Middle Ages

Fuedalism

• Charlemagnes reign ends• Grandsons divide up empire; weakens and

becomes battleground

Vikings

• Origin: Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway)

• Northmen or Norsemen-Germanic people• Raids: Beached ships, attacked quickly, and

then moved out to sea• 1000ad-Viking terror begins to end-warmer

weather

Magyar and Muslim

• Origin: East Europe: Hungary• Superb Horsemen• South: Muslims (Came up from N. Africa)

Result

• Widespread disorder and suffering• Lived in constant danger and fear• Kings could not defend effectively• People stop looking to central ruler for

security

Feudalism

• A political and ecomic system based on land ownership and personal loyalty

• Based on rights and obligations:• In exchange for military protection and other

servies, a lord, or landowner, granted land called a fief.

• Person receiving a fief was called a vassal• Depended on the control of land

Feudal Society

• Like a pyramid• King• Powerful Vassals-wealthy landowners, nobles

and bishops• Knights• Peasants

Status

• 3 groups• Those who fought (Nobles and Knights)• Those who pray (men and women of the church)• Those who worked (Peasants)• Social usually inherited• Most peasants were serfs• Serfs- people who could not lawfully leave the

place where they were born

Serfs

• Tax on all grain• Crime to make bread elsewhere• Tax on marriage-must get approval of lord to

get married• Tithe-Church tax and equaled 1/10 of their

income.

Code of Chivalry

• Knights: Displayed courage in battle and loyalty to their lord

• Fight bravely in defense of 3 masters (Earthly feudal lord, heavenly Lord, chosen lady)

• Protect weak and poor• Loyal, brave, courteous

Church Reform

• Dark ages: Attacks from Magyars and Vikings, destroyed many places of learning and monasteries

• Monasteries led the spiritual revival• Cluny in France: Return to the basic principles

of Christian religion: Est. New Religious order

Church Reform

• Priests: Illiterate• Popes: Questionable morals• Bishops and Abbots: Feudal lords• 3 issues:• 1. Marriage • 2. Bishops sold positions in the church (Simony)• 3. Lay investitures: Kings appointed church

bishops

Church Reform

• Pope Leo IX and Pope Gregory VII enforced church laws against simony and the marriage of priests

• Church funded new movement: Tithes• Tithe: 1/10 of the yearly income of every

Christian family

New Orders and Cathedrals

• Friars: Traveled from place to place preaching and spreading the Church’s ideas

• Took vows of Chastity, poverty, and obedience• Did not live apart from the world in

monasteries like monks• Owned nothing and lived by begging

New Order and Cathedrals

• Dominic: Spanish priest: Founded the Dominicans, early order of Friars

• Emphasized importance of study• Francis of Assisi: Italian: Founded the

Franciscans, order of Friars• Treated all creatures, including animals, as if

they were his spiritual brothers and sisters

New Order and Cathedrals

• Women joined the Dominicans, Benedictines, and Franciscans

• Clare and Francis of Assisi: Founded the Franciscan order for Women: Known as the Poor Clares

• Hildegard of Bingen, a mystic and musician, founded a Benedictine convent

• Lived in poverty and helped the sick and poor• Not allowed to travel from place to place as

preachers

New Order and Cathedrals

• Gothic-Germanic tribe named the Goths• Style of architecture• Thrust upward as if reaching toward heaven• Light streamed in through stained glass

windows and the goal was to inspire the worshiper with the magnificence of God

Agriculture Paves the Way

• Towns and cities begin to grow: Growing population and territorial expansion of western Europe

• Reason: Improved farming methods• Expanding civilizations require an increased

food supply• Warmer climate from 800-1200 allowed for

farming in areas that weren’t normally suitable for farming

Agriculture Paves the Way

• Horses plow 3x the land in a day as a team of oxen• Improved harness that fitted around the horses

chest, enabled the pulling of a plow.• Axes: Clear forests for new fields• 3-field system: 2/3 used for farming, 1/3 lay fallow

(rested) for a year, so land would not be overused.• Result: food production increased. Better

nutrition, resist disease and live longer. Population grows dramatically

The Guilds

• An organization of individuals in the same business or occupation working to improve the economic and social conditions of its members

The Guilds

• First Guilds: Merchant guilds: Banded together to control the number of goods being traded and to keep prices up.

