The Middle Ages: notes of 13/09/2010, 15/09/2010
The Middle ages cover a long period in the history that goes roughly from 1066 to 1485 and took place in Europe, a group of States idealized to do not wars.
The society was structured in a SOCIAL-HIERARCHICAL way, on the top there was the POPE the second of the pyramidal structure was the EMPEROR than the NOBLES who were the land owners and at least there were the SERFS who cultivated fields.
In that period Religion was the most important code to all social classes because all were interested in salvation, whatever social class they belonged to. They recognized in salvation the most important thing.
Literature during the middle ages was divided in two parts: oral and written. the oral one was for the peasants and people who didn't know write and read, often these types of oral texts were called ballads with repeated phrases that needed to remember better the stories, furthermore they had lots of dialogs and every-day expressions.
They spoke about human relationship and what class they belonged to. The oral texts were in Old English and they often spoke about knights who wanted to conquer his lady's love fighting in tourniers or in wars.
Another way to hand over was music and arts. the gotic architecture was the most important art in the Middle Ages and the "guglie", particular roofs of the churches, that want to show the approach with God. music besides was formed of ballads that were sang in the religious party where people purifies themselves.
The rules, when were decided by the Church, were called regular besides were called wordly or secular if they were from teh Chivarly code. The chivarly code was linked with the aristocracy who read the epic poems-
The languages in the Middle Ages was Latin, spoken by Church and lawyers, Old English, spoken by people and French, spoken at Church.
The anglo-Saxons, a group of german, came in England at 5th century and changed the life of the local peasants from small villages to a great kingdom and in 1066 came the Normans, come frome France, radically changed the Anglo-Saxon world and the Old english literature and began the late Middle Ages.
England belonged to a new king, WILLIAM I THE CONQUEROR.
Literature started to be written in Germanic languages. The 1066 was a crucial date because it marked the first and the last conquest of Great Britain by a foreign power.
William I the Conqueror started the FEUDALISM, a hierarchical form of government where lands were the most important source of wealth and was distribuited in exchange for various obligations.
The hierarchical organization began to break down in the 13th and 14th centuries when the barons got tired to pay heavy taxes and they forced the king to sign the MAGNA CHARTA in 1215.
the MAGNA CHARTA was the result of a process of negotiation of power between the king (king John Lackland) and the barons, and it limited the royal power.
In 1381 the peasants rebelled against the heavy taxation. Infact they lived a poor life linked to the season and their land, they lived in manor furthermore religion and work gave a meaning to their existance.
17/09/2010
The Middle Ages cover a period of history that goes roughly from 1066 to 1485. The 1066 was a very crucial date because it marks the Norman conquest and it is called in this way because the Normans were the invadors of England, they came from Northern France, they had French nationality because they came from Britain. They had viking origins nd their leader was William I the Conqueror.
The Anglo-Saxons were a tribe of northern Germany, they entered in Great Britain and ruled until the invasion of the Normans. other northern Europe's tribe invaded the Great Britain in fact England means the land of the Eng, a tribe of northern Europe. Another tribe were the Jutes, the northern Europe's tribes were organized in kingdoms, and when they came in Great Britain  they divided it in seven kingdoms.
William I introduced the feudal sistem. He brought a new social organization into Great Britain called the feudal sistem according to which the king or emperor divides between his barons and knights. For people it was a new social organization, but it was already existing in Europe.
The feudal sistem is a pyramidal sistem and it is hieratic. At the top there was the pope because the most important code to all social classes was religion because all were interested in  salvation, whatever social class they belonged to. They recognized in salvation the most important thing.
William I didn't apply the feudal sistem in the same way of Europe because he was afraid of the power of vassals, barons and knights so he distribuited little pieces of land to not put his power at risk.