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Victories And Defeats “If we continue this, it will be all over with us. We shall soon perish unless we can summon up a different spirit. Therefore we urge you, who are holy men, to pray God without ceasing that he may change the temper of the Christian kings, rouse the spirit of his people, and kindle the hearts of the faithful…..Up, brethren! Up, Sons! Turn to God with all your hearts. Watch and pray; atone for your sins by fasting and giving alms; bring forth works meet for repentance; for thus God will be appeased, and have mercy on us….” Pope Pius II
The Crusades • In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the external threats to Christian Europe began to be reversed. • Christian feudalism had been adopted by the Vikings, the Magyars etc. and had turned back the Muslim threat.
In these altered circumstances and with the improved methods of warfare (horseback, armoured knights and so on), Christian feudalism began to look to expand. • Hence the crusades • The crusades were not the policy of nations or of national statesmen rather theindividual activity of knights, the Knight Errant. • Crusades were European and they were directed at their Asiatic neighbours, i.e. along the Danube and the Mediterranean • England, being on the periphery of Europe did not play a large part in the crusades (at least not in the first two) • Richard the Lionheart, however, did get involved in the third crusade but most of the nobility remained back in England to look after his kingdom. • Although not directly involved England benefitted indirectly. • The Crusades enriched and enlarged the mentality of medieval Christendom. • Opened up trade routes, exposed Christendom to the superior civilisations of the Saracens and Byzantines. • Even the art of fortification was greatly enhanced by what the crusaders found in the east.
The crusades had been undertaken to try to liberate the ‘Holy Sepulchre’, establish a fraternal unity of Christendom and establish a strong Byzantine Empire to shore up the defences against the east. • They were a complete and utter failure on all counts. • Yet it had been successful in unforeseen ways. • They achieved an increase in commerce, craftsmanship and luxury. • Made discoveries which led to the origin of science as we know it. • Although this came at a great price, just look at how the word crusade is used today. • They also contributed to the relationship the West has with the East today.
The Black Death • Affected rats but spread by fleas. • Called the Black Death due to the black spots it caused. • Killed with amazing speed: The Italian writer Boccaccio said its victims often "ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise.“ • Medieval society never recovered from the results of the plague. So many people had died that there were serious labor shortages all over Europe. This led workers to demand higher wages, but landlords refused those demands. By the end of the 1300s peasant revolts broke out in England.. • The disease took its toll on the church as well. People throughout Christendom had prayed devoutly for deliverance from the plague. Why hadn't those prayers been answered? A new period of political turmoil and philosophical questioning lay ahead.
The Hundred Years’ War (part 1) • “The tyranny and cruelty of the English are notorious throughout the world, as manifestly appears in their usurpations against the Scots, French, Welsh, Irish and neighboring lands” wrote a Scot in 1422. • The French also disapproved of the English, citing their habit of deposing and murdering their kings and children of kings • From Edward I’s reign there wasn't a decade until the fifteenth century that Englishmen were not at war. • 1337-1453 The Hundred Years’ War (the English weren’t very good at maths) • At root it was a war of succession but also an excuse for the barons to plunder the French lands. • The English claimed the French crown for the English king, Edward III (King Charles IV had died without an heir and Edward’s mother was the sister of the deceased Charles) • The French, claimed the line of succession could not pass through a woman and they crowned Philip of Valois (the uncle of Charles) as Philip VI. • But succession was just one reason to go to war.
The Hundred Years’ War (part 2) Also a war of 1.feudal power and 2.trade. • Gascony, a region of France, was a fief of the English kings held from the French Crown. Gascony was an important wine growing area, it also produced steel and ships, and imported wool and wheat from England. • The English want it absolutely • The French also wanted it absolutely • Flanders, another region in France, belonged to the French Crown. It was also a major center of cloth making and heavily dependent on supplies of English wool. The English encouraged the cloth makers to rebel against the duke and align themselves with the English. The English hoped to bring both these regions under their control. Initially the war went well and the English took Paris and much of northern France. However, squabbling barons at home hindered their campaign When the war concluded, in 1453, only Calais remained in English hands. Geographically they were worse off than when the war had started.
The Hundred Years’ War (part 3) But the results of the war were not entirely negative. • Artillery was first used in the Hundred Year’s War and proved very effective against castles. Thus production increased and tradesmen/business men benefitted. The importance of armaments added even more power to the rising middle-class at the expense of the old aristocracy. • The French Crown may have emerged stronger at the end of the Hundreds’ Year war. Yet, the failure to conquer Flanders motivated the English to improve their cloth industry. Soon England was not only a producer of raw wool but a manufacturer of cloth also. By the end of the fifteenth century England was fulfilling the domestic need for cloth and exporting the excess. In general, the war accelerated the decline of feudalism. • The baronial class lost power to the industrial class. • Their castles were no longer invulnerable • War was no longer only about land, theology or politics but trade also.
