THE LATE

1

• THE LATE
• MIDDLE
• AGES
• (1066-1485)
• DOTT. GABRIELE A. COCCO

2
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
1066 Death of King Edward, the Confessor Election of Harold as King Norwegians defeated at Stamford Bridge Harold defeated by the Normans at Hastings William the Bastard becomes King
1086 Doomesday Book, first official record of property owners
1098 Crusades attempt to win back Jerusalem form the Moslems
1154-1189 Reign of Henry II
1164 Constitutions of Clarendon
1170 Assassinations of Thomas Beckett in Canterbury Cathedral
1189-1199 Richard I the Crusades
1199-1216 Reign of King John the Lackland
1215 Signing of Magna Charta Libertatum
1295 Opening of the first English Parliament
1337-1377 Reign of Edward III
1377-1453 The Hundreds Year War
1348 The Black Death
1381 The Peasants Revolt

1415 The French defeated at Agincourt
1453 English defeat at Castillon Calais remains the only English dominion in France
1455-1485 The War of the Roses
1485 Battle of Bosworth Henry Tudor wins Richard III Tudor Dynasty begins
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1066. THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS

• William the Bastard (the Conqueror, since 1066)
  and his people, though technically subjects to
  the French king and speaking French, the Normans
  (variant of Norsemen) were Vikings who settled in
  Normandy a century and a half before. William I
  introduced into Anglo-Saxon England the
  continental feudal system. England was soon
  filled with Norman castles. The old Anglo-Danish
  aristocracy which did not fall at Hastings were
  later dispossessed and by 1100 most of the
  country was under Norman control.

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1170. ST. THOMAS BECKET

• Geoffrey CHAUCER
• The Canterbury Tales, The General Prologue, ll.
  12-17
• Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
• and palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
• to ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes
• and specially from every shires ende of Engelond,
  
• to Caunterbury they wende, The hooly blisful
  martir for to seke
• that hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.
• T.S. ELIOT
• A Murder in the Cathedral , ll. 4-8
• Towards the cathedral? What danger can be
• for us, the poor, the poor women of Canterbury?
  What tribulation
• with which we are not already familiar? There is
  no danger
• for us, and there is no safety in the cathedral.
  Some presage of an act

1107. THE CONCORDAT OF LONDON In England, as in
Germany (Concordat of Worms, 1122), a distinction
was being made in the kings chancery between the
secular and ecclesiastical powers of the
prelates. Employing the distinction, Henry I
(10681135) gave up his right to invest his
bishops and abbots. Henry recognized the dangers
of depending on monastic scholars to staff his
chancery and turned increasingly to secular
scholars (who naturally held minor orders) and
rewarded these men of his own making with
bishoprics and abbeys. Henry expanded the system
of scutage to reduce the monarchys dependence on
knights supplied from church lands. The
conclusion of the brief English investiture
controversy was to strengthen the secular power
of the king.

• Under Henry II (1154-89), there came the
  first great clash between the Crown and the
  Church. Henry set forth a code of laws, the
  Constitutions of Clarendon (1164) according to
  which the king claimed considerable authority in
  investing the bishops. Such constitutions also
  ruled that clergymen who committed serious crimes
  were to be tried by a civil court as well as by
  an ecclesiastical one. The Archbishop of
  Canterbury, Thomas Becket (1118-70), strongly
  opposed this new measure and spent five years in
  France in self-imposed exile. On his return, four
  knights sent by the king murdered him in the
  Canterbury Cathedral. He was soon made a martyr
  and saint by the Church of Rome.

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1205 La?amons Brut London, British
Library, MS Cotton Caligula A.ix (C), P1 ff.
3r194v P2 ff. 195r-261v

• 16,000 line alliterative verse chronicle
• with random ornamental rhyme
• La?amon (Lawman) was a priest of Worcestershire
• narrates the history of Britain
• King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
• Translation of different sources
• Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia
  Regum Britanniae (1137)
• Wace, Roman de Brut

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1200, The Owl and the Nightingale
London, British Library, MS Cotton Caligula A.ix
(C), ff. 233ra246ra Oxford, Jesus College
MS 29 (J), ff. 156ra 168vb

• extinction of the Old English language and the
  Norman influence
• 1800 verses in octosyllabic couplet (from French
  versification)
• exempla of opposite allegorical interpretations
• the text is believed to have been originally
  composed between 1189-1216 as the poem mentions
  of a recently departed King Henry, Henry II who
  died in 1189. However, it has been suggested that
  the poem actually refers to Henry III, which
  would date the poem as later than 1272
• The work is attributed to Master Nicholas of
  Guildford, who is mentioned in reverential terms
  within the text.

