MIDDLE AGES

1
(No Transcript)
2
Battle of Hastings1066

• Duke William of Normandy defeated King Harold of
  England. His conquest altered the entire
  complexion of English culture for several
  centuries

3
EFFECTS OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST

• A. New Language
• 1.Norman French
• 2. All literature was written in either
  French or Latin
• 3. Rulers and the aristocracy spoke French
  the clergy spoke Latin. Only the
  common people spoke English
• 4. French influence on our language was far
  reaching. Many words introduced at that time
  still remain finesse,culdesac, debutante,
  nonchalant, chic, elite)

4
EFFECTS OF CONQUEST (CONTD)

• B.Change in living Conditions
• 1. We see a rise in the growth of towns, a
  stability in the administering of justice and
  religion, and a spiritual and artistic
  aquisitiveness
• 2.The old English civilization of warrior
  and priest (Beowulf) was destroyed, and a
  new order was created
• 3.Establishment of the Feudal System--a
  pyramid system based on a religious concept of
  hierarchy. All men, except the king, had an
  earthly lord to whom he was obligated

5
INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH

• A.Social
• 1. All men, including the king, paid homage to
  the Pope
• 2.The church was the greatest of all
  institutions in the Middle Ages

6
Church Influence (contd)

• B. Political
• 1. The Crusades
• a. Fostered and supported by the church
• b. Showed without a doubt the power of the
  church to achieve earthly ends
• c. Opened new avenues of trade and new ideas

7
Contd

• C.Educational
• 1. Church stressed to every Christian man,
  woman, and child the vast importance of the
  world to come and the uselessness and barrenness
  of the world in which one lived
• 2. Earthly existence was but the trial and
  preparation for the future

8
WOMEN IN MEDIEVAL SOCIETY

• A. Women had no political rights
• B. A woman was always subservient to a man
• C. A womans social standing
  depended completely on her husbands or
  fathers status
• D Life was a ceaseless round of childbearing,
  housework, hard fieldwork, and household
  supervision

9
RISE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE

• A. Formation of middle class--as trade and
  industry increased, an industrial class arose
  that became independent of the nobility and of
  the clergy
• B. Magna Carta--the signing of this document
  was a defeat for central papal power. The Magna
  Carta later became the basis for English
  constitutional law, in which such rights as
  trial by jury and legislative taxation were
  established
• C. Reappearance of English language--English
  language was once again being heard and taught
  in schools

10
Literature of the Period

• A. Folk ballads- Composed around topics
  of local interest and passed from generation
  to generation
• B. The writings of Sir Thomas Malory Wrote
  what is considered our first great piece of
  literary prose, Le Morte DArthur. This was one
  of the earliest books printed in England by our
  first English printer, William Caxton.

11
LITERATURE (contd)

• C. The Canterbury Tales Composed by the
  greatest poet of the middle ages, Geoffrey
  Chaucer.

12
GEOFFREY CHAUCER

• A. He was born in 1340 and died in 1400
• B. He was a well known government official who
  served under three kings
• C. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, his
  grave being the first in what has become known
  as the Poets Corner

13
CHAUCER (contd)

• D. By composing in the vernacular- the
  everyday language spoken in London and the
  East Midlands- Chaucer lent respectability to a
  language t hat would develop into the medium for
  one of the worlds greatest bodies of literature
• E. He is considered the father of English poetry

14
THE CANTERBURY TALES

• A. Setting A pilgrimage to the shrine of
  Thomas aBecket in Canterbury
• B. Tales are humorous and are characterized
  chiefly by simplicity
• C. Shows ordinary people in ordinary
  circumstances Chaucer gives an accounting of
  human life as he viewed it in medieval England.
• D. Every phase of life is represented,
  except royalty. The pilgrims generally fall into
  the three major division of medieval society
  the feudal order, the church, and the merchant
  or professional class.

15
FORM OF THE CANTERBURY TALES

• A. Heroic Couplet-a pair of rhymed verse lines
  in iambic pentamenter
• B. Frame story-a story within a story