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The Renaissance(1300 –1500)

The Renaissance provides an overview of the years from the Late

Middle Ages through the Renaissance. Special emphasis is given to the

natural and political disasters that ravaged 14th century Europe, as well

as the unprecedented intellectual, cultural, and artistic flourishing of

the 15th and 16th centuries. The Black Death, The Hundred Years’ War,

the invention of the printing press, the birth of humanism, and the life

of Leonardo da Vinci are among the dramatic events vividly documented

in this richly illustrated text. Challenging map exercises and provocative

review questions encourage meaningful reflection and historical analysis.

Tests and answer keys included.

MP3398 The RenaissanceWritten by: Tim McNeeseIllustrated by: Joan WaitesPage Layout & Editing: Lisa MartyCover Design: Jon DavisManaging Editor: Kathleen HilmesCover Art: Detail from the Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci

Copyright © 1999Milliken Publishing Company11643 Lilburn Park DriveSt. Louis, MO 63146www.millikenpub.comPrinted in the USA. All rights reserved.

Permission to reproduce pages extends only to teacher-purchaser for individual classroom use,not to exceed in any event more than one copy per pupil in a course. The reproduction of anypart for an entire school or school system or for commercial use is strictly prohibited.

© Milliken Publishing Company i MP3398

The Later Middle Ages ....................................................................................1The Black Death, Part I ....................................................................................2The Black Death, Part II ..................................................................................3Map of the Black Death....................................................................................4Impact of the Black Death................................................................................5New Trials for the Church ................................................................................6The Hundred Years’ War ..................................................................................7The Hundred Years’ War Continues ................................................................8Challenges to England’s Kings ........................................................................9France in the Later Middle Ages ....................................................................10Ferdinand and Isabella Unite Spain................................................................1115th-Century Eastern Europe ........................................................................12Map of 15th-Century Europe..........................................................................13Test I (Worksheets 1–13) ................................................................................14The Early Renaissance....................................................................................15The Italian City-States ....................................................................................16 Life in Renaissance Florence..........................................................................17The Birth of Humanism..................................................................................18The Prince and The Courtier ..........................................................................19The World of Leonardo Da Vinci ..................................................................20Italian Renaissance Art, Part I ........................................................................21Renaissance Map of Italy ..............................................................................22Italian Renaissance Art, Part II ......................................................................23The Northern Renaissance..............................................................................24Home Life During the Renaissance................................................................25The Printing Press ..........................................................................................26Europe Discovers the World ..........................................................................27Test II (Worksheets 15–27) ............................................................................28Answer Key ..............................................................................................29-30

Table of Contents

By 1300, the High Middle Ages was coming toan end. For 200 years, Europeans experiencedmuch change and progress. Agricultural expansionmade food more abundant and allowed for moretrade, both within Europe and the Orient. Warmweather patterns frequently insured good harvestsof grains and vegetables.

The population expanded, and new towns andcities dotted the landscape from England toPoland. Great Gothic cathedrals were constructed,as well as universities and schools of higherlearning. Wars were kept to a minimum. It was atime of peace, security, and an expanding economy.

Even the peasants experienced the best oftimes. With the expanding economy of the HighMiddle Ages, many peasants were able to buy theirfreedom from their lords, and become landownersthemselves. In France, King Louis X freed all theserfs (after they paid him for the right first).

But a storm was gathering over Europe withthe coming of the new century. The 14th centurywould soon usher in 150 years of problems andperil, plagues and peace-breaking. Until about1450, Europe—especially western Europe—suffered from increasing economic depression.

This downturn was aggravated by widespreadfinancial chaos, wars of rivalry, revolution,peasant riots, international rivalries with theChurch, famines, and, perhaps worst of all, a seriesof disastrous plagues. Often called the BlackDeath, these plagues brought about the deaths ofone-fourth to one-third of the population ofmedieval Europe.

What caused this 180 degree turnaround inEurope? Why did the prosperity and security ofone age suddenly give way to an age ofdestruction, dismay, disease, and death? There aremany reasons.

To begin, Europe’s population had increasedrapidly and dramatically. With more people,available farmland was divided between theknights and the peasants into inevitably smallerand smaller holdings. This left many landownerswithout enough land to support themselves anddepleted crop surpluses for trade.

This trade restriction was made worse later in

the 1300s when, in the Far East, the Chinese expe-rienced an imperial collapse, bringing new leadersinto power under the Ming Dynasty. Thesepowerful rulers did not trust foreigners, and theyclosed many trade doors to the Europeans. Anyfuture trade with the Orient was controlled byMoslem middlemen in Egypt and the Near East,who charged the Europeans extremely high pricesfor Eastern goods.

To make things worse, the European climatebegan to turn colder around 1300. Glaciers in themountains and in the north advanced across farmland. Thousands of northern European villageswere abandoned, unable to sustain themselves.

Such bad weather patterns brought on repeateddroughts, resulting in serious crop failures.Between 1302 and 1348, poor harvests occurredduring 20 seasons. This, in turn, caused famines.In the famine of 1315–1317, tens of thousandsdied. France faced destructive famines in 1351,1359, and 1418. (According to legend, 100,000people died during the 1418 famine in Parisalone.) Desperate for food, people ate cats, dogs,even rats.

All these natural and international disasterswrecked life for many in Europe. Wars of compe-tition over natural resources developed. The peas-ants—caught in the economic squeeze and starvingto death—brought about revolts, demanding higherwages and greater security from roaming bands ofsoldiers, knights, and drifters who looted, burned,and raped their way across the sorrowfullandscape.

Despite all these problems, the great scourge ofthe period was the Black Death.

Review and Write

1. Identify some of the positive aspects of lifeduring the High Middle Ages.

2. Describe some of the negative aspects of lifeduring the Later Middle Ages.

The Later Middle Ages

© Milliken Publishing Company 1 MP3398

In October 1347, the people of Messina, a porton the northeastern shores of the Mediterraneanisland of Sicily, experienced an unforgettable sight.

A convoy of a dozen Italian trading ships sailedinto the harbor with dead and dying men at the oars.Those still barely alive had a hideous look aboutthem. Black, egg-sized lumps, oozing blood and pus,formed in the armpits and groins of afflicted men.Boils and blackened spots dotted their bodies.Everything about them smelled foul: their wounds,their blood, their sweat, even their breath.

An eyewitness to these wretched men wrote thefollowing:

In their bones they bore so virulent [strong] adisease that anyone who only spoke to them wasseized by a mortal illness and in no manner couldevade [avoid] death.

