European Middle Ages and Feudalism

The middle ages In European history, the Middle Ages, or Medieval period, lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. See the fact file below for more information about the Middle Ages.

He disastrous mortal disease known as the Black Death spread across Europe in the years 1346-53. The frightening name, however, only came several centuries after its visitation (and was probably a mistranslation of the Latin word atra meaning both terrible and black) . Chronicles and letters from the time describe the terror wrought by the illness. In Florence, the great Renaissance poet Petrarch was sure that they would not be believed: O happy posterity, who will not experience such abysmal woe and will look upon our testimony as a fable. A Florentine chronicler relates that, All the citizens did little else except to carry dead bodies to be buried [...] At every church they dug deep pits down to the water-table; and thus those who were poor who died during the night were bundled up quickly and thrown into the pit. In the morning when a large number of bodies were found in the pit, they took some earth and shovelled it down on top of them; and later others were placed on top of them and then another layer of earth, just as one makes lasagne with layers of pasta and cheese.

Middle Ages Torture Methods of Middle Ages There were many methods of torture which were practised during the Medieval era of the Middle Ages: Ripping out teeth / nails Beating Blinding Boiling Bone breaking Branding and Burning Castration Choking Cutting Disfigurement Dislocation Drowning Flagellation, whipping and beating Flaying Roasting Genital mutilation Limb/finger removal Starvation Tongue removal Torture Torture was seen as a totally legitimate means for justice to extract confessions, or obtain the names of accomplices or other information about the crime. Torture was a legitimate way to obtain testimonies and confessions from suspects for use in legal inquiries and trials during the Middle Ages.

The feudalism The feudal system was introduced to England following the invasion and conquest of the country by William I, The Conqueror. The feudal system had been used in France by the Normans from the time they first settled there in about 900AD. It was a simple, but effective system, where all land was owned by the King. One quarter was kept by the King as his personal property, some was given to the church and the rest was leased out under strict controls. A simple plan showing how the Feudal System works