Guilds and Artisanal Activities
How were artisanal products made in the Middle Ages?
Answer: By hand or using simple tools.
Why did many peasants move to cities?
Answer: To escape serfdom or because agricultural innovations reduced the need for farm workers.
What two types of urban schools existed?
Answer: Cathedral schools and municipal schools.
What did monarchs grant to cities in exchange for support?
Answer: Charters.
Name one problem in Europe during the 14th-century crisis.
Answer: Famine, wars, revolts, or the plague.
Who were guilds formed by?
Answer: By artisans of the same trade.
What did a peasant gain after living in a city for one year?
Answer: Freedom from their obligations as a serf.
Who controlled cathedral schools?
Answer: A bishop.
Why could monarchs raise their own armies?
Answer: Because economic growth allowed them to collect more taxes.
How was the plague transmitted?
Answer: By fleas on rats.
Where were artisanal workshops usually located?
Answer: In the artisans’ houses.
Who came to control city councils over time?
Answer: The most prestigious and wealthy families.
What did the word “university” originally mean?
Answer: An association of people.
What groups of people were represented in medieval parliaments?
Answer: The monarch, the nobility, the clergy and the government of the cities.
What war began in 1337?
Answer: The Hundred Years’ War.
Name two things that guilds controlled.
Answer: Quality and prices of products.
What was a city charter (fuero)?
Answer: A legal document that established self-government and specified rights and privileges.
How were university classes organized?
Answer: A lecture (reading of a text) and a discussion.
How did kings become stronger than the feudal lords?
Answer: They collected more taxes, raised armies, and got support from cities.
Name one cause of the agricultural crisis.
Answer: Exhausted soils, flooding, or lack of technical innovation.
What happened to access to becoming a master at the end of the 13th century?
Answer: It was restricted and required making a masterpiece.
Name 2 reasons why cities grew in the Middle Ages.
Answer: Because peasants left farms, trade grew, or people wanted freedom from serfdom.
Why did monarchs need educated people?
Answer: Elites wanted educated officials and educated children.
In which kingdom did parliaments have more power: Castilla or Aragón?
Answer: Aragón.
What disease spread through Europe between 1347 and 1352?
Answer: The plague (Black Death).