Serfs Up –

Catch a Wave to the Middle Ages

Middle Ages –

Dark Ages –

Feudalism –

What’s in a name?

What ever we call it –

Fall of Rome – 500 A.D.

Feudalism – a political and economic way ofgoverning land

Roughly between 500 - 1500

Powerful warlords

United areas of land

Restored peace

Imposed his law/will

All at a price

Understanding – between warlord and peasant

Land for protection

Give up land and live or die and still lose land

“Serf” – one who works the land

Protector - “lord”

For protection you owe-

Taxes –

Service –

Homage -

“Divine Right of Kings”

Biggest, strongest

Birth right

Father to son

UnquestionedUnchallenged

Eldest son gets it allname, land, power

Other sons – still nobility

knightclergy

Born to Serf

Part of the land

Could gain freedom

Gained ‘power’ – after the plague

Governing the land “Fief” –land given as a gift

“Vassal”- person receiving the land

Contract blessed by the Church

“Contract” between lord and hispeople

Vassal- lord of his land

Owes- service, taxes, homage

“Manor house” – lord’s home

Subinfeudation

Vassal becomes a lord

Subdivides fief

Contract with new vassal

Acquiring landwealth, power

How younger sons gain wealth

Role of the Catholic Church

Kings- vassals to the Church

Part of nobility

Early monks and nuns were wealthy

Monasteries had considerable wealth

Monks lived apartfrom society –

Priests lived within

Benedictine Rule

Mix of manual and intellectual work

Manuscripts, hospitals,schools

Major religious orders

Benedictines – St. Benedict

Franciscans – St. Francis

Dominicans – St. Dominic

Importance of the Bible

Education

Laws

Latin

Start of the university system

University of Bologna- 1088

University of Paris- 1150

University of Oxford- 1096

University of Cambridge- 1209 

Bologna students hiredand paid for the teachers Paris teachers were paid bythe church

Oxford and Cambridgepredominantly supported

by the crown and the state

Universities evolved from mucholder monasteries

Concerned with performingthe liturgy and prayer;

Relatively few could boasttrue intellectuals

Classes were taught wherever

space was available

A university was not a physical space but a collection of individuals banded together

Cannon law, business administration, logic, speech, theological discussion and accounting to more effectively control finances

University studies took six years for a Master of Arts degree a Bachelor of Arts degreecould be awarded along the way

The studies for this were organized by the faculty of arts where the seven liberal arts were taught: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music theory, grammar, logic, and rhetoric

At Bologna the students ran everything a fact that often put the teachers under great stress

In Paris, teachers ran the school; thus Paris became the premiere spot for teachers fromall over Europe. main subject matter was theology

In Bologna students chose more secular studieswith the main subject being law

Students were afforded the legal protection of the church

No one was allowed to physically harm them;they could only be tried for crimes in a church court, and were thus immune from any corporal punishment

This gave students free rein in the cities to break the laws with impunity, a fact which produced many abuses: theft, rape and murder were not uncommon among students who did not face serious consequences

Not So Dark Ages

Banking

Universities

Common Law

Middle class

Rise of town life

Revived economicallytrade grewpopulation boomsocial improvements

Expansion of old townsbuilding increasedmore jobsextra cash to spend

Three social classesthe clergythe nobilitythe peasantry

Creation of an artisan or merchant class

In time they became the middle class or bourgeoisie

Trade and travel safer

Culture and ideas were exchanged

World began to grow

Merchant class engaged in manufacturing and trade

Hopes of independence of lord’s jurisdiction

Towns people - represented radicalforce for change

Demanded larger rolein political matters

Larger role in politicsNew business techniquesInvest surplus money

Commercial revolution

From rural and farmto urban and industrialsociety

Middle Class Wanted

Medieval Courts of Law

Punished criminalsreduced violenceincreased royal income

Weakened feudal baronsstrengthen royal authority

Increased respect forlaw itself

Royal Courts of Law

Lords will borrow money from merchants – begin to lose power

1215 Magna Carta

Lord no longer all powerful

English Common Law and the Jury System became key players in Anglo-American law

English Common Law

Unfair to treat similar facts differently ondifferent occasions Court looks to past rulings in past similar cases

The body of similar examples is called "common law“

Binds future decisions of relevant courts

Early English methods of proclaiming guilt or innocence

Trial by ordeal is a judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting him to an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience

Classically, the test is one of life or death

and the proof of innocence is survival

Ordeal of fire typically required that the accused walk a certain distance, usually nine feet, over red-hot coals or holding a red-hot iron

Wound was bandaged and re-examined three days later,

If innocent, the wound was healing, if festering taken as a sign from God of guilt and suspect executed

Ordeal of boiling water required the accused to dip his hand in a kettle of

boiling water and retrieve a stone.

Wound was bandaged and re-examined three days later

If innocent, the wound was healing, if festering taken as a sign from God of guilt and suspect executed

The ordeal of cold water has a precedent in the Code of Hammurabi

A millstone was tied to the neck of the accused and thrown into a body of water

If he surfaced he was innocent for the waters did not suck him down since the weight of the crime did not press upon his soul

Trial by Combat settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight

was proclaimed to be right.