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Short video about the roles of Monks.

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A Mini Guide to Medieval Monks | Animated History

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THE BLACK DEATH - A Kid Explains History, Episode 16

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Book about St. Patrick

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"The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history . . . It was written in Magna Carta."
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1941 Inaugural address

On June 15, 1215, in a field at Runnymede, King John affixed his seal to Magna Carta. Confronted by 40 rebellious barons, he consented to their demands in order to avert civil war. Just 10 weeks later, Pope Innocent III nullified the agreement, and England plunged into internal war.

Although Magna Carta failed to resolve the conflict between King John and his barons, it was reissued several times after his death. On display at the National Archives, courtesy of David M. Rubenstein, is one of four surviving originals of the 1297 Magna Carta. This version was entered into the official Statute Rolls of England.
Enduring Principles of Liberty
Magna Carta was written by a group of 13th-century barons to protect their rights and property against a tyrannical king. It is concerned with many practical matters and specific grievances relevant to the feudal system under which they lived. The interests of the common man were hardly apparent in the minds of the men who brokered the agreement. But there are two principles expressed in Magna Carta that resonate to this day:
"No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, disseised, outlawed, banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will We proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.""To no one will We sell, to no one will We deny or delay, right or justice."Inspiration for Americans
During the American Revolution, Magna Carta served to inspire and justify action in liberty's defense. The colonists believed they were entitled to the same rights as Englishmen, rights guaranteed in Magna Carta. They embedded those rights into the laws of their states and later into the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution ("no person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.") is a direct descendent of Magna Carta's guarantee of proceedings according to the "law of the land."

Select Magna Carta Resources

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Enlarge Magna Carta, 1297: Widely viewed as one of the most important legal documents in the history of democracy. On display in the David M. Rubenstein Gallery. Presented courtesy of David M. Rubenstein. "The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history . . . It was written in Magna Carta."

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Crusades

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The Crusades - Pilgrimage or Holy War?: Crash Course World History #15

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Middle Ages : William Chester Jordan : 9780613444958

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Middle Ages by William Chester Jordan, 9780613444958, available at Book Depository with free delivery worldwide.

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"Black Plague Investigation"

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Each year I've taught 6th grade, I have done a fun simulation activity for the Black Death that I just LOVE. You can see my previous post about that by clicking HERE. I fully planned on doing that this year, but because our curriculum maps for Social Studies and Language Arts have a lot in common, the LA teacher beat me to it. Needless to say, I was very disappointed because this activity is what gets me through the year. I seriously love doing it with my students so much that I maybe cried just a little when I found out they had already done it in another class. Don't judge me.

So, I had to come up with something else to do that would get me excited to teach the late middle ages. I found a free product online from Mr. Roughton's website. If you haven't been to his website, he has a lot of amazing resources that he shares with teachers on tons of world and US history topics. The product is called ' History Mystery: Black Death' and the students were playing the role of FBI investigators trying to determine whether or not the Black Death was really caused by the Bubonic Plague like many people believe. I liked how much inquiry was involved and since we're an AVID school, we focus on using WICOR with every lesson: Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and R igor.

I, of course, had to add my own flair to the mix. I put all the exhibits into file folders with labels as if they were really FBI documents. I burned a few of the documents to make them look old before laminating.

Oh yeah, and I made myself a cape and plague-doctor inspired mask. It was awesomely creepy. If you'd like to make your own, I modeled mine after this tutorial online. The instructions weren't very detailed so I felt like I was winging it most of the time, but I think it turned out really well!

Overall, my kids really enjoyed it. I still think I like the other simulation better, but it's nice to have back-up activities in case of emergencies. If you haven't seen this activity before, be sure to check it out on Mr. Roughton's website. Hope everyone is hanging in there. Only 2 more weeks until Spring Break for us and then it's the final stretch. Can't believe this year is almost finished already!

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Each year I've taught 6th grade, I have done a fun simulation activity for the Black Death that I just LOVE. You can see my previous post about that by clicking HERE. I fully planned on doing that this year, but because our curriculum maps for Social Studies and Language Arts have a lot in common, the LA teacher beat me to it.

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Book about a boy during the Crusades
Title: The Boy Knight: A Tale of the Crusades
Author: G.A. Henty
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Knight-Crusades-Childrens-Classics/dp/0486448037

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Quizlet Activity

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Magna Carta & its Effects on European Society, 6-5.2 Flashcards | Quizlet

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6-5.2: Explain the effects of the Magna Carta on European society, its effect on the feudal system, and its contribution to the development of representati…

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This is a lesson plan about the Battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror. 50 minute lesson

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The Battle of Hastings & William the Conqueror Lesson

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This is the perfect lesson to teach students about the Battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror. This lesson includes exciting bell work with a real life connection, a state objective, a lesson about the Battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror, and 2 final assessments. After the lesson, stu...

