High Middle Ages · 1000-1300

Life on the manor: those who prayed, fought and worked

Around the year 1030 a French bishop wrote that society had three orders: those who pray, those who fight and those who work. Students step into a medieval village, follow the farming year and ask how much freedom a peasant really had.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
10–13
On the map
3 steps, AD 1200 to AD 1086
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Around the year 1030 a French bishop wrote that society had three orders: those who pray, those who fight and those who work. Students step into a medieval village, follow the farming year and ask how much freedom a peasant really had.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe the three orders of medieval society and the duties of each.
  • Explain how a manor worked: the lord's land, the open fields, the mill and the church.
  • Compare the lives of free peasants and serfs, and discuss why historians debate the word "feudalism".
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1200

A warmer age

Open the map in 1200 on northern France and England. Turn on Weather of History and read the card on the Medieval Warm Period. How could milder summers change life in a farming village?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1200

Few cities, many villages

Turn on Cities and zoom out over Europe in 1200. How many large cities can you find north of the Alps? If so few people lived in cities, where did everyone else live?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1086

Counting every village

Set the year to 1086 and zoom in on England. That year the king's officials recorded almost every manor for the Domesday Book. Why would a king want to know about every village?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Bishop Adalbero wrote that each order needs the other two. Who do you think gained most from this idea?
  2. A serf could not leave the manor without the lord's permission. How was a serf different from a slave?
  3. Peasants had to grind their grain at the lord's mill and pay for it. Why might they resent that?
  4. Fields were split into long strips shared out among families. What were the good and bad sides of farming this way?
  5. Some historians say "feudalism" is too neat a word for a messy reality. Why might a simple model be both useful and misleading?
4

Game round

9 min

Play Rule History as Charlemagne, whose officials already recorded the estates and farms of his lands. Afterwards, discuss: what did a medieval ruler need from the peasants, and what could the peasants expect in return?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.