MEDIEVAL+INQUIRY


 * OUR INQUIRY**


 * We have been learning about life in The Middle Ages. After watching some videos where we learned that average life expectancy in the Middle Ages was only thirty years, Cameron wondered: Would a knight have lived longer than that?**


 * We decided to investigate. Firstly we decided upon the aspects of a knight’s life that we thought may have affected his life expectancy. Then small groups researched each idea. Next we collaboratively linked our ideas together. Here is the result of our inquiry.**

We wondered whether the life expectancy of a knight would have been greater than that of most other people in those times.

Firstly we thought that diet might help a knight live longer. A knight was chosen from a rich family. Therefore we suppose a knight child would have had good food such as bread, milk, eggs, fresh vegetables and meat. Once the child became a page, servants would have prepared better than basic food for him. Also, in times of famine the rich probably stayed well fed. Therefore a knight’s food probably helped him live longer.

Another possibility that may have affected life expectancy might have been exercise, as a young child, the knight was probably healthier because there were no bikes, television etc and so the child used his body a lot. When he trained to be a knight, he learned to ride a horse, do sword play, wrestle and throw a javelin. Probably all this helped him live longer.

The next thing we considered was health care. A page, squire and knight would have been able to afford a doctor. If they had broken bones the doctor would have set them. They would have been able to afford herbs for remedies. However, we think that some of the treatments would have been useless. To heal a fever they ate a spider wrapped in a raisin and to fix loss of speech they drank primrose juice. But even rich people died because of The Black Death. Also a knight travelled all around the world without the protection of vaccines.

Clothing for knights was also something we thought about. For everyday a knight wore rich person’s clothing. It would have been made of better materials and be warmer. It was probably cleaner. All of this might have helped a knight live longer. And in a battle a knight wore a special protective armour, at first made of chain mail and later of special metal plates. (Continued next page)