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1215. MAGNA CHARTA LIBERTATUM

• The policy of HEAVY TAXATION established by
  king JOHN I, called THE LACKLAND (1199-1216),
  met with fierce resistance by the nobility, the
  citizens of London and the clergy. The king was
  forced to grant the MAGNA CHARTA which became the
  foundation of all future RIGHTS of the English
  people. Yet, the liberty accorded by the MC only
  concerned the NOBLES and the FREEMEN (all those
  with full possession of both civil and political
  rights).

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1295. THE PARLIAMENT

• A further step towards the modern political
  system was taken during the reign of Henry III
  (1216-72). PARLIAMENT was still much of a feudal
  assembly composed of nobles and high clergy
  alone.
• In the years 1264-65, two representatives
  from each borough were also called to Parliament.
  This was the beginning of the future HOUSE OF
  COMMONS.
• This institution developed further and under
  Edward I (1272-1307) is generally referred to as
  the MODEL PARLIAMENT.

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1250, Orrmulum (Bodleian Library, MS Junius I,
col. 89)

• Late twelfth-century poem from the East Midlands
  of some 20,000 short lines. It is named after its
  author, an Augustinian canon called Orrm, a
  Scandinavian name meaning serpent.
• Hs objective is to give an English paraphrase of
  the gospels for the year as arranged in the Mass
  book, supplemented by a homily on each. The text
  is considered to have been left unfinished.
• Evidently, it was Orrms objective to offer
  religious teaching in the vernacular both as
  instruction for a lay audience as well as
  pastoral care.

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1337-1453. THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR

• By the 15th century England enjoyed peace and
  internal stability as a result, it attempted to
  expand into a European Empire by repeatedly
  attacking France. Henry V (House of Lancaster)
  led England to victory at Agincourt in 1415. His
  soldiers fought for a King and a Country having a
  sense of nationhood that the French feudal system
  of independent baronial armies did not share.
• Henry was acknowledged heir to the throne of
  France in 1420, consolidating his position by
  marrying the French Princess Catherine. However,
  his early death and weak successor, combined with
  the military success of Joan of Arc, the British
  were forced back to Calais, which was to remain
  Englands only French port for other 100 years.

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1455-1485.THE WARS OF THE ROSES
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Now is the winter
of our discontent made glorious
summer by this sun of York and
all the clouds that lourd upon our house
in the deep bosom of the ocean buried

W. Shakespeare, Richard III

• The Middle Ages closed with a long,
  devastating BLOOD FEUD fought for royal power
  between the ancient dynastic houses of YORK and
  LANCASTER. The CIVIL WAR, aggravated by the
  soldiers returning home from France, discontented
  and unemployed and ready to continue fighting
  under new leaders, was not a total war, but a
  series of sieges, attacks organised by a few
  wealthy nobles. The wars were finally won by
  Henry Tudor (House of Lancaster) who defeated
  Richard III at the battle of Bosworth in 1485
  and became Henry VII of England.

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LIFE AS A PILGRIMAGE
LIFE AS A PILGRIMAGE Life was seen as a short
journey leading to true life, after death. A
sense of impending death and preparation for the
afterlife is common to the spirit of the age.
Most of the literary subjects deal with moral and
spiritual themes Whan that April with his
shoures sote The droghte of Marche hath perced to
the rote So priketh hem Nature in hir
corages Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
The General Prologue CHAUCER, The Canterbury
Tales
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MINSTRELS, STORYTELLERS, PREACHERS
Lordinges, quod he, in chirches whan I
preche, I peyne me to han an hauteyn speche,
The Pardoners Prologue G. CHAUCER, The
Canterbury Tales

• It was an age dominated by anonymous voices.
  Minstrels, moving from castle to castle, sang
  some legends (i.e. King Arthur and the Knights of
  the Round Table).
• Storytellers, in village squares, sang of love,
  magic and war in the ballads.
• Preachers addressed people during services and/or
  in public homilies (selling of indulgences)

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A NEW LITERATURE, A NEW ENGLISH
Written English literature began to
reappear at the end of the 12th century.
The change from Old English to Middle
English did not immediately begin after
1066. Middle English slowly developed out of
Old English, Norse influences and its vocabulary
was largely enriched by French and its Latin
matrix. When Middle English literature
began to take place in the aristocratic
circles, they exemplified completely new
forms and genres showing French and Italian
influence. The standardization of the
English language was greatly helped by
Chaucer, whose southern dialect was
appointed to be the literary language of England.
Caxtons work widened such a phenomenon.

