The High Middle Ages
Development of government
institutions
primogeniture
•
• lineage
• royal domain
• William, Duke of
Normandy
• 1066 Norman Conquest
• Why does Burger
characterize the period
following 1000 as one of
greater rigidity? What were
the consequences of this
change for various groups
of people (e.g.,
corporations, serfs)?
• What are some of the
means by which monarchs
created larger states out of
smaller ones?
Angevins
•
•
•
•
King Henry II
Angevin empire
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Thomas Becket
English, French monarchy and
Institutions
• Common Law
• Parliament (House of
Lords, House of
Commons)
• Magna Carta
• Justice of the Peace
• How did the bureaucratic
court system evolve in the
medieval state? How did
this process serve to
crystallize rights?
• Parlement of Paris
• Philip the Fair (Philip IV
of France)
• Baillis
• Estates General
• Compare the development
of institutions in England
with those in France. What
challenges did kings of
each face from their
respective nobles?
The Empire
• Frederick II
• Electors
• Why was Germany an
exception to the pattern
of state-building?
• What was the pattern
that emerged in Italy,
particularly northern
Italy?
The Papacy and the church
•
•
•
•
•
Vicar
pluralism
Pope Innocent III
Fourth Crusade
Pope Benedict VIII; Unam
Sanctam
• Canon law
• What were some of the sources
of conflict between church and
secular authorities?
• How did church and secular
courts eventually create a
division of labor for their
respective areas of jurisdiction?
• What was the outcome of the
dispute between Philip the Fair
and Boniface VIII? What
changes in circumstances
account for the difference
between the outcome of this
dispute and that of the dispute
between Henry IV and Gregory
VII?
Question to Ponder
Burger stresses the "ad hoc" nature of the process
by which many of the institutions that shape the
western world today came about during the
medieval period. What are the implications of this
process for us as students of history? What kinds
of conclusions should we be careful to avoid as we
think about the high Middle Ages?
Magna Carta
• Consider Magna Carta as reflecting a list of grievances.
– What had been some of the compaints against King John?
– What kinds of issues do these complaints concern--justice, land tenure, taxes?
– What light does Magna Carta shed on the tensions produced by the rise of central
administration and government?
• What basis might there be for considering Magna Carta as a "feudal
document"?
– Does it concern issues arising from land tenutre?
– Who forced the king to issue it?
– Who is to represent the kingdom in dealing with the king?
• Magna Carta has often been seen as laying down fundamental constitutional
principles.
– Is this conclusion correct, in your opinion? Why might some people draw it?
– Is this a perception based on twelfth-century concerns? Why or why not?
– To what extent could Magna Carta serve to illuminate the origin of constitutional
(i.e., limited) government?
Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council
• To what extent do these canons reflect a definition of society as
"Christendom"? Do they take or reflect steps to make Western society
more vigorously or thoroughly Christian?
– What do the canons have to say about Jews? Muslims? Heretics?
– Do the canons seek to expand Christianity, either by converting nonChristians or by expanding Christian territory? How is "Christendom"
conceived?
– To what extent do the canons reflect the Gregorian reform, by seeking to
highlight distinctions between clergy and laity?
• How did Innocent and those around him view relations between
church and secular authority? Are they separate and supreme in their
own spheres? Is one inferior or superior to the other?
• Some historians have argued that the High Middle Ages saw an
increasing belief in the goodness of the physical world. Does canon 1
provide evidence bearing on this issue?