oilets, or garderobes as they were called, usually were situated so that they opened over the moat.
An awful lot of life in a castle went on in the great hall. There was a fire and shelter in the hall. People ate and slept in the great hall. Very often, certainly in smaller castles, before sophisticated domestic arrangements evolved, you would have found the lord and lady sleeping at one end of the great hall in a sort of screened-off area. So medieval men and women didn't have much privacy.
medieval men didn't really bathe terribly often. People might have wiped their hands and faces from time to time.
lords and ladies would have been slightly cleaner and sweeter-smelling than most of their subordinates.
If you were a lord or lady, if you were the constable or the constable's lady, then you would have had a private room.
Very often in the great hall there was a central fire. Later on there were proper fireplaces, but a central fire with a hole in the roof was standard.
He had a number of people who worked beneath him. There was the garrison, whose members vary in status, including knights, men-at-arms, archers, and engineers. You also had grooms, watchmen, porters, cooks, and scullions, who did all the washing up in the kitchen.
So the constable was the person whose job it was to look after the castle in the lord's absence.
private fortress. Most of the time the castle operated as a small, large, or medium-sized household.
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.
Definition of
a Pilgrimage
Definition of a Pilgrimage: A
Pilgrimage is a journey to a holy place or shrine undertaken as
a spiritual quest to obtain supernatural help or as a form of
penance for sins. A pilgrim is one who undertakes a pilgrimage.
The word 'pilgrimage' is derived from the Latin word peregrinus
meaning foreignerand peregri meaning abroad translated as a
traveller in foreign lands. The word 'peregrinatio' was used by
Augustine of Hippo 354-430AD , who was considered to be the
writer of some of greatest theological works of all time, to
describe a Christian spiritual journey as a kind of estrangement
and exile - a wanderer. The earliest surviving references to
Christian pilgrimage date back to the 4th century.
The Concept of Pilgrimage
Augustine of Hippo wrote about the
concept of the pilgrimage and other religious leaders such as
Saint Jerome also encouraged it in their religious writings. The
idea or the concept of Pilgrimage was eagerly accepted by Medieval
people from all walks of life, young or old, wealthy or poor. The
concept of pilgrimage was and important religious belief in the Middle
Ages both in terms of religious activity and as a way of Medieval life.
Soon it became common for Medieval
people to make a pilgrimage closer to home visiting sites associated
with Christian Saints and martyrs, holy relics and to places where there
had been apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Pilgrimages were the first
holidays enjoyed by Medieval people. Groups of Christians would set off
together on a spiritual journey to visit a holy place or shrine where
they would pray together.
Pilgrimage - the
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
was written c. 1390. It tells stories about a group pilgrims who had
undertaken a pilgrimage to Canterbury. Each pilgrim had their own
'Canterbury Tale'. The route of the pilgrimage was along Watling Street
and the Old Kent Road in London which led to the ancient "Pilgrim's way"
from Rochester to Canterbury.
Chess was widely popular and often a source of
gambling entertainment; both in the traditional format and in a simpler
version played with dice. Dice were easy to carry and were played in all
ranks of society, even among the clergy.
wrestled, swam, fished and played a game that was a cross between
tennis and handball.
cockfights and bullbaiting.
"King of the Bean," where a small bean
would be baked inside bread or cake, and the one who found it in their
portion would be crowned king of the holiday feast.
bob for apples and go on hunts
Chess was widely popular and often a source of
gambling entertainment;
both in the traditional format and in a simpler
version played with dice.
Some games played during the Middle Ages, including bowling, prisoner's
base, blind man's bluff (also called hoodman's blind), and simple "horseplay"
are still played today.
Dice were easy to carry and were played in all
ranks of society, even among the clergy.
Checkers were a popular pastime, as was backgammon.
Children wrestled, swam, fished and played a game that was a cross between
tennis and handball. Medieval knights would incorporate training in recreation,
performing gymnastics and running foot races.
Spectators in the Middle Ages were often drawn to cockfights and bullbaiting.
recreation for most adults was drinking in the local tavern.
villagers would bob for apples and go on hunts in the
surrounding f
Hawks were trained
to hunt game birds and every medieval castle had a falconer, assigned
to train young birds for this sport.
Medieval Christmas games included "King of the Bean," where a small bean
would be baked inside bread or cake, and the one who found it in their
portion would be crowned king of the holiday feast.
: In the early Middle Ages, the Church played a very important role in protecting ancient works, and monks were heavily involved in the “reproduction and preservation of the literature that had been inherited from earlier writers,—writers whose works had been accepted as classics.”
The monks who were not yet competent to work as scribes were to be instructed by the others.”
The copying of books was also slow, tedious, and very time-consuming; it took years for a scribe to complete “a particularly fine manuscript with colored initials and miniature art work.”
it is, therefore, no surprise that monks sometimes jotted remarks about their frustration and relief in the margins, or the colophons, of their manuscripts. Examples of these remarks included “Thin ink, bad vellum, difficult text,” “Thank God, it will soon be dark,” and “Now I’ve written the whole thing: for Christ’s sake give me a drink.”
