Test

Today in class we took a test. I think I did okay but I got a fief and a vassal mixed up. There were only 15 questions, so hopefully that's the only one I got wrong. I only have an 85% in this class, so I really need to do good on this test. It wasn't hard but there was a lot of memorizing to do with the vocab.

Feudalism Project

Feudalism: describes the type of government institutions, as well as the general social and political relationships, that existed among the warrior-landholders in much of Europe during the Middle Agesfeudal compact: An arrangement between a lord and his vassal involving the exchange of property for personal servicefief: a grant of land and accompanying government responsibilities and power vassal: servantknight: warriorhomage: a vassal's act of promising loyalty and obedience to the lordserf: laborersbaron: a great lord who exercised government authority over vast family territorypeasantry: lower end of the common people in the Middle Agesestates: in the Middle Ages, the groups that made up society: often defined as those who pray (clergy), those who fight (nobility), and those who work (peasantry)manor: the principal farming property and social unit of a medieval community, usually belonging to a member of the feudal nobility or to a Church institutionthree-field-system: a method of crop rotation designed to maintain the fertility of the soil and to provide or a regular supply of fall and spring cropsinternal colonization: the process of cultivating and settling in formerly wild landsuburb: outside of the city wallsguild: an organization of craftsman who regulated the activities of their members and set standard pricesmaster: a craftsman who had the right to operate workshops, train others, and vote on guild businessjourneyman: a licensed artisan who had served an apprenticeship and who was employed by a master and paid at a fixed rate per dayapprentice: a learner in the shop of a master, does the jobs nobody wants to domasterpiece: created by a journeymen to become a masterwater mill: iron plow: As the plow moves, the cotter (the vertical blade) slices through the earth; the plowshare then rips the earth up from underneath; and the moldboard (beneath the handles) shoves against the earth, turning it over so that it settles as loose and fertile soil. 

Maxwell & David

Today Maxwell and David taught the class. They didn't do a very good job, since we dont really know that much about the information they were presenting. They pretty much just read off of the slideshow. It was getting really boring and nobody was paying attention so Kelley and I began to act out the information they were saying. But it was hard to act out so it didn't work to well. Holly thought Kelley and I were being annoying but who cares.

Notes from Class from Powerpoint

Feudalism is a term used by historians to describe the governmental system and the relationships between landowners and warriors. Warriors (knights) would pledge his allegiance to a lord, who would in turn give the warrior land. The lord would grant a fief (property) to the warrior, who would then become the lord's servant (vassal), this was known as "feudal compact." The vassal must fight for the lord when he needs it and attend his court once a month. The knight is required to pay homage to his lord. Men were apprenticed to older knights before they could become a full knight. When a knight died, his fief wold revert to his son, thought his lord would be protector of that son if he was underage,  or if it was a daughter. Some clergy (priests) were also knights. Barons were lord of large territories who usually paid homage to a king. Often a baron's army could outnumber a king's army, keeping a check on the king's power.

Medieval society was divided into three "estates": the clergy, the nobility, and the common people. Usually, the common people farmed on large plantation know as "manors" which were owned by a lord or lady of the nobility (or a member of the clergy). Iron plows & water powered grinding mills helped with agricultural production, but the yield was still minuscule by today's standards. They used the three field system- each season switched what fields were plowed. The lord oversaw major agricultural issues but delegated everyday overseeing to his stewards or bailiffs. Most peasants were serfs, they were bound to the land and to their lords for labor service a few days each week.

Most medieval towns were surrounded by fortified towns. Residences also sprang up outside the walls in the suburbs. Towns were dominated by a main church and a central marketplace. Buildings for the craft guilds and the wealthiest families would also be in the center of the town. Townspeople were free, but they still had a hierarchy: merchants at the top, skilled craftsman and artisans, then unskilled laborers and apprentices.

Sick

I wasn't in class today. I'm sick.

After Rome (500-700)

The Germanic Barbarians

Barbarian warlords & their families who assimilated into Roman culture became the "nobles" or aristocrats of medieval Europe

Germanic tribes who ruled former Roman lands sought to conquer & assimilate other barbarian peoples who lived beyond the frontiers & were still pagans

the Angles & Saxons invaded Britain & assimilated the native Britons

most of the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity in the 7th century

the most powerful Germanic tribe was the Franks

but the real power lay with the "mayors of the palace" who were royal officials & nobles themselves 

Meanwhile in the Roman Empire (from Eastern Europe to Byzantium)

the Eastern Roman Empire continued on while the wet was now divided by the barbarian tribes

when the emperor Justinian came to power in 527, he decided to reunite the entire Roman Empire by reconquering the western territories

Justinian succeeded for a time, but the land he re-took was soon conquered by new barbarians tribes & a massive plague depopulate much of the west

It's a Christian Empire Now

Greek Byzantine emperors saw themselves as Roman emperors & the heads of the Christian Church

Byzantine preserved Greco-Roman art, architecture, philosophy, & writing despite much of it being non-Christian

Justinian built the massive domed Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, considered to be the most glorious church on Earth at the time (still around today) (third version was built in 537)

Ostrogoths

Later know as the goths.
Kingdom in Italy in the late 5th & 6th centuries
Trade with Romans was highly developed
After the conquer of the Ostrogoths by the Huns, the Ostrogoths disappeared for 80 years then they reappeared in Panonia on the middle Danube River as federates of the Romans.