Medieval Europe at Its Height

1. Medieval Europe at Its Height A.D. 1050-1500 Chapter 13 By: Michel Kernizan

2. The Crusades Section 1 • Early Middle Ages were characterized by decentralized government, warfare, cultural isolation, famine, and wretched living conditions, but by A.D. 1100, the conditions in Europe had begun to improve. • Strong central governments have been built by some succeeded European monarchs. • Better farming methods developed, town and trade began to reappear, and the church held a powerful sway over the emotions and energies of the people. • Changes in religion, society, politics, and economics made the High Middle Ages (A.D. 1050 to A.D. 1270) a springboard for a new and brilliant civilizations in western Europe.

3. Continued… • The transformation of medieval society began with a holy war over Jerusalem between the European Christians and the Muslims. • The European Christians undertook nine series of military expeditions to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. • These expeditions were known as the Crusades.

4. Call For a Crusade • Jerusalem was a holy city for the Jews, Christians, and the Muslims. • The Jews regarded it as Zion, God’s own city, and as the site of Solomon's temple. • The Christians stated it was holy because it was the place were Jesus was crucified and resurrected. • The Muslims said it was the third holiest city after Makkah and Madinah. It was the place were Muhammad ascended to heaven from Jerusalem.

5. Jerusalem • Fell to Arab invaders in A.D. 600s. • Late in A.D. 1000s, the Seljuk Turks (central Asian Muslim people) took Jerusalem and left Palestine in chaos. Hazards of pilgrimage increased.

6. First Crusade 1096A.D.-1099A.D. • 1095 A.D., Pope Urban II asked for a volunteer army to take Jerusalem and Palestine form the Seljuks. • The Crusade was a welcome chance for the knights to employ their fighting skills. • The Crusade meant freedom from feudal bonds for the peasants. • All were promised immediate salvation if they were killed. • Adventure and a possibility of wealth were other reasons to join. • Red crosses of cloth were stitched on clothing as a symbol of service to God.

7. Continued • The First Crusade marked the onset of a long period of Christian persecution of the Jews. • French nobles led three armies of Crusader knights and volunteers that traveled separately from western Europe to the eastern Mediterranean. • The three armies met in Constantinople in 1097 A.D. and made there way to Jerusalem, enduring the hardships of desert travel as well as quarrels among their leaders. • In 1099 A.D., the crusaders reached the city. After almost two months, Jerusalem fell. Most of the Muslim and Jewish inhabitants were massacred. • Success of the First Crusade reinforce the authority of the Church and strengthened the self-confidence of western Europe.

8. Continued • Contact between the Crusaders and the relatively more sophisticated civilizations of the Byzantines and Muslims would continued for the next 100 years and become a major factor in ending the cultural isolation of western Europe.

9. Second Crusade • Less than 50 years after the First Crusade, the Seljuks conquered part of the Crusader states in Palestine. • The Second Crusade was called a pond by Pope Eugenius IV to regain the territory. • Monk Bernard of Clairvaux persuaded King Louis VII of France and the Roman Emperor Conrad III to lead armies to Palestine. • Second Crusade lasted from 1147 A.D. to1149 A.D.. • Was unsuccessful because Louis VII and Conrad III constantly quarreled and had an ineffective militarily. • Were easily defeated by the Seljuks.

10. Third Crusade • Also so know as the “Crusade of Kings” lasted from 1189 A.D. to 1152 A.D. • A diplomatic and forceful leader named Saladin united the Muslim forces and captured Jerusalem in 1187 A.D. which stunned and horrified people of western Europe. • Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, King Philip Augustus of France, and King Richard I of England assembled warriors for the Third Crusade. • Not more successful than the Second Crusade. • Frederick Barbarossa died on his way to Palestine and his army returned home. • Philip Augustus returned home before his army reached Jerusalem, which left Richard to struggle alone.

11. Continued • Richards’ army defeated the Muslims in several battles but could not win a decisive victory over Saladin’s well-trained forces. • After three years of fighting, Richard signed a truce with the Muslims. • Tried to persuade Saladin to return to Jerusalem to the Christians but was denied. • Saladin allowed Christians pilgrims access to Jerusalem.

12. Effects of the Crusades • Crusades helped to speed up the pace of changes already underway in western Europe. • Helped break down feudalism and increase the authority of kings. • European monarchs levied taxes, raised armies, and cooperated on a large scale. • Dead nobles without heirs, lands were pasted to kings. • Many lesser nobles sold their estates of allowed their serfs to buy their freedom to become freeholders on the land or artisans in towns, to raise money for weapons. • Contact with more advanced Byzantine and Muslim civilizations broadened European view of the world.

