• Manuscripts were produced by hand. They were made from vellum and written on with quills. • Illuminations are the elaborate illustrations that accompanied the manuscripts. 3.10 Inquiry: Was King Arthur real? • The myth of King Arthur has been popular for centuries. • Many people were convinced that he was a real Saxon king in early medieval times. • Twenty-first century historians generally agree that the evidence points to King Arthur being a myth, not a historical figure. 3.11 Inquiry: The Magna Carta • The Magna Carta is a royal charter of rights that was signed by King John of England and his barons in1215. • It was designed to bring peace between King John and his barons by ensuring that the monarchs of England were bound by the law and could not just make their own laws. • It had a significant impact on a number of different groups in society. 3.12 What were the changing relations between Islam, Christianity and Judaism in the Middle Ages? • Many people during the Middle Ages were illiterate and therefore relied on priests for education and guidance. • In Medieval Europe, medicine took second place to religion. Priests were considered more important than doctors. • Most people believed that prayer was the most effective way of dealing with serious illness. 3.13 What was the Black Death? • The Black Death was a disease that devastated Europe, Asia and North Africa during the fourteenth century, particularly between 1347 and 1351. • The Black Death was a combination of three related diseases — bubonic plague, pulmonary/pneumonic plague and septicaemic plague. • A bacterium known by the scientific name of Yersinia pestis was the cause of the Black Death. These bacteria were transmitted by a number of different types of flea found living on the bodies of black rats. 3.14 How did the disease spread? • The growth of trade played an important part in the spread of disease. The Black Death was more easily able to spread between settlements along trade routes such as the Silk Road. • It is believed that the Black Death first appeared in its deadly form in China and that it was carried there by the Mongols. • The potential was always there for the Black Death to be carried to Europe, either by European traders returning from the east or by the Central Asian Tartar warriors (Mongols), who were continuing their attacks in eastern Europe. 3.15 How did people respond to the Black Death? • Medieval doctors had no idea what had caused the Black Death and they resorted to the traditional, unsuccessful methods of treating illness. • Some people believed that the disease came from miasma (unpleasant smells or fumes), while others saw it as a punishment from God. 3.16 How did the Black Death change society? • Following the Black Death and the failure of medieval medicine to treat the sick, there was a greater focus on medical research. An increased emphasis on medical knowledge led to more dissections of human corpses and improvements in surgical practices.
TOPIC3 Medieval Europe 111
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