World History
SSWH7 The student will analyze European medieval
society with regard to culture, politics, society,
and economics.
a. Explain the manorial system and feudalism;
include the status of peasants and feudal
monarchies and the importance of Charlemagne.
b. Describe the political impact of Christianity;
include Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV.
c. Explain the role of the church in medieval
society.
d. Describe how increasing trade led to the growth
of towns and cities.
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Pope
Monk
Feudalism
Vassal
Knight
Fief
Feudal contract
Chivalry
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Common law
Magna Carta
Crusades
Serf
Guild
When you get done, define the above words! 
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What would life be like if the federal
government in Washington D.C. suddenly
disappeared and marauding invaders began
to sail up and down the east and west coasts?
How would you defend yourself without a
national army and navy? How would states
and cities organize to repel the invaders,
keep order, and continue producing food?
After the fall of the Roman Empire:
The whole area was left with no central or strong form of
government. No strong empire emerged in what had been
the western part of the Roman Empire. Only the church
provided order and security to the area.
Organization of the Church:
By the 4th century, the Christian church had developed a
system of government. Each city was headed by a bishop
whose area of rule was known as a diocese. The dioceses
together would be under the direction of an archbishop.
The position of pope came from the bishop of the church
in Rome. This position was special due to the fact that
Christians believed that the “keys to the kingdom of
heaven” was given to Peter who was the chief apostle and
the first bishop of Rome.
By the 6th century, the popes had been successful in extending their
authority over the whole Western Europe and they were successful in
converting the Germanic empire over to Christianity.
During this time, the church started a new group of people known as
Monk. These men lived in an isolated world and devoted their life to
God. Saint Benedict, who founded a monastery, wrote a set of rules for
the monks to live by day to day. These rules divided the monks’ day
between prayer and manual labor. Saint Benedict believed that
“idleness” allowed the devil to do his work. The monks played a very
important role in the early medieval civilization. They provided the
model for the Christian, they ran schools, they provided shelter for
travelers and they also ran hospitals for the sick. They also spent hours
copying the Latin works and the Bible.
Women also played important role in the church. The women were
becoming nuns.
This time period is known as the Middle Ages or the Medieval Period from
500-1500 A.D. It is the time period that connects the ancient world to
the modern world.
The Dominant Germanic Tribe in the western area
is the Franks who were living in Gaul, present day
France. They first came to the region in 300 AD
around the mouth of the Rhine River (present day
Belgium and Netherlands). They began to replace
the Roman rulers and the German kings began to
rule the area. The Ostrogoths began to rule Italy,
Visigoths ruled Spain, while Angles and Saxons
ruled England. The Franks the rulers of Gaul was
proven as a long lasting kingdom.
Clovis was known as a brutal and cruel but excellent leader of the
Franks.
Under his control, the Franks controlled all of Gaul (present day
France).
Clovis united all the Franks under one kingdom. He expanded the
empire from France into Germany.
Much of his military success is from the invention of the stirrup.
He began the idea of the cavalry, an army on horseback.
He converted to Christianity around 500 AD to please his wife,
Clothilde.
After his death, his empire was divided between his sons (a
Frankish rule) who will later create Neustria, Austrasia and
Burgundy. Later the “Do Nothing” kings basically left the ruling
of the empire to the Mayor of the Palace. The Mayor of the
Palace became a very powerful official who was in charge of the
royal household and the estate and unofficially commanded the
armies and made policies for the kingdom.
Pepin II: He was a Mayor of the Palace. He made
his office a hereditary office so when he passed,
his position was passed down to his oldest son,
Charles Martel.
Charles Martel; aka Charles the Hammer:
He became the Mayor of the Palace.
He defeated the Moors (Muslims) in the Battle of
Tours in 732 AD.
This was a big battle for the Christian because it
helped to halt the spread of Islam into Western
Europe.
He died in 741 AD.
He was the Mayor of the Palace who was
crowned by the Pope to start the Carolingian
Dynasty. When the Pope crowned him, he
became the “king by the grace of God”.
This created an alliance between the Pope and
the Franks.
Pepin fought the Lombards for the Pope and
gained back the land in Italy for the Pope.
This was known as the donation of Pepin. This
land became known as the Papal States.
He died in 768 AD.
