Transcript Medieval Period Notes

Medieval Period
1066-1485
1066 AD –
The death of Edward the
Confessor and The Battle of
Hastings
1485 AD –
The Battle of Bosworth Field,
The End of the War of the
Roses,and the Rise of the
Tudors Dynasty
Historical Events that Started and Ended this Period
1066 A.D. –
Norman conquest of England; Battle of
Hastings; William the Conqueror defeats,
Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon king
1485 A.D. –
Invention of printing press by
Johannes Gutenberg; in 1485
William Caxton sets up the
first one in England; Battle of
Bosworth Field
Introduction to Medieval Period
Dark Ages: Barbarian Germanic tribes
move across Europe. Generally rough,
crude, illiterate, new Christians.
England’s Invaders:
Prior to 1100 AD:
England is invaded
often by tribes
from many
different parts of
Europe.
Normans – 1. Descendants of a Germanic tribe
2. Loyal to the French King
3. Very powerful, French King made
their ruler a Duke
England’s Invaders: 1066AD
1. King Edward the Confessor, the
Anglo-Saxon king, dies without an
heir
2. King Edward’s witan demanded that
his distant relative Harold be given
the throne
3. The Norman Duke, William, a
relative of Edward, also claims the
throne
4. William is triumphant at The Battle
of Hastings.
5. He is crowned the king of England
on Christmas Day, 1066.
6. He will go down in history as William
the Conqueror
England’s Invaders: William The Conqueror (1066-1087)
1. His most significant introduction into
English society was the concept of
FEUDALISM.
2. A political economic system in which the
hierarchy of power was based on the
premise that the king owned all the land in
the kingdom. Essentially he claims that all
English soil belongs to him.
3. Keeping a fourth for himself, granting a
fourth to the church, he then parcels out
the rest of English land to his men in
exchange for their loyalty
4. With the birth of Feudalism many people
became serfs - - the permanent servants to
the Norman Lords
5. In 1086, he compiles The Doomsday Book,
a record of all property. (Think of the
census and IRS, all rolled into one.)
The Results of the Norman Invasion for England:
1. William the Conqueror used superior military might and
ORGANIZATION to defeat King Harold and the AngloSaxons
2. The Normans did not want to eradicate the Anglo-Saxon
culture - - they wanted to RULE the people, not destroy
them
3. Normans’ strengths - - administrative ability, emphasis on
law & order, democratic and artistic tendencies
4. The Normans brought England into mainstream of Europe
- - Eastern Europe: the Netherlands, western France,
Austria are more civilized
The Results of the Norman Invasion for England:
The Feudal caste, property, and military system
KING
LORD
LORD
LORD
KNIGHTS
KNIGHTS
KNIGHTS
SQUIRE
SQUIRE
SQUIRE
YEOMAN
YEOMAN
YEOMAN
SERFS
SERFS
SERFS
The Results of the Norman Invasion for England:
The Feudal System Developed in Two Ways 1. Landowners wanted protection
A. Paid a portion of the yield from their lands (King and his Lords
wanted to be paid what they felt was their due.)
B. Provided soldiers from their families
C. Performed whatever other duties and homage were required
2. Conquering princes and warlords – would reward valued allies with
grants of land. The land still technically belonged to the king or
prince, but they administered it. However, the king could revoke
these rewards at any time.
3. Serfs – were not really slaves. Bottom of the feudal social order
though. Not truly free: bound to the land they worked on. Owed
service to the master of the land and were passed along from owner
to owner.
The Medieval Church
1. Clergy were important and
powerful
2. Church owned and controlled a
fourth of the land in England
3. Church had its own legal system
4. Church had its own tax system
5. Church leaders could speak with
the religious leaders in other
countries WITHOUT the
permission of the King (No one
else could do that!!!)
6. Church supervised education
(Education meant POWER!!)
