of Europe during the Middle Ages was manorialism.
3. He united the Frankish tribes and conquered most of Gaul in the late 400's Clovis I 
4. He wrote the history of the Church in England. Augustine of Canterbury
5. Supported the scholarly work of Boethius. Cicero
6. The Frankish king who became "Emperor of the Romans." Charlemagne
7. Converted the Irish to Christianity in the early 300's. Saint Patrick
8. The first Mayor of the Palace to be crowned Frankish king Charles Martel
9. The main The main political arrangement in Europe after the break-up of Charlemagne's
empire was a Paganism
10. A system based on the relation- ship between lords and vassals. feudalism
11. Land granted to one noble by another in exchange for military assistance and other services.
fief
12. Code of behavior followed by feudal nobles. Code of Chivalry
13. A peasant who was legally bound to the estate of a lord Serf
14. The estate of a medieval lord was called his? Manor
15. Social class that emerged in medieval towns, made up of artisans and merchants sit and their
families. Lower class
16. A noble granted land by a feudal lord in exchange for military assistance and other services.
vassal
17. To expel a person from the Roman Catholic Church excommunication
18. The language commonly spoken in a region or country dialect
19. Representative assembly that makes the laws of a nation legislature
20. The English king who defeated Richard III to end the War of the Roses and start the Tudor
dynasty Henry VII
21. Medieval scholar who studied geology, chemistry, botany, and zoology Aristotle
22. Peasant who led the French troops to victory at the Battle of Orleans in 1429 Joan of Arc
23. The one who excommunicated Clement and also later excommunicated by him King Henry VIII
24. Peasant revolt in England against new taxes Wat Tyler's Rebellion, (1381)
25. The one who set up the papal court at Avignon, France in 1309 Clement V
26. The greatest of the Scholastics was who was greatly influenced by the writings of Aristotle
Albertus Magnus
27. The Norman ruler who led the invasion of England in 1066 and laid the foundations for a strong
central government. William I
28. The English king who was forced to accept the Magna Carta. King John
29. The religious leader who recruited an army of French peasants to fight in the Crusades.
Peter
30. The Pope who set up the Inquisition in 1233. Pope Gregory IX
 31. The Spanish nobleman who founded a teaching and missionary order in reaction to the
Albigensian heresy St. Dominic
32. The Pope who clashed with Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, over which of them would have
supremacy. Pope Gregory VII
33. The Holy Roman Emperor who attempted to conquer northern Italy and gain control of the
papacy Charlemagne

B. HOW IMPORTANT?

Explain the importance of each of the following to the history of the Middle Ages (key concepts only; less
than 3 sentences)

Battle of Tours

 This battle stopped the northward advance of Islam from the Iberian Peninsula. It is considered
by most historians to be of macro historical importance, in that it halted the Islamic conquests,
and preserved Christianity as the controlling faith in Europe, during a period in which Islam was
overrunning the remains of the old Roman and Persian Empires.

Magyars

 As a people of Turkic origin, and given Hungary's location between East and West Europe, the
Magyars have helped to bridge different cultures and people. The Magyars became a semi
sedentary people who lived by raising cattle and sheep, planting crops, and fishing. The Bulgar-
Turkish influence on the Magyars was significant, especially in agriculture.

Vikings

 Vikings produced ships that were faster, slimmer and lighter than their contemporaries. Their
settlements in Iceland and Greenland spread Scandinavian culture further across the North
Atlantic and placed them in an ideal position for further exploration and colonization. The
Vikings were the first Europeans to visit North America and establish communities and
discovered the Americas long before Columbus and could be found as far east as the distant
reaches of Russia.

two- field system

 In the traditional two-field system one field was used for the sowing of crop, while another field
of equal size was left fallow. The use of the two fields was rotated during the following year.
Arable land was divided into two fields or groups of fields; one group was planted to wheat,
barley, or rye, while the other was allowed to lie fallow until the next planting season to recover
its fertility.

Mayor of the Palace.