He was a very big man, he measured to be 6’4. He was also
a very intelligent and determined man.
He took over the throne in 768 and ruled until 814. He was
crowned by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day. He was
crowned “Emperor of the Romans”.
Charlemagne was deeply religious and helped to spread
Christianity to areas that he conquered. He often forced
people to convert; he gave them the choice between
execution or baptism.
He spent most of his time on the throne at war. He
expanded the Carolingian Empire to include much of
Western Europe to include present day France, Germany,
Italy and Austria.
Charlemagne divided his empire into regions and each
region was ruled by a representative known as a count aka
a governor.
Charlemagne hired two trustworthy men who he would send
throughout his empire to check on the work of the
governors/counts. Charlemagne’s spies were known as Missi
dominici. Missi dominici stood for the messengers of the lord
king.
The Count was responsible for raising an army and administering
the laws of Charlemagne.
Charlemagne’s government did not levy direct taxes on land or on
the people.
Each person in the empire contributed to the army some way. Free
Peasants served as soldiers three months out of a year. The
emperor had an army at no expense to himself or the
government.
Charlemagne’s empire and his title of the Emperor of the Romans
caused a fusion between the Roman Empire, the Christian Church
and the Germanic civilization creating a new European
civilization.
While Charlemagne himself could not
read, he knew education was important so he
founded a school at the palace for his own
children and the other young nobles. His
achievement in education is known as his
greatest achievement. He assembled
scholars from around Western Europe to
produce a readable and authentic Bible. His
favorite book was the City of God. He
ordered monasteries to open schools to train
monks.
Charlemagne’s empire crumbled after his death in 814 AD.
The empire was given to his only son, Louis the Pious who
was a very religious but ineffective ruler.
After Louis death, the empire was divided into three parts
between his three sons, Louis the German who got the
eastern part, Lothair who received the middle part, and
Charles the Bald who received the western part. It was not
long before Charlemagne’s grandsons were fighting for
control of the empire. During this time, nobles in the
empire began to grow more powerful while the area was
invaded by invaders. The Muslims attacked the southern
coastlines and moved into France. The Magyars from Asia
invaded the central part of Europe and settled down and
created the kingdom of Hungary.
The Vikings from Scandinavia also began to invade
the area. Vikings were warriors who loved
adventure and the booty (treasure) of war. The
Vikings had the best ships of the time period
which could carry about 50 men per ship. They
were also known as Northmen or Norsemen.
They settled in northwestern France in an area
known as Normandy or Northmen’s land. Once
the Vikings began to settle down they were
converted to Christianity and they became a part
of the European civilization
As the government ceased to exist the people turned to the
powerful lords for their protection from invaders and death. This
is the beginning of a system known as Feudalism. The
nobles/lords took control of large areas of land and they needed
a way to protect their manors. The Lord would give land (fief) to
a knight (vassal) in return for protection. The vassal would have
complete jurisdiction or political and legal authority over their
land.
This system got complicated when the vassals hired sub-vassals to
defend their manors.
Definition: Feudalism was an attempt at a social, political and
economical system used during the Middle Ages. Under
Feudalism, socially, it is a system of rigid class distinction.
Political, it allows for local governments and military defense.
Economically, the system allows for the manor to be selfsufficient and have enough food for the population of the manor
and the land surrounding.
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Fiefs
Serf
Peasant
Pope
Converting
Christianity
Force
Disintegrated
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Barter
Vassals
Manorlialism
Chivalry
Vikings
Navigable
Feudalism
1.) Weaknesses of Central Government: Collapse
of the Empire
Rulers could not protect their subjects from
outside invaders
Landholders surrendered their lands to local
noble in exchange for protection
2.) Land policy of the Germanic Kings
Barbarian Germanic Kings granted land (a fief) to
nobles in exchange for protection.
Nobles agreed to give military aid to the king
through men and weapons.
3.) Land ownership increased the nobles’ power
Nobles: the privileged upper class (small in number but held
the most land)
Serfs: underprivileged lower class, also known as peasants.
They were bound to the land and could not leave. They
were not allowed to be sold or exchanged. They were
never allowed to change to a new status.
Women in Feudal Society:
Women were legally able to hold property but still under the
control of their father or husband. During the Middle
Ages, the aristocratic women had to manage the estates
while the husbands/vassals were fighting for the lords.
