The Middle Ages

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The Middle Ages

• 1066-1485

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Main Ideas

• What terms come to thought?
• What ideas?
• Where was the Middle Ages? Any one specific
  location?
• Who led the Middle Ages? Any one specific group?

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Map of Medieval Europe
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The Middle Ages The Myth

• We think of knights in shining armor, lavish
  banquets, wandering minstrels, kings, queens,
  bishops, monks, pilgrims, and glorious pageantry.
  
• In film and in literature, medieval life seems
  heroic, entertaining, and romantic.

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The Middle Ages The Reality

• In reality, life in the Middle Ages, a period
  that extended from approximately the 5th century
  to the 15th century in Western Europe, could also
  be harsh, uncertain, and dangerous.

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The Battle of Hastings

• In October 1066, a daylong battle known as the
  Battle of Hastings ended the reign of the
  Anglo-Saxons and began the Norman Conquest.

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Some Important Historical Events1066 Norman
Conquest KNOW THIS DATE

• Old French became language of power, commerce,
  and religion in England
• End of Old English (looks/sounds very German the
  language of Beowulf)
• French merged with Old English to produce Middle
  English, the language of Chaucerclose enough to
  modern English that we can recognize it.

• William of Normandy (called William the
  Conqueror), who already controlled northern
  France, invaded and conquered England in 1066
  C.E., with the decisive victory at the Battle of
  Hastings.

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Some Important Historical EventsDomesday Book
commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1087

• Census, land register, and income record to
  create a tax roll
• Can learn a lot about commerce, absolutely
  everything that everyone owned
• Learn a lot about common names and daily life

• According to the Domesday Book, slavery was
  fairly commonplace.
• Lists 10 of Englands people as slaves.
• Germanic tribes also enslaved Slavic neighbors
  (thus the word slavery).
• Africans were sold across the Islamic world.
• Can see original copy in the British Library (a
  museum of manuscripts)

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The Feudal System

• The Anglo-Normans brought a new language, French,
  and a new social system, feudalism, to the
  country.
• Feudalism was not just a social system, but also
  a caste system, a property system, and a military
  system.

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The Feudal System

• The basic chain of feudalism was as follows
• 1. God
• 2. Kings
• 3. Nobles (Barons, Bishops, etc.)
• 4. Knights- who did not own land
• 5. Serfs or peasants- who did not own land

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The Three Estates

• The three estates (social classes) in the Middle
  Ages were Aristocracy (kings and their vassals),
  Clergy (Those who prayed- priests, monks, nuns,
  friars, etc.), and the Commons (everyone else-
  doctors, lawyers, clerks, yeomen, etc).

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Knighthood

• The primary duty of males above the serf class
  was military service. Boys were trained at an
  early age to become warriors.
• After training was complete, the boy was dubbed
  or ceremonially tapped on the shoulder. He was
  then a knight, had the title or sir, and had full
  rights of the warrior caste.

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Knighthood

• Knighthood was grounded in the feudal ideal of
  loyalty. Knights had a system of social codes
  that they were not permitted to break.

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Women in the Middle Ages

• Women had no political rights because they were
  not soldiers in a primarily military system.
• Women were always subservient to men.
• A womans husband or fathers position in the
  feudal system determined her position.

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Chivalry

• Chivalry was a system of ideals and social codes
  governing the behaviors of knights and
  gentlewomen.
• Chivalry codes included oaths of loyalty to the
  overlord, observing certain rules of warfare and
  courtly love.
• Courtly love was nonsexual.
• Chivalry brought about an idealized attitude
  about women, but did not improve their actual
  position in life.
• Chivalry gave rise to a new form of literature-
  romance.

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The Effect of Cities and Towns

• Eventually, the increasing population in cities
  and towns made the feudal system close to
  obsolete.
• The city classes were lower, middle and
  upper-middle.

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The Crusades

• The Crusades (1095-1270), a series of wars waged
  by European Christians against Muslims, were
  waged during the period.
• The prize of The Crusades was Jerusalem and the
  Holy Land.

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Some Important Historical EventsCRUSADES

• 8 crusades in total over 200 yearsthe last 7
  failed horribly due to disease, cold, hunger, and
  battles.
• Another negative effect from the point of view of
  the Christian Western Europeans galvanized
  Muslims and gave them a stronger
  foothold/following in the Middle East the
  opposite of their goal.

• 1095
• Pope Urban II called for a holy war against the
  Muslim Turks who controlled what he saw as the
  Christian Holy Land of Palestine.
• Pope said if you died fighting in a crusade, you
  would go to heaven.

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Some Important Historical EventsCRUSADES,cont.

• SOME BENEFITS TO EUROPE
• Increased trade and new merchant class.
• Increase in art and education Greek language and
  Plato studied again philosophy, math.

