History Main / TheMiddleAges

Era of the crusades, Myth/RobinHood, and fat, lecherous (but good-hearted) friars. Also home to [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]], [[SquishyWizard wizards]], [[KnightInShiningArmor knights in shining armour]], [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses beautiful princesses]] with big headdresses and tall, spirally gothic architecture. Expect to see a {{Corrupt Church}}man or two wandering the landscape [[BurnTheWitch burning witches]], heretics, and pretty much ''anyone'' who doesn't agree with [[KnightTemplar them]]. Also expect to see people comically dropping left and right from [[ThePlague the Black Death]]. ''("Bring out your deeeeaaaaa----" *Fall* *Splut!*'')

If the story does not take place in some unspecified kingdom, the setting is likely to be a [[YouFailHistoryForever mythologized]] UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} or UsefulNotes/{{France}}, though [[UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} Jerusalem]], which had pretty much been ignored since BibleTimes will now also be used as the stage for all sorts of flashy battles involving cutlass-wielding [[ArabianNightsDays Turks]] and ruggedly handsome [[UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar Knights Templar]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}''

* ''Film/{{Dragonslayer}}''

* ''Film/JackTheGiantSlayer''

The TropeCodifier for the High Middle Ages was the 19th century, when the Middle Ages were celebrated as the embodiment of {{Romanticism}} in the RomanticismVersusEnlightenment debate. AncientGreece, meanwhile, had been cast as the embodiment of [[UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment Enlightenment]] in the 18th century. In reality, Ancient Greece and the High Middle Ages were very similar societies: both valued philosophy, science, and engineering, but feared and used magic and loved to fight. Both also had slaves, and a de facto caste system; both had a mix of slave/serf and free farmers as the basis of society. The Greeks valued city living more, though (TheHunchbackOfNotreDame notwithstanding), and were a mix of petty kingdoms, democracies ("democracy" meant "mob rule" for a very long time thanks to their example), and lawless autocracies; but Persia was feudal (and most of medieval material culture -- knights, castles, tunics, pointy shoes, roses, rhyming poetry, princesses in towers wearing conical hats with veils, wizards with robes covered in holy symbols -- is originally Persian). It's fair to say that the High Middle Ages and classical Greece would've understood each other well, if they'd interacted -- while contemporary Romantics and Enlightenment-ists would both have reasons to dislike both societies.

* ''WesternAnimation/Shrek''

* GorgeousPeriodDress: Except for (ugh!) [[MedievalMorons Ye Peasants]] and one or two of the more self-denying Churchmen. Look for puffy, slashed sleeves and trunk-hose among the men, though these were really [[TheRenaissance Renaissance]] fashions.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' (since the game takes place in TheLateMiddleAges Italy, it overlaps with TheRenaissance)

* {{Disney}}

* Nearly all screen [[Film/{{Excalibur}} permutations]] [[Film/FirstKnight of]] KingArthur.

* ''Film/{{Jabberwocky}}''

* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''

* All [[Film/{{Excalibur}} permutations]] [[Film/FirstKnight of]] KingArthur.

The Middle Ages lasted for about a thousand years, and fell into five periods: the ugly Sub-Roman period (the fall of Rome, the barbarian invasions, the rise of Islam, and so on), the pleasant Carolingian Renaissance, the ugly Viking/Hungarian invasions, the pleasant High Middle Ages, and the ugly period of the Black Death and its aftermath. The classic medieval tropes above are exclusively drawn from the High Middle Ages: the period which stretches, approximately, from 1066 to 1348.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone''

The TropeCodifier for the High Middle Ages was the 19th century, when the Middle Ages were celebrated as the embodiment of {{Romanticism}} in the RomanticismVersusEnlightenment debate. AncientGreece, meanwhile, had been cast as the embodiment of {{Enlightenment}} in the 18th century. In reality, Ancient Greece and the High Middle Ages were very similar societies: both valued philosophy, science, and engineering, but feared and used magic and loved to fight. Both also had slaves, and a de facto caste system; both had a mix of slave/serf and free farmers as the basis of society. The Greeks valued city living more, though (TheHunchbackOfNotreDame notwithstanding), and were a mix of petty kingdoms, democracies ("democracy" meant "mob rule" for a very long time thanks to their example), and lawless autocracies; but Persia was feudal (and most of medieval material culture -- knights, castles, tunics, pointy shoes, roses, rhyming poetry, princesses in towers wearing conical hats with veils, wizards with robes covered in holy symbols -- is originally Persian). It's fair to say that the High Middle Ages and classical Greece would've understood each other well, if they'd interacted -- while contemporary Romantics and Enlightenment-ists would both have reasons to dislike both societies.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' (since the game takes place in TheLateMiddleAges Italy, it overlaps with TheRennaisance)

* ''[[KingdomComeDeliverance]]''

* ''Film/{{Excalibur}}''
* ''Film/FirstKnight''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone''

* Disney's ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'': "After all, this ''is'' the fourteenth century."

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' (since the game takes place is TheLateMiddleAges Italy, it overlaps with TheRennaisance)