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In Search of Medieval Britain - Episode 1

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Trade helped the towns grow during the Middle Ages. This activity helps student familiarize themselves with how trade works and how it helps civilizations flourish.

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For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource.

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Students can read about the middle ages and click on other specific links that give them more information about important people in the era.

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Kids learn about entertainment in the Middle Ages and Medieval times including feasts, games, sports, festivals, music, and troubadours.

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Here is a link to some of the art that was done during the Crusades that can be found at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

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The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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The First Crusade
Most historians consider the sermon preached by Pope Urban II at Clermont-Ferrand in November 1095 to have been the spark that fueled a wave of military campaigns to wrest the Holy Land from Muslim control. Considered at the time to be divinely sanctioned, these campaigns, involving often ruthless battles, are known as the Crusades. At their core was a desire for access to shrines associated with the life and ministry of Jesus, above all the Holy Sepulcher, the church in Jerusalem said to contain the tomb of Christ ( 2005.100.373.100). Absolution from sin and eternal glory were promised to the Crusaders, who also hoped to gain land and wealth in the East. Nobles and peasants responded in great number to the call and marched across Europe to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine empire. With the support of the Byzantine emperor, the knights, guided by Armenian Christians ( 57.185.3), tenuously marched to Jerusalem through Seljuq-controlled territories in modern Turkey and Syria. In June 1099, the Crusaders began a five-week siege of Jerusalem, which fell on July 15, 1099 ( 92.1.15). Eyewitness accounts attest to the terror of battle. Ralph of Caen, watching the city from the Mount of Olives, saw "the scurrying people, the fortified towers, the roused garrison, the men rushing to arms, the women in tears, the priests turned to their prayers, the streets ringing with cries, crashing, clanging and neighing."

The Crusaders took over many of the cities on the Mediterranean coast and built a large number of fortified castles across the Holy Land to protect their newly established territories ( 28.99.1), while also establishing churches loyal to Rome. For the Crusaders, the Dome of the Rock was the Temple of Solomon; the Aqsa mosque was converted to use as a palace and stables.

The Latin kingdom of Jerusalem established by the Crusaders boasted fifteen cathedral churches. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, for example, became the seat of a Western Christian bishop in 1110 ( 1988.1174.9).

Artists from different traditions met in the city of Jerusalem, with, for example, Syrian goldworkers on the right of the market near the Holy Sepulcher, and Latin goldworkers on the left (Conder 1896). Indeed, metalwork from this period sometimes combines an Islamic aesthetic with Christian subject matter ( 1971.39a,b). Some pieces even bear an inscription indicating that they were made by an Islamic goldsmith for a Christian. Precious works of art fashioned for the churches of Europe celebrated their links to the Holy Land ( 2002.18; Toulouse Cathedral Limoges Reliquary).

Second and Third Crusade
In 1147-49, the Second Crusade, championed by the Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux ( 1975.1.70b), attempted to take Damascus in Syria. The campaign was a dismal failure because the Muslims had regrouped. Led by Salah al-Din (Saladin), Muslim forces advanced across Syria and finally retook Jerusalem in October 1187. Saladin was credited by his personal secretary with allowing the Patriarch of Jerusalem to leave the city with the church's treasure, explaining: "If we make excuses [to confiscate this wealth] they [the Franks] will accuse us of treachery ... let us not make them accuse people of faith of breaking their oaths. Let them go. They will talk about our benevolence" (Mohamed el-Moctar, in Paul and Yaeger, 2012, p. 209).

Entering the city, a vizier of Saladin marveled at how the Crusaders had beautified Jerusalem: "the care of the unbelievers had transformed [it] into a Paradise garden ... those accursed ones defended with the lance and sword this city, which they had rebuilt with columns and slabs of marble [ 2005.100.373.86], where they had founded churches and the palaces of the Templars and the hospitallers ... One sees on every side houses as pleasant as their gardens and bright with white marble and columns decorated with leaves, which make them look like living trees" (quoting Kadi el-Fadel in Hamilton, 1979).

By the end of the Third Crusade (1189-92), Crusader forces had gained Cyprus and the coastal city of Acre. Saladin guaranteed access to Jerusalem to European pilgrims and welcomed Jews back to the city as well.

