Professional Documents
Culture Documents
They knew nothing about germs, So they were less fussy about living in smelly dirty places
England and Wales 1066 – William the Conqueror won Battle of Hastings &
became the king of England
Wales was separate country & its own laws, customs
and language but no king
Each area/region controlled by chief or prince
What William did King William no interest in Wales but worried Welsh
will attack England
Gave trusted barons land along the Welsh Marches (the
What did the barons do border area) to safeguard these lands from attack
(also knows as Marcher Built castles to control the border lands to stop Welsh
Lords) from attacking England
Later on… Barons attacked Welsh and took more land. By 1200
lots of lands in south of Wales were controlled by
English
[FYI - Welsh people are Lands in west and north still under Welsh’s chief &
actually native people of prince
Wales]
The Prince of Wales Mid 1200, Welsh in north united under one leader,
Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, called himself “Prince of Wales’
Lylwelyn
Began to take back some lands in North & mid Wales
Impressive castle Built in north (the area where the 2 brothers were
strong the most)
What happened in spring of People of Britain were gripped by fear as a killer disease
1348? was spreading across Asia and Europe
It was killing thousands and thousand of people and
whole village were being wiped out
The disease was known as ‘The Black Death’ (kills one
out of every three people)
Impact of The Black Death Victims suffered from the symptoms such as
on people
Hot and sweaty
Fever
Muscles and bones ache
Red, tender, painful lumps (boils) under armpit and in
grain
Some boils as big as apple
Red and black rashes
Breath smells foul
Swelled throat
The Black Death of the 14th Plague – a disease that spreads quickly
century was a plague
Experts studies Black Death was two different plagues that struct at the
same time ie Bubonic Plague and Pneumonic Plague
Bubonic Plague Caused by germs that lived in the blood of black rats
and in the fleas on their body
This fleas would hop onto human body and bite them
passing on the disease
Symptoms Victims get fever and large boils (called buboes) in their
(in order) armpit, groin and behind ears.
important
Then they would develop a rash of red and black spots
Pneumonic Plague Also caused by germs from black rat and fleas
Caught by breathing infected air which attacked the
Symptoms (different and lungs, causing victims to cough up blood and spread
more deadly) deadly germs as they sneeze
(in orde) Victims breath would smell as their lungs rotted inside
important them
Victims would die within a week
Black Death was a deadly Bubonic and pneumonic plague combined to make the
combination Black Death.
Possible to get one plague without the other
However, if caught pneumonic plague, probably die
30% caught bubonic plague survived
When caught both plague, no chance to survive
People’s thought that As they don’t understand infections or how disease passed,
caused the Black Death various ideas they had such as
[important]
God uses plagues to terrify and torment people to drive
out people’s sin
Eg in England people behaviours are getting bad &
committing sin, God punished them through plague
Why the disease spread fast In towns, cities and ports people live close together and
in Britain? didn’t know anything about how disease spreads. So it
(Important) was passed easily among the crowd
Long term consequences of Not enough people to look after farm animals and
Black Death harvest corps which led to food shortage where some
people even starved
Fewer workers to do the jobs, thus the workers
Very very important demanded for more money to do work. Peasants began
* Ill give some resource to to move around more because they were needed
read further on this across the country to do work.
King passed law to stop wages going up; “Statute of
Labourers” act was passed where peasants won’t get
high wage. This made the peasants angry
Some said Peasants’ Revolt was also one of the cause
of Black Death because peasants got angry when King
reduced their wages
When you’re ill, where do Poor people go to wise woman or man in village. They
you go advised to try strange herbs, plants and potions
Some people visit churches few times in the hope God will
cure the person.
Wise woman skilled people in the use of natural herbal remedies and first aid
What are the popular Since people didn’t know about germs, so there were popular
theories about the cause of theories
Black Death/disaster
Some blamed the position of planet. The study of how star
and planets might have made impact on their lives which is
called astrology.
Astrology The study of how star and planets might have made impact on
people lives.
Theory of the four humours The idea was that a person’s body contains for liquid or humour;
Developed by Ancient Greeks blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. When all present in equal
amount, then the person is healthy, if no balance then person
becomes ill
How are the people treated As seeing doctor is costly, many people treat themselves
….Getting treatment using traditional medicines since they have done so for
many years
They get advice from wise woman who has good
knowledge about herbal remedies and first aid. Their
knowledge was passed down by word of mouth and written
in books
Modern scientists saw their book and concluded that over half
of their remedies to fight infections and to ease pain would
have worked
Quacks They are con artists that tried to trick people into buying
Refer to pictures of them in treatments that didn’t work. They sold their potions at fairs and
fairs drawn by writer Paul travelled through villages and towns
Lacroix
How Medieval doctors Medieval doctors treated their patients based on the “Theory
treated their patients of the four Humours” that was developed by Ancient Greek.
[important] Doctors use this ancient theory to explain most illnesses
A doctor would carefully examine a patient (using all sorts of
method) and use special charts to work out a treatment
Investigating illness To find out what’s the illness in a patient, doctors probably
How medieval doctors do it? will ask to urinate in a clear glass bottle. Then the urine will
be examined three times:-
1. When its fresh,
2. When cooled down after an hour,
3. Finally when it has gone completely cold.
Then he uses his chart and go through his books. Then the colour of
the urine would be matched against the shades on a special diagram
(doctors thought that every shade had a different meaning)
What exactly must a doctor He must know how to read so that he can understand
know? medical books
[important] He must know to write and speak well so that he can explain
the diseases he is treating
He must have a good mind to investigate and cure the causes
of disease
Arithmetic is also important so that he can be a great help to
the sick
He must know astronomy so that he can study the starts and
Why he must know the seasons because our bodies change with the planets and
astronomy? stars
Bad blood
Why does doctor examine Many doctors thought that the answer was to make the
the blood? patient bleed, so that the bad blood would disappear and
their body would be in balance again. This is called
bloodletting
Special tools were also used to cut open a vein and bleed a patient
Bloodletting Making patients bleed so that their ‘bad blood’ would disappear, and
their body would be in balance. At times, leeches were used to suck
the blood out
The idea was to get the badness out of your body and to
Why balance the humours.
They took the role of main carer, midwives and wise woman
(That’s why nurses are mostly women – for your own
knowledge KV)
Who were barber-surgeons? They are alternate options for patients to get treatment from as they
are cheaper than doctors
What do they do? They remove nasty boil or rotten tooth and have hair cut at the same
time
They are skilled at bloodletting
Why easy to spot barber- It had red and white pole outside (red representing blood and white
surgeon shop for bandages. This poles still exists till today in some barbers shop