High Medieval Europe
(ca. 900-1300)
Society and Economy
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Social Orders
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Oratores
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Bellatores
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Clergy
Nobles
Knights
Laboratores
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Peasants (SERFS)
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Silent majority of
Middle Ages
Society and Economy
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Personal Dependency
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Lords and Vassals
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VASSALS fought
voluntarily for lord
Lords provided them
land
Lords and peasants
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Peasants worked on
lord’s manor, paid dues
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Status was hereditary
Lords provided them
place to live, protection
Reeve, and serfs at work
Society and Economy
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Agricultural Innovations
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Three-field system
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Iron Plowshare
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Heavy-wheeled
Able to turn heavy northern
soils
Horses
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Replaced two-field system
More arable land (2/3) in use
Replaced oxen in farm work
Faster!
Able to pull heavy plows
Results
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More food, better food, better
standard of living!
Population doubled!
Society and Economy
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Medieval Cities
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Revival of urban life
Grew up around
castles, churches,
monasteries
Included
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Castle
Cathedral and churches
Marketplace
Streets
Walls
Street, Siena
Society and Economy
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The Guilds
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Formed by urban merchants and artisans
Nature of guilds
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Economic function
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Social function
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Set standards for products’ quality
Regulation of materials, prices, and work hours
Protection and aid
Common identity, community
Spiritual function
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Members prayed for and buried one another
Society and Economy
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The Guild Hierarchy
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Master
Skilled artisan working for himself
 VIPs in guilds
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Journeyman
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Skilled artisan working as a day laborer
Apprentice
In process of learning a trade
 Worked for master for room and board
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Society and Economy
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Expansion of Trade
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Improved
infrastructure  more
land-based trade
opportunities
Fairs
More seaborne trade
Contact with Mongol
Empire  more trade!
Medieval Fair
Court of Kubilai Khan
Society and Economy

Questions?
The Emerging Western States

England (9th-10th cents.)
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Divided into many small
kingdoms
Viking raids (9th cent.) 
occupied most of England
KING ALFRED THE GREAT
(r. 871-899)
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Ruler of Wessex
Paid tribute to Vikings
Later raised army (878)
and defeated Vikings
Became king of all English
not under Viking rule
King Alfred the Great
The Emerging Western States
Bronze statue of King Alfred the Great
Winchester, United Kingdom
The Emerging Western States

The Norman Conquest

Anglo-Saxon kings ruled
until death of Edward the
Confessor (r. 1042-1066)
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The Norman Conquest
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The Bayeux Tapestry (ca. 1070-80)
Died childless
Two potential heirs:
Harold of Wessex, William
of Normandy
William and Normans
invaded England
Victorious at BATTLE OF
HASTINGS (1066)
The Emerging Western States
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William the Conqueror
(r. 1066-1089)
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First Norman king of
England
Distributed lands among
family and Norman barons
“Domesday Book” (1086)
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The Bayeux Tapestry (ca. 1070-80)
Census
Inventory of population,
land, livestock, and taxes
First in line of
Norman/French rulers
The Emerging Western States
2010
The Emerging Western States
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Magna Carta (1215)
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Origins: conflict with France
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King John’s French territories
confiscated, wanted them back
Forced barons to pay taxes
French won anyway!
Barons rebelled, called king to
account
The Document
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Defined rights and obligations
of nobility
All English “freemen” have
rights
King John forced to sign
Major point: king is not above
law!
The Emerging Western States
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France
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Heir of Carolingian
Empire
Capetian Dynasty
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Hugh Capet (r. 987996)
Most nobles paid
homage to king
Gradually gained more
territories
Ruled until 14th cent.
The Emerging Western States
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The Holy Roman Empire
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Heir of Carolingian Empire
Consisted of many
principalities under an
emperor
HRE coined by 13th cent.
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“Holy”: divine source of
authority
“Roman”: imperial power
through Charlemagne
The Emerging Western States
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Authority in the Holy
Roman Empire
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The Emperors
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The Princes
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Claimed highest authority
Had to respect rights of
princes
Their territories 
independent states
HRE: a decentralized
monarchy
The Emerging Western States
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Questions?
The Church and Christianity
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The “Papal Monarchy”
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Supreme authority of Latin
Church
Papal States
The Curia
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Papal Court, Rome
College of Cardinals
Exercising authority
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Excommunication
Took on…
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Papal Tiara (“Triregnum”)
Eastern Church
Secular rulers
The Church and Christianity
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The Great Schism (1054)
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Eastern and Western
Churches at odds
Papacy asserted authority
at Constantinople (1054)
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Legate sent, argued for
papal supremacy
Patriarch disagreed
Legate excommunicated
patriarch  patriarch
excommunicated legate
East and West no longer in
communion
The Church and Christianity
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The Investiture Conflict
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Positions on “lay investiture”
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Pope Gregory VII (r. 1073-1085): skeptical, prohibited
investiture (1075)
Henry IV of Germany (r. 1056-1106): investiture is tradition!
What happened?
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Henry appointed new archbishop of Milan; with German
bishops called on Gregory to resign (1076)
Gregory’s response
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Excommunicated Henry, deprived him of office
Released HRE from allegiance to emperor!
Henry caved in  repented
The Church and Christianity

