The Late Middle Ages and the Plagues of Europe, 1300-1450

War, Pestilence, and Religious Crisis

Islam and the West

I. 100 Years War, 1337-1450

Clash of nation-state with feudal system

Failure of chivalry

Damage to authority figures

A. Causes

1. Vassalage

2. Economic growth in

Flemish textile towns

3. French succession

Edward III

4. Culture of Aristocracy

a. Crusades were over

b. 100 Years war offered combat opportunity

B. Conduct of the War

1. Early victories for the English

Crecy, Poitier, Agincourt

a. “yeomen archers”

2. English gained control of northern France

English soldiers left to feed themselves

3. Capetian Kingdom begins to unravel

a. French nobles untrustworthy

b. revolt of the Burgundians

c. forced peasants to pay

nobles’ taxes

C. Impact of the War

1. Widespread destruction

2. Waning respect for traditional authority

- 1429, Battle of Orleans

Joan of Arc

- Battle of Agincourt, 1415

yeomen archers

no room for

chivalry

3. New methods of war

1450, Battle of Formingy = gunpowder

4. Both France and England left weakened

Warfare and economic disturbance laid groundwork for “environmental disasters” of Late Middle Ages

II. The Black Death, 1347-1352

Xenopsylla cheopis

A. Environmental disaster in the making

1. 1300, nearly all arable land taken

- urban crowding

- trade with the East

2. 1347, Bubonic plague

arrives via Italian

trade routes

3. “Black Death”

6, 14, 18th centuries

137 million

(1/4 - 1/3 of Europe in 1300s)

B. Social, cultural and political legacy of the Black Death

1. Fascination with the macabre

Hans Holbein, The Dance of Death the King the Queen the Pope

2. Challenge to Church

3. Weakening of traditional bonds

4. Left Europe subject to invasion

Mongols - 1400s

Ottoman Turks - 1500 &

1600s

5. Plagues of insurrection

- short term: more opportunities

- nobles try to take advantage; war taxes

Jacquerie - 1358 the Great Rebellion of 1381

Wat Tyler’s revolt

III. Division of Christendom

The Avignon Papacy and the Great Schism in the Church

A. Avignon Papacy

1. 1305, College of Cardinals choose Clement V

a. suppression of Knights Templar

b. moved papacy to Avignon

c. ran Church like a business

2. 1370s, last French Pope dies

a. Rome, most of Europe wants Italian Pope

b. desperation of French King demands French

Pope

3. 1378- 1417, the Great Schism

a. Ends with Council of Constance, 1414-17

Pope John XXIII

Avignon Papacy and Great Schism…

a. represented a dreadful failure in leadership

at a time when Europe needed the Church

b. weakened the reputation and authority of

papacy in the eyes of both clergy and lay

people

c. Left the door open for theological and

literary challenges to Church hegemony

B. Theological challenges

1. John Wycliffe, 1340s-1380s

a. quality of sacrament

b. attacked Church as business

c. supported English nobles

2. Jan Hus = religion and nationalism

Bohemia

C. William of Ockham and “The Spirit of Truth” (d. 1349)

1. Church should have no role in secular affairs

2. Argued against Aristotelian theory

a. must argue from specific to general

b. Ockham’s razor

scientific method

D. Rise of Vernacular literature

1. As authority of Church declines, so does reliance

on Latin

2. Vernacular expression of cultural, national,

religious independence (Gutenberg press)

1. Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

allegory = who really

deserves to spend time in

the Inferno?

2. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

middle english

ribald, low brow comedy, social satire

Wife of Bath

3. Christine de Pisan, City of Ladies

a. status of aristocratic women

improving

b. all levels of patriarchy

challenged

Crises of the 14th Century weakened political, social and religious authority…

paves the way for Renaissance, Reformation…

the return of Greco-Roman humanism…

and the rise of the Early Modern West