13. Continued • The European presence in the East heightened demand at home for Eastern luxury goods: spices, sugar, melons, tapestries, silk, and other items. • Commerce increased in the Eastern Mediterranean area. • Muslims learned how to build better ships, make more accurate maps, use magnetic compass, and improve their weaponry. • Religious military orders of knights primarily aided pilgrims, but they were also bankers for both princes and merchants. • Crusader states were relatively weak. • The arrive of the Crusaders united the Muslims against a common enemy.

14. Economic and cultural Revival Section 2 • Economy of western Europe begun to thrive around 1000 A.D. • Opportunities in trade encouraged the growth of towns in turn stimulated creative thought and innovations in art. • Heavier plows were invented which enabled farmers to cultivate new lands and increased food production. Nobles and freeholders migrated to new areas clearing forest, draining swamps, and building villages. • Collar harness replaced the ox yoke. The ox yoke choked the horse, but the new collar shifted weight allowing the horses to pull the plow faster than the oxen, also allowing the farmers to grow more crops. • As the land began to feed more people, the population increase.

15. Expansion of Trade • Revival of towns caused a rapid expansion of trade. • Important sea and river routes connected western Europe, and Scandinavia. • The Roman road system was rebuilt and carried international traders to and from Europe. • Italian towns such as Venice, Pisa, and Genoa and controlled the Mediterranean trade after A.D. 1200, bringing silks and spiced from Asian to Europe. • Flanders (present-day northern France) and southwestern Belgium became the center of trade on Europe’s northern coast. Textiles were produced there and were sent to the Black sea and then traded at the Middle Eastern markets for porcelain, silk, and silver.

16. Continued… • Towns along the Baltic coast form the Hanseatic League, which controlled trade between eastern Europe and the North Atlantic. • In a town, merchandise was varied and seemingly endless. • Hundreds of traders met at trade fairs each year at places convenient to the land and water routes. • Feudal lords charged the merchants fees, charged taxes on goods, and offered protection to the merchants. • Champagne was the most famous fair in eastern France located almost in the exact center of Europe.

17. Banking • Early merchants used the barter system. • Merchants found that system impractical and would only accept money on luxury goods such as silk. • The rise of money economy lead to the growth of banking. • Since the traders came from different countries they had different currencies. • Moneychangers (often Jews or Italians) determined the value of currencies and exchanged one currencies for another. • They also developed procedures for transferring funds from one place to another, received deposits, and arranged loans, which made them become the first bankers in Europe.

18. Continued… • The word bank comes from banca, or bench that the moneychangers set up at fair. • Kings, clergy, and nobles became dependent on money to pay their expenses.

19. Growth of Towns • Towns grew tremendously between 1000 and 1100 A.D. beside well traveled roads or beside waterways. • Townspeople built walls (made out of stone with a guard tower at the gate) around there city to protect themselves from bandits. • Medieval towns had almost no sanitation and a constant stench. • Garbage and sewage were tossed into the streets. These conditions lead to a rapid spread of diseases such as diphtheria, typhoid, influenza, and malaria. These diseases turned into epidemics such as the • Bubonic plague a.k.a. Black Death was the worst epidemics between 1348 A.D. and 1350 A.D. which killed one-third of the population.

20. Medieval Towns • Inside the walls narrow, winding streets bustled with people, cart drawn by horses and oxen, and farm animals on the way to the market. • Church bells chimed the hours: carts piled high with goods creaked and rumbled through streets about the size of alleys. • Shop lined the streets at ground level, and the shop owners live above the shops. • Most building were made of wood and thatch roofs which made fire a constant hazard.

21. Guilds • Guilds are business associations that merchants and artisans organized themselves into during the 1100 A.D.. • The guilds primary function was to maintain a monopoly of the local market for its members. • Guilds restricted trading by foreigners in their city and enforced uniform pricing. • Craft guilds, regulated the work of artisans; carpenters, shoemakers, blacksmiths, masons, tailors, weavers. Women worked as laundresses, seamstresses and embroiders, and maidservants and had their own trade associations. • Craft guilds established strict rules concerning prices, wages and employment. Craft guilds also prohibited competition.

