HIS 101 WEEK 10: FEUDALISM
Reading Assignment for the week:
- Read the appropriate chapter in the
textbook (chapter 10 and the remainder of chapter 9 in the 7th or 6th ed. of Perry).
- Read the feudal
document excerpt (You may wish to participate
in an Online Discussion of this reading.).
-
Listen to some further information about feudalism
as a Realaudio file
or as a wav file. You can also read the information as
a txt file.
Questions to
Consider while studying this week's material:
- Why were the Crusades launched?
- Why did feudalism develop
after the fall of the Roman empire?
Key Terms to study
while reading the textbook:
- Feudalism
- William the Conqueror
- Common law
- Hugh Capet
- Crusades
Suggested Websites for further study:
- For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a
relevant website for this unit of the course. Send the title of the site, the url and a
brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to
the material being studied this week.
Submit the Feudalism Paragraph:
Read the Feudal
document excerpt (along with the document background notes
and the questions to consider).
Answer the following
question in a paragraph: What did this document reveal about
medieval society? (This is an amazing document. If
you look at each word or phrase closely, you can discover much information.
You can begin by analyzing the first word, "Lawday.")
Your paragraph should be about
one-half page in length, double-spaced with one-inch margins, font size 10 or 12; it should
contain a concise topic sentence that directly responds to the assigned
question (no need to define terms or cite a dictionary) and use
direct, quoted material to support your points. Do not spend time repeating
what happened in the document; spend your time providing analysis to
answer the assigned question.
This assignment should be sent by e-mail according to the Electronic Submission
Information instructions.
Please remember to consult
Charlie's History Writing Center for
specific information on the writing requirements of this course.
You may also wish to post or respond in the
Blackboard online discussion forum
for this assignment. Please review the instructions for
Using the Blackboard
Discussion Forums, if necessary.
The Feudalism Paragraph is worth a maximum of
25 points.
Notes:
Historians generally consider the Middle Ages
to have lasted from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance, approximately 400-1400
ce. Furthermore, the "Middle Ages" can be subdivided into early (the Dark Ages),
middle (the High Middle Ages) and
late periods. This was a span of time in which the fortunes of the church
reached their peak in the West, as the church dominated almost every aspect of
everyday life. By the fifteenth century, that church control had begun to
wane. Feudalism was the prevailing political system throughout most of this period. But
by the fourteenth century the growth of monarchies had begun to displace the feudal
system.
The Middle Ages were a time of war, almost
constant war, and this was one of the reasons that feudalism emerged as
a means of providing local defense. The wars were usually fought on a local
level, but these isolated, personal wars could also escalate into regional
and even national conflicts. In the process of escalation, national loyalties
could emerge--towards the country of France, for example. If one questions
why the prevalence of so much violence, one answer is that the knight's
duty, according to the three-class theory of society, was to fight, and
so he fought. Organized jousting was only the tip of the iceberg. The church,
constantly frustrated by this anti-Christian violent behavior, tried to
push this quest for war into more useful areas, i.e., the Crusades.
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