Health and Medicine

            

In the Middle Ages, going to doctor for being ill or unhealthy was a fast way to death. The Medieval doctors, or surgeons, were not very scientific, and there was no idea of germs. Even though doctors were not that trustworthy or cured illnesses, they were so expensive that peasants were hardly able to afford them. Instead, they visited an ‘apothecary’ (a not trained chemist) or a ‘wise women’ who worked with herd and other natural medicine. The medieval peasant believed that any illness was punishment from god for sinful behavior and they had to pray, do good deeds and go on a pilgrimage to be forgiven and cured.

The medieval church also stated that the world was made up of 4 elements which were represented by 4 liquids (humours) in human body. Numbering, there were:

-          Blood

-          Yellow bile

-          Black bile

-          Phlegm

These humours had to be balanced in human body; otherwise they were believed to cause illness and disease. According to 17^th century doctors, if you had too much blood, doctors used leeches and bleed you to cure fever or bad temper. The black bile made you depressed and doctors would give a purgative. Too much of yellow bile was cured by making you vomit. People with too much of phlegm were supposed to be sad who were supposed to be cured by making them  hot and sticky.

The main reason of medieval people dying early was dirty conditions but being ill took a huge part too. The ill people were usually treated in a wrong way, which leaded them to serious illness or even death. For madness and evil spirits inside the head, surgeons used trepanning, cutting a hole into the skull to release evil spirits. Also, bad blood was drained from a certain spot of the body using a dirty knife or leeches.

Crime and Punishment

            

 Crime and punishment in the Medieval times were complete nonsense from the view of Modern day. A lot of crimes were involved with the church and the feudal system. Numbering, one was heresy( saying things against the church) and the other is working on Sundays and holidays which aren’t considered as crime in these days. Other crimes that are not crimes were: bakers baking faulty bread, drunkenness, nagging one’s husband, swearing, telling lies, caught not working hard enough, breaking curfew and hunting in nobleman’s forest. However, they had ideas of serious crimes like murdering or poisoning people but those were treated with a much violently.

 The most common form of punishment were fines, shaming, mutation (cutting off a part of the body) or death but those were also involved in the feudal system. If a peasant was killed, the murderer received a fine of 200 shilling but if a noble man was killed, the murderer had to pay 60 times finer, 12000 shilling.

Some of the medieval torture device and how it was used are:
-Brank: humiliate women for gossiping
-Pillory: head and arm stuck
-Drunkards Cloak: wear a barrel
-Head crusher: slowly crushes the head
-Foot board: stand on nails
which are too cruel and would damage the human rights in the modern days.

But torturing was an easy way to make people afraid and obey as well as to punish people who did the wrong things or obtain information needed. 

I think the punishment in the Middle Ages were so brutal as there was no idea of human rights, especially for peasant who were the lowest of the feudal system and were considered as slaves or animals. The punishments were committed by the name of the gods which made people felt less guilty. Moreover, the people in the Medieval times had no idea of what was wrong or what was right because they were never taught to not to do the wrong things or crimes. Also, people had gone through many wars, which made them have the urge to survive in such a bad condition, even through crimes.

The Crusades

The crusades are fight between Christian, Jews and Muslim over Jerusalem which was a holy land for all three religion. to Christians, the Jerusalem was where Jesus lived and was  buried in the Church of Holy Sepulchre and to Jews, the Wailing wall is the last remaining part of King Herod's temple. also the Dome of Rock Mosque was built where Muslims believe that the Prophet Mohammed rose up and visited heaven. 

In 638, Jerusalem was ruled by an Egyptian Muslim leader who allowed Jews and Christians to worship their gods which he thought would make people to respect Islam. other leaders were also okay with people believing in other gods and visiting their shrines until in 1079, when another Muslims from Turkey became leaders of the Jerusalem. They didn't allow any people from other religion and began to attack the Jews and Christians which made the Pope very annoyed. He announced the crusades, to get back the Roman territory and make sure his people was free to visit the holy land. later in the crusades, anyone including knights and peasants were allowed to join the crusade without getting the Pope's permission.

