THE LATE MIDDLE AGES:

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CHAPTER 9

• THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
• Social and Political Breakdown (1300-1453)

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Black Death, 13481350

• precursor overpopulation malnutrition
• agricultural improvements increase food supply
  European population doubles, 10001300,
  thereafter outstripping food production
• 13151317 crop failures produce worst famine of
  Middle Ages
• bubonic plague (Black Death) followed trade
  routes from Asia into Europe, probably via fleas
  on rates from Black Sea area
• popular remedies relevant medical knowledge
  absent
• aromatic amulets
• temperance moderation
• promiscuity abandon
• flight seclusion
• self-flagellation

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Black Death (cont.)

• economic consequences
• dramatic labor shortage, climbing wages for
  laborers artisans
• falling agricultural, climbing luxury
  pricesnoble landowners hardest hit
• attempts to freeze wages force peasants to stay
  on land ? peasant revolts
• cities (artisans) benefit from demand for luxury
  goods
• political/social consequences
• artisan guilds win some political power
• kings take advantage of weakened nobility church

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The Culprits
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The Symptoms
Bulbous
Septicemic Formalmost 100 mortality rate.
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The Disease Cycle
Flea drinks rat blood that carries the
bacteria.
Bacteria multiply in fleas gut.
Human is infected!
Fleas gut cloggedwith bacteria.
Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into
human wound.
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
Leeching
A Doctors Robe
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
FlagellantiSelf-inflicted penance for our
sins!
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
Pograms against the Jews
Golden Circle obligatory badge
Jew hat
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Medieval Art the Plague
An obsession with death.
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The Mortality Rate
353099930 - 70
25,000,000 dead !!!
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Hundred Years War (13371453)

• nominal cause English king Edward IIIs claim on
  French throne, thwarted by accession of first
  Valois king, Philip VI (r. 13281350)
• larger cause English-French territorial,
  commercial, cultural rivalry
• French weakness larger wealthier, but more
  internal discord

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Causes of the 100 Years' War
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1. Controversy Over Succession

• The French nobility selected Philip of Valois, a
  cousin of the last king through the male line.
• He founded a new French dynasty that ruled
  through the 16c.
• He was chosen in preference to King Edward III of
  England, whose mother was the daughter of the
  late king, Philip IV.
• In 1340, Edward claimed the title King of
  France.

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2. Fr. Land Belonging to Br. Kings

• A longer standing issue was the status of lands
  within France that belonged to English kings.
• Edward was actually a vassal of Philips, holding
  sizable French territories as fiefs from the king
  of France it went back to the Norman conquest.

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3. Conflict Over Flanders
The dagger pointing at the heart of England!

• Wool industry.
• Flanders wants its independence from French
  control.
• Asks England for help.

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4. A Struggle for National Identity

• France was NOT a united country before the war
  began.
• The French king only controlled about half of the
  country.

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Hundred Years War (cont.)

• First phase (under Edward III)
• Flanders allies with England, recognizing Edward
  as king of France, 1340
• English seize Calais, 1346
• English rout near Poitiers, 1356 French king
  John II taken captive
• 1360 treaty John II ransomed, English claims in
  France recognized, Edward renounces claim to
  French throne
• Second phase (Treaty of Troyes)
• English war effort flags due to peasant revolts
• recommences with English victory at Agincourt,
  1415
• Duchy of Burgundy joins English
• Treaty of Troyes, 1420 named English Henry V
  successor to French Charles VI, but both soon die

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Hundred Years War (cont.)

• Third phase (Joan of Arc)
• French teenage peasant Joan of Arc declares call
  from God to deliver besieged Orléans from English
• tired English repulsed, followed by string of
  French victories
• Joan captured 1430, tried burned as heretic at
  English-held Rouen
• English forced back, conclude war with Calais as
  only French possession (1453)
• Summary 68 years of peace, 44 of war France
  devastated, but national feeling awakened
  English French peasants suffer most from taxes
  services

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The War Itself
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Military Characteristics

• The War was a series of short raids and
  expeditions punctuated by a few major battles,
  marked off by truces or ineffective treaties.
• The relative strengths of each country dictated
  the sporadic nature of the struggle.

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French Advantages

• Population of about 16,000,000.
• Far richer and more populous than England.
• At one point, the French fielded an army of over
  50,000 ? at most, Britain mustered only 32,000.

