The West Struggles
and Eastern Empires Flourish
The Late Middle Ages,
ca. 1300-1500
The West Struggles
and Eastern Empires Flourish
The Big Picture
Avignon Papacy
Hundred Years’ War
Mongol Empire
Famine
1250
Great Schism
Wars of the Roses
Conquest of
Constantinople
Plague
1375
1500
2
Economic and Social Misery
Famine in Western Europe
– Agricultural at the Brink: Around 1300, the agricultural
improvements of the previous few centuries had reached their
uppermost ability to sustain the greatly expanding population.
Farmers were farming more marginal lands, yielding less crops.
Plowing common lands for crops led to the killing off of
livestock and less manure. And then the weather took a bad turn.
– Bad Weather: Around 1310, a series of cool and very rainy
summers led to failed or very poor yields. Famine began in 1315
and lasted until 1322 in some parts of Europe. Starving peasants
even resorted to cannibalism in some places. Those who didn’t
starve often succumbed from malnutrition or respiratory or
intestinal diseases.
3
Economic and Social Misery
The Black Death: A Pandemic Strikes
– The Spread: Increased maritime commerce and
the expansion of the Mongol Empire left the
Eurasian landmass susceptible to the spread of
epidemic disease, and a particularly horrible one
emerged in Europe in 1348. Genoese ships trading
between Sicily and the Middle East most likely
introduced the plague to Europe.
– What Was It? The disease was the bubonic plague, a
disease caused by a virulent bacillus that infected rats
in Manchuria, and then spread to black rats in Europe.
This disease was passed to human from the bites of
infected fleas. It could spread into the lungs, causing
sneezing and coughing, and ultimately, death. If it entered the lungs, it was
100 percent fatal.
4
Economic and Social Misery
The Black Death: A Pandemic Strikes
Description from Boccaccio’s Decameron:
I say, then, that in the year 1348 after the Son of God's fruitful incarnation, into the distinguished city of
Florence, that most beautiful of Italian cities, there entered a deadly pestilence. Whether one believes that it
came through the influence of the heavenly bodies or that God, justly angered by our iniquities, sent it for
our correction, in any case it had begun several years earlier in the east and killed an innumerable mass of
people, spreading steadily from place to place and growing as it moved west.
No human wisdom or provision was of any help. Huge amounts of filth were removed from the city by
officials charged with that task; sick people were forbidden to enter the city; advice was given on how to
stay healthy; devout persons made humble supplication to God not once but many times, in processions and
by other means; but in the spring of that year the sad effects of the plague nonetheless began to appear in an
almost miraculous manner. It was not as it had been in the east, where nosebleeds had signaled that death
was inevitable. Here the sickness began in both men and women with swelling in the groin and armpits.
The lumps varied in size, some reaching the size of an ordinary apple and others that of an egg, and the
people commonly called them gavoccioli. Having begun in these two parts of the body, the gavoccioli soon
began to appear at random all over the body. After this point the disease started to alter in nature, with black
or livid spots appearing on the arms, the thighs, everywhere. Sometimes they were large and well spaced,
other times small and numerous. These were a certain sign of impending death, but so was the swelling.
5
Economic and Social Misery
The Black Death: A Pandemic Strikes
– Devastation: The plague raced through Europe,
spreading rapidly in warm and wet summers and
slowing down in cold, dry winters. It killed roughly
one-third to one-half of the population of Europe,
somewhere between 20,000,000 and 35,000,000
dead. Paris may have last 50 percent of its
populace, while Florence could have lost 80
percent.
– Reaction: Law, customs, and traditions that held
“Dance of Death”
medieval society together disintegrated in the face
by Hans Holbein
of the plague. People did not know the disease’s cause, attributing it to
God’s wrath or bad air. Doctors often unwittingly spread the disease by
using the same leeches to bleed different patients.
6
Economic and Social Misery
The Black Death: A Pandemic Strikes
– Flagellants: A group of those who believed that
the plague was the result of God’s wrath thought
that they might gain God’s forgiveness by inflicting
pain on themselves, marching through town three
times a day, whipping their backs with leather
thongs tipped with lead, splashing their blood on the
walls of the church they passed.
– Attacking Jews: In some locales, the population
attacked Jews, accusing them of causing the plague by poisoning the wells.
