King Henry VIII

King Henry VIII was born on th 28th of June, 1491 to Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. He was only 17 years old when he was crowned on 24 of June, 1509. He was the second monarch in the House of Tutor after succeeding his father Henry VII. King Henry VIII was mainly known for his 6 wives that he had during his 37 year reign. He wanted a son that would succeed him because he thought a daughter could not continue the Tutor dynasty. These were his six wives and their faiths: Catherine of Aragon (divorced), Anne Boleyn (executed), Jane Seymour (died), Anne of Cleves (divorced), Catherine Howard (executed), Catherine Parr (widowed).  King Henry VIII was also famous for separating the Church of England from the Catholic Church. He caused trouble to Rome and the pope which is why he became the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Even after being excommunicated from the Catholic Church, Henry VIII still believed in Catholic core values. Later on in his life, Henry VIII became very obese and his health became poor. He was then seen as a harsh, egotistical and insecure ruler, and he died on 28 January, 1547 at age 55. Overall, King Henry was a very harsh and cruel leader. Although he had a few accomplishments like breaking off from Rome, and establishing nationalism in England, the cruel faith of his 6 wives made him a bad ruler in the eyes of his people. 

Crusades

The goal of the eight military expeditions called the Crusades was to capture the Holy Land. The Holy Land, a region sacred to Christians because Jesus lived and taught there, was under the control Seljuk Turks. Seljuk Turks no longer allowed Christian pilgrims to visit Jerusalem and the Holy Land. For this reason, the Pope Urban II called for war against the Muslim Turks to capture the Holy Land. He called for war in order to allow Christian pilgrims to travel to the Holy Land, but also did it to unite Europe against one common enemy, the Muslim Turks. 


The Crusades brought back all sorts of goods like spices, jewelry, rugs, and glass. These goods became greatly demanded and in that way, they revived trade. The Crusades also started using money, instead of the barter system.

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was King of the Franks and was declared Emperor of the Romans by the pope. He was born in 742 and died in 814. He was the grandson of Charles Martel, and the oldest son of Pepin the Short. After the death of his father, Charlemagne and his brother Carloman I ruled separately. After a few years they were about to rage war on each other when Carloman died and Charlemagne became the sole ruler in 771. He conquered a large area that stretched across most of Western Europe. After conquering Rome he was declared the Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III in 800. Even though he was a great conquerer, he was also known for bringing back art and education. He built numerous schools that gave access to education to all people. He helped spread Christianity, and he improved the economy drastically. After his death in 814, the empire that Charlemagne built soon fell apart and Europe went back to the darkness of the Medieval Ages.

Feudalism and the Manor System

Europe was a dangerous place to live in during the Middle Ages because of the constant threat of Viking attacks. In order to protect themselves, the people developed a type of government called feudalism. In this system of government, land owned by a lord was controlled by a vassal in return for great royalty. A lord would give the vassal a fief, or a share of land and he would treat his vassal with honor. In return the vassal give his lord advise, raise and lead armies to fight for his lord and would pay taxes in the forms of crops for their lords as well.

The manor system was the way that the economy was organized. A large estate contained farm fields, a manor house and a village. The lord of the manor was usually a vassal and the manor was part of the fief. The manors had to produce everything they needed since they were usually located far away from towns or other manors. A lord depended on the wealth the manor produced and he ruled over the manor and the people that lived there. He made all the decisions and collected taxes from the peasants and serfs that lived there.The peasants were the ones that did all the work on the manors, and they were the ones that farmed their own land and the land of the lords. Serfs were peasants who were tied down to the manors and needed the permission of the lords for anything they did.

The majority of people of the Medieval Ages were peasants, the poor people that did all the hard work. They lived in small, cramped huts and had to do all the hard work on the farm lands. They were given small strips of land that they could farm for themselves, but they had to give part of the harvest to their lord. They earned just enough to survive, and because of this, they would remain poor. They lived a hard life and this affected their beliefs. They did not see a purpose in life and because of this, they probably would not care much about religion, or have any beliefs.

 

Reflection on Renaissance Fair

We spent a great deal of time in most classes working on things for the Renaissance Fair. In performing art, we played the recorder and played three songs that are from the Renaissance time period. One song we memorized and played together with 8B, while we played two other songs in our own class. In Language A, we did Shakespeare's play called "A Midsummer Night's Dream". We divided the play into certain scenes that we all performed in pairs. We also memorized our lines and learned how to perform the scenes. In D.T. we focused on Leonardo da Vinci's inventions and were divided into pairs. David and I chose to do two inventions that are related, the airplane and parachute. We designed and built the two that he sketched out of paper and cardboard, and the final result looked similar to what he designed. For visual art we focused on Leonardo da Vinci and his artwork. In the beginning we took famous artwork and continued painting around them. We also took color in paintings from the Renaissance and colored them in for the Renaissance Fair. And finally we made sculptures like the one from Michaelangelo and also displayed them at the Fair. We also learned and performed three Renaissance dances at the Fair. They were all different since in one we would go on our toes, while in the other we stomped our feet, and they were fun to learn and perform. What really made the event come to life were the costumes, and we had the whole 8th grade, and some teachers dressed up. I was one of the merchants, that was a lower rank then a knight or royalty, but higher than a farmer or bard.

Overall, I really enjoyed doing the Renaissance Fair, and it was better than I expected. It was fun dressing up, dancing, and being in the whole Renaissance mood. The opinions of the parents were also good, and I saw that they also enjoyed the night. I think it was a success and that it should be done next year as well.