More Serfs, with some religion thrown in.

With information already provided in class, and this link, answer the following questions.

1. Where did The Church store the tithes they were paid?
2. What was a cruck house and did it really have poop on the walls?
3. List 4 ways The Church made money
4. Serfs paid taxes to the King and a Tithe. The Kings paid a Tithe. Who did The Church pay a tax or Tithe to?
5. Who belonged to a guild?

Fikayo, Jarret, Christina, max, josh

Thursday's Shortened Class

Blog in your pics of your house, email address is here  pharland1.8dss@blogger.com 

Imagine what life would be like your imaginary house. A serf family in Medieval Europe would commonly have 7 children, two of whom would survive to their twenties. Of the two who reached adulthood, if would be rare for them to see age 50.

Read here about the life of a serf.

Farming

Here is a link with some information Serfs were tied to the land. Generations would live in the same spot. The serfs would have a house in the village, often 10ft by 20ft, but sometimes a little larger. The serfs would farm the fields in the surrounding area. About 30 acres would be farmed by a family and produce enough for them to survive. The serfs would often have to pay outrageous portions of their crops to the lord or the manor.
Fields were in long strips, which was easier for the ox to plough, and an acre was the measurement of what an ox could plough in one day, One furlough long by one chain wide ((660 by 66ft).
One third of the land would be planted with barely (or sometimes another crop) in the spring, one third would be planted with wheat (or another winter crop) in the fall, and one third would be left to fallow (rest). The serf would rotate the fields around for the next growing season.

Using the cones, your group will start off on the tarmac outlining the size of your house. See how you all fit inside the house.  Then measure out the size of one acre, what you could get ploughed in a day. In the spring time you would plough 10 acres, and the same in the fall.

Bonus, about how many acres would the school yard be?

Upcoming Banquet

Last class we studied Eleanor of Aquitaine. Tomorrow we have our banquet, so we will again go over expectations and then practice behaving like we belong to the court. Here again is a link to the Code of Chivalry and Courtly Love and here it is again in more modern language. Here is a link to some common terms and some more common phrases are here.

Life during the Middle Ages

Take a tour of this map and explore everyday life in Europe during the Middle Ages.  Also travel through this website to find out more about how life during the Middle Ages worked.  Lastly, study this map and review the extent of the Roman Empire and who ruled what in the years after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

A) Putting your knowledge of castles to good use, fling the teacher from a medieval siege weapon. Click here and good luck! B)An interactive map is here C) )Click here to tour the middle ages and study what life what life would be like, especially life of women in the middle ages. D)Another interactive map is here , which is chock full of information.

Castle Knowledge

A) Putting your knowledge of castles to good use, fling the teacher from a medieval siege weapon. Click here and good luck! Must use an iMac in your attempts to fling the teacher.

Castles

Remember our class discussions and do some reading here about castles. Explore the site and become one of our Castle experts.

Some terms and principles to take away from your studies:

Height (remember the Greeks?)
Stone
Bailey or Ward
Concentric Ring
The Keep
Arrow Loops
Crenelations
Machicoulis or Murder Holes
Gate House
Circular Staircase going up clockwise
Moat

Go to the app store and get the tumblr app.  Use your iCloud email to create a tumblr account.

Go to this link here and follow the our Social Studies tumblr account.  Now leave a comment by creating a post on ten of the castles. Comments are done by clicking on the double arrows, typing in the comment box and pressing Post.  In your ten comments, you must use, at least once, each of the 11 words above.

Example
 If commenting on the castle above, one could say-The castle has a dry moat, which at one time was probably full of water. There is a Gate House at the entrance and probably murder holes within the Gate House. I see what looks like Arrow Slits in the towers and Machicoulis along the walls. I bet during festive occasions they flew flags above the towers, maybe they still do!

Update: James Scott, Duke of Monmouth was the victim of a botched beheading and who legend has it his portrait for the National Gallery was done after his head was stitched back on. Below is an eyewitness account of the beheading and the painting that launched the legend.

The first blow inflicted only a slight wound. The Duke struggled, rose from the block, and looked reproachfully at the executioner. The head sank down once more. The stroke was repeated again and again; but still the neck was not severed, and the body continued to move. Yells of rage and horror rose from the crowd. Ketch flung down the axe with a curse. ‘I cannot do it,’ he said; ‘my heart fails me.’ ‘Take up the axe, man,’ cried the sheriff. ‘Fling him over the rails,’ roared the mob. At length the axe was taken up. Two more blows extinguished the last remains of life; but a knife was used to separate the head from the shoulders. The crowd was wrought up to such an ecstasy of rage that the executioner was in danger of being torn in pieces, and was conveyed away under a strong guard.

In the meantime many handkerchiefs were dipped in the Duke’s blood; for, by a large part of the multitude he was regarded as a martyr who had died for the Protestant religion.

Your Coat of Arms

Many names used in our society can be traced back to the Middle Ages, perhaps your name can be trace back to those times. In your quest, if it pleases my lady/my lord,  you may use this link for your last name  and/or this link for your (Christian) first name. Blog below what you found out about your name.

Now we are going to make a coat of Arms, which royalty had. Why would they have a Coat of Arms? Think about the purpose of stain glass windows.

For your coat of arms, make it about yourself. You may wish to incorporate the meaning behind your name onto the coat of arms. Pick a template from the pick up box. Put things on it that represent the best about you. Most coats of arms have Latin on them, so you can put Latin on it if you like. Here is a link to translate English into Latin. Here is a list of some famous latin mottos that you may wish to adapt.

Create a Feast!

In your groups, make a list of foods that you will serve at your feast. You can find dishes, complete with descriptions here and here and here. Here is a dish called Bruce

Food during the Middle Ages

With information from this link, answer the following questions in the blog. 1. List at leasts 2 ways that travel (in particular, the Crusades) change meal time during the Middle Ages. 2. Who would eat rye bread? 3. Assuming that you have enough food to feed yourself properly during the middle ages, would extra money lead you to have a healthier diet? Explain. 4. Many of our foods were developed as a result of preservation practices during the Middle Ages. In the days before fridges and canning, foods were prepared in various ways so that they would last longer. These various methods of preparation gave the foods a distinctive taste. Read the article here and list at least 5 foods that you have had that would have been subjected to a Middle Ages preservation technique. Some more information can be found here 5. A ploughman is a field worker from the Middle Ages and a ploughman's lunch is a common menu item today. What would you get if you ordered this? 6. What were some main differences between the meals of the upper class and the lower class?

More on their food is here