The Medieval Period (1100-1500)

1
The Medieval Period (1100-1500)

• pp. 79-83

2
Norman England

• Who was Edward the Confessor?
• -King of England 1042-1066
• -son of King Aethelred of England and Emma,
  daughter of Duke of Normandy (northern part of
  France)
• -he was 1/2 Norman blood but held a full Norman
  political and cultural outlook

3
Norman England

• 2. Who was William Duke of Normandy and describe
  the reasons for the Norman Conquest (1066)
• -Edward died without an heir in 1066
• -William Duke of Normandy claimed the Eng. Throne
  (said the King picked him before his death) along
  with Englishman Harold Godwinson, who was picked
  by the Witan (the Kings counsel)
• -Harold took the throne
• -William Duke of Normandy decided to fight him
  for it

4
Norman England

• Describe the Battle of Hastings
• -William Duke of Normandy came across the channel
  in late Sept. 1066 with between 4000-7000 Norman
  men and other nobility/adventures from Europe
• -William Duke of Normandy built a castle at
  Hastings King Harold gathered his men to oppose
  WDN at the grey apple tree Harold fought
  valiantly but was killed William Duke of
  Normandy won

5
Norman England

• 4. What did William do to the Anglo-Saxon
  nobility?
• -killed them and redistributed their land to his
  followers in exchange for vows of loyalty and
  military service ( feudalism).

6
Norman England

• 5. What was the Doomesday book? Why was it given
  this name by the people?
• -it was a survey of all the land, land owners,
  workers on the land, size of parcels of land,
  value of land, etcin all of England
• -a.k.a. formally as The Description of England
• -called the Doomesday Book because there was no
  appeal from its judgment

7
Norman England

• 6. What were the Nineteen Terrible Winters?
• -the 19 year reign of Stephen of Blois he was an
  ineffective and mild king whose reign led to
  anarchy and the rise of abusive feudal lords who
  robbed, tortured and imprisoned people for money

8
Norman England

• 7. Define feudalism
• -all landowners were tenants (vassals) of the
  king Lords got the use of the land in exchange
  for loyalty and military service to the king

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Norman England

• 8. Define chivalry
• -it was a code of behavior for knights (fighting
  men) requiring bravery, honor, courtesy,
  protection of the weak, respect and courtly love
  for women, generosity, fairness to enemies (i.e.
  the use of might for right NOT might makes
  right)
• -if the code of chivalry was violated by a knight
  he would lose his honor among his fellow warriors
  

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Norman England

• 9. The First Crusade
• - year 1095
• - purpose nobles and commoners alike went to
  Palestine to liberate Christian shrines from
  Muslim Turks who held it since 1071

11
England Under the Plantagenets

• 10. Who was Henry II? (list 3 highlights of his
  reign)
• -King of England as of 1151
• -restored order and power of the monarchy after
  weak King Stephen
• -subdued the feudal lords
• -reformed the judicial system
• -he was excommunicated by the Pope because of the
  murder of Thomas Becket by his men

12
England Under the Plantagenets

• 11. Who was Thomas Becket?
• -Archbishop of Canterbury who struggled with
  Henry II over the issue of the legal rights of
  the clergy
• -killed by Henry IIs knights (allegedly unknown
  to Henry)
• -became a martyr of the faith pilgrims came to
  his shrine in Canterbury on his feast day to pray
  and hope for miracles, etc

13
England Under the Plantagenets

• 12. Who was Richard the Lionhearted?
• -Henry IIs son and heir fought in the 3rd
  Crusade and held hostage by the Holy Roman Empire
• Who was his brother?
• John
• What kind of King was the brother?
• evil and overreaching English nobles rose up
  against him and made him sign the Magna Carta

14
England Under the Plantagenets

• 13. What was the Magna Carta?
• -it is The Great Charter which limits the power
  of the king and establishes a representative form
  of government in England
• List four elements of the Magna Carta
• 1. it defined and safeguarded the basic rights of
  nobles, clergy and freemen
• 2. established habeas corpus (the protection
  against unjust imprisonment)
• 3. trial by jury
• 4. gave the general council (the forerunner of
  Parliament) the power over expenditures

15
England Under the Plantagenets

• 14. The Hundred Years War
• -began in what year 1337
• -fought between who? why?
• -England and France went to war because England
  controlled large tracts of French land Henry V
  was once the King of both England and France
• -how did it end?
• -England did well at first, but the French didnt
  give up Joan of Arc helped turn the tide of the
  war and France finally prevailed and got back all
  its land from England, except the channel port of
  Calais

