Medieval Life
By Alex, Year 9
Denos lived in the late 1400’s as a blacksmith apprentice working every day to make money for his family, it was a horrific time to live. Everything was different, it wasn’t peaceful every day. The medieval age was thought to have happened during the 5th century after the fall of the roman civilization. The medieval age was told to be when us humans had invented other and more efficient methods of creative and making things like clothing, making food and building shelters like houses. Elaborating on making things, jobs were also involved in their society with some of the first known job to be farming which is essential when having to live in a large area with a large number of people, later through the years other jobs would be showing up like millers, bakers, blacksmiths and knights/warriors in the 8th century. These jobs would provide money enough to feed your family but not the best working jobs for your health. Things in the 5th century were sold for the currency pounds or shillings. Other jobs which would pay more were to be public or private entertainers for the higher royals. But entertainment at home would be things like chess, jousts when they were organized, the philosopher’s game and shovelboard. The medieval people were a lot different to primitive lives of their ancestors especially with their weaponry and defenses but also with just how they did things better. After work Denos had to walk all the way from the center of town back home to his small family home.
The medieval towns around the world at the time were all hidden behind walls, scared of invasions or attacks. This led to people creating and inventing weapons and defenses. One of the best defenses are the walls that surround the town. These won’t be taken down easily due to how heavy they are and on top of these walls where people or knights who watch out over the wall as archers, but also to help the defense move around the town quicker rather than going through the middle because if something were to happen across town it would be quicker to take a straight route there. When others try to invade other cities, they would face the problem of the wall, that’s why the catapult created by Greek Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse and trebuchet invented by was made in the later 5th century. These were the easiest way to bring down the walls, with the fast and power ammunition which could have been made from hard rocks and some metals, these were able to make holes in the walls eventually bringing them down, battle rams were also used to take out the gate doors that are locked from the outside. A couple century’s later knights who would become the royals of the city’s defenders or warriors would arrive. These men would be brought out to expedition to seek things out or in the case of an invasion fight back as well as they could against the enemy which would usually be made out of steel, bronze or iron but the most common type you would find is a set of chain mail armor which would be the most common set that these knights would use on pillages or invasions and can do the same thing as other materials they can stop slashes from a sword and block arrows but not as effective as a full plated set of amor They would be equipped with a variety of weapons like mace’s, daggers’ bows, axes and swords. These would have been made out of strong metals that could penetrate anything and due to this they had to come up with a counter to these which is where body armor comes around. The armor would be made out of mainly chainmail or sometimes out of solid iron. They would be worn everywhere on the body to protect from all types of attacks from sword slices or arrows but to have this the armor had to be more protective which mean more of that material resulting in heavier weights to the armor. Further on in later centuries the introduction of gunpowder would change everything later in the centuries when firearms would be introduced. ‘Honey get up we are going to be late’ Denos was woken up by his wife Nadia. Forgetting that the priest wanted to see his family for something that he was allowed to know. He got up and headed to his son Ben’s room. ‘Get up pal Denos said. Ben wriggles around in his bed. They all have breakfast of just a few pieces of bread and soup. Their family was not the richest around but they lived a happy life. ‘Hey, I’ll be off to see Cecchi to tell him we will be busy for a bit’ he shouts from the front door to his wife, ‘okay be safe’ she replies as he shuts the door. It was cold outside and he was still thinking why the priest would want to talk to his family; he was not special or rich in any sorts. Was there something that happened that he does not know off?
The religion in the medieval times mostly in Western Europe were catholic and believed in Christianity and the belief of god, hell and heaven. This religion was had by all peasant’s, royalty and towns people. A lot more money and time was put into the acts and events of Christianity especially who ever worked for the church including the priest. The main beliefs’ people really had known was hell and the descension to hell with resurrection of Jesus. In Addition the day of judgement or when Jesus would come back with the judgment of salvation and faithfulness. There were also other types of religions around the world like Asia with the monks appearing with them being very well known for their making of medicinal herbs and healing items in certain parts of Asia. In the European community people celebrate ‘holy day’ when people did not have inviting them in. The guards were intimidating in full plated steel armor and long swords, most of their things were made from where he worked and one other one across the village. “Please have a seat’ the priest Said’s, we all sit down. So as you know we have caught a traitor that is giving out information to another village, and our pillage the other day has shown that somehow those people have your branded weapons in their possession”. “That’s not possible, we make these weapons for King Richard for their guards and knights.” “Is that so?” the priest Said’s. Your knights come and pick them up every day we wouldn’t even be able to get them passed the walls” What is happening?, all the stuff that we make goes to the guards, could it be Checchi or someone else?. “Well ,we will be keeping a very close eye on you since if there is another traitor here we will have bigger problems and we will be needing more weapons from you very soon since if they have equipment we might not be ready for an attack.” “Off you go” he Said, and we left. It was a quiet walk home but as we passed the blacksmith Checchi was in there with someone I’ve never seen before and was holding a small sack of something but I ignored it. I’ve got more problems in mind right now. It’s a silent dinner when we got home I was uneasy
