Our Medieval King Song

Medieval Kings of England Song

Crusader's Hymn Melody

First were the Normans

William the Conqueror, 1066 at the Battle of Hastings

William the Second, Henry, then Stephen

This is the House of Normandy

Plantagenet is next

Henry the Second

Richard the Lionheart, his brother John

Henry then Edward, Edward, and Edward

Richard 2, the House of Plantagenet

House of Lancaster

Has only Henry's...Four, Five, and Six

Then on to York

Edward 4 and Edward 5, poor kid was put inside

The Tower of London by his Uncle, Richard the Third!

William the Conqueror and the Victory at Hastings

1. In the early Middle Ages, England kept getting invaded by the vikings from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.  King Ethelred the Unready was a weak king.
    He could not effectively deal with the invasions.  

   

   Ethelred the Unready

   He married a Norman, Emma, to help defeat Vikings by forming an alliance with Normandy. When the fighting got especially dangerous, Ethelred and Emma sent their children to Normandy, including their son Edward, the future king of England.
2. Soon Edward (the Confessor) became king of England.
    Because he lived in Normandy for quite a while, he was heavily influenced by Norman culture. He even stayed at the castle of William, Duke of Normandy. 
   
   

   

   Edward the Confessor

   
   William claimed that Edward promised him the crown when he died.
3. Edward returns to England and brought back a lot of advisers and such who were Norman. The Anglo-Saxons did not like all of these Normans in high positions at court. So Edward the Confessor was forced to send them back. In 1065 he became very ill. He then conferred the kingdom to Harold Godwinson, a powerful earl, and also the husband to Edward's sister Edith.  But before he was given the kingdom, Harold had visited William in Normandy and promised loyalty to him as king.

   

   Harold Godwinson
4. Edward died and William claimed the throne with the support of the Anglo-Saxons. They don't want a Norman king! He doesn't even speak English! Harold was then crowned king and William was not happy. He appealed to Pope Alexander II and the pope gave him permission to invade England.
5. As William was assembling his invading force, Harold had to go north to defend England from the pesky Vikings again at York. The Viking King Hardrada had invaded northern England at York. 
6. While the Anglo-Saxon army is away fighting the Vikings, William landed at Pevensey Bay and no one was there. He started to ransack the countryside.
7. Harold was victorious against the Vikings at Stamford Bridge. Then he hears that William was  ravaging southern England so he quickly hurried south. They went so fast, his army was tired and ragged.

   

   The end of the Viking ear, with their defeat at Stamford Bridge
8. They meet William at the town of Hastings. Harold positioned his army on Senlac Hill, protected by marshy land on each flank, trees behind him and a man-made ditch and a palisade in front. As the battle commenced, Harold had a shield guard that was effective at blocking arrows from the Normans. The Normans charged and the Saxons held them off, but the right flank broke rank to chase the retreating Normans. They were decimated. After an hour break, William changed tactics.

   

   Melee at Hastings
9. On the second round they fired arrows higher and caught the Anglo-Saxons by surprise, then charged with cavalry. The were still repulsed, but Harold and both of his brothers were killed. Harold died when an arrow went right through his eyeball!

The English rebellions against the Norman Conquest were first led in 1067 by King Harold's mother Gytha but her forces are defeated. In 1068 King William exacted a terrible punishment on the rebels in the North of England referred to as 'The Harrying of the North'- William ordered that all land is laid to waste and thousands of men, women and children are starved to death. The final major rebellion against William the Conqueror and the Norman Conquest was led by Hereward the Wake with Harold's brother the Earl Morcar against the Normans at Peterborough - once again the rebels were defeated and the Norman Conquest was finally complete.

William the Conqueror instituted his strategy for medieval warfare of building castles and went on to build many castles in England including his most famous, the Tower of London. 

The Tower of London

William the Conqueror also left another legacy - The Doomsday Book which was begun in 1086 and contained detailed records of 13,418 settlements in England. 



Domesday Book still exists today!

The Doomsday Book, which still survives, provides an insight into the medieval life and times of this era. In 1087 King William the Conqueror died in a riding accident when he fell from his horse.


