Journal Entry #1: Daily Life in Medieval Europe
Today I gave my share in the feudalism system. It sucks being a serf but the feudalism system is the thing that keeps me alive day to day. I have to produce crops and goods in exchange for protection and food in the manor. If I don’t do my job the whole system will collapse and I will be the one to blame. If I provide food for the people in the manor I can get a place to live and protection from Vikings. The serfs have the hard life being that they can’t even leave the castle walls for the work we do. Im not happy with what we have to do because we live in a one room home with only enough food to live until the next day. The serfs have the hard life but in the end, someone has to do it.
Journal Entry #2: The Power of the church
The church is our everything and if we displease god we will suffer and be executed. Luckily, we participate in Indulgences which allows us to exchange money or some other price for forgiveness from god. If we confess our sins to the priest, they will come up a price for forgiveness. The church is really hard on the people because in order to save our soul we have to donate 10% of our income to the church, this process is called Tithe. This is difficult for the serfs because I don’t make much income in the first place, so donating 10% of almost nothing is really hard. If I displease the church I will face Excommunication which is the church’s most deadly weapon, getting kicked out of the church. There was a war between Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV because King Henry wanted all the leaders to follow him and the Pope thought that he could crown the king.
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Journal Entry #3: The crusades
The first crusade was caused by a new group of Arabs in 1095 when they invaded and took control of Jerusalem. The Arabs closed the city from the Jewish and Christian pilgrims causing Pope Urban II to call for a crusade or a holy war. There was a two-month bloody fight over the city causing Jerusalem to fall. The crusaders won their holy city by massacring all of the Muslims and Jews. Our people fought because the knights got a chance to fight and the peasants got a chance to escape their horrible life. Other reasons people would fight was because people could get a good adventure and even possibly get rich. The crusades exposed the Europeans to new cultures, it increased interest in acquiring goods, and it weakened the feudal system. To make all the knights and the serfs like me look unified we had the symbol of the crusades known as the red cross stitched onto our clothes. The crusades helped me a lot because since it weakened the feudal system I was able to leave the manor and I felt free.
Journal entry #4: The black death
I wouldn’t have gotten infected if it wasn’t for the increase of trade from Asia to Europe. When people from other countries came into the city I had a bad feeling something was going around. It started out as a really bad flu but I soon realized I had aches all over my body, and thats when I knew I was infected with the Bubonic Plague. We brought this on ourselves, our streets are really cramped and they are really dirty allowing the rats to spread the disease effectively. The worst part of my sickness was my glands, they would swell up and get tender these are called buboes. I wasn’t the only unlucky one, this plague infected over 30 million people. There was one cure for the plague called blood-letting where they remove the blood that houses the sickness. Unfortunately for me, I am writing this is my final days as I won’t get the treatment because I am a serf, not important.
Journal Entry #5: The decline of feudalism
There were many things that led to my freedom. This isn’t the most peaceful reason but the plague helped with the decline of Feudalism. The 100 year war decreased the population in the manors which also led to the decline. After the rise of government people had an organized government that no longer needed the protection of feudalism. The ending of feudalism made a new era occurs, the Early Modern Europe. Knights were no longer needed due to the invention of gunpowder and learning, art, and culture became more important. Trade became more important too so people didn’t need money from the feudalism system.