Era 4.3: THE MIDDLE AGES in WESTERN EUROPE 500 1500 CE

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Era 4.3THE MIDDLE AGES in WESTERN EUROPE 500
1500 CE

• Day Two, Session 4A
• Craig Benjamin

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Includes

• Part One The Early Middle Ages Church and State
  
• Part Two Feudal Europe
• Part Three Medieval Politics 1000 - 1300
• Part Four The Later Middle Ages1300-1500

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PART ONE The Early Middle Ages Church and
State

• Roman and Germanic cultures evolved into a
  syncretic European civilization
• The Church played a central role as popes began
  to assert their political and spiritual authority
• Pope Gregory (590-604) sent missionaries to
  convert Anglo Saxons
• English pattern (bishops supervised by
  archbishops who reported to the pope) became
  standard model
• But from the 9th Century on the church and papacy
  fell increasingly under the control of lords and
  kings

www.unf.edu/classes/saints
Pope Gregory Pope and Administrator
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The Preservation of Knowledge

• Monasteries all over Europe played a vital role
  in preserving the knowledge of the classical
  world
• Boethius (6th C) translated Plato and Aristotle
  into Latin
• Cassiodorus encouraged monks to copy valuable
  manuscripts monasteries became centers of
  learning
• Venerable Bede (d. 735) wrote textbooks,
  commentaries and history the Ecclesiastical
  History of the English People

Venerable Bede working on the Ecclesiastical
History 8th Century
www.unf.edu/classes/saints
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Attempts to Establish a New Empire in Western
EuropeClovis and the Merovingians

• Kingdom of the Franks gained support of the
  church, and attempted to replace the Roman Empire
  in the West
• Clovis I (Merovingian dynasty) united Franks into
  a single French kingdom by his death in 511
• Converted to Christianity and formed a close
  alliance with the papacy

The Baptism of Clovis Oil on wood (11th Century)
gallery.euroweb.hu/
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Decline of the Merovingians

• Clovis successors expanded to the Mediterranean
  and Germany, but were incompetent
• Roman administration and taxation collapsed
  trade stopped middle class disappeared free
  peasants became bondage slaves
• 7th Century Slavic peoples invaded Germany and
  Muslims prepared to invade Spain from North
  Africa
• Charles Martel strengthened the army and defeated
  the Muslims at Tours, halting Muslim expansion
• His son Pepin the Short (741-768) elected king of
  the Franks beginning of the Carolingian Dynasty
• Supported by the church donated Ravenna to the
  Pope

Charles Martel defeats the Muslims at Tours
gallery.euroweb.hu/
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Charlemagne Charles the Great (768-814)

• Under Pepins son Charlemagne, the Frankish state
  reached height of its power, controlling most of
  western Roman Empire
• Charlemagne was a warrior, administrator and
  patron of the arts
• Drove the Muslims into southern Spain, and French
  immigrants moved into the north (Catalonia today)
• Conquered the Germanic Bavarian and Saxon tribes,
  then defeated the Avars
• Established a military province in the Danube
  Valley,
• called the East March (later became Austria)
• Defeated the Lombards in Northern Italy
• restored the Pope after he had been overthrown
• by Roman nobles
• Pope crowned him Charles Augustus
• Emperor of the Romans

Charlemagne crowned by the pope
www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/
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www.uiowa.edu
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Charlemagnes Legacy

• Christian civilization and order extended
  throughout Western Europe
• Spread of Slavs and Muslims halted
• A cultural revival began in western Europe,
  leading to the emergence of a unique European
  civilization
• After Charlemagnes death in 814, his three
  grandsons agreed on a three-way split of the
  empire at the Treaty of Verdun in 843
• Charles the Bald - western parts (France)
• Louis the German - eastern (Germany)
• Lothair - long middle kingdom from North Sea to
  Italy
• (Lothairs kingdom collapsed into Lorraine,
  Burgundy and Italy)
• Lorraine (Latin and German cultures) became one
  of the most frequent battlegrounds of Europe

The Moselle River winds through the German
region of Lorraine www.francehotel.com
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Europe Under Attack Muslims

• As the Empire collapsed in the 9th and 10th
  Centuries, Europe came under attack from Vikings
  in the north, Muslims in the South and Magyars in
  the east
• Muslims plundered the coast of Italy and France,
  and moved inland to attack caravans in the Alps
• Mediterranean was under Muslim control, cutting
  off trade between Byzantium and the west

The Moors plunder the cities of the
Mediterranean 19th C Etching
www.stemnet.nf
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Vikings!