City officials, fearful of the spread of the disease,tried to keep these death ships out of Messina, but itwas too late. Frightened Messinans fled their city toescape the disease. However, they only managed tospread the illness further and faster. By early 1348, ithad found its way to mainland Italy and France.

The great plague, soon to be called the BlackDeath, arrived on the shores of Europe and soonspread to nearly every corner of the Continent.

What was this dreadful disease and how was itspread? Often called the bubonic plague, it wascaused by bacteria which developed in the blood of acertain type of flea. The bacillus caused the flea’sstomach to block, making it unable to take in foodproperly.

Such fleas were frequently found on black rats.The fleas bit the rats by inserting a pricker into thehost’s skin to feed on its blood. With an infectedflea’s stomach blocked, it would regurgitate the rat’sblood along with the plague bacteria. A bite from aninfected rat or flea could then pass the infection to ahuman.

Once contracted, the disease was almost alwaysfatal. The bacteria could infect the bloodstream andsettle in the lymph glands, causing large lumps,called buboes, on the skin.

Lymph infections caused blood hemorrhages,turning the skin black, including the tongue (hencethe name Black Death). Some forms of the diseaseinfected the throat and lungs. Such victims coughedup blackened blood and gave off a foul smell. Painwas intense and death came swiftly, typically withinthree days or less.

Even before the arrival of the Genoese ships inMessina, Europeans had heard of a great plague inthe East. Beginning probably in China, it spread tocentral Asia, then to India and Persia. By 1346 itmade its way to Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor (modern Turkey).

Trading ships unknowingly helped spread thedisease, as did land trade caravans. Others, too,spread the plague. Central Asian warrior nomads,called tatars, invaded Europe in 1346, bringing thedisease with them.

One such band of warriors, while laying siege tothe city gates of the port of Caffa on the RussianCrimean Sea, fell victim to the Black Death. Ratherthan retreat, they loaded their catapults with theputrid corpses of dead comrades, and flung them intothe city, spreading the disease among their enemies.

The Black Death, Part I


Once the bubonic plague landed on the island ofSicily in October of 1347, it spread quicklythroughout the European continent. With nounderstanding of disease, germs, or bacteria,medieval people did not know how to beginfighting the disease.

The Black Death was, by its nature, a diseasewhich spread rapidly. By January of 1348, it hadspread to France, landing first in the Mediterraneanport city of Marseilles. Within the next six months,it made its deadly way into eastern Spain, all ofItaly, the southern reaches of Eastern Europe, andacross the hills and valleys of Franceas far as Paris.

Before year’s end, ithad traveled across theEnglish Channel tothe British Isles. Thenext year—1349—brought the infectionto nearly all of England,Ireland, Scotland,modern Belgium, theGerman states, and the Scandinavian countries. The great cities ofEurope—London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Pisa,Frankfurt, Cologne, Ghent—were all centers of theBlack Death. In 1349, Paris reported 800 deathsdaily, Vienna 600, and Pisa 500. In some cities, asmuch as 80% of the population died.

As the plague advanced, frightened people triedto flee ahead of it, often carrying the disease withthem to the next town, port, or village.

People stayed to themselves, refusing to comein contact with outsiders, even their own servants.Family members abandoned one another, leavingthe dying miserable and alone.

Remote farms were not necessarily safe; sheepand hogs contracted the disease, just as rats did,spreading it to their masters.

Life everywhere changed dramatically in theface of this powerful killer. It was the speed of thedisease which caused its potency. The plagueconsumed its victims so quickly that a person mightgo to bed feeling well and die in his or her sleep.Doctors called to tend to the sick sometimes caught

the plague and died ahead of their patients. Presentat the bedside of the suffering to provide last rites,priests died in great numbers

In the southern French city of Avignon, specificdeath numbers were recorded. In one three-dayperiod, 1500 people died in the city. Many RomanCatholic clergymen were counted among the dead,including five cardinals, 100 bishops, and 358Dominican friars. A single Avignon graveyardreceived 11,000 corpses.

The threat of the Black Death nearly drovesome people to the brink of insanity. This dreaded

disease, which could strike at anymoment without warning,

caused some panickysouls to gather in church

graveyards where theysang and dancedwildly, hoping to

drive away the evil spiritswhich had brought the deathto their village or

community. Also, suchfrenzied activity would

hopefully keep the dead from rising from theirburial places, so that they would not infect anyoneelse with the plague. People often gathered in longprocessions of dancing and singing. Sometimessuch paranoid people danced until they fellexhausted or died of self-induced fear.

Today, historians do not have a clear estimate ofthe number of people who died at the hands of theBlack Death. Tens of thousands of villages andrural settlements disappeared, their inhabitantskilled. The populations of monasteries, abbeys, anduniversities were wiped out. Across Europe, villas,castles, and homes were abandoned.

Modern estimates place the death toll fromrecurring outbreaks of the plague at 20 million, or perhaps one out of every three persons.

Review and Write

What were some of the reasons why the BlackDeath killed so many people in Europe?

The Black Death, Part II


Map of the Black Death


The Black Death spread rapidly from Asia toEurope. The result was widespread destruction anddeath spanning the continents.

The map below shows the spread of the disease.Dates are included to indicate the time frame fortransferring the plague from Asia.

Using the map and information given on pages 2and 3, use the space below to write a short historydescribing where the plague began and when and howit spread from Asia to Europe. Use your interpretativeskills to determine the sequence of events.

A History of the Spread of the Black Death, 1333 to 1351

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

At first, the direct impact of the Black Death wasfear, dislocation, and death. The population ofEurope dropped from 60 million people to 40 or 35million. A wandering traveler could enter a village ortown and find it abandoned or, worse, littered withrotting corpses. Death was commonplace.

This pattern recurred over and over again. Afterits initial run from 1348 to 1351, the plague returnedin later decades. It appeared four different times inSpain and nine times in Italy between 1381 and1444. England witnessed five separate outbreaksbetween 1361 and 1391. The Black Death struck inFrance six times between the years 1361 and 1436.

Since men and women of the Middle Ages didn'tunderstand how diseases spread, they manufacturedexplanations to satisfy themselves. Although Jewsdied from the plague like everyone else, Christiansblamed the Black Death on the Jews. They createdelaborate plots by which Jewish Europeans weredestroying Christianity by poisoning wells and otherwater supplies.