 The mayor gradually acquired further duties and powers: he obtained authority over court
personnel, advised the king on the appointment of counts and dukes, protected the commendati
(persons commended to the king) and the king's wards, and eventually even came to command
the royal army.
C. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Distinguish between the terms in each of the following pairs: (no more than 3 sentences; focus on key
concepts pls)

A. Battle of Agincourt; Battle of Orleans.

 Battle of Agincourt, (October 25, 1415), decisive battle in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453)
that resulted in the victory of the English over the French. The English army, led by King Henry V,
famously achieved victory in spite of the numerical superiority of its opponent.
 The Battle of New Orleans is referred to by many historians as the greatest American land
victory of the war. American troops, led by future President Andrew Jackson, defeated the much
larger British force, which bolstered U.S. hopes for a speedy end to the war.

B. Gothic architecture; Romanesque architecture

 Gothic architecture, architectural style in Europe that lasted from the mid-12th century to the
16th century, particularly a style of masonry building characterized by cavernous spaces with the
expanse of walls broken up by overlaid tracery.
 Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-
circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with
proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this later date being the most commonly
held.

C. Beowulf; Song of Roland

 Beowulf is a heroic poem, considered the highest achievement of Old English literature and the
earliest European vernacular epic. It deals with events of the early 6th century CE and is believed
to have been composed between 700 and 750.
 The Song of Roland is one of the most popular medieval epics of French Literature. It was written
to commemorate the Battle of Roncevaux Pass fought between Roland and Basques. The epic
itself went on to become widely popular and was later romanticised as a conflict between
Christians and Muslims during the Crusades.

D. Canterbury Tales, Divine Comedy

 The Canterbury Tales tells the story of a group of pilgrims traveling from London to Canterbury
to visit the holy shrine of St. Thomas Becket. This is a story made of stories: Each of the pilgrims
takes a turn as a storyteller, with a banquet promised to the person who tells the best tale.
 The main theme of The Divine Comedy is the spiritual journey of man through life. In this journey
he learns about the nature of sin and its consequences. And comes to abhor it (sin) after
understanding its nature and how it corrupts the soul and draws man away from God.

E. House of Lords, House of Commons

 The House of Lords is the second chamber of the UK Parliament. It is independent from, and
complements the work of, the elected House of Commons. The Lords shares the task of making
and shaping laws and checking and challenging the work of the government.
  The House of Commons formally scrutinises the Government through its Committees and Prime
Minister's Questions, when members ask questions of the prime minister; the house gives other
opportunities to question other cabinet ministers.

F. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Domesday Book

 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, chronological account of events in Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, a

compilation of seven surviving interrelated manuscript records that is the primary source for the
early history of England.
 Domesday Book is the most complete survey of a pre-industrial society anywhere in the world. It
enables us to reconstruct the politics, government, society and economy of 11th-century
England with greater precision than is possible for almost any other pre-modern polity.

G. Plantagenet kings; Capetian kings

 The House of Plantagenet was a Royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France.
The family held the English throne from 1154 to 1485, when Richard III died in battle. Under the
Plantagenets, England was transformed.
 The House of Capet or the Direct Capetians, also called the House of France, or simply the
Capets, ruled the Kingdom of France from 987 to 1328. It was the most senior line of the
Capetian dynasty – itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians.

H. Teutonic Knights; Hanseatic League

 Teutonic Knights with their famous black cross on a white tunic, the austere Teutonic knights
became master traders and diplomats, carving out vast swathes of territory from their base in
Prussia and building castles across Europe from Sicily to Lithuania.
 The Hanseatic League (also known as Hansa, Hanse, 1356-1862 CE) was a federation of north
German towns and cities formed in the 12th century CE to facilitate trade and protect mutual
interests.
I. Reconquest; Crusades

 The Reconquista (“reconquest”) is a period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula, spanning
approximately 770 years, between the initial Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the 710s and the
fall of the Emirate of Granada, the last Islamic state on the peninsula, to expanding Christian
kingdoms in 1492.
 The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the
Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy
Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were intended to recover Jerusalem and its
surrounding area from Islamic rule.
D. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

KEEP YOUR ANSWERS SHORT, FOCUS ON MOST IMPORTANT CONCEPTS:

1. What concerns were there among Christian thinkers about the relationship between faith and
reason? Why did the revival of learning in the late Middle Ages not lead to the development of
modern science?
 Some Christians are blinded by their faith wherein faith is the belief in the truth of
something that does not require any evidence and may not be provable by any empirical
or rational means while reason is the faculty of the mind through which we can logically
come to rational conclusions. Faith is opposed to reason and is firmly in the realm of the
irrational. The revival of learning in the late Middle Ages not lead to the development of
modern science because although medieval scholars made important experiments and
observations of nature, their investigations frequently were mixed with ideas based on
magic, superstition, and folk legends.

