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The '''Middle Ages''' (adjective = '''medieval''') was the ''middle'' period in a schematic division of [[European history]] into three 'ages': Classical civilization, the Middle Ages, and Modern Civilization. It is commonly considered as having lasted from the end of the Western [[Roman Empire]] ([[5th century]]) until the rise of national [[monarchy|monarchies]] and the beginnings of demographic and economic renewal after the [[Black Death]], [[Europe]]an overseas exploration and the cultural revival known as the [[Renaissance]] around the [[15th century]].
MIDDLE AGES!
Medieval People
"I do." she says, but inside she is thinking "I don't." That's how young women thought in the Middle Ages. "I fear thee hath performed a mishap by not paying thy taxes and will have to be hung." That’s what a king might say to a poor peasant. "Thou will have to do a bit of bloodletting." That's what a doctor would say to a patient. The king, the lady, and the doctor were three of the most important people in the Middle Ages.


As the later Roman Empire changed its form and collapsed in the West, several [[Germanic]] and later [[Slavic]] peoples and the still-powerful regional noble families of the later Empire competed for power in different parts of Europe with one another and with the surviving eastern portion of the Roman Empire (commonly called the [[Byzantine Empire]] by modern Europeans).
The King
The king was the most important person in the Middle Ages. In fact, he was the highest person according to the feudal system. The feudal system was a system where the peasants gave taxes to their lords and the lords gave taxes to their kings.


The early part of the period is marked in western Europe by the greatly reduced power of centralised administration and the consequent alienation of [[government]] authority and responsibility for military organisation, [[tax]]ation and [[law]] and order at successive levels to provincial and local [[lord]]s supported directly from the proceeds of a portion of the territories over which they held military, political and judicial power. The later Middle Ages would see the regrowth of centralized power as countries came to be aware of their own national identities and strong rulers sought to expand the territory they organized under a central government. One well known version of this consolidation is known as the [[Albigensian Crusade]].
Even though the king was a very important man he had to have a way to maintain his position. He did. A smart king would give gifts to his noblemen. A king also had to have a way to have a way to control his nobility. He had that to. He would lead his army into battles and waging sucessful wars.


This hierarchy of reciprocal obligations, known as [[feudalism]] or the feudal system, binding each man to serve his superior in return for the latter's protection made for a confusion of territorial [[sovereign]]ty (as allegiances were subject to change over time, and were sometimes mutally contradictory), but the resulting ability of local arrangements to function in the absence of a strong royal power provided some resiliency in a political order distinguished by its lack of uniformity.
A kings vassals (lords) served loyalty, advice, and armed support to their kings. In return, the king gave them wealth and mini-kingdoms called fiefdoms.A vassal also had vassals of their own.


The spread of [[Christian]]ity from the Mediterranean area and from [[Ireland]] and [[Scotland]] throughout Europe and the absence of any firm alternative ideological basis for power meant that ecclesiastics became deeply involved in government, and provided the basis for a first European "identity" in the form of a [[religion]] common to most of the continent from at least the [[9th century]] until the separation of the [[Catholic]] and [[Orthodox church]]es (1054).
Usually when a king says something, people listen. But he still needs a staff of officials to make sure his orders were carried out. William I of England ruled that way.He was even called William the Conqueror because he made sure that people followed his orders and got things done.


An example of this identity at work is the period loosely identified as the [[Crusade]]s, during which [[Pope]]s, [[king]]s, and [[emperor]]s tried to draw on Christian unity to wage [[war]] on [[Islam]], which was spreading along Europe's southern and eastern borders. Political unanimity in Europe was largely illusory, and the military support for most crusades was drawn from limited regions of Europe. Substantial areas of northern Europe also remained outside Christendom until the [[12th century|twelfth century]] or later.
A kings position was not always secure. Over the years, some barons grew wealthy enough to rival the king, forcing him to grant favors. King John of England found himself in that position. To stay king, he had to make a speech of promises. Part of his speech was "no freeman shall be arrested except by the law of the land. We shall refuse justice to no one."


'''[[Periodization]]'''


It is extremely difficult to decide when the Middle Ages ended, and in fact scholars assign different starting dates for the [[Renaissance]] in different parts of Europe. Most scholars who work in [[15th century]] [[Italy|Italian]] history, for instance, consider themselves Renaissance or Early Modern historians, while anyone working on [[England]] in the early 15th century is considered a medievalist. Others choose specific events, such as the Turkish capture of [[Constantinople]] or the end of the Anglo-French [[Hundred Years' War]] (both [[1453]]), or the fall of Muslim [[Spain]] or [[Christopher Columbus]]'s voyage to [[the Americas|America]] (both [[1492]]), to mark the period's end.
The Lady
The lady was not considered a very important person during the Middle Ages. According to St. Jerome, a Latin father of the Christian church, woman is the gate of the devil, the path of wickedness, the sting of the serpent, in a word, a perilous object. A woman didn't get to decide much on their own. Tor example even if a man and woman didn't like each other they would be forced to marry so the families would fatten their pockets with money. And a girl under the age of ten could be married to a man of fifty or sixty! The church did not allow divorce so the wife would have to stay with her husband until he died. When he died, his widow still would be very young so her family would probably force her to marry again. That could happen about four times in her life.


