The Medieval is the longest major era in European history. It is also exceedingly complex. There are, however, some key elements that separate Medieval Europe from the classical civilization of Greece and Rome that it replaced and our modern world today. Life in Medieval Europe was ruder or more primative than that of Imperial Rome. There were barabarian elements. Society was dominated by a single, militant, and exclusive religion which discouraged or prevented the development of a secular society. The medieval era is generally defined as the period of European history from the fall of Rome (5th century) to the Renaissance (15th century). The Medieval era is often given only limited attentioin in histories of the West. In fact, the Medieval era by far is the longest period of European history--spanning a millenia. The impact on the Western mind and our modern society was enormous. There were three preminent cultural influences affecting Medievla Europe. The old civilization of imperial Rome left a poweful cultural footprint. The Church became the dominant influence during much of the Medieval period. The Church provided an ethical dimension that involved moral resonsibilities lacking in clasical society. The asecitism of the eralty Church, however, rejected the worldliness of pagan culture. While commonly denegrated as barbarian, the German invaders inculcated concepts of individuality and personal freedom that are today hallmarks of Western civilization. HBC has noted references in fairly recent literature to Aries' dual thesis that the medieval period neither had a sense of childhood as a distinct developmental period nor did medieval parents emotionally value their children. HBC hasn't addressed fashion in the eras before the 1500s yet. One thing we can tell you is that specialized boys' clothes did not exist in the 12th century. There was specialized children's clothing in the Roman era, but after the fall of Rome, the convention of specialized boys' clothing appears to have disappeared in Western Europe. Boys after breeching wore the same styles as their fathers. HBC hopes to eventually address earlier historical eras, but it will be some time before this is possible in any detail.
The Medieval is the longest major era in European history. It is also exceedingly complex. There are, however, some key elements that separate Medieval Europe from the classical civilization of Greece and Rome that it replaced and our modern world today. Life in Medieval Europe was ruder or more primative than that of Imperial Rome. There were barabarian elements. Society was dominated by a single, militant, and exclusive religion which discouraged or prevented the development of a secular society. There was great defference given to authority, both secular and temporal. Experiment and scientific inquiry virtually ceased. Comminication between people declined as the Roman ruins fell into disrepair and the decline of centralized rule resulted in the develoopment of small petty principalities.
Medieval Christian Europe faced several major military threats. The Huns were a major threat at the very outset pf Medieval Europe. The next principal threat was the Moors and Saracens. The Byzantines blocked the Islasmic advnce in the East, but Moorish armies invased Spain in the west and crossed the Pyranees into France. They were stopped by Frankish commander Charles Martel at Tours (732). The Moors retired back across the Pyranees, but Saraceen raiders attacked into Europe penetrating into the Alps and even sacking Rome. Eventually the Ottoman Turls would renew the threat in the East. Another Turkish people, the Hungarians. raided throughout centrall Europe. They were a major threat until defeated and Chritianized. The northern Germanic an unChritianized Germamix people began raiding Christin Rurope in the 8th century, first stiking the rich monastery at Lindesfarne, an island off morthern England. The Morsemen or Vikongs became a major threat to Christin Europe after the death of Charlrmagne and the splintering of his domaine. The Vikings established Normany, a dukedom that rivaled the power of the French monarchy and Duke Willian of Normandy would conquer England (1066). While Danish and Norwegian Vikings struck west and south, Swedish Vikings moved east and played a major role in the development of Russia. The Vikings while dsestating large areas also played a role in the spread of commerce and the evolution of democracy in England. Late medievl Europe would face assaults from the Mongols ad than the Ottoman Empire.
The Medieval era streches for essebtially a millenium. During that era there were countless battles. The Medieval era can be defined chronolgically in different ways. It is difficult to define the beginnin and end of the medieval battles. We tend to view them with disappearance of the Eastern Roman Empire (5th century AD) and the increasing use of gun powder weapons (16th century). The most famous battles of the Medieval era are those fought in Western Europe, esentially because people are most interested in the history of their own people or country. Many of these battles though well known, such as Hastings, were largely dynastic struggles of varying significance. Other battles largely familiar only to hisorians seem far more important in terms of the consequences to the modern world. The battle of Yarmuk (636) in the Middle East is not well known to the average reader, yet it had profound consequences. The Arabs at Yarmuk decisively ended the Christian Byzantine hold on the Middle East and within decades Muslim armies had entered Europe, conquered Spaoin and threatened France, a threat defeated at the battle of Poitiers (732). We will list here the Medieval battles that seem to us of greatest importance.
The greatest artifacts of the medieval era are the castkles that can be found all over Europe, especislly Western Europe. These castles were an integral part of the Medieval era and feudal system. Security was a major concern of Europeans, constsantly fscing raids from war-like peoples like the Huns, Bulgars, Maygars, Mongols, Vikings, Saracens, and others. Building fortified structures like castles was important for a feudal mlord to establish his control over his land and to guarantee his security. The first castles were rudimentary strongholds. Castle buiding technology gradually developed to a fine art. The Welsh castles built by the Normans are some of the finest examples of castles building. They also helped to guarantee a feudal lord's authority against his leige lords. The medieval era lasted for a milenia. In the later era the feudal lords and barons posed a obstacle to monarchs attempting to form nation states. Here the invention of gun powder and cannons gave monarchs the ability to reduce even imposing structures resulting in the emergence of yje modern nation state. We have not done much work on castles as our site focuses more on individuals than archirecture. We note an excellent site addressing the topic of European castles.