The Cathoic Church

 

Hello believers of 21st century. It's a bit embarassing to tell this my self, but I am the Pope of the Middle ages, and I was considered as the God's representive on Earth. People believed that God and this church community controlled their lives and the world which was actually kind of true, this church owning the third of properties in Europe. The people who didn't obey me, I mean the God, was punished either metally, that they will go to hell, and physically, with money and stuff. There is this specific ceremony, called indulgences that peasants believed, no, got their sins forgiven by paying some extra money. Actually they had to pay tithe to church, the tenth of their properties. It was worth it because their sins were forgiven by the name of God and they would go to heaven instead of the deadly heaven. It is a sad thing that churches are not the most powerful place these days, but I'm glad that still a lot of people believe in God. What about paying bit more of money people? 

 

Knights

The knights were the noble men who fought for the king in Middle Ages. The process of becoming a knight began as a page boy, when they were only 7 years old, in another noble household to learn manners. When the page boy became 14 years old, he learned to use weapons and ride horses well as a squire, swimming and wrestling to become fit. The last stage is going through the knighthood ceremony, where they get dressed up and pray. The knight had to follow a special code of conduct, chivalry. But chivalry still exists in our life as a code of conduct, in schools and public places.

Town Life

Living in a medieval town was not much better than living in a village. Or it was worse, considering the smell and sight of a town, where people threw their waste on the street and the street was filled with animal entrails, mud, polluted medieval water and more gross things. Any animals like pigs and horses used the same road as people. High shoes were invented to avoid stepping on the mud, even though hay was on the mud to prevent sinking into the mud. Eventually people were stinking as well as the street, all because of the sewage and waste they produced.

However, living in a town had more freedom than living in a lord's manor where there was no way out. These towns were developed where the major roads met or near a bridge where people came to trade. And if the people made enough money, they could join together to buy a charter from the king or lord for freedom.

There were several jobs you could only do in a Middle Ages town. Numbering, chain mail makers, who made chain mail for the knight; barber surgeons who cut hair and did operations that made the condition of the patient worse; fullers who transported wool; and tanners who turned cattle and sheep skins into leather.

Castle over Time

When William the Conquerer took over England, there were rebellious England citizens who didn’t want him as their king. So King William started to build castles all over England to remind them who was the boss. The first generations of those castles were Motte and Bailey castles, built in 1066 through 1087. The castles were built out of timber and wood, so they were fast and easy to build. Also, the castles were positioned high to attack toward below. However, considering that it was made out of wood, it was easy to be set on fire or even rot over time. If these flaws were discovered, enemies would attack easily. Consequently, William needed a stronger castle, or even a more permanent castle.

So in 1087-1154, the wooden castles were replaced with stone castles, named square keep castles, which were much stronger and lasted longer, providing better protection. Also, they were taller to observe further. But this time, they were much heavier too. The Motte couldn’t hold onto those stone castles anymore. Also, if they were surrounded, people inside would starve out. Furthermore, it was possible for the enemies to dig beneath which would make top parts collapse.

In 1154-1216, better castles were designed which were called stone keep castles. This one was also made out of stones so they were strong too. But there were some differences as they were rounder to watch from all directions, as well as keeping it hard for enemies to mine under the castle. Of course they had drawbacks too. It took a long time to build one and they were heavy too.

Towards the end of the period, castle became less defensive as life in England became less violent, more comfortable too.

Overall, the wooden castles were replaced into stone castles over the period as the wooden castles were weaker. However all castles were positioned high to watch and attack below.

Attacking a Castle

Invading, attacking or taking over a castle were quite common in Middle Ages. The attackers used trebuchet and catapult from a distance, to fire stones, dead bodies of defenders and even rotting bodies of infected animals and people that spread pests. Another machine to throw things into the castle was a magonel, usually used to fire small rocks. If they were closer to the castle, they laid the siege tower and ladders to climb into the castle. Moreover, sappers were used by specialist soldiers to dig under a wall or tower and collapse it, while hiding under a weapon called a tortoise. If all of these methods didn’t work, laid siege to the castle until people ran out of supplies and became too weak to fight back or surrender. If the people were fully provided with foods and water, battering ram was used to smash into the castle. Once arrived inside the castle, the king was killed and the castle was taken over.

 

Village Life

The feudal system is a system of giving out lands to manage England, first created by William the Conquerer. It was started to control the rebellious English people, placing loyal nobles to look after them by owning them and their properties.
 
A manor is piece of land that included the lord's castle or large manor house and village. Peasants who were belonging to a manor were forced to work for the lord, without any right to own their animals or go out of the manor. Peasants lived in a house made of mostly wattle and daub. The walls are woven twigs that daub was applied and the roof was made out of straw.