Many women gave their husbands advice to help them run
the estates.
Step one: King; also known as dukes, counts, and barons:
He controlled his own estates.
Step two: Powerful lords or nobles, also known as knights.
This group served the King and provided protection in
return for the land known as a fief. The noble became
known as a vassal once they promised to serve the king.
When the land (fief) was given to the noble/knight it was
known as an investiture. This is a ceremony where the
land is exchanged from the king to the knight.
Step three: lesser lords; sub-vassals: protection for the
nobles
Step four: Knights- most numerous of the nobles, bulk of
the feudal army
Step five: Serfs: they were the base of the feudal pyramid.
About 60% of the population was serfs.
1.) the obligation of the lords to the king was hereditary and
therefore was passed down to the sons
2.) the idea of Primogeniture was born. This is the idea that the
oldest son inherits the title and the land. This is a break from
the Germanic tradition of sharing among the sons.
Feudal Justice:
Trial by battle: fought a duel, the outcome determined the
innocence or guilt of a person
Compurgation or oath-taking: each person gathered a group of
people to say they were telling the truth, much like a character
witnesses of today.
Trial by Ordeal: the accused would attempt to carry a piece of hot
iron in his hand or would walk through fire or plunge his arm in
to a pot of boiling water to pick up a hot stone. If the wound
healed rapidly, he was judged innocent of the crime.
When the king was faced with an invasion, the king
would call on his lords/vassals to come to his
military aid. The vassals would call up their
knights which were their vassals to fight for the
king.
The castle served multiple purposes during the
middle ages. It was of course the home for the
lord and his family. But it also served as a place
of protection for the people of the manor. The
castle was built on a hill, surrounded by a moat
and a massive wall of stone with guard towers.
The Knights training began at the young age of 7 when
they were Pages. The page was to learn the manners
of a knight and study war strategies by learning how
to play chess. They also began to use a sword.
At the age of 14, the young man became a Squire. The
Squire served the knight and took care of his armor
and weapons along with the horse. Finally at the age
of 21, the squire can become a knight after proving
himself in battle.
The jobs of a knight included defending God and his
lord. He was to defend the helpless especially noble
females. The knight was to be full of courage,
courtesy, gallantry and generosity.
The manor (the large estate that included the manor house,
pastures, fields, village, church and the workshops) was
the economic unit for manorialism. The goal of each
manor was to be self-sufficient, which means that they
could produce everything that the manor and the
population needed.
Under the system of Manorialism, the peasants paid the lord
of the manor to work their land. They gave the lord part
of their crops or performed miscellaneous services on the
manor like building barns, digging ditches and paid taxes.
The serfs would work on the Manor three to four days a
week. Many peasants were serfs or bound to the land.
They could not leave the land without the lord’s
permission.
During the High Middle Ages, the kings began
to extend their power and eventually the
kings were ruling European states.
Development of European States:
England: William of Normandy aka: William I or
William the Conqueror landed on the coast of
England on October 14, 1066. He defeated
King Harold of the Anglo-Saxons and took
control of England.
1.) Blended the Anglo-Saxon culture
2.) He declared himself the owner of all land and the population of
England had to swear their allegiance to him-basically he raised
an army.
3.) He started a King’s council which was a group of people who
gave him advice
4.) He taxed his people but fairly, he only taxed them on what they
owned. He sent clerks to survey his kingdom. They wrote down
what everyone owned in a book known as the Doomsday book.
The people called it the Doomsday book because if it was written
in the book, the population had to pay a tax on it.
5.) Started a new language-He combined Anglo-Saxon language
with the French language giving us the beginning of modern day
language.
6.) Established a royal courts
7.) Established a strong, centralized monarchy
Henry II (1154-1189) great-great grandson of
William I:
1.) His major achievement was the
strengthening of the royal court. His judges
ruled their courts with a book known as the
Common Law book which made punishments
for crimes based on the traditions and
customs of England.
2.) Started the Trial by jury system.
3.) Increased the money in the treasury
King John I: 2nd son of Henry II:
The nobles/barons were not happy with his growing power. The
nobles in England forced John I to sign the Magna Carta (Latin for
Great Charter) in 1215 at Runnymeade. The Magna Carta was
the first document to be used to limit the power of the monarchy
in England.