Supplemental Activity


In order to reinforce the concept behind the Domesday book, each boy made their own Domesday Book. I passed out candy while I was giving my lecture.  They each had their own paper bag to keep it all. Then when the lecture was over I handed them each an inventory sheet with a Domesday cover.  They had to inventory their candy and their neighbors candy.

Class Summary

Here is most of my horrible class, waiting to go inside.  

We had an awesome class today. We learned part our our Kings of England song and discussed William the Conqueror, the Battle of Hastings, and the Domesday Book.

Come back and visit for a full entry on this topic.  Also, make sure to read about William and the Battle of Hastings in your notebook.  In addition, you are really going to want to read the next three entries in your notebook; A Knight's Tale, The Murder of Thomas Becket (lots of gruesome details), and the Miracles of Thomas Becket.

Next week will be all about murder and intrigue. Stay tuned.

Monarchs of England

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfBRCCUjRC8&feature=related

Here is a fun song to remember all of the kings and queens of England. We are only doing the first part, so you don't have to remember all of them, but it is still a fun song. Follow along with your Kings of England chart.


It goes pretty darn fast, so you have to stay on your toes.

Battle of Hastings Preview

Here is a preview video of what we will be learning about next week...

The Battle of Hastings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAfv5k7uM0A&feature=related

History changed course after this one eventful day.  Goodbye Saxons, hello Normans.

Castles and the Feudal System

The Feudal System


When feudalism first began, a kinght's feif might be an award of armor, weapons, clothing, horses, or food. Later the fief became a parcel of land that the knight could live on as long as he continued to fight for his king.





A kingdom might be split up into about 50 fiefs. A knight had power over everyone who lived on his land. He could sell or trade the things the peasants grew on his land. This "chief knight" was later called a lord. The richest lords were called barons.


Sometimes a baron's land was too large to manage, so he would divide it into smaller sections on which other knights could live and farm. These knights would then swear an oath of loyalty to the lord who gave them the land. The knights living under the lord were later called dukes, earls, or counts, depending on how much land they owned. Other people who lived on the knight's land included bailifs, villiens and, at the bottom of the heap, serfs.


To understand the way medieval society worked, let's start with serfs, who were at the bottom of the feudal social pyramid.





Serfs were like slaves, toiling away for the lord, duke, or count. They worked from dawn to dusk, and received no money for their work. Serfs were not allowed to leave the lord's land. They could only become free by escaping capture for one year and a day. Serfs did receive food, clothing, and a small hut for themselves and their families. They also were promised protection during wards and invasions.





Slightly above the serfs in power were the villeins, free men who controlled very small plots of land. They could sell the things they grew, but could not sell the land itself. Villeins had to make payments to their lords in crops, animals, and anything else they produced.





Commoners were slightly better off than the villeins. This group included merchants who ran businesses in the community and servants who worked in the local castle or manor. The merchants worked near the castle or in the town and paid rent and taxes to the king. Castle servants did chores such as cleaning, cooking, making repairs, and other tasks. They were paid for their work in money, food, and clothing.


A bailiff worked directly for the lord, collecting rent, taxes, and fines, and finding people to serve on juries. A bailiff could also serve as a judge for the commoners. On just about the same level as a bailiff was the viscount, an assistant to a count or countess. He managed all the people on the fief, their jobs, and the many problems that the counts and countesses did not have time for.


The counts answered to the dukes and the dukes answered to the barons. All the people "above" the merchants (not including Church officials) were called nobility.





from Kings, Queens, Castles, and Crusades: Life in the Middle Ages by Zelma Kallay





Did you know??


The word fee comes from the Latin word for "payment", feudum. In England and France the word for "fee" was fief.


Castles


Castles are scattered all over Europe and the Middle East. They were built from about A.D. 1000 to 1500. They were a protection in war time but also were like miniature cities because it took a lot of people to run a castle.





Castles were the business center and bank for the whole region. People would bring presents to the lord. Peasants paid taxes in produce, cows, chickens, pigs, as well as money. The bailiff looked after the land and collected these "taxes". It all went to the castle.