The Medieval period is a long, comple era in European history between ancient and modern times. Historians vary, but often define it from the fall of Rome in the 5th century AD to the Renaissanc of the 15th-16th century. There are many phases of this amazingly complex period, including pre-Christian antecedents, early Christian, Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic periods. In some areas, especially Spain there was an important Islamic influence. There was a general decline in civilizatioin and this is reflected in the in loss of ability by the medieval artist to depict scenes in classical precision. Some art historians suggest that this is a lessening concern of Christian art with the world. This may well be, but it also reflects a decline in education and training associated with civilization as well as the wealth needed to support sophticated art. There is also a wide ange of mediua, including wooden and stone free-standing and architectural sculpture to stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, manuscript illuminations (typically tempera and gold leaf on parchment or vellum), oil paintings, tapestries, and others. Medieval art presents a problem for HBC in that it is directly primaily at the glorification of God. Thus domestic scenes and everyday life are not commonly depicted, leaving us relatively few depictions of children. HBC wants to build a list of medieval artists that provide useful images of boys clothing. Our knowledge of artists during this period is very limited at this time. It is an a topic that we hope to be able to address evntually. Here establishing a clear time line concerning medieval art is not a easy matter. A HBC reader writes, for example, "The 16th century was no longer medieval with regard to the official
culture, but it´s not that easy. Pieter Breugel was "modern" painter in the sense that HBC wrote. His paintings tend to show late medieval scenes. He painted simple people and showed their clothing. What I understand from his paintings is, that children wore almost the same type of clothing.
The music of the medieval era is a vast and complex topic in that it encompases a period of avout a millenia from the fall of Rome (5th cetury AD) to the Renaisance (14th-14th centuries). This was a long period during which Europe underwent enormous change, espcialy during the lte or high medieval era. There were two principal types of music during the medieval era, sacred (Church) and seciular music. Most of what we know about medieval musich (especially) the Dark Ages is sacred music. Only the church had the institutional capability to create records of music and preserve it for future generations. Church music was dominanted by plainsong (chant) for most of the medieval era. Polyphony was invented (12th century), but did not immediately replace plainsong. An important part of church music was produced by choirs. The early church turned away from commounal singing and excluded women from singing in the church. Thus boys came to play an important role in sacred music. We have not yet created a page on early boy choirs, but we do have details about boy choirs in the high medieval era. Very little is known about secuilar music in the Dark Ages. After the fall of Rome the institutions which trainind singers and musciians disappeared. And what music continued was based on an oral tradition. It was not recorded on paper and virtually nothing has survived. This began to change by the middle period of the medievel era. Music and dance became an important part of courtly life and musical traditions began to develop as commerce and towns began to grow. Music was important
during celebration and festivities. The nobility could aford minstrals and troubadors to entertain them when they wanted. The common people had far fewer opportunities. The trubador is perhaps the most important purveyor of secular music during the medieval era. By the late medieval era an increasingly sophisticated musical tradition began to grow, especially with the invention of polypony. And with the invention of notation there ws a a way of preserbing musical works, althogh the lack of an institutional base means that relatively little secular mkusic has survived.
Passion Plays are medieval dramatizations of Christ's Passion. Traditionally Christ's Passion is seen as the last few day's of Christ's life, the period of intense suffering from the Garden of Gethsemane to his Crucifixion. The medieval passion plays gradually grew in length and commnly included Old Testament scenes as well as the Resurection. They evolved from the religious fest days and varied in content because of a wide range of local influences. They began to appear in the 10th century in a basic form and had reached their peak of development n the 14th century. There were regional differences as the the style and content. In addition to the cycle plays (based on Biblical stories), there were also Morality Plays (allegorical plays in which personified virtues and vices competed for the soul of man. These medieval dramas are of considerable historic importance because they represent an expression of the fervent religious belief of medieval Europe. They were also the first appearance of formal drama in Europe since classical times. Althoug the Church had played a role in the evolution of Passion Plays, they wereunable to mantain control of these productions which over time became more popular entertaiment than religious celebration. Ecclesiastical (Catholic and Protestant) and civil authorities acted to supress the productions in the 16th century. The Oberammergau Passion Play is the most important one to survive.
Various authors have addressed the problem of defining the medieval era. Some stress that medieval is not only a time period but also a
cultural state of the people, a state of consciousness. Jean Gebser wrote a lot about states of consciousness. A German reader writes, "I once was in Nepal and found a medieval atmosphere in one of the smaller towns in the Katmandu Valley. When you walk through such a place with open senses, you feel it!"