Edward I: 1272-1307: grandson to John I:
During his time as king, the institution of Parliament started.
Parliament was started when Edward I invited two knights from
every county and two residents from each town to meet together
to discuss new taxes. Eventually, Parliament was two houses,
House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Lords
was made up of barons and church lords while knights and
middle class made up the House of Commons. Edward I used
Parliament to approve taxes, discuss political issues, pass laws
and handle other business. This is the beginning of the time
that the kings were ruling alone.
The western Frankish Empire formed the core of
the kingdom of France.
Hugh Capet became king in 987, starting the
Capetian dynasty.
The Dukes of Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy and
Aquitaine had more power than the Capetian
kings.
King Phillip II Augustus: 1180-1223: He enlarged
the powers of the French monarchy. He started
the French bureaucracy by appointing new royal
officials.
Phillip IV: aka Philip the Fair: He started the
French Parliament known as the EstatesGeneral. Each estate/class was represented
in the parliament. The 1st estate was the
church, the 2nd estate was the nobles, and the
3rd estate was the townspeople. The French
parliament real had no power but by the end
of the 13th century, France was the largest,
wealthiest, and best governed monarchical
state in Europe.
The Eastern Kingdom of the Franks became known as
Germany. Otto I, a Saxon, was the crowned the king
of Germany by the pope in 962. The German kings
were strong and powerful monarchs. They lost power
when they tried to add Italy to the German empire.
Two of the most famous kings from the Hohenstaufen
Dynasty were Frederick I and Frederick II.
There was a struggle between the pope and the
German ruler for control of Italy left Germany in the
hands of the powerful Lords in Germany. Due to the
conflict, Italy and Germany will not be like France or
England and be a united country; instead Germany
and Italy will be just small independent states and not
a united country until the 19th century.
Viking leader name Oleg settled in Kiev and
created Rus. He assimilated his Viking
population with the Slavic population of the
region and started the Russian population.
This Russian state was tied to the Orthodox
Christian Church.
During the High Middle Ages, the population of Europe
doubled from 38 to 74 million people. There were several
reasons for this population explosion, for one, the time
was more settled and peaceful and two, agricultural
increase.
Farm production had increased for several reasons:
1.) New farming techniques
2.) improved climate
3.) expansion of the amount of farm land
4.) time saving tools made out of iron; scythes, axes, hoes,
hammer, and iron plow
5.) Horsepower
6.) mills power by wind and water
7.) Three field system: leaving a field fallow
The peasant life was very simple. They lived in a
simple one to two room wooden houses with a
thatched roof.
Peasant women gave birth to the children, worked in
the fields with their husband, and managed the
household.
Peasant Diet:
Main part of their diet was bread. The bread was high
nutritious with wheat/rye and barley, millet, and oats.
It was very heavy and served with vegetables from the
garden and cheese from the cow or goat’s milk. They
also had berries, fruits and eggs from the chickens.
Meat was very rare.
At the beginning of the Middle Ages most of Europe was a
farming society, however as trade started to be revived, the
growth of towns and specialized jobs began to grow.
During the Early Middle Ages, trade had declined significantly
due to all the conflicts and invasions. But by the end of the 10th
century, the cities in Italy were taking the lead to bring trade
back. Italian traders were moving back into the Byzantine and
Islamic areas to start back trade. Some of the Italian traders had
even gone all the way to India to bring back trade.
The towns of Flanders also brought back trade in northern Europe
with their high quality woolen cloth. Their towns prospered due
to all the new trade with England, Scandinavia and France.
All of this new trade gave rise to the new economic system known
as commercial capitalism which is an economic system where
people invest in trade and goods in order to make a profit.
When the trade declined during the Early Middle Ages, so
did the cities. Most of the population moved out of the cities
and moved to the manors. The old Roman cities were still
around and as trade began to grow so did these cities.
Merchants began to settle back into the cities followed by the
craft people and the artisans. By the end of the 10th century,
groups of merchants began to start new cities and towns near
castles. This is the reason why so many cities in Europe have the
name borough, burgh, burg or bourg which means fortress. As
these cities grew they were given the right to govern themselves
by the lords of the castle. The citizens of the towns/cities would
elect their city council members who would make decision for
the town/city.
