By: Trey McCulland

Middle Ages

• Christianity had been the official imperial religion of the Roman Empire, and the first churches were built in England in the second half of the 4th century

• Many existing pagan shrines were converted to Christian use and few pagan sites still operated by the 5th century

• Women had no political rights and were subservient to men• Magna Carta

Major Beliefs

• Ballads• Songs or song like poems that tell stories in simple or

songlike poems• Derived from an old French word meaning “Dancing Song”• Romance Narrative• Romance Hero who often has the help of magic as one under

takes a quest to conquer an evil enemy.

Major Literary Genres

• King Edward the Confessor dies without heir• English barons force King John to sign the Magna Carta• First Tudor king, Henry VII, is crowned

Historical Background

• Geoffrey Chaucer writes Canterbury Tales• Roger Bacon writes Opus Majus• Giovanni Boccaccio writes the Decameron• Thomas Aquinas writes Summa Theologica

Major Authors

• Middle Ages - traditionally refers to the period between antiquity and the Renaissance

• frame story - a story within a story; a connected series of unrelated tales

• Feudalism - a political and economic system based on the holding of all land in fief or fee and the resulting relation of lord to vassal and characterized by homage, legal and military service of tenants, and forfeiture

• Chivalry - code of knightly behavior that involved a valor on and off the battlefield and service to a lady

• Serf - A member of the lowest feudal class, attached to the land owned by a lord and required to perform labor in return for certain legal or customary rights.

Literary Terms & Language Development

• The Norman invasion of England in 1066 led to the defeat and replacement of the Anglo-Saxon elite with Norman and French nobles and their supporters.

• William the Conqueror and his successors took over the existing state system, repressing local revolts and controlling the population through a network of castles.

• The 14th century in England began with the Great Famine and the Black Death, catastrophic events that killed around half of England's population.

• Henry VII's victory in 1485 typically marks the end of the Middle Ages in England and the start of the Early Modern period.

Contribution

• Odell, Beers. Holt Elements of Literature. Virginia. 6. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 2004. 116 - 267. Print.

• Aberth, John, Stuart Airlie, and James et al. "England in the Middle Ages." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 23 Sep 2013. Web. 2 Oct 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_in_the_Middle_Ages>.

Bibliography