Society of the High Middle Ages

1. Society of the High Middle Ages Towns, Scholasticism, Women/Children and Art

2. Population Growth and the Origin of Towns

3. Mediterranean Cities • Social position depended on participation in public life • Major cities established ties with North Africa • The Mediterranean roared back to life between 11th and 15th C. • By the 11th C, there was an embryonic banking system in Italy • Mediterranean cities became polyglot • Sumptuary codes helped identify people • Cities were often governed by municipal councils

4. Causes ofUrban Growth During the High Middle Ages cities and towns grew dramatically: • Europe was more stable (the threat of invasion had gone and the Knights were away on crusades – not warring at home). • The Crusades united many European Kingdoms and the movements of large numbers of crusaders encouraged trade. • New inventions resulted in improved harvests (e.g. water mills and better plows) • The population boomed from the years 1100-1300. Good times!

5. Settlement, Origin and Structure of Towns • Origin • Settlement • As trade increased merchants settled into town followed by crafts people and artisans • Trade • Trade fairs sprang up in Northern Kingdoms and Italy • Fur, wool, tine, hemp, honey • Silks, sugar, spices

6. Chartering Towns • Arrangements were made for the townspeople to pay a fixed annual sum to the lord or king and gain independence for their town as a "borough" with the power to govern itself. The marketplace became the focus of many towns.

7. Medieval English Towns and Villages • There were very few towns in early Medieval England. A survey in 1087 counted only six outside of London. • Most towns developed around religious sites or locations such as crossroads and ports where transport was easy. • Towns also developed beside rivers – which could be used for water supplies, transport and sewage disposal (by simply dumping it into the river)

8. Result • Loss of Peasant Class • Rise of Merchant class and Challenging the Old system • Guilds • Needed governments with larger and larger staffs of trained personnel. • School and universities were urban developments. • Mercantile, industries and legal organizations grew • Church • Societal impact on women

9. Life in a Town

10. Urban Life • Few serfs were left in Europe by the end of the Middle Ages, and the growing burgher class became very powerful. Hard work and enterprise led to economic prosperity and a new social order. Urban life brought with it a new freedom for individuals. 

11. Town Life • After 1000, peace and order grew. As a result, peasants began to expand their farms and villages further into the countryside. The earliest merchants were peddlers who went from village to village selling their goods.

12. The Merchant Class • The new merchant class included artisans, masons, armorers, bakers, shoemakers, rope makers, dyers, and other skilled workers.

13. Peddlers • As the demand for goods increased--particularly for the gems, silks, and other luxuries from Genoa and Venice, the ports of Italy that traded with the East--the peddlers became more familiar with complex issues of trade, commerce, accounting, and contracts.

14. Tradesmen • With the advent of trade and commerce, feudal life declined. As the tradesmen became wealthier, they resented having to give their profits to their lords.

15. Businessmen • They became savvy businessmen and learned to deal with Italian moneylenders and bankers. The English, Belgians, Germans, and Dutch took their coal, timber, wood, iron, copper, and lead to the south and came back with luxury items such as wine and olive oil.

16. The First Companies • The population of cities swelled for the first time since before the Dark Ages. With the new merchant activity, companies were formed. Merchants hired bookkeepers, scribes, and clerks, creating new jobs.

17. Guilds • Guilds were established to gain higher wages for their members and protect them from competitors. As the guilds grew rich and powerful, they built guildhalls and began taking an active role in civic affairs, setting up courts to settle disputes and punish wrongdoers.

18. Joining a Guild There was a process to becoming a member of a guild. The first step was to be an apprentice: A young boy, around the age of 10, would go and work for a craftsman without pay to help learn the craft. Later apprentices became journeymen, who worked for a wages for craftsmen

19. The Masterpiece For a journeyman to become a master craftsman, he had to complete a Masterpiece. This was their audition for the guild to determined if their work made the qualified enough to join the guild and start their own business. Then they could become a Master Craftsman and own their own business.

20. Masons • Of all the craftsmen, the masons were the highest paid and most respected. They were, after all, responsible for building the cathedrals, hospitals, universities, castles, and guildhalls.

21. Apprentices • Masons learned their craft as apprentices to a master mason, living at lodges for up to seven years. The master mason was essentially an architect, a general contractor, and a teacher.

22. Town Government

23. Town Governments • As the townspeople became "free" citizens, powerful families, particularly in Italy, struggled to gain control of the communes or boroughs. Town councils were formed.

24. Town Governments • The king couldn’t tax nobles and churches so taxed the peasantry. • Town councils formed as a result of the aristocrats attempting to control towns to provide taxes to the king. • By the 13th century, town advisory councils played large roles in government.