• Provided security in trading and reduced loss• Craft Guilds: (Artisans)• Set standards: Quality of work, wages, and

working conditions• Plans for supervised training of new workers

The Guilds

• Trade spreads throughout the world• Became powerful forces in medieval economy• The wealth accumulated helped them

establish influence over the government and the economy of towns and cities

Commercial Revolution

• Expansion of trade and business• Most trade took place in towns• Fairs would be held several times a year

(Religious festivals)• Trade routes spread across Europe

Commercial Revolution

• Traders move from fair to fair: Problem: Different types of currency at each fair as well as carrying around large amounts of cash or credit

• Solution: Letters of credit between merchants eliminated the need to carry large amounts of cash

• Trading firms and associations formed to offer this solution

Commercial Revolution

• New markets and opportunities• First: Merchants had to purchase goods from

distant places• Had to borrow money, but the Church forbade

Christians from lending money at interest, sin called Usury

• Church relaxed: Christians enter banking industry

Commercial Revolution

• Effects of the Commercial Revolution:• 1. What people did to earn a living• 2. Where they lived• Towns attracted workers. Towns Cities• Cities differ from villages

The Revival of Learning

• Contact with Muslims and Byzantine expands Cause Crusades

• Contact brings new interest in learning

The Revival of Learning

• 1100s Christian scholars from Europe visit Muslim libraries in Spain

• Jewish scholars translate Arabic versions of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers into Latin

• Increase in new body of knowledge (Mathematics, science, philosophy, law)

• Crusades bring Muslim technology (Ships, navigation, weapons)

The Revival of Learning

• The University: referred to a group of scholars meeting wherever they could

• Arose in Paris and Bologna, Italy first

The Revival of Learning

• Thomas Aquinas: Argued that the most basic religious truths could be proved by logical argument

• Summa Theologicae: Influenced by Aristotle, combined ancient Greek thought with the Christian thought of his time.

The Revival of Learning

• Vernacular: The everyday language of the homeland.

• Most scholars were writing in Latin and most of the general public could not read or write Latin

• Dante Alighieri: The Divine Comedy in Italian• Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales in

English• Christine de Pisan: The Book of the City of Ladies

in French

Capetian Dynasty Rules France

• Hugh Capet: Duke from France• Capet Family ruled a small territory: Paris• Beginning: Capetian dynasty- French Kings

(987-1328)• Increased territory of France

Capetian Dynasty Rules France

• Philip II (Philip Augustus): Ruled from 1180-1223

• Augustus Latin word meaning “Majestic,” Military conquest

• Seized Normandy from King John in 1204• Tripled land under direct control• Wanted stronger central Gov’t• Est. Royal officials, called Bailiffs

Capetian Dynasty Rules France

• Philip’s grandson: Louis IX, ruled from 1226-1270

• Pious and Saintly• Catholic Church• Created a French Appeals courtoverturn

local courts• Strengthened Monarchy/weakened________

Germany and Otto the Great

• Otto I (Otto the Great): Crowned king 936• Formed close alliance w/ Church• To Limit nobles’ strength-help from Clergy• Build power-support of the bishops and abbots• 962: Invades Italy on Pope’s behalf• Crowned Emperor: Roman Empire of the

German NationHoly Roman Empire: Strongest in Europe until 1100

Medieval Spain’s Unique Development

• 1. What are the Visigoths responsible for?• 2. Explain what happened in 711AD and what does it mean that

Spain was put on two tracks?• 3. What did Christian kings do when Muslim power would

wane?• 4. What might happen when Muslim power was reestablished?• 5. Explain the position of Christians within Muslim Spain• 6. What were reasons that Cordoba was a magnificent city?• 7. Explain the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa and its significance.• 8. Explain the Inquisition and what happened to those that

might be suspected of Heresy.