Campaigns to kill Jews took place in southernFrance, Spain, Poland, Austria, and Germany. Jewishpopulations were massacred, burned alive, andattacked by dogs. In more enlightened villages andtowns, city fathers protected local Jews, certain theyhad nothing to do with the spread of the disease.

In many instances, the threat of the Black Deathbrought out the worst in people. However, despitethe destructive and deadly impact of the plagueacross Europe, there were some changes whichresulted in positive differences across the Continent.

With the threat of the plague, people farmed less,produced fewer goods, and became generally lessenterprising. This caused the economies of wholeregions to plunge into chaos. Many basic items,including food, grew scarce and their values rose,causing inflation.

While this made life more difficult for most,such scarcities were not all bad. With the deaths ofso many people, a scarcity of labor developed acrossEurope. This shortage of workers caused the laborsof those still alive to be worth more.

For example, prior to the initial outbreak of theBlack Death in the mid-14th century, the normalwage for a field worker was a penny a day. After the

plague and the deaths of tens ofthousands of worker peasants,a grain reaper coulddemand eight pennies (or pence) a day, plusa noon meal. A mowercould expect 12 pence daily.

Suddenly, peasant workershad a new economic power,many managing to escapefeudal services altogether. Largenumbers of serfs gainedfreedom, becominglandowners intheir own right.

Those whosurvived the plaguewere now wealthierand bought more. (The inflationcaused by the Black Death was only temporary.)Business flourished once again, great trading centerswere reestablished in the towns and cities, andsignificant profits became the rule.

Renewed emphasis on trade and buying broughton a new banking industry, accounting firms, andlarge international trading companies. One suchgroup was known as the Hanseatic League. Led bytwo northern cities, Lubeck and Bremen, theHanseatic League controlled much of the tradebetween the North Seas and the Baltic, fromScandinavia to the Germanies. By 1450, a smallerpopulation in Europe was enjoying a better standardof living than the population of 1300.

Review and Write

1. How were Jewish Europeans victimized by theBlack Death?

2. How did the Black Death bring about an increasein the wages of the average European worker?


The Impact of the Black Death

During the 1200s A.D., the power of theRoman Catholic Church piqued. The papacy wasrecognized as the spiritual head of all EuropeanChristians. (Christians living in the old ByzantineEmpire in Eastern Europe did not tend to recog-nize the pope and his authority, however.)

But, beginning in the 1300s, with thestrengthening of the monarchy in places likeFrance, England, and the Germanies, challenges tothe Church and the power of the papacy camefrequently. The Church faced several defeats overa long century of turmoil and division.

The struggle between the Catholic papacy andsecular kings began during the years of PopeBoniface VIII (1294–1303). He and the king ofFrance, Philip IV (known as Philip the Fair), cameto blows. When Philip attempted to tax the clergyin France, Boniface resounded, announcing thatclergy in any state were not to pay taxes to asecular ruler without permission from the Church.

When Philip ignored and challenged the Pope’sauthority by banning exports of money andvaluable goods from France to Italy, Bonifacecame down hard, excommunicating Philip fromthe sacraments in an attempt to keep him in lineand extend papal authority over all secular rulers.

Philip IV responded by dispatching soldiers toRome, taking Boniface prisoner and bringing himback to France to stand trial. Since Boniface wasan old man, the shock of imprisonment andchallenge took its toll, causing his death in 1303.

With the death of the pope, King Philip movedswiftly to replace him. By 1305, he forced the college of cardinals (Catholic clergymen whoselect new popes) to elect a Frenchman to thepapacy named Clement V (1305–1314). OnceClement was installed as pope, he ordered theremoval of the papacy from Rome to French soil,settling himself and his papal office in the city ofAvignon. This new papal city was not located inFrance directly, but rather in the Holy RomanEmpire along the east bank of the Rhone River.Although not in France, Avignon was just acrossthe river from the territory ruled by King Philip,and easily controlled by him.

For roughly the next 75 years, the papacy was

centered in French-controlled Avignon, not inRome. Historians refer to this era as theBabylonian Captivity, the period when the papacyexisted outside of its traditional home in Rome.During the reign of most of the popes of thisperiod, the papacy supported French interests.

With the papacy centered outside of Rome,many critics questioned the popes who ruled fromAvignon. Their first loyalty appeared to be toFrance and its monarchy. By 1377, Pope GregoryXI, aware of the decline of the papacy’sreputation, returned to Rome, where he died thenext year.

When the college of cardinals met to select anew pope (most of the cardinals were French) thecitizens of Rome forced them to elect an Italianpope named Urban VI (1378–1389). Five monthslater, a group of French cardinals refused torecognize Urban and elected another pope, aFrenchman named Clement VII, who returned thepapacy back to Avignon. With two ruling popes, aGreat Schism—or division—developed.

Christians in Europe divided their loyaltybetween the two popes. France, Spain, Scotland,and southern Italy gave support to Clement. England, Scandinavia, the Germanies, and most ofItaly recognized Urban.

The Great Schism caused many Christians todoubt papal authority and led to great confusion. Itwas not until 1417 that a church council, theCouncil of Constance, rejected the split papacyand elected Pope Martin V as the only legitimatepope. By this time, however, the prestige of theChurch had been greatly compromised, neveragain to regain the power it wielded during theHigh Middle Ages.

Review and Write

1. What was the basis for the struggle betweenPope Boniface VIII and the French king, Philip IV?

2. What damage to the Church was caused by theGreat Schism?

New Trials for the Church


While many peasants gained their freedom andbecame landowners during the years of the BlackDeath, the nobility, who traditionally owned the landand its wealth, suffered. The economic crises causedby inflation and a lack of manpower caused theincomes of the landlords to dwindle.

Strapped for money and trained in the arts ofwar, the nobles and their knights turned the 1300sinto a century of almost constant warfare, withknights raiding and looting towns and terrorizing thepeasants, tradesmen, and merchants.

Much of the looting, raiding, and warfare wasembodied in the long series of military and politicalstruggles between England and France known as theHundred Years’ War, which actually lasted longerthan a century, beginning in 1337 and drawing to anend in 1453.

The Hundred Years’ War was fought forterritorial control. In 1337, the French, led by KingPhilip VI (1328–1350), invaded the English provinceof Guienne in southwestern France. (The Frenchkingdom of 1337 did not yet include all the landswhich comprise modern-day France.) The Englishking, Edward III (1327–1377), responded by claim-ing to be the rightful king of France since his motherwas the daughter of Philip IV (the Fair), who hadruled France earlier in the century.