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England Under the Plantagenets

• 15. What is a crossbow and how was it relevant to
  the end of Feudalism?
• -it was an innovative weapon (cross between the
  regular bow and a weapon with a trigger device)
  that along with the cannon helped put an end to
  feudalism because mounted knights were no longer
  needed to win military victories

17
England Under the Plantagenets

• 16. What is the Black Death? How was it relevant
  to Feudalism?
• -Bubonic Plague it killed about 1/3 of Englands
  population and helped to end feudalism because
  the serfs escaped the feudal lords in all the
  chaos and went to the bigger cities for work
  consequently, their wages rose

18
England Under the Plantagenets

• 17. When did the Peasants Revolt take place and
  why did it start?
• -1381 the government levied a poll tax in a
  fixed amount on each person to be paid equally
  regardless of the size of a persons income (it
  was used to pay for a very expensive war with
  France)
• -were the peasants successful?
• -no the revolt collapsed when its leader (Wat
  Tyler) was killed

19
England Under the Plantagenets

• 18. The Great Schism- (1378)
• -a fight in the Church over papal succession at
  one point there were three rival popes
• Wycliffes English translation of the Bible-
  (1381)
• -the Bible was now written in English, the
  vernacular (or language of the common people)
  instead of Latin people could see Gods Word for
  themselves this first step ultimately leads to
  the Reformation

20
England Under the Plantagenets

• 19. Name two things that helped legitimize
  English as a literary language during this
  period
• -upper classes adopted English as their language
  over that of French or Latin
• -popularity of the King Arthur legends and The
  Canterbury Tales

21
England Under the Plantagenets

• 20. Which mythical folk hero was the subject of
  the common people ballads of the day?
• -Robin Hood

22
England Under the Plantagenets

• 21. Anglo-Saxon alliteration, like we see in
  Beowulf, is replaced with what type of verse (as
  a result of French influences)?
• -end rhyming verse

23
England Under the Plantagenets

• 22. What were miracle or mystery plays? What did
  they evolve into?
• -they were plays performed in and just outside of
  churches and dealt with Bible stories or
  devotional stories about the saints
• -they became cycles of plays presented in large
  towns on feast days and ultimately aided in the
  development of drama

24
England Under the Plantagenets

• 23. War of the Roses
• -began when? 1455
• -lasted how long? 30 years
• -fought between whom?
• -Two families were vying for the English throne
  the Lancasters (emblemred rose) and the Yorks
  (emblemwhite rose)
• -how did it end? who prevailed?-King Richard III
  (a York) fought Henry Tudor (a Lancaster) for the
  throne Henry prevailed and became King Henry
  VII he married Elizabeth of York, ending the
  war this new family (the Tudors) ruled England
  for the next 100 years

25
Geoffrey Chaucer Notes

• 1. Chaucers family had sufficient social status
  for him to receive a courtly education.
• 2. Chaucer was in some connected to the royal
  family all his life.
• 3. He married Philippa Roet, a lady in waiting
  to the Queen.

26
Geoffrey Chaucer Notes

• 4. One of his duties was to act as a government
  envoy on foreign diplomatic missions, something
  like an ambassador.
• 5. Chaucer had French and Italian influences in
  his writing because of his travels abroad as an
  ambassador/envoy.
• 6. In Italy, he was influenced by Italian
  Renaissance writers (like Bocaccio who wrote The
  Decameron Federigos Falcon).

27
Geoffrey Chaucer Notes

• 7. Upon returning to London, he became a customs
  official at the Port of London.
• 8. When he died in 1400, he was buried in
  Westminster Abbey in a section that became known
  as Poets Corner.
• 9. Chaucer lost or gave up his job in 1386, the
  year in which it is believed that he began
  composing The Canterbury Tales.

28
Geoffrey Chaucer Notes

• 10. The major literary masterpiece is
  unfinished.
• 11. It is a concoction of character sketches,
  conversations, and stories.
• 12. It is set within a frame or larger
  narrative of a Pilgrimage to the Shrine of St.
  Thomas Becket in Canterbury undertaken by 29
  intrepid pilgrims. Chaucer planned to include
  120 stories, but managed only 24, some of them
  incomplete, before his death.

