Middle English History Project 

By: Alex Alexandrou 6th hour

The Magna Carta

The Black Death

History.com Staff (2010) Discussed how the black death arrived in Europe in October of 1347. Sailors contracted the disease as they sailed across the oceans of the world. As these people were traveling back to their homeland they were dying. Everyone that had the disease couldn't eat any form of food without throwing up, and anyone who had the disease was covered in these black boils that were infected. These black boils oozed blood and pus and resulted in people dying quicker due to skin infections that spread more disease. People say that the disease was terrifyingly efficient, because you could have a completely healthy person go to sleep and they would be dead in the morning covered in black warts and all bloodied up from the skin diseases. Ole J.Benedictow (2005) tells us that In the 14th century many people believed that the black death was a punishment from God to all of the people in the world for being bad. Over the next 5 years the disease would spread through Europe killing more than 20 million people, which in Europe at the time was about one third of the population. The black death was one of the worst epidemics to ever be on this earth, and it nearly wiped out the entire human race, all because of a rat with the disease.

Bede the monk

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James E. Kiefer (1999) Talks about Bede who was a monk at an english monastery in Northumbria. He was the first person to ever have written scholarly works in the english language. This man's work is our first source for the history of the british isles during the early centuries. Bede was aware that the Earth was a sphere and wasn't flat like everyone believed, he was the first to discover that a solar year is not exactly 365 and a quarter of a day long. Bede also wrote a variety of different hymns as well as some other verses. Bede wrote over 40 different books that were based around theology and history. Some people looked as Bede as a religious figure, as they have many different pictures of him. BBC history (2014) Talk to us about how most people knew absolutely nothing about his family background, but only that at around the age of 7 he was entrusted to the care of Benedict Biscop. In the year 682 AD, Bede moved to a monastery within jorrow. By the time he turned 19 Bede had become a deacon, which means he was a minister. As he turned 30 years old he was officially promoted to a priest. Bede was also extremely known for understanding the arrival of the christianity religion. Bede died in his cell at the monastery in May 735 AD.

100 years war

Dr. L. Kip Wheeler (2017) Gives us information about the hundred years war, and how it was a long war fought between the english and the french. even though the war is called the hundred years war, the war actually lasted 116 years lasting from 1337 to the year 1453. Throughout the war the british were always dominating the french, but at time the war went back and forth. For 10 years the french might be winning, but for the next 6 years the british were winning, so overall the war was back and forth but the british were the best out of the two countries. History.com Staff (2009) discusses that this long war all started between disputes over who was going to take the throne in a certain area. King Edward the third claimed himself the king of the french land because his mother was Isabella of france, so he believed that he should have been the heir to it all. But the french told Edward that since his mother was the ruler that he could not have the land, and the only way for him to have received the land was if his father was the king.The king of france had died without having a son which was a big leading cause of the war. The reason it was like that was because the king, which was the father was supposed to pass the kingdom down to his heir, which is his son. This kicked off the war that was known as the hundred years war. Despite the british winning lots of battles, the french won the war in the end, bringing a finish to a very long and hard fought war.

Geoffrey Chaucer

Biography.Com Editors (2017) state that Chaucer was born in London around the year 1343. His family name comes from the France, chaucer in french means shoemaker. His family was of the bourgeois class which was the very wealthy and rich. His family was descended from very affluent people that made their riches from the London wine trade. Geoffrey is believed to have attended the St. Paul cathedral school, this is where he got his first influences of writing from Virgil and Ovid. History.com Staff (2009) Discuss how In the year 1359 Chaucer left to fight in the 100 years war in France, and at one point in the war he was captured for ransom. Luckily Chaucer had connections to royal people, and King Edward the third helped pay his ransom. After being released he joined the royal service and traveled throughout France, Spain, as well as Italy on diplomatic missions. Chaucer is universally accepted as one of the major english poets within the middle ages. He is largely renowned for writing the Canterbury tales as well as the long and ambitious romance known as Troilus and Criseyde. The Canterbury tales is a collection of over 24 stories that are over 17,000 lines all written in middle english. The canterbury tales are still talked about to this day, and most colleges talk about Chaucer and all of the things he has done for literature. Chaucer was an amazing writer that expressed even the littlest details to write a masterpiece.