Historians use the term 'Middle Ages' to refer to the period between the end of the Roman Empire in the AD 400s and the beginning of the Renaissance in the 1400s. At first, the Middle Ages were a time of great lawlessness in Europe. Barons built castles and terrorized the land around them, or fought each other. Kings had little power. This period is sometimes known as the 'Dark Ages'.
The Middle Ages were also the great age of chivalry. Knights were supposed to dedicate themselves to deeds of kindness and generosity, as well as courage. They wore armor to fight, and their horses were generally armored, too. There were no guns until about 1350, and bows and arrows were the main long-distance weapons. When besieging a castle, the attackers tried to shoot the defenders on the walls, and to throw up ropes with grappling irons so that they could climb the walls. The defenders responded by dropping rocks and boiling oil on their assailants.
In many countries of Europe, people lived under the feudal system, a term which comes from the word 'feu' meaning fee or services. The system worked as follows: the king held all the land, and gave some of it to his barons in return for military service in time of war. The barons let some of their land to knights or lesser nobles on the same terms, and so on down the line to ordinary peasants - small farmers. There were also serfs, who had no land and were virtually slaves. In later times, the military service gave way to a payment of money, which the king could use to hire soldiers when he needed them. The chief landowner of an area was called the Lord of the Manor.
The New Age of Learning
Very few people could read or write outside the Church. Learning was kept alive by the monks and priests, who also made copies of all books, because there was no printing in those days.
By the end of the Middle Ages things were changing rapidly. Scholars in Italy became interested in the work and learning of classical Greece and Rome, and so began the Renaissance - a word which means 'rebirth' and describes the renewal of interest in learning. It was helped by the invention of printing in the 1440s, which enabled books to be more widely available. New ideas in art and architecture were developed, too.