• Scandinavian peoples (Vikings) began to raid
  south because of overpopulation
• Ships seaworthy, carried 100 men, powered by oars
  and sails
• The Vikings expanded as far as North America,
  Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean colonies
  established in Greenland and Russia
• Britain, Germany, France and Spain all raided
  northern Britain occupied, northwestern France
  devastated
• Eventually Vikings (Northmen) established their
  own state in France called Normandy

bbcnews.co.uk
www.stemnet.nf
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PART 2 FEUDAL EUROPEResponses to the Invasions

• In England reaction to the Vikings led to a
  unified kingdom by 900
• German response to the Magyars led to powerful
  German kings
• Viking attacks in France accelerated
• fragmentation (king lost central power
• as power of local lords increased)
• Large estates (manors) economically and
• militarily self-sufficient
• Nobles had their own professional force
• of heavily-armed mounted cavalry
• (knights) who lived in the noble houses
• in return for their military service

www.medievaltymes.com
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Three Elements of Feudalism

• With no central authority, feudalism became a
  means of guaranteeing personal security
• Political power in hands of private individuals,
  not centralized king. Three basic elements
• Personal relationship (vassalage) one nobleman
  (vassal) becomes the loyal follower of another
  (lord)
• Property element vassal receives land (fief)
  from lord
• Government functions - exercised privately by
  lords over vassals and fiefs

www.carleton.ca
Feudal lord and his vassals
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Practical Feudalism

• Feudalism was a vast hierarchy
• King at the top with large royal estates
• he invested highest nobles with honors
• and royal lands for supporting the crown
• with military forces
• These nobles (to meet their military
  requirements) parceled out portions of their
  fiefs to lesser nobles
• All the way down to a single knight with a small
  fief
• Warfare the normal occupation of vassals and
  lords to die in battle was a noble end for a
  warrior
• Society divided into three classes nobles,
  peasants, clergy nobles were honored warriors
  distinct from peasants clergy drew its members
  from both classes

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The Church and Feudalism - Chivalry

• During the invasions, church formed close
  relationship with nobles for protection
• Also influenced nobility for the better, adding
  Christian values to the knightly code of chivalry
• Early chivalry a code of conduct to maintain
  military virtue prowess in combat, courage and
  loyalty
• Boys trained for the knighthood from the age of
  seven, became a knight at twenty-one
• By the 12th Century the church had a major role
  in impressing upon the new knight that he must be
  virtuous, valiant and loyal to God

Later chivalry stressed reverence an protection
of women (in reality most knights plundered and
abused women) Legendary Spanish knight El Cid
www.los-poetas.com
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Life of the Nobles

• Nobles lived in castles built from stone from
  the 12th century
• Donjon the focal point, surrounded by an open
  space with storerooms, workshops then outer
  walls with turrets and moat
• Castles were cramped, gloomy and cold stone
  walls bare apart from tapestries fireplace the
  only warmth
• Nobles enjoyed outdoor pursuits warfare,
  jousting, hunting, falconry
• Indoor amusements - chess, entertainment from
  jesters and minstrels
• Noble women involved in administration of the
  manor and regulation of the peasants

scenariousa.com/mi/oakland
www.warwick.ac.uk
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Early Medieval Economy

• Economy local and self-sufficient
• Economy and society based on the manors the
  great estates of the nobles (350-5000 acres) and
  the village
• Manors contained arable (farm land) and
  non-arable land (the commons)
• Each tenant farmer a shareholder in the village
  community in the arable land, pasture, commons
  and woodland

balder.prohosting.com
www.princeton.edu
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Medieval Farming

• Peasant farming crude oxen and horses pulled
  the plows
• Soil exhausted quickly two-field system used
  (half planted, half fallow)
• Peasant women endured backbreaking labor
  cleaned, cooked, made clothing, milked cows, made
  butter, cheese and beer and gardened
• Manor administered by officials steward (general
  overseer) bailiff (in charge of cultivation and
  rent collection) and reeve (village foreman)
• Serfs bound to the manor for life, as were their
  children

www.fcps.k12.va.us
Hand drawn map of English feudal manor, 11th
Century
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Life of the Peasants
Painting by Brueghel
Margin between starvation and survival narrow
famines frequent, pestilence and plague common
Peasant cottage had mud walls, clay floor,
thatched roof windows had no glass (stuffed with
straw in the winter) Furnishings meager
table, cupboard and bed pigs and chickens
wandered in at will Popular pastimes
wrestling, cockfighting, football, dancing and
singing
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PART THREE MEDIEVAL POLITICS 1000-1300