The actions of both kings led to a lengthy war.After ensuring his alliance with the town of Flanders(in modern-day northern France), King Edward IIIinvaded French territory with approximately 15,000men, mostly highly mobile infantry and archersarmed with longbows.

When the war began, France was the strongestcountry in Europe, its population outnumbering theEnglish three to one. France’s strength in numbers,wealth, and allies won out over the long run of theHundred Years’ War. But the English won severaldecisive battles early in the war, primarily because of their effective use of the longbow.

The longbow, compared to the more traditionalcrossbow of the period, was a superior weapon. Fiveto six feet in length, it was carried by a commonarcher. The bow string was pulled back to the ear(the crossbow was aimed like a gun) and, when letloose, had an effective range of 250 yards. Such an

arrow could penetrate two sets of chain-mail armoror a well-seasoned, thick oak board. It could also beshot five times faster than the crossbow.

For the first 80 years of the Hundred Years’ War,the English armies won most of the significant battles.Using superior military tactics and well-disciplinedarchers, the English were able to defeat the mounted,heavily-armored French knights.

In three great battles—Crecy [kray SEE] 1346,Poitiers [pwah TYAY] 1356, and Agincourt [AJ inkohrt] 1415—the English, although outnumbered bythe French army, crushed their enemy.

The Crecy battle was typical. An English army of8000 lodged themselves at the top of a hill. Theirking, Edward III, was present, to rally his men. Theyfaced a larger army of French cavalry, infantry, andItalian mercenaries armed with crossbows. TheFrench made 15 charges up the hill. Each time, theywere cut down by the arrows of the English longbows.The French lost 4000 men (including 1500 knights)that day, while the English suffered few casualties.

While the Crecy engagement proved the longboweffective, it also introduced another new weapon tothe European battlefield: cannons and gunpowder.

The Hundred Years' War


Following the English victory at Crecy, wherearchers cut down the French and Italians with theirdeadly longbows, King Edward III laid siege to theFrench port city of Calais. The city fell and Calaisremained in English hands for the next 200 years.

The war was interrupted by the advance of theBlack Death. The English withdrew temporarilyfrom French soil (except for Calais), only to returnin 1355. Two English armies were soon movingabout on French soil, one marching from Brittany tothe south, while the other made its way north fromBordeaux in territory controlled by the English.

The next significant English victory came adecade later with the fight at Poitiers in 1356. Here,Edward’s son, known as the Black Prince, engageda larger French army once again. Although theFrench knights fought on foot rather than be cutdown on horseback as at Crecy, Englishlongbowmen brought victory. The English took2000 prisoners, including the new king of France,John II. King John’s ransom was set at 500,000pounds, a huge sum of money for that time.

In 1359–60, the English invaded France againand marched all the way to Paris. This campaignbrought an end to the first phase of the HundredYears’ War. The Treaty of Bretigny, signed in 1360,guaranteed English control over French soilincluding the regions of Calais, Aquitaine, andPonthieu. In exchange, Edward III agreed to give uphis claim to the French throne.

In time, France recovered from its losses andwith the coming of a new king to the throne,Charles V (1364–1380), fought to regain its lostterritory. By 1380, the year King Edward died, theEnglish held little French territory. For the rest ofthe 14th century, England’s monarchs were eitherinsane, unpopular, or busy fighting rebels inScotland and Wales. Some warfare with the Frenchcontinued, but both sides were tired and financiallydrained by the war. In 1396, both powers agreed tosign a 20-year truce, ending the second phase of theHundred Years’ War.

In 1413, a new king, Henry V (1413–1422), thegreat-grandson of Edward III, led the English intowar with the French once again. The most signifi-cant battle of this phase of the war was at

Agincourt, locatedbetween Crecy andCalais.

Here the English,outnumbered five toone, won a brilliantvictory. A smallarmy, its ranks filledwith archers, onceagain battled Frenchknights in full armor.The night before thebattle, heavy rains turned the next day’s battlefieldinto a muddy meadow.

The French knights, dismounting their horses,were soon caught between slipping in mud andlying helplessly on their backs under the weight ofheavy armor and the arrows of the English archers.The day’s battle resulted in the loss of 5000Frenchmen, plus 1000 prisoners. English lossesamounted to a mere 100 men. Following his successat Agincourt, Henry V conquered Normandy(1417–19). By 1420 he was recognized as the heirto the French throne.

More English victories came in the 1420s, aswell as the rise of a mysterious young girl, Joan ofArc, a peasant mystic who rallied French forces inthe 1428–29 siege of the city of Orleans. Inspiredby her presence, the French broke the English siege.This victory proved to be a turning point in the war.The English suffered disastrous defeats, owing to anincreased use of French cannons. By the 1440s, theFrench had regained much of their territory. Whenthe English failed to reconquer the region of Gascony,the Hundred Years’ War ended. The result was astronger France which controlled more territory.

Research and Write

Joan of Arc is a fascinating figure. This young,illiterate peasant girl made an important contribu-tion to the French efforts in the war. Research herstory and write about it in 100 words.


English longbow

The Hundred Years’ War Continues

Despite great military success on the part of theBritish throughout most of the Hundred Years’ War, theFrench ultimately regained their lost territory. By thewar's end, the French were stronger than ever.

In England, events took a dark turn. Nobles warredwith one another, military leaders were accused oftreason, and some were even executed.

The English monarch, Henry VI (1421–1471), wasunable to stop the fighting which soon spiraled out ofcontrol. Henry suffered from bouts of insanity and wasotherwise controlled by his French wife,whom most of the Englisharistocracy hated. After decadesof fighting the French, theEnglish nobility hadbecome accustomed toviolence. And withinten years of the endof the HundredYears’ War, theEnglish were at waragain, this time withone another.

These conflictswere known as the Warsof the Roses, and werefought between 1455 and1485. The cause of the wars wasbasically a challenge to the ineffectivereign of Henry VI.

The name for the wars came from the emblems usedby both sides. The symbol for Henry VI’s family name,Lancaster, was a red rose, while the rival house of Yorkbore the emblem of a white rose. (Both lines had de-scended from the line of Edward III, so both claimedthey represented the legitimate heirs to the throne.)

In 1461, Edward IV of York (1461–1483) managedto seize the throne from the weak Henry VI. Edward andhis supporters did manage to restore some order toEngland, but he was occasionally cruel. When he died,his brother Richard III (1483–1485) became king,despite a legitimate heir in Edward V, one of two youngsons of Edward IV.

