The Crusades and the Black Death: How Crisis Changed Medieval Europe

I’m Spencer Charrington, and this is my lesson on the Crusades and the Black Death. It shows students how two crises loosened the hold of the feudal system. The Crusades opened Europe up to new ideas and trade. The Black Death killed between a third and a half of Europe’s population. At the end, students compare how fear and blame spread during the Black Death with what they saw during COVID-19.

What students learn

• Why the Crusades were launched, and what their legacy was, good and bad
• How to read Pope Urban II’s speech at the Council of Clermont (1095) as a primary source
• How the plague spread from rats to fleas to people, and why it moved so fast
• How the Black Death weakened feudalism and trust in the Church
• How crisis, fear and scapegoating connect, from Strasbourg in 1349 to now

How the lesson runs

1. Opening question. I ask students what they already know about feudalism.
2. The Crusades. We look at why the Byzantine Emperor asked the Pope for help in 1095 and read Emperor Alexius Comnenus’s appeal to Robert, Count of Flanders. Over the next 200 years, four wars were launched to capture the Holy Land. We weigh the legacy: intolerance and persecution on one side, new ideas, more trade and the growth of cities on the other.
3. How the plague spread. Students learn how fleas on rats carried the bacterium Yersinia pestis, and how the plague reached Europe in 1347 and moved west.
4. Plague simulation. In groups of four, students move between “European cities” around the room and draw a card from each city’s envelope. A blank card means they survived. A skull and crossbones means they caught the plague.
5. Medieval cures. We look at bloodletting, herbs, vinegar, flagellants and early quarantine, and ask what they tell us about what people knew about disease.
6. The impact. Labor shortages on the manor, peasants asking for wages, people moving to towns, the decline of feudalism and growing distrust of the Church.
7. Fear and blame. Students learn how Jewish communities were falsely accused of poisoning wells, and how hundreds of Jews were killed in Strasbourg in 1349.
8. Worksheet. Students finish the lesson worksheet using their notes.