The Middle Ages

1
The Middle Ages

• Arthurian Legend

2
Medieval Period

• 500 1500 AD
• Sometimes split into two eras the Dark Ages and
  the Middle Ages (Medieval Period)
• b/t classical Greek and Roman cultures and
  rebirth of classical values in the Renaissance

3
Roman Empire Divides

• Byzantine empire
• Constantinople, Egypt, Asia Minor, eastern
  Mediterranean, Balkans
• Preserved classical knowledge and culture
• Western empire
• Fell to the Germanic tribes 476
• Lombards Italy
• Franks France
• Anglo-Saxons - England

4
The Roman Empire

• Western Empire
• Falls to Germanic tribes 476 AD
• Eastern Empire
• Falls to the Ottoman Turks 1453

5
Christian Influence

• 330 Constantine names Christianity the official
  religion of the Roman Empire
• 451 Pope becomes religious authority of the
  Church Latin becomes the official language

6
New Civilizations

• New nations
• Blending of Roman, Celtic, and Germanic language,
  law, and culture

7
The Franks

• Strongest Germanic tribe France
• Christian tribe
• Charlemagne (Charles the Great)
• Conquered tribes and converted them to
  Christianity
• Controlled France, East and West Germany,
  Austria, Switzerland, northern Italy,
  northeastern Spain
• Defeated Popes enemies in 799
• Crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800
• Encouraged learning and developed schools
• The Song of Roland story of his fight against
  the Spanish Muslims
• Grandsons warred and divided kingdom into 3

8
Romano-British (Celts) vs. Angles, Saxons, and
Jutes

• 500 Celtic king Arthur defeats British invaders
  
• First reference to legendary king
• 550 Anglo-Saxons drive Celts from England
  Celts flee to Ireland, Wales, and Scotland
• 600 Christianity accepted in much of the area
• 700 Anglo-Saxons stop fighting within and begin
  to establish England
• Late 700s invaders from the north (Norway,
  Sweden, and Denmark)
• aka Norsemen, Northmen, Vikings

9
Timeline Continued

• 871-899 Alfred
• Anglo-Saxon king
• Puts laws into print
• Encourages learning English and Latin
• Stops the northern invaders, who agree to stay in
  northeastern England 878
• 911 Frankish king gives Viking chief
  northwestern France (Normandy)
• 1066 Norman duke, William, defeats King Harold
  to become English king
• Introduced Norman language, laws, and government
  into England
• Norman rule brought new laws, heavy taxes, and a
  long period of misery to the conquered people

10
Battle of Hastings

• William of Normandy
• French duke
• Married Matilda de Flanders, an English
  noblewoman
• Wanted English throne
• King Harold
• Begins the battle weakened from other battles
• October 14, 1066
• Many casualties
• French have cavalry and thus advantage
• Harold is slain
• Christmas day, 1066
• William is crowned King of England
• Spends most of his life fighting William the
  Conqueror

11
Feudalism

• 800s 1200s
• Landholders (lord) grant land (fief, feud) to a
  man who promises to defend the lord (knight,
  vassal)
• Vassals could have vassals of their own
• All lords were men their wives were ladies
• Land main source of wealth
• Landholders most authority
• Needed people to protect and farm land

12
Vassals Obligations

• A certain number of days of military service
• Money for the lords eldest daughters marriage
• Money for the lords eldest sons knighthood
• Entertainment for the lord on inspection day
• Money to free a captured lord, if necessary

13
Lords Obligations

• Provide money and soldiers for defense
• Maintain roads and villages
• Act as judge in disputes

14
Decline of Feudalism

• Increase of business and trade
• Methods of warfare
• Introduction of new weaponry
• Changes decrease lords power
• Changes increase kings power

15
The Manorial System

• Relationship of lord to the peasants of the land
• Manor large house or castle near the center of
  the land
• Castle surrounded by thick walls and a moat
• In times of danger, peasants took shelter inside
  castle walls
• Huts small houses located near the castle
• Fields, orchards, forests

16
People of the Manorial System

• Lords
• Knights
• Fought in tournaments
• Entertainment for all
• Often fought to the death
• Serfs
• Peasants who worked the land
• Worked fields
• Cared for animals
• Belonged to the land never left the manor
• Had few rights and freedoms

17
Biggest Downfall

• System allowed for little or no opportunities to
  exchange ideas or learn new ways