The medieval era is generally defined as the period of European history from the fall of Rome (5th century) to the Renaissance (15th century). The Medieval era is often given only limited attentioin in histories of the West. In fact, the Medieval era by far is the longest period of European history--spanning a millenia. The impact on the Western mind and our modern society was enormous. Modern scholarship is increasingly focusing on the so-called Dark Ages which, as a result, has received an historical reappraisal. Many authors object to the term as misleading. Other scholars increasingly see in the so called Dark Ages the foundation for many of the basic beliefs and social institutions of the West.
While the era is generally treated as a single era, this millennium long era was extremely diverse. The pace of social change begn to quicken in the 12h century. The Christian Church which dominated the Medieval era was, after the fall of Rome, the major force for cultural unty of the West. One notable trend was the endurance of fashion. Before the mass marketing of our modern age, fashions endured for decades if not centuries. Changes in fashion were glacial compared to the coming and going of modern fashions. A real problem when talking about medieval chronology is this: Renaissance began at Firenze around 1300. At that period France, England and Germany were still for two centuries in the Middle Ages.
There were three preminent cultural influences affecting Medieval Europe. The old civilization of imperial Rome left a poweful cultural footprint. The Church became the dominant influence during much of the Medieval period. The Church provided an ethical dimension that involved moral resonsibilities lacking in clasical society. The asecitism of the eralty Church, however, rejected the worldliness of pagan culture. While commonly denegrated as barbarian, and often ovelooked, the Germanic tribes also left a major cultural imprint. The Germanic invaders inculcated concepts of individuality and personal freedom that are today hallmarks of Western civilization.
Rome was in part a conduit of classical Greek culture to the West. The Romans aprropriated much of the culture of Greece after conqueing the Greeks in the mid-2nd century BC. This included art, literature, phiolosophyb, and scirence. But Rome was muchb more than a conduit, the Romans whikle never exceeding the Greeks in these areas, developed a remarable civilization oif their own, noted for law, public administratioina nd architecture and road building.
The Christian Church developed in the Roman Empire. The supression of Christians was a constant theme during the reigns of many emperors. The early Church fathers (Peter, Paul, and many others) operated in this hostile environmnt. Finally with Constantine, the Church became the official religion of the Empire. Early Church theologiand like Augustine lived at a time that the Church was not only tolerated, but the official religion of the Empire and a rligion that acted to supress other rival creeds. The Church enthused Rome with new ethical concepts ehich provided individuals moral responsibilities previously lacking. The Church's ascetisism, however rejected the woirldliness of pagan culture. The Church was thus significantly influenced by the Empire. Much of the Church's organization (pope, cardinal, bishop, ect) was a relection of how the Roman Empire was organized, although the modern organization of the Church and the primacy of the Pope only developed over time. The political structure of the Empire was reflected in how Christian diosceses were set up. Even before conversion, important local officials (Roman, Celtic, and Germanic) might protect or even endow monastaries and convents seeing it beneficial to have "a powehouse of prayer" in their territory. [Brown] One remarkable aspect of the triumph of Christianity in Europe was the fact that Christianity was the religion of the defeated Empire, yet it was gradually adoped by the victorious barbarians. The story of medieval conversions is a fascinating one. Actual conversion took many forms. Very few European people were Christianized by conquest. Rather conversion occurred by coverting leaders, primarily by persuasion. This process took many forms (missionary zeal, princly fiat, election, and shamanistic vision). Many features of the modern Church were not aspects of the early Church. One of the most important is the cult of the saints. Another is the confessional, intitially only practiced by the most deeply pious. One aspects of the confessional was tariffed penances based on penitentials. Surviving medieval penitentials provide a wealth of information to sociologists concerning the intimate details of everyday life. [Brown]
The cultural influence of the Germanic tribes is commonly not persued in any detail in survey histories of the Western world. This is no doubt due to the cultural flowering of Greece and Rome which draws so much attention. It should be rembered, however, that the Germanic invaders imposed themselves as the aristocratic class throughout most of Western Europe. Thus their influence and vales were of great importance during the medieval era and in the creation of the modern West. Any survey of Westen civilization should address this impact. While commonly denegrated as barbarian, the German invaders inculcated concepts of individuality and personal freedom. These ideas are today hallmarks of Western civilization. They also are notably the very ideas that place America and the West in conflict with the 20th century totalitarians (the German NAZIs, Italian Fascists, Japanese militarists, and Soviet Communists) and with Islamic fundamentalists in the 21st century.
After the fall of Rome, the Feudal system developed in Europe. The Feudalism was an economic, social, and economic system based apportionment of land in exchange for the provision of fealty and service. The system was based on the king granting land to his important noblemen who became barons. These land grants became heritary. The king also granted land to the Church. These nobels in exchange pledged loyally to the king and to provide soldiers and supplies in time of war. The great nobels in turn divied their fiefdom among lesser lords or knights who became his vassals. This system ws based on the laborof the lowest rung of the social order. Most Europeans were peasant farmers working on the land of a Feudal nobleman--the lor of the manner. They did not own their land, but allowed to work it in exchange for a hare of the crop and labor when required. As the Feudal system developed, the peasants or serfs became tied to th land, not allowed to leaveit without permission of the lord of the manner. The Feudal system began to weaken in Western Europe by the 16th century, but persisted much longer in Eastern Europe. The serfs in Russia werenot legal freed until the 19th century and it was not until the Revolution in the20th century that the still essentially Feudal estates were broken up.