• Increase in religious inspiration due to
  dedication to God art, architecture.
• Crusades also greatly contributed to a secular
  kind of hero-worship of knights (shown in
  tapestries, tales).

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St. Thomas a Becket

• Thomas a Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury,
  was murdered in his own cathedral by four knights
  because he too often sided with the pope instead
  of the King Henry who had appointed him to the
  position.
• Beckets murder enraged the common people who
  deemed him a martyr and they lashed out against
  King Henry which weakened the kings power in his
  struggle with Rome.

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The Magna Carta

• The Magna Carta was signed by King John in 1215.
• The Magna Carta was a document that limited the
  Churchs power.

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The Hundred Years War

• The English and French entered into the Hundred
  Years War (1337-1453) because two English kings
  were claiming they were to take the French
  throne.
• This war showed that England was no longer
  represented by the armor clad knight but by the
  green clad yeoman. Common people were taking up
  the fight for their country.

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Commercial Networks
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The Black Death

• The Black Death, or bubonic plague, struck
  England in 1348-1349.
• The Black Death was highly contagious and killed
  approximately one third of the population.
• The Black Death caused the end of feudalism.

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Plague/Black Death

• Took out 54 million
• 1/3 of population wiped out
• Defining event(s) of the Middle Ages
• Spread by fleas which lived on rats
• A lack of cleanliness added to their
  vulnerability crowded with poor sanitation ate
  stale or diseased meat primitive medicine
  (people were often advised to not bathe b/c open
  skin pores might let in the disease).
• Highly contagious disease nodules would burst
  around the area of the flea bite.

In 1347, Italian merchant ships returned from the
Black Sea, one of the links along the trade route
between Europe and China. Many of the sailors
were already dying of the plague, and within days
the disease had spread from the port cities to
the surrounding countryside. The disease spread
as far as England within a year.
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Some Important Cultural Changes

• Flowering of Poetry about Courtly Love

• 2. Peasant Uprisings and Plague (1/3 of
  population at one point)

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Some Important Cultural ChangesFlowering of
Poetry About Courtly Love

• For nobles only
• Troubadours (professional singers) sang of
  courtliness, brave deeds, and Romantic love
  accompanied by a harp or lute.
• Courtly love poetry praised an idealized,
  distant, unattainable lady love (e.g. Beatrice in
  Dantes Divine Comedy)
• Artificial passion with strict rules.

• For instance, a loved one could be married to
  someone else.
• Developed in literature stories of unrequited
  love and heroic knights.
• E.g., Arthurian legends in France best is
  Lancelot by Chretien de Troyes about the court of
  King Arthur, a Celtic chieftain of 6th century
  Britain who fought the Anglo-Saxon invaders.

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Flowering of Poetry About Courtly Love, cont.

• As often seen in lit/art Told in manner of late
  Middle Ages with forbidden love, knightly
  combats, and colorful pageantry.

• Hearty, masculine culture of early Middle Ages
  was giving way to a more tranquil, confident, and
  leisurely society.
• Over time, a nobles castle became more of a
  theater for refined pleasures than a barracks for
  fighting men.

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Some Important Cultural Changes Peasant
Uprisings Plague

• Guilds grew in late middle ages.
• Craftsmen each had their own guild ropemakers,
  armorers, mailmakers, master dyers, stonemasons,
  weavers, etc.
• Plague freed many from vassalage and opened up
  opportunities.

• Difficult hierarchical training program from
  apprentice to master and job placement.
  Functioned as a union of sorts. Guilds became
  very rich and powerful over time.
• Origin of freemasons, for instance.

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Common Elements between the Rich and the Poor in
the Middle Ages

• Subservience to Gods church
• Church played a big rolebirth, baptism
• Church owned a third of all the land in Europe
• Church played a big role in politics.
• Belief that great cathedrals should be erected

• Belief in God, heaven, and hell
• All actions had consequences (good life led to a
  good experience in heaven).

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Romanesque Architectureprevalent during
9th-12th century

• Rounded Arches
• Barrel Vaults
• Thick walls
• Darker, simplistic interiors
• Small windows usually at the top of the wall
• Circular Rose Window usually on the West Side

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Rose Window

• The basic round rose window was developed as part
  of the Romanesque period but developed further
  and was used in Gothic Architecture.
• Notice the Romanesque style top left versus the
  Gothic style bottom left (from the cathedral of
  Notre Dame). Intricate stone tracery is used in
  the Gothic style.

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Gothic Architectureprevalent in W. Europe from
12th 15th Cen. C.E.

• Everything reaches to heaven, to God

• Features

• Pointed arches
• High, narrow vaults
• Thinner walls
• Flying buttresses
• Elaborate, ornate, airier interiors
• Stained-glass windows