This was particularly true in the German lands, since many Jews had been
pushed out of England and France and had moved eastward. Jewish
property was often confiscated by the persecutors. By 1351, more than 60
major Jewish communities had been destroyed in the German lands. Many
Jews fled to Russia and Poland, where they were better protected.
7
The Spread of the Black Death
8
Economic and Social Misery
Peasants and Townspeople Revolt
– Changed Demographics: After the plague, labor was scarce. Peasants
were less amenable to giving the lords their traditional required labor,
while free laborers charged much higher wages. Lords’ denials of the
new situation enraged peasants, sending many on violent rages across the
countryside, burning manor houses and slaughtering their occupants.
– John Ball (ca. 1338-1381): Some revolts combined a religious message
with calls for social reform. Preachers like John Ball believed that the
famine and plague presaged the return of Jesus Christ, and that a new
social order was called for: “When Adam delved and eve span, where
were all the gentleman?” In 1381, he led a revolt that did not blame the
king, but the local nobility, and had the support of some well armed men.
The rebellion did not last, and when it dispersed, Ball was hanged,
drawn, and quartered in the presence of King Richard II in July 1381.
9
Economic and Social Misery
Peasants and Townspeople Revolt
– Jacquerie: The French peasantry also revolted in an uprising
called the Jacquerie in 1358 in a region north of Paris. It was
called “Jacquerie” since the French nobility called peasants
“Jacques” in a mocking fashion. Peasants entered the manor
houses of nobles and brutally slaughtered them and their families.
– Longterm Effects of Peasant Revolts: The peasant revolts did
not last long because they could not withstand the superior
weapons of the nobles, and numerous peasants and their leaders
were massacred. But in the long run, these revolts started a
process by which serfs who owed rent and labor became peasants,
who only owed rent to the lord. This process moved more quickly
in western Europe than eastern Europe.
10
Economic and Social Misery
Peasants and Townspeople Revolt
– Urban Revolts: Economic hardship led many merchants and elite townsmen
to take away privileges of the lower orders, leading to many of the poorer
townspeople to revolt, as in the case of the Ciompi Revolt in Florence in
1378. Ciompi were wool workers who were not in guilds (named after their
wooden shoes). Their briefly successful revolt brought an unprecedented
level of democracy to Florence. It was eventually suppressed when the major
and minor guilds united against the Ciompi. Similar revolts in Ghent, Rouen,
and Douai (in Flanders) brought short-term betterment of poorer workers’
quality of life.
11
Imperial Papacy Besieged
Popes Move to Avignon
– Weakening of the Church: During the troubled era of the 1300s,
many people turned to the church for solace, but the church itself was
not immune from the era’s problems.
– Move to Avignon: French King Philip IV (r. 1285-1314) struggled with
the church over the question of taxation of church lands. Philip even
arrested elderly Pope Boniface VII (r. 1294-1303), who was quickly
freed, but died soon thereafter. When the College of Cardinals elected a
new pope, Philip used intimidation to get a pro-French cardinal elected,
and convinced the pope to rule from Avignon, a city in southern France
on the Rhone River. The new pope, Clement V (r. 1304-1314), agreed
to Philip’s proposal, and moved in 1309. For 72 years after Clement’s
election, popes ruled from Avignon—a strange place to be for the
bishop of Rome—under the thumb of the French king.
12
Imperial Papacy Besieged
Popes Move to Avignon
13
Imperial Papacy Besieged
Popes in Avignon
– “Babylonian Captivity”: The Italian scholar and humanist Petrarch
objected to what he called the “Babylonian Captivity” of the pope, as
did many other Christians. The Avignon popes improved their
collection of ecclesiastical taxes as they could not count on traditional
revenue from Rome. Many saw the Avignon popes as too secular.
– Return to Rome: An influential mystic, Catherine of
Siena (1347-1380), felt called by God to bring the pope
back to Rome, experiencing several visions. She wrote
letters to Pope Gregory XI (r. 1370-1378), and in 1376,
traveled to meet him. Catherine pleaded with him and
convinced him to return.