To ensure his reign, Richard III had his two nephewslocked away in the Tower of London. “The little princes”were eventually murdered, presumably under ordersfrom their uncle, Richard. Richard’s rule proved to be a

short one, however; he was killed at the Battle ofBosworth Field in 1485.

With the death of Richard III during battle, theEnglish throne passed to Henry VII (1485–1509), thefirst English king of the Tudor family line. (He was borninto the house of Lancaster.) To consolidate his claim tothe throne, Henry VII married into the house of York.He also convinced Parliament to recognize him as therightful heir to the throne.

Henry VII proved one of the most capable kingsseen in England in 200 years. He selected

capable ministers who served him well,balanced the kingdom’s budget,

and even accumulated atreasury surplus. Trade

increased during his reign. He avoided war as

often as possible,knowing that wars areexpensive, win or lose.He married his childrento the royal families of

Scotland and theGermanies. He forced his

nobles to treat their serfsand the lower classes with

justice. Although the people of England

did not feel warmly toward their king(Henry kept himself removed from direct contact

with his subjects), he managed to bring to England anew order of stability and security. He left his kingdomsolidly intact and is considered one of England’s greatest kings.

When his son, Henry VIII (1509–1547), inheritedthe throne, England was one of the four strongestpowers in all of Europe, second only to France, Spain,and Austria.

Review and Write

1. Identify the basic cause of the English Wars of theRoses.

2. From the information found on this page, describethe reign of Henry VII. What kind of king was he?(Be specific.)

Challenges to England’s Kings


Henry VIII

Early in the 1300s, the French monarchy—inparticular, Philip the Fair— caused the RomanCatholic Church many problems. Yet in the 14th and15th centuries, the monarchy faced serious troublesof its own.

When the sons of Philip the Fair died, leavingPhilip without a male heir, it was left for hisdaughters to inherit their father's power. Yet, theFrench lords created a rule barring any woman fromascending to the throne.

By 1328, the barons selected a nephew of Philipthe Fair, Philip of Valois, for the position of king.Since this Philip was placed on the throne ratherthan having inherited it directly, he spent much ofhis reign granting favors to his supporters andwatching his back against nobles opposed to him.Aristocratic feuds and squabbles nearly caused civilwar and accounted for the early French defeats in theHundred Years’ War.

Philip’s son, John (1350 –1364), faced his ownrocky reign. Captured by the English during theBattle of Poitiers, he lost huge portions of Frenchterritory (which cut out his tax revenues from thoseregions) and made the French people in general verydissatisfied with him. The year 1358 proved mostdifficult for John who faced a bloody peasant revoltand an attempt by the Parisian middle class to bringdown his government, which ultimately failed.

The next king, John’s son, Charles V (1364 –1380), was moderately successful in his war with theEnglish and managed to regain much of the territorylost earlier in the Hundred Years’ War. His son,Charles VI (1380 –1422), however, proved to be ahighly ineffective ruler. He suffered bouts of insanity,and died in 1422 in his early 50s.

His son, Charles VII (1422–1461) was a victimof events that were often greater than he was. Fewtook him seriously, for he had been disinherited byhis father. The Hundred Years’ War was on in earnestand the English, along with their allies, held muchFrench territory. His armies seemed incapable ofdefeating the English. Charles was known as a weakruler.

Then, events turned in Charles VII’s favor. First,the mysterious and pious peasant girl, Joan of Arc,stirred her people and rallied around Charles. Joan

was certain she heard voices fromGod which told her that CharlesVII was the only rightful king ofFrance. Many people, fromnobility to peasants, believed inher and in her words. She helpedto restore to the French peopletheir Christianity and faithin the French monarchy.Charles could not have hada better ally than Joan of Arc.

With a new confidence, hedecreed a massive campaignagainst the English whichultimately turned the tide of the war.He gained an advantage when some ofEngland’s allies (actually fellowFrenchmen known as the Burgundians)had a falling out with the English andreturned to fight alongside theFrench instead. With such allies,Charles’s armies were able towrest northern France from the English.

With the support of the French people, and thesuccess of his armies against the English, CharlesVII began to systematically expand his power baseas king. He instituted taxes on the people withoutconsulting with anyone, including the EstatesGeneral, a political body representing the threeclasses of French people—the clergy, nobility, andcommoners.

He overcame all opposition, including thenobles, from seriously challenging him. The resultwas a king who expanded the power base of theFrench monarchy. Charles VII became a king whowas strong, and who ran France as a powerful,bureaucratic state. This pattern of political structurewas soon to become the European model forcenturies to come.

Review and Write

What positive impact did Joan of Arc have onher native France?


Joan of Arc

France in the Later Middle Ages

During the High Middle Ages, from 1085 to1212, the land known today as Spain was ruled bysmall feudal Christian kingdoms. Those decadeswere spent battling the Moslems for control of theIberian Peninsula, which today includes the nationsof Spain and Portugal. These wars to remove the followers of Islam from the peninsula were knownas the Reconquista, thereconquest. This campaignconcluded with the 1212victory of a combinedAragonese and Castilianarmy over a Moslem forceat Las Navas de Tolosa.

By the 1400s, thevarious kingdoms hadformed three, often feuding, monarchies: Portugal,which hugged the western coast of the IberianPeninsula; Aragon on the Mediterranean Sea coast;and Castile near the center of the peninsula. (TheMoslems, called the Moors, still retained a smallstate called the Kingdom of Granada in the south,where they hung on by a thread by paying tribute tothe Christian kingdoms to the north.)

Two of these kingdoms united later in the 15thcentury. In 1469, King Ferdinand of Aragon(1479–1516) and Isabella of Castile (1474–1504)married and formed a single state. (They became thesponsors for the voyages of Christopher Columbusin the 1490s.) In time, this newly formed Spainbecame the chief French rival in Europe.

Once united, Ferdinand and Isabella faced manyproblems. Both France and Portugal opposed themarriage, and Portugal went to war with Castile in1476 to overthrow Isabella. Noblemen in both Castileand Aragon frequently launched plots against theunion of the kingdoms. Yet Ferdinand and Isabellaultimately overcame all serious opposition.

