High Middle Ages · 1100-1300

Towns, markets and guilds

After 1100 towns grow fast across Europe. Students visit the cloth towns of Flanders and the great fairs of Champagne, join a guild as an apprentice, and ask why a medieval saying linked town life with freedom.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 1300
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

After 1100 towns grow fast across Europe. Students visit the cloth towns of Flanders and the great fairs of Champagne, join a guild as an apprentice, and ask why a medieval saying linked town life with freedom.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain why towns grew in Europe between 1100 and 1300.
  • Describe how a craft guild worked, from apprentice to master.
  • Locate the cloth towns of Flanders and the fairs of Champagne and explain how they were linked.
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 1300

The big cities

Open the map in 1300 and turn on Cities. Which are the largest cities of Western Europe? Compare Paris, London, Venice and Florence.

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1300

Cloth towns

Zoom in on Flanders and find Bruges, Ghent and Ypres. Weavers here used English wool. Why would cloth towns grow close to the sea and to England?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1300

Halfway markets

Pan south to Champagne and find Troyes and Provins. Merchants from Italy and Flanders met at fairs here. Why meet halfway, on land ruled by a count who protected traders?

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. Many towns bought charters from their lord that gave them their own courts and councils. Why would a lord sell such rights?
  2. In many towns a serf who lived there for a year and a day became free. Why was that such a powerful promise?
  3. Guilds fixed prices, checked quality and limited the number of masters. Who gained from these rules, and who lost?
  4. Women worked as brewers, spinners, silk makers and shopkeepers in many towns. Why are they less visible in the records?
  5. Medieval towns were crowded, smelly and often burned. Why did people still move there?
4

Game round

9 min

Play Rule History as Mansa Musa, who ruled the great trading cities of Mali in the early 1300s. Afterwards, compare: how did rulers in Europe and Africa profit from trade and markets?

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.