AP English Lit Middle Ages

When was the Middle Ages?

1066-1485

Battle of Hastings

The decisive battle in which William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy) defeated the Saxons under Harold II (1066) and thus left England open for the Norman Conquest.

Why is it called the Middle/Dark Ages?

It fell between European cultural high points of Roman Empire and Renaissance.

What is the Anglo-Saxon word for judgment?

Dom (like Domesday Book)

Normans were responsible for which Anglo-Saxon motifs?

Castles, knights, and princesses

What did the Normans bring to England?

Feudalism

Feudalism

A political system in which nobles are granted the use of lands that legally belong to their king, in exchange for their loyalty, military service, and protection of the people who live on the land

How was Middle English created?

Anglo-Saxon (common people) + Latin (church) + Norman-French (Normans) = Middle English

Richard the Lion-Hearted

An English king, leader of the Third Crusade, agreed to a truce with Saladin

What was significant about the Middle Ages in terms of the people of England?

They began to view themselves as truly "English"

Thomas à Becket

Archbishop of Canterbury and the highest ranking English cleric

Feudal system

Kings → Lords → Knights → Peasants

Who were Gentlemen?

Blue blood nobility, no labor (that was for the peasants)

What caused the end of the feudal system?

The Bubonic plague wiped out a third of the English population

What language did educated people speak?

Latin, everyone else was illiterate

What becomes a major English export?

Wool; in fact there were 4-5 sheep for every person (that doesn't seem baaaad but it means a whole lot of shit)

What unifies the common English people, and which sect of Christianity did most people practice?

Church; Catholic

Common Law

A system of law based on precedent and customs

Primogeniture

A system of inheritance in which the eldest son in a family received all of his father's land. The nobility remained powerful and owned land, while the 2nd and 3rd sons were forced to seek fortune elsewhere

Trial by ordeal

A primitive method of determining a person's guilt or innocence by subjecting the accused person to dangerous or painful tests believed to be under divine control; for example, drowning

Trial by jury

The right of a person to be tried by a jury, or a group of citizens, to decide if the person is guilty or innocent of committing a crime

Trial by combat

An accused person had to fight to prove his/her innocence

What kind of government does England adopt?

Constitutional monarchy

Magna Carta

In 1215, King John signs Magna Carta, which signals an end to absolute monarchy; levies taxes that must be approved by barons

Habeas Corpus

A writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court

Crusades

A series of holy wars from 1096-1270 AD undertaken by European Christians to free the Holy Land from Muslim rule; was much more disastrous than planned (more like the CRUDE-sades am I right? *crickets*) included peasants, holy figures, and political leaders

Pope Urban II

In 1095, he ordered the First Crusade (good going dude)

What was the one good thing that resulted from Crusades?

European Christians were exposed to Arabic mathematics and medicine; broadened their intellectual refinements (God knows they needed that)

Chivalry

the conduct of knights, ideal qualities such as bravery and gallantry toward women

Romance

Means "in the Roman language" tales of chivalry, wonders, faeries, sorcery, and ideas of love originate from France and were translated from French

Fantasy

In the Middle Ages, dragons, knights, and castles

The Hundred Years War

A war between France and Britain, lasted 116 years, mostly a time of peace, but it was punctuated by times of brutal violence (1337-1453)

What was an innovative weapon in the Middle Ages?

Gunpowder (see also: Guy Fawkes)

War of the Roses

The struggle for the English throne (1455-1485) between the house of York (white rose) and the house of Lancaster (red rose) created Tudor line through marriage

Ascension of Henry VII

Following the end of the War of the Roses in 1485, Henry VII ushered in the first Tudor ruler of England.

What legends were King Arthur based?

Celtic legends

What did Sir Thomas Malory write?

Le Morte Darthur (The Death of Arthur) about King Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table

Was Sir Thomas Malory a model citizen?

No, he wrote Le Morte Darthur in prison; his antics reflected the turbulence of English politics at the time.

Geoffrey Chaucer

The father of early English literature, wrote in Middle English, invented framework narrative, poetry, and short stories; humorous realism; most famous novel is the Canterbury Tales; poignant observer of people and society

What were ballads?

Early English and Scottish stories told orally by song; usually everyday life of common folk

What was Everyman?

The most famous morality play

Generational stories

Original authors or versions are unknown

Incremental repetition

a device used in poetry of the oral tradition, especially English and Scottish ballads, in which a line is repeated in a changed context or with minor changes in the repeated part.

Sir Patrick Spens

Irish ballad

What do animal narrators symbolize in English ballads?

That the rider has died

William Caxton

First English printer

What is the Canterbury Tales about?

English pilgrims traveling to see Becket's grave and through the characters we learn of medieval life

Pardoner's Tale

Geoffrey Chaucer; symbolizes sin of greed

Cuckold

The husband of an adulterous wife (is this The Scarlet Letter?) derives from the cuckoo bird, which sits on the eggs of other birds (the more you know)

What was the first love triangle in literature?

King Arthur, his wife Guinevere, and Launcelot

What two things does Arthur represent as king?

The realm (land) and the law

What were the 5 traits of knighthood?

Humility, piety, integrity, loyalty, and honesty

Strophe

structural division of a poem containing stanzas of varying line length

Bob and wheel stanza

A short sequence of rhymed lines that consists of one short line (the bob) with a single stress, followed by four three-stress lines (the wheel) of which the second and fourth lines rhyme with the bob

Which English poem exemplifies the bob and wheel stanza?

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

When did the Middle Ages end?

1485 with the end of the War of the Roses and the Ascension of Henry VII