29
Geoffrey Chaucer Notes

• 13. They represent a cross-section of the 14th
  Century population, ranging in rank from a knight
  to a poor plowman. Only the very highest and very
  lowest ranks are missing (namely, the nobility
  and the serfs).

30
The Canterbury Tales Notes

• Literary Terms
• Frame-story format A situation that brings a
  group of people together and gives them an
  opportunity to reveal their individual characters
  by reacting to stresses placed on them by the
  vagaries of the plot or interpersonal
  relationships.
• 2) Characterization (p.898) The methods an
  author uses to develop the personality of a
  character in a literary work. An author can
  describe a characters appearance and
  personality, speech and behavior, thoughts and
  feelings, and interactions with other characters.
  Characters may be round or flat--as is a
  stereotypeand dynamic or static.

31
The Canterbury Tales Notes

Literary Terms 3) Exemplum A moralized tale.
Just as modern day preachers use illustrations,
Medieval clergy used historical and legendary
stories or tales to teach morals and doctrines.
In addition to the moral instruction they
provided, the people liked the exemplum device
very much because of the reality, story line and
human interest quality. Collections of exempla,
classified according to subject were prepared for
use by preachers. At times these sermons
degenerated into a mere series of anecdotes that
were humorous in nature.
32
The Canterbury Tales Notes

This Middle English work of poetry uses an
imaginative frame-story format to present
twenty-four tales. As we have already seen, a
group of pilgrims meet at a tavern on their way
to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury.
They agree to pass the long hours of their
journey in a story telling contest to be judged
by the innkeeper. The stories range from bawdy
burlesques to tales of chivalry, from local folk
legends to sermons. Chaucers genius is such
that the tales reveal the personalities of the
tellers additionally, the pilgrims distinct
personalities come out as they converse and argue
between stories.
33
Notes on the Principal Characters

This Middle English work of poetry uses an
imaginative frame-story format to present
twenty-four tales. As we have already seen, a
group of pilgrims meet at a tavern on their way
to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury.
They agree to pass the long hours of their
journey in a story telling contest to be judged
by the innkeeper. The stories range from bawdy
burlesques to tales of chivalry, from local folk
legends to sermons. Chaucers genius is such
that the tales reveal the personalities of the
tellers additionally, the pilgrims distinct
personalities come out as they converse and argue
between stories.
34
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Knight, a courtly medieval fighting man who
  has served the king and religion all over the
  known world.
• 1. He is one of the purest of the characters
  he loves chivalry and has fought in many lands to
  defend his beliefs he has a deep sense of moral
  responsibility to defend his faith and to be fair
  and just even to his enemies (i.e. he will not
  steal from the Turks).
• 2. He is modest in dress and speech, even though
  he is the highest in rank of the group of
  pilgrims.
• 3. He rides only with his son and a yeoman in
  attendance.
• 4. He tells the first story of the group, a story
  of courtly love where two noblemen compete in a
  tournament for the hand of a beautiful maiden.

35
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Squire, the Knights son, a young man of
  twenty who has fought in several battles.
• 1. He is full of knightly courtesy like his
  father, but he also likes to have a good time.
• 2. He tells a story of adventure and enchantment
  in a foreign land.
• 3. While his fathers concept of love focuses on
  love of God, the Squires concept is the more
  down to earth love between a man and a woman.

36
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Yeoman, the Knights attendant.
• 1. He is a forester (perhaps something like a
  forest ranger, he knows his way around that type
  of wilderness environment)
• 2. He takes excellent care of his gear his
  precision and neatness with regard to his weapons
  show his appreciation of how they may be all that
  stand between him and death.
• 3. He wears a medal of St. Christopher on his
  breast (invoked to protect against sudden death)
  (patron saint of horsemen and todays police
  officers).

37
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Nun (or Prioress), Madame Eglantine, travels
  with another nun and three priests the shrine at
  Canterbury. She is like a Mother Superior of
  today. Her story is of a child religious martyr.
• 1) Her name means honeysuckle-- this is not a
  religious name that would be fit for a nun.
• 2) She pretends to have a French accent, showing
  her exposure to a worldly life at court.
• 3) She is supposed to be a woman of conscience
  and sympathy by vocation, yet things about her
  indicate ambiguity on this point, for example

38
Notes on the Principal Characters

• -her pets eat better than most people she is
  prideful and overly conscious about her manners
• -she wears a gold necklace and coral beads (what
  about her vow of poverty?)
• -she wears a Love conquers All brooch-- because
  she is a bit of a flirt, this phrase may not be
  talking about religious love but carnal love
  (what about her vow of chastity?)

