Medieval and Modern

A World Divided

Contemptus Mundi• Man’s own individual condition was one of sinfulness. • Only way to remedy this was through a life of penance, denial, sacrifice and

caritas (love for all)• Happiness was spiritual happiness and the happiness obtained in heaven after

death.

• Dominant image: The wheel of fortune.• The things of the world were on a huge wheel spun by lady fortune. If you placed

yourself on the wheel you could do well or badly with no control on your part. You were at the mercy of ‘Lady Luck’.

• Man’s duty was to scorn things of the world and remove himself from the wheel of fortune.

• The ultimate goal was heaven to be achieved through faith in God and serving Him. Although happiness on earth was not the goal, a measure of happiness could be found knowing that you were to be saved.

The Wheel Of Fortune

Lif is laene

• The medieval worldview did not include the idea that all creation was bad (fallen)

• Nature as created by God was good (Genesis)

• The natural pleasures of life were to be enjoyed.

• As were the spiritual qualities of man, those not tainted.

Growing Literacy

• Although much of medieval English was oral in nature, literacy (in English) was becoming much more widespread.

• This spread of literacy and the increased use of the English language reflected the growing feelings of patriotism and nationhood.

• The increasing dominance of English is demonstrated in the fact that discussions in parliament were increasingly taking place in the ‘mother tongue’. First written evidence of this is in 1362.

• Literacy in French was in decline well before the end of the 14th century.

Standardising English• One major problem preventing English becoming

THE written and spoken language was the sheer variety of regional dialects that made communication between the regions impossible.

• A common language without variation was needed if the country was to become governable.

• This situation was resolved with the emergence of London as the major city.

• The language of London became English.• The ‘victorious’ dialect was in fact Midlands

English due to the large number of midlanders that had moved to London in the 14th and 15th centuries.

• The Lollardy movement also contributed to the emergence of a standardised English.

• English once again became the language of the elite and educated (not been so since 1066)

English Language Consolidated and Enlarged

• Geoffrey Chaucer turned this English of the south-east into the ‘King’s English’.• He enriched it with French (25%) and Italian.• John Wycliffe enriched it with Latin• English is thus a stew of French, Scandinavian, Latin, and German.

“During the two centuries from Chaucer to Elizabeth, the language in question, living on the tongues of men no less than in their books, was moving forward from strength to strength and from beauty to beauty, enriching itself with Latin words expressive of all the joy and learning of the Renaissance, until it fell into the perfecting hands of the

man of Stratford. Since his day its adaptability to exact scientific statement has increased, and its poetic and literary quality has decreased, answering to the

changes in the mind and life of the people who use it.”G.M.Trevalyn

An Architectural Flowering• Aristocratic money and taste that supported the Chaucers

of the day was also put at the disposal of English architects and builders.

• English architecture developed ideas from borrowed from continental Gothic.

• The pointed arch is the most characteristic style of English Gothic.

• This new English style was named ‘Decorated’• However, by the middle of the 14th century a reaction to

the Decorated style saw the emergence of the Perpendicular style- quintessentially English

• Uniquely English as it was not copied abroad because England was perpetually at war in this age.

Sense of Nationhood

• War cemented the idea of a nation• Medieval man/woman would often compare themselves to those foreign to them

(local and international)• Dominance of Flemish and Italians in England’s overseas trade led to resentment• Wars and battles won created a new found confidence in Englishness.

“..the English are great lovers of themselves and of everything that belongs to them. They think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England:

and when they see a handsome foreigner they say that “he looks like an Englishman”, and that “it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishman.”

An Italian visitor to England in 1500

• Francophobia common – fully reciprocated.• A great irony that after generations of Englishmen who emulated all things French in

order to get ahead, they now rejected everything French as inferior and detestable.• 1362 Parliament declared that the French language was alien to England and that all

pleadings and judgments in law courts had to be conducted in English.

The Celtic Nations• This sense of nationhood led the English to attempt to subjugate their Celtic

neighbours.• Success was limited.

Scotland• By the 15th century English kings had abandoned all attempts to claim dominion over

the Scots.• Rather than war, they looked for a more stable relationship. The Anglo-Scottish treaty

of 1477 and the ‘Perpetual Peace’ of 1502 went some way toward achieving this. Ireland

• Generally ignored Ireland.• Yet when English security threatened by Welsh rebellion 1400-1407 they began to

get more involved in Irish affairs.• Tried to dislodge the bona-fide rulers of Ireland, such magnates as the earls of

Ormond and Kildare with little success.• A sort of equilibrium was reached but in effect England ceded control.

Wales• Complete conquest by Edward I meant there was much resentment of the English• Led to revolts and dissent• Edward IV responded by installing his son, Prince of Wales, in Ludlow Castle so that

he could supervise and govern the unruly province. Devolution?

Although England had not been successful in bringing its neighbours into the fold, by the end of the fifteenth century, the English had become a nation.