Middle Ages Research Project

Angel Fuentes

Encounters 6

Ms. Damante

April 19, 2024

The Life of All During the Middle Ages

Introduction

It is not common knowledge that kings were in theory less influential than individual lords in smaller monarchs.

The medieval government system known as feudalism was very simple yet complex at the same time, the kings would try to place lords and peasants within their right role. The Knights Templar were a military order fighting for their catholic ideals and beliefs, their fighting never ended permanently until 1307. And the Black Death was a horrible disease affecting men, women, and children. The Middle Ages was either hard or easy for one person, hardly anyone was in the middle.

Feudalism

 Feudalism was a form of government during the middle ages. Including serfs to royalty, this is how it worked. Starting from the least to most powerful there are serfs. Serfs, though not directly slaves were bound to a lord, could not own property of their own, and needed permission to marry. There was no circumstance where they could leave without permission unless running away, if they managed to stay hidden from their lord away in another town or village for a year and a day they gained freedom. Secondly, Peasants. Most people in Europe were peasants and lived a hard life of working and plowing fields, but they didn’t work on Sundays or frequent saint days. Being free also meant that peasants could go to local fairs and/or markets; all of this is supported by the article made by the Ducksters, “Peasants or Serfs - Most of the people living in the Middle Ages were peasants. They had a hard, rough life. Some peasants were considered free and could own their own businesses like carpenters, bakers, and blacksmiths. Others were more like slaves. They owned nothing and were pledged to their local lord. They worked long days, 6 days a week, and often barely had enough food to survive.” 

Following, Lords believe it or not were also knights at the same time! Lords ran the local manor, owned vast amounts of land, villages and crops, but they could be called upon for battle at any moment by their barons. Next Barons and Nobles were extremely powerful leaders that reported directly to the king or queen. The Barons and high ranking Nobles owned large areas called fiefs, and divided them into individual manors, then giving the manors to lords. Their main job was to provide an army for the king or pay a tax referred to as “shield money.” Next, bishops were powerful leaders ordained by the extremely influential catholic church. These bishops managed an area called a “diocese” within a kingdom on the behalf of the church. The church also received a tithe of 10% from all people inside of the kingdom which made some bishops wealthy and influential. Lastly, kings and queens were in theory the highest authority of the kingdom, but in reality lords and nobles controlled individual lands given by royalty. They had to control and keep peace in these pieces of land or else the people within would revolt.

The Knights Templar 

The Knights Templar were a group of knights established by French knight Hugues de Payens in 1118 with less than 10 friends or family members at its start. The order was normally headed by a Grand Master. Though originally having no church nor place to reside in, King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, nineteen years after the freeing of Jerusalem, granted the order a place to live within the Temple on Mount Moriah. Their place in between the holy structures were exhibited by priests as the Temple of Solomon. As the Knights Templar grew with support from Baldwin the second, the catholic military order adopted a tight code of conduct and became trusted by pilgrims within Europe.

They not only protected pilgrims, but also their currency by creating a banking system. The order was allowed to charge interest, with massive donations coming in too, so this made the Knights Templar influential and wealthy. The order eventually grew from the protection of pilgrims to a broader defense of crusader states in the Holy Land. Members of the Knights Templar were normally found praying in prayer and showed veneration to the Virgin Mary. They were not allowed to gamble, swear, be drunk, and were needed to live within a community, sleep in a public dormitory, and eat meals with each other. These knights built castles and garrisoned important cities.

They had also participated in battles, fielded significant contingents against armies of Muslim faith until the fall of acre in 1291. After the siege they were still powerful but this then led to their complete downfall where King Philip the Fair of France attacked the order on friday the 13th, October 1307 and the death of their last true Grand Master, Jacques de Molay. The article Knights… supports this by stating, “Their wealth and power led to their downfall when King Philip the Fair of France attacked and the order which led to the terrible events of Friday the 13th, in October 1307 and the death of the Grand Master, Jacques de Molay and the destruction of the order.”  This goes to show that the order eventually disbanded due to its own influence.