When the lord of the castle was gone, the steward was in charge. Everyone answered to him.


The solar was the private living room for the lord's family. It was big and spacious, with tapestries to keep the room warm and a large hearth for a fire. Most people lived in crowded rooms, but there was plenty of room in the solar, which would have been at the top of a castle. Even in the richest castles, there would not have been much furniture. Beds were the larges and most expensive pieces of castle furniture. Curtains were hung around to keep out the cold.





Castles would have their own chapels. Since most people could not read or write, there would be paintings on the walls and windows depicting different stories from the Bible. Religion was very important in castle life. The lord and his family would attend a daily service.





Where were the toilets? They were built into the castle's outer walls, in small rooms called garderobes. People believed that the smell from toilets protected clothes from moths and bugs. This is why the toilet was called the garderobe.  Ew! It comes from the French garder (to keep) and robe (dress). The toilets emptied straight into the moat or into pits that were emptied by cleaners called gongfermors (gong farmers). 


Would you want to be a gong farmer?


Let's see. You would inspect the castle toilets. That doesn't sound too bad. You would clear away rubbish and clean the moat. Remember, the toilets could empty directly into the moat! Once a week, you clean the toilet pits. It was dirty, and really smelly.  But somebody had to do it. Most of the people will stay far away from you because you smell so bad.


          




Defending the castle!!


To prepare for a siege, the defenders built wooden galleries that jutted out from the castle walls. They could drip rocks and boiling oil from these platforms onto the enemies below. Wet leather hides were draped over these wooden fortifications so that the enemy could not set fire to them. 

Portcullis

Everyone in the castle had to help in the preparations if a siege was expected. Trees and houses near the castle were cut down so that the enemy would find no cover or shelter. Ponds and wells were poisoned. Farmland was scorched, leaving nothing for the enemy to eat.


The most dangerous enemy of the besieged castle were hunger and thirst. If you didn't have enough supplies in your castle, you were in trouble.





One way an enemy would attack would be to dig tunnels under the castle. King John of England did this to Rochester Castle in 1215. They built a tunnel underneath, smeared the wooden props with the fat of forty pigs and then set it on fire. It caused an entire tower of the castle to collapse!

The tower on the left at Rochester castle was rebuilt after it collapsed in 1215. Notice it is rounder than the tower on the right.

Soldiers would also bombard a castle using a trebuchet, a really big catapult.  They would also use a giant crossbow, called a ballistas. With catapults, they would fling all sorts of nasty stuff at a castle; plague-ridden rotting corpses, severed heads, and other yucky things.

trebuchet

There were lots of ways people would defend and attack castles, but you didn't want to lose if you lived in a castle.  Once a castle would fall, troops would rush in and sack the city.  They would burst into houses and rooms looking for gold and treasure. They would kill prisoners and pillage, taking stuff by force. 

Secret Task #1

This is your secret task for the first week.  I would like you to make a colorful, medieval cover for your boring white notebooks. You can print something off of the computer and color it in, or draw something.

Here are some links to give you some good ideas.

http://www.edupics.com/coloring-pages-middle-ages-c134.html

http://www.coloring-pages-kids.com/coloring-pages/fantasy-medieval-coloring-pages/castles-knights-coloring-pages/castles-knights-coloring-pages-gallery.php

Castle Videos

Okay, so I didn't get to show you my fun horrible videos, but you can see them if you click here.


Dining at the castle...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xff4Z5xMMro

Give me your castle!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pygLvyDdewU

Castle defenses...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtaRI1UD0y0

Greetings!

Hello boys, and welcome to this horrible website.  Make sure to check back here often for extra stuff and secret assignments.  We are going to be working as a class to earn a special prize at the end of the year. The only way that is going to happen is if you come to class PREPARED!  


1. Do your reading assignments
2.  Complete secret tasks from this website
3. Be your best self


If you do your little bit each week, you will be able to contribute to our treat jar.  At the end of the year, if we reach the top, it will be well worth it...TRUST ME!