The High Middle Ages

Development of government institutions

• primogeniture • lineage • royal domain • William, Duke of

Normandy

• 1066 Norman Conquest• Why does Burger

characterize the period following 1000 as one of greater rigidity? What were the consequences of this change for various groups of people (e.g., corporations, serfs)?

• What are some of the means by which monarchs created larger states out of smaller ones?

Angevins• King Henry II • Angevin empire • Eleanor of

Aquitaine• Thomas Becket

English, French monarchy and Institutions

• Common Law• Parliament (House of

Lords, House of Commons)

• Magna Carta• Justice of the Peace• How did the

bureaucratic court system evolve in the medieval state? How did this process serve to crystallize rights?

• Parlement of Paris• Philip the Fair (Philip

IV of France)• Baillis• Estates General• Compare the

development of institutions in England with those in France. What challenges did kings of each face from their respective nobles?

The Empire

• Frederick II• Electors• Why was Germany

an exception to the pattern of state-building?

• What was the pattern that emerged in Italy, particularly northern Italy?

The Papacy and the church

• Vicar• pluralism• Pope Innocent III• Fourth Crusade• Pope Benedict

VIII; Unam Sanctam

• Canon law

• What were some of the sources of conflict between church and secular authorities?

• How did church and secular courts eventually create a division of labor for their respective areas of jurisdiction?

• What was the outcome of the dispute between Philip the Fair and Boniface VIII? What changes in circumstances account for the difference between the outcome of this dispute and that of the dispute between Henry IV and Gregory VII?

Question to Ponder

Burger stresses the "ad hoc" nature of the process by which many of the institutions that shape the western world today came about during the medieval period. What are the implications of this process for us as students of history? What kinds of conclusions should we be careful to avoid as we think about the high Middle Ages?

Magna Carta• Consider Magna Carta as reflecting a list of grievances.

– What had been some of the compaints against King John?– What kinds of issues do these complaints concern--justice, land tenure,

taxes?– What light does Magna Carta shed on the tensions produced by the rise of

central administration and government?

• What basis might there be for considering Magna Carta as a "feudal document"? – Does it concern issues arising from land tenutre?– Who forced the king to issue it?– Who is to represent the kingdom in dealing with the king?

• Magna Carta has often been seen as laying down fundamental constitutional principles. – Is this conclusion correct, in your opinion? Why might some people draw it?– Is this a perception based on twelfth-century concerns? Why or why not?– To what extent could Magna Carta serve to illuminate the origin of

constitutional (i.e., limited) government?

Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council

• To what extent do these canons reflect a definition of society as "Christendom"? Do they take or reflect steps to make Western society more vigorously or thoroughly Christian? – What do the canons have to say about Jews? Muslims? Heretics?– Do the canons seek to expand Christianity, either by converting non-

Christians or by expanding Christian territory? How is "Christendom" conceived?

– To what extent do the canons reflect the Gregorian reform, by seeking to highlight distinctions between clergy and laity?

• How did Innocent and those around him view relations between church and secular authority? Are they separate and supreme in their own spheres? Is one inferior or superior to the other?

• Some historians have argued that the High Middle Ages saw an increasing belief in the goodness of the physical world. Does canon 1 provide evidence bearing on this issue?