Middle Ages Research Project

Diego Zavala

Encounters 6

Ms. Damante

March 24, 2022

The Middle Ages

Introduction: Have you heard about feudalism or the black death or what happened at the time or even what they wore in the middle ages? Well you will learn all of it when you read this. Feudalism was a government, and the king ruled all the land. The black death was a sickness with three different illnesses that could cause death, and the black death killed one third of Europe's population. The clothes they wore were made from sheep and they all looked the same. 

Feudalism: Paragraph 1- Feudalism was the government in Europe during the Middle ages. The lord owned the land, he protected the peasants and in return the peasants would work for the king.  The king gave his land to a baron, and The baron used it for his soldiers all the way to giving land to the peasants. The peasants were at the bottom of society, and did not have any power. More than half of the people were peasants. They went through a very difficult life. Some peasants had freedom and could own business, but other peasants worked for the lords. The peasants did not possess anything, and they worked and gave their loyalty to the lords. They had to work 6 days a week, and they did not have enough resources to survive. Next in the feudalism triangle are the knights and the lords. The lords lead the local manors. The lords were also the kings knights, and they will be chosen to go on the battlefield whenever it is necessary. The lords possessed everything on their land, things such as peasants, plants, resources and villages. The highest member in this society was the king, as the king he was the ruler of the kingdom. However the kingdom was sometimes too large; he would split the land and give parts of it to his barons. In return the barons gave their loyalty and soldiers to the king. When the time comes the king will die, and when the king dies his first son will be given the throne and will have all the power his father had. When one family had power for a long period of time it would be considered a dynasty.

The Black Death

Paragraph 1: The black death started 1346 to 1352, and it killed one third of Europe’s population. There were three variations to the black death, bubonic, mnemonic, and septicaemic which is the black death. Bubonic was the one with the highest rate of survival; its symptoms were the neck, armpit, and groin being swollen. Next is the pneumonic, this is once the disease was already in another person and they spread it onto others. The people affected would cough up blood and only had about a five percent chance at survival. Last is the Black Death the worst of them all. It would cause people's skin to become a dark color which is why it was given the name the black plague. This was the least common of the variation but was also the deadliest.  All the people that survived the black death had horrible stories to tell about what happened during the crisis of the black death. During the black death the oxygen had the smell of rotten and dead corpses. ¨Quarantines were set up on land to keep infected people out of the city.¨  ¨Quarantine is a word derived from the Italian word for forty; forty being the number of days thought necessary for a virulent disease to run its course.¨ The way they cured the black death was with vinegar, fumigating letters and documents with incense, and encouraging people to think positive thoughts as it seemed to become clear that a patient's general attitude greatly affected the chances of survival. The black death was created by a organism called yersinia pestis it was rats that managed to spread it from southern Russia to the Middle East and western Europe. Something else that really increased the spread was trading. Trade was affected so much that ships would   “arrive at ports with entire crews dead of disease”. 

Clothes In The Middle Ages

Paragraph 1: In the time of the middle ages men's clothing was so  

colorful that it looked like the ladies clothes, but men wanted to look more 

mainly, so they wore clothes that had the shape of armor, ¨with broad shoulders, broad hips, and narrow waists.¨  ¨It could be compared with a suit of armor. After reading the descriptions, label the parts of the clothing. ¨

Paragraph 2: Women's dresses were not made all in one piece as they usually are today.¨ Back then women wore a couple of garments as a "dress.". Bodice came all the way down to the waist also shoulders appear wide the ¨bodice ha "wings'' and came to a point at the narrow waist ¨

The sleeves were tight at wrists, but full 

otherwise. ¨Stuffed to keep shape; 

sometimes had ruffs at wrists to mate ruff at neck ¨

  Kirtle is a skirt that was often made of different material from bodice ¨; framework underneath 

called farthingale, made of wire or 

Whalebone¨.

Most Elizabethan women wanted their clothes to be like the mens clothes, and have every detail that the men´s clothes have. 

Paragraph 3: The clothing that people wear now are very different from what they used to wear. People from the middle ages wore very puffy clothing and leather shoes, some of them even wore robes, but now most of the people wear shorts, pants, hoodies and short sleeved shirts. In the middle ages all the people wore long sleeve blouses. In the middle ages men wore clothing that made them look buff, but women's clothing was more like a robe or a dress. The color of the womens clothes in the middle ages was mostly green and purple or dark colors, but the mens clothing color was different; it was more silver or gray.

Conclusion: Everything you just read is important because you need to understand what happened in the middle ages. For example you need to know that the king owned all the land, and that the black death killed one third of the population in Europe, And that is why everything you just read is important.

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.

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

07 February 2023.

“Black Death”. History Learning Site. 05 March 2015 www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medie 

val-england/black-death-1348-1350/ Accessed 07 February 2023.

“Clothes” Mystery in the Middle Ages. www.xtec.cat/monografics/cirel/02/middle_ages/alumne/scene1 

/punt2/index.htm . Accessed 08 February 2023.

“Clothing of the Time” Teacher Created Materials PDF. docs.google.com/document/d/1Nv3pU3xF362 

gdGRG5RTtFBfzXq1i-_fAltdYYvosIM0/edit. Accessed 08 February 2023.