The fashions that we discuss here during the Medieval era are to a large extent the fashions of the nobility in the courts of Europe. Only gradually did commoners like successful merchants aquire the ability to dress fashionably. The fashions worn by nobels and wealthy merchants changed slowly, especially in the early Medieval era. The nobility was a very narrow stata of society. Throughout the Medieval era the vast mass of the population were peasants eeking out a subsistence existence in rural areas and rarely venturing more than 50 miles from where they were born. Life for European peasants was very difficult. Few had money to actually purchase their clothing. Cloth was spun and woven by hand in peasant hovels. The principal material was wool. Linnen was made from flax, but ws expensive. Cotton was unknown in the early Medieval era and fter its introduction in the late Medeval era, very expensive as it was imported fom the East. Another imported fabric, silk, was also reserved for the wealthy. Even the most basic implements like needles were difficult to obtain and very expensive. Clothes made by pesants at home, because of the effort involved, were made as simply as possible and the fit was thus very loose. There was in thge early Mediueval era little difference between the dress of the nobility and the peasantry, although the material and workmanship usually differed. As time went by greater and greater differences developed. Fashion changes occurred first with te wealthy and only slowly fitered down to the peasant classes. Europen peasants primaarily wore wool and linen garments. Notonly were these the available fabrics, but sumptuary laws were passed restricting what different sicial classes could wear. English peasants in 1363 were limited to coarse materials, a plain linen girdle, and prohibited from wearing any fur. Peasants made what dyes they used from local roots and flowers w
hich because they often were not strong provided only soft hues to their clothes rather than brightly colored clothes that the nobility often which were made with more refined and expensive dyes. [Crush]
HBC has noted references in fairly recent literature to Aries' dual thesis that the medieval period neither had a sense of childhood as a distinct developmental period nor did medieval parents emotionally value their children. Aries in many ways launched the modern debate on the nature of childhood in
medieval Europe. [Aries] Many have summarized Aries thesis as that of parents not loving their children. This is, however a gross over simplification. While many may take issue with Aries, it is indisputable that his book "launched the debates on the history of
children and childhood which have lasted to the present day." Many
students have been influenced by Aries and come to college courses simply
assuming that the notion that medieval parents didn't love their children is generally accepted and "true"! A discussion of the impact of Aries, where his work came from and what happened to the thesis subsequently, disabuses students of the notion that the thesis is straightforward and has gone uncontested. Many historians place Aries in a long line of historians working in the area--pointing out, for example, that Norbert Elias' work on the "civilizing process" in the late 1930s anticipated Aries' central point AND that historians
that have come after Aries have, with varying degrees of success, refined,
complicated, and just plain disputed Aries' work. Cunningham also points out
that Part I of Aries' book has received a great deal of attention while his other chapters, particularly in the area of Education, typically get much less notice--is it fair to only focus on this one part? Clearly people in the the medieval period understood children and childhood differently from other historical moments and cultures, but scholars like Barbara Hanawalt (Growing Up in Medieval London, Oxford: 1986) and Ron
Finucane (Rescue of the Innocents, St. Martin's, 1997) have clearly
established (to my mind, at least) that medieval parents of every social strata
were intimately involved with and emotionally invested in their children's lives. That is not to say there were not abuses of various kinds; our own historical moment has a spotty record as well.
Our information on medieval clothes is still limited. It is not a topic that we have yet addressed in detail. HBC focuses primarily on the modern era beginning with the 16th century. The medieval period covers a period of about 1,000 years, half of the time since the birth of Christ. One might expect that as a result there were great changes in clothing and fashion over this period.
Surprisingly there was relatively little change in fashion, especially during the early medieval era. The pace of change quickened in the late-medieval era. We have not yet developed information on many specific garments. One destinctive medieval garment was stockings. They were called "haut de chausse" in France, a country which was very influential in fashion during the medieval era. There is a page on medieval stocking supporters. Assessing children's clothing is somewhat of a misnomer as the comcept of childhood as we know it today did not esist at the time. Very young boys wore dresses. Once breeched, however, boys were clothed much like their parents. There was no specially designed children's clothing. Another important factor is that clothing was determined by social class. The peasantry for centuries wore essentially the same clothing. Fashion was a phenomenon of the upper classes. At this time the only work we have done on medieval fashion has been that of page boys. Here page boys can be considered as basically similar to aristocratic boys in general.
Sumptuary laws were laws controlling personal purchases to prevent extravagance. Commonly in the Medieval era these were laws enacted to prevent commoners such as rich merchants from dressing like the nobility. There was no concern with the nobility dressing extravagantly, although some colors (purple) or furs (ermine) might be reserved to the king or emperor. It was the commoners that were the target of sumptuary laws. These las were designed to perpetuate class and social distinctions and for a variety of economic and political purposes. Thee laws developed especially in the late Medieval era when the economy was expanding and increasing numbers of commoners, especially wealthy merchants, acquired the wealth to purchase fine clothes. With the coming of the Reformation sumptuary Laws with religious motivations appeared.
