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High and Late Middle Ages

Chapter 8

Dan Priest

on 17 February 2016

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Transcript of High and Late Middle Ages

High & Late
Middle Ages

Chapter 8
Most importantly:
Gave rights to regular townspeople and church members that they may not be arrested and imprisoned, and sentenced without the “legal judgment of peers (jury)”
Due Process of Law
– right to be tried in court
Stated that no man may be placed in jail without being charged with a specific crime
Habeas Corpus
Magna Carta
John didn’t have a lot going for him:
Ever since King William the Conqueror (and his French ancestry), England owned a lot of French territory
John lost a war to King Phillip II of France and most of the French Territory was taken
Henry II
Over time, English kings did much to regulate their kingdom:
Common Law
– all regions under his domain held the same laws
The Domesday Book
– collected information on all the citizens of the kingdom
Royalty Reform
They tried to kill each other.
William vs. Harold
The Anglo-Saxons conquered the old Roman colony of Britain:
This became known as England
The country was constantly under Viking attack, but they learned to unify and fight away their enemies
Their king was Edward
High Middle Ages: 1000 – 1300 A.D.
Power began to shift from churches to monarchs

Monarchs took various measures to gain power:
Expanded their domains and set up their own systems of justice that overrode the Church’s
Organized government bureaucracies
Developed tax systems
Built larger armies
The High Middle Ages
U.S. Congress
The Magna Carta gave noblemen great power over the King as a council of lawmakers.

This council of lawmakers formed England’s earliest
Responsible for writing legislature (laws) for England
Eventually split into two separate Houses
House of Lords – clergy, noblemen
House of Commons – knights, middle-class
John ticked off his noblemen in the kingdom by slapping them with heavy taxes
The noblemen (also called barons) forced King John to sign the
Magna Carta
"Great Charter"
Gave barons certain legal rights
Forced John (and all future kings) to follow the law
Magna Carta
John went into war with the Pope at the time:
Pope Innocent III wanted a specific man to be appointed the archbishop of Canterbury, but John opposed the man’s nomination
The pope excommunicated King John and threatened to
the entire kingdom of England
A papal order which forbids a kingdom to conduct church services
King John the Stupid
A later king, Henry II, created a jury system to help rule in court decisions.

He attempted to take reign over the clergymen of the church by claiming he had the right to try church officials.

Archbishop Thomas Becket:
Openly opposed the authority of the King
Henry: “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?”
Four hot-headed knights murdered Becket in his Cathedral
Two Kings
William raised an army and got the Pope on his side
He sailed across the sea (the English Channel) to England
Battle of Hastings: William and his Norman knights obliterated Harold
He became known as King William the Conqueror on Christmas Day 1066
William vs. Harold
In 1066, King Edward died:
He had no heir
His council-members chose his brother-in-law, Harold, to succeed him
However, William, Duke of Normandy (France), claimed that Edward had promised him the throne
William was a relative of Edward’s
Fight to the Death
During the early Middle Ages, four Germanic cultures invaded Europe:
Franks (Charlemagne)
Remember These?
At the beginning of the Middle Ages in Europe, monarchs had very limited power:
The Clergy of the Church had just as much power, sometimes more
The Church established its own laws, built its own armies, and created its own justice system
Most people viewed the Church as superior to the kings and noblemen of the region
The High Middle Ages
How did changing economic and social conditions, wars, and the growing power of monarchs begin to build the framework for the modern nation-state?
Saxons – and a subgroup, Angles – became the Anglo-Saxons.

William and Harold talked peacefully about the arrangements and both agreed that William should take the throne.
The nickname ‘Domesday’ may refer to the Biblical Day of Judgement, or ‘doomsday’, when Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. Just as there will be no appeal on that day against his decisions, so Domesday Book had the final word – there was to be no appeal beyond it as evidence of legal title to land.
Pope Innocent III was a very strict Pope:
King John of England – threatened to interdict all of England because John appointed a man as archbishop of Canterbury without his permission
King Phillip II of France – excommunicated him and threatened to interdict France because Phillip wanted to unlawfully end his marriage
Innocent starts a war – with the help of France, Innocent launched a
(holy war) against the people of southern France because they rejected the Catholic beliefs and rituals
Church Power Reaches Its Limit
This struggle over who should appoint Church leaders dragged on for 50 years.

