Chapter 1 Notes
Times of Change
· Changes in Medieval society were:
1. growth of towns offered more options for peasants than manors,
2. Black Death or Bubonic Plague reduced the number of workers on manors, leading to a rise in wages, and
3. increased use of gunpowder reduced the need for armored
knights.
· The above three changes resulted in the feudal system weakening.
· Showing obedience to the lord of the manor was of the utmost importance to serfs living under the manorial system in the medieval period.
· Land owners and the collection of the tithe - like taxes(today’s collection is 10% of gross income) made the Church very wealthy which would have been most criticized by those who held the changing worldview of the later Middle Ages.
· “Guilds” controlled goods, standards, training and work in specific trades. They can best be described as early forms of labour unions.
· An important difference in worldview between people in medieval Europe and in modern Canada is that technology today allows us to know what is going on in other parts of Canada.
· Society in the Middle Ages was based upon ranking of people according to their class level (see Medieval Class System Triangle).
· Medieval sumptuary laws (like modern day’s Goods and Services Tax - G.S.T.) were made to control how people would spend their money and controlled how different classes were allowed to dress.
· The tallest buildings in a community tell us a great deal about what people value the most. In a Medieval town the tallest building would have been a church - indicating the high value people of the time placed on religion.
o What is the tallest structure in Red Deer? (banks, Centrium)
o What does this structure tell you about the values of our present-day society? (money, hockey)
o Can you think of examples from other societies? (Aztec temples, grain elevators, hotels)
· What are some changes that a peasant from a medieval manor would make if they moved into a town?
o economic changes
-availability of goods
-variety of jobs
-the use of money for exchange
o social changes
-large number of people
-absence of the lord of the manor
-guilds
The Medieval Class System Triangle