22. Continued… • Craft guilds were controlled by masters which were artisans who owned their own shops and tools and employed less skilled artisans as helpers. • Artisans severed an apprenticeship to become a master at a particular craft. The length of apprenticeship varied according to the difficultly of the craft. • Apprentices worked for a master with no pay. • After being an apprentice they became a journeyman, which received pay. Journeyman could only work under a master. • Journeyman then submitted a work of art to the guild for approval, if it was approved, the journeyman could set his shop. • Guilds also provided medical and unemployment relief to its members. • They also organized social and religious life by sponsoring out door plays, banquets, and holy day processions.

23. Rise of the Middle Class • In medieval towns or burgs, a name for a new class of people was created. In German it was burghers, in France it was bourgeoisie, in England its was burgesses. • The name originally referred to anyone who live in a town, but it eventually came to mean the people who made money through the money economy. • The middle class included bankers, artisans who no longer had to rely on the land to make a living, and merchants. • The middle class turned towns into organized municipalities. • Kings began to rely on the middle class for loans and income taxes they paid.

24. Town Government • Conflict developed between the feudal classes and the burghers, • The burghers wanted to run there own affairs, while the feudal lords began to strictly enforce feudal laws to keep the burghers in line. • In A.D. 1000 the money gave the towns the income and power they needed to win the struggle against the lords. • Italian towns formed groups called communes which made the Italian towns independent city-states. • In other parts of Europe, the kings and nobles granted charters which allowed the cities to control their own affairs. • Many town also remained a part of a kingdom or feudal territory.

25. Education • Education was controlled by the clergy. • As town grew, the need for educated officials increased. • The growth of courts and other legal institutions created a need for lawyers. • Around A.D.1150, students and teachers began meeting away form monastery and cathedral and formed universities.

26. Universities • Began as a guild of scholars organized for learning. • Classes were held in rented rooms, churches, or outdoors and met regularly. • Teachers read the text and discussed it while the students took notes on slates. • Universities spread throughout Europe by the end of 1200 A.D. • Most southern European universities were modeled after the law school at Bologna, Italy, and specialized in law and medicine. • Northern Europe specialized in theology and liberal arts and were modeled after the University of Paris.

27. New Learning • Medieval scholars studied the works of Aristotle, Muslim writing, and Roman law. • Much information was reached by Muslim and Jewish scholars in European Muslim strongholds. • European contact with Muslim scientific thought sparked an interest in the physical world led to the rise of western science. • Church leaders opposed Aristotle’s works because his ideas threatened Christian teachings. Although some scholars used Aristotle’s works to theological questions and developed a system of thought called scholasticism which emphasized the interpretation of the Christian doctrine.

28. Continued… • Thomas Aquinas was the most important scholastic thinker in 1200 A.D.. • Wrote the Summa Theologica in which he claimed that reason was God’s gift that could provide answers to basic philosophical questions. Reason, he said, exited in harmony with faith, both pointing to God and the orderliness of creation. • Catholic Churches accepted and promoted his way of thinking.

29. Strengthening of Monarchy Section 3 • England fought to keep French lands inherited from the Normans. • France’s king wanted to unite these lands to their kingdom. • In 1337 A.D. warfare began when England’s Edward III claimed the French crown. • Between 1337 A.D. and 1453 A.D., England and France fought a series of conflicts, known as the Hundred Years’ War.

30. England defeated France at Crécy in 1346 A.D. and Agincourt in 1415 A.D. England basically won because of better weaponry such as a firearm that was the forerunner of the cannon and the longbow. In 1429 A.D., a 17-year-old Joan of Arc told King Charles VII that heavenly voices had told her to save France. She inspired a French army to a victory at Orléans, which had been a town under siege by England. Joan fell into English hands and was burned at the stake for witchcraft. However, her courage led the French to gradually drive the English out of France. Calais was the only French territory in English hands at the end of the war. Major Battles Joan of Arc

31. Effects of the War • Since the war occurred on French soil, France suffered much worse than England. • The war gave France a new sense of unity. • England’s defeat lead to bitterness among the nobles who had lost French lands. Fro the rest of the 1400 A.D., England was divided by social conflict. • England’s defeat also allowed England to focus on problems at home. • The Hundred Years’ War hasted the decline of feudalism. • Longbows and firearms made feudal warfare based on castles and mounted knight became outdated. • Feudal soldiers were replaced by national armies which were expensive and monarchs turned to townspeople for a source of revenue. • These groups willingly paid taxes and made loans in return for security and good government.

32. France • In the late 1400s, France’s monarchy won much prestige and power. • Louis XI the son of Charles VII, strengthened the bureaucracy, kept the nobles under royal control, and promoted trade and agriculture, and worked to unite all French feudal lands under his crown. • Louis also gained partial control of Burgundy, which is one of Europe’s most prosperous areas by encouraging quarrels between Burgundy and the neighboring Swiss. • When Burgundy’s ruler, Charles the Bold died in battle with the Swiss, in 1477, Burgundy was divided between his daughter Mary and the French king.

