Transcript The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages
(1066-1485)
Norman Invasion of England (1066)
• William the Conqueror invades England, wins
the Battle of Hastings, and defeats King Harold
• William believed throne was promised to him
– Illegitimate son of a duke of Normandy
• …who was a cousin to the English king, Edward the
Confessor
Sailing across
• William, a bastard son, angry upon hearing
the news, sends an insulting demand for the
throne.
• Sails across the channel from Normandy to
England with 1,000 “dragon ships.”
– 80-ft. long, propelled by oars and a single sail
The Setup
• Winds change; helps ships
– Harold doesn’t have enough time to get to the
coast to meet William
• William has enough time to set up spiked
fences in front of ditches
Battle of Hastings
• 5,000 to 7,000 troops on each side.
• English had warriors and peasants
– Wedge-shaped formations; spearmen in front;
everyone else with battle-axes
– Fought on foot
• Normans had a mix of archers and
dismounted and mounted warriors.
Battle of Hastings
• The battle raged all day
• Anglo-Saxon battle-axes proved deadly
against mounted cavalry
– Dismembered horses
• Confusion breaks out amongst English
– Retreat blocked off by ditches
– Normans slowly win
William Reigns
• William sets himself up as king
– Wants to rule Anglo-Saxons, not eliminate them
– Introduces feudalism
– Brings the French language
– Brings the “Domesday Book,” which kept
inventory on all of England
• First time taxes were based on what people owned
Feudalism
• Feudalism bound every person to a strict rolebased system:
– King
• All-powerful overlord and land owner
– Lord
• Land-owner who gives land in exchange for services
– Vassal
• Receives land and provides military service for it
– Knight
• The military service; defenders
– Serf
• Peasants bound to the land; slave-like
Knights
• Were the muscle of the feudal system
• When vassals opposed lords—
– Knights defended and attacked
• Chivalry
– Governs knights’ and gentlewomen’s behaviors
– Idealistic courting
• Women were adored, but their position was unchanged
• Led to romance tales (King Arthur and Camelot)
Romance, Romanticism, *Romance
Romance
Romanticism
• Love stories; sometimes great, • Era of rebellious art, music, writing,
architecture, and ideas during the
sometimes cheesy, sometimes
19th Century.
overly sexual
• Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron,
• Check out Wal-Mart book
Shelley, Keats, Beethoven, Goethe,
aisles or your grandmother’s
Thoreau, Emerson, and a lot more
bookshelf, and look for the
• A bunch of later-on guys who we
buff Indian dudes.
aren’t studying…
*Romance:
Verse narrative tracing the adventures of a brave knight
who overcomes danger for the love of a noble lady (or high
ideal). He’s usually aided by magic.
Romance
Romanticism
*Romance
*Romance
*Romance
*Romance
*Romance
*Romance
Armor
• Rich knights
–120-lbs of metal
–Suffocation, heart-failure, heat stroke,
drowning
–Turtle on his back
Getting Past Armor
• Knight weapons:
– Dagger, sword, club– headed mace, lance,
– battle-ax, flail,
– polearms
• Strange weapons
– Warhammer
The End of Armor
• Yeoman archers with longbows
• Gunpowder (1325)
– Guns
– Cannons
I need a volunteer!
Feudalism weakens
• With the growth of population, a new middle
class emerged:
– Merchant class
• Evident in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
• New art and music, not aristocratic, but the
people’s.
– Sung ballads
– Expressed viewpoint of people
The Crusades (1095-1270)
• A series of holy wars
– Started by Pope Urban II
– Wanted Christians of Europe to reclaim Jerusalem and
other holy places in the Middle East from the Muslims
– 200 years of disastrous military expeditions and
slaughter
– (2:40:00) movie clip
Thomas à Becket
• Appointed archbishop of Canterbury by Henry II
– Henry wanted the upper hand against the
Church and thought Thomas would help.
– Well… Thomas didn’t. He sided with the pope.
• Knights misinterpret order and slaughter Thomas
in his own cathedral.
– Results in backlash for Henry; public outrages.
– Church abuses their own power because no
one can stop them.
The Magna Carta / The Hundred Years’ War
(1337-1453)
• English barons force King John to sign the Magna
Carta (1215).
• Constitutional law, trial by jury, and legislative tax
• The Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)
– Claims for France’s throne
• English kings: Edward II and Henry V.
– English lose
– By the end, yeoman (small landowners) replaced
knights
• Birth of modern, democratic England
The Final Blow to Feudalism
• Population growth, gunpowder, and yeoman archers,
and then…
• The Black Death (or bubonic plague)
– Fleas from rats
– Began in China and spread west on Silk Road. Ended on
merchant-ship rats; came to Europe
– Reduced Europe’s population by a third
– Reduced the world’s population from 450 million to 350
million in the 14th century.
– Destroyed faith; caused labor shortage, which gave lower
class more bargaining power against overlords; provided
serf freedom
• Which knocked out feudalism’s last support
Bubonic Plague
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Swollen lymph nodes around the groin, armpit, and neck
Acral gangrene (generally of the fingers, toes, lips, and nose)
Chills
General ill feeling (malaise)
High fever
Muscle cramps
Seizures
Swollen lymph nodes around groin, armpit, and neck
Pain in infected areas
Skin color changes
Vomiting blood, heavy breathing, aching limbs, coughing, extreme
pain (caused by decay of skin while still alive)
• Extreme fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, delirium, and coma
Plague Doctors
• Much later…
• In the 17th century, plague doctors moved
through towns, helping the infected
• Suit
– Heavy, waxed overcoat
– Glassed-eye openings
– Beak to hold scents and straw
• (ambergris, balm-mint leaves,
• cloves, laudanum, rose petals)
Review!
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1066
Feudalism
Knights, chivalry, and courting
Women roles
Romance, Romanticism, *Romance
Thomas Becket
Crusades
Magna Carta
Hundred Years’ War
Population growth, yeoman archers, gunpowder, and
the Black Death