Transcript The End of the Middle Ages

The End of the Middle Ages
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.
William the Conqueror
• In the battle, Duke William
of Normandy, known as
William the Conqueror,
defeated King Harold of
England, the last of the
Anglo Saxon kings.
William did not want to kill
the Anglo Saxons, he just
wanted to rule them. The
new group under William’s
reign became known as the
Anglo-Normans.
Some Important Historical Events:
1066 Norman Conquest
KNOW THIS DATE
• 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.
• 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
Chaucer—close enough to
modern English that we can
recognize it.
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.
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
Some Important Historical Events:
Domesday 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 England’s
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)
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 elsedoctors, lawyers, clerks,
yeomen, etc).
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.
Some Important Historical Events:
CRUSADES:
• 8 crusades in total over 200
• 1095
years—the last 7 failed
• Pope Urban II called for a
horribly due to disease, cold,
holy war against the
hunger, and battles.
Muslim Turks who
• Another negative effect from
controlled what he saw as
the point of view of the
the Christian Holy Land
Christian Western Europeans:
of Palestine.
galvanized Muslims and gave
them a stronger
• Pope said if you died
foothold/following in the
fighting in a crusade, you
Middle East; the opposite of
would go to heaven.
their goal.
Some Important Historical Events:
CRUSADES,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).
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
• 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.
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.
• Becket’s 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.
Gothic Architecture:
prevalent in W. Europe from 12th – 15th Cen. C.E.
Features:
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Pointed arches
High, narrow vaults
Thinner walls
Flying buttresses
Elaborate, ornate,
airier interiors
• Stained-glass
windows
•Everything
reaches to
heaven, to God
The Magna Carta
• The Magna Carta was
signed by King John in
1215.
• The Magna Carta was a
document that limited
the Church’s power.
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.
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.
The Crusades
• They ended disastrously
• Many knights never
returned.Those that did lost
most of their holdings
• Many serfs escaped to towns
and demanded more pay and
more rights.
• The Church lost prestige
• As towns grew feudalism
died out: the power of the
nobles decreased while the
power of the king increased
The Hundred Years War
1326-1477
• Long struggle between France and
England
• Fought over the Duchy of
Aquatain
• 1340 Edward III invades France
and defeats French fleet. Leads to
English naval dominance for the
next 30 years
• War interrupted by Black Death
for 8 years
• New Weapons and tactics such as
the long bow and eventually the
canon
• Brings about the end of chivalry
The Battles of Crecy, Pointers and Agincourt
• English win huge tracts of land in
France
• The knights on horseback were
over matched by the English
Archers. The archers consistently
were out numbered and yet won all
three Battles.
• Agincourt was the most lopsided
of all. The English led by Henry V
had 6000 men against a force of
20000-30000 French.
• The longbows proved too much for
the heavily armored French
Knights
The Black Death
• The bubonic plague-Horse riding
Mongols carried infected fleas from
China-Spread by traders to the West
• Killed between 60 and 70 million
people and wiped out 1/3 of Europe's
population
• Effects- decimated trade, town
populations decreased, farms were
abandoned, manorial system crumbles,
higher wage demands and peasant
revolts, Church loses prestige
(flagellants and prayers have little
effect), Anti-Semitism rose, pessimism
and apocalyptic beliefs grew
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
•Five years after Agincourt The French signed a treaty saying
that King Henry V of England would inherit the French thrown
after the death Charles VI
•A teenage peasant girl believes she has visions from God
telling her to drive the English out of France
•Joan of Arc renews the French spirit and leads France to
victories over the English including the siege of Orleans
•She convinced Charles to go with her to Rheims where he is
crowned king of France. This turned the tide of the War and
from this point on England’s position in France grew weaker
and weaker
The Death of A Saint
• Joan is captured by Burgundians
loyal to England and turned over
for trial
• The English turned her over to the
Church who tried her for
witchcraft
• Charles VII abandons her
• She was condemned by the
Church and burned as a witch.
• 25 years later The Church
determined that her trial was
improperly conducted and
declared her not guilty
• In 1920 she was declared a saint
by the Church
The Great Western Sch ism
1378-1417
• Pope Boniface VIII vs. King
Philip IV of France
• Avignon Popes and the College
of Cardinals
• Three popes at once?
• Anti popes and the Council of
Constance
• Election of Pope Martin V ends
schism
• The Church becomes weakened
and the kings power increases
The End of Feudalism
• Kings gain upper hand in struggle for power with
nobles
• New warfare
• Breakdown of manorialism with the rise of cities
• The Black Death
• Rise of Nationalism
• Corruption and scandal lead to a weakening of the
Church
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