1. Medieval Times

2. Feudalism: • Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries.

3. Baron: • Baronsrankbelowviscounts, and formthelowestrankin thenobility.

4. Themanor: • A manor is an estate in land to which is incident the right to hold a court named court baron, that is to say a manorial court.

5. Thepeasants: • A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally works land owned or rented by/from a noble, but is classified socioeconomically above a squire with regards to the era.

6. Theknihgt: • A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages. • They were seen as the perfect romantic gentlemen.

7. Thetown • The High Middle Ages saw an explosion in population. This population flowed into towns.

8. Theguilds: • A guild was an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers.

9. Monasteries and pilgrims: • A monastery was a place of pilgrimage for many people. • A pilgrim is a traveller who takes a journey to a Holy Place.

10. Medicine: • At the beginning of the middle ages, medicine started to develop. • During the 14th and 15th century, with the appearance of Black death, a lot of people stop believing in medicine. They thought it was a God’s punishment.

11. Black Death: • The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history. Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached Europe by 1346. • More than 1/3 of theEuropeanpopulationdiedbecause of the Black Death.

12. The Canterbury Tales • Theplotisabout a group of pilgrimson a journeyto Canterbury. Eachonetells a differentstory. • Most of the tales are written in verse, butsome of them are in prose. • Chaucerhimselfisone of thecharacters in thebook.

13. Influence: Structurally, the collection resembles The Decameron of Boccaccio, which Chaucer may have come across during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372.

14. Structure: • The Canterbury Tales has thesamestructure as theDecameron. There are twodifferenttypes of background: • Themeeting: Whenpeople chat. • Thestories: Eachpersontells a differentstoryonthewaytothecathedral and ontheway back