• European monarchs struggled to emerge from
  feudalism, in which the king was a figurehead
• Most European monarchs increased their power as
  feudalism declined, leading to the
• emergence of national
• monarchies
• Church also became
• more powerful
• Flourishing trade led to
• growth in towns and the
• decline of the manor

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France and the Capetian Kings

• 10th C France controlled by feudal nobles who
  elected Hugh Capet (987-996) to be king
• Capetian kings kept throne for the next 300
  years, increasing their influence
• Phillip II Augustus (1180-1223) tripled the size
  of crown lands by capturing Normandy, Maine,
  Anjou and Touraine from the English
• Devious Philip the Fair (1285-1314) expelled the
  Jews from France and humiliated Pope Boniface
• He increased the power of the crown recruited
  civil servants from the middle class enlarged
  the feudal council to include middle-class
• By the end of his reign France was organized,
  unified and ready to reassert itself as a power
  in Europe

cire.henri.free
King Louis IX (1226-1270) at Court Louis was
devout, just, peace-loving and very popular. His
subjects called him St. Louis
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England to 1300 William the Conqueror

• In 1000 England was ruled by Anglo-Saxon kings
  (controlled by the Dane King Canute from
  1016-1035)
• In 1066 England conquered by William, Duke of
  Normandy (Battle of Hastings)
• William ruled England until 1087, retaining some
  lands as his royal domain, and granting the rest
  to loyal vassals (who provided William with
  troops)
• Williams successors weak, but the monarchy was
  strengthened by Henry II, founder of the
  Plantagenet (Angevin) Dynasty

The Normans (on horseback) attack the
English foot soldiers at The Battle of
Hastings Bayeux Tapestry
www.livejournal.com/users
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Henry II (1154-1189) and Thomas a Becket

• Henry had extensive lands in France and Britain -
  rebuilt the power of the monarchy in England
• Increased power of the English royal court over
  feudal lords strengthened English common law
  (important factor in unifying the English
  peoples)
• Henry appointed his friend Thomas a Becket as
  Archbishop of Canterbury in the hope that he
  could be manipulated to place the church under
  crown authority
• When Becket refused to cooperate, four knights
  murdered him on the high altar

The Murder of Thomas a Becket 13th Century
Illumination
balder.prohosting.com/
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Henrys Successors and the Magna Carta

• Henrys successors were inept
• Richard the Lionheart spent most of his reign
  fighting in the Crusades had no interest in
  England
• His brother John involved in struggles with
  Philip II of France and Pope Innocent, both of
  which he lost
• By 1215 John had alienated British barons forced
  to sign the Magna Carta reducing the power of the
  monarchy
• Two important principles the law is above the
  king the king can be forced to obey the law

www.pro.gov.uk/.../magna
Magna Carta Original
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The English Parliament

• The Normans used the word parlement (from parler
  to speak) to describe their great council
• English Parliament became influential during the
  reign of Edward I (1272-1307) who summoned
  representatives of shires and towns to meetings
  of the great council
• In 14th C representatives of the knights and
  townspeople (House the Commons) began to meet
  separately from the nobles (House of Lords)
• The Commons powerful because it was a major
  source of revenue and would withhold money from
  the king until grievances were redressed
• Eventually Parliament could initiate legislation
  when petitions to the king were recognized as
  statutes
• By Edwards death, England was efficient and well
  organized, ready to assert itself on Europe

English parliament 14th C
www.360degrees.org
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Spain to 1300

• Unification in Spain was complicated by Muslim
  occupation of a large part of the country
• The long struggle to drive out the Muslims saw
  patriotism blend with fierce Christian
  fundamentalism
• Seville recaptured from the Moors early in the
  13th Century until the 15th Century Muslim
  control was confined to Granada
• Muslim culture profoundly influenced Spanish
  civilization

The Moorish city of Granada in Central Spain
www.legadoandalusi
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Otto the Great and the Holy Roman Empire

• Otto the Great (936-973) founded the Saxon
  dynasty of kings, which curtailed the power of
  the German dukes and strengthened the monarchy
• Otto himself appointed German bishops (lay
  investiture) so their first loyalty was to the
  king
• Attempted to establish a German empire by
  incorporating Italy eventually crowned emperor
  by the pope (Holy Roman Empire)
• The powerful Saxon kings halted the Magyars,
  reduced feudal fragmentation and encouraged trade
  over the Alpine passes

Otto the Great, founder of The Saxon Dynasty
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Decline of the Holy Roman Empire