The Medieval Church
GOD
POPE
CARDINALS
BISHOPS
PRIESTS, FRIARS, NUNS
Medieval Language
1. Three languages spoken
A. French by the Norman
rulers
B. Latin by the clergy and
lawyers
C. Anglo-Saxon (Old English)
by the common people
2. Middle English
A. Evolves over a period of 400
years
B. Old English combines with
the Norman French
C. Latin terms are added to
the language of the common
people
Code of Knighthood and Chivalry:
Out of the feudal system
during the Medieval Period
grew a sense of form and
manners :
Chivalry – a system of ideals
and behavior that governed
knights and gentlemen. It
also set the rules of war
From the French word
Chevalier (knight)
Code of Knighthood and Chivalry:
Stations of a knight:
PAGE
SQUIRE
KNIGHT
Knights were required to –
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Defend his honor by honorable means
Set limits on the scope and nature of
revenge that could be taken for real or
fancied insults
Fight fairly even with Moslems or nonChristians
Love God
Be loyal to his King or prince
Practice Christian humility, kindness,
and politeness to those of lower
stations
Be generous with worldly goods and
possessions
Code of Knighthood and Chivalry:
Stations of a knight:
PAGE
SQUIRE
KNIGHT
1. If a knight failed to uphold these
high principles he must do penance
which might be participating in a
Crusade or performing some
religious duty
2. Some of these ideals are the same
heroic qualities that the AngloSaxons admired in Beowulf. Some
are different. Anglo-Saxons lived in
a more brutal society than the
upper classes during the Middle
Ages.
Courtly Love
1. By revering and acting in the
name of a lady, a knight would
become better and braver
2. Added to the Chivalric Code in
the later Middle Ages
3. Each knight devoted himself to a
lady of the court (liege lady)
4. Source – the religious cult of the
Virgin Mary, a non-sexual
devotion
5. Rarely the knight’s wife, but
rather a lady of a higher station
who the knight could never hope
to marry
6. Often the knight would only ever
see his liege lady from a distance
Courtly Love
How might a knight
demonstrate Courtly
Love?
1. Wear his lady’s colors
into battle
2. Glorify her in words
3. Be inspired by her
4. Revere her on a
pedestal (like the
Virgin Mary)
Courtly Love
Chivalry and Courtly Love
were only practiced by the
upper classes – NOT the
common people
Contributions of Chivalry and
Courtly Love:
1. An improved and even
idealized attitude toward
women
2. The birth of the form of
literature known as the
“Romance”
3. A civilizing influence in
human behavior
Henry II
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Important king and
beginning of the
Plantagenet Dynasty
Reformed the Judicial
System
Instituted a jury
system and the idea
of “common law”
King Henry II and St. Thomas a Becket – 1118 to 1170 AD
“The holy blissful martyr”
1. Was a friend of King
Henry II
2. Appointed Archbishop
of Canterbury
3. King hoped for Thomas’
support against Pope
4. Henry II said in a fit of
anger, “Will no one rid
me of this meddlesome
priest?”
5. Four knights murdered
him in the cathedral in
Canterbury
6. Led to pilgrimage
The Crusades: Richard I “The Lionheart”
A. Began in 1096 AD (30 years
after Norman Conquest)
B. Christians fought against
Muslims along the
Mediterranean Sea and in
North Africa
C. Prize – Jerusalem and the
Holy Land
D. Europeans benefited from
the contact with the higher
civilizations of the Middle
East. Exposure to
mathematics, astronomy,
architecture, and medicine
Richard I “The Lionheart” and The Crusades
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1095 Pope Urban calls for
a Crusade to rid the holy
land (Jerusalem, modernday Palestine) of Muslims
Richard I was one of the
English kings who
answered this call
Interestingly, The
Crusades increased
English commerce
around the world
During his absence, his
brother John controlled
the kingdom.
John was a treacherous
and domineering king as
we know from…
King John & the Magna Carta
1. Signed by King John in 1215
2. Because of King John’s
unpopularity and weakened
treasury (due to the Crusades),
John was forced to sign the
Magna Carta
3. Written by aristocrats for
aristocrats
4. The Magna Carta limited royal
authority, gave power to the
nobles, and set the stage for
the development of democracy
5. King could not raise taxes
without the consent of the
barons
6. Laid the foundation for rights
such as trial by jury and
legislative taxation
King John & the Magna Carta
7. The Magna Carta also
brought about the
decline of Feudalism
and the rise of a
middle-class Mercantile
economic system – a
system that used
money instead of land
as the basis of wealth
(this was also due to
The Crusades).
The Hundred Years War
1337-1453 (116 years):
1. First “national” war
2. England attacked
France but were
largely
unsuccessful
3. Developed a British
national
consciousness
4. No longer chivalric
knights in armor –
instead green-clad
yeoman with
longbows and
arrows
The Hundred Years War
1337-1453 (116 years):
5. The yeoman or
small landowner
formed the
nucleus of the
English Army in
France. He
became the
dominant force in
the emerging,
NON-FEUDAL
England.
6. Long arrows
could fly over
castle walls and
pierce a knight’s
armor.
The Hundred Years War
1337-1453 (116 years):
7. Gave
confidence
8. Feudalism
begins to die
out in earnest.
