THE MIDDLE AGES

The Middle Ages cover a period that goes roughly from 1066-1485.  

1066 is a crucial date for the English history because it marks the Norman Conquest. The most important figure of this population was William I the Conqueror who introduced the feudal system into England. This kind of social organization wasn’t new for the Continent but for English people. William I The Conqueror applied the feudal system in the same way as in Europe because he was afraid that barons and knights could become stronger than him. When Normans enter Great Britain, they found the Anglo-Saxon who were tribes of Germanic travellers from north of Germany. They organized the country in 7 kingdoms and named The island as England which means: Land of Angles.

Medieval society was highly hierarchical. At the top of the social pyramid there was the Pope, then the King and finally the Aristocracy who possessed serfs and lands as a matter of fact they were called Land-owners.

The most important code to all social classes was religion because everybody, whatever social class the belonged to, recognized in salvation the most important point in their life.

Another thing that unites the social classes was Literature: an artistic expression of words.

Popular Literature was handed down orally from generation to generation because people were illiterate. It consisted in ballads and poems composed with simple words and little description of the main characters. Aristocracy Literature was written in Latin or in old English and it resumed the same genres and stories of popular Literature.

Architecture was another artistic expression of that period. It developed a lot during that period and as a consequence soon born another style of construction later called Gotic. Gotic-buildings usually had pinnacles very high to make people understand that they should care more about the divine. Religion was linked to art too. The most common painting during that period was Madonna with Jesus on her arm.

Medioeval women could become nuns or mothers or as pure as Madonna to gain salvation.