I am just trying to understand the main characteristics of the Middle Ages. I get so many different stories. Thank you for any help you can give me.
Thank you so much! So smart and informative you are. This helps a lot :0)
Jonathan
Favorite Answer
The Middle Ages represent a thousand years of history (ca. 500-1500 AD) across an entire continent. There is very little that one can say that applies to the whole era. However, a few very broad strokes:
To start, society and the economy was overwhelmingly agricultural. 90% or more of the population were peasant farmers. You did not work for a paycheck, you worked to grow food so that you would have something to eat. Some peasants were relatively well-off, had a good amount of their own land and minimal obligations to any lords; others lived on land belonging to nobles or the church and owed large amounts of their produce and their labor, and sometimes cash, to those landlords. Many were "serfs," legally bound to the land and unable to leave it without their lords' permission.
The leaders in society are the landowners, meaning nobles or the church. They are probably not more than 5% or so of the population. The secular nobles are supposed to be a warrior class serving the king. This role, from around 1000 AD or so, takes the form of the traditional "knight." Sometimes, in order to manage their massive estates and reward followers, lords and churches would give land to one another as "fiefs," meaning the recipient could live on and profit from the land (which was worked by peasants) but didn't actually own it - usually in exchange for some kind of service, often military. Historians used to talk about fief-granting as though it was THE organizing principle of medieval society (they called it "feudalism" or the "feudal system") but modern historians recognize now that it was just one of many ways to manage land and form social ties.
The Church was the single most influential institution in society. The pagan peoples of Europe gradually converted to Christianity between 500-1000 AD except for a few isolated holdouts. Kings ruled "by the grace of God," churches were major landowners, and bishops were equal to great lords. Education was almost entirely in the hands of the church so most literate people either were priests or monks or had been taught by them. The pope was an enormously influential person who dealt with kings as an equal or even as a superior. However, this did not make him (or the Church) all-powerful. Kings and lords were essential donors to and protectors of churches on their land and had their own ideas, and wouldn't necessarily let even the pope dictate to them.
There was trade, mostly in luxury goods. Merchants were initially few in number. From around 1000 AD, you see a significant increase in the amount of trade and the growth of important cities as market centers, which start to become self-governing and politically important as well.
Ryan Ong
The Middle Ages precede the Dark Ages; in other words, it was a period of slow decline.
The Middle Ages divided society into three "pillars": those who work, those who pray, and those who fight. The peasants worked the fields for food, and in return for getting to work the land, they paid the nobility. The nobility collected taxes from the peasants, and would defend them in times of war, or against bandits.
Of course, most of the time the nobility *were* the bandits, but that's besides the point.
The church was excused from taxes but could collect taxes. This is because the church had the special duty of ferrying souls to heaven. While this made them more important than the nobility, they were also obliged not to rule on earth, so there was an uncomfortable alliance between the two. The peasants just drew the short straw, and had to pay both.
The Middle Ages gave birth to the idea of chivalry. Chivalry comes from chevalier, which comes from the French word cheval (horse). The idea was that a noble, in particular a knight, wasn't just out to rule. They had to be pious, and protective of the peasantry. They also had to have platonic relationships with their ladies. That is, if there was a lady they liked, they had to worship her from afar. Fight in their name, do things in their honour, but never touch them or have carnal relations with them. This has been likened to the common portrayal of the Virgin Mary, in Christian ideology.
The Middle Ages saw the beginning of internecine warfare. States were divided and ruled by different families of nobility, overseen by the king. However, dissent was so great that within a few centuries, Europe would be plunged into a chaos of shifting borders and incomprehensible politics.
The Middle Ages were the "grace period" between the fall of Rome and the Dark Ages, which would be the lowest point to which Europe has ever declined.