9. Democratic
principles
begin to take
hold.
Key Battles in The Hundred Years War
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Henry V’s victory at Agincourt was a key
moment for the English side—memorialized in
Shakespeare’s play Henry the Fifth
Joan of Arc’s victory at Orleans broke the
English’s success and began the ejection of the
English from France
WAR OF THE ROSES
AN ENGLISH CIVIL WAR OVER THE THRONE OF ENGLAND
1453 to 1485 – King Henry VI
Henry VI in 1453 suffers from extreme madness
His cousin, Richard of York, was appointed acting king
Henry recovers briefly,
but Richard will not
give up the throne
WAR OF THE ROSES
AN ENGLISH CIVIL WAR OVER THE THRONE OF ENGLAND
Richard III (House of York)
– represented by the
White Rose
King Henry VII (House
of Lancaster) –
represented by the Red
Rose
WAR OF THE ROSES
AN ENGLISH CIVIL WAR OVER THE THRONE OF ENGLAND
This war ends for two reasons:
1. In 1485, Henry Tudor (Lancaster), marries the
niece of Richard III (York) and unites the two
houses.
2. In 1485, Henry Tudor kills Richard III at
The Battle of Bosworth Field and takes the
throne as Henry VII.
The House of Tudor becomes a powerful new
royal line
The Battle of Bosworth Field is one of the
historical markers that ends the Medieval
Period
Famous Tudor Monarchs
Henry VIII
Bloody Mary
Elizabeth I
The Black Death (1347-1352)
1. Bubonic plague
2. Early 1320s first
outbreak in China
3. Spread to Europe on
trading ships by rats
with fleas.
4. Fleas carried the
disease.
The Black Death (1347-1352)
5. During winter when
fleas were dormant
the plague
disappeared, but
reappeared in the
spring when the fleas
became active
6. Killed 25 million
people, approximately
one-third the
population of Europe
Peasant’s Revolt of 1381
1. Only major social
rebellion of
medieval England
2. Reduced
population from
plague left laborers
scarce
1. Serfs revolted
against taxes and
the restraints of
serfdom
2. Spurred the
dissolution of
feudalism
Gothic Architecture
1. Popular from 11001500 AD
2. Prominent Features:
- Stained glass
- External archways
- Rib vaulting
-Flying buttresses
3. Enables them to create
the first cathedral
ceilings
4. Notre Dame de Paris
(1163) Gargoyle
statues
5. Westminster Abbey
(1245) London
LITERATURE
•
Average person could not read
• Plays became popular. Acted out in town
squares
• Mystery Plays (or Miracle Plays) had a
common theme of Christianity and retold the
lives of the saints, Bible stories, or moral
allegories
LITERATURE
Geoffrey Chaucer
1. Author of
The Canterbury
Tales
2. Describes a
pilgrimage to
Canterbury
3. Uses the frame story
technique that was
popular at that time
Many wide sweeping changes during the Medieval Period:
Beginning (1066)
End (1485)
1. ECONOMIC: Feudal Estates
1. ECONOMIC: More independent
businesses
1. CULTURAL: Rural agricultural
lifestyle; role of women limited
1. CULTURAL: Cities, commercial
centers, trade routes; women
idealized
2. LANGUAGE: Latin – only written
language
2. LANGUAGE: Literature written
in many languages – including
Middle English
3. RELIGION: Christian unity
3. RELIGION: Diversity as the
Reformation approaches
4. GEOGRAPHICAL: Limited
geographical knowledge; limited
travel
4. GEOGRAPHICAL: Discoveries of
vast new worlds, more travel
Medieval Period ends in 1485.
Why?
FIRST: Henry VIII’s victory
over Richard III at The Battle
of Bosworth Field ushers in a
Tudor Dynasty that reigns for
over 115 years and sees such
well known leaders as Henry
VIII and Elizabeth I on the
throne of England.
Medieval Period ends in 1485.
Why?
SECOND: Johannes Gutenberg
invents the printing press in
Germany in 1476
Medieval Period ends in 1485.
Why?
SECOND: Johannes Gutenberg
invents the printing press in
Germany in 1476
THIRD: William
Caxton travels to
Germany, sees it,
and sets up the
first printing press
in London in 1485
Medieval
Period ends in
1485. Why?
Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir
Thomas Mallory is one of the
first books ever to appear in
print
THIS DRAMATICALLY
CHANGED SOCEITY!!!
Books no longer had to be
hand-copied and were
more widely available and
less expensive. People
learned to read.
Knowledge is power.