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Medieval Times. The fun stuff!. Castles. Provide the defenders with an advantage against any army that dared to attack.
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Medieval Times The fun stuff!
Castles • Provide the defenders with an advantage against any army that dared to attack. • Castles also provided other psychological benefits. A peasant who was often reminded of his safety by looking at the castle everyday was more productive than one who lived in constant fear. • Castles successfully stopped the Viking Age, in a way, because they eliminated the element of surprise which the Vikings depended so greatly on. • Some castles were enormous providing yet more psychological benefits. When William the Conqueror built The Tower of London, he did so to remind the English of his rule while he traveled to Normandy.
Castles-Tower of London • Took 200 years to build-1078-1285 • Has a moat! • Used for military purposes, to house royalty, and used as a jail, a place of execution, a treasury, a zoo, a public records office, an observatory, and even the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom
Castles-Bothwell Castle • One of Scotland's finest medieval fortresses can be found at this castle, built in the 13th century. Thick walls made of red sandstone rising 60 feet high makes Bothwell one of the largest stone castles in the country. • Dominated by a large, round keep, this medieval castle is separated from the courtyard by a parapet and a ditch. For 14 months, Scots, under the leadership of William Wallace, laid siege and retook this castle from English occupying armies. • An army of 6,800 men and massive medieval siege engines were needed to retake Bothwell Castle. It was abandoned until the later Middle Ages when restorations were carried out.
Castles-Pembroke Castle • Pembroke Castle became a powerful medieval fortress late in the 12th century, and is one of the largest castles in Wales. Pembroke's enormous round keep is one of the largest in Wales and is topped with a stone dome. • This castle's massive walls are nearly 20 feet thick and it's towers rise five stories high. During a Civil War siege Cromwell unsuccessfully tried to destroy the Barbican Tower. Much of the castles other structures, however, were heavily damaged. • Pembroke has a medieval dungeon tower that includes an "oubliette." This horror was simply a hole in the ground, where prisoners were abandoned to die.
Wounds and injuries were the main reason medieval society sought the services of a doctor, these physicians also treated a variety of ailments and disease. Rough wool worn close to the skin by peasants led to numerous and widespread skin diseases. Scarcity of fruits, vegetables and proteins needed for a healthy diet led to maladies of the intestinal tract and scurvy. Medieval Diseases
Medieval Diseases • Winter was especially hard on medieval society, as cold, drafty dwellings led to numerous cases of deadly pneumonia. Even when the weather was warm, improper sanitation made typhoid a constant problem. • Mental illness was also widespread during the Middle Ages. Injuries received to babies during the birthing process often led to brain trauma. Little could be done for these people, but there were no institutions for them and many were accepted into society. Others, however, would have crosses shaved into the backs of their heads, or be tied to pews in the church in hopes that mass would bring them relief.
The Black Death….Bubonic Plague • A medieval nightmare-a time of horror. Imagine walking down the street, and every fourth person you saw would die within three years. The Black Death, ravaging medieval Europe from late 1347 through early 1351 wiped out nearly one-fourth of the continent's inhabitants. Medieval cities fared much worse. With their narrow streets making transmission of the disease much easier, nearly half of the populations of some larger cities perished from this epidemic.
The Black Death…. • The Black Death's origins were from Asia, where it decimated the population there as well, and was brought to Western Europe along trading routes, first arriving in Sicily in 1347. This disease was brought by merchants and spread primarily through rats and fleas.
The disease attacked lymph, respiratory and/or circulatory systems and there was nearly a 100% mortality rate for those infected. The Church's stranglehold on society left many feeling that this was a plague from God, and that doctors would be of little use. The Black Death….
The Black Death….Ring Around the Rosie…Pocket Full of Posies • The words to the Ring around the rosy children's ring game have their origin in English history . The historical period dates back to the Great Plague of London in 1665 (bubonic plague) or even before when the first outbreak of the Plague hit England in the 1300's. The symptoms of the plague included a rosy red rash in the shape of a ring on the skin (Ring around the rosy). Pockets and pouches were filled with sweet smelling herbs ( or posies) which were carried due to the belief that the disease was transmitted by bad smells. The term "Ashes Ashes" refers to the cremation of the dead bodies! The death rate was over 60% and the plague was only halted by the Great Fire of London in 1666 which killed the rats which carried the disease which was transmitting via water sources. The English version of "Ring around the rosy" replaces Ashes with (A-tishoo, A-tishoo) as violent sneezing was another symptom of the disease. We recommend the following site for comprehensive information regarding the Bubonic Plague.
Medieval Torture-Dunking • Dunking is a form of punishment that was mainly reserved for supposed witches. The victim was tied to a chair which was elevated or lowered by the torturer. If he noticed that the victim was going to pass out, he elevated the chair. When he needed information and the victim was unwilling to cooperate, he lowered it. This method was widely used during the Spanish Inquisition and in England and France. The victim was usually intermittently submerged for many hours until he or she revealed information or death occurred. • While witches were commonly tortured using this method, thieves and murderers could be subject to it in order to extract a confession. This was more common when other more sophisticated torture devices were not present.
Medieval Torture-Whipping • Whipping, was very common in Rome. It was still in use during the Middle Ages most notoriously in the army where whipping was a very common form of punishment. • Some authors call whipping "half death" because the amount of people who died from it, caused by an infection, lack of blood or damage to an organ, was a very significant percentage. The whipping generally occurred against the victim's back, but when a more severe crime was committed his chest could be whipped, which was especially dangerous and painful.
Medieval Torture-Pillory • The pillory was used to publicly humiliate a victim. Even though it was meant as a mild form of punishment, the crowd sometimes made it lethal. • The pillory often served as a post for whipping. When the victim was restrained with the device, he was completely defenseless and subject to the crowd. • In many cases the crowd threw harmless objects such as vegetables, but when the victim committed a serious offense they threw stones or other heavy objects. The crowd often humiliated the victim by cutting his hair or putting marks on his body.
A joust is defined as a fight between mounted knights wearing armor and using lances. Jousting was a favorite form of entertainment during the Middle Ages. Jousting contests took place at Medieval tournaments which provided a venue for Knights to practice various forma of combat to the delight, and for the amusement, of crowds of onlookers. Medieval Jousting
Medieval Jousting • The tournaments kept the knight in excellent condition for the role he would need to play during medieval warfare - skill with weapons and supreme strength and fitness were necessary to knights of the Middle Ages. • Tournaments were exciting and colorful pageants which displayed different forms of combat. Jousting was one of the events shown at a tournament. Jousting was an individual event whereas the Melee was a team event where teams of knights fought on fought or on horseback.
