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The Middle Ages

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Title: The Middle Ages


1
The Middle Ages
  • 1066-1485

2
Main Ideas
  • What terms come to thought?
  • What ideas?
  • Where was the Middle Ages? Any one specific
    location?
  • Who led the Middle Ages? Any one specific group?

3
Map of Medieval Europe
4
The Middle Ages The Myth
  • We think of knights in shining armor, lavish
    banquets, wandering minstrels, kings, queens,
    bishops, monks, pilgrims, and glorious pageantry.
  • In film and in literature, medieval life seems
    heroic, entertaining, and romantic.

5
The Middle Ages The Reality
  • In reality, life in the Middle Ages, a period
    that extended from approximately the 5th century
    to the 15th century in Western Europe, could also
    be harsh, uncertain, and dangerous.

6
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.

7
Some Important Historical Events1066 Norman
Conquest KNOW THIS DATE
  • 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 Chaucerclose enough to
    modern English that we can recognize it.
  • 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.

8
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9
Some Important Historical EventsDomesday 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 Englands 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)

10
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.

11
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

12
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 else-
    doctors, lawyers, clerks, yeomen, etc).

13
Knighthood
  • The primary duty of males above the serf class
    was military service. Boys were trained at an
    early age to become warriors.
  • After training was complete, the boy was dubbed
    or ceremonially tapped on the shoulder. He was
    then a knight, had the title or sir, and had full
    rights of the warrior caste.

14
Knighthood
  • Knighthood was grounded in the feudal ideal of
    loyalty. Knights had a system of social codes
    that they were not permitted to break.

15
Women in the Middle Ages
  • Women had no political rights because they were
    not soldiers in a primarily military system.
  • Women were always subservient to men.
  • A womans husband or fathers position in the
    feudal system determined her position.

16
Chivalry
  • Chivalry was a system of ideals and social codes
    governing the behaviors of knights and
    gentlewomen.
  • Chivalry codes included oaths of loyalty to the
    overlord, observing certain rules of warfare and
    courtly love.
  • Courtly love was nonsexual.
  • Chivalry brought about an idealized attitude
    about women, but did not improve their actual
    position in life.
  • Chivalry gave rise to a new form of literature-
    romance.

17
The Effect of Cities and Towns
  • Eventually, the increasing population in cities
    and towns made the feudal system close to
    obsolete.
  • The city classes were lower, middle and
    upper-middle.

18
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.

19
Some Important Historical EventsCRUSADES
  • 8 crusades in total over 200 yearsthe last 7
    failed horribly due to disease, cold, hunger, and
    battles.
  • Another negative effect from the point of view of
    the Christian Western Europeans galvanized
    Muslims and gave them a stronger
    foothold/following in the Middle East the
    opposite of their goal.
  • 1095
  • Pope Urban II called for a holy war against the
    Muslim Turks who controlled what he saw as the
    Christian Holy Land of Palestine.
  • Pope said if you died fighting in a crusade, you
    would go to heaven.

20
Some Important Historical EventsCRUSADES,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).

21
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.
  • Beckets 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.

22
The Magna Carta
  • The Magna Carta was signed by King John in 1215.
  • The Magna Carta was a document that limited the
    Churchs power.

23
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.

24
Commercial Networks
25
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.

26
Plague/Black Death
  • Took out 54 million
  • 1/3 of population wiped out
  • Defining event(s) of the Middle Ages
  • Spread by fleas which lived on rats
  • A lack of cleanliness added to their
    vulnerability crowded with poor sanitation ate
    stale or diseased meat primitive medicine
    (people were often advised to not bathe b/c open
    skin pores might let in the disease).
  • Highly contagious disease nodules would burst
    around the area of the flea bite.

In 1347, Italian merchant ships returned from the
Black Sea, one of the links along the trade route
between Europe and China. Many of the sailors
were already dying of the plague, and within days
the disease had spread from the port cities to
the surrounding countryside. The disease spread
as far as England within a year.
27
Some Important Cultural Changes
  • Flowering of Poetry about Courtly Love
  • 2. Peasant Uprisings and Plague (1/3 of
    population at one point)

28
Some Important Cultural ChangesFlowering of
Poetry About Courtly Love
  • For nobles only
  • Troubadours (professional singers) sang of
    courtliness, brave deeds, and Romantic love
    accompanied by a harp or lute.
  • Courtly love poetry praised an idealized,
    distant, unattainable lady love (e.g. Beatrice in
    Dantes Divine Comedy)
  • Artificial passion with strict rules.
  • For instance, a loved one could be married to
    someone else.
  • Developed in literature stories of unrequited
    love and heroic knights.
  • E.g., Arthurian legends in France best is
    Lancelot by Chretien de Troyes about the court of
    King Arthur, a Celtic chieftain of 6th century
    Britain who fought the Anglo-Saxon invaders.

29
Flowering of Poetry About Courtly Love, cont.
  • As often seen in lit/art Told in manner of late
    Middle Ages with forbidden love, knightly
    combats, and colorful pageantry.
  • Hearty, masculine culture of early Middle Ages
    was giving way to a more tranquil, confident, and
    leisurely society.
  • Over time, a nobles castle became more of a
    theater for refined pleasures than a barracks for
    fighting men.

30
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
    opportunities.
  • 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.

31
Common Elements between the Rich and the Poor in
the Middle Ages
  • Subservience to Gods church
  • Church played a big rolebirth, baptism
  • Church owned a third of all the land in Europe
  • Church played a big role in politics.
  • Belief that great cathedrals should be erected
  • Belief in God, heaven, and hell
  • All actions had consequences (good life led to a
    good experience in heaven).

32
Romanesque Architectureprevalent during
9th-12th century
  • Rounded Arches
  • Barrel Vaults
  • Thick walls
  • Darker, simplistic interiors
  • Small windows usually at the top of the wall
  • Circular Rose Window usually on the West Side

33
Rose Window
  • The basic round rose window was developed as part
    of the Romanesque period but developed further
    and was used in Gothic Architecture.
  • Notice the Romanesque style top left versus the
    Gothic style bottom left (from the cathedral of
    Notre Dame). Intricate stone tracery is used in
    the Gothic style.

34
Gothic Architectureprevalent in W. Europe from
12th 15th Cen. C.E.
  • Everything reaches to heaven, to God
  • Features
  • Pointed arches
  • High, narrow vaults
  • Thinner walls
  • Flying buttresses
  • Elaborate, ornate, airier interiors
  • Stained-glass windows
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