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Onions, cabbage, garlic, nuts, berries, leeks, spinach, parsley were some of the foods that would combined to make thick soup. Raw vegetables were considered unhealthy and rarely eaten, but anything that could grown, with the exception of known poisonous plants, were added to the mix.

A man’s son inherited his lands and his obligations to fight

The castle was both a residence for the lord and his family, and a fortification. It was a strong place for the lord to defend himself against his enemies (and the king’s enemies, and his overlord’s enemies), a safe place for him and his knights to return to, and a place to live which emphasized his power.

  Castles were built to keep out enemies. When an attack was expected, the drawbridge was raised, the gates and portcullis were closed, and archers were stationed on the towers.

The walls were not only high, in a well-planned castle, but they were arranged as much as possible so that anyone climbing the walls could be shot at from two directions.

The castle’s defenses invited a great deal of ingenuity from the attackers. Rolling wooden towers, covered with thick hides to stop arrows and kept wet so they could not be set on fire, were brought up to the walls in an attack. Sometimes they even worked. Catapults threw heavy stones at the walls to make a breach or loads of rocks (or diseased livestock, or fire bombs) over the walls. The battering ram—generally used against a door—was an old favorite.

he knights and their servants and their mounts all had to eat, as did the lord, his family, and his servants and officials, and their families. Many castles grew certain types of food inside their walls, to add variety to the diet of those inside the castle, but it was not nearly enough to feed the people in the castle, much less their guests. Castles might have beehives, herb gardens, fruit trees or a fishpond. Because the land inside the castle walls was not enough to feed all these people, they got their food from the peasants who farmed outside, and from hunting. There were restrictions on hunting by the peasants, and sometimes it was forbidden entirely, so that the lord and his retainers would have plenty of game to hunt. Hunting was also a major recreation for the lord and his men.

main threats lay in early childhood, as the child's immune system was coming to terms with the threats posed by a disease-ridden environment.

Thatch roofs were common in the countryside (where 85-90% of the population lived) and they attracted insects and rodents

They carried bacteria, which they deposited either on the inhabitants or the food they would eat

There was no plumbing, so human waste was deposited outside - but not too far from - the house. Such material produced a breeding ground for the biggest killers of the period, cholera and typhoid, which were caused by unsanitary living conditions.

body lice living on infected people.

increased risk of death as a result of accidents at work.

It was noblemen who were most successful at keeping themselves clean, and they surrounded themselves with well-scrubbed servants.

But between the ages of 14 and 40 - the years of having children - a woman's life expectancy was half that of a man's.

One reason offered for this is that having babies in the middle ages was more dangerous than going to war

less sanitary, and put the mother at a high risk of fatal infection.

Food storage was also primitive, with no refrigeration except in winter, and consumers showed a tolerance of slightly rancid goods because there was a general shortage of food.

while relatives of the afflicted prayed for miracles.

The very fact that the curriculum was structured by the church gave it the ability to mould the students to follow its doctrine

Unofficially, education started from a very young age. This sort of early education depended on the feudal class of the child’s parents

Even the children of serfs would be taught the skills needed to survive by their parents. The boys would be taken out into the fields to observe and to help their parents with easy tasks, while the girls would work with the animals at home, in the vegetable garden with their mothers, or watch them weave.

Children of craftsmen and merchants were educated from a very young age in the trade of their fathers. Trade secrets rarely left a family and they had to be taught and understood by all male (and unusually, female) heirs, in order to continue the family legacy.

Young boys of noble birth would learn how to hunt and swing a weapon, while the young ladies of nobility would learn how to cook

The main subject of study in those schools was Latin (reading and writing). In addition to this, students were also taught rhetoric – the art of public speaking and persuasion – which was a very useful tool for both men of the cloth and nobles alike.

Lessons frequently started at sunrise and finished at sunset

University education, across the whole of the continent, was a luxury to which only the wealthiest and brightest could ever aspire

Since the creation of the first university in 1088

Students attended the Medieval University at different ages, ranging from 14 (if they were attending Oxford or Paris to study the Arts) to their 30s (if they were studying Law in Bologna)

The dynamic between students and teachers in a medieval university was significantly different from today. In the University of Bologna students hired and fired teachers by consensus. The students also bargained as a collective regarding fees, and threatened teachers with strikes if their demands were not met

A Master of Arts degree in the medieval education system would have taken six years; a Bachelor of Arts degree would be awarded after completing the third or fourth year. By “Arts” the degree was referring to the seven liberal arts – arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music theory, grammar, logic, and rhetoric

The sons of the peasants could only be educated if the lord of the manor had given his permission

Any family caught having a son educated without permission was heavily fined

Historians today believe that this policy was another way in which authority figures attempted to control the peasants, since an educated peasant/villein might prove to question the way things were done and upset the balance of power which kept the nobles strong.

Students held the legal status of clerics which, according to the Canon Law, could not be held by women; women were therefore not admitted into universities.

improper sanitation

Mental illness was also widespread during the Middle Ages. Injuries received to babies during the birthing process often led to brain trauma.

Leprosy remained the most feared disease of the Middle Ages,

Bleeding and the use of leeches to draw "bad blood" from the patient were typical. Some surgeries were performed to cure patients of hernias, cataracts, for the removal of gallstones. Surgery was often more precarious than the actual problem. Folk cures and poultices made from herbs were options for the peasant class. There were those who would risk being called "witch" to provide these remedies, although many found themselves tied to a burning stake.

the Church was often called to exorcise demons and say prayers and incantations over the patient.

all privileges dearest to and most valued by the nobles.

Knights had the right of receiving double rations when prisoners of war; the right of claiming a year's delay when a creditor wished to seize their land; and the right of never having to submit to torture after trial, unless they were condemned to death for the crime they had committed.

of claiming the goods of a person dying on their lands who had no direct heir. They also had the right of claiming a tax when a fief or domain changed hands.

the right of common oven required serfs to make use of the mill, the oven, of the lord

feudalism was a political arrangement that provided for the performance of these functions of government by a class of landed nobles.  Nobles bound by an interdependent system of personal ties; the heart was the feudal contract, which established relations between lord and vassal, the most important of which were protection and service.

knights were to be Christian, brave, faithful, generous, and protective of women and the poor; evidence of this code may be found the French epic The Song of Roland and the Spanish El Cid.

which supported the lord, his family, and his soldiers.  Landed estate organized as manors; each a self-supporting economic unit; the lord provided the land and protection; serfs provided the labor.

Serfs (=landless peasants) bound to the soil; could not be bought or sold individually; they passed new owners when land changed hands.  Medieval farming methods primitive; yield was low