Time Traveler's Guide To Medieval England

Around 1300AD, the Italian Renaissance was introduced, spreading through continental Europe as a “rebirth” of intellect, culture, and especially in the church. Despite the societal advancement, this religious renewal didn’t reach England until over a century later, which was partly because of corruption. During this period when England was behind the times, world connoisseurs such as Geoffrey Chaucer gradually brought the development into the country. Such is evident in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, where Renaissance-like characters on a holy pilgrimage take part in a story telling competition. Many of the pilgrims are part of the clergy and mimic the essence of the modern times by

William Manchester divides the period of time from A.D. 400 to roughly the 1600s into three parts in A World Lit Only By Fire. The first part, entitled “The Medieval Mind,” is how the standards of living and the overall wellbeing of the people living in that time were and how education was virtually nonexistent. The book then shifts to the second section, entitled “The Shattering,” this section describes the intellectual movements and activities, such as the Protestant Reformation, that ended up destroying the Medieval Mindset and replacing it with a mindset that questions everything about authority. The third and final section of Manchester’s novel is entitled, “One Man Alone.” This section focuses on Magellan and the three year voyage of

This book was intended for students. John Aberth, like Ellis Knox, both have their PhD in medieval studies,

It was a dark time for people living during the 1400’s also known as the 15th century. Renaissance art was blossoming and people wanting to learn about it and how all of it came to be was very interesting for the people of that time. There was also civil wars and battles happening off and on such as The War of the Roses as well as when Joan of Arc had led the French against English. This was also a time when people were trying to get back to the way things used to be before The Black Death happened. Many lost loved ones and couldn’t keep land or even maintain the land because of the plague and the battles that were happening. I could go on and on about all the events that

Castles in the medieval time period were more than just a home, but rather a safe haven for the whole town. The first castles were built in the tenth century in Western Europe. Castles played a crucial role in European history. However, by the end of the thirteenth century they had lost their military, political, and social significance and were being abandoned. Castles in the medieval and Anglo Saxon times, especially in European area, were built entirely for proper function towards protection from the outside world.

Living in the medieval time period was not as glamorous as it is often portrayed; peasants and serfs led hard lives, however, kings, lords, and knights lived lavishly and at the expense of those under them. In this paper you will read about all of these lifestyles, as well as the castles in which these lords and kings lived in. Mainly castle designs, fortifications, and siege tactics will be revealed to you; yet there are several sections, dealing with the lifestyles of the above mentioned, leading up to that.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court moistly takes place 6th Century England under the rule of the legendary King Arthur. Most of Arthur’s and his knights’ stories are fictitious, and some experts argue whether King Arthur existed at all. The characters in the novel are a member of one of 3 classes: the noble class, the clergy, or the lower class. The lower class is treated extremely unfairly by the other 2 classes with heavy taxation, strict rules, lack of privileges, and poverty. Most of the people are members of the lower class while only a few are members of the clergy and nobility.

The history of the Counts of Guines and Lords of Ardres, a genealogy produced in Flanders during the Middle Ages, provides an account of the medieval aristocratic family, which Lambert of Ardres began writing in 1190s but did not complete it until around 1206. His interpretation of Count Rainier as a lord who “rampaged among his people beyond what lords customarily do,”

The Plantagenets were the people who ruled over England for more than 200 years. This powerful dynasty ruled from 1154 to 1399, and it was the longest reigning English dynasty. This period of time was part of the middle ages, the age of chivalry. However, nearing the end of Plantagenet rule, society began to move away from the feudalism seen in the earlier middle ages, and became more secular. The eight kings during this time made countless advancements, establishing many elements of modern day England. In his book, The Plantagenets, Dan Jones tells the story of these kings and their accomplishments. Jones covers such a long period of history yet manages to make it engaging and cohesive;

This description engages Book 1’s account of life in sixteenth-century England by comparing the structure of Utopia to the structure of the commonwealth of England. Hythloday criticizes the structure of the law, government, and economics in England and other European countries while stating Utopia is the only true commonwealth in existence in the description (642). He argues that the penal code is too strict and the distribution of wealth is horribly eschewed. He also argued that not enough people were engaged in productive labor in England. The description also engages Raphael’s discussion of Utopia in Book II by comparing the equity of the Utopians with that of England. He argued that he would be willing to die if he could find the smallest

A cross section of medieval society: feudal (the knight), ecclesiastical (pardoner, priest, nun), urban (lawyer, doctor, merchant). And Chaucer's interest in middle class characters, such as a cook, carpenter, miller, lawyer, merchant, clerk, physician reflects the rise of the middle class in the fourteenth century (Collin 1).

In Umberto Eco’s “Dreaming of the Medieval Ages”, he writes about the renewed interest in Medieval Europe throughout the past and its relevance in the present. Eco explains how there is a disconnect between the reality of what the Middle Ages truly were and our fantasied idea of it. He explains how the obsession with Medieval Europe never left, and instead has transformed through the imagination of European and American culture. Eco supports these claims by relying on his own observations of how today’s societies reference back to Medieval themes through books and film. One example he writes compares the rediscovery of the Middle Ages to the return of classical antiquity, and how we do not alter those original ideas of classical antiquity like

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, provides the modern reader a great understanding towards the language in the fourteenth century and the content which talks about the medieval social life of all the classes from beggars to knight. The interpretation of the Canterbury Tales shows the life of English society in the 14th century which is pointedly true as the society in the 14th century were devoted to the beliefs and church. However, the act of the characters in The Canterbury Tales expresses how they actually were a people of the Church. The Tales begins with an introductions which explains a vivid understanding of the society as in many aspects such as, Christianity, morality, professions, the rich and the poor as well as their attire.

London’s urban life in the medieval times is based heavily on the court influence. The Sherriff’s court deals with mostly “cognisance of foreign pleas” making this court separate from that of the mayor (source). The Sherriff was responsible for foreign affairs such as merchants and trades (source). Going off the last point, the early mercantile courts of London were responsible specifically for trade agreements. In the data document it is claimed that “In the laws of Ethelred II are regulations for traders from Flanders, Ponthieu, Normandy, France…” (source). Mercantile courts were responsible for trade agreements with other European countries. However, in The Staples court the main concern is basic materials been traded such as “wool,

In the sixteenth century, philosopher Thomas More coined the term “utopia,” in his novel of the same name, to describe a fictional land free from the plagues of contemporary society. While this honour of coinage is one More will never lose, the tradition of imagining away one’s troubles in a non-existent paradise may be traced to far before his time. Indeed, the trials of peasant life during the Middle Ages fostered a long tradition of utopia thought, in which an imagined other-world, known as the Land of Cockaygne, represented a desired place of abundance. The earliest English manifestation of this tradition occurs in the form of a fourteenth-century poem that describes the offerings of this fictive land. Unfortunately, The Land of Cockaygne, as the poem is titled, has not been given the credit it rightly deserves as an example of a politically-challenging, pre-More utopia; it is not merely an example of a peasant’s bizarre and bawdy musings, but both a serious social critique of medieval hierarchical tendencies and a biting moral satire of fourteenth-century religious hypocrisy.