Use the Internet and find out more about Henry VIII of England, and answer these question:
What was the religious policy of the Catolhic Monarchs?
"According to a traditional story, the plague came to Europe from the town of Caffa, a Crimean port on the Black Sea where Italian merchants from Genoa maintained a thriving trade center. The Crimea was inhabited by Tartars, a people of the steppe, a dry, treeless region of central Asia. When the plague struck the area in 1346, tens of thousands of Tartars died. Perhaps superstition caused the Muslim Tartars to blame their misfortune on the Christian Genoese. Or perhaps a Christian and Muslim had become involved in a street brawl in Caffa, and the Tartars wanted revenge. In any case, the Tartars sent an army to attack Caffa, where the Genoese had fortified themselves. As the Tartars laid siege to Caffa, plague struck their army and many died. The Tartars decided to share their suffering with the Genoese. They used huge catapults to lob the infected corpses of plague victims over the walls of Caffa. As the Tartars had intended, the rotting corpses littered the streets, and the plague quickly spread throughout the besieged city. The Genoese decided they must flee; they boarded their galleys and set sail for Italy, carrying rats, fleas, and the Black Death with them."
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Marco Polo went to China to trade and find new markets and products. While he was in China he met Kublai Khan who was the Mongol ruler of China. He travelled for 24 years. On his return he was put in prison where he told stories of his travels to a fellow prisoner who then wrote a famous book about Marco Polo’s adventures. At the time, people didn’t believe the stories but now most people believe his stories were true.
Marco Polo married very late, at the age of 45, to a rich widow. He had three daughters. Marco Polo is still famous for his exploration and travels. He is also well-known for his fantastic stories and his knowledge of China and the court of the great Kublai Khan. Marco Polo died at the age of 70 in 1324 in Venice.To Know more...
The Mesta (Spanish Honrado Concejo de la Mesta, Honoured Council of the Mesta) was a powerful association of sheep holders in Castile, and one of the most important guilds in medieval Europe. It was created in 1273 by Alfonso X of Castile who formally recognized its long-established privileges, which were confirmed and extended by his successors.Sheep farming grew out of the insecurity of the border lands between Islamic and Christian Spain, considered far too unstable for arable farming. This no-man’s-land often measured as wide as 100 kilometres. Disputes were settled by local agreements, which eventually developed, as the Reconquista progressed, to the Mesta. Huge flocks of transhumant sheep migrated every year from the pastures of Extremadura and Andalusia to Castile and back according to the season. As arable farming expanded it became necessary to govern this lucrative traffic with routes along which livestock was permitted to travel and graze (cañadas, cuerdas, cordeles...). Each type of path stipulated the width permitted. see also Cañadas Reales
• cordal: cañada measuring 45 varas around 40 metres
• encañada : drover's road as it passes through a gorge
• vereda
• carrerada (Cat.); cañada
• valgada (Gal.); cañada
The importance of the Mesta to the economy of Castile is reflected in the fact that members enjoyed many privileges such as exemption from military service. Even today, the cañadas (drover’s roads or traditional rights-of-ways for sheep) are, in theory at least, legally protected from occupation and barring, though this law has been much flaunted in recent decades.
The Mesta is often seen as the first, and most powerful, agricultural union in mediaeval Europe. Huge profits were made in exporting Castile’s principal product to the rest of Europe. It was finally abolished in 1836, as competition from other areas and political factors in Spain had made the association anachronistic.
The Mesta was one of the biggest causes of deforestation as hundreds of thousands of sheep would traipse across the Peninsula every year, grazing and being fed with additional fodder.
The most important drover’s paths were the Cañadas Reales, each with many tributary paths:
• Cañada leonesa, León-Extremadura.
• Cañada segoviana, Logroño-Valle del Guadalquivir.
• Cañada manchega Cuenca-Guadalquivir.
Mesta comes from the Latin “animalia mixta” meaning "mixed animals".- beasts without a known owner. When shepherds met up to so did their sheep. When the council was eventually established, it was also called mesta. The word mustang (mixed) comes form the same source. (By...)
External links:
• " Concejo de la Mesta. (Wikipedia Spanish)
HOMEWORK:READ THE TEXT , WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT?
Christian Spanish Kingdoms.
blem. 
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For nearly a century, scholars have been fascinated by women's social status in Al-Andalus. They considered Al-Andalus “a place apart,” in which patterns of life transcended those in Medieval Europe and the eastern Muslim lands.
The Umayyads ruled Al-Andalus for the first three centuries of Muslim rule in Iberia (roughly 711-1031 CE). The Umayyad household provided a strong, centralized vision for developing a distinct Andalusi culture. Women of the royal household. along with other courtly women, played prominent roles within this culture. Some of Al-Andalus' most influential women included:
Al-Zahra, concubine of the caliph Abd al-Rahman III, for whom his new palace complex was most likely named
Subh, the wife of caliph Al-Hakam II and architect of secretary Al-Mansur’s rise as chief minister and army commander
Itimad al-Rumaykiyya, poetess and wife of taifa king al-Mutamid of Seville
One historical account states that the Umayyad chancery employed 70 women copyists and Qur’an calligraphers. Hundreds of other women served the vast imperial household. 
Walladah possessed an irrepressible spirit, symbolized by her public love affair with the virtuoso poet, Ibn Zaydun. Her confident nature was clearly evidenced by the words stitched on her sleeve: "I am, by God, fit for high positions."
Women in ruling Amazigh (Berber) households, likewise, commanded respect. They also participated in leadership roles.
The taifa king and Zirid ruler of Granada, Abdullah Ibn Buluggin, wrote about the role of women in his memoirs, The Tibyan. He notes that in the leading Amazigh (Berber) families, mothers and other women of the household participated in a shura council that made collective political and military decisions the ruler would enact.
The Amazigh (Berber) commander Yusuf Ibn Tashufin -- whose Almoravid forces brought Ibn Buluggin’s rule to an abrupt end in 1090 CE -- relied heavily on his wife, Zaynab, for strategic advice. He trusted her to oversee and protect his realm from political rivals.
Women played significant roles outside the halls of power, as well.
Abu Hayyan reveals his daughter's stature among the period's intellectual elites in an elegy, entitled Al-Nudar an al-Maslah an Nudar ("Pure Gold for Solace for Nudar"). He praises her with the words: "In excellence, no other woman could compare -- can a rock ever match a jewel?"
Andalusi scholar Ali Ibn Hazm (died 1064 CE) -- advocate of a literal reading of the Qur’an -- expressed his opinion that women could have been prophets of God in the past. He also asserts that women could play a role in leadership.
Muslim women were active patrons and sponsors of public works. Women of means have historically supported many public fountains, gardens, hospitals, and inns through their own assets and property. They also have endowed mosques, such as the Qarawiyyin in Fes. Tomado de .....
HOUSEWORK . WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT WOMEN ROLE IN AL-ANDALUS'. WRITE IN YOUR BLOG.