• The Conquest caused some serious
  consequences for the Anglo-Saxon culture. The
  Normans brought a new language FRENCH, and a
  different literary sensibility. The French
  dialect the Normans spoke is called ANGLO-NORMAN.
  Anglo-Saxon literature was soon dwarfed by the
  French models and Old English went on being
  spoken by the common people. French was spoken in
  the UPPER CLASSES and at COURT whilst Latin was
  the language of the Church.
• The older literary forms, the epic especially
  and its ideals, died as a consequence of the end
  of the civilization of which they were an
  expression .

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THE ROMANCE
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ROMANCE

• Originally, it was a poetic form
• originated in France and it reached its climax
  with the works of Chrétien de Troyes (abt. 1182)
• Retells the adventures of knights, both battles
  and love
• Leisure-time literary form for the aristocracy
• Turning point form Germanic epic to chivalry and
  the code of honour

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Roman de la Rose

• The Roman de la Rose is a medieval French poem
  styled as an allegorical dream vision. It is a
  notable instance of courtly literature. The
  works stated purpose is to both entertain and to
  teach others about the Art of Love. At various
  times in the poem, the "Rose" of the title is
  seen as the name of the lady, and as a symbol of
  female sexuality in general. Likewise, the other
  characters' names function both as regular names
  and as abstractions illustrating the various
  factors that are involved in a love affair.
• The poem was written in two stages. The first
  4058 lines, written by Guillaume de Lorris circa
  1230, describe the attempts of a courtier to woo
  his beloved. Around 1275, Jean de Meun composed
  an additional 17,724 lines. Jeans discussion of
  love is considered more philosophical and
  encyclopedic, but also more misogynistic.

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THEMES MATTER

• Medieval romances were usually concerned with
  characters (types) and events of the courtly
  world.
• Their subject matter was love, adventures,
  supernatural events. In addition, Christian
  motifs like the quest of the Holy Grail are
  strictly related to supernatural events,
  apocryphal writings and legends of a far-flung
  past.
• MATTER OF ROME Aeneas, Caesar
• MATTER OF FRANCE Charlemagne
• MATTER OF BRITAIN King Arthur the Knights of
  the Round Table
• MATTER OF ENGLAND King Horn, Havelok the Dane.
  

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1375. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight  
London, British Library, MS Cotton Nero A.x , ff.
91r-124v

• expansion of an Arthurian episode (mythologema)
• 2530 lines mixture of Germanic, Celtic and French
  influences gathered together by the use of the
  supernatural.
• northern dialect, unknown author
• use of a sui generis alliterative verse as the
  Old English alliterative measure

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The Ballad

• Originally anonymous poems meant to be sung and
  danced, transmitted orally with variants
• Organised in several stanzas, generally arranged
  in quatrains (four line stanzas)
• Its meter is consists of alternating iambic lines
  of four accents (first and third) and three
  accents (second and fourth).
• Stanzas usually rhyme abab
• Since they were sung, refrain, inversion and
  repetition are frequently employed
• it includes standard formulas
• The story id often told in a question-answer way

IAMB a foot comprising an unstressed syllable
followed by a stressed syllable (as in a-bove).

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THEMES

• The story is simple and direct,
• concentrates on a single incident
• There is generally little/no background to the
  facts narrated and little use of detail
• Ballads can be classified by the following
  themes
• BALLADS OF MAGIC
• Fairies, ghosts, witchcraft. Great imaginative
  power
• BORDER BALLADS
• Rivalry between England and Scotland
• BALLADS OF LOVE AND DOMESTIC TRAGEDY
• BALLADS OF OUTLAWS
• The Robin Hood Cycle in Piers Plowman by
  W.Langland (1377)