Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The social structure of medieval society
Political change in late medieval Europe
Political change in late medieval Europe
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The social structure of medieval society
Living in Middle Age Cities
Medieval cities kept old traditions, opinions, and ideas from their birth but times were changing, population was increasing and expansion of trade was taking place. Yet people of authority did not see the value of this change and were stubborn to fix the ways they went about things to fit this new era. Authorities defended their old traditions not so much for their own best interests but rather they did not want the way things were run to be changed in fear that society as a whole would be destructed. Nevertheless the old ideas and ways did not suit the middle class people. These unsuitable conditions soon became unavoidable and the middle class people stood up and voiced their opinions.
To start off there was an big difference of life style of the population either you were in the so called upper class of vassals (landowners) or of the middle class of surfs (merchants or artisans) whom served for the vassals. These landowners made their own laws, tolls and what not for the land that they owned. The surfs were owned by the vassals and stayed with the owner or went to another owner when the land was sold. The land owners depended upon their surfs for trading of goods and services where as the surfs depended upon protection from the vassals. However, surfs were merchants and artisans who needed to travel and trade their services to other surfs, the tolls and laws created by each vassal restricted the merchants and artisans greatly.
Now the middle class was not trying to overthrow their rulers, they accepted the way of these old cities. They did not aim to get rid of it entirely they and they accepted the privileges and authority of princes, clergy and nobility. All the middle class wanted was acknowledgement from the government strictly limited to their own needs, asking for a place compatible with the lives they led.
The old cities consisted of many small cities of merchants surrounding a central city. Merchants had to pay ground rents, tolls for protection by knights, and tolls on merchandise brought on the land. There were different courts with different rules that surfs had to follow one being church related and the other an overall court ruled by the king or the castle owner, not to mention rules set by each vassal.
“Feudalism was a political, economic, and social system in which nobles were granted the use of land that legally belonged to the king” (Doc. 1) "Social" life in the Middle Ages was the only kind of life people knew. Whether nobility, craftsperson or peasant your life was defined by your family, your community and those around you (OI). “The Church protected the Kings and Queens (OI).” “The King is above Nobles, Nobles above Knights, and the Knights are above serfs (Doc.1).” “ Nobles provides money and knights. Knights provide protection and military service (Doc. 1).” Social network, your village and your local nobility, was your family (OI).” “From the moment of its baptism a few days after birth, a child entered into a life of service to God and God’s Church (Doc.3).” “Every Person was required to live by the Church’s laws and to pay heavy taxes to support the Church (Doc.3).” “In return for this, they were shown the way to everlasting life and happiness after lives that were often short and hard (Doc. 3).” In conclusion, this is what it was like in the Middle Ages from a social
The government is Small communities were formed around the local lord and the manor. The lord owned the land and everything in it. He would keep the peasants safe in return for their service. The lord, in return, would provide the king with soldiers or taxes. Family life was governed by the place one held in society. The nobles had the highest status. They possessed the most wealth and land. The clergy could be rich or poor, depending on their title and how much influence they had over the people. And education also Monks taught boys from wealthy noble families how to read and write Latin. This was important because both the Bible and the church services used the language. Some boys from wealthy families were tutored privately. Students began learning with the seven liberal arts: Latin grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Girls were not taught to
Social studies are usually a subject students find boring. The lesson created is meant to get every student excited and wanting to learn more. This lesson plan is about the Middle Ages or the Medieval Times. This was a time where things were different. People dressed and spoke in a different way. There were lords, ladies, and knights; castles, moats, and fighting. What student could be bored learning about this era?
One of Johnson’s main point of discussion is the formation of the city of Manchester. The development of the city over the course of century played a crucial role in sculpting the social classes of the time period. The lack of planning that went into the development of Manchester caused its citizen to “alter their subsequent decisions” (Johnson 199). “Small shifts in behavior quickly escalate into larger movements,” as investment banker took over businesses driving the impoverish to the outskirts of the city (Johnson 199). The interaction between people diverged into two categories: those made between the wealthy and those made between the impoverish. This distinction continued through the preceding decades; as the city grew, so did the line between that separated the wealthy and
Feudalism is a system of land ownership and duties that were used in the Middle Ages. Under feudalism, all the land in a kingdom was the king's. However, the king would give some of his land to the lords or nobles who fought for him. Rulers in all society wanted to create law and order and ensure that people make good use of the society’s resources. That is why feudalism was created. Monarchs had to accept limits on their own personal power. They also needed to respond to expectations that other groups in society have a say in decision-making. People began to use medieval courts for problems that had previously been solved by trial by combat.
WAS THE TIME PERIOD BETWEEN 400 AD AND 1400 AD A “DARK AGE” FOR EUROPE?
Medieval Europe and feudal Japan were two societies that paralleled each other in various political, social, and cultural aspects. Feudalism was utilized by both and played a major role in determining relationships between the social classes. Japan and European had warriors that shared a similar code of ethics and valued loyalty, although they had differing views of death. Their cultures and religious views varied also. Although feudalism was a common aspect in both societies, their cultural backgrounds set them far apart.
