Vorhaben Projekt
Autor: Darkness-Phoenix
1.Introduction
2.The late mediaeval times
1.Society and economy
2.Climate and agriculture
3.The three orders
1.Clergy
2.Nobility
1.Knighthood
2.Ministries
3.Territorial Nobility
4.Baronial Nobility
3.Townspeople and farmers
1.Townspeople
1.Guild
2.Farmers
4.Conflicts
1.Between farmers and Nobility
2.Between townspeople and Nobility
3.Between townspeople and farmers and Clergy
5.Social inequality
1.Townspeople and farmers
2.Nobility
3.Clergy
6.Mediaeval times today
1.Mediaeval festivals
1.Music
2.Facts and legends
3.At the market
4.Tournaments
5.Language
2.Gothic
7.Conclusion
8.Daily reports
9.Bibliography
Introduction
My topic is “social inequality in the late mediaeval times”. I will describe the inequality in the late mediaeval times.
There are a lot of different divisions of the society in the mediaeval times. One is the three order division, which was created in the late mediaeval times. Society is divided into three orders.
The first order is the Clergy, that means the high and low Clergy. On top was the bishop.
Then the Nobility. Here also is meant the high and the low Nobility. It didn’t matter even if someone belonged to the poor agrarian Nobility. On top was the princes and king or the emperor.
At last there are the townspeople and farmers.
People, who are not put into one of these orders, are outsiders. People who belong to this division are not worth to be part of the society and are treated like trash.
The three order division was made by people out of the Clergy. That explains why the Clergy is the most important order. They see themselves as better then the others because they are closer to God and see that they have the duty to communicate between god and the humans. They also see this division as by god given and that you could not change it. This only changed in the late mediaeval times, when rich townspeople could become part of the Nobility.
Every order had a special task to do. The first one had to care for the salvation, the second should protect the Clergy and public against enemies and the last had the task to work. These tasks created an ethical way of living, e. g. prescription of clothing to wear.
The late mediaeval times
The late mediaeval times begins in the middle of the 13th century till the end of the 15th or the beginning of the 16th century (so ca. 1250 till 1500). The end of the mediaeval times is not easy to identify since the next period the renaissance is more made up out of philosophical reasons and not historical.
Society and economy
After the crusade the cultural and economical contacts with Byzanz and the east laying islamic areas. Byzanz was the market, where people could find nearly everything and Europe got to know new commodities like silk, spices, fruits and mirrors out of crystal. Although only the rich people could afford to buy most of the commodities, trading with the commodities was a lucrative business for townspeople. But the economy could not only survive by the imports. There was also a lot of export to the east. European trader sent ships with woollen material, corn, flax, wine, salt, wood and fur to the orient.
Climate and agriculture
At 1300 till 1350 the mediaeval warm period ended and the little glacial period came. The colder climate caused the crop to be lesser. Famines and plagues and civil wars came as an consequence. The most important events were the big dearth 1315 till 1317,which was caused by overpopulation, crop failure and nature catastrophe, the black death, which caused 30% of the German population to die, and the hundred years’ war. As the population of Europe shrank to the half , there was more land for the survivors but as a consequence the work got more expensive. It was the end of the peonage in the biggest part of Europe.
In Germany was an agricultural crises. It let the prices of agricultural products sink. The people began to move to another countries and a lot of areas made desolate. Simultaneously the prices for industrial products climbed up. It needed 100 years of recovering, but as the town recovered the situation of the lower Nobility and the countrymen permanently got worse.
The three orders
Clergy
The Clergy communicated between god and the people through prays, masses and religious rituals.
Being a men out of the Clergy meant special laws, like a tax to the head of the church, and duties, like the celibacy.
The Clergy veer more and more away from the people. Therefore mendicant orders and apostolic communes emerged, which wanted to live a simple life. A lot of them were chased by the church due to heresy.
Nobility
Knighthood
The Knighthood is also mostly the lower Nobility. Out of it established the Ministries since the knights belonged to a king, emperor or prince. The requirement to become a knight was to be already a nobleman. To become a knight one needed the accolade. This was performed by the monarchy or another nobleman, which had the admission to do it. This was mostly just of symbolic nature and is comparable to conferring of an order nowadays. The most men had not the funds to keep up the knighthood. To be able to be a knight, a man had to have a special salary. Their work consists of orders of the king or pinces.