Warriors have desired to protect themselves in battle since the advent of weapon in the stone age. The nature of this protection has evolved both with weapons technology and metalurgy. In the ancient world the cost of metal limited the ability to armor soldiers. Bronze was very expendive to produce. Iron was much less expensive, but required more advanced technology to use for weapons and armor. This development permitted the creation of larger armies as iron weapons could be produced much more cheaply. The fall of Rome (5th century AD) took place along wih a general decline of technology in the West. As a result, the use of armor was limited in the early medieval era. Not only had technology declined, but the cost of armor limited the size of armies that medieval monarchs and nobels could amass. The armor used in the early medieval era was chainmail. This consisting of thousands of interlocking metal worked painstakingly by hand to form a shirt, coif, or ro a lesser extent leggings. The "mild" or soft steel produced with medieval technology meant that each ring had to be riveted. This was necessary to keep the rings from spreading and opening under the weight of the piece. This mail was worn with a padded garment called an "aketon," or "gambeson." The knight would also be equipped with a shield. This was normally leather-covered wood. Metal shields would be both expensive and heavy. Knights were also equipped with iron and then steel helmets. As medievel weapons technologu developed, chainmail became less effective. Here the principal development was the English longbow and the crossbow. Such matters are not just of interest to ,ilitarian historians. English kings using yeomen cheaply armed with long bows to defeatv heavily armored French knigts. The important of the yeoman class played a ole in the rise of democracy in England. The answer to the long bow and crossbow was plate armor. This bedcazme posdible with the afvance of technlogy. This was not only hugely expendsive, but significantly restricted mobility. Plate armour has become a symbol of medieval Europe, but in favt only appeared in the late-mefieval period (late 13th/early 14th century). At first plate armor was only used in limited srea to protect vital areas such as the chest and shoulders. Only at the very rend of the medieval era did full body plate armor appear (early 15th century). This was the proverbial "knight in shining armor". It was hugely expensive. It was aoften combined with chainmail to protecting vital areas that could not be easily covered with plate armor (the groin and underarms). With such armor the shield became redundant. The era of plate armor was a short one. Shortly after full plate armor appeared so fdid gunpowder weapons. And once an effective gunpowder weapon was developed which could pnetrate plate armor (16th century), the heavily armored knight rapidly disappeared. It was very expensive to field armored knight and their mobility was limited. A lightly armored soldier with a gunpoder weapon was realatively inexpensive to field and could be quickly trained. Thewshole nature of comat and warfare rapidly changed. And it meant the end of the medieval era because armies were no longer formed primsrily from a small aristocratic class. Plate armor did not immediately disappear, but continued to be wsorn for cerempmial purposes. Such "ceremonial" could be very ornate and decorative.
The fall of Rome in the 5th-century had profound consequences throughout Europe. The fall of Rome was to also affect the future history of Europe, but the impact varied with both the local populations and the specific Barbarians tribes which graduall spread throughout Europe and the British Isles. The Barbarians did not invade in a hughe wave, but in different sized groups of various tribes (Franks, Teutons, Visigoths, Burgundians, Vandals, Vikings, and others). Over time the Barbarians and local populatiuons and their cultures merged. Although Roman armies were defeated, the Roman Church would succed in Christianizing the Barbarians. the Carolingian family had by the mid-8th century deposed the Merovingian dynasty. Charlemagne and his descendents would found many of the major European nations. The barbarian war lords of the 5th the century had emerged as rulers annointed by God, responsible for preserving the Faith as well as the security of his subjects. The dual role invested the king with political, religious, and culture responsibilities. While the Feudal System and Catholic Church dominated Europe a variety of factors made for the develooment of natioinal differences. Europe even before the Barbarian invasions was split between the Germanic east and the Roman west and south. This cultural divide was to have a profound impact on Europe. Even within the Roman Empire there were many regional differences. While city centes wereoften Romanized, throughout the Empire rural populations often retained their native lkanguages and cultural destinctness. In addition differentares of Europe were conquered by different Barbarian tribes. Many other factors such as geogeaphy and climate caused the evelopment of economic and other cultural differences.
The fall of the Han Dynasty in 220 AD was similar in many ways to the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. They were not replaced by strong dynasty, many lasted only beief periods. The collapse of Han rule resulted in almost four centuries of warload rule. China split into three kingsdoms (Wei, Shu, and Wu), but the idea of cultural unity persisted. China never seems to have declined to the same low cultural level as the European Dark Ages. The Medieval Chinese dynasties are some of the least remembered dynasties. While the Han fell, the ideal of the Han and unified rule never perished. Chinese to this day still refer to themselves as the "sons of Han". The short lived Shu Dynasty (589-618 AD) finally unified China again. They were replaced by the T'ang Dynasty (618-907 AD) underwhom China regained much of its former power. The writ of the T'ang Emperors extend from the Caspian to the Pacific. Five feeble, short-lived dynasties repalaced the T'ang weakened by corruption and rebellion. They were replaced by the Sung Dynasty (960-1280-AD). The Sung are sometimes described as the Augustine Age of China. Writing and printing flourished and libraries appeared.