King John vs. Pope Innocent
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POPE INNOCENT III (r. 11981216)
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Situation: See of Canterbury
was vacant (1205)
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Trained in law
Most powerful pope ever
King John favored one
candidate
Innocent consecrated another
(1207), sent him to England
John refused to admit new
archbishop
What happened?
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John excommunicated
Yielded to Innocent 
humiliated
Innocent III
The Church and Christianity
The Church and Christianity
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The Crusades
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Origins
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First Crusade (1095-99)
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Siege of Antioch
Turks were threatening
Byzantium
Emperor petitioned pope for
aid
Council of Clermont (1095) 
recapture Holy Land!
Force of 50-60,000  Holy
Land
“Pilgrimage”  salvation as
reward!
Victory  Crusader States
established
The Church and Christianity
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Other Crusades
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Christians lost ground
in Holy Land  new
crusades launched
Third Crusade
(1189-92)
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Saladin
Saladin captured
Jerusalem (1187)
Another crusade 
failure
Crusades over by 1300
2005
The Church and Christianity
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The Franciscans
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Francis of Assisi
(ca. 1182-1226)
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Son of cloth merchant
Conversion experience
 attracted to poverty
Franciscans (1215)
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Poverty
Preached penance
Served lepers and poor
Francis of Assisi
The Church and Christianity
Robe of Francis of Asissi,
Basilica di S. Francesco, Assisi
The Church and Christianity
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The Dominicans
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Dominic Guzman
(1170-1221)
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Spanish priest, missionary
Disillusioned by Church’s
method of preaching to
heretics
Proposed method based
on Gospels
Dominicans (1216)
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Preaching on foot
Teaching
Intellectual Order
The Church and Christianity
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The Sacraments
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Seven
Essential to salvation!
Performed by clergy
alone
The Eucharist
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Corpus Christi Procession
Sacrament of the Mass
TRANSUBSTANTIATION
The Church and Christianity
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Medieval Heresy
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Proliferation of heretical
Groups
The Church’s Response
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Preaching
Medieval Inquisition
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Established 1231 
combat heresy
Goal: uncover heresy 
guide those guilty to
recant and do penance
Penalties: penitential
acts, imprisonment,
maybe torture or
execution
1986
The Church and Christianity
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Questions?
Culture
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The University
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Organization of master and students
Specialization
Students
Clerical status
 Grouped into “nations”
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More intimate groups students lived in
Provided protection, connection, legislation
Culture
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Classroom Setting
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Lectures considered best
method of teaching
Books very expensive!
Master’s role
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Read excerpt of text
Commentary
Refuted objections
Students’ role
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Commit it all to memory!
Culture
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Vernacular Literature
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Latin was language of
Church, academia
VERNACULAR LANGUAGES
emerged (800-1000)
Vernacular literature
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Dante Alighieri
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French: Chanson de
Roland (12th cent.)
Old English: Beowulf
(ca. 1000?)
Italian: Dante’s The Divine
Comedy (1313-21)
Culture
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Romanesque Architecture
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Massive stone churches
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Wooden churches  fire!
Accommodated
congregation and visiting
pilgrims
Traits
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Sculpture on exterior
Round Arches
“Leaning Tower,” Pisa (1053-1272)
Culture
St. Sernin de Toulouse (1070-1120), France
Exterior
Culture
St. Sernin de Toulouse,
Interior
Culture
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Gothic Architecture
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Traits
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The Gothic Cathedral
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Chartres Cathedral (1145-1220), France
Pointed arches
Stained-glass windows
Flying buttresses
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Focal point of city
Community project
Sometimes centuries to
complete!
Culture
Chartres Cathedral
Interior
Stained-Glass Window,
Chartres Cathedral
Culture
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Questions?
High Medieval Europe

The Middle Ages
 Progress?
 Innovation?
 Developments?