Download The Late Middle Ages

The Late Middle Ages
Culture of the High Middle Ages
Universities
– Latin word universitas = “corporation” or
“guild”
– Basis for modern universities
– Lecture = “to read”
– Liberal arts education, took 4 to 6 years
Scholasticism
– Attempt to show that religious teachings
were the same as reason and science
– Show that Christian teachings would fit
works of the classical Greeks
– Saint Thomas Aquinas (Summa
Theologica)
Culture of the High Middle Ages
Vernacular
– Latin language of church and
schools
– Vernacular is the language of the
local area
– Shift to more works in an areas
vernacular
Architecture
– Focus on building churches and
castles
– Romanesque – in the style of Roman
Empire
– Gothic
Changes in Europe
Reached peak in the 13th Century
13th-14th century saw changes
– “little Ice Age” = cooler weather, more rain
– “little Ice Age” ends = warmer weather
– Plague
– Warfare
– Decline of the church
– Decline and collapse of feudalism
The Black Death (Plague)
Bubonic plague most common
(Yersinia pestis)
– Carried by fleas on black rats
– Brought by traders from the middle east
Italian cities = 50 – 60% death rate
1347 – 1351 = 19 – 38 million people
die
People felt it was sent by God or
work of the devil
– Flagellants
– Anti-Semitism – accused Jews of
causing, persecuted (“Medieval
Holocaust”)
– Destroyed trade and the feudal system
Decline of the Church
King Philip IV of France and
Pope Bonafice
– Resulted in papacy moving to
Avignon, France
– Papacy became controlled by the
French kings from 1305 – 1378
The Great Schism (1378 – 1417)
– Two popes, one elected in Rome &
one in Avignon (each claimed the
other was the Antichrist)
The Hundred Year’s War
1337 – King Philip VI of France seized
Gascony from King Edward III of
England
French army – relied mostly on
heavily armed knights
English army – had knights, but also
had peasant foot soldiers trained with
longbows
1346 – Battle of Crecy
– English victory because of longbows
1415 – Battle of Agincourt
– French lose 1,500 nobles
– English controlled northern France
The Hundred Years’ War
Joan of Arc (1412 – 1431)
– Peasant who said that visions of
saints had told her to free France
– 1429 convinced King Charles to
allow her to travel with the army to
Orleans
– French victories followed
– Captured by the English, tried and
burned at the stake for being a
witch
French finally claim victory in
1453
– Cannon and gunpowder helped
Political Instability
Feudal system dissolves
New Monarchies in Western Europe
– King Louis XI in France (use of taille)
– England – War of the Roses (civil war)
Tudor Dynasty (Henry VII)
– Spain – Ferdinand and Isabella
Drove out Muslims in 1492
Forced Jews and Muslims to convert to
Catholicism
Eastern and Central Europe
– Holy Roman Empire – Hapsburgs rule area
known as Austria
– Russia – Ivan III
– Ottoman Empire takes over Byzantine
Empire (1453)