By 1200, London was the largest city in England with 30,000
people. Italian cities of Venice, Florence, Genoa, Milan and
Naples each had a population of almost 100,000. Of course the
cities of Constantinople and Cairo out did all the European cities
in population.
The cities were crowded and built on very narrow streets.
The buildings were mainly built out of wood and therefore, a
major problem for cities in the Middle Ages was fire. The
physical environment of the cities was also bad due to the lack of
sanitation. The streets were full of animal and human waste and
there were major problems with air pollution due to the use of
coal and other cheap fuel. The rivers were filthy due to the fact
that butchers would dump all the blood and waste into the river
and the tanners would dump acid, dried blood and hair into the
rivers.
Women: During the Middle Ages, gained rights. They were still in
charge of the household and the purchasing and the preparation
of the food, along with the raising of the children and managing
the family finances. But since many women worked side by side
with their husbands, when the husbands died, many women took
of the business.
As the trade started back and the specialization of
workers continued to grow, the need for a union also was
needed. A guild was an organization for every craft or
specialized group. The guild established standards for the
products produced. The guild established the approved
method to be used and the price at which the product
could be sold. The guild also determined the number of
people who could be in the profession or craft.
In order to learn a trade, a person had to become an
apprentice first. An apprentice normally started at the age
of 10. The apprentices were not paid but they did receive
a room and board from their master. After 5 to 7 years,
the apprentice could become a journeyman who then
made their product for pay. The goal of the journeymen
was to become a Master but only after they created a
“masterpiece” to be judged by the guild. Once they
became a master, they had to join the guild.
During the Middle Ages, Christianity was a
major part of everyday life in European. The
popes’ decisions affected the kings of Europe
and the people. By the 5th century, the popes of
the Catholic Church had supreme power over the
church and the people. The Hierarchy of the
Catholic Church was the Pope on top, then the
cardinals, then the archbishops followed by the
bishops and the priest.
The church with the pope became a strong
political force. The people were taxed by the
pope with tithe, fines, fees and the church made
money from the income from land they owned.
Pope
Hierarchy of the Church
Cardinals
Archbishops
Bishop
Priest
1.) Lay investiture: This was a practice where the nobles were
appointing loyal friends and relatives to positions of bishops and
abbots in the church. The church realized that a secular (nonreligious) ruler should not be allowed to pick leaders in the
church.
Pope Gregory VII was the first pope to reform the church and
stop lay investiture. He decided it was only the position of the
Pope to pick the leaders and if the king did not accept it, then
the king would be deposed by the pope.
One king did not like this reform of Gregory’s. Henry IV of
Germany believed he had the power to pick the official especially
the bishops in the church. Pope Gregory would not give in and
this conflict is known as the Investiture Controversy. This
controversy was one of the great conflicts between the church
and the state government. The two finally reached an agreement
known as the Concordat of Worms (city in Germany). Under the
agreement, the bishop in Germany would be picked by the pope
but paid loyalty to the king as his lord.
2.) Pope used their supreme power to judge
European affairs. For example: forced the King
of France to take back his wife after the king
tried to annul the marriage.
3.) Many of the clergy allowed the “worldly lives”
to interfere with their religious life.
4.) Heresy: the act of questioning the power of
the church or the pope. The church did not allow
anyone to question the basic principles or
doctrines of the church.
5.) New Religious Groups;
a.) Cistercians: a new monk order, this group owned one
outfit, had more time for prayer and manual labor.
b.) Franciscans: started by Saint Francis of Assisi. This
group lived among the people preaching repentance for
your sins and giving aid to the poor. They preached
simplicity.
c.) Dominicans: This group was started by Dominic de
Guzman to defend the church’s teaching against heresy.
Their job was to find people who were guilty of heresy and
put them on trial. The trials were known as Inquisitions.
The people accused of heresy many times were tortured
until they confessed that they were guilty. If they
confessed, they would just have to do penance but if they
did not confess, they were burned at the stake.
1.) Importance of education: Medieval universities were
born during the middle ages. The subjects Roman law and
how it applied to their lives, in addition, they studied
grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and
astronomy. Among the first universities were University of
Paris and University of Oxford. By the end of the middle
ages, there were 80 universities in Europe.
Study of Theology: Theology is the formal study of religion.
During this time, scholars tried to tie reality to the stories
in the Bible. One of these scholars was Thomas Aquinas.