Eventually, both sides created a treaty called The Concordat of Worms:
The Church was given sole power to elect bishops, and the monarch was able to give them fiefs
Compromising with Worms
The German kings struggled to take control of their country:
The kings tried to claim ownership over a vast territory
The real rulers of these lands were the king’s vassals, and they would not give up their authority
The kings tried to tell the Church who they wanted to be appointed positions in the Church
The Pope did not want secular rulers deciding who should run the Church
Problems Arise
Otto was much like Charlemagne:
He attempted to reunify old Rome by working closely with the Church
He swept through Italy with his army to remove opponents of the Pope
The Pope was grateful, and crowned him the “Holy Roman Emperor”:
Holy – because he was appointed by the Pope
Roman – because he was meant to be the next Roman Emperor as in ancient Rome
Otto the Emperor
After Innocent’s death, the power of the papacy declined.

This was because:
French and English monarchies grew stronger
Phillip IV of France challenged the current Pope (Boniface VIII) on taxing the clergymen of the Church
Later, Phillip was able to engineer an election that made the next Pope a Frenchman
Unlike France and England, nobles had much more authority over their land, which limited the German kings’ power
Germany would not become a nation for another 600 years

Many wars were fought over ownership of the German and Italian territories:
Popes would overthrow kings
France and Spain would war over the land
Italy, and much of Germany was once a thriving center of culture during the Roman rule:
Now it was left in ruins
The Creation of Germany
Later, King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella of Spain set up a court system called the
This court tried all people who would not convert to Christianity
If they didn’t convert, they were usually tied to a wooden stake and burned to death
Because of this 150,000 people fled Spain:
Most of them were the more educated people of the country
This is to say: Jews
Meanwhile in Spain
During this time, Muslims occupied parts of North Africa and Spain.

Small Christian cities began to grow and soon were able to conquer the Muslim territories:
– Re-conquest over the Muslims

Christians now controlled Spain and established the country of Portugal.
Meanwhile in Spain
1096 – thousands of knights were on their way to the Holy Land:
The Christians were pumped for going to war against the Muslims
Armies, priests, and ordinary men and women went along in the First Crusade to fight
Few returned
The Pope’s motives:
To keep Christians from fighting one another
To heal the split between the East and West
“God Wills It!”
Wider World View
The Crusaders began interacting with other groups of people they never knew existed
European Explorers began traveling East towards India and China to learn about different cultures
Marco Polo – set out for China and made new discoveries (many which Europeans thought he made up)
Government run mail service
Black stones (coal) being used to heat homes

This brings us close to the time period when explorers searched for new routes across the oceans.
The Impact of the Crusades
Economies became stronger:
Europe and the Byzantines began trading more with each other
Trade routes opened to the Middle East
Boats that would carry Crusaders to war were now used as trading vessels
Money became more important than ever because the nobles had to finance their journey to the Holy Land
The Impact of the Crusades
First Crusade
The only Crusade where Christians came close to achieving their goals
Christians captured Jerusalem in 1099
They massacred the Muslims and Jews that took the city from the Byzantines
The Four Crusades
“From Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople comes a grievous report. An accursed race has violently invaded the lands of those Christians and has depopulated them by pillage and fire.”

“Both knights and footmen, both rich and poor, must strive to help expel [the Turks] from our Christian lands before it is too late. Christ commands it. Remission of sins will be granted for those going thither.”
Byzantine Emperor – Alexius I
Asked Pope Urban II for help against the Muslim Turks
This was an “Eastern” ruler asking a “Western” church leader for help
The Byzantine Empire and West Europe were longtime rivals. Why?

