General Medieval Knowledge Quiz

Instructions: For each of the following questions, select the best response (A, B, C, D, or E). For each correct response, you get one point. Choosing an incorrect response does not lower your score. Good luck!

1) Which of the following statements best describes chivalry?

A) the regulations followed by the monastic orders
B) the tenets of courtly love found in medieval literature
C) the rules of the knightly tournament
D) a religious code for knights that demanded strict adherence
E) an ideal knightly code with militaristic, religious, and social components

2) Which ruler invaded England in 1066, historically gaining the title 'the Conqueror' after his name?

A) William of Normandy
B) Harald of Norway
C) Harold Godwinson
D) Philip I of France
E) Edgar Atheling

3) What English Ruler had to be ransomed from his capture by Duke Leopold after the Third Crusade?

A) Henry II
B) Richard I
C) John I
D) Stephen I
E) Henry I

4) Which of the following best describes a serf?

A) a free holder that held only a small amount of manorial land
B) a member of the lowest class of craftsmen
C) a slave without any rights
D) an agricultural laborer who owed obligations a lord
E) none of the above

5) What major calamity struck Europe in the mid-fourteenth century?

A) the last of the crusades
B) the Hundred Years' War
C) The Black Death
D) the papal schism
E) none of the above

6) Pope _____________ called for the First Crusade.

A) Urban II
B) Gregory I
C) Alexander III
D) Boniface VI
E) Gregory VII

7) Which of the following is the lowest ranking title of nobility?

A) a duke
B) an earl/count
C) a baron
D) a viscount
E) a marquess/marquis

8) Geoffrey Chaucer's most famous work is _____________.

A) The Decameron
B) The Canterbury Tales
C) The Inferno
D) Troilus and Criseyde
E) Tristan

9) Which of these famous women played a major role in the Hundred Years' War between England and France and was eventually martyred?

A) Eleanor of Aquitaine
B) Christine de Pisan
C) Mary Magdelene
D) Heloise
E) Joan of Arc

10) Sharply pointed spires, flying buttresses, and ribbed vaults are a few features that characterize the _____________ style of architecture.

A) Romanesque
B) Classical
C) Byzantine
D) Gothic
E) none of the above