33. England • During the Hundred Years’ War English monarchy’s power was limited by the Parliament, which had won the right to levy taxes, approve laws, and provide advice. • Royal authority decreased because of nobility for control of the throne. This began in 1455 A.D. and was known as the Wars of the Roses because the symbols of the rival families were roses. The royal house of Lancaster bore the red roses and its rival family, the hose of York, bore the white roses. • During this war Edward, duke of York, overthrew the Lancaster dynasty and became King Edward IV. • He worked to strengthen royal government and to promote trade. • His death in 1483 A.D. brought uncertainty to England.

34. Continued… • The heirs to the throne were his two sons, however Edward’s brother Richard proclaimed himself king and locked his young nephews in the Tower of London where they probably were murdered. • Richard III lacked widespread support and fell to the forces of Henry Tudor, a Lancaster noble, on the Bosworth Field in A.D. 1485 and became the first Tudor king and was known as King Henry VII. • He eliminated royal claimants to the throne, increased royal power over the nobles, and avoided costly foreign wars. • English monarchy emerged from the War of the Roses strengthened with few challengers.

35. Spain • In 1469 A.D. Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile were married, but there kingdoms maintained separate governments, and royal power was limited by local interest. • Christians, Jewish, and Muslims settling in Muslim areas had their own laws and officials in Castile and Aragon and were also royal charters allowed many towns to keep there courts and local customs. • In Castile, the two monarch worked to strengthen royal power by sending out officials to govern the towns and set up special courts in the countryside to enforce royal laws. • In A.D. 1492 their armies forced the surrender of the last Moorish stronghold at Granada. • Ferdinand and Isabelle wanted all Spaniards to be Catholic. • Spanish Jews and Moors were ordered to convert or leave.

36. Continued… • The persecution and departure of many Jews and Moors weakened Spain’s economy and culture. • The Spanish monarchy set the Spanish Inquisitions to enforce Catholic teaching. • It tortured, tried, and punished anyone suspected of heresy. This strengthened the power of Spanish monarchs over their people.

37. The Holy Roman Empire • Made up of largely of German, Italian, and Slavic lands, and was Europe’s largest political unit. • This empire was farthest from achieving unity under a strong monarch. • Emperors were elected by a diet, or assembly of mostly German princes who governed their local territories as independent rulers. • The German princes could reject or accept the emperors request for taxes and soldiers. • In 1356 A.D. seven princes participate in the imperial elections. • In 140s they began choosing emperors from the Hapsburgs, which is a family of nobles based in Austria.

38. Continued… • The Hapsburg emperors could not unify the empire, but were able to increase their prestige by securing other areas of Europe. • One of Hapsburg most ambitious emperors was Maximilian I. • He was elected emperor in 1493, married Mary or Burgundy and acquired present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg as part of Hapsburg inheritance. • His grandson, Charles, became emperor as Charles VI and under him, the Hapsburg became the most powerful European royal family, ruling Spain, Austria, Germany, the Low countries (present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg), and much of Italy.

39. Eastern Europe • In eastern Europe, between present-day Germany and Russia, the largest and most powerful kingdoms were Poland and Hungary.

40. Poland • Poland was formed in the 900s A.D. by the West Slavs, and had accepted Roman Catholicism and close ties with western Europe. • The Poles fought groups of Teutonic Knights for controls of areas of Poland near the Baltic sea around about 1000s A.D. • Poland’s golden age was around 13002 under King Casmir III, who reduced the power of local nobles and formed a strong central government. • In 1386 A.D. one of Casmir's successors, Queen Jadwiga married Wladyslaw Jagiello who was the duke of neighboring Lithuania. • Their married united Lithuania and Poland creating one of the largest states in medieval Europe. • This unity allowed Polish forces to defeat the Teutonic Knights at the battle of Tannenburg in 1410 A.D.

41. Hungary • Hungary is south of Poland and is made of Magyars, Germans, and Slavs. • In 1000 A.D. King Stephen I became a Roman Catholic and introduced his people to western Europe ways and he marked the beginning of a strong Hungarian monarchy. • Mongols from central Asia invaded Hungary in 1241 A.D. and caused widespread destruction, but soon withdrew and the kingdom was able to rebuild itself. • The Ottoman Turks periodically attacked Hungary during 1400 and 1500 A.D. • Hungary’s King Louis II was defeated by the Ottoman ruler Suleiman I at the battle of Mochas. • Most of Hungary was ruled by the Ottomans, and the rest was ruled by the Hapsburg emperors.

