Middle Ages and the Plague-Introduction

• High Middle Ages (1000-1300) Period of political, economic, intellectual, and

artistic expansion• Late Middle Ages/Renaissance (1300s-1700s)

Hundred Years’ War Black Death Schism within church Ottomans capture Constantinople Renaissance (art and learning) Beginnings of nationalism

Otto I and Revival of Empire• Otto I “the Great” (936-973)

Put family in charge of Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia Invaded Italy Defeated Hungarians at Lechfeld, 955 Secured German borders

• Enlisted church in rebuilding program Bishops and abbots made agents of the king Pope John XII (955-964)- Crowned Otto emperor, 962

Church under royal authority

First Crusade• Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus

appeals for aid against the Turks• Pope Urban II (1088-1099)

Council of Clermont First Crusade risky, but approved

• Motives Religion, but also greed Remove restless nobility East/West reconciliation Sparked anti-Jewish riots in Europe

• Jerusalem captured on July 15, 1099

Later Crusades• Second Crusade (1147-1149)

Dismal failure

• Jerusalem recaptured in 1187 by Saladin• Third Crusade (1189-1192) – failure

Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor Richard the Lion-Hearted, English King Philip Augustus, French King

• Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) Also a failure

• Crusades did stimulate Western trade and cultural interaction with the East

Towns and Townspeople• Towns contained 5% of the population• Charters given to towns by feudal nobles

Charters guaranteed towns’ safety Gave them independence

• Serfs took their skills to the towns Serfs found freedom and profits Chance for a higher social rank Lords in the countryside offered more

favorable terms of tenure in hopes of keeping serfs on land

Towns and Townspeople Image

Rise of Merchants• First merchants may have been serfs• Traveled together in caravans and convoys• Merchants at first disliked

Outside traditional social groups- Nobility, clergy, peasantry

• Formed own protective associations• Merchants allied themselves with kings

Against traditional nobility in countryside

• Towns facilitated transition to national government

Schools and Universities• Bologna

First important Western university, 1158 Paris another important early university

• Scholasticism Sense that truth is already known so the job

of students was to summarize traditional authorities and to elaborate on traditional arguments using pros and cons to draw conclusions

• Logic and dialectic were the main tools

Society

• The Order of Life Nobles Clergy Peasants

• Medieval Women Image and Status Life Choices Working Women

Medieval Social Order: NoblesThose Who Fight

• High nobility were great landowners Lower nobility were petty landlords

• Soldiering was the nobleman’s profession Nobility celebrated strength, courage, warfare

• BUT… the nobility was in economic and political decline Plague and famine Changing military tactics Infantry and artillery take place of cavalry Alliance of wealthy towns with king

Medieval Social Order: ClergyThose Who Pray

• Clergy was an open estate by training• Two basic types of clergy

Regular (regula, rule)- Monks who lived according to ascetic rule:

Franciscans, Dominicans Secular (saeculum, world)

- Clergy who worked among the laity

Medieval Social Order: PeasantsThose Who Work

• Largest and lowest social group in Middle Ages Their labor supported all others Owed their lord a certain amount of produce

• Two basic changes in peasantry in Middle Ages Increasing importance of single-family holding- Land in single family through generations

Conversion of serf’s dues into money payments- Change permitted revival of trade- Facilitated rise of towns

Medieval Women• Most medieval women were workers in fields, trades,

and businesses• Church created unrealistic view of women

Subjugated housewife or confined nun Many women were neither

• Women’s legal rights varied• Girls were apprenticed in a trade

Appeared in most “blue-collar” trades Prominent in food and clothing industries Belonged to guilds, could become masters

• Went to school – gained vernacular literacy But excluded from universities

Growth of National Monarchies

• England and France: Hastings (1066) to Bouvines (1214) William the Conqueror Popular Rebellion and the Magna Carta Philip II Augustus

• The Hohenstaufen Empire (1152–1272) Frederick I Barbarossa Frederick II

Growth of England• Death of Edward the Confessor in 1066

Harold Godwinsson chosen as new king

• William of Normandy (d. 1087) Battle of Hastings, October 14, 1066

• Creation of a strong monarchy• Kept Anglo-Saxon tax system• Practice of court writs• Parleying- Anglo-Saxon tradition

• Balance of monarchical and parliamentary

England- The Magna Carta

• Henry II (1154-1189) Eleanor of Aquitaine – Angevin empire

• King John (1199-1216)• Magna Carta – “Great Charter”, 1215

Limits on royal power Rights of privileged to be represented in

important issues like taxation Rights eventually spread

France

• Philip II Augustus (1180-1223) Norman conquest – national monarchy French victory at Bouvines, July 27, 1214

• Louis IX (1226-1270) Efficient French bureaucracy Gave subjects right to appeal French associated their king with justice “Golden Age of Scholasticism”

Hohenstaufen Empire (1152-1272)• Frederick I Barbarossa (1152-1190)

Re-established imperial authority Launched new phase of battle with the pope

• Frederick II (1212-1250) Ward of Pope Innocent III German princes became petty kings Frederick was excommunicated four times by

the Catholic Church Collapse of German monarchy with his death Establishment of electoral college in 1257

Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)• Causes

Dynastic, territorial, economic rivals

• English military superiority Incompetent French leadership

• Joan of Arc (1412-1431)• Consequences

Devastated France Awakened French nationalism Sped transition from feudal monarchy to centralized

state Peasants bore heaviest burdens

The Plague- “The Black Death”• A weakened Europe

Overpopulation- Population of Europe doubled from 1000-1300

Economic depression Famine

• Plague followed the trade routes west Venice, Genoa, and Pisa by 1348

• Two-fifths of Europe died Death rates highest in urban areas

Black Death – Consequences• Shrunken labor supply

Wages increased• Decline in value of noble estates• Urban areas hit especially hard

But eventual prosperity Prices soared for manufactured and luxury

items• Church also weakened• Nobility and church on defensive

Both had limited power over monarchy

Challenges of the Catholic Church

• Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) Unam Sanctam Temporal authority subject to power of church Conflict with Philip the Fair (1285-1314)

• Papacy in Avignon, (1305-1377)• Great Schism, (1378-1417)

Support along political lines Council at Pisa in 1409 – now three popes Council at Constance, 1414