Middle Ages Research Project 

Maria Vidaurri 

Encounters 6

Ms. Damante

April 8, 2022

Everything Middle Ages 

Introduction

25 million people,that's how many people passed during the Black Plague which was a very depressing time for people in the Middle Ages.This is only one of the three topics that are fascinating about the Middle Ages.The other two are how extravagant the people in the Middle Ages dressed,and how the government system was and how there were different groups of people.These three topics are very interesting and shows us not everything about these medieval times but shows us a great amount of information, enough for us to understand how people lived,dressed,acted, and much much more.

Feudalism

 “Feudalism was known as the basic government and society in Europe” (Ross) and is a system where people had to live differently depending on your ranking in the system.Now when you think of it, it's really unfair. Mainly the reason that you can’t leave your group, I mean you could marry another not from your group but the chances of that happening are very low and barely happen.I think it's unfair but we’ll talk about my opinion later because we need to know why they had this system and all that other jazz.The feudal system started in the Middle Ages and didn’t end until 1500, quite the time. The different ranges  are like a triangle, the top of the triangle is more powerful than the bottom.Here's basically the order from highest power to people who were slaves, Kings were at the top, followed by nobles, knights , and serfs who were at the bottom. 

Now we should talk about what each of these people do in their village. First on our list is the kings, they live in castles  although they didn't really do much because they had other people work for them or overall the kings did almost nothing but they got the royalty because they are on top and apparently deserved that worship.Next, are the nobles and they were people who had land and always reported to the king about what was happening.After were the knights and just like how everyone knows they were to protect the village.And last is the serfs, now serfs had a hard life.They could not do anything without the kings permission , and “they died young because of all the work they did” (Ross) .This is why I think we should not have the system nowadays and why I think this was one of the worst things in the Middle Ages.    

Clothes

During the Middle Ages clothes were a big thing.Different clothes had different meanings.So let's start with mens clothes, “their clothes were very bright and colorful just like women's” (Middle) .They liked to have multiple layers of clothing even if  it was a sunny day.Men sometimes wore clothes that made them look strong with different pops of bright colors.Now the clothes in general at these times were very extravagant and “the people who could afford would add tons of accessories, including jewelry,hoods,turdans” (Middle), and other pieces that made their outfits look beautiful.All that mattered was the money, how much money they would spend to make the poor look poor. Womens clothing was kind of similar to mens but of course they were different in many ways. The colors, the “multiple layers of clothing after putting on their dress” (Ross), but there were a couple different beauty standards for women. One being that the woman's shoulders would be like wings and then go down to a slim and thin waist. I think their style was very different from nowadays but also they did what was trending during their time so you can't really blame them. Also poorer people made their  own clothes that look similar to clothes that the rich people had or what the best dressed people had.Clothes were a statement piece just like how they are today, but back then people would think of others poorly if they didnt follow the trend but for us nowadays I dont think thats the case because yea sometimes we wear what other people wear but now were not shamed for wearing what we feel comfortable in.

Black Plague 

The Black Death or the Black Plague  was a very tragic time in the Middle Ages.It was a disease  that caused  we think 25million people to die, which is a crazy amount of people to die.Some say it came from Asia in late 1348.How it started was through rats.Basically the rats carried fleas that had a Yersinia pestis. The people in the middle ages or mainly the people who lived in the villages were not the cleanest people.So as you can imagine the Plague hit them hard because the rats were everywhere , in the food, houses, on the streets, and the people didn’t think anything of it.It was thought that “the fleas were literally injecting them with this disease” (History).The people didn’t think it was them who started the plague but god, yes they were very religious about this. Biblically they said that the black plague was a punishment from god for their actions.Therefore the church was greatly diminished which means someone else was in charge or that the church was not as praised or used as much.I think for a lot of people this part of history is very interesting.A cure for this disease was not available at the time which made matters even worse because if you were injected with this disease you would not have any hope for life after because then you would just die.Researchers are almost sure that to stop the Plague the “people in the Middle Ages would have the infected people isolated together”(Trueman) with the other infected ones to die, and the others who were safe stayed as far away as they could.This was a good idea because that's kind of what we did when we had the coronavirus.

Conclusion 

There is much more information about the Middle Ages that we still can learn. From extravagant clothes to a tragic plague and the system that separated people, there's many more topics to learn about. It's important to keep learning about the Middle Ages  so that we understand how life was before our time and  learning about this makes us want to know more about the middle ages.

Works Cited 

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

scene1/punt2 /index.ht Accessed 7 February 2022.

  Accessed 7 February 2022.

Clothing of the Time. drive.google.com/file/d/1Iq3hMOC-r7Dma-c-nJlhE71MJ-iC8AES/view 

Accessed 7 February 2022.

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

Accessed 22 February 2022.

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

_system.php Accessed 7 February 2022.

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

/Feudalism_and_Medieval_life.htm Accessed 7 February 2022.

Trueman, CN. “ The Black Death of 1348 to 1350.” History Learning Site. 24 February 2022. 

/www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval-england/black-death-1348-1350/  Accessed 24 

February 2022.