History 305 – The High and Later Middle Ages
Professor William A. Percy, III
Class Meeting Times:
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Spring 2007
Tuesday and Thursday, 5:30-6:45PM
Wheatley, 1st Floor, Room 009
Tuesday and Thursday, 3:55-5:25PM, or by appointment
McCormack, 4th Floor, Room 634
617-287-6879
617-262-2101 (7:00AM-1:00PM MWF; emergency only)
williamapercy@comcast.net / <www.faculty.umb.edu/william_percy>
This course depicts the amazing turnabout of the year 1000 when the superstitious, impoverished, and
misgoverned Roman Catholics of the depopulated British Isles, France, Germany, northern Italy, and northern
Spain began an amazing ascent that lasted for 300 years.
The three-field system doubled the arable land, the horse collar increased traction sevenfold, and the
moldboard plough utilized better the deep rich northern soils and saved seeds from drowning. The Vikings
converted, opening the North and Baltic Seas to Christians, who simultaneously drove the Muslims from the
Mediterranean. The upsurge in agriculture and commerce supported the rebirth of cities and guilds. The
population doubled. Cathedral schools and Romanesque Architecture flourished until about 1150 when
universities arose along with Gothic cathedrals. Scholastics recovered Greek logic and Arabic science from
Latin translations. While the papacy reached its apex in part by undermining the Holy Roman Empire of the
German Nation, kings in the West suppressed robber barons and with the help of parliaments and judges
improved laws.
Catastrophes (famine, plagues, and wars) followed between 1300 and 1450. The Black Death and the
Hundred Years War killed one third of the population. Then in about 1450 a dramatic recovery set in until
Europeans after 1500 began to dominate the world. The Italians led the way in culture, the English in liberty,
the French in population, and the Spaniards in wealth.
The Renaissance, the Great Explorations, the Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution followed, the
groundwork for all of which was laid before 1500. Breakthroughs in technology and government enabled the
Westerners to seize control of world trade during the 16th Century. Admittedly Westerners did then brutally
oppress Indians, enslave Africans, and exploit Asians. But only in the West did subjects secure liberties and
property rights and elect representatives, privileges won in spite of the Inquisition, papal tyranny, and clerical
censorship during the later Middle Age.
Method
The lectures, general syntheses or explanations of particular points of view, will normally be followed
by discussion periods. Students are encouraged to ask questions and make comments. It is most helpful if
they complete the reading assignment before the lecture. In addition, students should seek to enhance their
command of geography and chronology by memorizing the three or four crucial places and dates for each
topic. For the former purpose a paperback atlas will be helpful. Also read as many of the documents that
pertain to each lecture as possible.
Grading
The grades will consist primarily of an average of the hour exams (25% each) and the comprehensive
3-hour final (50%). The essay part of these exams will be graded on organization and style as well as
historical theory and command of facts. Students will find it advantageous to read Strunk and White’s
Elements of Style (in 78 brief and witty pages). Helpful historical atlases are published in paperback by
Hammond, Shepherd, and Penguin. Extra credit is allowed for rewriting the essays on each of the hour
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exams in light of my comments, and further research on your part. Notable contributions to classroom
discussion will also be weighed; failure to participate in discussions, however, will not detract from a student's
grade. The rewritten papers, together with quizzes, and classroom participation may help raise the grade.
Lastly, students who attend classes regularly, pay attention to lectures and discussions, and take notes have
a better chance of doing well in this course.
About Me
I am a Southerner; an Episcopal atheist; a former Republican; a capitalist; a refugee from the Ku Klux
Klan, the Southern Baptists, and other members of the fundamentalist Protestant right; and a gay activist. I
am also the senior professor of history at UMB. I attended nine universities and have taught in nine. I have
published 5 books, 10 articles, 100 notes (short articles), and 100 book reviews. From me you will gain a
different perspective. On this overly-sensitive campus, I am diversity itself: a semi-expired white male of the
old school.
Texts
Disseminating scholarship on the printed page in the twenty-first century is analogous to publishing it
on manuscripts during the sixteenth century. The Internet is now no longer like Cunabula (books printed
before 1500)—rare commodities even then. It is in fact now rapidly displacing print on paper. Look at what
Wikipedia is doing to the Encyclopædia Britannica! Printed dictionaries and bibliographies likewise are
becoming obsolete because their online counterparts are so easy to update. Expenses, delays, and storage
problems are also forcing scholarly journals to go online. Why not monographs (which sell too few copies to
be cost-effective), syntheses, and textbooks, as well? In light of the changing publishing landscape, the
formerly required texts listed below are now optional:
Barraclough, Geoffrey. The Origins of Modern Germany (Norton).
