REPORT RESUMES ED 013 -993 24 AA 000 261. MEDIEVAL STUDIES. BY- MARTONFFY, ANDREA PONTECORVO AND OTHERS CHICAGO UNIV., ILLS REPORT NUMBER BR-6- 2445 -2 EDRS PRICE MFS0.50 HC -$4.20 103P. DESCRIPTORS.... *MEDIEVAL HISTORY, *CURRICULUM GUIDES, MODELS, *QUESTIONING TECHNIQUES, POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION, ECONOMIC STATUS' *SOCIAL STUDIES, *CULTURAL BACKGROUND A CURRICULUM GUIDE ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES ISPRESENTED, INCLUDING TEACHER MATERIALS AND STUDENT PROBLEM SETS. THE TEACHER MATERIALS DESCRIBE AND EXPLAIN THE ECONOMIC,SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL ASPECTS OF MANORIAL LIFE - -THEPREDOMINANT FORM OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE IN NORTHERN FRANCE, ENGLAND,AND GERMANY DURING THE PERIOD FROM APPROXIMATELY 800 TO 1300 A.D.AN INTRODUCTION IS ALSO GIVEN TO THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN "SOCIAL" AND "CULTURAL" SYSTEMS AS APPLICABLE TO MEDIEVAL LIFE. STUDENTS MAY OBTAIN ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONTHROUGH A QUESTION PERIOD AND RECOMMENDED READING. DESCRIPTIVE ESSAYS ARE TO BE WRITTEN BY THE STUDENTS AND THEN USED ASTHE BASIS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION. SORT CARDS ARE TO BE USED INAN EXERCISE TCCFRESENT SPECIFICS SO STUDENTS CAN CONSTRUCTA HYPOTHETICAL MODEL OF FRENCH FEUDALISM DURING THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD. DOCUMENT EXCERPTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE BETWEENVARIOUS ROMAN CATHOLIC POPES AND LAY LEADERS DURING THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD ARE INCLUDED. SAMPLE QUESTION SHEETS FOR STUDENT COMPLETION ARE ALSO ILLUSTRATED.(TC) parish church IR 1111 fILLAGE I 111 a ° ft- * ,* * TUN- JKS v. ecervo 1r:tariff T(RasNewman r Ed'rBernstein, Gpneral Editor It CHICAG OCTAL STEINS P1111JECT TRIAL EDITION Materials Developed by CHICAGO SOCIAL STUDIES PROJECT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO Edgar Bernstein-Director Philip Montag - As Director Andrea Pontecorvo Martonffy- Teacher and Curriculum Designer Jane Ashbrook Teacher and Curriculum Designer Thomas Newman-Teacher and Curriculum Designer Joel Surgal -Teacher and Curriculum Designer Peggy Vecchione-Administrative Assistant The curriculum development reported herein was performed pur- suant to a contract with the United States Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, under the provision of the Cooperative Research Program. MEDIEVAL STUDIES Problem # Student Materials PROBLEM SET MED-I: THE MANOR Med-I (A) Neauville Manor Problem Med-I (B) "The Peasant Bodo" Med-I (C) English Manor Expense Account Med-I (D) 14th Century EnglishManorial Life Med-I (E) Manor Court Rolls PROBLEM SET MED-II: THE FEUDALSYSTEM Med-II (A) Card Sort Problem Med-II (B) Card Sort Problem (conb.) Med-II (C) Card Sort Problem (cont.) ... PROBLEM SET MED-II: THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 1W-III Correspondence between popes) king, and emperors. Teacher Materials PART I THE MEDIEVAL MANOR Part I of the Medieval unit comprises a study of the Medieval manor. It attempts a description and explanation of the economic, social, and political aspects of manorial life--the predominant form of agricultural life in Northern France, England, and Germany during the period from ap- proximately 800-1300 A.D. The manor is viewed as a microcosmic society, a relatively self-contained human community. Historical and political distinctions between manorialism as it evolved in France and England are presented. In terms of Social Science concepts, the students' previous dealings with the universal categories of culture are reinforced. The mutual interdependence of these is particularly relevant to a study of the medieval manor. The process of social change via technological innova- tion is reintroduced and reinforced. An attempt is made also to introduce the Parsonian distincticn between "social" and "cultural" systems as ap- plicable to Medieval life. Student readings and exercises in the study include: 1. Neauville Manor problem. 2. "The Peasant Bodo," from Eileen Power's Medieval People. 3. An excerpt from the expense account of a 13th Century English Manor. 4. A fictional description of 14th Century English manorial life from H. S. Bennett's Life on the English Manor. 5. Excerpts from Manor Court Rolls of a 14th Century English Manor. Manorialism The manorial system encompassed the predominant economic, social, and political institutions which governed the lives of agricultural workers in Northern France, Germany, and England during the period from approximately 800-1300 A.D. It was a system most adaptable to relatively fertile geo- graphic areas of moderate continental climate which experienced no prolonged dryness in summer. Grain could be sown twice yearly in both fall and spring and harvested in the summer and early fall. There is a great deal of dis- agreement regarding the exact origins of communal manorial life due to the paucity of source materials from the early Medieval period. Latest re- search would point to the fact that there was no one single line of develop- ment of the medieval manor. The manorial village may have originated in the