14
Imperial Papacy Besieged
Things Get Worse: The Great Schism
– The Great Schism: When Pope Gregory died in 1378, Romans feared that
the College of Cardinals would elect another pro-French pope who would
return to Avignon. The guard of the cardinals warned them that they risked
being “torn to pieces” if they did not elect an Italian, and they did so: Pope
Urban VI (r. 1378-1389). He immediately started making plans to reduce
French influence on the papacy.
– French Reaction: Urban’s election prompted the French Cardinals to bolt
from the city, claiming that his election was invalid since the Roman mob
had coerced his election. The French cardinals reconvened and elected
another pope, Clement VII (r. 1378-1394), essentially creating a situation
in which there were two sitting popes, initating what is known as the
“Great Schism.” Many people declared allegiance for political rather than
spiritual reasons, and all of western Christianity was split in half.
Following the famine and Black Death, the church then lost much of its
15
moral authority.
The Great Schism, 1378-1417
16
Imperial Papacy Besieged
The Conciliar Movement
– Question of Leadership: Theologians had thought about who should rule the
Church is the pope became incompetent, and most agreed that it should be the
college of cardinals. But what should be done if the college was split in two,
as it was during the Great Schism? Maybe believed a general council of all
bishops could be called together, and this body could heal the schism and
reign in the power of the popes.
– Council of Pisa: Such a council was called by the cardinal of both Rome and
Avignon in 1409, called the Council of Pisa. This council deposed the two
popes and elected a new one. But the old popes refused to step down, so there
were THREE popes rather than two.
– Council of Constance: A second council was called at which 400 churchmen
came together for the greatest international gathering of the Middle Ages,
meeting from 1414 to 1418. It successfully deposed all three popes, and
17
elected a Roman cardinal, who became Martin V (r. 1417-1431).
Imperial Papacy Besieged
• New Critics of the Church
– John Wycliffe (ca. 1320-1384): This
English theologian at Oxford became a
harsh critic of papal authority. He believed
that there was no basis in scripture for the
pope’s earthly power, and that the Bible
should be Christianity’s sole source. He
argued that the church should give up all
of its earthly wealth and property, and that
priests should live in poverty. He had a
powerful protector in the royal court who kept him safe, but
many of his followers, called Lollards, were executed for treason
beginning in the early 1400s.
18
Imperial Papacy Besieged
New Critics of the Church
Jan Hus (ca. 1373-1415): This theologian and priest
from the Kingdom of Bohemia (now the the Czech
Republic) was influenced by the writings of John
Wycliffe. A popular preacher and the
rector of Charles University in Prague,
he wrote and spoke against the Church’s
practice of selling indulgences and was
excommunicated. Refusing to recant
his statements, he was put on trial at the
Council of Constance and executed for
heresy by being burned at the stake.
19
More Destruction:
The Hundred Years’ War
England vs. France
– Causes: A Capetian king died without an heir in 1328, and the
successor was contested. The nearest relatives was King Edward
III of England, who was son of a Capetian king’s daughter. But
the Parlement of Paris (France’s supreme court) ruled that a
claim to throne could not be transmitted through a woman, so
Philip Valois, a first cousin of the old ruler, was crowned as King
Philip VI. Meanwhile, Philip began to interfere with the wool
trade between Flanders and England, which made the Flemish
ask for English intervention.
20
More Destruction:
The Hundred Years’ War
England vs. France
– English Victories: The English won a naval battle in 1340 which
guaranteed their ability to travel unimpeded across the English
Channel. Although they were outnumbered by the French, they won
many victories at the outset of the war because of new weapons and
strategies that they had adopted. For example, at the Battle of Crecy in
1346, the sky was blackened with English arrows. A string of English
victories allowed them to take control of Flanders, the important port of
Calais, and expanded holdings in Aquitaine in exchange for Edward III
giving up his claim to the French throne.
21
More Destruction:
The Hundred Years’ War
England vs. France
– New Weapons: The English had leaned of the effectiveness of the
Welsh longbow against armored knights in their war with the Scots;
this simple but effective weapon could pierce armor at long distances,
and a skilled archer could shoot ten arrows in one minute (compared to
two with the older crossbow). The English army also used the Swiss
pike, long spears that were braced against the ground by foot soldiers as
mounted knight charged. Soldiers also experimented with early forms
of guns beginning in the 1340s, which were highly unreliable, but
could bring down knights when they functioned properly.
