England in the Middle Ages England in the Middle Ages England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the medieval period, from the end of the 5th century through to the start of the Early Modern period in 1485. When England emerged from the collapse of the Roman Empire, the economy was in tatters and many of the towns abandoned. After several centuries of Germanic immigration, new identities and cultures began to emerge, developing into kingdoms that competed for power. A rich artistic culture flourished under the Anglo-Saxons, producing epic poems such as "Beowulf" and sophisticated metalwork. The Anglo-Saxons converted to Christianity
Crisis of the Late Middle Ages Referred to in Italian as the "Crisis of the 14th Century", Giovanni Cherubini alluded to the debate that already by 1974 had been going on "for several decades" in French, British, American, and German historiography. Arno Borst (1992) says that it "is a given that fourteenth century Latin Christianity was in a crisis", and goes on to say that the intellectual aspects and how universities were affected by the crisis is underrepresented in the scholarship hitherto: "When we discuss the crisis of the Late Middle Ages, we consider intellectual movements beside religious, social, and economic ones", and gives some examples.