great Roman estates prevalent during the last days of the Empire. In Gaul, these estates had passed into the hands of Frankish kings or were given by them to their followers or to the Church in the early Medieval lleriod. Cultivation of 1 2 these by slaves had gradually given way to cultivation by coloni in the last days of the Empire. Each colonus had a cottage and a small piece of land for personal use, but his major time was spent working in the fields of the estate owner. In Carolingian times (ca. 800) many large estates of both Roman and Frankish origin were cultivated on a similar system, and it would seem that the Roman colonus was a likely ancestor of the medieval serf. Other explanations for the rise of medieval manorialism depend far less on historical evolution from Roman models. A new agricultural technique, the mouldboard plow, was probably invented among German tribes sometime in the 4th or 5th Centures, A.D. In order for the North European plains to be maximally productive agriculturally, improved drainage techniques had to be developed; these were supposedly supplied by the mouldboard plow. Since the plow overturned the soil in furrows; creating a series of artificial ridges separated by shallow ditches running parallel through the length of a field, it allowed the drainage of standing water in the spring and thus made possible earlier planting. Field patterns on the Roman latifundia had generally been squarish in configuration, while the dominant field pattern of the Medieval manor was a grouping in parallel strips. The plow required eight oxen to operate, was cumbersome and could not be turned easily atthe end of a given strip. The discontinuous parallel strip appearance of the typical manor farmland suggests that the plow itselfdetermined the characteristic field patterns of the manor. Since draught animals were scarce during the early medieval period, the necessity for a number of farmers to work their land together in order to utilize the benefits of this new technique rendered communal living an obvious solution. The exact causal relationship between the extra-manorial political system (feudalism) and manorialism is also difficult to specify. It has been suggested that the desire for protection from violence or invasion precipitated the communal living of the manorial village which sacrificed its "freedom" to a lord protector. The manorial system has also been seen as a byproduct of the broader political system by which rulerslike William the Conqueror, example, requiring some way to reimburse loyal soldiers, granted gifts oV land to these warriors who in turn became overlords of manorial estates. (There is some evidence, however, that manorial life antedated the appearance of even the Anglo-Saxon kings. In Carolingian times, during the )th and 10th Centuries, there were some free villages, communally organized, which owed, allegiance to no lord but were composed of free farmers who (those to live together in order to cooperatively cultivate their fields. Sone of these were found in England as late as the llth Cen- tury and were prePominant in parts of Germany.) The manorialism with which this unit deals was intimately linked with the extra-manorial feudal system, The manorial paradigms which the unit presents were a generally pre- vailing societal form by the 10th Century in the regions of the North European plain. Geographically, the manor was composed of four general areas. The arable land grew the crops on which the manorial inhabitants subsisted. This was usually divided into three fields, two of which were planted each year while one lay fallow. Planting was done with summer and winter grain. The fallow field required plowing twice yearly in order to discourage the growth of woods, while the other two fields required annual 3 plowing and harvesting. The three fields were laid out in strips,and each peasant in the medieval village "owned" one stripin each of the three fields. The meadow land of the manor supplied the unabundanthay necessary to support draught animals and was similarly divided into smallindividual strips. Shortage of winter fodder for his draught animals was aconstant threat to the medieval peasant. The manor's waste land provided summerpasture for pigs, geese, cattle, and sheep which belongedto the village in common. This forested area also provided wood for fueland building purposes. The village was located in the center of the arableland near a source of drinking water and consisted of the cottages ofthe peasants and the small manorial church and mill. The actual peasant dwelling(the tenement) was extremely modest. It was generally a but or cottage with a smallgarden plot and perhaps a few fruit trees. In addition to his roughly equalplots of land in each of the arable fields(usually approximately 1 virgate-20 acres) the peasant had a right to share in the use of the wasteland, pasture, meadow, and woods. Productivity of the manor was generally ex- tremely low. Much seed vas "thrown to the winds" and although the value of manure was understood as a general rulethere seems to have beenno really effective attempt to utilize it forsoil fertilization. Cheese was made from cow's milk and sheep provided woolfor the peasant's costume.