The history of the famed Silk Road is one of many instances in which clothing and fabrics have played a major role in human history. The story of the silk road is one of military adventures and conquest, adventuresome explorers, religious pilgrims, and great philosophers. While it is silk which is often, naturally enough, most strongly associated with the silk road, the flow of ideas and religion as an almost unintended aspect of the flow of trade may have been one of the most significant impacts. Of course most of the people who traversed the silk road were not great thinkers, but common tradesmen who transported their merchandise at great risk for the substantial profits that could be made. They moved cammal caravans over some of the most hostile terraine on the planet. The ilk road tranversed deserts, mountains and the seemingly endless Central Asian steppe. Some of the great figures of history are associated with the Silk Road, including Alexander the Great, Marco Polo, Genghis Khan, and Tamerlane. Merchandice may have moved over the Silk Road as early as the 5th century BC. The Silk Road is believed to have become an established trade route by the 1st century BC and continued to be important until the 16th century when more reliable sea routes were established as a result of the European voyages of discovery.
Just as cotton was at the center of the Industrial Revolution, wool was a key commodity in the Medieval era. Wool was the principal raw material used for textiles in Medieval Europe. It was usually woven to produce cloth, but some was used to produce felt. Wool is produced by sheep. Different breeds produce wool of varying quality. Some sheep have fine silky fleece. Other sheep have a very coarse fleece. High quality cloth required a fine yarn. This required the fleece to be carded, meaning combing with a large iron comb-like tool. The other principal fabric used to produce textiles in Medieval Europe was linen. Linen was produced from flax. Yarn was required to produce textiles. Yarn was produced from raw wool or flax fibers by hand. (The spinning wheels did not appear until the late Medieval era. The raw wool or processed flax was placed on a drop spindle. A drop spindle was fashioned from wood or bone and weighted on the bottom with stone or metal. The yarn was produced by drawing the fiber out from the spindle and twisting it in the process. This was a tedious, labor intensive process, but only after the yarn was fashioned could the production of textiles begin. The next step was to dye the yarn. A variety of natural dyes were used, varying somewhat as the kinds of plants available locally. Some made the dyes themselves, but natural dyes ciulkd be purchased in village marjkets. Some of the common dies were: woad or indigo (blue), weld (yellow), madder(orange and red), brazil tree (reds), alkanet (lilac), and many other roots, berries, barks and lichens.
The yarn was then woven into cloth on hand looms. The woven cloth was then ironed by pressing with a whale bone (baleen) plaque, glass, or stone smoother which had been heated for the purpose. The final process was decoration by braided cords, tapestry, or embroidery. The center of the European wool trade was Flanders and the center of wool production was England.
A medieval page was the first stage of chivalric knighthood. Boys and youths in medeieval Europe were used as attendants to persons of rank, usually nobel or royal. These boys were chosen from aristocratic or "good" families. The tradition began as boys serving knights as part of their military training and preparation for knighthood themselves. As these pages accompanied the knight they served, they were also present at court and thus had to learn refined manners as well as fighting skills. While the ages of the middle ages are perhaps best known to us today, the tradition os an
ancient ones. There are records of pages in Roman, Persian, and other an ancient civiliazations. In medieval times the degree of page was the first stage of chivalric knighthood, preparatory to that of first esquire and then knight. In more recent times it is the latter function they served, being present at ceremonies to attend to royal personages at court. Boys in 18th century red jackets and white kneebreaches are often seen at
important Bristish royal events accompanied the monarch, they are always boys from aristocratic families. Their selection was considered a great honor. The page boy hair cut comes from these pages, based on a hair style with bangs popular in the midieval era. I am not sure, however, when the term came into vogue.
Guilds or associations of commoners began to achieve some importance in the 11th-12th centuries. European life in the 10th century was dominated by aristocratic rule and the Church. The guilds were organized similarly to feudal society with masters serving as a kind of feudal overlord. At a time before modern nation states, the guild help to order medieval society. There were two major types of guilds, merchant and craft guilds. The most inflential were the merchant guilds. They were the first secular challenge to the authority of Europe's feudal order. There were also craft ot trade guilds. These were associations in various industries, such as capenters, weavers, and others. Often the weaving guild was one of the most important as the weaving industry was such a major industry in the medieval world. Guild masters took own boys as apprentices. The masters were responsible for teaching their apprectices the craft. The master provided for their room and board and paid them a small subsistance wage. All these matters such as the payment to the master, wages, and years of apprenticeship were carfully agreed in advance. Apprentices are often associated with the cities, but there were also appretuces in villages as well where boys might earn skills like smithing, milling, and other skills.
