Nobility In The Middle Ages

Imagine having a whole kingdom ready to serve or sharing a small one room house with four other people, that is what it was like in the Middle ages. Life was either very difficult or very luxurious in the Medieval Times depending on who someone was and where they were in the social classes. It is unimaginable to know how hard it really was back then especially when everything is now so easy and almost done for everyone. The poor now would be considered higher middle class in the Middle Ages, because of this everyone worked harder for what they got unless you were born into the royal family. It was like winning the lottery to be born into a royal family but going bankrupt to be born to a servant's family. The royalty of that time was looked

The nobles were the second highest rung on the Medieval hierarchy. Nobility was divided into three subgroups: the high nobility, lesser nobility, and knights (Worldhistoryonline, 2012). Nobility was inherited but they had to be rich, own land, horses, had military service, hunted, and feasted (Boise State University, 2015). Nobility could be lost if the family lost money and was considered poor. Nobles were mostly military and tribal leaders. They were rewarded for their accomplishments by the king presenting them with nobility (Worldhistoryonline, 2012). Dukes were the highest ranking in the nobility class. The dukes ruled provinces. Barons were next and they were the lesser nobles. The barons were usually military leaders, but the king could change their field of work if he thought that it was right (Hierarchy Structure, 2013). They were wealthy men and controlled large armies of knights that would help the king to fight his enemies (Hodge, 2005). In exchange for the knights and soldiers that the nobles provided they would be given land. The nobles or barons would have to swear an oath to the king before he would give the nobles any land and it would still only be on lease. The nobles would be called the Lord of the Manor (Hierarchy Structure, 2013). The land given to them was called fiefs (Ross, 2004). The houses that the nobles lived in on their land were known as manors this is why they were called Lords of the Manor. On the land they

They were required to be soldiers in the king’s army (Hierarchy Structure, 2013). Knights were part of an elite warrior class they earned their title only through military achievements (Worldhistoryonline, 2012). “ A man was Knighted as a reward for bravery on the battlefield. A knight-to-be would kneel and receive a hefty sword blow, and that was that, He was pronounced a knight,” (McNeil, 1992). People may think of knights as the men who would go and save the damsel in distress but none of them did that. They could only be males and they were descendents of knighted men (Worldhistoryonline, 2012). At first a knight could make a soldier a knight but then it was changed and only a king could reward knight hood because there started to be to many of them (McNeil, 1992). All knights had to go through a training process if the knightship was inherited. The boys would start their training at age 7 and train till age 21 before they were truly a knight (Worldhistoryonline, 2012). A knight was supposed to always be truthful, modest, generous, and loyal (McNeil, 1992). They called it a code of chivalry. Chivalry was the honor and behavior of a knight (Ross, 2004). The reason that knights protected the upper classes was because they were given many items in exchange for their services. They had to protect the baron that gave him land and they also had to protect his family as