Medieval History – Honors English – Flashcards

The Medieval Age lasted from _______ to ________ (1500)

Originally, the Normans, like the Danes who had overrun eastern England in the 9th century, had been _________.

A hundred years before the Battle of Hastings, the Normans had invaded that part of France which has since been called __________ and gradually adopted the culture, customs and language of the French.

At the time that the Normans conquered England, their civilization was more highly organized and more elaborate than Anglo-Saxon culture. This culture's foundation was the __________ system

a system based on the holding of land

The earthly hierarchy was a reflection of the divine order. Even the serf accepted the feudal system because most people believed that full _________ could not exist on earth. They felt that in this mortal life, each person assumed the place in society for which _____ had destined him

Heavenly Hierarchy according to the Normans: ______ ________ _________ ___________ __________ & _________ __________ _____________

Earthly Hierarchy according to the Normans: ________ _________ ___________ ___________

After the Normans conquered England, ______ claimed all the land in the realm. The Anglo-Saxon owners were dispossessed and William granted large areas of land to his _______, who, in return, promised him their services and those of their retainers. The lords, in turn, might grant portions of their lands to __________ pledged to assist them in battle. At the bottom of the social scale were the _______, who paid goods and services to the lord in return for the land they farmed

Feudal society was a society geared to ______ Disputes arose between rival barons in the same land.

In a feudal society, a king had little more power than the strongest ________. National unity as we know it did not exist.

A man thought of himself as first the subject of the lord from whom he held his lands and THEN as subject of the ______

The feudal system revolved about the ________, whose training began in early childhood. When he became a knight, a man swore to uphold the _______ _____ __________ -loyalty toward church and king, reverence toward women

The Knight's Code of Chivalry LOYALTY toward ______ and ______ REVERENCE toward _______

loyalty toward church and king, reverence toward women when he became a knight, a man swore to uphold this

Education was the province of the ________ Before the printing press was invented, ________ and priests in the monasteries copied manuscripts and young men went to the ______________ for their education.

From the education beginnings in the 12th and 13th centuries, _________ and ________ were organized as universities.

__________ were not admitted to medieval universities A few convents accepted girls and provided at least an ____________ education for those able to pay board. Poorer girls might be taught to read by a local _______, but it was not generally thought necessary to provide women with more than the basics of learning

Church was bound up with ________ affairs The church and king were considered the "two swords of God," both instruments of the divine scheme for maintaining ________ in society

The church and king were considered the "two swords of God," both instruments of the divine scheme for maintaining order in society The question of which sword was the greater on this earth was a major source of dispute. The most famous quarrel between Church and king in medieval England was that of _________ _ ___________, archbishop of Canterbury, and _______ ___.

It was Henry's belief that certain rights exercised by the Church belonged to the _______. Confident that he could bring about the changes he desired if a man sympathetic to his views were archbishop of Canterbury, Henry had _______, his chancellor and close friend, appointed to this position. When he became archbishop, however, Becket staunchly upheld the rights of the _________.

By 1170, matters between Thomas a Becket and Henry II reached an impasse. One day Henry in exasperation exclaimed to a group of his followers, "Will not one of you avenge me of this turbulent priest?" Four knights straightway dashed off to ___________, found the archbishop at his prayers in the cathedral, and struck him down with their _______. The Christian world was shocked. Henry himself deplored the _______ and did penance The tomb of Thomas a Becket at Canterbury became a favorite place of ____________

The widespread religious zeal of the Middle Ages inspired the _________, whose object was to retake the HOLY LAND from the Mohammedans. Kings, knights, and commoners flocked to take up their swords in this "Holy War."

While the Crusades were ultimately __________ in their efforts to liberate the Holy Land from the Turks, they had a profound effect on all of Europe. For the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire, great numbers of people _________ widely. Cultural horizons were widened and civilization took a great step toward the ________ world

3 Important events in the progress toward a national government occurred during the Middle Ages: 1. _________ reform 2. the granting of the _________ __________ 3. the beginnings of ___________

When Henry II ascended the throne in 1154, nearly 100 years after the Norman Conquest, he found a confused and corrupt system of justice. Some of the courts were administered by the king's ________, others were under the jurisdiction of feudal _______, still others followed the old Anglo-Saxon judicial _____.

Convinced that the king's justice must be the same for all people in every section of England, Henry II divided the country into ________, appointed _________ to administer justice in each circuit, and expanded the functions of the ______

_____ _____, son of Henry II, totally disregarded the provisions for justice his father had guaranteed by charter. He jailed his subjects on trumped-up charges and refused them ______ He impoverished the country by ruinous _______.