Similar differences are now emerging in connection with the start of the period. Traditionally, the Middle Ages is said to begin when the West Roman Empire formally ceased to exist in 476 CE. However, that date is not important in itself, since the West Roman Empire had been very weak for some time, while Roman culture was to survive at least in Italy for yet a few decades or more. Today, some date the beginning of the Middle Ages to the division and Christanisation of the Roman Empire ([[4th century]]) while others see the period to the rise of Islam ([[7th century]]) as "late Classical".
An unmarried daughter was a burden to her family. They were often sent to become nuns. By sending her away, families thought they had solved their problem. Usually woman were sent away because they had fallen in love with a man her family disapproved. And so they probably felt miserable. Some woman probably felt happy because they wanted to be nuns. Here is the voice of a French woman named Heloise, who became a nun after falling in love with a man her family disliked: "It was not because felt God calling me that I came to accept the severe way of life of the cloister as a young girl. It was because of your desire alone." When Geoffrey Chaucers, a 14th century poet, wrote a poem about a nun at the head at priory, he wrote that the things she cared about most were table manners, clothes, jewlery, and her pet dogs. Although not all nuns thought that way, they might have thought similar to Chaucers nun.


The Middle Ages in the West are often subdivided into an early period (sometimes called the "[[Dark Ages]]", at least from the fifth to eighth centuries) of shifting polities, a relatively low level of economic activity and successful incursions by non-Christian peoples (Slavs, [[Arab]]s, [[Scandinavia]]ns, [[Magyar]]s); a middle period (the High Middle Ages) of developed institutions of lordship and [[vassal]]age, [[castle]]-building and [[cavalry|mounted warfare]], and reviving urban and commercial life; and a later period of growing [[royal]] power, the rise of commercial interests and weakening customary ties of dependence, especially after the [[14th century|14th-century]] [[plague]].
The lady was treated like that because according to a Greek legend the first woman, Pandora, was the one who opened the forbidden box and caused war and illness to mankind.


== Life in medieval Europe ==
* [[arts]] and [[cultural life]]
** [[literature]]
** [[poetry]]
** [[dance]]
** [[architecture]] and [[sculpture]]
** [[European music]]
*** the [[troubador]]
** [[mural]]s and [[painting]]s
** [[tapestry]], and [[handicrafts]]
** [[book]]s, [[manuscript]]s, scribes and the art of [[bookbinding]]
** [[university|universities]]
* [[monastic orders]]
** [[Benedictine]]s
** [[Carthusian]]s
** [[Cistercian]]s
* mendicant friars
** [[Dominican]]s
** [[Franciscan]]s
** [[Carmelite]]s
* [[Black Death]] and [[health]] of populations
* [[politics]] and [[religion]]
** [[Crusades]]
** [[Papacy]]
** [[Inquisition]]
** [[Heresy]] e.g [[John Wyclif]]
** [[Alchemy]]
* [[everyday life]] in the Middle Ages
** [[guild]]s of [[craftsman|craftsmen]]
** [[Danse macabre]]


==Internal Links==
The Doctor
* [[warfare]]
Although not one of the highest people on the feudal system, the doctor was probably one of the top ten most important people in the Middle Ages, even though some people don't realize it. During the twelfth century, because of the Black Death, the doctor was probably one of the top five most important people. But, unfortunately they thought the Black Death was caused by a strange gas in the air so nearly a third of the population wiped out. Reading the above, people might think that medieval doctors weren't that smart. They were smart, but their cures were based on the way they looked at diseases and how they used superstitious beliefs. For example, a surgeon once wrote "the way to close the edges of a wound you must make ants bite on them, and then cut of their heads." The doctors would only use a certain kind of ant as a primitive form of stitches When the ant would bite, it would be almost impossible for the grip to be loosened. Doctors would use these as stitches to hold the skin together. The skin would eventually grow back to how it was, and the heads of the ants would disintegrate or be taken out.
* [[fortification]]
* [[siege weaponry]]
* [[Inquisition]]
* [[European music]]
* [[dance]]
* [[Pilgrimage]]
* [[Romanesque Architecture]]


=== External [[Garb]] Links ===
Another reason they had such far-fetched ideas was although in Greece, science had reached it's sophisticated level, in the rest of Europe people couldn't understand it until the Arabs translated the scientific texts into Latin.
* One theory on how to make a [[bliaut]] and one of the better methods - http://jauncourt.i8.com/bliautho.htm

* The clothing index for Marguerie's Pages - http://jauncourt.i8.com/costume.htm
Even though medieval medicine was partly made out of plants they also had unusual ingredients to. Some examples are dung beetles, bat droppings, and powdered earthworms. The medicines could be drunken or made into ointments.
* Some Extant Clothing of the Middle Ages - http://www.virtue.to/articles/extant.html

* Some clothing of the Middle Ages, includes many sketches - http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/bockhome.html
There was also no such thing as injections, no completely safe ways to put a patient to sleep, and the connection between bad hygiene and disease had not yet been made.
* Marc Carlsons' Excellent site. Goes up until the end of the [[16th century]] - http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/shoe/SHOEHOME.HTM

* Comparative study of Extant garments relevant to East [[Denmark]] - http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/garments/garments.html
The Middle Ages was a very interesting part of history and there is much more to learn about besides the people. You should remember the king because he was the head of the feudal system, the lady because she was treated so badly, and the doctor
* Robin Netherton's excellent work on the [[gothic]] fitted dress - http://netherton.net/robin/

* Another way of making [[kirtle]]s - http://sca-garb.freservers.com/articles/corikirtle.html
THOOSE ARE 3 PEOPLE THAT ARE IMPORTANT!
* Ten gore dress from Herjolfnes - http://sca-garb.freservers.com/articles/cotehardie.html
* Summary of Women's [[Cotehardie]]s - http://www.loudzen.com/users/jessica/cotehardie/index.html
[[category:periods]]

Latest revision as of 15:50, 11 November 2007

The Middle Ages (adjective = medieval) was the middle period in a schematic division of European history into three 'ages': Classical civilization, the Middle Ages, and Modern Civilization. It is commonly considered as having lasted from the end of the Western Roman Empire (5th century) until the rise of national monarchies and the beginnings of demographic and economic renewal after the Black Death, European overseas exploration and the cultural revival known as the Renaissance around the 15th century.

As the later Roman Empire changed its form and collapsed in the West, several Germanic and later Slavic peoples and the still-powerful regional noble families of the later Empire competed for power in different parts of Europe with one another and with the surviving eastern portion of the Roman Empire (commonly called the Byzantine Empire by modern Europeans).

The early part of the period is marked in western Europe by the greatly reduced power of centralised administration and the consequent alienation of government authority and responsibility for military organisation, taxation and law and order at successive levels to provincial and local lords supported directly from the proceeds of a portion of the territories over which they held military, political and judicial power. The later Middle Ages would see the regrowth of centralized power as countries came to be aware of their own national identities and strong rulers sought to expand the territory they organized under a central government. One well known version of this consolidation is known as the Albigensian Crusade.

This hierarchy of reciprocal obligations, known as feudalism or the feudal system, binding each man to serve his superior in return for the latter's protection made for a confusion of territorial sovereignty (as allegiances were subject to change over time, and were sometimes mutally contradictory), but the resulting ability of local arrangements to function in the absence of a strong royal power provided some resiliency in a political order distinguished by its lack of uniformity.

The spread of Christianity from the Mediterranean area and from Ireland and Scotland throughout Europe and the absence of any firm alternative ideological basis for power meant that ecclesiastics became deeply involved in government, and provided the basis for a first European "identity" in the form of a religion common to most of the continent from at least the 9th century until the separation of the Catholic and Orthodox churches (1054).

An example of this identity at work is the period loosely identified as the Crusades, during which Popes, kings, and emperors tried to draw on Christian unity to wage war on Islam, which was spreading along Europe's southern and eastern borders. Political unanimity in Europe was largely illusory, and the military support for most crusades was drawn from limited regions of Europe. Substantial areas of northern Europe also remained outside Christendom until the twelfth century or later.

Periodization

It is extremely difficult to decide when the Middle Ages ended, and in fact scholars assign different starting dates for the Renaissance in different parts of Europe. Most scholars who work in 15th century Italian history, for instance, consider themselves Renaissance or Early Modern historians, while anyone working on England in the early 15th century is considered a medievalist. Others choose specific events, such as the Turkish capture of Constantinople or the end of the Anglo-French Hundred Years' War (both 1453), or the fall of Muslim Spain or Christopher Columbus's voyage to America (both 1492), to mark the period's end.

Similar differences are now emerging in connection with the start of the period. Traditionally, the Middle Ages is said to begin when the West Roman Empire formally ceased to exist in 476 CE. However, that date is not important in itself, since the West Roman Empire had been very weak for some time, while Roman culture was to survive at least in Italy for yet a few decades or more. Today, some date the beginning of the Middle Ages to the division and Christanisation of the Roman Empire (4th century) while others see the period to the rise of Islam (7th century) as "late Classical".

The Middle Ages in the West are often subdivided into an early period (sometimes called the "Dark Ages", at least from the fifth to eighth centuries) of shifting polities, a relatively low level of economic activity and successful incursions by non-Christian peoples (Slavs, Arabs, Scandinavians, Magyars); a middle period (the High Middle Ages) of developed institutions of lordship and vassalage, castle-building and mounted warfare, and reviving urban and commercial life; and a later period of growing royal power, the rise of commercial interests and weakening customary ties of dependence, especially after the 14th-century plague.

Life in medieval Europe

Internal Links

External Garb Links

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