The Black Death 

The Black Death, the Bubonic Plague, the Pestilence, the Great Mortality, or simply referred to as the Plague was a horrible disease rampaging in medieval Europe. The Black Death was named this because of what it did to victims and its impact on medieval society, so much that the disease killed 75 million people. The first known records show that the Plague had first appeared in the 14th century, south of Russia around Crimea; from here the disease spread out to far out Eastern Europe toward Western Europe and the Middle East. The Pestilence spread through travel and trade; these ships, specifically the trading ships, arrived at ports with entire crews dead from the infection. The conditions that already existed from war and famine only made this infection spread more during the era.

The types of Black Death were the Bubonic(the most common) that gets its name due to the swellings, or much rather buboes that appeared on the patient’s neck, armpits or groin. The buboes varied in size from the size of an egg to one of an apple. The second type or variation - pneumonic plague - attacks the respiratory system and spreads through inhaling contaminated air from a patient, life expectancy was measured in a day or two. The third and last type was the septicemic version which attacked the blood vessels. No qualified doctor’s advice, or no medieval medicine could cure or relieve the victims. Enormous numbers of ignorant men and women set up to be doctors in addition to the educated and qualified. Either that victims died because of no real way to cure the pestilence, or that the unqualified doctors were so ignorant that they did not know what caused it, nor did they know how to administer the proper remedy. This is supported by the article, The Black Death…, the article states, “The bubonic variant (the most common) derives its name from the swellings or buboes that appeared on a victim's neck, armpits or groin. These tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple.[ ] A second variation - pneumonic plague - attacked the respiratory system and was spread by merely breathing the exhaled air of a victim. It was much more virulent than its bubonic cousin - life expectancy was measured in one or two days. Finally, the septicemic version of the disease attacked the blood system.” and along with this it also states, “No doctor's advice, no medicine could overcome or alleviate this disease, An enormous number of ignorant men and women set up as doctors in addition to those who were trained. Either the disease was such that no treatment was possible or the doctors were so ignorant that they did not know what caused it, and consequently could not administer the proper remedy.” This shows how there was hardly or no help at all against the cruelty of the Pestilence.

Some people from a community would get out of the area and quarantine themselves by forming another one, only people who had no signs of the Plague were allowed in. These refugees lived entirely separate from any other community. The people within these areas shut themselves in houses where no sick were found, they ate the finest food and drank the best wine very temperately. These people also had not allowed news about sick and the dead to reach others, passing the time away with music along with other pleasures.

However, other people thought the opposite. They thought the correct cure was to drink happily, sing tunes and amuse themselves, eat whatever they could, and laugh at what had just happened. They put these thoughts into practice. The people who thought this went from tavern to tavern, drinking until they could no longer, or intruding into people’s homes, doing whatever pleased these thoughts.

Conclusion

To conclude, The Middle Ages was a time where people lived with ease or struggled to live. Feudalism was the system of government that kept everyone in check. The Knights Templar was started with only 10 people, and it later grew to its size and got its influence before disbanding. The Black Death killed a majority of the population of Europe and its symptoms were very cruel. This range of centuries is important to research and know about because it shaped our knowledge of the world drastically.

Works Cited 

“Middle Ages Feudal System.” Ducksters. www.ducksters.com/history/middle_ages_feudal _system.php  

Accessed 22 February 2023. 

Ross, David. “Feudalism and Medieval Life.” Britain Express. www.britainexpress.com 

/History/Feudalism_and_Medieval_life.htm Accessed 7 February 2023.

“Knights Templar.” Lords and Ladies. www.lordsandladies.org/knights-templar.htm. Accessed 15 

February 2024.

“Templar.” Britannica. www.britannica.com/topic/Templars. Accessed 22 February 2024.

“History of Black Death.” allabouthistory. allabouthistory.org/history-of-black-death.htm. Accessed 23 

February 2024.

“The Black Death, 1348.” Eye Witness to History. www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm. Accessed 

23 February 2024.