22
More Destruction:
The Hundred Years’ War
England vs. France
– Renewed Conflict: The French were unhappy with the
English being in control of so much of their territory, so a
new French king, Charles V (r. 1364-1380) reopened the
war in 1369. He avoided direct military conflict, but
soldiers on both sides devastated the countryside,
plundering villages and ruining crops. This phase of the
war petered out when Edward III died in 1377, followed by
Charles V died in 1380. The full-scale war was suspended
for a few decades.
23
More Destruction:
The Hundred Years’ War
England vs. France
– Battle of Agincourt: A new English king, Henry V (r.1413-1422), took the
throne and looked to reopen the war, and found a ready ally in the Duke of
Burgundy in France, who wanted to expand his lands at the expense of
French kings and supported Henry’s claim to the French throne. In August
1415, Henry invaded France, and as the French king’s army approached, he
set up his forces in a unique formation between two villages, one of which
was named Agincourt. The French approached with dismounted troops
first, followed by mounted knights, followed by crossbowmen who were
too far back to be effective. The English longbowmen slaughtered them as
they approached, while foot soldiers cleaned up what was left.
– Aftermath: The French king had to sue for peace as a result, and declare
his heir—called the Dauphin—illegitimate. The Dauphin seemingly could
not rally troops to his cause, and by 1328, the English seemed on the cusp
of total victory, laying siege to the city of Orléans, a key controlling most
24
of France.
The Hundred Years’ War, 1337-1453
25
More Destruction:
The Hundred Years’ War
Joan of Arc
– The Rise of Joan of Arc (1412-1431): During these dark days for France,
a young peasant girl saw visions of angels who instructed her to lead
France to victory. She persuaded the Dauphin of her legitimacy, donned
armor, and immediately stirred French armies out of their stupor. Some
accounts note her skill of placing artillery, a newly important weapon.
Under her influence, the French lifted the siege of Orléans, allowing the
Dauphin to claim the throne of France and be coronated at Reims.
Eventually the French rallied, kicking the English out of France by 1453,
only the port of Calais remaining in their hands.
– Joan Executed: Joan did not live to see the ultimate French victory. She
was captured by the Burgundians in 1431, who sold her to the English. The
English put her on trial for heresy, found her guilty, and had her burned at
the stake. The French honored her as the savior of France, and in 1920, she
became a saint in the Catholic Church.
26
More Destruction:
The Hundred Years’ War
Results of the War
– Breakdown of the Feudal System: Lords began to demand money
from knights, called scutage, instead of military service, since mounted
knights were no longer effective in warfare.
– Free Companies: Lord could hire professional armies with no feudal
ties, called “free companies,” who sold their services to the highest
bidder. Old ties of loyalty were replaced with cash payments.
– Consolidation of roayl Authority: At the end of the war, the king
emerged more powerful than all of his vassals combined. The
monarchy had a permanent army, a tax base, and a great deal of
prestige among a people who were beginning to identify themselves as
“French.”
27
More Destruction:
The Hundred Years’ War
Results of the War
– Wars of the Roses (1455-1485): When the English were expelled from
France at the end of the Hundred Years’ War, it caused considerable turmoil
in England. The monarchy had weakened and Parliament had exercised
considerably more control due to the expenses of the war. Furthermore,
many old noble families had been decimated by the war. These factors set
the stage for a bloody civil war between two of England’s foremost noble
families, the Yorks and the Lancasters.
– Richard III (r. 1483-1485): After taking the throne from his twelve-yearold nephew, Edward V, he had the young king and his brother imprisoned
in the Tower of London, where they were both murdered. This horrible act
inspired an uprising against Richard led by Henry Tudor, a member of the
Lancaster family. Henry defeated Richard at the Battle of Bossworth Field
in 1485, and was crowned Henry VII (r. 1485-1509). He married Elizabeth
of York to heal wounds, but then began to centralize his control: he
28
confiscated lands of rebel nobles and banned private armies
Responses to the Disruption of
Medieval Order
William of Ockham Reconsiders Scholasticism
– A New Breed of Scholars: A century after Thomas Aquinas’s master
synthesis, the Summa Theologiae, a new generation of scholars began
to question the very bases of scholasticism, questioning the ties
between faith and reason.