Ministries
The ministries were the lower Nobility. They are not prepaid servants, but in a higher position. They worked at the court and administer the money of their lords, through which they gained big political influences. The ministries even built their own castles, which were located near farms and villages.
Baronial Nobility
The baronial Nobility consists of big rich noble families and small families. It is divided into imperial princes and feudal lords. This division is very unsure. In recorded lists of a king we can see that there are families which historian do not count to this order.
Territorial Nobility
The most part of the Nobility takes the territorial Nobility. This were mostly big rich families which were also in the early and high mediaeval times territorial Nobility. But it could also be rich families of the townspeople who were promoted.
Townspeople and farmers
Countrymen
¾ % of society were countrymen.
In the late mediaeval times the main commodities was meat. The countrymen then had less agriculture and more cattle breeding. The men had a strong dependence on countryside and climate.
The countrymen had a hard life. They did not only harvest for themselves but also for their feudal lords. On an average they could keep lesser than the half of their corp. They were very happy when they could harvest a lot, eat one’s fill and over life the winter and did not starve cause e. g. the weather destroyed their corp.
Townspeople
To the townspeople count craftspeople like bakers, smiths or shoemaker.
Guild
The guild was an annexation of craftspeople of the same craft. Often a whole family was part in a guild since the children learned their profession by their parents. The guild set every rule for everybody, who was part of the guild. Therefore they helped each other in every way, eve if somebody of the family of a member was ill. In the guild was a strong company between the people.
Since the 14th century the guild had a high political influence and controlled the life in towns. In comparison with today you can say that industry controls us today like the guild back than.
Conflicts
Between the countrymen and Nobility
After the black death the request for the staple corn fell and to bring about also the price. The loss of income affected especially the lords and a lot of abbeys. Their whole life depended on the proceeds of the market. The countrymen made a revolt to get the Nobility to make the price higher.
Between townspeople and Nobility
There are 200 inner-city turmoil’s known today. The reason for these turmoil’s was in the most cases the pretended mismanagement rather the abuse of authority of families of the Nobility. The most conflicts ended bloody.
Between townspeople and farmers and Clergy
There were also conflicts between townspeople and countrymen and the Clergy. They argued about exemption from taxation.
Social inequality
The social inequality was very clearly at that time.
Townspeople and farmers
The farmers were in the worst condition. They always had to worry if they over lived the next winter. The most of their crops had to be handed over and mostly there was not left enough for themselves. Also in the late mediaeval times was a bad climate and therefore the crop got less. The townspeople had a better condition than the farmers. They were still very poor, but they had their guilds in which was a great coherence and they could count on help any time. Of course the work was still as hard as one of a farmer, but farmers depended on their crop and the townspeople could work on every condition.
Nobility
The Nobility had different conditions. Mostly they had a good life with a good financial salary, but of course the lower Nobility could also be poor. The lower Nobility belonged to the higher Nobility and had to serve them. They could not make their own decisions, but got a good salary. The higher Nobility owned big lands and were rich. Mostly they did not have to worry too much. But of course they also depended on the taxes, which was a lot of their wealthiness.
Clergy
The Clergy had a good condition and enjoyed a high prestige. They were seen as something special since they were so close to god. People out of the Clergy had still to pay taxes like others, but to the bishop. Also they bounded to special rules like the celibacy. But the most were in the Clergy out of belief and let all this voluntarily upon themselves, because they believe it is the right thing to do.
Mediaeval times today
The mediaeval times scene
This scene is a subculture, which try to empathise the life of people in the mediaeval times. They try to live like them by copying their everyday life, music, craft and gastronomy. Since the end of the 1970s this scene rejoiced in big popularity. Through their events, like markets,workshops and concerts, they draw millions of people to their event.
Music
The most audience got the mediaeval scene in the 80s, because of the famous mediaeval group “Corvus Corax”. They created a new musical style, the bagpipe-rock-style. At the beginning and in the middle of the 90s a lot of more groups were formed, like “Subway to Sally” or “In Extremo”. In this time were also created the big events like mediaeval markets, celtic festivals or roman festivals.
Facts and legend
Not only the mediaeval times are tried to displayed, which laid to a mixture. In show on mediaeval markets you can sometimes see a viking, out of 800 B.C., fight a knight, out of the high mediaeval times. Mostly the organizer do not care so much in details since most visitors do not know the history that much and they do not really care. For the organizer it is just important that people come and that they earn enough money. Every organizer is differently in this case. Some say to be attired in mediaeval times only means no watch, plastic or jeans, but some really do sew their clothes by themselves and try to make it like it really was back then. But they do not only fabricate clothes by themselves, even tents, everyday life things and musical instruments.
