Feudalism and Manorialism

1. Feudalism and Manorialism

2. Warm-up Write a one paragraph summary explaining which parts (3-5) of the castle you think provided the best defense during a siege and why you think they were effective.

3. Serf Packet • Read together • Double entry journal • I am Poem • I am (2 special characteristics you have) • I wonder (something of curiosity) • I hear (an imaginary sound) • I see (an imaginary sight) • I feel (use you senses to describe an emotion or physical reality. • I want (an actual desire) • I am (the first line of the poem repeated)

4. Manorial System • Nobles would get a fief from the monarch. • This fief and the area around it were used to create manors. • The Manor System is referred to as Manorialism. It shaped the economy of much of Europe. • For safety and defense, people in the Middle Ages formed small communities around a central lord or master. • Most people (lords and serfs) lived on a manor, which consisted of the castle, the church, the village, and the surrounding farm land. • These manors were isolated, with occasional visits from peddlers, pilgrims on their way to the Crusades, or soldiers from other fiefdoms. • Ideally a manor was located along a stream or river.

5. Manorial System • People who lived on manors needed to produce everything they needed, including food, clothing, and shelter. • In return for being able to work the land, the peasants gave the lord some of their crops (taxes) and helped to farm his land.

6. Land was often divided into three large fields for growing grain. Only two of the three fields were planted at one time. The third field could lie fallow, or unplanted, for a season to regain its fertility.

7. Peasant Life • Peasants worked hard labor jobs and were heavily taxed • Children were welcomed as a source of farm labor. • The peasants were not free • They could not leave the manor without permission. • They were not allowed to hunt on the lord’s land so they rarely ate meat. • Serfs had short life expectancies due to disease, starvation, and frequent warfare.

8. Peasant Life

9. KNIGHTs • Their role on the manor was to protect their lord, enforce lord’s laws, and protect the residence of the manor in case of attack (this includes the serfs).

10. Noble Life • Lords assumed the roles of judges in carrying out the laws of the manor. • The lord spent most of his day managing and organizing his manor. • Castle was his home and center of business in the manor. • Marriage was viewed as a way to advance one's fortune and acquire status and land.

11. Law and JusticeA feudal trial was decided one of three ways: 1. Trial by battle- could be a duel between accuser and accused (or their representatives) in which the outcome determined innocence or guilt.

12. Feudal justice • Compurgation- oath taking. Trusted people swore that the person they represented was telling the truth. • Trial by ordeal- must survive an ordeal (i.e. carry a piece of hot iron, plunge his hand in a pot of boiling water, or survive extended immersion in cold water) If you live or heal quickly you’re innocent…

13. Role of Women • Women's rights regarding legal property were limited. • A woman might have had fiefs in her dowry. However, when she married, her husband gained control over her dowry. • performed household tasks such as cooking, baking bread, sewing, weaving, and spinning. • Other jobs medieval women might have included merchants, apothecaries, field workers and midwives. • Middle or upper class women may have learned writing, playing musical instruments, dancing, and painting. • Others became nuns and devoted their lives to God and spiritual matters.

14. Role of Women • Joan of Arc- French peasant's daughter who heard voices telling her to protect France against the English invasion. She dressed in armor and led her troops to victory in the early fifteenth century. "The Maid of Orleans" as she was known, was later burned as a witch.