Hallam, Elizabeth M. and Judith Everard. Capetian France: 987-1328.
Haskins, Charles Homer. The Rise of the Universities (Cornell).
Huscroft, Richard. Ruling England.
Panofsky, Erwin. Renaissance and Renascences..
SUGGESTED: Southern, R.W. The Making of the Middle Age.
Any edition of the books above is suitable for this course. They can be found, at great discount, online on Amazon,
(see used prices for each book), Ebay, and half.ebay.com. In addition, all editions (including those from 60 years
ago) of The Encyclopedia of World History, whether by William L. Langer or Peter N. Stearns, are highly
recommended.
Useful Links on the Internet
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Online Library of Liberty: <oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/index.php>
The Encyclopedia of World History by Peter N. Stearns: www.bartleby.com/67/
Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition: <encyclopedia.jrank.org>
Elements of Style: <www.bartleby.com/141/>
Contact Policy
Although I have provided my e-mail address and home telephone number, please e-mail or call me only if
you have an urgent matter to discuss with me (MWF 7AM-1PM). Understand that if you e-mail me, it may take
me several days to see your e-mail as I am computer illiterate and must rely on others to access my e-mail.
Therefore, call me in case of an emergency. There is, however, no need for you to e-mail or call me to let me
know that you will miss or have missed a class. I fully understand that events out of your control will arise from
time to time and may cause the occasional absence. So explanations are unnecessary. If you would like to find
out what you missed in class while you were absent, ask a classmate.
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Class #
1
2
Date
30 Jan
1 Feb
UMB
3
4
5 Feb
6 Feb
8 Feb
5
6
7
13 Feb
15 Feb
20 Feb
8
22 Feb
9
27 Feb
10
1 Mar
11
12
6 Mar
8 Mar
13
14
13 Mar
15 Mar
17-25 March
15
27 Mar
16
29 Mar
17
18
19
3 Apr
5 Apr
10 Apr
20
12 Apr
21
17 Apr
22
19 Apr
23
24 Apr
24
26 Apr
25
1 May
26
3 May
27
8 May
28
10 May
29
15 May
21-25 May
Lecture Topics
Readings
Introduction
The Revolutions of the Year 1000; First
Wikipedia: Feudalism
and Second Feudal Age
Add/Drop Deadline
Decline of the Carolingian Empire
Barraclough, 3-23
Ottonians and the Holy Roman Empire
Barraclough, 24-70
Salians
The Investiture Controversy
The Early Hohenstaufens & Frederick I
Barbarossa
The Hohenstaufens vs. the Popes
Barraclough, 75-110
Barraclough, 111-166
Barraclough 167-192
Barraclough 193-218
Barraclough 219-246
Frederick II: "Wonder of the World" and
The Sicilian Vespers
The Rise of Eastern Europe: Poland,
Barraclough 249-281
Hungary, Bohemia, and Russia
FIRST HOUR EXAM
The Feudal Principalities and Regions of Hallam 1-82
France
The Early Capetians (987-1108)
Hallam 83-144
The Middle Capetians (1108-1226): les
Hallam 145-262
prévosts, baillis et sénéchaux
SPRING BREAK!
1226-1270: St. Louis (IX), Parlement et
Hallam 263-350
les Enquêteurs
Philip IV, the Estates General, the
Hallam 351-427
Papacy until 1302, & the last Capetians
The Later Anglo-Saxons
Huscroft 1-53
The Norman Kings (1066-1154)
Huscroft 56-136
The Early Plantagenets (1154-1217): the Huscroft 137-208
Magna Carta, Common Law, and Juries
England: Henry III, Edward I, and
Encyclopedia
Edward II
Britannica, Wikipedia,
Pass/Fail/Withdrawal Deadline
The Encyclopedia of
World History
England: Edward III to Richard III
The Hundred Years’ War
SECOND HOUR EXAM
The First Universities and Professors
Haskins 1-59
Curriculum and Student Life
Haskins 59-104
FILM SHOWING
The Early Renascences
Panofsky
The Italian Renaissance
Panofsky
Oceanic Trade and the Reformation
Panofsky
FINALS WEEK
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