Ten questions on the medieval world beyond the stereotype, each correcting or complicating the popular version.
The Middle Ages are usually reduced to knights and squalor, which leaves out most of what was happening. This quiz covers feudal obligation, the Black Death and its social consequences, the Byzantine Empire that continued Rome for another millennium, and the Islamic Golden Age that preserved and extended classical learning. The explanations tackle the common myths directly, without sanitising a period that was genuinely harsh for most people living through it.
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
Play it insteadAnswer: B. Land granted in exchange for service
Why: Land was held in return for military or labour obligations, forming a chain of duties. Historians now debate how uniform the system ever really was.
Answer: D. Plague
Why: The mid-fourteenth-century pandemic is generally attributed to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It killed perhaps a third of Europe's population within a few years.
Answer: D. Religious military campaigns
Why: They were campaigns launched from Latin Christendom, mainly toward the eastern Mediterranean, from 1095 onward. Political and economic motives ran alongside the religious ones.
Answer: B. 1066
Why: William of Normandy defeated Harold at Hastings in 1066. The conquest reshaped English landholding, law and vocabulary.
Answer: C. The Byzantine Empire
Why: The Byzantine Empire was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the east, lasting until 1453. Its inhabitants called themselves Romans throughout.
Answer: C. Baghdad
Why: Baghdad's scholars translated and extended Greek, Persian and Indian works in mathematics, astronomy and medicine. Much classical learning reached Europe through this route.
Answer: C. Monks in monasteries
Why: Monastic scriptoria copied texts by hand, a slow and expensive process. Printing in the fifteenth century made books dramatically cheaper.
Answer: C. Making the walls harder to approach or undermine
Why: Water obstructed assault and, importantly, prevented attackers tunnelling beneath the walls. Fish were sometimes kept in them, but that was secondary.
Answer: D. Scandinavia
Why: They came from present-day Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Alongside raiding they were traders and settlers, reaching North America around 1000 AD.
Answer: A. Craftspeople and merchants in a trade
Why: Guilds regulated standards, training and prices within a trade. They controlled entry through long apprenticeships.
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