Pope Urban accepted the request and called his bishops and nobles to war.
Cause for Crusade
Monarchs became stronger:
Kings were able to place higher taxes as a way to pay for the Crusades – and the people didn’t mind it because they supported the war
Kings gained great reputation if they fought in the Crusades – King Richard the Lionheart
Byzantines and Europe:
Their split worsened after the Fourth Crusade
Western Crusaders had captured Constantinople and robbed much of its treasures
The Impact of the Crusades
Fourth Crusade
Europeans began having “crusades” against one another
Crusaders from the west captured the city of Constantinople
While the Christians fought amongst themselves, the Muslims overran Crusader territory in the Middle East
The last Crusader city in the Middle East: Acre
Muslims captured it and massacred thousands of Christians within
The Four Crusades
High Middle Ages (1000-1300)
Islam had grown into a massive empire that stretched from Spain to India
India was thriving with wealth and huge temples and palaces
East Asia – Tang and Song dynasties
West Africa – the great trading empire of Ghana was formed
Central America – Maya had leveled the rain forests and built cities with huge temples
Byzantine Empire – Went from wealthy Christian empire to Islam. The Turks now controlled all of Asia Minor (Turkey) as well as the Holy Land.
State of the World
The Original Report
The Four Crusades
Second Crusade
Smaller than the first
The Muslims would battle back and forth with Christians to reacquire Jerusalem
In 1187 Jerusalem fell to a Muslim leader, Saladin
The Four Crusades
Third Crusade
Europeans tried to retake Jerusalem
They failed
Christian leaders negotiated with Emperor Saladin to allow Christian pilgrims to enter Jerusalem for religious ceremonies
Saladin allowed these pilgrimages
The Children's Crusade
The Children's Crusade is a mysterious event that took place around 1212, when, according to scattered comments in chronicles, thousands of children undertook to free the Holy Land. Actually, according to the reports, there were two separate crusades each led by a shepherd boy, Stephen in France and Nicholas in Germany, who, independent of each other, marched to points in Italy where the movements dissipated.

The readings suggest the children had believed that the reason for the other Crusades' failures were due to the sins of the adults involved. They thought that their innocence would allow them to regain the Holy Land.
Children originally numbering 20,000 were led by Nicholas to various locations in Italy with the hope of continuing to the Holy Land. By the time they arrived their number had been greatly diminished by hunger, exposure (they had crossed the Alps), kidnapping, and murder. In Italy their hopes never materialized and, although it would appear that some reached the Holy Land, they were likely taken into slavery and prostitution.
Stephen led a group of 30,000 children which arrived at Marseille. According to an account by Aubrey of Trois Fontaines they were provided with seven ships to transport them to the Holy Lands. Two of the ships were lost in a storm off the Island of Peter, where some of the bodies of the children were washed up. The other children, arrived in Egypt, where instead of fighting for the cross were sold as slaves.
Between 1337 and 1453, England and France engaged in a series of conflicts, known as the Hundred Years’ War.

English rulers wanted to hold onto their lands in present-day Northern France.

When Edward III of England, whose mother had been a French princess, claimed the French crown in 1337, war erupted between these rival powers.
The Hundred Years’ War
John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, attacked corruption in the Church:
The Bible, not the Church, was the source of Christian truth
His followers began to translate the Bible into English so that people could read it themselves rather than rely on clergy to interpret it
People were tried and burned at the stake for preaching heresy:
Wycliffe was declared a heretic posthumously, so his dead body was burned instead
New "Heresies"
In 1309, Pope Clement V had moved the papal court to Avignon; it remained there for 70 years under French domination
In 1378, reformers elected their own pope to rule from Rome
This led to a
, or split, in the church
During a schism, two or three popes claimed to be the true pope
“Why did God spare some and kill others?”
The war created a growing sense of national feeling in France and allowed French kings to expand their power.

Power in the English government began to swing towards Parliament.

