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Medieval Period
1066 – 1485 AD
The Norman Conquest
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Normandy is Northern France
1066- Edward the Confessor dies
Anglo-Saxons proclaim Harold II king
Duke William objects
Battle of Hastings
Say bye-bye to the Anglo-Saxons
William the Conqueror
1066-1087
Medieval Timeline
House of Normandy
House of Anjou
House of York
The Rest of the House of
Normandy
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1087 - 1100 William II (William’s son)
1100 - 1135 Henry I (William II’s brother)
1135 - 1154 Stephen
THE ANARCHY or the Nineteen Year
Winter
Struggle between
Stephen and Henry’s daughter
Matilda
The House of Anjou
Plantagenets
Henry II
1154 - 1189
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William the Conqueror’s great
grandson
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Reformed the judicial system
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Established royal courts, English
common law
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French wife – Eleanor of Aquitaine
– brought the idea of chivalry to
England
Richard the Lion-hearted
1189-1199
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Also known as Coeur de Lion
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Son of Henry II
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Spent most of his reign away
from England on Crusades
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While he was gone, his brother
John ruled.
John
1199-1215
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Richard’s brother
Plotted against Richard
Villain Robin Hood legend
Taxed the barons so heavily and
made many enemies
Forced to sign the Magna Carta in
1215.
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Limited the rights of the king
Made the king subject to the rulings of
the Parliament
Guaranteed trial by a jury of one’s peers
Robin Hood?
Lithe and listen,Gentlemen,That be of free-born blood:
I shall you tell of a good yeoman- His name was Robin Hood.
Plantagenets continued
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1215-1272 Henry III (John’s son)
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1272-1307 Edward I (Henry III’s son)
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Parliament began to meet -- council of barons
Model parliament -- included commoners
1307-1327 Edward II (Edward I’s son)
 1295 AD – commoners were included in
Parliament (House of Commons, House of
Lords)
Life for commoners in London…
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Increase in trade (guilds)
English was language of trade (upper class
spoke French)
Trade growth led to the decline of the feudal
system
Crowded towns, poor sanitation, disease
Plantagenets continued again!
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1327-1377 Edward III (Edward II’s son)
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1377 -- Hundred Year’s War began
1348 -- The Black Death
1377-1399 Richard II (Edward III’s
grandson)
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1381 -- The Peasants’ Revolt
1399 -- forced abdication
1400 -- murdered
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1337 – 1453 AD – Hundred
Years’ War between
France and England
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England was successful until
Joan of Arc helped lead
France to victory
Black Death (Bubonic Plague)
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1/3 -- 1/2 of population
died
Carried by fleas and
rats
Upper class became
more dependent on
lower classes
“Ring around the
Roses” = symptoms of
plague?
Black Death (Bubonic Plague)
The House of Lancaster
 1399
- 1413 Henry IV
 1413 -1422 Henry V
 1422 – 1461 Henry VI
 1470 – 1471 Henry VI (part 2)
The House of York
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1461-1483 Edward IV
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son of Richard of York
who was grandson of Edmund
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 5th son of Edward III and the son of Anne
 Anne was great-granddaughter of Lionel, 3rd son of
Edward III)
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1483
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Edward V
12 years old when he became king
Disappeared in the Tower of London
House of York continued
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1483-1485 Richard III
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Rumored to have had his nephews killed
Villain of Shakespeare play
Reputed to have murdered many people for the
throne
Killed at the Battle of Bosworth by a Lancastrian
called Henry Tudor, who would later become
Henry VIII and found the House of Tudor
1455 AD – War of the Roses Begins
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2 rival families fight for the throne
House of York – white rose
House of Lancaster – red rose
1485 AD – War ends when House of Lancaster
succeeds
Marks the end of
the Middle Ages
John Pettie (1839–1893) The Scene in the Temple Garden from Henry VI, Part 1
Living in Medieval
England
1066-1485
Clothing
More Clothing
Feudalism
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Feudalism – political and economic system
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Hierarchy of power
King owned all the land
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kept 1/4 for himself
gave 1/4 to the church
gave the rest to nobles (barons) who swore allegiance to the
king. The barons granted land to lesser nobles and required
service from them and so on down the social ladder.
King
Barons
French
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Barons built castles
for protection
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Serfs could not own
land
Knights
Serfs
Anglo-Saxons
Decline in Feudalism
Rise of the middle class
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Magna Carta gave more power to nobles
Model Parliament included commoners
Growth of medieval towns - Crusades
Guilds
Universities -- science, mathematics,
religion
Heraldry
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Visual representation of family lineage
Symbolic meanings
Family mottos
The Kennedy Clan
Chivalry
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From the French word “cheval”
- horse
Brought to England by Eleanor
of Aquitaine
Code of honor intended to
govern knightly behavior
Encouraged knights to honor
and protect ladies
“Courtly love”
A lady’s love made the knight
a better person
Knights went on holy quests or
crusades
Tales of Chivalry
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King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
Sir Lancelot
Sir Galahad
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Medieval Literature
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Oral tradition
Troubadours – poets, sang songs of courtly love,
politics, and religion
Folk ballads, mystery plays (stories from the
Bible), miracle plays (stories of saints), morality
plays (represented virtues and vices), romances
Served as entertainment and historical
preservation
Language
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Nobles and upper
class spoke only
Norman French
Only lower and middle
class spoke English
until early 14th century
Many words are
borrowed from the
French
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Spoken and written
language varied
greatly among the
different regions
East midland dialect
was prestigious
(London dialect)
1400 – William Caxton
introduced printing
Middle English
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Increased vocabulary
Natural gender
Softer pronunciation
Word order
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Subject/predicate
Comparing Middle to Modern
English
MIDDLE ENGLISH:
“Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droughte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendered is the flour;”
MODERN ENGLISH:
“When in April the sweet showers fall
And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all
The veins are bathed in liquor of such power
As brings about the engendering of the flower,”
Geoffrey Chaucer &
The Canterbury
Tales
There was a Knight, a most distinguished man,
who from the day on which he first began
to ride abroad had followed chivalry,
truth, honor, generousness and courtesy.
- Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey
Chaucer
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1343 to 1400
Born to a well-to-do merchant family
in London
Parents are John and Agnes
Appears to have been significantly
educated
Spent the majority of his life in
service to the king
Marries Phillipa- who is in service to
the royal family.
Four childrenThomas, Lewis, Elizabeth & Agnes.
Buried in Westminster Abbey. The
first of “The Poet’s Corner”
Civil Work & Services
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Served as squire and “valettus” (chamber valet) in
Edward III’s court
Served in the war in France (1359-60), captured by
French, had his ransom paid for by the king of
England and began working in the royal service
Traveled in the king’s service to France, Spain, and
Italy
Served as a Justice of Peace in England
Numerous royal annuities from many different kings
and nobles, such as
 Money
 Alcohol
 Wool
Chaucer’s Literary Life
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He did his writing in
the later part of his
life
Major works include:
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The Book of the
Duchess
Troilus and Criseyde
The Canterbury Tales
ChauThe pilgrimcerThe Pilgrim
Writing Style
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Well read and educated in many subjects
Learned many writing styles from his travels
In touch with French poets (Eustache Deschamps)
Used and adapted Italian styles, like Petrarchan
sonnets (abba)
Translated numerous pieces such as
Le
Roman de la Rose (Le Romaunt of the Rose)
Canterbury
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Located in England
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Location of Saint Thomas ‘a
Becket’s death
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Archbishop of Canterbury
Gave up many material signs
of his wealth which angered
king
Disagreed with many of the
king’s ideas, including
taxation, and was exiled
1170-Four knights came to
Canterbury, tried to drag him
out of the church, failed, and
killed him in the church by
cracking open his head
The Martyrdom- Where St. Thomas ‘a Becket was
murdered
• The Martyrdom is in the north-west transept
of the Cathedral.
• Here Becket was murdered on 29 December
1170, just after Vespers.
• The modern sculpture was added above the
Altar of the Sword's Point in 1986.
• The white pavement marked off by black
marks the spot where, according to
Canterbury tradition, Thomas' head struck the
floor.
What was the big deal in Canterbury?
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Within days of the murder of Archbishop Thomas on Tuesday, 29 December 1170, miracles
began to be reported at the martyr's tomb in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral.
Becket's fame as a miracle worker spread, and people began coming to his tomb to make
requests of the saint, even before his official canonization by Pope Alexander III in 1173.
Nor were the pilgrims confined to the lower, poorer classes - King Henry II himself made a
pilgrimage in 1174 to ask for Becket's forgiveness for any part he may have played in Becket's
murder, and as penance he allowed the monks of Canterbury to scourge him
Henry was facing a rebellion by his sons, who were backed by King Louis VII of France, and the
king of Scotland had also invaded England from the north. When the king of Scotland was
captured by Henry's troops on the very day that Henry abased himself at Becket's tomb, everyone
took it as a sign that Becket had forgiven the king.
Some years later, King Louis VII also visited Becket's tomb to pray the saint's aid in curing his
only son and heir Philip, who was seriously ill.Philip recovered and in gratitude Louis lavished gifts
upon the monks at Canterbury.
As Becket's reputation spread throughout England and Europe, the trickle of pilgrims to his shrine
swelled to a flood, and Canterbury came to rival the other great Christian pilgrimage sites Santiago Compostela in Spain, Rome, and even The Holy Land.
The pilgrims brought great revenues to Canterbury which the monks used to rebuild the cathedral
and increase its size, in order to accommodate the pilgrim traffic and to glorify the saint.
Of course the popularity of Canterbury as a destination for pilgrims inspired Geoffrey Chaucer to
compose one of the greatest works of English literature: the Canterbury Tales.
Pilgrimages
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An act of penance
Done by walking, riding, or sea travel
Travel to places important to Christianity
Pilgrims would often bring back relics
Some became professional pilgrims who
would do numerous pilgrimages
Many turned pilgrimages into holidays or
vacations instead of acts of penance
People falsely claiming to be pilgrims were
punished
Fake Pilgrims
1412-William Blakeney
• Shuttlemaker
• Lived as a hermit
• Went barefoot with wild hair
• Lived off of sanctity from
others
• Claimed to have made pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome,
Venice and Spain
• Admitted to lying while in Court
• Put in the town pillory for three days with a whetstone
tied around his neck
The Canterbury Tales
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Frame Tale-a story that is the
framework for the telling of
other stories
Began to be written in 1386
All pilgrims represent different
aspects of the society and
social classes of the time
Written in iambic pentameter
The Importance of
The Canterbury Tales
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The major literary achievement in Middle English
Pilgrimage to St. Thomas `a Beckett in
Canterbury
Shows the wide variety of Medieval life and social
class
A frame tale -- a story within a story
Characterization -- high point of Chaucer’s work
Sources -- not original stories -- adapted
The Literary Elements in The
Canterbury Tales
The literary elements..
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Tone
Rhythm -- iambic pentameter
Irony
Speaker
Moral
Personification
Drama
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Began with Easter drama performed by monks
based on the Roman Catholic Rosary prayers
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Mystery plays -- based on the Bible
Miracle plays -- based on the saints
Morality plays
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Allegorical
Simple plots
Characters personify abstractions: Beauty, Gluttony, Virtue
EXAMPLE: Everyman