KING
The King of an area controlled the laws and the people who lived around him, like the pheasants, nobles, and knights. Also, their job is to protect the people and land that they rule over. Finally they held banquets, parties, and declared war on other kingdoms, castles, and empires. To the left is an image of an Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor.
NObles
Nobles are people of special social or political status. They are distinguished by their rank or title. Paying homage is when someone pays respect or reverence to a someone of higher social rank then them and offers them their service. For example knights might pay homage to a lord and lords might pay homage to a king.
Knights
The top image is an picture of an 11th century knight. The bottom picture is and image of a 14th century knight.
The knights code of conduct consists of the following rules and responsibilities.
- To fear God and maintain His Church
- To serve the liege lord in valour and faith
- To protect the weak and defenceless
- To give succour to widows and orphans
- To refrain from the wanton giving of offence
- To live by honour and for glory
- To despise pecuniary reward
- To fight for the welfare of all
- To obey those placed in authority
- To guard the honour of fellow knights
- To eschew unfairness, meanness and deceit
- To keep faith
- At all times to speak the truth
- To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun
- To respect the honour of women
- Never to refuse a challenge from an equal
- Never to turn the back upon a foe
PHEASANTS
To the left is an image of what life would be like if you lived in a villages during medieval times. The houses in these villages were small one-roomed houses sometimes with thatched roofs. An image of one of these houses can be found below. The only important buildings were the churches, mills, streams, parsonages, and possibly a blacksmith's shop. The inhabitants of one of these villages always tried to grow, build, or sew everything that they needed to live. They did this to reduce the need to buy expensive products. It was hard living in a medieval village because it was rude and rough. People worked all day, ate little, lived in huts, and suffered from diseases. Some positives in living in a medieval village could, if you had a kind lord, protection, holidays, and an abundance of food to eat in case crops failed that year.