Castles and armored knights were doomed to disappear because their defenses could not stand up to the more deadly firepower of the longbow and cannon.
Impact of the Hundred Years' War
With a powerful new weapon, the cannon, The French attacked English-held castles
By 1453, the English held only the port of Calais in northwestern France
Joan of Arc: Martyr
In 1429, a 17-year old peasant woman, Joan of Arc, appeared at the Court of Charles VII and told him that God had sent her to save France.

Joan inspired the battered French troops to fight anew.

After Joan was killed by the English, it rallied the French troops who took the offensive in the war.
Joan of Arc
When workers and employers died, production declined
Survivors demanded higher wages
Inflation (rising prices) broke out
People were forced off their land
Revolts erupted in England, France, Germany
The Economy Suffers
When it spread to Europe, more than 50 million people died; often deaths occurred within 24 hours
People had no way to stop the disease; terror set in
: outbreak of rapid spreading disease
Some saw the plague as God’s punishment
Some Christians blamed Jews for the plague, as a result thousands were slaughtered
People left cities to avoid contracting the disease
Normal Life Breaks Down
Bubonic Plague
: a disease spread by fleas carried by rats
In a pre-modern world, rats infested ships, towns, and even homes
In the early 1300s rats spread the plague in crowded Chinese cities which killed about 35 million people.
The Plague Spreads to Asia
England and France fought for control of the English Channel:
Both wanted to control trade in the region
Hundred Years’ War
In 1417, a church council at Constance, Germany voted to remove authority from all three popes and elected a compromising candidate.

Pope Martin V returned the papacy to Rome.
The Church Splits
In the autumn of 1347, a fleet of trading ships landed in Sicily and the townspeople began to die.

By 1348, it had reached Spain and France.

~50% of Europe's population died within 40 years.
Black Death: A Global Epidemic
And, for a time, it looked like England would bring all of France under its control:
Much success was due to the new
wielded by English archers
ethnic groups
settled in Eastern Europe. An ethnic group is a large group of people that share a common language or culture.

The West Slavs migrated from Russia into present day Poland, the Czech Republic, and the Slovakian Republic.

The South Slavs occupied the Balkans and became the ancestors of the Serbs, Slovenes, and Croats.
Migration in the Nation
The Serbs established a Balkan kingdom:
It reached its height in the 1300s under Stefan Dusan, who modeled his rule on Justinian and the Byzantines
Defeated by the incoming Turks in 1389
The Final Kingdom
In 1386 Queen Jadwiga of Poland and Duke Wladyslaw Jagiello of Lithuania married and created Poland-Lithuania, the largest state in Europe:
Nobles met in a diet, or assembly, where a single noble could block a law. The lack of a strong central government Poland-Lithuania declined and disappeared.

The Magyars ruled Hungary and the surrounding lands.
Hungarian nobles forced their king to sign the Golden Bull of 1222. This limited the power of the king and granted rights to nobles.
Mongols overran Hungary in 1241 and massacred half the population.
Three Early Kingdoms
Byzantine missionaries brought Orthodox Christianity to the Balkans. German knights and missionaries contributed Roman Catholicism to Poland.

In the 1300s, the Ottoman Turks invaded the area and introduced Islam.

Jews who fled Western Europe due to persecution* fled to Eastern Europe, mainly Poland.
Religion (In Brief)
Just Around the Riverbend
Eastern Europe lies between German-speaking Central Europe in the west and Slavic Russia to the east.

The Balkan Peninsula, also known as the Balkans, lies in this region.
Eastern Europe
Jews were frequently oppressed during this time:
Their settlement in Cracow, Poland—sanctioned by the prince—was a place of safety for hundreds of years to come.
Jewish Migration and Expulsion
The Danube and Vistula are the two main rivers of the region. Goods and people were spread by these bodies of water. The Balkans in the south were influenced by the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Turks.
Blue Danube
Remember the Black Plague and the Crusades? Yeah, that.
Saxony (a state of Charlemagne’s old empire) extended their power over Germany.
Duke Otto I of Saxony: First King of Germany
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