Exasperated beyond endurance, barons and knights banded together and in 1215 at Runnymede on the banks of the Thames forced King John to sign the ________ _______. This document, which established by law certain liberties, was revolutionary in its implication that the ________, like his people, was subject to the rule of law

During the reign of Edward I (1272-1307), the grandson of John, the rights of the English people were again extended when Edward called the first ________ - the _______ ___________ of 1295 - in which all classes of the kingdom from barons to the lower clergy were included

During the fifty-year reign of Edward III (1327-1377), the grandson of Edward I, __________ developed and England prospered. Particularly important was the ______ trade Wool from English sheep was shipped to ___________ to be woven into cloth for English market So important was this trade that the export duty on raw wool was the chief financial mainstay of the English government

The prosperous wool trade irked the king of France to such a degree that he began to _______ English wool ships. In retaliation, Edward III revived an old claim to the crown of ________. The war began in 1337 and continued intermittently for 100 years. This was called The __________ ________ _____

England _______ the Hundred Years' War and gave up her claims to French territory. The war had one beneficial effect, however. No longer was there friction between Normans and Anglo-Saxons; henceforth all were _________

Instead of a period of peace in which to recover from the war with France, the 2nd half of the 15th century was marked by warfare between the descendants of the duke of _____ and the duke of __________, who were both sons of _________ ______.

The crown changed hands several times during the _______ ___ _______ _______, but eventually the earl of Richmond of the house of Lancaster married _________, heiress of the house of York, and ascended the throne in 1485 as Henry VII, the first of the _________

Toward the end of the Middle Ages, the great lords of the castles and the powerful religious leaders could no longer hold the villagers in complete subservience. When in the mid-14th century the ______ ________ killed an estimated 40% of the population, serfs left without masters, __________ to a freer life in the growing towns. Other serfs were driven from the manors when their lords turned to ______ raising, which required fewer workers

When the Black Death hit England in the mid-14th century, families in towns and villages were deprived of home and work and became ___________ and ____________ From the desperation of many of these laborers emerged the ___________ ________ of 1381, which was savagely crushed by the nobles

During the 14th century, a middle class of _________ and _________ began its rise to power and stability. Craftsmen were prospering and were establishing guilds to protect their rights

The way was being paved for a new phase in English history in the 14th century. The country was moving toward ________, a more _______ economy, a more questioning attitude toward the powers of the ________, and, above all, toward the idea that one's place in society was not necessarily a ______ thing The first whisper of the __________ was in the air

CHARACTERISTICS OF A ROMANTIC HERO: 1. has a vision for a more ______ world 2. may possess _____________ powers 3. may be _______; but if old, possesses ___________ idealism 4. is _______ and virtuous 5. retains a link with the _________ world; has a pastoral lifestyle 6. is physically ________ 7. has a ________ lifestyle 8. relies on a ___________, ____________, or magical source 9. even in _________, has the power to lead his people and improve their lives

CHARACTERISTICS OF A MEDIEVAL ROMANCE: 1. narrative of heroic __________, usually a string of episodes not too closely related 2. ______ characters rather than individualized portraits 3. prevalence of the _______ theme -possibly an unacknowledged heir seeking his throne -a knight searching for the Holy Grail 4. Highly _________ encounters with extraordinary personages in fantastic settings (many-armed giants, mythical animals, enchanted forests, and castles) 5. extensive ________ references 6. ______ interest, which eventually resulted in the modern association of romance with a love affair 7. Idealized concept of a medieval ________ (the perfect knight, existing in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales but seldom in real life, is portrayed as strong and courageous, like the epic hero, but also as virtous, moral, piously Christian, modest and altruistic) 8. Usual metric romance ranged from _______ to _______ lines and employed octosyllabic couplets or a stanza of ____, ____, or _____ lines

ORIGIN OF THE BALLAD: No one knows when the 1st fold ballads appeared in England, but it was probably during the ______ century. Because the ballads were unwritten, they were passed along _______ for many centuries. The earliest written ballads we know date from about the _______ century, but no one can absolutely identify the original versions of many of them

In 1765, ballad enthusiast Bishop Thomas Percy published ________ ___ _________ ________ _______, an extensive collection of ballads. People began to appreciate the ballads for their literary value as well as for their fascinating glimpses into _______ Percy's collection of ballads was based on an old manuscript he rescued from a _________ who was about to light a fire with it

a song that tells a story, often dealing with adventure or romance, or a poem imitating such a song

a ballad whose author is unknown songs that originated among illiterate people and were passed from singer to singer by word of mouth

a ballad whose author is known written by more sophisticated writers and not usually set to music

a figure of speech in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics