During the Middle Ages, feudalism was the dominant social and economic system. Under feudalism, lords granted land to vassals in exchange for military and other services. This system was characterized by a pyramid structure with peasants at the bottom, vassals in the middle, and lords at the top. Life for peasants during this time was difficult, as they lived in basic homes, had poor diets, and little access to education or opportunities. The feudal system helped provide security and organization during a time of crisis following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, but also led to a rural, hierarchical society with lower classes having few rights.

1. LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

2. FEUDALISM

3. What is it?
• Social & Economical structure typical from the
Middle Ages
• Reciprocal legal and military obligations among
the warrior nobility with three key concepts:
Lords, vassals and fiefs.
When?
X – XIIIth Centuries

4. MIDDLE AGES
LACK OF SAFETY
RURAL WORLD
SELF SUFFIENCY
RISE OF NOBILITY
FEUDALISM

5. due to
due to
ROMAN EMPIRE
CRISIS
causes
ECONOMIC
CRISIS
POLITICAL
INSTABILITY
due to
due to
NEED FOR
MONEY
CORRUPTION
causes
BARBARIAN
TRIBES
RURAL WORLD
TRADE
CRISIS
MORE TAXES
DECLINE
of CITIES
SELFSUFFICIENCY
causes
INFLATION
and
PRICE
INCREASE
causes

6. • A land based economy
LAND = $$$$$$
• Land granted by a lord in exchange for services
Fief (latin feudum)
• The recipient of the fief would be one of his VASSALS

7. 
The Commendation Ceremony

10. VASSAL
LORD
FIEF

11. PEASANT

12. PEASANTS
• Are not a private property
• But they’re not actualy free:
they were serfs (servants)
• They must give a portion of the harvest
and work certain days in the Lord’s own
land

13. A PORTION OF THE HARVEST

14. Every vassal has to pay the
Lord

15. Works for the Lord

16. The Lord must defend his vassals

17. • Lord:
- military protection
- legal defense
- land
• Vassal:
- military help
- advice
- part of the profits

19. FEUDAL PYRAMID

20. FEUDAL PYRAMID

21. Medieval Chivalry
The word evolved from terms such as chevalier (French), caballero (Spanish),
and cavaliere (Italian)
a warrior who fought on horseback

22. Medieval Chivalry
- Medieval conventions of chivalry directed that men should
honor, serve, and do nothing to displease ladies and maidens.
- Few people in medieval society could read or write, and a
family's coat of arms often stood for an official stamp or
signature.
Luque

23. Heraldry

24. Heraldry

25. Heraldry

26. Heraldry

27. Heraldry

28. Heraldry

29. Heraldry

30. Heraldry

31. Heraldry
ISSA

32. Heraldry today

34. TIME & SPACE
• Life depended on the daylight hours.
• Work begun and ended with the sun.
• Church bells divided time every 3 hours (clocks were
invented in the XIV th Century)
• Nowadays Calendar didn’t exist

35. TIME & SPACE
• Distance was measured by walking
• 90% of the population were peasants and never left
their villages or towns
• As a consequence they knew their enviroment really
well
• Man was part of the Creation

36. HOUSES
• A cottage with mud walls (or wattle and daub ), clay floor,
and thatched roof, often shared with animals = warmer

37. one or two rooms, with a loft for storage.

38. • Few (if any) small windows.
• Waxed clothes or parchment were used to close the windows.
• (Glass was a luxury material)

39. • Horn panes were a good substitute of glass

40. • Wealthy people had tapestries to mitigate cold

41. The bed
• Sometimes the whole family slept
together in the same bed
• Mattress was just a piece of cloth
with straws and dried leaves inside.
They were easily rotten and full of
insects.
• Lavender, Tansy and other herbs
made the bed smell sweeter and kept
the bugs away…

42. Furnishings
• Peasants had a bed, a table, a couple of wooden
benches and a trunk.
• Wooden bowls were used for eating and drinking.

43. Furnishings
• In most homes people sat on plain stools or benches.
• Only a lord was likely to have a chair with a back and
armrests, and he was thus called the……..

44. Medieval food
• Peasant cottages had no chimneys, cooking was
done on a simple stone hearth in the center of the
room.
• A hole in the roof instead of a chimney made the
room not only dark but smokey but
smoke is a good deodorant!

45. in the center of which was a few flat stones on
which the fire was placed.
A hole at the top of the thatched roof let the smoke
escape
smoke is a good deodorant!

46. Medieval food
• In stone houses a fireplace was common and the iron
pots or cauldrons hanging from hooks were the main
cooking utensil.

47. Medieval food
• In manor houses and castles big kitchens were often
housed in separate buildings since they posed a
serious fire hazard.

48. Medieval food

Dinner was the main meal

Basic food were vegetables, cereals, legumes, beer,
wine, soup, oil and bread
What about water?

Sometimes there was pig meat, rabbit, eggs, milk or
fish available

49. Medieval food
• What do you think the staple foods were?
• How did they preserve food?
• Why spices and honey were so important?

50. Medieval food
• Food was preserved in salt
• Spicies were commonly used
to disguise meat in bad
condition.
Spicies were very, very expensive

51. The search for spices caused some important changes in
European History…

52. Portugal & Spain
Vasco da Gama
Columbus
Magellan

53. Medieval new products
Pasta
Fork
Bakeries

54. Muslims brought them…

55. They were unknown…

56. Bathing during the Middle Ages
ristians
Ch
As a rule, only the very wealthy could
afford taking baths.
Most of the people cleaned
themselves maybe a couple of times
a month.
Muslims were obligated by their religion
to wash themselves (face, hands & feet) 5
times a day.
Public baths were very popular in Muslim
towns.
Muslim
s

57. Medieval Clothing
Medieval clothing varied according
to the social standing of the people.
The clothing worn by nobility and
upper classes was clearly different
than that of the lower class.
The clothing of peasants during the
Middle Ages was very simple.

58. Medieval Clothing
Clothes, like tools, were mostly
homemade from local materials.

59. Medieval Clothing
Medieval peasant women spent much of their
time spinning wool or turning it into felt, which
they used for hats.
Many would have worn hats made of local
straw to protect their heads on hot days while
working the land.

60. Medieval Clothing
The clothing of nobility was fitted
with a distinct emphasis on the
sleeves of the garments.
Knights adorned themselves with sleeveless
"surcoats" covered with a coat of arms.

61. Medieval Education
Medieval education was conducted by the Church.
Students often sat together on the floor, scrawling notes from
lessons using a bone or ivory stylus on wooden tablets coated
with green or black wax.
Physical punishment was
not only allowed but normal
in the class

62. Medieval Education
Girls were virtually ignored when it came to education. Only
daughters of the very rich and powerful were allowed to attend
select courses.
At 14 or 15, some scholars would continue education at a
university (a creation of the Middle Ages).

63. Cannon,
clocks,
Music sheets,
Gun powder,
golf,
pen,
compass,
paper,
0,
astrolabio,
chess,
rudder,
 calendar,
rueca,
Oil painting,
Wind mill,
Paper money,
Magnifying glass,
glasses,
print,
horseshoe
screw

64. WOMEN DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
• Problem: not too many writings
about women
• Monks and religious men were
the only people who knew how
to write

65. WOMEN DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
• According to the Church a woman was either:
• 1) Eve created from Adam’s rib and guilty of
the original sin
• 2) Mary virgin , self-sacrifice, self-denial,
mother and wife