THE GROWTH OF EUROPEAN KINGDOMS
THE NORMAN CONQUEST
ANGLO-SAXONS
These
Germanic ppl from
Northern Europe had invaded
England early in the 5th c.
WILLIAM: KING OF ENGLAND
 On
October 14, 1066, an army of
knights under William of Normandy
landed on the coast of England and
defeated the last of the Anglo-Saxon
kings at the Battle of Hastings
William
was then crowned king of
England
William
made all nobles swear an
oath of loyalty to him as sole ruler
of England
ENGLISH EMERGES
The Norman ruling class spoke
French, but the marriage of the
Normans with the Anglo-Saxons
nobility gradually merged the two
into a new English culture
HENRY II
 The
power of the English monarchy
was enlarged during the reign of
Henry II, from 1154-1189
 By
expanding the power of the royal
courts, Henry expanded the king’s
power
A
body of common law – law that
was common to the whole
kingdom- began to replace law
codes that varied from place to
place
THE MAGNA CARTA
Many
English nobles resented the
ongoing growth of the king’s
power and rose in rebellion during
the reign of King John
In
1215, John was forced to put
his seal on a document of
rights called the Magna Carta,
or the “ Great Charter”
Feudal
custom always recognized
that the relationship btw Kings
and vassals was based on mutual
rights and obligations
The
Magna Carta gave written
recognition to that fact and was
used in later years to strengthen
the idea that a monarch’s power
was limited, NOT absolute
THE FIRST PARLIAMENT
During the reign of Edward I,
th
(13 c) a representative gov’t
known as the English
Parliament emerged
The
Parliament was composed of
two knights from every county, two
people from every town, and all
the nobles and bishops
throughout England.
 Eventually,
the nobles and church
lords formed the House of Lords ;
knights and townspeople, the House
of Commons
 These
Parliaments granted taxes and
passed laws
THE FRENCH KINGDOM
KING PHILIP II AUGUSTUS
 The
reign of King Philip II Augustus, who
ruled from 1180-1223, was a turning
point in the growth of the French
monarchy
 Philip
waged war against the rulers of
England thus expanding the income
of the French monarchy and greatly
increased its power
 Rulers
after Philip II cont’d to add
lands to the royal domain
 By
1300 France was the largest and
best-governed monarchial state in
Europe
CHRISTIANITY AND MEDIEVAL
CIVILIZATION
THE PAPAL MONARCHY
 Since
the 5th c, the popes of the
Catholic Church had been supreme
over the affairs of the Church
 They
had also gained control of
territories in central Italy that came to
be known as the Papal States
 This
control kept the popes involved
in political matters, often at the
expense of their spiritual duties
PAPAL REFORMS
 Secular,
or lay, rulers usually chose
nominees to church offices and gave
them the symbol of their office, a
practice known as lay investiture
 Realizing
the need to be free from
secular interference in the
appointment of church officials, Pope
Gregory VII decided to fight this
practice
 Gregory
claimed that only by
eliminating lay investiture could the
Church regain its freedom
 By
“freedom” he meant the right of
the Church to appoint clergy and run
its own affairs
THE CHURCH SUPREME
 During
the papacy of Pope Innocent III
in the 13th c, the Catholic Church
reached the height of its political
power
LETTER FROM INNOCENT III

“ As God, the creator of the universe, set two great
lights in the firmament of heaven, the greater light
to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the
night so He set two great dignities in the
firmament of the universal Church, …the greater to
rule the day, that is, souls, and the lesser to rule
the night, that is, bodies. These dignities are the
papal authority and the royal power. And just as
the moon gets her light from the sun, and is
inferior to the sun….so the royal power gets the
splendor of its dignity from the papal authority”
 Innocent
used the spiritual weapons
at his command
 His favorite was the interdict – forbids
priests from giving the sacraments
(Christian rites) of the Church to a
particular group of people.
 The
goal was to cause the people
under interdiction, who were deprived
of the comforts of religion, to exert
pressure against their ruler
THE CULTURE OF THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES
THE RISE OF UNIVERSITIES
 The
university as we know it today,
with faculty, students, and degrees,
was a product of the High Middle
Ages
THE FIRST UNIVERSITIES
 The
first European university appeared in
Bologna (buh-LOH-nyuh), Italy
A
great teacher that taught Roman law
attracted students from all over Europe
(men)
 Most
were administrators for kings and
princes
 These
men were eager to learn more
about the law in order to apply it in
their own jobs
 The
first university in northern Europe
was the University of Paris
 In
the 12th c., several students and
masters(teachers) left Paris and
started their own university at Oxford,
England
 Kings,
popes, and princes thought it
honorable to found new universities
 By
1500, there were 80 universities
in Europe
UNIVERSITY CURRICULA

