Feudalism, The Crusades & Heroes

In this unit we looked at the Crusades, the feudal system, lots of stuff about heroes and we made quilts. My group for this unit was: Izzy, Kyle, Kiera and Me. At the start we were given a novel study the book was called: The Book of the Lion by: Michael Cadnum. It was about a boy who’s master was killed and then he went and became a squire for a Crusader and they went on the crusades. It was pretty good book and it was way better than the last novel study we did.

The first thing we looked at was the fall of Rome and why it fell. We found that it fell for many reasons that all affected each other. Then we looked at how it split into the western and eastern parts.

After that we looked at what a myth is and compared it to what history is. Then we had to figure out if Robin Hood was myth or history. Our conclusion was that he was history because there was not enough evidence to support that he was real.

Then we looked at what our teacher explained as, the three F’s of feudalism which are:

1. Fief is the land. In this case, it means the daily life of the serfs, freeholders, and the lord and lady of the manor.

2. Fealty is loyalty. For this, it means the obligations the serfs, freeholders, and the lord and lady of the manor had to each other.

3. Faith is belief and devotion. Here, it means what the serfs, freeholders, and the lord and lady of the manor believed in (their religious beliefs).

After we looked at the three F’s of feudalism, we looked at the minority system and whether that was good or bad.

We then looked at the balance of power in the governments and the church. For this we looked at Eleanor of Aquitaine, King John and the Magna Carta. We looked at all the different and crazy things that Eleanor of Aquitaine did for the time. We also looked at why everyone hated King John, his fights with the pope and how he treated everyone. That is why they forced him to sign the Magna Carta and how that was a big step towards democracy.

One of four surviving copies of the 1215 Magna Carta. This copy is one of two held at the British Library. It came from the collection of Sir Robert Cotton, who died in 1631. In 1731, a fire at Ashburnam House in Westminster, where his library was then housed, destroyed or damaged many of the rare manuscripts, which is why this copy is burnt.

The crusades was one of the main parts of our unit. In a nutshell we learned that it was a big holy war that the Christians started to take back the holy land and that it was completely pointless and didn’t get anyone anywhere.

We also learned about Knighthood and Chivalry. First we learned about the code of chivalry which is based on personal honour; knights where supposed to be brave, generous and truthful. They were also supposed to protect women and children and to love and strengthen the church but most knights were not truly chivalrous. We looked at the education of a knight and some of the technology they used like longbows.

Then the other big part of the unit was heroes and hero myths. For this we looked at the mono myth, the idea that every hero has the same basic storyline.

This video describes it quite well:

After Learning about the crusades and heroes we did the main project of the unit and that was to create two stories set in the crusades and each told from a different side. One had to be told by a Christian and the other told by a Muslim. We had to base it off of the heroes myth and a story line. Then from that story we had to make a quilt. Basically our story was about two Christian kids who meet a Muslim man in a forest and they kill him and then they feel bad about it. This is what is represented on our quilt.

Because we were making quilts and quilts use a lot of symbolism we went to the Gordon Smith art gallery and looked at some First Nations art. In the art we looked at there was a lot of symbolism.

Afther that we started sketching out our quilt designs. Then made the final drawings and printed those out on fabric and glued some stuff on top to add a some affect to it.