18
The Roman Catholic Church

• Means universal church of Rome
• Canon law
• law of the church
• Heresy
• blasphemy against God or the laws of the church
• Excommunication
• Barred from all churches and from the salvation
  of the soul punishment for heresy
• Interdict
• Banning of all church services in the area
  punishment for a kings refusal to cooperate with
  the Churchs requests
• Extremely effective because missing mass is
  considered a mortal sin thus, everyone would go
  to Hell

19
Punishments

• Excommunication was the punishment for heresy
• Interdict was the punishment for a kings refusal
  to cooperate
• Made people fearful and angry
• They would demand the ruler yield to the will of
  the Church

20
Churchs Influence on the Manor

• Church officials advised lords and kings
• Church officials conducted schools
• Churches provided places for travelers to stay
• Churches provided a place of refuge and hope in
  uncertain times
• Churches offered sanctuary to criminals
• Church officials helped people write letters and
  agreements
• Church officials developed universities of
  theology, medicine (Salerno), and law (Bologna)

21
Universities Established

• 1100s 1200s
• University of Paris
• Oxford University
• Cambridge University

22
Scholars of the Middle Ages

• Thomas Aquinas
• 1225-1274
• Famous scholar who wrote about the need for faith
  and reason in order to understand God
• Combines philosophy of Aristotle with Christian
  doctrine
• Canonized for scholarship and teaching
• Five arguments for the existence of God
• http//www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aquinas3.htm
  l
• Roger Bacon
• Founder of experimental science
• Conducted experiments/research about the natural
  world
• Airplanes

23
Medieval Art

• Served the Church
• Works of art in churches
• Bibles were hand-decorated
• Architecture of the churches
• Romanesque
• Gothic

24
Romanesque

• 1000 1150
• Thick stone walls
• Tiny windows
• Rounded arches

25
Gothic

• 1150 1300
• Thinner stone walls
• High ceilings
• Large, stained glass windows
• Pointed arches
• Tall towers

26
Notre Dame gargoyles protectedchurches from
demons
27
Westminster Abbey
28
The Crusades

• Christians traveled to Middle East to visit
  places where Jesus lived and taught, especially
  Jerusalem, the city of his crucifixion
• 1095 Council of Clermont
• Pope Urban II called for a crusade, a holy war,
  against the Turks
• 1099 Jerusalem is taken
• 1150 Turks recapture Jerusalem
• 1291 Turks have control of entire area
• Christians have obtained only the right to visit
  the city

29
Seljik Turks

• Muslims who began to interfere with Christian
  visits to holy lands
• Muslim religion Islamic
• Believe Jesus is a prophet, but not son of God
• Life of Jesus and Mary is chronicled in The
  Koran
• Turks (Ottoman) also threatened Christians in
  Byzantine Empire (1453)

30
Results of the Crusades

• Developed trade between Europe and the Middle
  East
• Introduced new ideas about how to live
• Increased employment and the establishment of
  towns
• Creates a middle class
• Decreased the power of the lords and the feudal
  system
• New middle class sides with the king who gives
  them rights and privileges
• Money becomes more important than land
• Offers opportunity for the serfs
• Became free if not found for a year and a day

31
Knighthood

• 1066 Norman conquest
• French soldiers on horseback called knights
• Path to knighthood
• Age 7 horse riding, religious training,
  manners, hunting, dancing, possibly reading and
  writing
• Age 12-13 assistants to knights maintained
  armor and weapons, became skilled in their use,
  began entering tournaments
• Age 17-18 upheld chivalric code

32
Knighthood Continued

• Modern times
• Knighthood is an honor bestowed by a monarch in
  order to recognize outstanding service to ones
  country
• Titles
• Knight Sir
• Wife of knight Lady
• Knighted woman Dame

33
Modern Knights

• Sir Tim Berners-Lee
• World wide web

• Sir Paul McCartney

34
More Modern Knights

• Sir Elton John

• Sir Mick Jagger

35
Knighthood through Centuries

• 8th century
• Stirrup indispensable to medieval army
  cavalry
• 11th century
• Expensive endeavor
• 12th century
• Cluny monks add social and ethical dimension
  because knights are restless and attacking women
  and poor people
• 13th century
• heredity
• 14th century
• Ends with the development of gunpowder and more
  powerful archery
• 16th century
• Knighthood is romanticized

