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The Feudal System The Artios Home Companion Series Unit 8: The Feudal System Teacher Overview Leading Ideas An individual’s character will be reflected in his leadership. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he There is power in the spoken word to do evil or to do good. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh The rise and fall of nations and leaders is determined by God. God’s word is the supreme source of God’s revelation to man. II Timothy 3:16-17 Roland pledging his fealty to Charlemagne Vocabulary After the Fall of Rome and the conquests and raids of the Lesson One: Northmen, the people of homage vassal fealty Europe needed protection and fief chaos security. It was out of this need that the Feudal system Reading and Assignments arose. Lesser lords and knights would pay tribute to Based on your student’s age and ability, the reading in more powerful nobles in this unit may be read aloud to the student and exchange for their protection. journaling and notebook pages may be completed While this sounds good in orally. Likewise, other assignments can be done with an theory, the resulting system appropriate combination of independent and guided had its disadvantages, such as study. abuse of the poor. In this unit we will study the effects of In this unit, students will: Feudalism. Complete one lesson in which they will learn about The Feudal System. Key People Define vocabulary words. Read selected chapters from Stories of Beowulf: William the Conqueror Told to Children. Vassal Learn about Direct Quotations and complete Chaos corresponding grammar exercises. Fealty . Vassal Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 1 Literature, Composition, and Grammar Stories of Beowulf: Told to Children Literature for Units 7-10 by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall from The Medieval Literary Period “Peacefully they slept with arms and armour thrown aside, having no fear of any foe.” – From Chapter 1 Unit 8 Assignments Literature and Composition Read chapters 4-6 in Stories of Beowulf. Continue the outline you began last week, and outline chapters 4-6. Grammar Read the notes on Direct Quotations beginning on page 3. Complete the corresponding exercises on the Artios Home Companion website. Continue adding buzzwords to your grammar rule cheat sheet. Context Resources There have been many adaptations of Beowulf over the years, and many students find his adventures to be fascinating. You will find a collection of websites with extra activities, as well as links to other versions of this story, within the resources section of the Artios Home Companion website. Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 2 Grammar Notes for Unit 8 Used by permission: www.analyticalgrammar.com Direct Quotations Buzzword: Direct Quote When you’re reading something, how do you know who is saying what? “Bill, I want to go home,” said John. In the sentence above, who is speaking? John! Right! In English we use punctuation called quotation marks to show when words are being spoken by someone in particular. What about in this sentence? “John, I was hoping to stay a little longer,” I said. Assuming these two sentences form a little story, who is speaking now? That’s right ... Bill! Buzzword: Quotation Marks These, “ ” are QUOTATION MARKS. You always put them around the words people speak. Whatever is inside the quotation marks (words and punctuation) is called DIALOGUE. The rest of the sentence (said John or I said) is called the NARRATIVE. The narrative tells us who is speaking and sometimes gives us more information about what is happening. EXAMPLE: As I walked in the room, I yelled, “Is anyone here?” There are a few specific things to know when using quotation marks. Pay attention to these examples and look back at them during your exercises if you need help. A. Always begin your dialogue with a capital letter if the quote is a sentence. EXAMPLE: James said, “Tell me more about your trip.” B. The BROKEN QUOTE: When a quoted sentence of dialogue is divided into two parts with narrative in between, the second part of the dialogue begins with a lower case letter. EXAMPLE: “I really was hoping,” said Pam, “that you would come.” C. Sometimes the speaker has more than one sentence to say. EXAMPLE: “The state fair is great!” cried Janie. “Don’t you want to go? I do!” Each time you write dialogue, you must enclose the entire speech in quotation marks, even if the dialogue consists of fourteen sentences! Please also note that when you have a complete sentence in front of the narrative, you must have a period after the narrative. So this is different from the broken quote we described in part B of these notes. D. Suppose you are writing a sentence which begins with dialogue and ends with narrative. And then suppose that your dialogue is a statement, which would ordinarily end with a period. Here’s how you might think it should be done: Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 3 EXAMPLE: “I wish I could go to the state fair.” said Bob. Now, I think that sentence looks confusing. We know that a period is a signal to the reader to come to a full stop, right? So, if the reader comes to a full stop after fair, then is he supposed to come to another full stop after Bob? Here’s how we solve this problem: we change the period after fair to a comma, so it looks like this: EXAMPLE: “I wish I could go to the state fair,” said Bob. Now it’s not confusing at all! We only do this if the punctuation would have been a period. If it is an exclamation mark or question mark, you leave it there. Buzzword: Change Gear Comma E. When you go from dialogue to narrative or narrative to dialogue - unless there is other punctuation present - you need a comma to “change gears” from one to the other. EXAMPLE: I asked, “Who is your science teacher?” (note the location of the comma after “asked”) “He is my favorite science teacher!” yelled Roger. (note there is no “change gear” comma because there is an exclamation mark) More Copy-editing Symbols: Insert quotation marks and capitalize the word “this”: I said, this is my quote. The edited sentence would be (edits in yellow): I said, “This is my quote.” Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 4 L e s s o n O n e History Overview and Assignments The Feudal System Reading and Assignments Read the article: The Feudal System, pages 6-9. Define each vocabulary word in the context of the reading and put the word and its definition in the vocabulary section of your notebook. After reading the article, summarize the story you read by either: ▪ Retelling it out loud to your teacher or parent. OR ▪ Completing an appropriate notebook page. Either way, be sure to include an overview of key people, dates, and events in your summary. Explore the following websites: http://www.angelfire.com/hi5/interactive_learning/ Ploughing on a French ducal manor in March NormanConquest/the_middle__ages.htm Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, c.1410 http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/ http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=111779 In this unit we will discuss how the http://www.btinternet.com/~mrfield/Conquest/intro Feudal system was organized and .htm how it worked. The Feudal system In order to understand the sequence of arose out of the common man’s need events, examine the bayeux tapestry for protection, and the Lords and website (in the assignment list for Lesson 1) Kings need for men to work their and examine the tapestry scene by scene. land and serve in their military. Make your own”tapestry” by either drawing While this system of government or painting the events of 1066 scene by may have served a need in its day, it scene. came to the detriment of many. The You can also make a timeline of the events of Common man did not own land in 1066. the Feudal system. It also allowed many conflicts and wars to breakout Vocabulary between different nobles who sought after power. In truth, the Feudal homage fief system arose out of desperation and vassal chaos it lasted for many years. fealty Middle Ages: Elementary Unit 8: The Feudal System - Page 5 Adapted from the book: The Story of Europe H.E. Marshall The Feudal System In 911 King Rollo of the Vikings became not give it completely. He let people use his Robert, Duke of Normandy. He did land if they promised to be loyal to him. homage to Charles the Simple. Charles was They promised to help the king in his wars. the king of the Franks. At the homage This promise was made during a special service Rollo would not kiss the king’s feet. ceremony. The person knelt before the He most likely got on his knees in front of king. He put his hands in the king’s hands. the king. He let the king hold his hands. He He vowed to be the king’s man. Then the promised to be the king’s man. The word king kissed the man and raised him to his “homage” comes from the French word for feet. The act of homage was done. The man. The French word for man is person was now the king’s vassal. “homme.” Doing homage meant to be loyal Next, the vassal would put his hand on and belong to someone more powerful.
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