Europe+in+the+Middle+Ages


 * 1. Why I should care?**

This timeframe was the period before the Renaissance and had many factors like the plague and the church taking over that slowly led into the Renaissance and Reformation eras of Europe.


 * 2. Key terms:**
 * **Wergild** - fine system or "money for men"
 * **Mastepiece**- a finished piece in one's craft.
 * **Ordeal -** Divine Intervention used to determine guilt
 * **Monk** - man who cuts off from ordinary society to dedicate himself to God
 * **Feudalism** - a political and social order of exchange
 * **Vassal-** a military servant to a landowning lord
 * **Fief-** land that was given to a vassal
 * **Carruca-** heavy, wheeled plow with an iron plowshare
 * **Manor-** agricultural estate that a lord ran and peasants worked
 * **Serfs-** peasants legally bound to the land
 * **Commercial Capitalism-** an economic system in which people invested in trade and goods to make profits
 * **Guilds-** business associations. A member of a guild must work his way from an apprentice to a journeyman and then finally to a master.
 * **Patricians**- members of the wealthiest and most powerful families
 * **Scholarsticism-** was reconciliation of faith and reason
 * 3. Important topics:**

__1. Franks__ __2. The Church__ __3. Monks and Monasteries__ __4. The Hundred Years' War__ __5. Plague__ - religious - trade decline - rise in price of labor __6. Carolingian Empire__
 * Germanic
 * Established by Clovis in 500
 * Strong Military Ruler
 * Christian from Battlefield
 * Ties to the Church
 * Empire fragment after death of Clovis
 * The Church had more influence as there were not as many strong empires present.
 * Bishopric run by Bishop who looks over numerous parishes.
 * The Pope became leaser of the Church
 * Gregory I influenced papacy power.
 * Used monastic movement to convert.
 * S[|aint Benedict] wrote down rules for monks
 * Provided services of social workers, hospitals, schools, and trade skills
 * Missionaries sent out to spread the word
 * Trouble began over the duchy of Gascony in france.
 * England possessed it, and France wanted it.
 * Black death
 * Black rats in 1347
 * 1/3 of 75 million died
 * Effects
 * Charlemagne takes over Frankish kingdom in 768 to 814
 * Christian ruler
 * Strong Warrior & statesmen
 * Union of Rome, Christianity, and germanic elements
 * When Charlemagne fell, the empire fell and people turned to aristocrats[[image:http://users.moscow.com/khakimian/images/feudalism.jpg width="212" height="345" align="right"]]
 * Political and social orders of exchange combined to form feudalism

7.__Feudalism & Feudal Contract__
 * The king would appoint lords to keep land for him
 * A lord was the full owner of a large piece of land and had more political status than most others
 * Vassals were military servants to lords in exchange for estates
 * Knights changed in technology and got heavy, protective armor
 * Under the feudal contract, loyalty was required and common
 * Fiefs got some land from a vassal or lord for working the land (e.g. crops)
 * Called feudal contract for the large exchange of service, land, money, and protection

8. __Germatic Life__ 9.__Universities__
 * Family unit of great importance
 * Blood feuds (family fighting, Romeo & Juliet)
 * **the first was located in Bologna
 * people that were in power felt there was great honor in staarting a university
 * in 1500s there were at leasst 80 in Europe
 * studied there was grammar, rhetoric logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy
 * they used oral examinations
 * theolgy was a part too

4. Key actors:

Saint Benedicthe wrote the rules for the monk Joan of Arc -** she was a deeply religious person. She experienced visions and believed that saints had commanded her to free France.
 * Clovis- a straong military leader that became christian on the battlefield
 * Charlemagne**a christian ruler who was a strong warrior and statesman he took over the Frankish Kingdom in 768-814
 * Henry V- achieved victory at the battle of Agincourt