36
Chivalry

• French word for knight chevalier
• Helped to civilize the brutal, competitive world
• Military code of behavior
• Fair to opponent
• Loyal to lord
• Honorable
• Show Christian humility, kindness, and generosity
• Defend women
• Protect the poor and the weak
• Courtly love

37
The End of The Middle Ages

• Little Ice Age
• Bitterly cold weather during 1300s
• Reduced crop yields
• Black Death
• Bubonic plague 1340s
• Killed 1/3 of population
• Technology
• Invention of gun powder
• Church weakens
• Changes corruption and internal arguments
• People learn to read
• Development of printing press
• Use of vernacular language instead of Latin

38
Medieval Literature

• Medieval epics
• Glorify physical strength, courage, loyalty
• Celebrate warriors who defeat evil and restore
  order
• Beowulf, The Nibelungenlied
• Saints lives
• Tales that glorified the Christian value of piety
  and humble submission to Gods will
• Ecclesiastical History Bede

39
Medieval Literature Cont.

• Chansons de geste
• songs of heroic deeds
• Composed by French poets called troubadors
  (trouveres)
• The Song of Roland
• Ballads
• Narrative songs about murder, love, revenge
• Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne

40
Medieval Literature Cont.

• Poetry
• Theme of courtly love
• Troubadours to compose, invent
• Lais song
• Short stories with supernatural or fairy-tale
  elements
• Chevrefoil

41
Courtly Love

• A forbidden affair with five attributes
• Aristocratic practiced by noble lords and
  ladies in the royal palace
• Ritualistic exchanged gifts and tokens lords
  offered songs, poems, bouquets, sweet favors,
  ceremonial gestures
• Secret had world of own with its own rules,
  codes, and commandments
• Adulterous extramarital not crude, physical
  satisfaction, but a sublime and sensual intimacy
• Literary imitated literature of time

42
Medieval Literature Cont.

• Romances
• Literary expression of chivalric ideals
• Long poems about knightly adventures
• Most famous poet Chretien de Troyes
• Introduced element of courtly love and deeds
  performed for an unattainable lady
• Most popular Arthurian romances
• Le Morte DArthur, Perceval

43
King Arthur Man vs. Myth

• 1,000 years ago Welsh poetry
• Strong military leader in Wales (400-600AD)
• Most popular hero in French and English medieval
  literature

44
Arthur Through the Ages

• Earliest writers
• Leader that was needed
• Geoffrey of Monmouth
• The History of the Kings of Britain
• Medieval writers
• Ideal man sensitive, civilized
• Sir Thomas Mallory
• Le Morte DArthur

• Later writers 19th century
• Golden past noble and simple life
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• The Lady of Shalott, Idylls of the King
• Modern Writers
• Political struggles
• Fight to protect law and order
• T.H. White
• The Once and Future King
• Marion Zimmer Bradley
• The Mists of Avalon

45
People of the Legend

• The Old People
• Faeries Castle Chariot
• Difference in time
• Pagan religion
• Worship nature
• understand and use its resources
• Matriarchal society Beltane fires
• Respect all religions
• This group struggles to keep their religion
  alive.
• They are considered pagans and accused of sorcery.

46
People of the Legend

• The Christians
• Majority of the community and the knights
• Christian religion
• Worship one God
• Patriarchal society
• Strive for conversion
• This group struggles to enforce their religion.
• They are considered disrespectful and domineering.

47
People of the Legend

• The Saxons
• No established communities
• This group ravages the land and its people
• They are considered brutal and hateful

48
The English Hierarchy
49
People of the Court

• King
• ruler
• Royal Seneschal
• tends to the estate
• Knights
• defend their king and his people
• Squires
• tend to the knights
• Pages
• serve the court

• Queen
• Ladies in Waiting
• care for the queen
• Outside the court
• merchants, farmers, peasants

50
The Legend

• Igraine and Gorlois
• Uther and Igraine
• Merlin and Arthur
• Bishops of London
• Ten years Arthur unites kingdom
• Excalibur
• Round Table
• Camelot
• Guinevere
• Morgan le Faye
• Merlin and Nimue

51
The Legend Cont

• Lancelot and Guinevere
• Mordred
• Quest for the Holy Grail
• Sir Galahad and Castle Carbonek
• Mordreds treachery
• Guineveres condemnation
• Merlins warning
• Gawain and the snake
• Arthur and Mordred
• Sir Bedivere and Excalibur
• Arthur and Avalon
• Guinevere in convent