So from my understanding, after William the Conqueror conquered England, French was the main language in England. And it wasn't until centuries later that King Henry 4 took his oath in English. And King Henry 5 wrote in English.
So you mean all this time, all these kings and all these English nobility were all speaking and doing everything in French? Such as Henry 2, and his sons, King Richard Lionheart, and King John. And I'd presume even the fictional Robin Hood would be French speaking as well? Likewise, Edward 3, and all his sons?
Did they all also know English? Or did they just speak French?
I'm trying to picture all this. So before William the Conqueror, what was spoken in England? How did French become the main language? And why? Why wasn't English used as the main language? Did everybody in England end up having to learn French? Did all of these French speaking nobles also speak English?
When the Magna Carta was first written during King John's reign, was that in French as well?
My understanding of this topic is extremely limited to what I learnt in early senior school and I saw a comment somewhere that caused me to question what I had been taught.
The version of history in England I was taught - that I now recognise was probably massively simplified - was that prior to the Black Death (so circa 1200 on) your average peasant was a serf who lived on a noble's land and was basically indentured to live there and work for the noble his or her whole life, a kind of slavery. The Black Death happened and as a result, the workforce reduced by huge numbers and suddenly the workers held much more economic power than before and were able to dictate wages and living conditions to a much greater extent than before and improved conditions and lives.
But my knowledge stops there and never really picks up. I'm aware that there were slaves in England later on, but it occurred to me that if your average Englishman was dictating his wages and rights, there must have been a requirement for cheap manual labour still, and this surely came from somewhere? Was this slavery - of 'foreigners', or Englishmen? Was the Black Death really as revolutionary as I was taught?
Thank you for any answers!
Have i even committed a crime? If so, what is my punishment?
I am interested in learning more about English history in the mid-to-late middle ages. In particular, the period from about the time of the Magna Carta (1215 AD) to about 1400 AD. Non-fiction is definitely preferred but I would be happy with an accurate historical fiction! Thanks in advance!
I am a Chinese university student want to study medieval europe history.However, there are very few Chinese books in this area, so I would like to ask some English books. The history of choosing the history of England is mainly because I want to learn to read English works by learning more familiar history.
I have read The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings by Lars Brownworth
Medieval Europe a short history by judith M.Bennett and C.warren Hollister about this area
Western Europe in the Middle Ages: 300-1475 by Brian Tierney and Sidney Painter about this area
Any recommendations would be great.
Seems like it'd be a much better deal than straight farming, with a better chance at nabbing some meat, weapon ownership, working in the woods, and the odd entertainment chasing poachers. Then again, I imagine it wouldn't win you very many popularity points with the neighbors.
Some sources like Aelfic’s colloquy seem to describe a monastery style school where students learn from a master, while in Precepts it seems some were taught by their parents.
How much would a high school aged child in this period actually learn in an academic sense? Would this learning still focus mainly on the religious aspects and what careers would be available for a studious child?
If they were taught by their parents, would this be enough to get them an apprenticeship at a later age or was official schooling required for that?
Aelfic’s colloquy and Precepts also describe some forms of corporeal punishment like beatings. How poorly could a child expect to be treated while being educated?
Are there any sources on the education a girl might recieve in this period, assuming her parents allowed it?
Since we have cities/villages right next to castles, its impossible for society to forget about a time without technology. We still have tales ect from that time.
But what about a time before the bronze age? I googled "when was the stone age discovered?" but couldnt find anything helpfull and my english isnt good enough to think about googling it in another way, so I'm asking here.
Edit:
How I came to the question:
I thought about how we used to live in caves and now we are flying to the moon, followed by the question, if people before our time also thought that?
People near the pyramids will always know about the time of pharaohs, as there are constant reminders of that time and we will also always remember the middle ages because there are castles and stories from that time(about knights, kings ect) but I dont know of any civilisation that has sprung up around some cave with cave-paintings. Thanks to u/wjbc I now know that in europe, the people considered the origin to be adam and eve... but was there any tale about our nomadic, Neanderthal fighting, cave living forefathers, or do we only know about that time because of the archaeologists of our time, and before that there was no knowledge of the time before?
Could it be that the times used to be so bad for pre industrial age humans that they never even asked themselves if there was a time before knowledge?
Does anybody mayble also know about how far back people on the other continents knew?
P.S. while writing this even more people have answered and maybe they have already answered my new question, but I am to lazy to delete this again.
I also credited wjbc because his answer caused me to expand my question.
Crusader Kings 3, a game which was recently announced by Paradox as a sequel to the much loved map painting game Crusader Kings 2, has decided to exclude the phrase "Deus Vult" (look at number 6 on the list) due to its use from basement dwelling retards sometimes known as the Alt Right.
As expected, gaymers aren't very happy with this leading to sweet drama springing up in multiple places:
Paradox Forum thread about the removal
r/games strangely doesn't have a post up about it (clean it up jannie) but here's a comment chain from the announcement post featuring some prime gamer rage
r/KotakuInAction thread for that extra bit of autism
There are also pleanty of threads up on /v/ with people complaining about it but you can go find those yourselves you lazy bastards.
UPDATE -
The original article that talked about this change has just added this statement:
>Update – Henrik Fåhraeus offered this comment: “I feel like this issue has been miscommunicated thus far. We have not specifically considered which terms are used in the game apart from making sense in the historical context. The team will decide how any text fits or does not fit into CK3 in a way that feels appropriate.”
This of course tells us nothing and is the most convoluted case of PR speak that I've seen in a while. So it looks like we'll just have to wait for the game to release to see if Deus Vult makes it in.
I've already seen This is England, Son of Rambow, Submarine, Billy Elliot and Trainspotting. Have you got any other suggestions similar to these? Doesn't matter if it's a bit more dramatic and less light hearted as some of the others I've said can be at times.
Cheers!
Nowadays you wouldn't leave the house without your wallet or your phone. What did people in the middle ages carry with them when they needed to travel short distances, say to the nearest market to buy food?
