The Medieval Period

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The Medieval Period

• 1066-1485

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What does medieval mean?

• The term Medieval is used to define this period
  in history beginning with the Renaissance.
• Literally, it means middle
• The historians/scholars/artists of the
  Renaissance considered this time to be the
  Middle Period because it was after the
  Anglo-Saxon Dark Age and before the Renaissance -
  hence middle

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October 1066

• William the Conqueror
• In October in 1066, the last Anglo-Saxon king was
  defeated and killed and the first rule of a
  Norman king began
• Norman means north men
• They were originally Vikings from northern
  Europe however, they had settled in the region
  that became known as Normandy and adopted French
  ways
• The Normans never left England
• They valued Law Order and Cultural Development
• Forts and projects began all over England
• William I created a unified government and broke
  up powerful earldoms in Mercia and Wessex

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William the Conqueror

• Unlike many invaders who came before, William
  wanted to rule the Anglo-Saxons rather than
  destroy them
• The union with the Normans brought England into
  the mainstream of European civilization
• Architecture Romanesque was replaced by Gothic
• A desire for the finery of European living,
  clothing, food, wine, music, art, literature,
  etc.
• Closer ties with the Papacy
• Rise of Universities
• The Doomsday Book
• Curia Regis (Great Council)
• The Crusades (1096)

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The Crusades

• An attempt to liberate Jerusalem from the Turks
• Successful?
• BENEFITS
• Contact with other cultures, inventions
  (gunpowder) and learning (science/math)
• Consolidation of power as Barons Earls were
  killed
• Exploration of sea routes to the Orient (Spice
  Trades)
• Growth of towns and the circulation of money

• The Siege at Antioch during the first Crusade.

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William the Conqueror

• Williams Court became the center of of activity
  through feudalism
• Feudalism becomes the social system of England,
  which is perhaps Williams most significant
  contribution

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Feudalism

• Becomes the social system of England
• Is a social, military, property system based on a
  religious hierarchy

God Jesus Angels Kings Barons Knights Serfs
The Feudal system is the basis for knighthood and
chivalry (the code of conduct for knights)
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knighthood

• Every boys duty (above the serf class) is to
  serve his lord
• Boys are trained at a very early age, often in
  houses other than their own (Squire)
• The pinnacle of knighthood is the
• dubbing ceremony

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Chivalry

• The Code of Conduct for Knights
• Loyalty to the lord
• Rules of war never attack an unarmed knight
• Protect the weak and helpless
• Right all wrongs
• Adoration of a lady
• Chivalry improved womens position
  (somewhat) and gave rise to stories known
  as Romances

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The Romance

• Three main stages
• Perilous journey
• Agon or conflict
• Struggle with a foe
• Pathos or death-struggle
• Exaltation of the hero
• Anagnorisis or discovery
• A threefold structure is repeated in many
  features of romance 3rd quest, 3rd son, 3rd
  attempt, etc.

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Courtly Love

• Based on the adoration of the Virgin Mary
• Was originally non-sexual (Lancelot and Guinevere
  blew it!)
• Women are put on a
• pedestal and admired from
• afar
• Men were not worthy

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Rules of Love

• Medieval conception of nobly and chivalrously
  expressing love and admiration.
• Generally, courtly love was secret and between
  members of the nobility. It was also generally
  not practiced between husband and wife.
• Marriage is no excuse for not loving
• He who is not jealous cannot love
• No one can be bound by a double love
• It is not proper to love any woman whom one
  would be ashamed to marry
• XIII. When made public, love rarely endures
• The easy attainment of love makes it of little
  value
• Every lover regularly turns pale in the
  presence of his beloved
• XXIII. He whom the thought of love vexes eats and
  sleeps little
• XXIV. Every act of a lover ends in the thought of
  his beloved
• XXVI. Love can deny nothing
• XXIX. A man who is vexed by too much passion
  usually does not
• love

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Courtly Love

• Courtly love began in the courts of Aquitaine,
  Provence, Champagne and ducal Burgundy, at the
  end of the eleventh century.
• In essence, courtly love was an experience
  between erotic desire and spiritual attainment
  that now seems contradictory, "a love at once
  illicit and morally elevating, passionate and
  disciplined, humiliating and exalting, human and
  transcendent.
• The lover (idolizer) accepts the independence of
  his mistress and tries to make himself worthy of
  her by acting bravely and honorably (nobly) and
  by doing whatever deeds she might desire.
• Sexual satisfaction may not have been a goal or
  even end result, but the love was not entirely
  Platonic either, as it was based on sexual
  attraction
• The term is not a Medieval term! In 1936 C. S.
  Lewis wrote The Allegory of Love further
  solidifying courtly love as a love of a highly
  specialized sort, whose characteristics may be
  enumerated as Humility, Courtesy, Adultery, and
  the Religion of Love.