Together, they managed to extend and strengthentheir royal power over the nobility, the towns, and alllegislative bodies. They ordered the Council ofCastile, once controlled by the noblemen, into anagency answerable to the monarchy. Ferdinand tookcontrol of the three military orders of knights whichhad previously been controlled by the nobility. In theyears to follow, the Spanish army became one of the

best-equipped and best-trained forces in Europe.Ferdinand and Isabella dominated the Church in

Spain as well. In 1482, the pope granted them powerto appoint Catholic bishops, archbishops, and cardi-nals. They collected Spanish Church revenues. Al-though the king and queen appeared loyal to thepope in Rome, they changed the Catholic Church in

Spain into a national body,independent of the papacy.Church officials often servedthe monarchy in administra-tive positions.

Religion played animportant role in late 15th-century Spain. Isabella,much more religious than her

husband, ordered the reintroduction of the Inquisition,which had been created in the 1200s by the Churchas a means of fighting heresy and Church opposition.The Inquisition was carried out by a zealous Spanishgovernment to harass rebellious noblemen and otheropponents. Isabella’s Inquisitor General, Torquemada,used torture and execution (by burning at the stake)to punish his victims.

As an extension of Christian zeal, the Spanishgovernment ordered the removal of all Moslems andJews from Spain in 1492, the year of Columbus’ firstvoyage to the New World. Approximately 200,000Jews were forced out of their homes. Once theSpanish army defeated the Moslems in Granada,their Christian state was complete.

Isabella died in 1504 and Ferdinand in 1516.Upon his death, their grandson, Charles V (1516–1556), became the king of Spain. As the ruler of theSpanish Netherlands, Austria, Milan, Naples, and thenew Spanish empire in the Americas, his kingdomwas a secure one during Spain’s golden age of the 1500s.

Review and Write

Once they united their kingdoms into one, whatsuccesses did Ferdinand and Isabella have as rulersof Spain?

Ferdinand and Isabella Unite Spain


The 1400s, despite destructive wars and recur-ring bouts of the Black Death, brought about therise of powerful monarchies in the Westernnations of England, France, and Spain. However,while kings and queens were expanding theirpower in the West, in the East and in centralEurope, the states were noted not for power butfor weakness.

There were some short-lived exceptions. InHungary, King Matthias Corvinus (1458–1490)briefly united the kingdoms of Hungary andBohemia to the west into a single monarchy.Matthias defeated his neighbors, the Habsburgs ofAustria, and one of his armies even occupied theAustrian capital of Vienna in 1485. However, hiskingdom collapsed after his death in 1490, whenthe Hungarian nobility refused to recognizeMatthias’s son as king.

In Poland to the north, the ruling family of theJagiellonians stepped in. Casimir IV, king ofPoland, managed to get his son, Wladyslaw,elected as king of both Bohemia (in 1471) andHungary (in 1490). However, when Casimir diedin 1492, the kingship of Wladyslaw died with itas the union of Bohemia and Hungary fell apart.

To the south of Hungary, the ancient empireof Byzantium faced a grim future. The direct heirof the eastern half of the long dissolved RomanEmpire, the Byzantine Empire managed to thrivefor nearly 1,000 years until the 15th century. In1453, the Moslem leader of the Ottoman Empire,Mehmed II, proclaimed a holy war against theByzantines. He soon laid siege to the ancient cityof Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium.

Mehmed’s army was gigantic, one of thelargest amassed during the Late Middle Ages.With his army ranging between 200 and 400,000soldiers, he faced little opposition from the 6000men defending the crumbling, 1000-year-oldwalls of Constantinople. Mehmed’s men used ahuge siege cannon, which knocked down thecity’s walls with granite cannon balls weighing aton each. After 53 days of siege, the old city ofConstantinople finally fell to the Moslem Turkson a Tuesday, the 29th of May, 1453.

When the Turks rode intothe city on horseback (theywere able to because thewalls of the city were de-stroyed completely in someplaces), they killed everyonewho resisted them andenslaved 60,000 others.Almost immediately,the 1000-year-oldchurch of the HagiaSophia was invaded by the Turks. Here, the lastByzantine emperor, Constantine IX, was killed.Now, the Greek city of Constantinople becameTurkish Istanbul, as it is known today.

Despite the power vacuums scattered aroundeastern Europe in the 1400s, one state sawdramatic expansion and development. During thesecond half of the 15th century, the Muscoviteprinces of northern Russia overthrew their Asianoppressors, the Mongols.

One prince, Ivan III (1462–1505), rose topower and declared himself tsar, from the Romanname Caesar, over all Russian lands, then knownas Rus. In 1471, Ivan defeated his opponents inthe city-state of Novgorod, which controlledmuch of northern Russia. He soon consolidatedhis power, establishing his capital at anotherRussian city, Moscow.

Research and Write

1. Another weak state of central and easternEurope in the 1400s was the Holy RomanEmpire of the Germanies. Find out about theGermanies of this period and explain why theHRE was so ineffective.

2. Describe the collapse of the Byzantine Empireat the hands of the Turks on May 29, 1453.

15th-Century Eastern Europe


Ivan III of Muscovy

Map of 15th-Century Europe


During the Later Middle Ages, Europe was thescene of both new and old states. It was a time of rising political power for the monarchies in France,England, and Spain. Other states continued to existonly as less significant places where royalty failed togain an upper hand. Others were surrounded by morepowerful neighbors or were too small in size to gainany real strength during the 1400s.

Using the map below, locate the following

kingdoms, states, and countries: Aragon, Austria,Bavaria, Bohemia, Brandenburg, Castile, France,Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, Netherlands, OttomanEmpire, Papal States, Poland, Portugal, Russia,Saxony, Switzerland, Tuscany. Write the name ofeach site directly on the map.

Using a modern map of Europe, what Europeancountries today were basically already in place duringduring the 15th century?

Part I. Multiple Choice (Worksheets 1-6) Match the answers to the right with the statement on the left.