39
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Monk, a fat hedonist who prefers to be out of
  his cloister on hunting trips.
• 1) He hates books and learning and prefers to eat
  and hunt.
• 2) He is not supposed to have materialistic
  goals, yet he owns a stable, wears fur-lined
  gowns and has jewels.
• 3) He is the picture of a selfish and egotistical
  person. There is a tremendous irony here because
  the man freely took a position where he was
  supposed to devote his life to God and others,
  then decides to live a life of ease for his own
  purposes.
• 4) The Monk is crafty because he takes the best
  from both worlds (ecclesiastical and secular),
  yet participates directly in neither.

40
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Friar, a merry chap who knows barmaids better
  than the sick, poor people to whom he is supposed
  to minister.
• 1) A Friar was licensed to hear confessions and
  beg for money
• 2) This Friar had a reputation of being the best
  beggar in the house, but is also a venal and
  worldly man. He profits personally from his rich
  clientele by giving them light penance for their
  sins when they make their confessions to him.
• 3) Chaucers characterization of the Friar shows
  the corrupt nature of the penance system when in
  practice the degree of penance depended on the
  social condition of the sinner.

41
Notes on the Principal Characters

• 4) The Friar despises the lower classes, calling
  them vulgar scum.
• 5) The Friar lisps to be more fashionable,
  committing the first of the Seven Deadly Sins,
  pride.
• 6) He tells a tale of a summoner who loses his
  soul to the Devil.

42
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Merchant, a tight-lipped business man.
• 1) He is unhappily married.
• 2) He tells a story of the evils of marriage
  between old men and young women.

43
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Clerk of Oxford, a serious young scholar.
• 1) He heeds philosophy and prefers books to
  worldly pleasures.
• 2) His tale is an answer to the Wife of Baths
  idea that in marriage a woman ought to have
  dominion. His story is of a patient wife who
  endures a lot of trouble from her husband.

44
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Sergeant of Law, a busy lawyer.
• 1) He is a man who seems busier than he really
  is (like many lawyers).
• 2) He makes a great show of his learning, citing
  cases all the way back to William the Conqueror.

45
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Franklin, a rich landlord who loves to eat
  and keeps his table always full of things on
  which to nosh.
• 1) He was formerly the sheriff of his county.
• 2) He tells a story of chivalry and the
  supernatural then apologizes for his story and
  its telling, saying he is an uneducated man.

46
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Shipman, captain of a ship out of Dartmouth.
• 1) He is a good skipper and a smuggler.
• 2) He tells a bawdy tale about a merchant who is
  cheated of his wifes favors and his money by a
  sly monk

47
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Doctor of Physick, a materialistic man
  greatly interested in money. He knows all the
  great medical and astrological authorities and
  seldom reads the Bible.

48
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Parson, a poor but loyal churchman.
• 1) He teaches his parishioners by his good
  example.
• 2) He refuses to tell an idle tale, and instead
  tells what he calls a merry tale about the
  Seven Deadly Sins.

49
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Plowman, an honest man, the Parsons brother.
  He tells no tale.

50
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Miller, a jolly, somewhat drunken reveler.
• 1) He leads the company playing on his bagpipes.
• 2) He tells a bawdy story about a carpenter who
  is cuckolded by his young wife and her witty
  lover (it has a sort of Three Stooges air about
  it).

51
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Reeve, a slender, choleric (bad-tempered)
  man.
• 1) He was formerly a carpenter, so he is angry
  about the Millers Tale.
• 2) To get back at him, the Reeve tells a story
  about a miller cuckolded by two students who
  sleep with the millers wife and daughter.

52
Notes on the Principal Characters

• The Summoner
• 1) He is a lecherous drunk who loves food and
  strong drink.
• 2) Angered by the Friars tale about a summoner,
  he tells a tale about a friar who becomes the
  butt of a harsh joke.

53
Notes on the Principal Characters

• Harry Bailey, the host at the Tabard Inn in
  Southwark.
• 1) He organizes the storytelling among the
  pilgrims, with the winner getting a meal at the
  expense of the others upon their return.
• 2) He is a natural leader as his words and
  actions show.

