The Middle Ages
When Rome fell, the order its empire had imposed broke down. This breakdown continued through a period when Vikings and other raiders pillaged much of western Europe. The resulting social fragmentation and need for defense required a new way of life. This was feudalism.
Feudalism was based on maintaining a system of fortified castles as well as a knightly warrior class (along with the expense of maintaining warhorses and providing training and specialized battle equipment). Feudalism rested on the mutual obligations between free vassals (the knights) and their lords, and between serfs and their lords, with the lords granting plots of land for the serfs to work in exchange for their services. The philosophy of the feudal age was known as chivalry, a code of honor that directed the knight to protect the helpless, to uphold the Church, to treat women of his class gently, to keep his word, and to obey his lord.
During this period, monastic scribes prevented classical literature from being lost, with their transcriptions of Greek and Roman classical literature and maintenance of records of Western civilization. During this period, monasteries also created the great works of art that were illuminated manuscripts. At the links below are lesson plans for K-2 students and students in grades 3-5 that focus on illuminated manuscripts. The first link, for grades K-2, compares a page from a Flemish bestiary (an illustrated book of animals) to the fables of Aesop, and the second link, for grades 3-5, examines a medieval manuscript on astronomy.