2. Tell how each of the following began to take form during the Middle Ages:
(a) strong, unified states – During the High Middle Ages, trade brought Western Europeans into
contact with the civilizations of the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim world. Scholars in
these civilizations continued to value and study ancient Greek works of literature,
philosophy, and science. Many of these texts had been translated into Arabic and studied by
Muslim scholars.

(b) universities – In Europe, the rise of towns and the middle class encouraged the revival of
learning. Townspeople had the money to support schools. Moreover, as a town’s population
grew, so did the need for trained bankers, lawyers, doctors, and city officials. Schooling was
needed to prepare young people for careers in these professions.

(c) modern European languages – By the Middle Ages, Latin was no longer used in everyday
speech even in Italy. French, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian were local languages that grew
out of Latin. In northern Europe, several languages of the Germanic tribes. These common,
or vernacular, languages gradually began to be used in both written and spoken literature.

2. a. The Middle Ages were once thought of as the Dark Ages." Why?
- Because it was a period of cultural darkness that followed the fall of Greco-Roman
civilization, characterizing it as marked by economic, intellectual, and cultural decline. Life
was harsh, with a limited diet and little comfort. Women were subordinate to men, in both
the peasant and noble classes, and were expected to ensure the smooth running of the
household. Children had a 50% survival rate beyond age one, and began to contribute to
family life around age twelve. Middle Ages was marked by difficulties and calamities
including famine, plague, and war, which significantly diminished the population of Europe

b. What arguments could be used to disprove this view? - People later began to appreciate the
richness and creativity of medieval civilization and the important changes that occurred in the
 Middle ages. By the fifteenth century, England and France were strong, unified states. Monarchs
had great power, but people had begun to gain a voice in government through representative
parliaments. The new middle class in the towns had wealth and influence. Also, the political
power of the Church lessened.

3. What was the significance of the development of the middle class in European
society? - The rising number of members of the Middle Class, people who earned
wages that gave them greater purchasing power than members of the Lower Class,
produced a growing market for many of the products of the Industrial Revolution.
Salaried personnel who could boast a certain level of education whose jobs depended
on literacy and who worked in conditions different from manufacturing laborers,
added an important ingredient to European society and politics.

4. Compare the ways in which England and France achieved unity.

- At the battle of Agincourt in 1415, the archers and knights of the English king, Henry V,
again dealt the French a resounding defeat. This victory gave England control of most
northern France. By a treaty signed in 1420, henry married the French king’s daughter
Catherine and was named heir to the throne. It appeared that England would soon join
the two lands under one crown.
- French kings gain strength after the Hundred Years’ War. Besides giving the French
people a sense of unity, the Hundred Years’ War increased the power of the French
monarch. During the war French kings introduced new taxes that added greatly to the
royal income. This enabled them to hire soldiers who were loyal to the monarchy. Having
the service of well-paid and loyal troops gave the king considerable control over the
country.

5. How did the struggle for supremacy between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor affect the
development of unity in Germany and Italy?
- Otto the Great was determined to expand his power as king as he defeated some dukes in
war and made alliances with others. To gain more support against fellow nobles, Otto
granted fiefs to German bishops, making them vassals of the crown. By this action, Otto set
the stage for a long struggle for power between the German kings and the Pope.
- Otto and his successors as emperor wanted to dominate Italy and the papacy. The Pope,
however, sided with the German dukes and with the northern Italian cities, which feared
the Holy Roman Emperor. The struggle with papacy weakened the German rulers’ authority
and was the main reason the German territories did not become united during Middle
Ages.

7. How did the Magna Charta

(a) strengthen Parliament – The Magna Charta placed some limits on the power of the English
monarch. Other limits grew out of the development of the English Parliament. Before making
decisions, the Anglo-Saxon rulers had sought the advice of important men in the kingdom like
the churchmen, landowners, and nobles. Parliament strengthened mainly because it had control
 of money matters. Monarchs had to have approval of Parliament before they could raise money
through taxes. Parliament was in a position to demand additional powers from the monarch.