54
Notes on the Principal Characters

• Geoffrey Chaucer, the author who puts himself
  into the poem as a quiet, mild mannered person.
  He tries to recite a dreary tale, which is
  interrupted by criticism by the others that it is
  dull. He starts a different story in an effort
  to please his listeners.
• The popularity of Chaucers work is due to the
  variety of stories and characters he portrays.
• He does not condemn any of the characters he
  presents. Instead he allows them to reveal their
  own faults or makes clever comments on the side
  that subtly suggest a viewpoint.
• The reader is allowed to see each pilgrim as a
  human being, with both vices and virtues to which
  the reader can relate.

55
Notes on the Principal Characters

• There is no single theme to the tales it is more
  likely that The Canterbury Tales give its readers
  a representative view of humanity (or the human
  comedy) in the fourteenth century, as well as in
  all ages.

56
The Pardoners Prologue and Tale

• During the Medieval Period, the Church employed
  pardoners to collect money in exchange for the
  pardons of specific sins. The money was supposed
  to go to support the Church, but often some, or
  all, of the money remained in the pardoners
  pockets. Pardoners were also known to sell
  false religious relics to make extra money for
  themselves on the side. The Office of Pardoner
  was abolished in 1562.

57
The Pardoners Prologue and Tale

• The Pardoner is a womanish man with long, blond
  hair. He boasts of his success in preaching
  against avarice (greed), the very vice, he
  says, I make my living out of. The Pardoner is
  a fake who admits his evil. He brags of his bad
  treatment of the people he is supposed to serve.
  It is important to note that Chaucer never says
  the Pardoner is a bad person. He allows the
  Pardoner to reveal his character through his
  fights with other pilgrims and through the story
  he tells.

58
The Pardoners Prologue and Tale

• The Pardoners Tale is actually a sermon on the
  evils of the unnatural love of money, which can
  lead one to his or her death (i.e. an exemplum).
• Ironically, the Pardoner follows up his sermon
  with an attempt to sell phony relics to his
  fellow pilgrims.

59
The Pardoners Prologue and Tale

• Irony (p.912-913) A contrast between what
  appears to be and what really is.
• In verbal irony, words imply the opposite of what
  they literally mean. Irony of situation presents
  a state of affairs that is the opposite of what
  is expected. Dramatic irony occurs in fiction or
  drama when the reader knows more than a character
  or characters do.

60
The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale

• Irony (p.912-913) A contrast between what
  appears to be and what really is.
• In verbal irony, words imply the opposite of what
  they literally mean. Irony of situation presents
  a state of affairs that is the opposite of what
  is expected. Dramatic irony occurs in fiction or
  drama when the reader knows more than a character
  or characters do.

61
The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale

• Her name is Alice. She is a cloth-maker and five
  times a widow. Chaucer also slyly adds that she
  knew lots of other company in her youth.
  Apparently wealthy from her marriages, she has
  traveled a great deal, including three trips to
  Jerusalem. She is well versed in the ways of
  marriage, and strongly puts forth her theory that
  the woman must dominate in marriage.
• To make her point, she tells a story set in King
  Arthurs day. Ironically, her story is a romance
  stressing the Arthurian virtues of courtesy and
  gentility. It is centered around a knight who has
  dishonored his calling by raping a woman. He is
  sentenced to death unless he can, in a year and a
  day, discover what women most desire.
• What is the answer? Who tells him the answer? At
  what potential cost to the knight? What happens
  at the end of the tale?

62
The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale

• The Wife of Bath is Chaucers most complex
  character
• 1) she is gaudy, bold, crude and brash
• 2) she is a champion of oppressed womanhood
• 3) an outrageous misinterpreter of the Bible
• 4) she has a lusty appetite for whatever the
  future may hold.

63
The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale

• She defies the conventional ideas of her time and
  believes that celibacy is not superior to active
  sexuality that a woman need not be passive
  within marriage that philandering is not only
  for men to partake of that women should have
  equal ownership of property and money with their
  husbands and that husbands have no right to
  control the movements and activities of their
  wives.

64
The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale

• Her good humor, skepticism and vigor in the face
  of such a long tradition of complete male
  dominance are truly remarkable. While some of her
  ideas would improve the society of her day, which
  clearly are not spiritually sanctioned? Certainly
  on the issue of philandering, society would be
  better off if both men and women abstained from
  such activities.