______ 1. The period of medieval history from 1300-1500

______ 2. This Sicilian port saw some of the first European Black Death victims

______ 3. The large lumps found in the armpits and groins of Black Death victims

______ 4. Religious and ethnic group blamed for the spread of the Black Death

______ 5. Economic impact brought on by the Black Death

______ 6. Organization which controlled much of the trade in northwestern Europe

______ 7. Pope who was taken captive by the forces of the French king in 1303

______ 8. French king who challenged the power of the papacy during the 1300s

______ 9. Name given the period when the papacy was located at Avignon

______10. Period of a divided papacy: a pope in Rome and one in Avignon

______ 11. French pope who returned the papacy back to Avignon in 1378

______12. Pope selected by Council of Constance in 1417, restoring one pope to Rome

Part II. Multiple Choice (Worksheets 8-13)

______ 1. English king whose armies performed well during early years of the

Hundred Years’ War

______ 2 Most effective English weapon used during the major battles of the

Hundred Years’ War

______ 3. English victory of 1456

______ 4. French king captured by the English monarch, the Black Prince, in 1356

______ 5. English king victorious at the Hundred Years’ War battle at Agincourt

______ 6. French peasant girl who rallied troops at the siege of Orleans

______ 7. English king killed at 1485 Battle of Bosworth Field

______ 8. Spanish campaign of the 1200s to remove the Moslems from Iberia

______ 9. Government-Church campaign to fight heresy and Church opposition

______10. King of Aragon who united his kingdom with Castile in 1469

______ 11. Queen of Castile who united her kingdom with Aragon in 1469

______12. Muscovite prince who united Russians in the 1400s

Part III. Respond and WriteDuring the Later Dark Ages, life was dramatically changed in Europe by the repeated plagues known as theBlack Death. Explain why these plagues were so devastating to much of Europe. What impact did the BlackDeath have in the long run on Europe?

Test I


A. Joan of Arc

B. Reconquista

C. longbow

D. Inquisition

E. John II

F. Richard III

G. Henry V

H. Isabella

I. Poitiers

J. Edward III

K. Ivan III

L. Ferdinand

A. Babylonian Captivity

B. buboes

C. Great Schism

D. Hanseatic League

E. Jews

F. Later Middle Ages

G. Boniface VIII

H. Martin V

I. Clement VII

J. inflation

K. Philip IV (the Fair)

L. Messina

The 1300s were marked by the recurring BlackDeath plagues, inflation and economic depression,and pesky wars which made life in later medievalEurope a challenge. The Church experienced seriouschallenges from secular rulers resulting in theBabylonian Captivity and the Great Schism.

Monarchy survived the century, mainly becausemost Europeans of the period believed kings to bethe best means of governing. Yet many kings andqueens functioned badly, were constantlychallenged, murdered their own family rivals, andrarely stirred patriotic confidence in the people.

By the end of the 14th century, many peopleacross Europe had grown pessimistic about theirfuture and the future of their political state. Therewas an air of hopelessness about the new century.

However, by the end of the 1400s, Europe hadexperienced great change. The recurring economicdownturns were leveled out, new domesticindustries were created—especially in the areas oftextiles and armaments, new trade routes wereestablished, and a New World in the Americas layahead, yet to be tapped for its wealth and potential.

As for Christianity, Rome was once again the center of the religious world of Europe. Kings,queens, and princes gained the upper hand over theoften divisive nobility. Even learning had changedas Europeans became increasingly curious about theworld. The arts were changing as new styles ofpainting, sculpture, and architecture were introduced.

Above all, however, there was a new sense ofoptimism about the future. People from the Atlanticto the Mediterranean to the Baltic saw their futuresfilled with possibilities. There was an excitementabout what was going to happen next in Europe,although no one really knew what to expect. Thosewho thought much about these exciting times wroteabout a “new age” dawning across the continent.Some writers used the word renaissance, a rebirth,to describe their own times. They put behind themthe dark age of plagues, wars, and inflation.

By 1500, the new optimism of Europedeveloped into a new way of looking at the past, thepresent, and the future. The medieval world, with itssuperstitions, its limited scholarship, its religiousvalues, was a thing of the past. The next world—

historians refer to it as the beginning of our modernworld—was destined to be different from anythingwhich had come before it. It was to be a worlddominated by kings and queens ruling over powerfulnation-states, robust, international economies,broader intellectual and moral values, and secularideals.

How all this came about is hard to determine. Insome respects, Europe just shook off its immediatepast and moved ahead. We can see today more clearlywhy these changes occurred.

The new economics was generated by NorthernEuropeans in great trading and merchandisingcenters in Paris, London, Bruges, Bremen, Lubeck,and the Hague. The new art was created largely byItalians, and later fanned out to nearly all corners ofEurope, creating a new European civilization.

Review and Write

1. From your reading of this sheet, make a list ofthe changes which came to Europe during the1400s. Why might such changes cause Euro-peans to become more hopeful about theirworld?

2. List some of the problems Europe facedduring the 1300s.

The Early Renaissance


Renaissance-era Lute

For over two centuries, from the early 1300s tothe early 1500s, the city-states of Italy directedEurope, creating new forms and styles of painting,sculpture, architecture, and decorative arts. Theycreated a new ideal male image: the gentleman. Thisimage took the place of the chivalrous knight, themale symbol of the Middle Ages.

Even Italian schools were different. While nearlyall medieval schools and universities were churchschools and cathedral-based universities, the newItalian center of education emphasized a broadereducation, independent of the Church. The conceptof a liberal education developed, one free to exploresubjects frowned on in Church schools (or simplyconsidered too trivial for serious study.)

Such schools were attended not only by Italianstudents. Thousands of pupils from dozens ofEuropean countries streamed into the city-states toreceive a Renaissance education.

How did Italy come to be such a leader andsource of change in Europe by the 14th century?

One reason was that Italy had always been out ofthe mainstream of medieval culture, thought, andpolitics. It had never been truly medieval. Italy hadnever had a strong monarchy, did not rely on thevassal-serf model of feudalism, and medievalthought—scholasticism—had never taken deep rootthere. Thus making the change from the MiddleAges to a new era of progress and rebirth was anatural one for Italy.

The Italian city-states had the power and moneyto assume cultural leadership in 14th-century Europe.Such cities as Milan, Venice, Florence, and Romehad dominated life in Italy for generations.

Without a powerful, unifying Italian monarch,such cities came to dominate the economy, culture,and politics of vast regions, without many seriousrivals—except for one another.

As city-states, political power was not centeredin a landed nobility as in most other Europeancountries of the period, but rather in an urban rulingclass. Wealthy bankers, merchants, and traders (thepopolo grosso, or “fat people”) were found at the topof the economic and social ladder. Under them werethe popolo minuto, the “little people”: small businessowners, artisans, craftsmen, and other urbanites.

Below them, typicallyliving outside the citiesin rural landscapes,were the peasants.They worked theland, farmed, raisedsheep, had no politicalpower, and no way of getting it.

Quarrels for power werecommon between the popologrosso and the popolo minuto.

Such city-states not onlyruled themselves but wieldedgreat economic influence. Thenorthern Italian cities wereleaders in international trade.