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The Role of Women

• Peasant
• Childbearing
• Housework
• Hard Fieldwork
• Nobility / Higher Station
• Omitted Fieldwork

Near the end of the century chivalry improved
this for women.
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Medieval Womanhood

• Medieval Literature is symbolic not mimetic
  Allegorical Criticism
• Caritas or Cupiditas Anything else is meant
  to be Ironic
• Christianity regulated everyones behavior in
  the Middle Ages, yet it circumscribed womens
  lives more than mens (DW Robertson).
• It limited womens education and prohibited them
  from teaching by the written or spoken word.
• TODAY?
• Women are the closest to nature. If you must
  delineate between nature and spirit Woman is
  the closest to nature (birth). Woman brings life
  and life means suffering so there must be a
  reason/ myth to explain this connection. Since
  women give life they must be to blame for
  mans (mankinds) sin.
• Is this an allegory that became reality?

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Cities Develop A Middle class

• Life centered around the feudal castle in the
  beginning, but cities began to grow
• People of cities were free the middle class

Cities took an active role in government
corporations, guilds and burgesses began what
would become the House of Commons.
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The main events

• Of the Medieval Period

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The Crusades

• The Crusades were a series of religiously-sanction
  ed military campaigns waged by much of Latin
  Christian Europe. The specific crusades to
  restore Christian control of the Holy Land were
  fought over a period of nearly 200 years.

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Martyrdom of Thomas a becket

• Church vs. State
• Archbishop of Canterbury
• Any member of the Church Order accused of a
  crime, could only be tried or punished by the
  Church.
• Because of corruption, Henry II claimed they
  should be tried by the Royal Court Becket
  refused to comply and fled to France.
• When Becket returns to England, he excommunicates
  the Bishops who supported Henry II
• Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?

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Canterbury Cathedral

• Becket was killed in Canterbury Cathedral by
  Knights who overheard Henry
• Henrys penance walk to Canterbury Cathedral in
  sackcloth while being flogged by monks
• Canterbury becomes a shrine and is considered a
  place of healing - pilgrims journey there each
  year (Canterbury Tales)

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Importance of Henry II

• Henry replaced trial by ordeal with a jury of
  12 men (sound familiar?)
• Prior to 1166, the accused must pick up a hot
  iron or pick a stone out of boiling water if
  the accused started to heal after 3 days, God was
  on his side
• Thank goodness for Henry!

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Magna Carta June 15, 1215

• King John at Runnymede
• No one is above the law even the King
• Abuses by King John cause a noble revolt - he
  writes the Magna Carta to recognize the rights of
  noblemen
• Provides a provision for a fair hearing of
  complaints
• Required King John to proclaim certain rights,
  respect certain legal procedures, and accept that
  his will could be bound by the law
• It explicitly protected certain rights of the
  King's subjects and implicitly supported what
  became the writ of habeas corpus, allowing appeal
  against unlawful imprisonment

• Magna Carta was arguably the most significant
  early influence on the extensive historical
  process that led to the rule of constitutional
  law today.

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Hundred Years War

• English vs. French
• 116 years (1337-1453)
• Series of raids, seiges and naval battles
• French King Charles IV dies without a male heird
• King Edward III of England claims the throne via
  his mother
• Edward led a raid to defend his claim to the
  French throne
• England was successful until the Battle of
  Orleans Joan of Arc
• Finally England retreats from France

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Hundred years war

• This war was crucial in the development of a
  British national conscience. The English are no
  longer Anglo-Normans after the war they are the
  green clad Yeoman with bows and long arrows which
  became the symbol of military power. The knight
  is obsolete along with the idea of chivalry, and
  modern, democratic England is born.

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Bubonic Plague Black Death
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Bubonic plague

• In 5 years, 1/3 of Europes population was dead!
• Fever, swelling of lymph nodes, spots on skin
  (red and then black), vomiting, headaches
  symptoms take 1-7 days to appear
• Bodies were burned (at first)

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• Ring around the rosy.
• A pocket full of posies.
• Ashes, ashes!
• We all fall down!

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A new period of political turmoil and
philosophical questioning lay ahead where was
God?

• It took 400 years before Europes population
  equaled pre-Black Death figures.
• The demand for agricultural workers gave
  survivors a new bargaining power.
• People left rural areas and migrated to cities.
• The economic structure of land-based wealth
  shifted.
• Portable wealth in the form of money, skills and
  services emerged.
• Large estates and manors collapsed.

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The End

• The very social, economic and political
  structure of Europe was forever altered. One tiny
  insect, a flea, toppled feudalism and changed the
  course of history.