Italian City-States• 1. Why was Medieval Italy different from England and France? • 2. Why was Italy much more urban and commercial?• 3. What groups tried to take over Italy and why did they all fail?• 4. What were communes and how did they arise?• 5. How did Venice become an international trading powerhouse?

explain• 6. How did Milan prosper?• 7. What was Milan’s greatest manufacturing product(s)?• 8. What happened in Naples from the late 800’s to 1194?• 9. Who was Charles Anjou and what was the Angevin dynasty

responsible for?• 10. What was Robert the Wise responsible for and what marked the

end of the Neopolitan prosperity?

Famine and Plague

• Great Famine 1315-1316- Across Europe food was scarceForage for roots and eat horses, cats, dogs, etc

• Mortality: 20% of population• Harvest improves in 1317-1318, but famine

continues throughout the century.

Famine and Plague

• Plague: Began in Asia• 1/3 of population die: Bubonic Plague• Ripped society apart• Name: Blackish or purplish spots on the skin• Comes to Europe: Genoese merchant ships• Followed Trade routes: Through Europe and North

Africa• 4 years to reach almost all of Europe• 25 million Europeans and many more millions in Africa

and Asia

Famine and Plague

• Effects of the Plague:• Manorial System crumbles• Town population fell• Trade declined. Prices rose• The serfs left the manor in search of better wages• Nobles fiercely resisted peasant demands for higher wages,

causing peasant revolts in Throughout Europe.• Jews were falsely blamed for bringing on the plague. • Church suffered a loss of prestige when its prayers failed to

stop the onslaught of the bubonic plague and priests abandoned their duties

Church Divided

• 1305: Philip IV of France persuades College of Cardinals to chose a French archbishop as the new pope

• Clement V: Moves from Rome city of Avignon in France

• Popes would lived there: 69 years

Church Divided

• Weakened church: Avignon• 1378: Pope Gregory Xi died while visiting

Rome• Pope Urban VI: Chosen by cardinals• Second Pope elected few months later• Robert of Geneva: Clement VII

Church Divided

• 2 Popes• Excommunicated rival• French Pope: Avignon• Italian Pope: Rome• Great Schism

Church Divided

• 1414: Council of Constance• 3 popes: Avignon, Rome, Pisa (Elected by

earlier council)• All 3 resign: Holy Roman Emperor• 1417: New Pope: Martin V: Schism ends:

Papacy weakened

Church Divided

• John Wycliffe: Preached that Jesus Christ, not the pope, was the true head of the Church

• Offended: Worldliness and wealth of clergy• Belief: Own no land or wealth• Taught: Bible alone final authority for Christian

life NOT the Pope• English Translation of the New Testament of

the Bible

100 years’ War

• England and France battled on French soil for just over a century

• The century of war between England and France marked the end of medieval Europe’s society

100 year’s War

• Englands: Edward IIIGrandson of Philip IV: Claimed the right to the French throne

• War for the throne: 1337-1453• Victory passed back and forth• 1421-1453: French drive English out entirely

(Calais)

100 years’ War

• Style of war changes• England: Longbow• Battle of Crecy: English outnumbered 3:1• Longbow: Victorious over French crossbowmen

and knights• Knights: Unhorsed and lay helpless in their

heavy armor• Longbow spelled doom for the heavily armored

medieval knight

100 years’ War

• 1420: French and English signed a treaty stating that Henry V would inherit the French Crown.

• 1429: Joan of Arc moved by God to rescue France from the English.

• Believed she heard voices from the Saints urging her to drive the English from France.

• Goal: To crown Frances true king: Charles VII, son of Charles VI

100 Years’ War

• 1429: Joan led the French army into battle at a fort city near Orleans.

• French began to retreat, but Joan and a few soldiers charged back toward the fort.

• The entire French army stormed after her and the siege of Orleans was broken

• Joan of Arc guided them to victory• English capture Joan of Arc shortly after the victory and

the church condemned her as a witch and a heretic because of her claim to hear voices and she was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431.

100 year’s War

• Changes resulting from the war:• 1. A feeling of nationalism emerged in England and

France: People though of the king as a national leader, not simply a feudal lord

• 2. The power and prestige of the French monarch increased

• 3. The English suffered a period of internal turmoil known as the War of the Roses, two noble houses fought for the throne.

• 4. End of the 100 years’ war = end of the middle ages