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Middle Ages: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
The Middle Ages
The Middle Ages, or medieval period, ran roughly from the fall of Rome in 476 to about 1500 in Europe. Kingdoms, castles and the Church shaped daily life.
Key fact
It lasted about a thousand years.
Castles & Knights
Lords built castles to defend their land, and knights, armoured soldiers on horseback, fought for them. Stone castles spread across Europe from around 1066.
Key fact
A moat made castle walls harder to reach and dig under.
Feudalism
In the feudal system, kings granted land to lords in return for loyalty and soldiers, and peasants worked the land in return for protection.
Key fact
Most people in the Middle Ages were peasants.
The Black Death
The Black Death, a plague that swept through Europe from 1347 to 1351, killed perhaps a third to a half of Europe’s population.
Key fact
It spread through fleas on rats, and between people.
Magna Carta
In 1215, English barons forced King John to seal Magna Carta, which said that even the king had to obey the law. It inspired later ideas about rights.
Key fact
Four original copies from 1215 still survive.
The Islamic Golden Age
From about the 8th to the 13th century, scholars in Baghdad, Córdoba and Cairo advanced maths, medicine and astronomy, and preserved ancient Greek learning.
Key fact
Baghdad’s House of Wisdom translated books from many languages.
The Vikings
From about 790 to 1066, Vikings from Scandinavia raided, traded and settled across Europe, and even reached North America around the year 1000.
Key fact
Viking helmets didn’t have horns.
Fun facts
The idea that medieval people never drank water is a myth, though weak ale was a common everyday drink.
A full suit of plate armour weighed around 20 to 25 kg, and knights could run and climb in it.
Serfs, the poorest peasants, couldn’t leave their lord’s land without permission. Many were tied to it from birth.
Some gene variants that helped people survive the Black Death are still common today.
Most of Magna Carta has since been repealed: only three of its clauses are still law in England.
Around 1015, Ibn al-Haytham tested ideas about light with careful experiments, an early form of the scientific method.
Viking traders travelled as far as Baghdad, swapping furs for silver.
Story: Walls of Butter
Walls of Butter
1198. Richard the Lionheart finishes Château Gaillard, a mighty castle above the River Seine. He boasts he could hold it even with walls of butter.
Richard dies the next year. In 1203 the French king besieges the castle, and after months his soldiers find a way in: so the story goes, up a latrine chute.
Château Gaillard fell in March 1204, and Normandy soon passed to France. A castle is only as strong as its weakest spot.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
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Question 1 of 10
The Middle Ages are also called the medieval period.
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True. From Latin for “middle age”.
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Question 2 of 10
Knights were armoured soldiers on horseback.
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True. Trained from childhood.
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Question 3 of 10
Most medieval people were peasants.
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True. Farming the land.
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Question 4 of 10
The Black Death spread partly through fleas on rats.
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True. And from person to person.
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Question 5 of 10
Original copies of Magna Carta from its first year still survive.
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True. Four copies survive.
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Question 6 of 10
Baghdad’s House of Wisdom was a centre of learning.
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True. Scholars translated and built on ancient works.
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Question 7 of 10
Vikings reached North America around the year 1000.
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True. At L’Anse aux Meadows, in Newfoundland.
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Question 8 of 10
The Middle Ages came before ancient Rome.
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False. They came after Rome fell.
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Question 9 of 10
Castles were built mainly as holiday homes.
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False. They were built for defence.
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Question 10 of 10
In feudalism, peasants owned most of the land.
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False. Lords and the Church held it.
Keep going in the app
KnowSoda learns what you know and brings back what you’re about to forget. Middle Ages has 6 more ideas at the Advanced and Expert levels.
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Middle Ages, feudalism, Black Death, Vikings
- The British Library — Magna Carta
- World History Encyclopedia — House of Wisdom, medieval castles
- L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site (Parks Canada)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Charlemagne, Mongol empire, Mansa Musa, guild, Joan of Arc
- Russell (1991), Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians (Praeger)