42. The Troubled Church Section 4 • Many people turned to the Church for comfort and reassurance because of warfare, the plague, and religious controversy in the Late Middle Ages. • Thousands of religious people went on pilgrimages which are journeys to holy places and religious ceremonies multiplied. • However the authority of the Church was weakening because of the influences of strong monarchs and national government. • A growing educated middle class towns people and questioning of the Church’s teachings contributed to its decline.

43. Babylonian Captivity • The papacy came under the influence of the French monarchy during the early 1300s A.D. • In A.D. 1305 a French archbishop was elected Pope Clement V. • Clement moved his court from Rome to Avignon, a small city in southern France to escape the civil wars that were disrupting Italy. The pope appointed only French cardinals and he and his successors remained in Avignon until 1377 A.D. This became known as the Babylonian Captivity after the Jews exile in Babylon. • The people feared the papacy would be dominated by French monarchs while the pope was in France. • The Avignon popes showed for increasing church taxes and making church administration more efficient. • The people believed the popes had become corrupted by worldly power and were neglecting their spiritual duties.

44. The Great Schism • Pope Gregory XI left Avignon and returned to Rome in 1477 A.D. • After his death, Roman mobs forced the College of Cardinals to elect an Italian as pope. • The cardinals later declared the election invalid, saying that they voted under pressure. • The cardinals then elected a second pope, who settled in Avignon. • The Italian pope refused to resign, the Church faced being led by two popes. This became known as the Great Schism (which lasted from 1378 to 1417) because it caused serious divisions in the Church and seriously undermined the pope’s authority.

45. Calls for a Council • Many kings, princes, and church scholars called for a reform of church government. • The most popular idea was a general council, but this idea had problems such as that councils were traditionally called by popes and different rulers in Europe supported different popes. • Many western Europeans were committed to the church council. • The council met at Pisa, Italy, to unite the church under one pope. • This resulted in the election of a third pope. • In 1414 A.D. another council met at Constance, Germany to force the resignation of the three popes and elected Pope Martin V, ending the Great Schism. • However the Great Schism weakened the political influence of the Church. • Europeans felt a greater sense of loyalty to their monarchs than to the pope.

46. Calls for Reform • Church authority was also weakened by the people’s disliked of abuses within the Church. • The clergy used many unpopular means to raise money by fees charged for almost every type of service the Church performed. • The clergy also sold church positions (which was called simony) which was disliked by many common people. • The princely lifestyle of the clergy further deteriorated regard for the Church. • Many Europeans called for a reform and to of the voices were an English scholar and a Bohemian preacher.

47. John Wycliffe • A scholar at England’s Oxford University. • Criticized the Church’s wealth, corruption among the clergy, and the pope’s claim to absolute authority. • He wanted to remove church officials who corrupt or immoral. • Translated the bible to English. • His followers were known as the Lollards who destroyed images of saints, ridiculed the Mass, and ate communion bread with onions to show that it was no different from ordinary bread. • Widespread antipapal feeling made it difficult for the English government to suppress the Lollards. • Queen Anne, wife of Richard II supported the Lollards. • Wycliffe died peacefully in 1384 A.D.

48. Jan Hus • The Slavs of Bohemia became known as the Czechs and wanted to end German control of their country and supported reforms in the Catholic Church in Bohemia. • The leader of the Czech religious reform was Jan Hus, a popular preacher and professor at the University of Prague. • When his works were condemned by the Church and political leaders, a violent wave of riots swept across Bohemia. • The council at Constance demanded that Hus appear before them to defend his views and the Holy Roman emperor promised safe conduct to Constance, however this was ignored and Hus was burned at the strake as a heretic. • His death caused many Czechs to rally around their new martyr. • From 1420 to 1436 A.D. his supporters known as the Hussites, resisted the Church and the Holy Roman emperor.

49. Continued… • The Church launched five crusades against the Hussites which the Hussites won. • In 1436 A.D. representatives of the pope and the Holy Roman emperor reached a compromise with the Hussite leaders. • They gave the Hussites certain liberties in return for their allegiance to the Church. • The ideas of Jan Hus continued throughout Europe and influenced radical reformers. • The Church successfully met the challenges to its authority, nut the basic spiritual questions raised by Hus and others did not go away.

50. This Production has been brought to you by… Michel Kernizan