(b) limit the power of the monarch – The Magna Charta limits royal power. The power of the
English monarch grew steadily after the Norman conquest in 1066. Implied in the Magna Charta
was the notion that monarchs had no right to rule in any way they pleased but rather had to
govern according to law.

(c)protect the rights of English subjects - By declaring the sovereign to be subject to the rule of law
and documenting the liberties held by “free men,” the Magna Carta provided the foundation for
individual rights in Anglo-American jurisprudence. Among them was the right of the church to
be free from governmental interference, the rights of all free citizens to own and inherit
property and to be protected from excessive taxes.

E. FROM THE PRIMARY SOURCE

Read this excerpt from the laws of a medieval English manor called Dernale. Then answer the questions
that follow.

Here began the customs of the bond- tenants (serfs] of the manor of Dernale. ... when any one of
them dieth, the lord shall have all the pigs of the deceased, all his goats, all his mares at grass, and his
horse also, if he had one for his personal use, all his bees, ... all his cloth of wool and flax, and whatsoever
can be found of gold and silver. The lord also shall have all his brass pots.

Also the lord shall have the best ox... and [the] Holy Church (shall have) another. After this, the
rest of the animals ought to be divided thus, if the deceased has children . . . - one for the lord, one for
the wife, one for the children; and if he leaves no children, [the animals) shall be divided into two parts
- one for the lord and one for the wife of the deceased equally.

Also it is not lawful for a bond-tenant to make a will ... without the permission) of the lord of the
manor.... And as to the sheep, let them be divided like all the other goods of the deceased which ought to
be divided. ... This is inserted in this place by itself, because the bond-tenants said that… all the sheep
ought to remain wholly to the wife of the deceased. Which is quite false….
Also, if the lord wishes to buy corn or oats, or anything else, and [the tenants] have such things
to sell, it shall not be lawful (for) them to sell anything elsewhere, except with the lord's [permission), if
the lord is willing to pay them a reasonable price.

A. Which of a serf's possessions automatically became the property of the lord when the serf died?

- The lord shall have all the pigs of the deceased, all his goats, all his mares at grass, his horse, if he
had one for his personal use, all his bees, all his cloth of wool and flax, and whatsoever can be found
of gold and silver. The lord also shall have all his brass pots.

B. Which possessions did the lord have to divide with the serf's family? How were they divided?

- The rest of the animals ought to be divided thus, if the deceased has children (one for the lord, one
 for the wife, one for the children); and if he leaves no children the animals shall be divided into two
parts (one for the lord and one for the wife of the deceased equally).

C. Which of these laws protect the interests of the lord? Which protect the interests of the serfs?

- The law that does not allow a bond-tenant to make a will without the permission of the lord of the
manor. In terms to the sheep, let them be divided like all the other goods of the deceased which
ought to be divided. This is inserted in this place by itself, because the bond-tenants said that: all the
sheep ought to remain wholly to the wife of the deceased. Which is not true. Therefore, this law
protects the interests of the lord to have fair share in sheep.

- Another law is if the lord wishes to buy corn or oats, or anything else, and the tenants have such
things to sell, it’s not allowed for them to sell anything elsewhere, except with the lord's permission,
if the lord is willing to pay them a reasonable price. Therefore, this law protects the interests of the
serfs and the lord as well because it is fair for the serf to receive a reasonable amount from
whatever the lord bought from the serfs. The serf can also negotiate with the lord if they want to sell
anything elsewhere.

D. What evidence is there of disagreement between the lord and the serfs?

(Who do you think decided how this disagreement should be settled? Explain your answer.

- The will made by bond-tenants because according to the bond-tenants all the sheep ought to
remain wholly to the wife of the deceased. Which is quite false and contradict the lord of the
manor. The the manor of Dernale decided how this disagreement should be settled. The
medieval English manor was generally fortified in proportion to the degree of peaceful
settlement of the country or region in which it was located. The law states that it is not
lawful for a bond-tenant to make a will without the permission of the lord of the manor. And
as to the sheep, let them be divided like all the other goods of the deceased which ought to
be divided.

Penny Besid

BSED 2 SS