The chronicle of the Spanish-born Ibn Jubayr, who traveled to Mecca from 1183 to 1185, speaks of the ease of trade in the Holy Land, even in times of military hostilities: "the Muslims continuously journeyed from Damascus to Acre (through Frankish territory), and likewise not one of the Christian merchants was stopped and hindered (in Muslim territories) ... The soldiers engage themselves in their war, while the people are at peace" (as cited in Paul and Yaeger, 2012, p. 34).

The Fourth Crusade
With each crusade, relations between the Byzantines and the Western forces became more estranged. The Fourth Crusade set out in 1202 with Egypt as its goal. After choosing sides in a dynastic dispute in Byzantium, however, the Crusaders turned their siege upon Byzantium's capital, Constantinople, to collect an enormous sum of money that had been promised for their support. The city was sacked in 1204, its rich treasures divided between the Venetians (the lion's share of which remains in the Treasury of San Marco, Venice), the French, and other Crusaders. The Latin Empire of Constantinople was established with Baldwin of Flanders as emperor. In 1261, the Byzantines regained the city.

Later Crusades
Successive crusades were launched to the Holy Land. The knight Jean d'Alluye traveled to the Holy Land around 1240, but the circumstances of his voyage are not known ( 25.120.201).

The Seventh and Eighth Crusades, in 1248 ( 38.60) and 1270, were sponsored by Louis IX, who died in Tunisia ( 54.1.2; 37.173.3). In 1271, Sultan Baibars captured Montfort Castle ( 28.99.1), and in 1291, the Crusader city of Acre fell, ending the era of Latin Crusader kingdoms. Calls for new crusades over the next centuries were increasingly ignored, despite the renown in which Crusaders and the Holy Land were held in legend ( 1993.65.4; 23.21.4; 25.120.528; 25.120.529; 54.1.1; Belles Heures Heraclius leaf, folio 156).

Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters. "The Crusades (1095-1291)." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/crus/hd_crus.htm (originally published October 2001, last revised February 2014)

Burgoyne, Michael Hamilton. Mamluk Jerusalem: An Architectural Study. London: World of Islam Festival Trust, 1987.

Conder, Claude R., trans. "The City of Jerusalem." Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society 6 (1896).

Dandridge, Pete and Mark Wypyski. "Sword and Dagger Pommels Associated with the Crusades, Part II: A Technical Study." Metropolitan Museum Journal 46 (2011), pp. 145-51.

Folda, Jaroslav. The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land, 1098-1187. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Folda, Jaroslav. Crusader Art in the Holy Land: From the Third Crusade to the Fall of Acre, 1187-1291. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Goss, Vladimir P., ed. The Meeting of Two Worlds: Cultural Exchange Between East and West During the Period of the Crusades. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1986.

Grabar, Oleg, and Benjamin Z. Kedar eds. Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Jerusalem's Sacred Esplanade. Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2009.

Hamilton, Bernard. Monastic Reform, Catharism, and the Crusades. London: Valorium Reprints, 1979.

Hillenbrandt, Carole. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.

La Rocca, Donald J. "Sword and Dagger Pommels Associated with the Crusades, Part I," Metropolitan Museum Journal 46 (2012), pp. 133-44.

Paul, Nicholas, and Suzanne Yeager, eds. Remembering the Crusades: Myth, Image, and Identity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.

Prawer, Joshua. The History of the Jews in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.

Rozenberg, Silvia, ed. Knights of the Holy Land: The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Exhibition catalogue. Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1999.

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Authors: Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters

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The Crusades (1095-1291) | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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The Crusaders then took over many of the cities on the Mediterranean coast and built a large number of fortified castles all over the Holy Land to protect their new territories.

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Students will study the heirarchy of people/roles

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Why Was Israel Called The Holy Land? - History Book for Kids | Children's Asian History

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This is a lesson having students map the middle ages.

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Medieval Europe Map Lesson and Assessment (Digital and PDF)

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A great intro lesson and assessment for your Medieval Europe unit! The included map lesson and quiz focus on the geography and empires of Europe in the Middle Ages. ***Paper PDF AND Google Drive Resource Included*** This resource can be completed on paper or online with laptops, Chromebooks, table...

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Middle Ages (6th grade)

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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A map from the middle ages.

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An interactive map that quizzes you on your knowledge of geography during the middle ages.

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This is a quiz called Early Middle Ages Map Practice Game and was created by member MrsDeBernardis