• Ottos successors powerful, but Henry IV
  (1056-1106) became involved in a biter struggle
  over lay investiture with the pope, which lost
  Henry support of the Church
• Frederick I Barbarossa (1152-1190) spent 25 years
  fighting the Lombard League, an alliance of
  northern Italian cities encouraged by the papacy
• Grandson Frederick II (1212-1250) tried to unite
  Italy under his rule Kingdom of Sicily (where he
  was born) shaped into a vibrant and well
  organized state
• After Frederick IIs death later Holy Roman
  Emperors ceased interfering in Italy, and also
  lost control of the independent German nobles

Frederick I Barbarossa (1152-1190)
www.unf.edu/
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The Church in the Middle Ages

• Religious revival took place between the 10th and
  13th Centuries papacy gathered greater power
  (e.g. Pope Gregory VII 1073-1085) and attempted
  to free church from secular control
• New orders of monks also emerged Cistercians -
  discipline and manual labor
• Dominicans (founded by St. Dominic 1170-1221) -
  friar-preachers who preached with dedication of
  apostles
• Popes like Innocent III (1198-1216)
• who were trained in church (canon) law
• created the best organized administrative system
  
• in the West he used threats of excommunication
• to control disobedient kings

The Franciscan Order was founded by St. Francis
of Assisi (1182-1226) who rejected wealth and
spread the gospel of love for all of Gods
creatures conservation.catholic.org/
st__francis_of_assi
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Heresy and the Inquisition

• Heresy (belief in doctrines condemned by the
  church) a problem for the papacy
• Innocent III launched a crusade against the
  wealthy heretics of Toulouse in 1208, but
  religious motive swamped in a rush to seize the
  wealth of the accused
• In 1233 a special papal court the Inquisition
  established to bring about conformity to the
  official church position
• The courts were secret no legal representation
  for the accused if they failed to confess they
  were tortured, and then burned at the stake

www.columbia.edu
www.webencyclo.com
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The Crusades
www.nthuleen.com

• Crusades were a series of military campaigns that
  began late in the 11th Century as a result of
  pressure from the church to recapture the Holy
  Land from the Muslims
• By the end of the crusading era the church and
  papacy had suffered a major loss of prestige due
  to the actions of the Crusaders
• In 1095 Pope Urban II proclaimed the First
  Crusade, calling for Christians to recapture the
  Holy Land, and promising spiritual and material
  rewards
• Seven crusades were launched against the Muslims
  (Saracens) First was the most successful when
  5000 feudal knights defeated the Turks and
  captured Jerusalem

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Later Crusades

• Muslims recaptured Jerusalem in 1187 the famous
  Third Crusade of 1189 was led by three medieval
  kings Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, Richard
  the Lionheart of England, and Philip Augustus of
  France
• Frederick drowned en route Richard and Philip
  quarreled so Phillip went home and Richard
  negotiated a truce with the Muslims
• Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) a disaster Venetians
  used the knights to capture a Christian
  commercial rival, and then sack Constantinople
• In 1212 thousands of children participated in the
  Childrens Crusade many sold into slavery
• In 1291 Acre (last Christian stronghold in the
  Holy Land) retaken by the Muslims, and the
  Crusades were over
• Crusades weakened Byzantine Empire and the
  papacy, but did lead to the reopening of trade
  between the eastern Mediterranean and the West,
  which influenced the revival of economy of
  western Europe

Child Crusader - 1212
www.historyhouse.com
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Crusades1095 - 1281
www.loyno.edu
www.christianitytoday
Crusaders sack Constantinople - 1204
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Revival of Trade and Towns
www.ucalgary.ca
www.gridclub.com

• First Crusade revived trade with the east by
  14th C trade between the Mediterranean and
  northern Europe was flourishing by sea and over
  the Alpine passes
• Led to the revival of towns, which provided
  markets and produced goods for merchants to sell
• Population growth also led to a growth in towns
  (British pop. trebled between 1066 and 1350)
• Medieval towns in the West small compared to the
  East Baghdad, Cairo and had well over 50,000
  Constantinople 800,000

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Merchant and Craft Guilds

• Merchant guilds emerged which monopolized trade
  and imposed standards of weights, quality and
  fair prices
• Craft guilds also emerged which recognized
  different classes of workers apprentices,
  journeymen and master craftsmen
• Apprenticeship lasted 7 years before graduation
  to journeyman
• Journeyman sought admission to master by
  producing a master piece (e.g. a superb pair of
  shoes)
• Some women were admitted to craft guilds, and
  some crafts were exclusively for women (garment
  making in lace and silk)
• Wives of master craftsmen supervised apprentices
  and ran the business
• Guilds played important role in local government,
  increasingly representing demands in the towns
  for self government and undermining the local
  feudal lords

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PART FOUR THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 1300-1500The
Black Death and Economic Stagnation