He is separated from his brothers and sisters!!!!!
. Griswold followed the obituary with a memoir in which he portrayed Poe as a drunken, womanizing madman with no morals and no friends. Griswold’s attacks were meant to cause the public to dismiss Poe and his works, but the biography had exactly the opposite effect and instead drove the sales of Poe’s books higher than they had ever been during the author’s lifetime.
Days after Poe’s death, his literary rival Rufus Griswold wrote a libelous obituary of the author in a misguided attempt at revenge for some of the offensive things Poe had said and written about him
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809
Two years later he heard that Frances Allan, the only mother he had ever known, was dying of tuberculosis and wanted to see him before she died. By the time Poe returned to Richmond she had already been buried. Poe and Allan briefly reconciled, and Allan helped Poe gain an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Humiliated by his poverty and furious with Allan for not providing enough funds in the first place, Poe returned to Richmond and visited the home of his fiancée Elmira Royster, only to discover that she had become engaged to another man in Poe’s absence.
Before going to West Point, Poe published another volume of poetry
. After only eight months at West Point Poe was thrown out, but he soon published yet another book.
Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families.
Poe was living in poverty but had started publishing his short stories
“Panic of 1837,” Poe struggled to find magazine work and wrote his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.
Richard's tactics ensured success at the siege of Acre and on the subsequent march south, Saladin's men being unable to harass the Crusader army into an impulsive action which might not have gone their way.
During the Mongol Empire there were two different groups of food, "white foods" and "brown foods"
"White foods"
were usually dairy products and were the main food source during the summer. The main part of their diet was "airag" or fermented mare’s milk, a food which is still widely drunk today.
"Brown foods" were usually meat and were the main food source during the winter, usually boiled and served with wild garlic or onions.
The Mongols had a unique way of slaughtering their animals to get meat. The animal was laid on its back and restrained. Then the butcher would cut its chest open and rip open the aorta, which would cause deadly internal bleeding. Animals would be slaughtered in this fashion because it would keep all of the blood inside of the carcass. Once all of the internal organs were removed, the blood was then drained out and used for sausages.[2]
Genghis Khan authorized the use of paper money shortly before his death in 1227. It was backed by precious metals and silk.[6]
During the winter sheep were the only domestic animal slaughtered, but horses were occasionally slaughtered for ceremonies.[3]
The Mongols rarely slaughtered animals during the summer but if an animal died of natural causes they made sure to carefully preserve it.
During the winter the Mongols would also go ice fishing
Meal etiquette existed only during large gatherings and ceremonies. The meal, usually meat, was cut up into small pieces. Guests were served their meat on skewers and the host determined the order of serving. People of different social classes were assigned to different parts of the meat and it was the responsibility of the server or the “ba’urchis” to know who was in each social class. The meat was eaten with fingers and the grease was wiped on the ground or on clothing.
The most commonly imported fare was liquor
The Mongols used Chinese silver ingot as a unified money of public account, while circulating paper money in China and coins in the western areas of the empire such as Golden Horde and Chagatai Khanate
Under Ogedei Khan the Mongol government issued paper currency backed by silk reserves and founded a Department which was responsible for destroying old notes.[7] In 1253, Mongke established a Department of Monetary affairs to control the issuance of paper money in order to eliminate the overissue of the currency by Mongol and non-Mongol nobles since the reign of Great Khan Ogedei.
¥ Answers to essential questions cannot be found. They must be invented. It is something like cooking a great meal. The researcher goes out on a shopping expedition for the raw ingredients, but "the proof is in the pudding." Students must construct their own answers and make their own meaning from the information they have gathered. They create insight.
¥ Essential questions engage students in the kinds of real life applied problem-solving suggested by nearly every new curriculum report or outline curriculum standards such as the NCTM and the Science Standards.
¥ Answering such questions may take a life time, and even then, the answers may only be tentative ones. This kind of research, like good writing, should proceed over the course of several weeks, with much of the information gathering taking place outside of formally scheduled class hours.
Essential questions usually lend themselves well to multidisciplinary investigations, requiring that students apply the skills and perspectives of math and language arts while wrestling with content from social studies or science.
Feudalism was the system of loyalties and protections during the Middle Ages. As the Roman Empire crumbled, emperors granted land to nobles in exchange for their loyalty. These lands eventually developed into manors. A manor is the land owned by a noble and everything on it. A typical manor consisted of a castle, a small village, and farmland
During the Middle Ages, peasants could no longer count on the Roman army to protect them. German, Viking and Magyar tribes overran homes and farms throughout Europe. The peasants turned to the landowners, often called lords, to protect them. Some peasants remained free, but many became serfs. A serf was bound to the land. He could not leave without buying his freedom, an unlikely occurrence in the Middle Ages. Life for a serf was not much better than the life of a slave. The only difference was that a serf could not be sold to another manor.
Knights were given land by a Baron in return for military service when demanded by the King. They also had to protect the Baron and his family, as well as the Manor, from attack.