Institutions for poor relief appeared in the late middle ages. These institutions included foundling homes, colleges, and hospitals. The best known facility for the care of indigent children that we know of were foundling homes. They were not specufically for orphans. In fact parents often left children they could not care for at these homes. They were established by the Roman Catholic Church during the late Middle Ages as a deterent to infanticide by destitute parents. Foundling homes were widespread in Southern Europe by the late medieval era. Foundling homes were not orphanages in the modern sence. They were founded to care for infants, to ensure their proper baptism and nursing care. The children were placed with adoptive families as quivckly as they could be found. The responsibility for their care then became the responsibility of the adoptive family. Here a great deal depended on the adoptive parents. In some cases the children might come to be treated as actual natural born children. In many families they had as they grew up more the status of indentured servants. Another medieval institution was the college or orphanage to aid poor children. These were foundations that helped to provide basic school or training for poor children. They were not orphanages in the modern sence. Some provided or arranged housing and board for the children, but the emphasis at first was on schooling and often thev children had to support themselves, usually through begging. They were not specifically for orphans, but poor children in general. Also they were only for boys. At this times only boys were normally schooled and it was easier to place girls in homes as servants. Institutions like the Spanish Collegios de los Ninos de la Doctrina are examples of these institutions. Period documents note such institutions in several countries (including England, Germany, and Spain). The medieval hospitals some times took in orphans or other indigent children. This was the origins of the English hospital schools. Almhouses also began to appear in the late middle ages and cared for children. These were not especially orphans as often whole families accepted.
The production of books in medieval Europe were a demanding undertaking. They were initially made on parchment. Lage flocks of sheep were needed to produce the parchment. This meant the outlay of enormous resources. The production of only one large bible required the skins of about 500 sheep. Producing a library of books was a matter of almost unbelieveable effort. only in the 15th century with the invention of moveable type in Germany did the relatively inexpensive publication of books become possible so that they could be widely read. This was one f many developments in the 15th century that signaled the ending of the Medieval era.
We know of quite a few children from medieval Europe. Most of the are future kings, in part because most people gave littl attention to peasant children. They generally had no ducation and had little opportunity in life. We only know of a few peasant children. Some of the future kings we have some good information because they had contemporary portraits done. Portraits done by artists looking back on time often imagine the clothes their subjects wore. Contemporary portraits, however, can be very accurate depictions of clothing.
After the fall of Rome, formal schooling in the West disappeared. The rare vestiges of school were the song schools of the cathedrals and monasteries. The boys chosen at first were taught to prepare them for holy orders. We have only limited information about the clothing for these early choristers. Formal schooling in Europe outside of church schools were rare in Europe until about the 10th century. The great bulk of the population was iliterate. The number of children attending schools was very limited for several more centuries. There were similarities in the development of schools throughout Europe, but the pattern varied significantly in many areas. We have little information at this time about clothing at these early schools. There does appear to have been some uniformity in the clothing worn by the choristers in the early song schools. This appears to have been less common in the secular schools which slowly developed during the second millennium.
One of the major development in the late-medieval period was the opening of universities throughout Western Europe. They played a major in the expansion of knowledge which led to the Renaisance and the modern age. Education was extremely limited in Europe in the early- and even mid-edieval era. At first education was primarily for the clergy, even members odf the ruling classes were iliterate. Scholarship and education was at first primarily involved with work on sacred texts (translating, organizing, copying and codifying). There was also some surviving classical works. Education was centered primarily in cathedral and monastry schools. This changed only slowly with the aristitocracy evenualy achieving a modicum of learning. They were generally taught by tutors. Important learning centers in the Bzantine Empire survived the fall of Rome. A university at Constatinople was founded (2nd century AD). Other important centers are known to have been located at Alexandria, Antioch, and Athens. The Islamic conquest conquered these areas, except Constantinople (8th century), but the Calophate set up their own learning centers. Those in Spain were especially influential in Europe. It is difficult to know how important these Byzantine-Islamic centers were, but they surely helped establish ythe idea of centers for higher education. They were also places in which surviving classical works were collected and translated. The origins of the early universities in Western Europe are not well documented or well understood and in fact vaeied from place to place. A major step in the early medieval period was the promotion of cathedral and monastry schools as a result of the reforms of Charlemagne. Charlemagne realized that his expanding empire needed the services of a body of well-educated clerks and administrators. His decree and the creation of cathedral schools focused on more than theology was the founding stone of the future universities. They provided the opportunity for clever boys from common famiiles to obtain skills that would make them useful to the Carolingian empire. The next critical individual involved in the development of European universities. was Pope Gregory VII. The Pope issued a papal decree ordering the establishment of cathedral schools responsible for educafting the clergy (1079). Such schools existed before Gregory's decree, but it both promoted and regularized the effort. The Pope's decree led to the opening of educational centers. These centers would be the core around many great universities grew. It was not until the end of the 11th century that these universities began to appear. The first true university is believed to be the University of Bologna in Italy (1088). The University of Paris came into existence a few decades later (1119). It was an informal association of various monastry schools and centered at Notre Dame. Colleges began to appear in Oxford (1167-1185). The first college at Cambridge appeared a few decades later (1209). Robert Sorbon founded a theological college (1231). Over time it would grow into the Sorbonne University.
The medieval universites developed as "community of scholars" with the authority to confer degrees.
