CHAPTER TIMELINE
--1300
AP EUROPEAN HISTORY – University High School
MCKAY – CHAPTER 12 STUDY GUIDE
“The Crisis of the Later Middle Ages” (ce 1300-1460)
CHAPTER SUMMARY
--1340
--1380
The fourteenth century was a time of disease, war, crime, violence, and ethnicracial conflicts. The art and literature of the period are full of the portrayal of death,
just as the historical accounts are full of tales of conflict and violence. There were
several major causes for this century of human suffering. Natural disaster—
including changes in climate and horrible new diseases—attacked Europe. A long
series of wars between France and England not only brought death and economic
ruin but increased personal violence and crime as well. In addition, a serious
shortage of labor, created by the bubonic plague, resulted in intense social conflict
among landlords. Economic crisis during the century also resulted in a bitter
struggle between urban workers and their guild masters.
Amid such violence the church lost power and prestige, partly because of the
religious disillusionment that accompanied the plague. In short, the institutional
church failed to fill the spiritual vacuum left by the series of disasters. A more
immediate reason for the decline of the church’s influence and prestige was the
Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism. The call for reform, often in the form
of the conciliar movement, by people such as Marsiglio of Padua and John Wyclif,
was a signal of things to come in the sixteenth century. The disillusionment with
the organized church also led to greater lay independence and, ultimately, ideas of
social and political equality. The wars actually fostered the development of
constitutionalism in England.
But the century of disaster was also a century of change, some of it for the good of
ordinary people. It is in this light that the chapter examines some important
changes in marriage practices, family relations, and the life of the people. The
decline in population meant that those who survived had better food and higher
wages. Peasants in western Europe used the labor-shortage problem to demand
higher wages and freedom from serfdom. Meanwhile, landlords tried to shift the
cost of war and the increase in expenses to their peasants. These circumstances
often resulted in conflict with their lords.
--1420
The migrations of peoples from European heartland to the frontier regions of
Ireland, the Baltic, eastern Europe, and Spain led to ethnic frictions between
native peoples and new settlers. Economic difficulties led to ethnic consciousness
and spawned a vicious racism.
--1460
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SECTION 1 – PRELUDE TO DISASTER
1. What were the causes and consequences of the population decline that began in the early fourteenth
century?
Important terms:
Little Ice Age
Great Famine
SECTION 2 – THE BLACK DEATH
1. What was the source of the bubonic plague and why did it spread so rapidly in Europe?
2. What impact did the plague have on wages and the demand for labor? What happened to land values?
3. Describe the psychological effects of the plague. How did people explain this disaster?
Important terms:
Yersinia pestis
Giovanni Boccaccio
English Statute of Laborers
Flagellants
SECTION 3 – THE HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR (1337-1453)
1. What were the immediate and other causes of the Hundred Years’ War?
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2. Why did the people support their kings in war?
3. What were the results of the Hundred Years’ War? Who were the winners and losers within both
countries?
Important terms:
Queen Isabella
Edward III
Philip VI
Chivalry
Edward the Black Prince
Battle of Crecy
Agincourt
Joan of Arc
Communes
SECTION 4 – CHALLENGES TO THE CHURCH
1. How did the Babylonian Captivity weaken the power and prestige of the church? Why were there three
popes in 1409?
2. What was the conciliar movement and who were its advocates? Was this a revolutionary idea?
Explain.
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3. Why was Wyclif a threat to the institutional church?
Important terms:
The Great Schism
Conciliarists
Marsiglio of Padua
Confraternities
INDIVIDUALS IN SOCIETY – JAN HUS
1. Since Jan Hus lived and died insisting that his religious teaching was thoroughly orthodox, why has he
been hailed as a reformer?
2. What political and cultural interests did the martyred Hus serve?
SECTION 5 – ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CHANGE
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1. Did peasants’ lives improve or deteriorate in the 14 and 15 centuries? In what ways?
th
2. Why did a great amount of conflict and frustration among guild members develop in the 14 century?
3. What was fur-collar crime and why did it occur?
4. What were the reasons for the French of 1358 and the English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381?
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5. Describe and explain the increase in ethnic-racial tensions in the frontier areas of Europe in the late
Middle Ages.
Important terms:
Robin Hood
Jacquerie
vernacular
Dalimil Chronicle
Statute of Kilkenny
Geoffrey Chaucer
Dante Alighieri
Christine de Pisan
LISTENING TO THE PAST – CHRISTINE DE PISAN
1. How did Christine think courtly women should behave around men?
2. How did women fit into the larger picture of court culture? What was their role at court?
GEOGRAPHY
1. Using Map 12.1 in your text, explain the timing and the spread of the Black Death. Where did it begin,
how far did it spread, and why do you believe some areas were spared its destruction?
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UNDERSTANDING HISTORY THROUGH THE ARTS
1. Study the reproduction of the painting Procession of Saint Gregory. How did people respond to this
mysterious disease? Look carefully at the figures in this painting. Who is represented in this
procession? What role did the church play in fighting the plague?
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. The conciliar movement was
a) An effort to give the pope the power to use councils to wipe out heresy.
b) The effort by the French lords to establish parliament.
c) A new monastic order vowing poverty.
d) An attempt to place ultimate authority in a general council.
2. The plague was probably brought into Europe by
a) Chinese soldiers
b) Spanish warriors returning from South America.
c) English soldiers pushing into France.
d) Genoese ships from the Crimea.
3. Generally, the major new source of criminals after the Hundred Years War was
a) The urban mobs.
b) The rural peasants.
c) The nobility.
d) The bourgeoisie.
4. One reason for peasant-landlord conflict in the fourteenth century was
a) Peasants’ opposition to declining wages and inflation.
b) Landlords’ attempts to legislate wages.
c) Land scarcity.
d) Peasants’ refusal to be drafted for war service.
5. Which of the following statements about marriage during the Middle Ages is true?
a) Most marriages were based on romantic love.
b) Most marriages were arranged.
c) Divorce was common.
d) Marriage without the church’s sanction was unheard of.
6. Which of the following was a writer of vernacular literature?
a) Dante
b) Jacques de Vitry
c) Clement VII
d) Marsiglio of Padua
7. Prostitution in late medieval society
a) Did not exist.
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b) Existed only among the lower classes.
c) Was not respected but was legalized.
d) Existed in the countryside but not the city.
8. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is important because
a) It depicts the impact of the plague on Italian life.
b) It reflects the cultural tensions of the times.
c) It illustrates the highly religious interests of most people.
d) It shows how people were obsessed with the next world.
9. In the fourteenth century craft guilds began to change in that
a) Master and journeyman distinctions began to disappear.
b) The guilds lost control over the production process.
c) Apprenticeship was abandoned.
d) Membership became more restrictive and master-journeyman relations deteriorated.
10. The effect of the Hundred Years’ War on England was that it
a) Brought great wealth in the form of cash reserves to England.
b) Caused a great increase in wool exports.
c) Allowed many English knights to become very rich.
d) Resulted in a great net loss in cash.
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