Medieval Britain II:Late Middle Ages

Cultural History of Britain

Lecture 5

Timeline: Late Middle Ages (1350-1485)1348-49: Black Death1381: The Peasants’ Revolt (Wat Tyler)1383: Wycliffe’s Bible translation1429: Battle of Orleans, Joan of Arc1440: Eton College1453: end of the Hundred Years War1455-85: War of Roses (Plantagenet Dynasty)

Lancaster (white rose)York (red rose)

1485- reign of Henry VII (Tudor Dynasty)

Black Death: Economic and Social Changes

c. 50% of Britain’s population dies in plague→Food shortage relievedArable lands turned into pastures (sheep breeding)Manufactures (processing of wool)

Broadcloth Worsted

Tenants instead of peasantsPreliminaries of industrial revolutionGradual dissolution of feudal society

Process completed by the War of the Roses

Religion: Foreshadowing of ReformationJohn Wycliffe (1329-84)

Outraged by the abuses of power within the Church

Radical thinkerForerunner of PuritanismBible translation (based on Vulgata)His followers spread his teachings in the

Kingdom of Bohemia, to inspire Jan Hus (burnt at the stake in 1415 as a heretic, at the Council of Constance

1420-31 – Hussite Wars in Central EuropeForerunners of Protestant Reformation –

Martin Luther, 1517, 95 theses, WittenbergLollards

Between Medieval Other-Worldliness and Humanism: the Age of Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer

(c.1343-1400)

The Place of Thomas Becket’s shrine in Canterbury Cathedral

(destroyed in 1538, on Henry VIII’s order)

Joan of Arc: Iconoclastic Medieval Saint or a Forerunner of Reformation?

Joan of Arc (1412-31)Maid of OrleansBurnt at the stake for

witchcraft/heresyCanonised in 1920

G. B. Shaw, Saint Joan (1923)

Film adaptation of her story (1999, Joan of Arc, dir. Luc Besson)

Education: Eton Established (1440)

“the chief nurse of England’s statesmen”

Boarding schoolPublic schoolSingle-sex schoolFor pupils aged 13-18Royal Family

Eton College ChapelLate 15th c. wall paintingsInfiltration of Renaissance from the Netherlands

Secularisation of Culture: Medieval Theatre

Mystery plays – cyclesYorkChesterWakefieldUnknown town in Central England

Miracle playsMorality playsInterludes

Film adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999)

The Emergence of Print Culture in Britain: William Caxton (1476)

Caxton’s printing house: 1476-91About 100 works published,

e.g. Chaucer, MaloryHis own translations from French (20)Patron of English literature in the

vernacularBooks are still the privilege of the wealthy!“popular literature” had a completely

different meaning in the 15-18th centuries than todayImpacts

Interest in classical Greek and vernacular literature (Renaissance Humanism) Interest in the Bible in the vernacular (Reformation)Standardisation of English spelling while the Great Vowel Shift was still in

progress (Middle English → Modern English)

Medieval Architecture: Perpendicular GothicNo cathedral built entirely in Perpendicular Gothic (wars)

Additions to existing churches in the new style (towers)Parish churches (new, wealthy middle class as patron of arts and religion)„Definition”: in the Perpendicular style „the buiding is conceived as a

cage defined by a grid of vertical mullions and tracery, glazed, blind or open” (Watkin 64)

Features:New tracery pattern applied to the wallsHuge windows of a new design completely

filled the east end of churchesVault decorated in the most intricate design

(fan and lierne vaults)Late 15th c.: fan vaulting, lace-like traceryStandardisation, mass productionSpecifically English style

The First Perpendicular Gothic Building

Gloucester Cathedral, Choir vault, c. 1340

Gothic Tracery

Gloucester Cathedral

Imaginative Perpendicular Vaulting: Sherborne Abbey (end of the 15th century)

Sherborne Abbey, Dorset, the nave

looking west

Perpendicular Gothic: the Tower

The 15th-century tower of Worcester Cathedral

Perpendicular Windows

Fairford Church, Gloucestershire, west window (c.1500)

The Perfection of Perpendicular Gothic

King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, c. 1450-1500, fan vaulting

Secular Architechture

Mid-15th century: introduction of brick – transformation of domestic architecture Stone castles

Manor-houses Timber-frame construction

Mid-15th century: standard college plan established (Queen’s College, modeled on manor houses)

Tattershall CastleOckwells, manor-house

Works CitedBBC – History. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history

Gelfert, Hans-Dieter: Nagy-Britannia rövid kultúrtörténete. Corvina, Budapest, 2005.

Halliday, F. E. An Illustrated Cultural History of England. London: Thames and Hudson, 1981.

Morgan, Kenneth O., ed. The Oxford History of Britain. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1984.

Jenner, Michael. The Architectural Heritage of Britain and Ireland. Penguin: London, 1993.

Laing, Lloyd and Jennifer. Art of the Celts. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992.

---. Medieval Britain: The Age of Chivalry. London: Herbert Press, 1998.

Morgan, Kenneth O., ed. The Oxford History of Britain. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1984.

Watkin, David. English Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992.