The era of the Middle Ages does not paint a bright picture for many people because it was a dark time in history. The Middle Ages were a terrible time to live in with the grime, debauchery, and disease. The rich were very well off while the poor made it through a hard life. The decline of the Middle Ages was at the end of the fourteenth century because of, “crop failures, famine, population decline, plagues, stagnating production, unemployment, inflation, devastating warfare, abandoned villages, and violent rebellions by the poor and weak of towns and countryside, who were ruthlessly suppressed by the upper classes.”1 Even though the Middle Ages were a time of adversity it did have great growth...
Europe’s social structure in the Middle Ages consisted of feudalism. A hierarchical society of Kings granting land to nobles, who would then give a fief to a knight in return for service. The knight would then have peasants or serfs working on their fief. However, as the plague spread, many peasants died and their labour could not be replaced. This loss of workforce had a significant impact upon the economy as grain was not being harvested and livestock roamed free. The agrarian economy had been severely damaged, the land became uncultivated and returned back to its natural state. This rural collapse eventually led to food shortages in towns and cities.
There were many different systems in Europe that rose and fell throughout its colorful history. The system that was very influential of change during the Middle Ages was a duel system called feudalism/manorialism. In a lecture Robert W. Brown defines feudalism as a political structure that is a relationship between the king and his vassals while manorialism is a socio-economic structure that defines the role of the vassal and his subjects (The Legacy of the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages in the West). Timothy C. Hall explains: “local nobles acquired large tr...
The political system and government had a major impact on the characterization that the Middle Ages was a dark time. Certain kingdoms were “unable to suppress violence” (document A). Travel during this time was considered dangerous because there were so many highway robbers. The government had no homogeneity and had a weak system. Cities became more isolated and practically disappeared. The biggest cause of this decline was the lack of a centralized government that could keep order. Although the government system impacted the Middle Ages in a negative way, there was a system of government that had many benefits; feudalism. Feudalism is a contract in which the kings sign land to the nobles (or vassals) in return for military service. A vassal is a person who works for a lord, usually giving the lord military protection. In exchange for the vassals protection, the lord would give a p...
In the Medieval Period, life was either very great or very bad, according to your class. Only 2 classes existed during this time: the nobles, such as kings and knights who lived inside the castle, or the peasants, such as working-class people who lived in often unspeakable conditions. The peasants treated the nobles with the utmost respect, for if they didn’t, then the nobles could have them beheaded. (Sanders, p 34). The nobles were almost always the ones who owned land, and the peasants worked on this land in exchange for a small portion of it, in a sense, rented out in exchange for the labor. Peasants often worked 16-hour days as long as they could see into the nighttime and got very bad nourishment. The noble was not interested in the health of the peasants working on his land, as there was a significant supply of others who were very willing to take his or her place.
During the central Middle Ages, territories were expanding greatly. In previous centuries, smaller territorial united had been much more prevalent, thus making control easier. However, with the advent of larger territorial units as time went on, challenges to rulers began to emerge. This were mainly centred around the conflict between the central power and the regions, as was seen in both France and England, which posed a substantial threat to the stability of government. Therefore, rulers saw that they needed to take steps in order to combat this situation. Most importantly, they saw that they needed to created a shared national identity in order unite the mass of people who were now in their territory. As argued by Bernard Guenée, the stability of the state was enhanced during the medieval period when its people were aware of a common identity that they wanted to sustain; control relied upon the population’s love for the country. The main ways in which this was achieved included created a shared national history, a shared religious identity, and shared enemies, as well as through the use of language. But inciting patriotism was not the only way in which rulers coped with the challenges of larger territorial units; they also took active steps towards the centralisation of power. The methods used to achieve this included the creation of representative bodies such as parliament, capital cities, and law. It was these steps taken by rulers that allowed the challenges of the larger territorial units to be met.
Written by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the fourteenth century, The Canterbury Tales and more specifically it’s prologue, shed a great deal of light on the rising middle class in (fourteenth century) England. Despite the fact that some readers may not know a lot about the time period today, Chaucer’s writing in the prologue elaborates on topics such as occupations, wealth, education, and political power. Scholar Barbara Nolan writes of the prologue, “it is more complex than most…It raises expectations in just the areas the handbooks propose, promising to take up important matters of natural and social order, moral character, and religion and outlining the organization the work will follow” (Nolan 154). In other words, while noting the distinct complexity of the writing, Nolan points out that Chaucer’s prologue gives the reader a lot to digest when it comes to both background information and overall form of the following writing. Focusing on the background information supplied in the prologue, readers quickly become educated about middle class England in the fourteenth century despite having been born hundreds of years later.
Feudalism was a set of political and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries (“Feudalism”). “The feudal system was not planned but, rather grew and developed in response to the social chaos that followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It provided order where there no longer was any, and it created new chains of command to replace those that were gone” ( James 58). Feudalism was introduced by King William I to England; this system organized power, land, and divided people into classes. The king, who owned all the land, gave some land to the church and to the barons in return for large blocks of land, the barons promised to fight for the king. Lent land to the knights and also common people (Susie 5). Feudalism test was also to defend against invaders (John 32). In the absence of centralized government authority, people look to personal relationships to bind society together. An individual with military power to offer gave his services to a feudal lord (Hay 170). Feudalism was created to put society, land, and power into order. In the economic system, landlords would force laborers to work on the lord’s manor to the lord’s profit (Medieval 65).