The Middle Ages: High and Late Medieval Europe

1. Announcements • Read Wiesner, chap. 8 for Friday, and be prepared to discuss. • Pick up essays and other graded work from Prof. C. • Note Revised schedule for next week, per online syllabus and as announced last class. • Go Sox….

2. The “Middle Ages” Why is this era important? Why this name? Dives and Lazarus

3. Images of “Medieval” world

4. Today’s Agenda • I. High Middle Ages (900-1300) • Agriculture • Towns • Crusades • Next week = Late Middle Ages (1200-1400) • Medieval Society • Universities • Plague, etc.

5. High Middle Ages (900-1300) • Major Themes: • Rural Agriculture (manorialism, demesne) • Rise of Towns • Economic expansion (int’l trade, new businesses) • Local Politics (Feudalism) & fragmented empires • Christian expansion (cathedrals, Crusades) • Intellectual growth (universities) • Religious fervor (mendicants, heresy, Inquisition) • Rural, hierarchical, continuity in daily life = Tradition • Expansion, growth, new opportunities = Innovation

6. Medieval Agriculture -everyone is involved in agriculture -influences the calendar, military strategy, life expectancy, etc. -prosperity

7. Medieval Agriculture

8. Agricultural surplus • New technologies • more efficient mills • ability to harness horses • New crops • New cultivation methods • three-field system • increased land in cultivation every year from 1/2 to 2/3rds • decreased risk of starvation due to crop failure

9. A medieval manor and the “open field” system

10. Another Medieval Manor map:How does this compare to the previous map?

12. A new power in European politics: TOWNS • Recall the link between “civilization” and “cities” • The collapse of Roman civilization was a collapse of Roman cities and all that went with their culture and society • c. 1000, towns began to re-emerge throughout Western Europe • revival of trade • made possible due to growth of European population • 900: approx. 18.5 million • 1300: approx. 49.5 million

13. Map 11.1Towns Large and Small, c. 1350

14. Town populations, c. 1350

15. Where were towns? • Geography: • trade routes (rivers, ports, roads) • Military: • near castles built to establish a royal or noble presence in the countryside • Ecclesiastical • seat of a bishop or archbishop • Historical • often built on the ruins of a Roman settlement • Always fortified by walls

16. What town is this?

17. The Geography of urban growth; Paris, c.1200 “Left Bank” = Rive Gauche = Latin Quarter = Student zone

19. A Growing TownFlorence, Italy 1200: 15K pop. 1300: 96K pop. 1350: 30K pop.

20. Various medieval towns/cities(Mont St. Michel; Lucca; Munich; Dordogne)

21. Walled medieval cities(York, Bergamo, Carcassone)

22. The Crusades

23. Religion in the Medieval Mediterranean

24. Crusades • 5 Ws • 1096-1215 • Eastern Med. & “Crusader States” • Economic expansion; religious conversion; buoyant optimism; Catholic-Orthodox antagonism; Turks’ invasion; chivalric knighthood. • Saladin; Richard Lion-Hearted; Pilgrims & Knights • Crucesignati = signed by the cross • Urban II: Call to Crusaders(p. 308, Noble) • “Dius le vult!” (God wills it)…. • Ibn Al-Athir’s perspective on Crusades (p. 310, Noble)

25. Crusader Routes(see also Noble, p. 309)

26. Crusades I-IV

27. 21st Century Crusades??

28. The Crusades live on….