• 12th and 13th Centuries periods of growth 14th
  and 15th of stagnation
• By 1350 Europe in the grips of economic
  depression which lasted for a century and led to
  social unrest and tension
• Major cause was the Black Death, a bubonic plague
  carried by fleas on rats which spread along the
  Silk Roads from China
• Black Death struck Europe in 1347, and lasted for
  two centuries
• 1/3rd of the population of Europe died towns
  were hardest hit (e.g. Florence fell from 114,000
  to 50,000)
• Another cause of stagnation was the 100 Years War
  between France and England but by 1450 revival
  had begun

www.click2disasters.com/
Black death strikes the Saxon King
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Black Death
Spread of the bubonic plague in Europe
between December 1347 and December 1350
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Medieval Politics Germany

• Series of strong kings emerged who put national
  interest ahead of submission to the Pope and
  feudal lords
• In Germany from 1273 the Hapsburg rulers expanded
  into Austria and ruled from Vienna
• In 1356 a document called the Golden Bull
  established a procedure whereby seven German
  electors (3 archbishops and 4 lay princes) chose
  the emperor
• This decentralized authority and increased the
  power of the Electors and the Diet (feudal
  assembly)

Hapsburg Royal Family 14th Century
www.majbill.vt.edu
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Spain Under Isabella and Ferdinand

• Spain united under the centralized monarchy of
  Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon
  power of the crown increased at expense of papal
  control and authority of local assemblies
• Established an independent Court of Inquisition
  that confiscated the property of Jews and Muslims
  and terrified the Christians into accepting royal
  absolutism
• 150,000 Jews fled to the Netherlands, England,
  North Africa and the Ottoman Empire (Sephardin)
• Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granada from the
  Muslims in 1492, the same year the Columbus
  claimed the New World for Spain

Torture the Spanish Inquisition
www.bibletopics.com
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The Hundred Years War Between England and France

• English kings claimed much of French territory as
  their own, and were opposed by French kings who
  wanted a united France under their centralized
  rule
• War lasted from 1337 to 1453 began with a string
  of English victories won by their longbowmen,
  which defeated the French knights
• Bows were six feet long and made of special wood
  which fired a deadly steel-tipped arrow 400 yards

English victory at the Battle of Crecy 1346
www.bbc.co.uk
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Joan of Arc

• Joan of Arc inspired a French nationalist spirit
  persuaded king to allow her to attempt the relief
  of the besieged city of Orleans
• Successful against all the odds in 1429
• Captured by the English and accused of
  witchcraft, then burned at the stake
• Gradually the French gained military superiority
  and drove the English out of all French territory
  (except Calais) by the time the war ended in 1453

www.faculty.fairfield.edu
Joan of Arc burned at the stake
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Effects of the 100 Years War

• England exhausted discontent with the monarchy
  erupted into full-scale civil war (Wars of the
  Roses) between the houses of York and Lancaster
• Henry Tudor won the Battle of Bosworth in 1485,
  becoming Henry VII, the first of the Tudor kings
• His rule (1485-1509) popular brought national
  unity to the English
• In France Louis XI (1461-1483) consolidated
  royal power through a series of intrigues
• He reduced the power of the nobles, restored
  prosperity to France, and established a personal
  subject-sovereign relationship with his people

Battle of Bosworth Won By Henry Tudor
history.wisc.edu/sommerville
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The Church in Crisis Rival Popes

• Papal power threatened by the growth of
  nation-states and strong modern rulers
• Church criticized by reformers who objected to
  the corruption of the papacy, and by the middle
  class who were increasingly skeptical and
  religiously self-reliant
• Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303)
  attempted to declare papal authority in
  the Unam Sanctum bull, but the French king
  humiliated him by attempting his kidnapping
• In 1305 the French chose a French
  archbishop as their own pope and installed
  him in Avignon
• The papacy was thus split between the
  Roman and Avignon popes from 1305- 1377,
  undermining and dividing the
  church

Charles VI in Avignon
www.kulmbach.net
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Conclusion

• Middle Ages an era of significant political
  development in Europe strong monarchs replaced
  feudal decentralization with national unity and
  centralized administration
• Through corruption and abuse of power the church
  lost credibility and fell from its position as
  the sole source of religious authority and
  political power
• Church remained the dominant influence on
  learning, literature and art, although before
  long artists like Dante and Chaucer began
  expressing national themes in a more secular
  language
• When we return to Europe in Era 5, one of the
  themes we need to explore is how the economic and
  cultural forces that culminated in the High
  Middle Ages resulted in a great European cultural
  revolution historians call the Renaissance!