Students began their studies at medieval
university w/ the traditional liberal arts
curriculum
 Consisted
of grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic,
geometry, music, and astronomy
 Teaching
method
was down using the lecture
 The
word “lecture” is derived from Latin and
means “to read”
 Books
were expensive and few students
could afford them, so teachers read from
a basic text and then added their
explanations
 There
were no exams after lectures
however when a student applied for a
degree, they were given an oral
examination by a committee of
teachers
These
exams were taken after a
four-six year period of study
 Levels
of degree:
Bachelor
of arts
Masters
(Doctorate
/ PhD)
A
student cold go on to study law,
medicine, or theology
Theology
– the study of religion and God
– was the most highly regarded subject
of the medieval university
 The
study of law, medicine, or
theology could take 10 yrs or more
A
student who passed his final oral
examination in one of these areas
was granted a doctor’s degree
SCHOLASTICISM
 The
study of theology in universities was
strongly influenced by a philosophical and
theological system known as
scholasticism
 Scholasticism
tried to reconcile faith and
reason – to show that what was accepted on
faith was in harmony with what could be
learned through reason and experience
 The
chief task was to harmonize
Christian teachings with the works of
Greek philosophers
Western
Europe has been introduced to
the works of Aristotle (famous Greek
philosopher) in the 12th c
 Aristotle’s
works upset many Christian
theologians
 He had arrived at his conclusions by
rational thought and not by faith
 Some of his ideas contradicted the
teachings of the Church
 In
the 13th c. Saint Thomas Aquinas made
the most famous attempt to reconcile
Aristotle w/ the doctrines of Christianity
 His work, Summa Theologica, ( A
summary of Theology) was organized
according to the logical method of
intellectual investigation used by scholars
 He
would pose a question like “Does God
Exist?”
 He
would cite opposing opinions and then
reconcile them and arrive at a conclusion
 He
took for granted that there were
truths arrived at by reason and those
by faith
 He
was certain that the two truths
couldn’t be in conflict with each other
 He
believed that the human mind,
w/o faith, could use reason and
experience to arrive at truths
concerning the physical universe.
However, reason alone could not
grasp spiritual truths
VERNACULAR LITERATURE
Latin
was the universal language
of medieval civilization
It
enabled learned people to
communicate anywhere in Europe
 In
the 12th c, new literature was written in
the vernacular – language of everyday
speech
 Vernacular
literature became more and
more popular as educated people took
interest in new forms of entertainment
The most popular
was troubadour
poetry
 This poetry told of
the love of a knight
for a lady, who
inspires him to be a
braver knight and a
better poet

 Another
type of was the chanson de
geste or heroic epic
 The
chief events described in heroic
poems are battles and political
contests
ARCHITECTURE
 The
11th and 12th c saw a massive
increase in church building
 Churches built in the 11th c were
based on the Romanesque style
Rectangular
with flat wooden roofs
Barrel vaults were added later
A
new style, Gothic, appeared in the
12th c and was perfected in the 13th c
 These
cathedrals remain one of the
greatest artistic triumphs of the High
Middle Ages

Two innovations made these cathedrals
possible:
 Ribbed
vaults and pointed arches
 Flying buttress

The combo of ribbed vaults and pointed arches
creates an impression of upward movement, as
if the building is reaching to God
The flying buttress made it possible to
distribute weight outward and down
 b/c of this, Gothic Cathedrals were built with
thinner walls which could be filled with stained
glass windows that depicted religious scenes


The Gothic cathedral, with its towers soaring
toward heaven, bears witness to an age when
most ppl believed in a spiritual world
THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
IN THIS SECTION
There
are 3 main topics in this
section:
Black
death
The Great Schism
100 years war
THE BLACK DEATH
Basically
this is a nasty bacteriabased epidemic that was spread
along trade routes
Rats
carrying fleas that had the
bacterium were the catalyst
 The
plague spread through trade
routes
Italian
merchant ships (a playground for
rats) brought the disease with them
from the Black Sea in October 1347
By the end of the year it had spread
throughout Italy, France, and Spain

Out of a total European population of 75
million, 38 million died of the plague between
1347-1351 (4 years)
 That’s
9.5 million per year
 That’s 182,693 / week
 Over 26,000 / day
 That’s over 5 Willis’s / day

The plague spread quickest in over-crowded
cities
 Makes
sense….lots of people in close
proximity…lots of contact with each other…gross.