He posed a question, cited sources that offered opposing
opinions on the questions and then resolve the matter by
giving his conclusions. He believed that truths of the
world came from reason and truths were derived by faith.
2.) Architecture:
a.) Romanesque:
This style is named for the massive masonry forms found in Medieval
European churches. Not widely used for houses in Lancaster, the
Romanesque Revival style is more commonly used for public buildings,
schools and churches. Characteristics include:
 use of brick or stone for thick walls, giving a heavy appearance
 smooth wall surfaces contrast with rough stone trim
 dark colors
 massive round-headed arched windows and doorways
 deeply recessed openings
 round or square towers of differing heights
b.) Gothic; Gothic architecture has three distinct
characteristics which set it apart from Romanesque;
pointed arches, ribbed vault, and flying
buttresses. These developments allowed the
architects to make the church much larger and
brighter. By transferring the weight of the ceilings
outward thrust to the flying buttresses, they were
now able to place huge stain glass windows in the
walls. this allowed the once dim Romanesque
Cathedral to be transformed into a very bright and
warm feeling Gothic Cathedral. These churches also
reflect the wealth and influence of the church in the
Middle Ages. Many of these churches and cathedrals
took over a century to build.
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The Crusades were a holy war against the
Muslims or the infidels/unbelievers. The
original purpose of the war was to save the
holy city of Jerusalem and to come to the
rescue of the Byzantine Emperor. There were
nine total crusades. The 1st one was the most
successful while the biggest failure was 4th.
The most tragic was the 5th crusade known as
the children’s crusade.
1st: Alexius I, emperor of Byzantine Empire, asked
Pope Urban II for help against the invading Seljuk
Turks who were Muslims. Urban saw this as a
perfect opportunity to provide papal leadership
to a great cause. Urban challenged Christians in
Europe to take up their weapons and fight for the
church. The pope promised “all who die by the
way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle
against the pagans, shall have immediate
remission of sins”.
Three groups of soldiers were able to make it to
the city of Jerusalem and after 5 weeks of
fighting, they had taken the Holy City back. By
1120, the Muslims had taken the city back.
The 2nd crusade was a failure. Ended after two battles,
where the Turks defeated the crusaders in both.
The 3rd crusade resulted in the Muslims under the
leadership of Saladin taking complete control of Jerusalem.
The 3rd crusade was known as the crusade of kings. The
French king, Philip II and the Emperor of Germany,
Frederick and the King of England, Richard I sailed to get
the city of Jerusalem back. On the way, Frederick drowned
and Philip went home. Richard I kept on fighting alone.
While he did not win back the city, he did win passage into
the city of Jerusalem for the Christians.
The 4th crusade was the biggest failure because
instead of helping the Byzantine Empire, the Christian
soldiers attacked and looted the empire.
1.) Change in weather patterns, the growing seasons were
shorter, there were constant rain and crops began to fail.
This change in weather patterns led to famine and hunger.
2.) Black Death: In the mid-14th century, Black Death hit
Europe. The Black Death came from the spread of the
Bubonic plague. The Bubonic plague came from black rats
that were infested with fleas that carried deadly bacteria.
The plague hit Europe in October1347, through trade. The
plague hit the island of Sicily first then moved into Italy.
The spread of the disease followed the commercial trade
routes. The mortality rate of the plague was very high.
Some cities were so crowded that 50 to 60% of the
population died. In England and Germany, some entire
villages just disappeared. Germany lost 170,000 people.
It is estimated that out of the 75 million people who lived
in Europe in 1347, as many of 38 million died due to the
plague.
Many believed that the plague was sent by God as a punishment for
human’s sins or by the devil. A group known as the Flagellants resorted
to extreme measure to gain God’s forgiveness to stop the plague. The
group members would flog each others, going from town to town. This
group caused mass hysteria among the people. The church tried to stop
this movement.
3.) Anti-Semitism: The population of Europe began to blame the Jewish
population for the Black Death. The Jews in many town/cities/villages
were driven out. In a town in Germany, 60 different Jewish communities’
people were burnt. Many Jews fled Europe to go to Russia especially the
Poland where the king protected them. Eastern Europe became home to
a large Jewish communities.
