how were the late (high) middle ages a time of great trouble?
TRANSCRIPT
“The period of the Late Middle Ages in
Europe is characterized by the gradual
establishment of political and social stability, by
refined taste in the arts, by economic prosperity,
by the development of law, and by a high degree
of intellectual sophistication. Naturally, it would not
reflect human culture if it did not also exhibit its
share of violence, disorder, prejudice, and
treachery.”
AIM #16
The Hundred Years’ War
1337 - 1453
The Hundred Years War
The Long Bow
. . . But then . . .
“King of England and you, Duke of Bedford, who call
yourself Regent of the Kingdom of France … do right by the
King of Heaven. Hand over to the Maiden who is sent here by
God the King of Heaven, the keys to all the towns which you
have taken and violated in France… She is quite prepared to
make peace, if you are willing to do right, so long as you give
up France and make amends for occupying it. King of
England, if you do not do so, I am a commander, and
wherever I come across your troops in France, I shall make
them go, whether willingly or unwillingly; and if they will not
obey, I will have them wiped out. I am sent here by God the
King of Heaven - an eye for an eye - to drive you entirely out
of France…”
- Letter from Joan of Arc to the English Commanders, dated
March 22, 1429
At the age of 13 Joan believed she had heard the voices of St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret bidding her to rescue the French people. Believing that God had commanded her to drive the English out of France, Joan rallied the demoralized French troops, leading them in battle. Clad in a suit of white armor and flying her own standard she liberated France from the English at the battle of Orleans. Ultimately captured and imprisoned by the English, Joan of Arc was condemned as a heretic and a witch and stood trial before the Inquisition in 1431. Joan was found guilty and was to be burnt at the stake but at the last moment she broke down and recanted everything. She eventually broke down again and faithful to her "voices," decided to become a martyr and was then burnt at the stake and became a national hero.
Joan of Arc
Battle Sites of the War
The Black Death
The Origins?
“The dying [Mongols], stunned and stupefied by the immensity of the disaster brought about by the disease [ . . . ] lost interest in the siege. But they ordered corpses to be placed in catapults and lobbed into the city in the hope that the intolerable stench would kill everyone inside. What seemed like mountains of dead were thrown into the city, and the Christians could not hide or flee or escape from them [ . . . ] And soon the rotting corpses tainted the air and poisoned the water supply, and the stench was so overwhelming that hardly one in several thousand was in a position to flee the remains of the [Mongol] army. Moreover one infected man could carry the poison to others, and infect people and places with the disease by look alone. No one knew, or could discover, a means of defense.”
The Black Death
“The violence of this disease was such that the sick communicated it to the healthy who came near them, just as a fire catches anything dry or oily near it. And it even went further. To speak to or go near the sick brought infection and a common death to the living; and moreover, to touch the clothes or anything else the sick had touched or worn gave the disease to the person touching.”
The Black Death (Cont’d)
“Those infected felt themselves penetrated by a
pain throughout their whole bodies and, so to
say, undermined. Then there developed on the
thighs or upper arms a boil about the size of a
lentil which the people called "burn boil". This
infected the whole body, and penetrated it so
that the patient violently vomited blood. This
vomiting of blood continued without intermission
for three days, there being no means of healing
it, and then the patient expired.”
The Black Death (Cont’d)
"How many valiant men, how many fair ladies, breakfast with their kinfolk and the same night supped with their ancestors in the next world! The condition of the people was pitiable to behold. They sickened by the thousands daily, and died unattended and without help. Many died in the open street, others dying in their houses, made it known by the stench of their rotting bodies. Consecrated churchyards did not suffice for the burial of the vast multitude of bodies, which were heaped by the hundreds in vast trenches, like goods in a ships hold and covered with a little earth."
-Giovanni Boccaccio
The Death Dance
The Cremation of Strasbourg Jewry St. Valentine's
Day, February 14, 1349
“In the year 1349 there occurred the greatest epidemic that ever happened… In the
matter of this plague the Jews throughout the world were reviled and accused in all
lands of having caused it through the poison which they are said to have put into the
water and the wells-that is what they were accused of-and for this reason the Jews
were burnt all the way from the Mediterranean into Germany…On Saturday - that
was St. Valentine's Day-they burnt the Jews on a wooden platform in their cemetery.
There were about two thousand people of them. Those who wanted to baptize
themselves were spared. Many small children were taken out of the fire and baptized
against the will of their fathers and mothers. And everything that was owed to the
Jews was cancelled, and the Jews had to surrender all pledges and notes that they
had taken for debts. The council, however, took the cash that the Jews possessed
and divided it among the working-men proportionately. The money was indeed the
thing that killed the Jews. If they had been poor and if the feudal lords had not been
in debt to them, they would not have been burnt…Thus were the Jews burnt at
Strasbourg, and in the same year in all the cities of the Rhine, whether Free Cities or
Imperial Cities or cities belonging to the lords. In some towns they burnt the Jews
after a trial, in others, without a trial. In some cities the Jews themselves set fire to
their houses and cremated themselves.”
The Flagellants
