Middle Ages Pop Culture VS

Historical Fact
Where pop culture and historical fact come together, argue and collide.

The history of the middle ages is a beloved time period of the

pop culture industry. There’s knights! Epic battles! Princesses!
Princes! Deceit! Love! What is not to like? But with the
adaptation of many aspects of Medieval/Middle Ages history
into big picture movies like “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”,
“A Knight's Tale”, “Merlin” and “The Green Knight” comes a
skewing of the real history that makes up the Middle Ages as we
know it. But how much of this is pop cultures twist, and how
much of it is history? We will find out in the activity below…

Instructions:
Together, as a class, we will look at a few clips from four
different movies based in the Middle Ages:

1. “A Knights Tale” (2001)

2. “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975)
3. “The Green Knight” (2021)
4. “Merlin” (2008)

Before we do that:
1. We are going to define what we think the term “historically accurate” means and
write it on the board. This will be our basis/foundation for “historically accurate”
as we go through the video clips.
After we define the term:
1. We will look at specific clips from these movies, where you will need to write
what aspects you think are historically accurate below the clip title.
After we watch a video clip:
1. We will have a short discussion on what aspects of the clips we thought were
historically accurate and not historically accurate. This portion of the activity will
 task your group with discussing among each other, then with another table/row
close to you. After that, we will fact check our discussion and talk about the
aspects that aren’t historically accurate and why.
2. This entire process (discussing, fact-checking) will be repeated for every video
clip we watch.

You will need to follow along with this worksheet, as you have a few things you need
to fill out as we go:

Clip One: “A Knights Tale–Sword Fight Scene”

Knight’s Tale Sword Fighting Scene

Question: What aspects of this clip are historically accurate? Draw on your
information/knowledge from:
1. Lecture/Slideshows
2. Primary Documents
3. Classmate Presentations

Historically Accurate and Inaccurate Aspects

Then, write your answers above as you watch the video clip. After we finish watching the
video clip, we will engage in a short discussion about what we think is historically
accurate in the video clip.

Clip Two: “A Knights Tale–Jousting”

A Knight’s Tale: A Gamble, Jousting Scene

Question: What aspects of this clip are historically accurate? Draw on your
information/knowledge from:
4. Lecture/Slideshows
5. Primary Documents
 6. Classmate Presentations

Then, write your answers below as you watch the video clip.

Historically Accurate Aspects

Clip Three: “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”

"Bring out your Dead"/ "Not Dead Yet"
Question: What aspects of this clip are historically accurate? Draw on your
information/knowledge from:
7. Lecture/Slideshows
8. Primary Documents
9. Classmate Presentations

Then, write your answers below as you watch the video clip.

Historically Accurate Aspects

Clip Four: “The Green Knight”

The Green Knight--Who Will Challenge Me?
Question: What aspects of this clip are historically accurate? Draw on your
information/knowledge from:
10. Lecture/Slideshows
11. Primary Documents
12. Classmate Presentations

Then, write your answers below as you watch the video clip.
 Historically Accurate Aspects

1. What can we learn from this video clip?

Clip Five: “King Arthur and the KNights of the

Round Table”
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
Question: What aspects of this clip are historically accurate? Draw on your
information/knowledge from:
13. Lecture/Slideshows
14. Primary Documents
15. Classmate Presentations

Then, write your answers below as you watch the video clip.

Historically Accurate Aspects