Middle Ages Background Notes p.28-33
The Medieval Period Study Guide
Big picture: The medieval period in England runs from the Norman Conquest (1066) to Henry Tudor's victory at Bosworth Field (1485). Three forces shaped society: feudalism, the church, and chivalry.
1. Timeline
1066: Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror wins at Hastings.
~1086: Domesday Book, a tax record of every bit of property, even fish ponds and litters of pigs. (This date isn't in your pages.)
~1135: Geoffrey of Monmouth writes a Latin "history" of Arthur.
1154: Henry Plantagenet becomes Henry II.
1215: King John signs the Magna Carta.
1337: Hundred Years' War begins under Edward III.
Mid-1300s: Black Death kills one-third of England. (This date isn't in your pages either.)
~1375: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is written (anonymous).
1453: Hundred Years' War ends. England has lost nearly all its French land.
1485: Henry Tudor (Lancaster) kills Richard III (York) at Bosworth Field and becomes Henry VII. This is the end of the Middle Ages.
2. The Monarchy
William the Conqueror: Powerful and well-organized. He made the Domesday Book, which people resented, but he brought law and order. He introduced feudalism.
Henry II: Reformed the judicial system with royal courts, juries, and the start of English common law. His wife was Eleanor of Aquitaine. Thomas à Becket was murdered during his reign.
Richard I "the Lion-Hearted": Reigned ten years and spent most of them fighting wars abroad. His brother John plotted against him.
King John: The Robin Hood villain. He was treacherous and bad-tempered, and he raised nobles' taxes. In 1215 he was forced to sign the Magna Carta.
Magna Carta ("Great Charter"): It limited royal power by giving more power to the barons. It was an early step toward democracy.
Wars of the Roses: York = white rose, Lancaster = red rose. Henry Tudor was a Lancastrian and he won.
3. Three Social Forces
Feudalism
It is a political and economic system introduced by William.
The king owns all the land. William kept 1/4, gave 1/4 to the church, and gave the rest to loyal barons.
Barons paid him or supplied knights.
Barons swear allegiance to the king, and knights to the barons.
At the bottom were the conquered Anglo-Saxons, many of them serfs, peasants bound to land they couldn't own.
The Church
It was the one exception to the feudal hierarchy, and it was led by the pope in Rome.
It levied taxes, made its own laws, ran its own courts, and threatened excommunication.
It owned more land than anyone in Europe.
Thomas à Becket was Henry II's archbishop and friend. He favored the church over the crown, so four knights loyal to the king murdered him. He became a saint, and his shrine at Canterbury became a pilgrimage site.
Chivalry and Courtly Love
These ideals became popular under Henry II.
Eleanor of Aquitaine brought chivalry from French court circles.
Chivalry was a knightly code of honor. Knights were to be generous, brave, honest, pious, and honorable, and to defend the weak and fight evil. It encouraged holy quests like the Crusades (Christians trying to take Jerusalem from Muslim control).
Eleanor and her daughter Marie applied it to romance through the "court of love." Lords and ladies enjoyed music and Arthur tales and argued about how to conduct a love affair.
These were ideals rarely met in real life, but they inspired great literature.
The "rules" of courtly love come from the 12th-century book The Art of Courtly Love.
4. The Age of Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer is "the father of English literature." He showed English could be an elegant, poetic literary language.
He wrote in Middle English, not Latin or French. His sources included French poetry, English songs, Greek classics, Italian tales, and Aesop's fables.
His family belonged to the new middle class.
The Canterbury Tales
The frame story is pilgrims traveling to Becket's shrine and telling stories along the way.
Characters are revealed by their stories and how they react to each other's tales.
The cast ranges from the "perfect gentle Knight" to a common miller.
Chaucer planned 30 pilgrims x 4 stories but finished only 24 tales.
Cause and effect:
Black Death → labor shortage → serfs realize their value and leave the land → decline of feudalism and a growing middle class.
War with France → the ruling class embraces English again.
Other works and legacy
William Langland wrote Piers Plowman.
Ballads are narrative songs about common folk or folklore.
John Lydgate said that after Chaucer "the well is dry."
William Caxton, the first English printer, published The Canterbury Tales early on.
5. Medieval Romance
Romances are stories of adventure, gallant love, chivalry, and heroism. They are set in an idealized world, unlike real medieval England.
Real Arthur: A 6th-century Briton warrior who fought Anglo-Saxon invaders. He was not from the medieval age. A Latin history from about A.D. 800 first mentions "Artorius."
Welsh oral poets celebrated him for centuries.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, a monk, wrote his Latin "history" around 1135. French, German, and English writers then updated the legends with chivalry.
Old tales focused on Arthur's battle success. New romances use his court as a backdrop for knights' trials, often in service of a lady.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: ~1375, anonymous, 2,500 lines. The green giant survives beheading.
Le Morte d'Arthur: By Sir Thomas Malory, about a century later. It retold French tales in Middle English and is a precursor to the modern novel. It was printed weeks before the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, so the "fall of Camelot" matched the real end of chivalry.
6. Middle English
The Normans had Viking origins but spoke Old French by 1066.
Norman French became the language of the court, government, nobility, and their scholars, cooks, and craftspeople. English was left to the conquered peasants.
Cow vs. beef: Anglo-Saxons tending the animal said cu/cow, and Norman aristocrats eating it said boef/beef.
English absorbed thousands of French words and grammar conventions, which produced Middle English.
Comeback: During the war with France, using French seemed unpatriotic. By the end of the Hundred Years' War, English was again the first language of most nobles.
7. Quiz Traps
Richard I vs. John: Richard was away at war. John was the Robin Hood villain who signed the Magna Carta.
York vs. Lancaster: York is the white rose and Richard III. Lancaster is the red rose and Henry Tudor, the winner.
Chivalry vs. courtly love: Chivalry is the knightly code. Courtly love is those ideals applied to romance.
Eleanor vs. Marie: Eleanor was Henry II's wife. Marie was her daughter.
Gawain vs. Malory: Gawain is anonymous, ~1375. Malory wrote Le Morte d'Arthur about a century later.
Planned vs. finished tales: Planned 30 x 4, finished 24.
8. Practice Quiz (cover the answers)
Who started the medieval period at Hastings? William the Conqueror, 1066.
What did Henry II do for the legal system? Set up royal courts, created juries, and began English common law.
What percent of England died in the Black Death? One-third.
What did the Magna Carta do? It limited royal power and gave more power to the barons.
What is a serf? A peasant bound to land he couldn't own.
Why was the church an exception to feudalism? It was led by the pope and had its own laws, courts, and taxes.
Who was Thomas à Becket? Henry II's archbishop and friend. Four knights murdered him, and he became a saint.
Why is Chaucer "the father of English literature"? He showed English could be a poetic literary language.
How did the Black Death end feudalism? The labor shortage let serfs leave the land, so feudalism declined and the middle class grew.
Who was Caxton? The first English printer.
Who was Geoffrey of Monmouth? A monk who wrote a Latin "history" of Arthur around 1135.
Why did English regain status? The war with France made French seem unpatriotic.