The High Middle Ages 1300 – 1500

1. The High Middle Ages 1300 – 1500

2. Main Themes • Europe began to reorganize politically, socially, culturally after 1000 CE • Trade & Towns grow & thrive • Black Plague caused economic, political, social changes • Political centralization • Waning of the power of the Catholic Church

3. Europe During the High Middle Ages

4. Outline • The growth & importance of trade and towns • Trade; towns; guilds; urban freedom; middle class • Black Death & its effects on society • Symptoms & effects • Life with death & its impact on society • Political Centralization • Waning of church control; New centralization • Hundred Years’ War, Reconquista, and rebirth of Culture • “Taking back” Spain; Need for knowledge

5. Trade

6. Guilds • Merchant Guilds • Designed to corner the market of an area • Regulated price, quality, fairness • Licensed traders, tried disputes in own court • Craft Guilds • Designed to corner the market in a special craft • Regulated quality of goods, class of producer • Assisted members in need: • Poverty, funerals, disability, “life insurance” etc.

7. Independent Towns • Beginning in Italy and Sicily, towns in Europe purchased their independence from feudal lords and gained charters which made them self-governing. Though most towns had some farms attached, the primary economic activity was trade and crafts. These towns became draws for peasants looking to move off of the land, and for people looking to buy and sell. Markets grew up in them, and trade routes grew between the towns which were successful in their efforts.

8. The Black Plague 1347 ~ 1550's

9. The Black Plague – prior conditions in Europe • The Three Field System and population growth • Three field system • 1000-1300 AD doubling of population • Hunger was a regular experience of Europeans • Expected life span of 35 years • Physically weakened population faced the plague in 1348

10. The Effects of the Plague • Arrival & Spread • fleas of rats on ships from the Black Sea trade, 1348. • Symptoms and prognosis • Symptoms • 24-48 hours to live – no treatment • Reactions • Aromatic amulets • Moderation • Immoderation • Flagellants • Social and Economic Consequences • Farm changes – less labor, better wages, money payment, labor mobility • Landowners attempts to control peasants result in peasant revolts • Rebounding of cities

11. Symptoms • Ring around the rosey • Coughing • Bone breaking muscle spasms

12. Political centralization • Defeat of Hohenstaufens (Holy Roman Empire) by allied pope and local kings • Localization of power • Atomization of the Hohenstaufen empire • Subverting the feudal system • Making claims to central sovereignty & the loyalty of “subjects”

13. The Hundred Years War (1337-1453) • Contest over kingship of France & over territorial power • Edward III claims throne of France after the death of French King Charles IV. • Working out of old feudal relationships • 3 Stages: • 1337- Peace of Bretigny-Calais, May 1360 • English gain the upper hand • 1360- Treaty of Troyes 1420 • The successor of Edward III, Henry IV, becomes king of England and France, and England appears to have won. • Joan of Arc – 1453 • French nobles, and a woman who claims to have divine visions of a French nation-state, convince the French crown prince to try for the throne. France turns the tables and defeats England, regaining the throne for a French king, after reorganizing French financial, political and military organization.

14. Waning of the power of the Catholic Church • Pope Innocent III and the political secularization of the Church • Regularizing papal political power – Plenitude of Power • Standardizing and tightening legal system • Regularizing clerical taxation • De-localization of church concerns and a perceived lack of interest in the faithful • Fragmented politics set new local rulers against the pope. • Boniface VIII & the End of Papal Authority • Conflicts with Rulers (Philip the Fair) • Unam Sanctam (1302) • The Avignon Papacy (the “Babylonian Captivity”) 1309-1377