A popular custom of the medieval Christian church was the Boy Bishop or Nicholas which became part of the Christmas festival. This custom was very common in countries throughout Europe, including Italy north to Scandinavia and the Hebrides and from Ireland east to Hungary. A boy of the Cathedral choir (and later at schools as well) was elected on Saint Nicholas day (December 12). On the Eve of Feast of the Holy Innocent (December 28) he took with his colleagues possession of the cathedral performing all the ceremonies and offices except mass. Several ecclesiastical councils attempted to abolish or restrain the abuses of the custom, and the Council of Basel prohibited it in 1431. It was however too popular to be easily suppressed. In England it was finally abolished by Elisabeth I. An analogous custom survived until the late 18th century in Germany, were a schoolboy was elected as bishop in honour of St. Gregory the Great, the patron of schools.
The medieval plague, commonly referred to as the Black Death, was the most cathestrophic epidemic in recorded history. The plague is believed to have been brought west from China. Europeans had no resistance to it in much the same way that smallpox brought by Europeans was to ravage Native Americans in the 16th and 17th centuries. The plague ravaged Europe from 1347-51. There were also serious subsequent oybreaks as well. The plague often killed whole families, in part because family members could not bring themselve to abandon each other. Villages were devistated. An estimated 1,000 villages were completely destroyed. The plague, however, had a profound impact on Europe beyond the incalcuable human pain and suffering of those affected. as strange as it may sound, the plague set in motion cultural and economic trends that played a major role in shaping modern Europe.
The Mongols played an enormously important role in world history. Although a relatively small population, the Mongols established the most extensive empire in histoiry, streaching from Korea to Eastern Europe. Only the Japanese suceessfully defied the Mongols. The Mongols also conquered and influenced many of the major world powers, China, Russia, Persia, amd India. The Mongols defeated the Poles and were set to move into Western Europe. Only the death of thir great leader, Geghis Khan prevented this.
The subject of medieval boy's clothing is a complex subject. It is like sking to know how boys were clothed in Muslim contries during the crusades. Hard because Islamic religious doctrine prohibited humamn imagery out of fear of idoltry which continues to this day. The situation was different in Europe. Medieval European art was primarily religious art. Art was seen as a way of glorifying God. The Church allowed human depictions, but betweeen 800 and 1400, virtually the only child depicted in Christian art was Jesus. The best medium to find boys' clothing is in Northern Europe sculpture in the porch of cathedrals and maybe in stained glassed. And again, at that time children didn't exist as a social class. The eldest in many cpountries was the heir and other boys were just good to be knights at the condition they can inherit enough money to buy the necessary equipment and a warhorse. This was true for kings, vassals and also farmers. The real significance of boyhood was as a part of a family coat of arms. In the medieval era, painting or sculpture were symbolic with a set of codes which were far from the reality. This is not totaly lost in our modern era. Take a film like Bergman "The seventh seal" or the "source ". Which is true in those films? We have some idea from armor, arms, etc. About linen, leather, silk, it is really hard to get a clear idea. And what is represented is not necessarily what was in reality. Realism in art as a copy of reality as Greeks and Romans did was unknown in the middle ages. >br>
Although generally classified by most scholars as the last century of the medieval era, the 14th century is generally seen as the beginning of the Renaissance and the beginning of a modern state of mind. "Renaissance" means "rebirth" in French and describes the cultural and economic changes that occurred in Europe beginning in the 14th century. The precise time is difficlt to set and of course varied accross Europe. The Renaissance began at Firenze around 1300 and gradually spread north. Even so, the indicators that constitute the Renaissance did not reach other areas of Europe 1-2 centuries. It was during the Renaissance that Europe emerged from the Feudal System of the Middle Ages. The stagnant Medieval economy began to expand. The Renaissance was not just a period of economic growth. It was an age of intense cultural ferment. Enormous changes began in artistic, social, scientific, and political endevours. Perhaps of greatest importance was that Europeans began to develop a radically different self image as they moved from a God-centered to a more humanistic outlook.
Aries. Centuries of Childhood, English trans (1962).
Brown, Peter. The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000 2nd editioin (Blackwell paperback: 2003), 625p.
Fletcher, Richard. Bloodfeud: Muder and Revenge in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 2003), 231p.
Menocal, Maria Rosa. The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Toleration un Midieval Spain (Little Brown).
Here are some excellent books addressing medieval childhood, although
treatment of clothing is uneven.
Alexandre-Bidon, Daniele and Didier Lett. Children in the Middle Ages:
Fifth-Fifteenth Centuries. Trans. Jody Gladding. Notre Dame: U of Notre
Dame P, 1999.
Crawford, Sally. Childhood in Anglo-Saxon England. Sutton, 1999.
Cressy, David. Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life
Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England. Oxford: OUP, 1997.
Jorgenson Itnyre, Cathy ed. Medieval Family Roles: A Book of
Essays. New York: Garland, 1996.
Kline, Dan. University of Alaska Anchorage (is working on a book about medieval children).
Lewis, Katherine J., Noel James Menuge, and Kim M. Phillips, eds.
Young Medieval Women. New York: St. Martin's, 1999.
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