At the market
Typical gods are herbs, furs, leather, pottery, attire, batons, thrustings, bows and mediaeval clothes. At booths you can find smiths, gaffer and weaver. Also on almost every market findable are musicians, who try to make authentic mediaeval music. Beside musicians there are actors, acrobats, swordsman and fire-breather. Sometimes there is even a jester.
Tournaments
On big markets you can find Knight tournaments. The participants are mostly dedicated actors who rehearsed these fights. Disciplines which are shown are e. g. duels or joust, the fight on horses with a lance.
Language
On some markets you can hear some strange words. The organizer want to give the visitors feeling of the mediaeval times.. They could say “pocket dragon” for a lighter, “time iron” for a watch or “listening bone” for a handy. The Euro is referred as thaler.
These ways of speaking were created because they wanted to avoid modern words. Also the people on the market will sometimes referre to you as noble warrior or lovely maiden. They use this to make the visitors more fell like they really are in the mediaeval times. But no one in the mediaeval times talked like that. It is an artificial language.
Gothic
The youth culture Gothic is known to have an interest in the mediaeval times. Of course this does not contain every member. On a mediaeval festival it is likely to meet a Goth. The Goths have the prejudice to be satanic and evil. This is only a prejudice and is not true in no way. They just have another view of life and that is nothing evil. They are very friendly and the organizer of the “Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum”, one of the biggest mediaeval festivals in Europe, even says that they made no trouble at their festival compared to other visitors, who were totally drunk and he really appreciate the Goths as visitors.
The view of the Goths to the mediaeval times is mostly a romantic dreamy view. The most do not want to deal with the real life back then. Mostly they only see the romantic in that period.
Conclusion
The worst condition had the farmers, townspeople and the lower Nobility. The best had the higher Nobility and the Clergy.
Mostly the people do not know the bad life back then. They do not care so much about it. Even the people, who are really interested in the mediaeval times are more interested in the good and exciting things, like knight tournaments. Of course it is not spoken about everyone but about the most.
Even if people today on festivals do not care in detail too much it is good to see that their even is interest in the mediaeval times. Some people could really get inspired by those festivals and do want to know more about it.
I think it is important to know about the past and we can even learn by them and do not make the same mistakes again. On medaeval festivals you can get a good impression of the mediaeval times and it really is fun to see how we could have lived if we were born in that time
Daily reports
Monday
First I looked through my material to which count the two books “Einführung in die Geschichte des Mittelalter” by Hartmut Boockmann and “Lebensformen im Mittelalter” by Arno Borst. I could use some parts of the book quite good and filtered the most important information out of the text and wrote it down on paper.
Tuesday
The first thing I did was to read the texts I found on the internet on different sites (found in the bibliography). I could use quite a lot and of course filtered the most important facts out and wrote them down.
Wednesday
I wrote all the texts I did on paper the last two days on the computer and could now better look up the vocabulary at dict.leo.org . I also wrote down the daily report of Monday till Wednesday. In the last lesson I had a conservation with Miss Weber. I had to have a reference to a today. I decided that I could take the role of the mediaeval times today, cause there exist mediaeval times festivals and the people out of the Gothic scene are really interested in the mediaeval times.
Thursday
I took the new material I searched the day before for and made texts out of it and tipped it on the computer. Then I made my structure and began to made my finished version of my work.
Friday
I finished some texts with some last words. Then I checked for grammatically mistakes. I finished my symbol, which I started making the week end before Vorhaben, with some pictures I put on it.
Monday
I finished the whole texts on the week end. On this day I made my placards and looked up vocabulary for the talk.
Tuesday
I wrote notes for my presentation on cards and practised my talk
Bibliography
Books
Boockmann, H. : Einführung in die Geschichte des Mittelalter, 7. Auflage, München, 2001.
Borst, A. : Lebensformen im Mittelalter, 3. Auflage, München, 2002.
Links
www.wikipedia.de
http://www.poprawka.de/gesellschaft/ge.pdf
http://fsgeschichte.spiritus.ch/files/Gesellschaft_Mittelalter.pdf
http://www.wasistwas.de/geschichte/alle-artikel/artikel/link//1a11555438/browse/14/article/was-ist-eine-zunft.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=48
www.spectaculum.de