Transcript The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages
(1066-1485)
Events and Social Changes
• William the Conqueror and his
Norman army defeated English
King Harold at the Battle of
Hastings in 1066.
• The new king and integration of
the Normans into England.
• William became the new king
and divided up Britain among
barons loyal to him. This
started the feudal system.
Feudalism
• Feudalism was a system that assigned economic,
political, and social position to every individual at
birth.
• Feudalism is a caste system, a property system, and
a military system.
• God headed this system with “divine right” , then the
pyramid leaked down from the king all the way down
to the serfs.
• When feudalism fails.
The Feudal Relationship
• King – all-powerful
overlord and landowner
• Barons/Lords – lord of their
own land and all upon
that land
• Vassals – a dependent lord
• Knights – served their
Vassals as requested
• Serfs – peasants who worked
on vassal’s lands.
Chivalry
• Chivalry is a series of ideals and social codes to govern the
behavior of knights and gentlewomen:
* Taking an oath of loyalty to a lord
* Rules of warfare (never attack
an unarmed man, etc)
* “Courtly Love” - adoring a
woman from afar: nonsexual.
The City Classes
• Over time, a class system developed in the
cities. They developed their own form of culture
as well.
• Ballads – the commoner POV put into song
• Miracle Plays – plays with heavy religious subject
matter
• Guilds formed, so a great deal of medieval art is
the “people’s art”
The Crusades (1095-1270)
• Holy wars waged by the pope against Muslims to reclaim
Jerusalem.
• Thousands of Jews and Muslims were slaughtered.
• In the Children’s Crusade, even women and children were
swept into the bloodshed.
• The only real positive
from these wars was
exposure the Middle
Eastern Culture. Math,
astronomy, architecture,
and crafts all enriched
England greatly in the future.
Martyrdom of Thomas à Becket
• Thomas was a Norman who was great
friends with King Henry II (reigned 11541189).
• In order to gain power over the Pope, Henry
appointed Thomas as archbishop of
Canterbury (head of the Catholic Church in
England).
• Thomas, though, often sided with the Pope
over Henry in disputes. Henry got fed up
and raged aloud “Will no one rid me of this
turbulent priest?!” Four knights took Henry
literally and brutally killed Priest Thomas.
• There was a big public backlash towards
King Henry. Thomas was martyred.
The Magna Carta
• King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215; the aristocrats
created the Carta to put a check on the powerful central
papal power in England.
• The Magna Carta was not created for the sake of the lower
classes, but later it became the basis for British
Constitutional law.
Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)
• First national war waged by England against France.
• Edward III and Henry V both laid weak claims for the
throne of France.
• It was not a successful war, but it put and end to
chivalry and knighthood and gave England a new
identity.
* the yeoman – the small landowner who used bow
and arrow, was now the dominant force as the feudal
system ended
The Bubonic Plague (1348-1349)
• Spread by fleas from infected
rats
• England’s population was
reduced by a third.
• The labor shortage gave the
lower classes more
bargaining power with their
lords, which also contributed
to the end of feudalism.
Ballads
• Songs or songlike poems that tell stories in simple, rhythmic
language.
• Often coming from the oral tradition alone, so no strict rules
on form.
• Subject Matter: supernatural events; sensational, sordid, or
tragic subject matter; a refrain; and the omission of details