25. Early Representative Government • Nobles monopolized politics and economics • Manors produced most agricultural output • Only ones to read-able to run government • Military service • 1100-1300 • Rise of cities changed role of nobles in government • Economy based on manufacturing • Nobles shunned low positions allowing commoners access to government • 1300 nearly every state in Latin Europe a representative assembly • Controlled the king’s or princes power

26. Early Representative Government • England • Consent until the Normans • Parliament and Magna Charta 1215 • John of England • France • Little control over vassals • Gave land without obligations to royalty • Estates General • Germany • Frederick II • Constitutions in Favor of the Princes of Germany • Diet

27. Magna Carta

28. The Magna Carta • In 1215, the English barons formed an alliance that forced King John to sign the Magna Carta. It limited the king's powers of taxation and required trials by jury. It was the first time that an English monarch was subject to the law.

29. Amendment 1: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercisethereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. • 1. That the English Church shall be free, and shall have her whole rights and her liberties inviolable [safe from sudden change]; . . . . We have also granted to all the freemen of our kingdom, for us and our heirs forever, all the underwritten liberties, to be enjoyed and held by them and by their heirs, from us and from our heirs .

30. Amendment 5: No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in casesarising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. • 29. No Freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or be disseised° of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful Judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right.

31. Article 1, section 4: The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislaturethereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, [except as to the places of choosing Senators]amd. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, [and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December,]amd unless they shall by law appoint a different day. • 14. And also to have the common council of the kingdom, we will cause to be summoned the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and great barons, individually by our letters . . .

32. Article 1, section 8: To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the commondefense and generalwelfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States • 12. No scutage [tax for military purposes] nor aid° shall be imposed in our kingdom, unless by the common council of our kingdom; excepting to redeem [ransom] our person, to make our eldest son a knight, and once to marry our eldest daughter, and not for these unless a reasonable aid shall be demanded . . .

33. Article 1, section 8: To regulatecommerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes; Article 1, section 9: No tax or duty shall be laid on articlesexported from any state. • 30. All Merchants (if they were not openly prohibited before) shall have their safe and sure Conduct to depart out of England, to come into England, to tarry in, and go through England, as well by Land as by Water, to buy and sell

34. Towns and Kings

35. The Rise of Universities • Originally schools educated only clergy • Ideas of Aristotle began to spread • Medieval Universities got their start as educational guilds • The first Medieval University was in Bologna, Italy . The students at the school formed their own guild in 1158. • Later came the University of Paris, and then the University at Oxford England • Cathedral Schools

36. Areas of Study • Students in medieval universities studied the following subjects • Trivium (Language Arts) • Grammar: The proper way to write • Rhetoric: Public speaking, learning how to make arguments (debate) • Logic: Using reason • Quadrivium (Math Arts) • Arithmetic: Basic Math • Geometry • Music • Astronomy

37. Teaching Style • Books were rare and expensive in the Middle Ages. The main method of teaching was by lecture. Teachers would read from books and students would take notes. • There were not regular exams given, but when a student applied for a degree, they were given an exam.

38. Major Philosophers and Philosophy • Scholasticism • Orderly and rational universe which is divine • Anselm • Aquinas • Summa • Mysticism • Experience over logic • Hildegard

39. Mysticism

40. Medieval Architecture • During the 11th and 12th centuries there was a boom in architecture and building. • Originally buildings were built in a Basilica style which consisted of a rectangular building with a flat wooden roof. • Later, Romanesque architecture replaced this flat roof with a rounded arch.

41. Romanesque Architecture • Romanesque architecture developed to have some specific traits. • Rounded Arches • Thick walls with small windows with stone roofs. • The dark environment of the church was meant to suggest the power and mystery of God.

44. Gothic Architecture • Later, changes were made to the Romanesque style which developed a new style known as Gothic Architecture. • Gothic architecture developed some distinct characteristics of its own. • Vaulted Arches (Pointed) • Flying Buttresses • Thinner walls and stained glass windows • The advancements allowed thinner walls and larger windows, which allowed for these new churches to have much more natural light. • The Gothic style was much more serene and self-confident.

46. Flying Buttresses

47. Pilgrimages • Pilgrimages were an important part of religious life in the Middle Ages. Many people took journeys to visit holy shrines such the Canterbury Cathedral in England and sites in Jerusalem and Rome.

48. The Canterbury Tales • Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a series of stories told by 30 pilgrims as they traveled to Canterbury.

49. Vernacular Literature • The universal language of medieval civilization was Latin. • Latin was the language of Rome and was a common language which could be used in churches and at Universities. • A common language at universities allowed students from many different countries to be able to understand the teachings there.

50. Vernacular • The vernacular was the language of the common people. • This included Spanish, French, English, and German. • People began to produce literature in their own languages. • The most popular form of vernacular literature in the 12th century was troubadour poetry, which was mostly love stories about life at court between knights and ladies of the court.