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British Advantages

• Weapons Technologies.
• In almost every engagement, the English were
  outnumbered.
• Britains most successful strategies
• Avoid pitched battles.
• Engage in quick, profitable raids
• Steal what you can.
• Destroy everything else.
• Capture enemy knights to hold for ransom.

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The Longbow as a Weapon

• The use of the English defensive position was the
  use of the longbow.
• Its arrows had more penetrating power than a bolt
  from a crossbow.
• Could pierce an inch of wood or the armor of a
  knight at 200 yards!
• A longbow could be fired more rapidly.
• 6 arrows per minute.

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The British LongbowThe Battle of Poitiers, 1356
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Early English Victories
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Joan of Arc (1412-1432)

• The daughter of prosperous peasants from an area
  of Burgundy that had suffered under the English.
• Like many medieval mystics, she reported regular
  visions of divine revelation.
• Her voices told her to go to the king and
  assist him in driving out the English.
• She dressed like a man and was Charles most
  charismatic and feared military leader!

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Cannons Used at Orleans
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Joan Announces the Capture of Orleans to the King
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Joan of Arc (1412-1432)

• She brought inspiration and a sense of national
  identity and self-confidence.
• With her aid, the king was crowned at Reims
  ending the disinheritance.
• She was captured during an attack on Paris and
  fell into English hands.
• Because of her unnatural dress and claim to
  divine guidance, she was condemned and burned as
  a heretic in 1432.
• She instantly became a symbol of French
  resistance.

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Joan as a Feminist Symbol Today?
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The End of the War

• Despite Joans capture, the French advance
  continued.
• By 1450 the English had lost all their major
  centers except Calais.
• In 1453 the French armies captured an
  English-held fortress.
• This was the last battle of the war.
• There was not treaty, only a cessation of
  hostilities.

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France Becomes Unified!
France in 1453
France in 1337
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Late Medieval Church

• papal monarchy established by Pope Innocent III
  strengthened the church politically, but
  weakened it spirituallyundermined popular
  support
• Innocents successors tightened centralized
  church legal proceedings elaborated clerical
  taxation broadened papal powers of appointment
• demise of Hohenstaufens took away galvanizing
  enemy of church, made it vulnerable

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Boniface VIII (r. 12941303) vs. Philip the Fair
(r. 12851314)

• French English kings raise taxes on clergy
  Boniface decrees new taxes need papal consent
• French king Philip the Fair cuts off flow of
  money to Rome Boniface concedes
• Boniface issues Unam Sanctam (1302), as
  confrontation with Philip ramps up, asserting
  subordination of temporal to spiritual power
• French army assault molest Boniface, who later
  dies
• result popes never again seriously threaten
  European rulers

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Avignon Papacy (13091377)

• Pope Clement V moves papal court here to escape
  strife of Rome
• to get needed revenue, papal taxes go up, and
  sale of indulgences begins
• Pope John XXII (r. 13161334)most powerful
  Avignon pope

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John Wycliffe (d. 1384) and John Huss (d. 1415)

• Lollards followers of Wycliffe, English
  spokesman for rights of royalty against popes
  challenged indulgences, papal infallibility,
  transubstantiationanticipates Protestantism
• Hussites followers of Huss, rector of University
  of Praguesimilar to Lollards

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Great Schism (13781417)

• Urban VI and Clement VIIrival popes England
  allies support Urban, France allies support
  Clement
• Conciliar Theory idea that a representative
  council could regulate actions of pope
• Council of Pisa (14091410) deposed Urban
  Clement (who refused to step down), elected
  Alexander Vthree contending popes
• Council of Constance (14141417) provides for
  regular councils every few years
• Council of Basel (14311449) height of conciliar
  government of church negotiated directly with
  heretics (Hussites)
• results of conciliar movement greater religious
  responsibility to laity secular governments

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Mongol Rule in Russia (12431480)

• Mongols, or Tatars, sweep through China, Islamic
  world, Russia, 13th c.
• Ghengis Khan (11551227) invades Russia, 1223
• Russian cities become tribute-paying
  principalities of part of Mongol Empire known as
  the Golden Horde
• Russians impressed into Mongol military service,
  women taken as wives/concubines, some sold into
  slavery
• partial Islamization of Russian society
• 1380 beginning of Mongol decline in Russia ends
  1480 under Ivan the Great