So…. What is it?
 This
epidemic left huge boils in the groin, neck and
armpits that oozed pus and bled when open
 Usually followed by acute fever and vomiting blood
 Most died in 2-7 days after initial infection

The symptoms of the plague included a rosy
red rash in the shape of a ring on the skin (Ring
around the rosy). Pockets and pouches were
filled with sweet smelling herbs ( or posies)
which were carried due to the belief that the
disease was transmitted by bad smells. The
term "Ashes Ashes" refers to the cremation of
the dead bodies!
SOCIAL IMPACT OF THE PLAGUE
 Imagine
that everyone around you is
dying…how would you feel?
 Don’t forget, people of the Middle
Ages are deeply religious
Many
believed the plague was sent by
God to punish them for their sins or had
been caused by the Devil himself
 The
belief that the plague was either God
or Satan, led to the outbreak of antiSemitism – hostility toward Jews
 some
towns accused Jews of poisoning the
town water supplies
 The worst attacks occurred in Germany (big
surprise) and many Jews fled to neighboring
Poland whose King offered refuge
ECONOMIC EFFECT
The
death of so many ppl in the
14th c led to a decline in trade and
shortage of workers
this
caused a dramatic increase in
the cost of labor
At
the same time, the population
decline meant that demand for
food and other goods
decline…resulting in falling prices
Some
peasants bargained with
their lords to pay rent instead of
owing services
This essentially freed them from
serfdom
DECLINE OF CHURCH POWER
European kings had grown unwilling to accept
papal claims of supremacy by the end of the
13th c.
 This was evident in the struggles btw Pope
Boniface VIII and King Philip IV

Basically, Philip wanted to tax the clergy and
Boniface said that they will not be taxed
because they are above state
 Philip disagreed and sent troops to capture
Boniface and bring him to trial

 Boniface
escaped by died soon after the ordeal
from the shock of the experience

Philip made to where a Frenchman was elected
Pope and moved the papal offices to Avignon,
France.
 From
1305-1377 popes live in Avignon…NOT Rome

Eventually the papal offices returned to Rome
in 1377 under Pope Gregory XI
 He
died soon after the journey home
THE GREAT SCHISM
After Gregory’ death an Italian was elected
Pope
 A group of French cardinals declared the
election invalid and chose a Frenchman as
pope.

This split began what is known as the Great
Schism of the Church
 This lasted from 1378-1417
 The French Pope lived in Avignon, the Italian
Pope lived in Rome

 The
allies of France recognized the French pope as
the head of the Church
 France’s enemies, mainly England and her allies,
recognized the Italian Pope as head of the Church
Both popes attacked the other and label him as
the Antichrist.
 This back and forth pestering and name-calling
led many people to lose faith in the Church’s
authority
 The Great Schism ended at a church council in
1417

By the early 1400s, the Church had lost much
of its political power
 The pope no longer had any hope of asserting
supremacy over the state
 The papacy and the Church had lost much of
their spiritual authority

THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR
1337-1453
 Was fought between France and England
 Began when the French King Philip VI tried to
invaded a small English territory in France
 This caused King Edward III of England to
declare war


Early English success was made possible by
the use of the longbow which had great striking
power, longer range, and more rapid speed of
fire than the crossbow (formerly the weapon of
choice)
The English was a few key battles at Crecy and
Agincourt
 When hope was all but lost, the French
monarchy and military rallied behind a young
woman named Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc was a deeply religious person who
came to believe she had experienced visions
from God
 She persuaded the French king to allow her to
accompany the army to Orleans

 Here,
her faith inspired the French forces and led to
a victory

Seeing her as a threat and rallying point, the
English captured Joan and she was turned over
to the Inquisition on charges of witchcraft
 Joan
was condemned as a heretic and sentence to
burn at the stake
Eventually the French won the war in 1453 with
the help of a new weapon...the cannon
 This was made possible by the invention of
gunpowder