4.) After the black death, the economy severed greatly. Trade declined
and production dropped by over ½. There was a shortage of workers
which caused the lords to increase the pay for their workers. Therefore
many serfs were freed from their serfdom.
5.) Political instability and war was also caused by the Black Death.
Causes:
1.) English King Edward III claimed the provinces of
Aquitaine and Gascony in France
2.) Edward III tried to seize the French throne when the
last Capetian King of France died
3.) England and France compete for control of
commercially rich Flanders.
Important developments of the war:
1.) Longbow
2.) Cannon
3.) Use of gunpowder and guns
4.) The weakening of Feudalism
War: When King Philip VI of France seized control
of the English controlled land known as Gascony,
Edward III, King of England declared war. The
war was really just an excuse for Edward III
because he already wanted control of the throne
after the death of the last Capetian dynasty.
The beginning of the war found France with an
army still using foot soldiers and crossbowmen,
while the English army was armed with the
longbow. The longbow had been invented by the
Welsh and it had greater striking power, speed
and range.
At the first battle of the War at Crecy, just south of
Flanders. The French came to the battle with a big
army but no real plans except to attack England’s
army. The English longbow destroyed the French
army. The Battle of Crecy was a huge victory for
England but they did not have the resources to take
over all of France. The new King of England Henry V
continued to battle France. France fell into the hands
of a young Charles VII. France was failing until a
young peasant girl by the name of Joan of Arc came
to the rescue of France. Joan of Arc who was deeply
religious believed that her favorite saint had told her
how to defeat the English. In 1429, she meets with
Charles VII and finally got his support for her to lead
the French army.
Joan of Arc was very successful and helped France turn it
round and begin to beat the English. Unfortunately for the
French and for Joan some people began to fear the young
girl’s power and her “voices” that were talking to her. She
was captured and turned over to the English. The English
tried her for heresy and witchcraft. She was found guilty
and burned at the stake in 1431. Joan had started a
feeling of patriotism among the French and they defeated
the English and reestablished a strong monarchy. Another
reason why the French were able to beat the English was
due to the use of gunpowder and the use of cannon. The
gunpowder and the cannon were invented by the Chinese
and the Mongols. The use of the gunpowder and the
cannon forever changed warfare.
The struggle for power continued between
the Pope and the French King. Philip IV and Pope
Boniface VIII fought over the ability of the French
King to tax the church. The Pope said that the
church did not pay taxes to a secular leader.
Philip IV was so mad, he sent a group of soldiers
to capture the pope and bring him back to France
for trial. The Pope escaped but died from the
shock of the whole experience. Philip IV then
fixed the election for the new pope to get a
Frenchman in the position. Pope Clement V
became the new pope and he moved from the
Papal States in Italy to Avignon in France.
For the next 75 years, the popes lived in Avignon which
led to a decrease in the power of the pope. In 1330s,
the popes of Avignon began to build a stately palace
for the popes, a clear indication that the pope was
planning to stay. The people of Rome and the
cardinals in the Roman church were very upset. They
believed the pope should be in Rome where the
apostle Peter served. Finally Pope Gregory XI decided
to return to Italy in 1377. Unfortunately, Gregory XI
died in Rome shortly after his return. The cardinals
meet to pick a new pope. The majority of the
cardinals were Frenchmen and the population of
Rome feared that they would name another
Frenchman as pope.
The population threatened to kill the cardinals
if they picked a Frenchman. They ended up
picking an Italian, Pope Urban VI. But five
months later, a group of dissenting cardinals
(the French ones) meet and declare the
election of Urban VI invalid and chose another
pope, Clement VII who returned to France. So
basically, the world now had two popes, one
in Rome and one in France. This is known as
the Great Schism.
The Great Schism divided Europe. The Great
Schism damaged people’s faith in the church and
the power of the pope. Finally in 1417, a church
council met in Constance, Switzerland. At the
meeting, both popes resigned and a new pope
was elected that pleased both sides.
Unfortunately for the church, the damage had
been done. Many people no longer believed that
the pope had total power and the conflicts
between the church and the monarchies had just
started.


Create a pictographic and/or descriptive
timeline of the Middle Ages.
Include:
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Europe after the fall of Rome
the importance of the church/religion
the feudalism system
Charlemagne
the Great Schism
and two other aspects of the Middle Ages of your
choice.
The End!!