Knighthood
When you hear the word knight, do you think of fighting men who wore armor and rode on horseback? Knighthood was a religious order as well as a military one. The young nobleman was only eligible to become a knight after completing his training as a page and a squire.
The first requirement to become a knight was that a boy had to be born into the noble class. Then, at age 7, a boy began his training as a page at the castle of a friendly noble. He was first attached to the service of the lady who told him stories and taught him manners.
He learned formalities of court etiquette and the basic rules of chivalry. In addition, he learned to sing and dance. As a page, a boy also learned how to ride and care for horses, and as he matured he also learned how to fight and to use weapons.
At age fourteen, the page became a squire and began a second period of apprenticeship in which he served a lord directly. His duties and training became more varied and strenuous. He was responsible for looking after his lord's armor and for following the knights into battle. He also had to inspect the food in the kitchen and carve his lord's meat. He practiced riding and handling the long, deadly lance. He also had to learn the duties of a nobleman as ruler, the function of the court, and his duties to the church. This period of his training took another seven years.
At age twenty-one, the squire became a knight. This was a religious service that included a twenty-four-hour fast when the squire kept the "vigil of arms," which required kneeling, watching, and praying. It was a long and elaborate ceremony.
The next day, the man was brought before his lord. Then, the sponsor fastened on his golden spurs. The lord then presented the knight with his sword. Next, the young man took the oath of knighthood:
- To do good
- To right wrongs
- To be just
- To show mercy
- To defend womanhood
- To honor God
Then, finally, the lord "dubbed" the young man a knight by touching each shoulder with his sword.
The Fall of Feudalism
Towns and cities began to appear because feudalism was breaking down, and men and women who had once been attached to the land were rushing to the cities where they could earn money by putting their skills to use.
As people became more knowledgeable about business and began to trade their goods with other countries, feudal life declined and towns and cities began to appear. As tradesmen became more wealthy and successful, they did not need the feudal overlords for protection. They began to resent having to give what they made to these lords, and an agreement was made allowing the townspeople to pay a fixed yearly amount of money in taxes directly to the king. This sounds a whole lot like our paying income tax each year, doesn't it?
The Rise of the Middle Class
With the rise of the middle class, consisting of merchants, tradesmen, freemen, farmers, and skilled workers, more people learned to read and write at least enough to do business. Agriculture improved, and local markets traded livestock, spices, luxury articles, and precious metals.
Guilds
Guilds were professional associations organized to provide economic protection for craftsmen in their various trades. Guilds supervised the quality of materials and work-the number of stitches in each shoe, the weights and measures used, and the prices charged. Their main function was the regulation of a particular trade or craft. These guilds guaranteed a better standard of life for their members, increasing the numbers in the new middle class.
Growing Pains
As the towns grew in population, so did problems with hygiene. Human waste and dead animals could often be found in the streets of the towns. Medical knowledge was severely lacking, and much of medicine depended on myths and superstition.
Some of the homemade medicines were made from herbs, but others came from ground earthworms, animal urine, and animal excrement. They believed that everything in nature had some kind of power. The remedy for an earache, for instance, might be to drop ox urine into the ear.
The Black Plague
In the mid-1340s, a horrible disease struck Asia, Africa, and Europe. The people called this illness the Black Death. In just two years, 25 million people died of the plague, and in ten years, the plague had killed over one third of Europe's population. Can you imagine the fear people must have felt? People were sick everywhere. Whole families and even whole villages were wiped out.
An attack of the plague, spread chiefly by fleas on rats, didn't last long. The symptoms came suddenly and included buboes, chills, fever, headache, and body pains. Buboes swelled, especially in the groin, armpits, and neck. They often become open sores.
The particular strain of the plague also caused spots of blood to turn black under the skin, thus the name Black Death.
At first, people locked their doors trying to protect themselves. They carried flowers to ward off the smell of the dead and dying. The skies were filled with ashes as people burned houses filled with the dead. Villages filled with the dead were burned down to contain and kill the disease. Nothing worked. Outbreaks of the disease seemed to come in cycles. Just as people thought it was over, a new rash of illness would hit the towns, and from the towns move to the villages.
The Fall of Feudalism
Feudalism was on the decline during the 1300s, and the black plague brought an end to the system. Because all classes were affected equally, the landowners died the same as their work force. Those left behind found their ways to the cities and began life as free men and women.
The words to the "Ring around the Roses" children's sing-a-long have their origin in English history. The historical period dates back to when the first outbreak of the plague hit England in the 1300s. The symptoms of the plague included a rosy, red rash in the shape of a ring on the skin - hence, "ring around the rosy."
Pockets and pouches were filled with sweet smelling herbs (or posies) which were carried due to the belief that the disease was transmitted by bad smells. The term "Ashes Ashes" refers to the
cremation of the dead bodies! The last line you
learned as a child says, "All fall down." The
original English version says, "All fall dead!"
This puts a whole new perspective on our nursery rhyme, doesn't it?
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