Download The Late Middle Ages: Social and Political Breakdown

The Late Middle Ages:
Social and Political
Breakdown
(1300-1527)
The Late Middle Ages was an era marked
by major social, religious, and health
crises. War, plague, social unrest, and
religious schism characterized this era.
The Hundred Years’ War and the
Rise of the Nationalist Sentiment
• During the late Middle Ages, tremendous
violence and political unrest led to the
breakdown of European governments.
• Toward the end of the period, monarchs in
England and France began to reassert their
power.
• The Hundred Years’ War was the result of
their struggle for control.
The Hundred Years’ War
(1337-1453)
• The Hundred years’ War
began when the English king
Edward III claimed his right
to the French throne after the
death of Charles IV.
• The territorial proximity of
England and France and their
quarrel over rights to Flanders
exacerbated the dispute.
Edward III
Success and Weakness in the War
English success in the
war was due to its
military superiority and
its use of weaponry like
the longbow.
French weakness was
due to territorial
infighting and a lack of
leadership.
Sieges and Battles
• Fighting consisted primarily of sieges and
raids.
• The battles of Crécy (1346), and Poitiers
(1356), and Angicourt (1415) were significant
victories for the British.
• The Peace of Brétigny (1360) recognized
English holdings in France, in exchange for
Edward III renouncing his claim to the French
throne.
Joan of Arc (1412-1431)
• A peasant from Domrémy who
claimed she heard the voices of
God, led the French victory in
the Battle of Orleans.
• Joan served as an inspiration for
the French, who eventually
defeated the English and won
the war.
• Joan was later burned at the
stake at Rouen as a heretic for
refusing to recant her beliefs.
The Black Death
Also known as The
Bubonic Plague, came
about as a result of
decades of
overpopulation,
economic depression,
famine, and bad health
and hygiene in some
European regions.
Although there were terrible famines and the Black Death
deteriorated the population, wiping out whole villages and
townships, this age left so few able-bodied people that they were
unable to tend the fields and to plant the next year’s grain. In some
cities people certainly starved through ignorance and prejudice.
There were many natural foods, plants and fruits, which were
rejected and avoided due to lack of knowledge and understanding.
The “Black” Death
• The Black death was named for the
discoloration of the body.
• It is believed to have been introduced by
seaborne rats from the Black Sea area.
• By the early fifteenth century, western
Europe had lost as much as 40% of its
population to the plague.
Who’s to blame?
• Lack of sophisticated medicine led to
superstitions about the reasons for the
plague, including poisonous fumes released
during earthquakes and a corruption in the
atmosphere.
• Jews were sought as scapegoats for the
plague and were persecuted.
Remedies and Self-Inflicted Pain
• Popular remedies
against the plague
included the use of
leeches.
• Flagellants
believed that
beating themselves
until they bled
would bring about
divine
intervention.
Economic Effects
• Farm laborers decreased in numbers, but the number of
skilled artisans increased dramatically
• Peasants rebelled against efforts by governments to limit
their wages
• Opposition to such legislation spurred the English
peasants’ revolt of 1381
• Cities and skilled industries prospered from the effects
of the plague, which created a need for more expensive
goods.
• The economic power of trade guilds and artisans grew.
Ecclesiastical Breakdown and Revival:
The Late Medieval Church
• Pope Innocent III (r. 1198-1216) transformed the
church into a secular power, creating a papal
monarchy with a political mission that included
disposing the benefices and declaring saints.
• Pope Urban IV (r. 1261-1264) continued the
secularization of the church by establishing its
own law court, the Rota Romana, and by
broadening the distribution of benefices
• The College of Cardinals became politicized.
Papal Legacies
• Pope Boniface VIII (r. 1294-1303) refused the
English and French efforts to tax the clergy, and
issued a bull, Clericis laicos, which forbade
taxation of the clergy without papal approval.
• Boniface was forced the make a concession to
Phillip the Fair of France, but the dispute led the
two into further debates.
• In 1302, Boniface issued the bull, Unam
Sanctum, which declared that temporal authority
was subject to the power of the church.
• Pope Clement V moved the papacy to
Avignon, to avoid the French King and Rome.
• The time in Avignon was called the
“Babylonian Captivity”, in an allusion to the
biblical bondage of the Israelites.
<-- Pope Boniface VIII
Pope Clement V -->
• Pope John XXII (r. 1316-1417) tried to
restore the papacy of Rome.
• William of Ockham and Marsilius of Padua
protested papal power.
• John Wycliffe and John Huss led the popular
lay movements, the Lollards and the Hussites,
that protested the rights of the papacy.
Pope John XXII; William of Ockham; Marsilius of Padua; John Wycliffe; John Huss
The Great Schism (1378-1417)
• The Great Schism occurred when Pope
<-- Clement VII, a cousin of the French
king, was elected by a council of
cardinals just five months after they had
elected an Italian archbishop, Pope
Urban VI. -->
• Two papal courts now claimed the right
to power.
• Cardinals disposed both popes and
elected a new pope, Alexander V.
<-• For a time there were three popes who
claimed spiritual authority.
The Council Movement
• An effort to control regulate actions of the
pope by councils, grew during this time.
• In 1414, the council of Constance met.
• In a document known as the Sacrosancta,
the council recognized the Roman pope
Gregory XII, and one pope ruled.
Medieval Russia
• Prince Vladimir of Kiev (972-1015) chose Greek
orthodoxy as the religion of Russia.
• Kiev was a cultural center that revived Constantinople.
• Three cultural group- the Great Russians, the White
Russians, and the Little Russians (Ukranians)- developed.
• Russia’s hierarchical social structure divided freeman
(clergy, army officers, boyars, townspeople, and peasants)
from slaves.
• Debtors made up an intermediate group.
• Mongols led by Ghengis Khan ruled Russia in 1223, and
Russian cities became parts of the Mongol Empire until
their liberation by Grand Duke Dimitri and Ivan the
Great.