– William of Ockham (ca. 1285-1349): This English philosopher
challenged the idea within scholasticism that thinkers could extract
general truths from individual cases. He argued that universals had no
connection to reality. He started a school called “New Nominalism,”
from the Latin for “Name,” because he believed universals were only
convenient names for things. New Nominalists believed that it was
impossible to know God or prove his existence through reason because
God was all-powerful and did not have to act logically.
29
Responses to the Disruption of
Medieval Order
William of Ockham Reconsiders Scholasticism
– Ockham’s Razor: Ockham became more engaged with
observing cases from the real world than previous
Scholastic philosophers, who tended to focus purely on the
realm of abstract logic. Ockham discovered a fundamental
scientific principle the served as the basis for much of
future scientific analysis, called Ockham’s Razor. This
principle declares that between alternative explanations for
the same phenomenon, the simpler explanation is always to
be preferred.
30
Responses to the Disruption of
Medieval Order
New Literary Giants
– Vernacular Languages: In the 1300s, more authors began to use their
vernacular—meaning national languages—rather than Latin, which still
remained the official language of the church and governments.
– Dante Aligheri (1265-1321): This Florence-born author was won of the
first writers in vernacular (in his case, Italian) to enjoy a wide audience.
Exiled from Florence in 1302 for his involvment in that city-states volatile
politics, he began writing his Divine Comedy, a somewhat satirical epic
poem about a soul traveling through various levels of the afterlife—hell,
purgatory, and heaven—from despair to salvation. The writer Vergil is the
author’s guide through Hell, where Dante vividly describes the tortures
each damned soul experiences. A criticism of the church is made explicit as
several popes are found in hell. Dante is led into paradise by a mysterious
woman named Beatrice, who was probably the love of his life, who
probably serves as an allegory of faith.
31
Responses to the Disruption of
Medieval Order
New Literary Giants
– Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375): This other Florentine writer offered
a vivid description of when the Black Death hit Florence in his
masterwork, The Decameron, in which ten young people flee to the
countryside and amuse each other by telling stories. These stories mark
a change in medieval sensibilities, as they much more irreverant, witty,
sexual, and satiric than anything before. They were a light-hearted
response to a very dark time.
– Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1340-1400): This English poet wrote The
Canterbury Tales, which tells the stories of a group of twenty-nine
pilgrims who are travelling to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Thomas
Becket; the different narrators offer a comical and sometimes bawdy
critique of English society, and have a similar subversive quality as The
Decameron.
32
Responses to the Disruption of
Medieval Order
A New View: Jan van Eyck
– Flemish Realism: Around the same time Chaucer was writing
The Canterbury Tales, painters in Flanders were starting to
produce works of startling realism and precision.
– Jan van Eyck (ca. 1395-1441): Foremost of the new Flemish
painters, Van Eyck was among the first to use oil paint to create
highly realistic details in his paintings. Interestingly, he
combined this intense realism with much symbolism from the
medieval period—he is truly a transitional figure. The
combination of medieval symbols and high realism is a
prominent characteristic of the art of the Late Middle Ages.
33
Empires in the East
Eastern Universalism: The Mongols
– Mongol Empire: In 1206, Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1277) united
diverse nomadic groups in Mongolia, all of whom were excellent
warriors and horsemen, and swept out across Central Asia in a
fury of conquest, creating an empire that eventually stretched
from the Pacific to the Black Sea.
– Kublai Khan (r. 1260-1294): Genghis Khan’s grandson
managed to conquer China and make it the center of his empire,
creating a powerful lure for trade for westerners.
– Marco Polo
34
The Mongol Empire, ca. 1300
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35
Venetian merchants trading cloth for spices, mid-fourteenth century.
FIGURE 9.9
Figure 9.9
Photo credit:  Bibliotheque Nationale
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36
Empires in the East
• The Ottoman Empire, ca. 1300-1566
– Conquest of Constantinople
– Suleiman I
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37
The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1566
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38
Empires in the East
• Biography: Vlad III Dracula (the Impaler),
King of Wallachia
– A Vicious, Controversial King
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39
Empires in the East
• Russia: The Third Rome
– Ivan III
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40
The Rise of Moscow, 1325-1533
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41