Middle+Ages+Artifacts

**//Ploughing- Charlemagne and the Carolingian//** Pisano, Andrea. //Ploughing- Chralemagne and the Carolingian//. 1336-1343. //ABC-Clio: Era: Middle Ages//. Web. 9 Oct. 2009.

This picture takes place in the middle ages. The vast majority of the population in the age of Charlemagne lived and worked on farms. It was a constant struggle to produce enough food to supply everybody with some. Most of the people who worked on the farm as farmers, were usually freemen, who owned the land they worked on. Monasteries made up the largest landowning complexes in the time of Charlemagne. There were two major innovatiosn that led to increased agricultural production during this time. One of those important innovations was the large wheeled plow. The second one was the three-field crop rotation. Without these innovations the soil would worn out by repeated crop planting, which usually left half of the farmer's land empty, or fallow. Farmers began to divide their land into three sections during the Carolingian period. The sections were divided this way, planting two and allowing one to lie fallow. That practice increased the productive area significantly and made more food available each year.

**//Viking Stettlement in Newfoundland//** Kereluk, Dylan. //Viking Stettlement in Newfoundland//. N.d. //ABC Clio//. Web. 16 Oct. 2009. <http://www.ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Eras/

This is a picture ofthe L'Anse aux Meadows, the site of an early- 11th- century Viking colony at the tip of the Great Northern Pennisula of the Island of Newfoundland. This settlement consited of a large number of sod- roofed buildings. This settlement also included a lumberyard and a shipyard. This Viking colony was inhabited for two or three years before it became abandoned. The best- known event of the early Middle Ages was the dramatic entry of Scandinavian people into the kingdoms of Europe. During the eighth century AD and continuing through the 11th century AD, the Vikings, in the sleek, fast moving ships, landed on the shores of France, England, Spain, The Meditterean, and also down the rivers of Western and Eastern Europe. The Vikings were often viewed as savage and unsophisticated plunders, but that is only part of the story.

. **Winter in medieval peasant village** //Winter in Medieval Peasant Village//. 15 Century. //ABC: Clio//. Web. 19 Oct. 2009. .

This picture depicts Winter in a Peasant Village. Perhaps the best nown fairs of medieval period are the Champagne fairs. Count Theobald II of Champagne who is also known as Theobald IV of Blois. He recognized that by organizing trade and provinding a central location, goods could be traded more easily. Theobald also recognized the potential for profit in hosting fairs. At its height, there were six fairs in Champagne, and it is largely thanks to them that the wool market thrived. Theobalds son whos name was Henry, also patronized the fairs, and sooon the counts of Champagne were faboulously wealthy. Fairs like those helped simulate the economy, not onle locally, but also throughtout Europe and into the Levant. Items such as english wool, French wine, Russian wax, and Prussian wheat could be found at these fairs. Champagne fairs did not remain as lucrative after the 14th Century, thanks to the ravages of the black death, war, and a commerical shift from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, they did mcuh to reinvigorate the Eurpoean economy.

**Battle of Poitiers** //Battle of Poitiers//. N.d. //ABC: Clio//. Web. 19 Oct. 2009. .

This picture depicts A Changing Society. What were the consequences of all those changes? The centralization of powere by monarchs probably led to more law and order on a local scale, since it discouraged land struggles between the nobles. However, this may have led to fiercer wars on a large scale, an example would be the Hundred Years' War between the rulers of England and France. That change in society led to a general decrease in the secular power of the church. The authority still remained pervasive in Renaissance life. Centralized power led to wealthier monarchs. The monarchs used their wealth to buy luxuries and build castles, and to also sponsor arts and scholarship, all of which supported the further growth of the middle class. All those changes, taken together, represented some of the key social transformations of the Middle Ages into the early modern era.

**Carcassonne Castle** //Carcassonne Castle//. N.d. //ABC: Clio//. Web. 19 Oct. 2009. .

As Europe recovered from the ninth- and 10th- cnetury invasions, and as commerece increased over the next several centuries, the towns and cities grew. Traditional crafts continued to be an important part of medieval life Particularly on the manor, but htose emerging centers became hubs of production and trade and home to a group of people who didn't fit in squarley with the "three orders". Shop owners, master craftsmen, and traders made up the urban midlle class. The urban middle class was a section of society that, in a time period would do much to ransform medieval kingdoms. That would turn into giant commerical states of the Rensissance.

//**Medieval Marriage Contract**// Krause, Johansen. //Medieval Marriage Contract//. N.d. //ABC:Clio//. Web. 26 Oct. 2009. .

Marriages between powerful families had the added benefit of forging alliances and peace treaties. A landownerf is less likely to atttcak a neighbor if the neighbor is a brother- in- law or son- in- law. He is more likely to come to their defense if other the other neighbor invades their land. Also, a good match could bring prestige to a family. Marrying one's daughter to the king of Jerusalem, for example, was unlikely to expand the family's fortune. Since the kingdom of Jerusalem was constantly under attack. But, the connection to the holy city undoubtedly increased the family's prestige.