8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 6 of 13
Medieval Europe
Feudalism, towns and the Black Death
What your child practices
How medieval Europe was organized (kings, nobles, knights and peasants), the role of the Church and guilds, the Magna Carta, the Black Death, and how change came to the feudal system.
Alabama Course of Study content standard: 8.7 · feudalism, manors, the Church and daily life in medieval Europe
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- Feudalism was a pyramid: the king at the top, then nobles (lords), then knights, then peasants and serfs who worked the land.
- Each level gave loyalty or service in return for land or protection.
- The Church guided daily life, schools and politics. Towns grew with trade, and the Black Death killed huge numbers of people in the 1300s.
Example: Who had the least power in the feudal pyramid: nobles, knights or serfs? Nobles got land from the king. Knights served nobles as fighters. Serfs worked the land and could not leave it. Answer: serfs
Medieval Europe in Alabama
In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 6 of 13 in 8th grade Social Studies, after Maya, Aztec & Inca and before Crusades & the Black Death.
Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
What was the three-field system?
- A way of dividing the army
- A tax paid three times a year
- A farming method that rotated crops and left one field resting each year
- A plan for building a castle
A farming method that rotated crops and left one field resting each year
Hint: Resting a field (letting it lie fallow) helped the soil recover and increased harvests.
Question 2
Which feature helped defend a medieval castle?
- Large glass windows
- A wide, unguarded gate
- Thick stone walls, towers and a moat
- Open fields with no walls
Thick stone walls, towers and a moat
Hint: Castles were built to be hard to attack.
Question 3
How did the growth of towns change life in medieval Europe?
- Everyone became a knight.
- Castles disappeared overnight.
- People could earn money from trade and crafts instead of farming only.
- People stopped trading.
People could earn money from trade and crafts instead of farming only.
Hint: Towns grew with markets, guilds and new jobs.
Question 4
The Black Death arrived in Europe in the 1340s. What was one cause of its spread?
- A volcanic eruption
- Poor harvests only
- Crop failure only
- Fleas on rats traveling along trade routes
Fleas on rats traveling along trade routes
Hint: The plague spread along trade routes, carried by fleas on rats and by people.
Question 5
What was the tithe?
- A payment to a guild for a loan
- A tax paid only by nobles to the king
- A tax, about one tenth of a person's income or crops, paid to the Church
- A fine for being late
A tax, about one tenth of a person's income or crops, paid to the Church
Hint: The Church used tithes to support priests, churches and help for the poor.
Question 6
Put the feudal pyramid in order, from the most powerful to the least.
- 🛡️Knights
- 🌾Peasants and serfs
- 👑King
- 🏰Nobles (lords)
King → Nobles (lords) → Knights → Peasants and serfs
Hint: In the feudal system the king was at the top, followed by nobles, then knights, then peasants who worked the land.