2,873
edits
Changes
no edit summary
Lords will follow their king in combat with their troops not because the law obliges it, but because honour command it.
The main powers in western Europe are France, England, the Holy Roman empire (Germany), Castile (Spain) and the Pope.
There is in a war between England and France that just started and there is a power struggle between France, the Holy Roman Empire and the Pope.
The current Pope have been strongly supported by France and he is based in Avignon instead of Rome.
Christendom is still fighting against the Islamic world, Arabs have reclaimed the holy land (Jerusalem and some surrounding cities). The current crusade started in 1343 didn't mobilise as many soldiers as it used to.
Part of Spain is controlled by an Arabian king, it will take a hundred year before Spain reconquers the entirety of his land.
==Faith==
Though there were standards for the equipment men were meant to bring when mustered, the results were mismatched and haphazard. Infantrymen were not wealthy. They wore whatever scraps of armor they could get, the most common and important being metal helmets. Most carried a sword, a mace or an axe for close quarters fighting. Those forming battle lines usually had spears or polearms with which to gain reach on their opponents and fend off cavalry.
==Technology==
Each books are handwritten by Monks mostly and on parchment, paper already exists but is considered a vile material and hence only used for low quality documents. Printing will not be invented before a very long time.
Medicine is very backward, it relies on the theories of humoral types and dissections of corpses are forbidden. Hygiene is almost inexistent, sewers are very rare. In this regard as well as in many others, the Islamic world is much more advanced than Christendom.
Glass is very rare, it is only used for the most expensive buildings, cheaper building use windows made of oiled parchment, bare holes in the wall or don't have windows at all.
Several counties will mint their own coins out of gold and silver, banknotes do not exist yet and the only banking institutions are held by monastic orders. The first privately owned banks start to appear in Italy.
The American continent have not been discovered yet, Christendom buy good from China through the silk road without knowing where they come from.
Besides the book written by Marco Polo, knowledge of Asia is almost inexistent.