In the northern city of Venice, on the northernshores of the Adriatic Sea, nearly the entire populationwas involved in some way with Oriental trade.Venetian traders served as the European source forsuch rare and prized trade goods as spices, silks, teakwood, and exotic fruits. Even if one was not a mer-chant of Venice, he or she worked as a banker, sailor,dock worker (called a stevedore), manufacturer,shipper, and was connected with trade.

The city of Florence, located along the ArnoRiver in northern Italy, was a center for Europeanbanking and manufacturing. Great textile mills werelocated in Florence. Nearly one out of every threeFlorentines was involved in the woolens industry—from raising sheep to selling cloth to foreign buyers.

Review and Write

1. From your reading, list the reasons why theItalian city-states took the position of leadershipin moving Europe out of the Middle Ages andinto a new era.

2. How important was trade to the economy ofRenaissance Venice? Give examples.


A stevedore

The Italian City-States

The High and Later Middle Ages witnessed greatstrides in urbanization. Where city life in the EarlyMiddle Ages almost ceased completely, the centuries tofollow brought about a remarkable rebirth of town andcity dwelling.

By the 1400s, some European urban centers werehome to hundreds of thousands of citizens. The cityof Paris boasted a population of a quarter million. Innorthern Italy, the city-state of Milan held 200,000.Its neighbor to the south, Florence, hada citizenry of 100,000. City life in theRenaissance served as a model for thenew era.

One leading city was Florence.During the Renaissance, Florenceembodied the soul of the period, rising to prominence as a source of greatart produced largely under the patronageor financial support of one rulingfamily: the Medici [MEH dee chee].Members of this important Italianfamily greatly influenced the Renais-sance in Italy and France from the1400s to the 1700s.

The Medici supported the arts of Florence withmoney and influence. Through them, Florence becamethe creative center of the Renaissance. They also gavesupport to the new liberal education of the period.Experts estimate that the Medici family spent themodern equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollarson the arts and sciences during a single 50-yearperiod.

The wealthy Medici family came to power inFlorence in 1434. It controlled the city’s politicsthrough an oligarchy—government by a small groupof powerful leaders. One influential banker, Cosimode Medici (1389–1464) led his family in controllingdaily Florentine life. Throughout most of the 1400s,Cosimo and his grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent(1449–1492), controlled Florence, its economy, itspolitics, and its art.

In 1444, Cosimo ordered the construction of amagnificent building, the first of such Medici familypalaces. Although the Medici were not true royalty,Cosimo considered himself a duke. The title was

eventually accepted by the people of Florence. Thispalace, the Palazzo Medici, was the first of theRenaissance palaces, and it served as a model formany others.

Cosimo ordered the building of the first publiclibrary in Europe since the days of the Roman Empire.In time, he and his family spent millions of dollars onrare manuscripts and books for this civic project.Cosimo sent agents to the East to locate manuscripts.

One scholar hunted for and purchased200 ancient Greek documents.Approximately 80 of them werepreviously unknown in Europe.

The artists supported by theMedici make up a who’s who ofRenaissance painters, sculptors, andarchitects. Donatello, Filippino Lippi,Masaccio, Verrocchio, Botticelli,Ghirlandaio, DaVinci, andMichelangelo all produced great works

of art under the generous patronageof the Medici.

Such influence created a newworld in Florence. Craftsmen produced lavish items ofpersonal use from fine furniture to elaborate pottery.Yet not everyone enjoyed the wealth of the city. Manywere poor, barely making a living combing andcarding wool for the lucrative textile trade. Thesecommon workers, known as ciompi, sometimesrevolted against their harsh living conditions, as theydid several times in the late 1300s.

Florence became a city of such consumption andconspicuous wealth that critics rose up and condemnedit. A 15th-century Dominican friar named GirolamoSavonarola convinced many Florentines that wealthwas the work of the devil. His preaching brought converts. The result was the burning of many worksof Florentine art in what were known as Bonfires ofthe Vanities.

Review and Write

Describe the influence the Medici family had onRenaissance Florence.

Life in Renaissance Florence


Palazzo Medici begun in 1444

The Renaissance Italians busied themselves withcreating a new set of values for their world. Newsocial ideals were created, further separating the menand women of the 14th and 15th centuries from theirmedieval roots.

Unlike during the Middle Ages, the special status brought on by an aristocratic or noble birthcame to mean little in Renaissance Italy. Oldknightly virtues of chivalry, loyalty, and personalhonor, for many, became meaningless.

The Renaissance world defined itself differently.Although there was always a marked division oflabor and social significance—an upper, middle, andlower class—there were opportunities for morepeople than ever before.

Competition kept everyone on their toes. Gettingan education now meant more than just developingone’s mind. It stood for getting ahead. Poor peasantsmight rise in class status and, by the use of their talents, become famous painters like Leonardo DaVinci, who was born illegitimate.

The new values of the Renaissance includedupward mobility, self-reliance, imagination,creativity, adaptability and forethought. Suchqualities allowed one to reach the top of the socialheap.

Many of these qualities were combined in theRenaissance concept virtu, from the Latin word vir.Virtu should not be confused with our common wordvirtue. Instead, it means well-rounded, complete,having many skills and abilities.

Men and women of the Renaissance valued individualism. No longer tied to a noble lord,working anonymously on someone else’s property,now a man looked after himself first, and his familyand friends second. His loyalty to king, baron, orpope came in a distant third. Suddenly, Renaissancemen and women began to put great emphasis ontheir own existence, their own wants and needs.

This emphasis on individualism developed into aphilosophy called Humanism. This ideology causedmany to look to sources other than religious texts,including the Bible, for education and inspiration.

During the Middle Ages, education and studycentered around the Scriptures and the writings of

Christian theologians. Medieval scholars paid littleattention to the classical literature of the ancientGreeks or even the Romans. But by the 1300s,Italian thinkers and philosophers paid great attentionto these ancient sources of knowledge and insight.

One of the early Italian Humanists was a writerand scholar named Francesco Petrarca, or Petrarch(1304–1374). Today Petrarch is considered the fatherof Humanism. He spent much of his life collectingRoman manuscripts and was a great admirer of theRoman orator, Cicero.

Such Humanists as Petrarch and those who followed him helped restore the study of classicalGreek and Latin and changed the prevailing theoryabout education. During the Middle Ages, theChurch dominated teaching. The nobility evencreated its own teaching program for knights,instructing them on how to fight and behave incourt.

Few other educational systems existed in themedieval world. But the Humanists of RenaissanceItaly created a new educational model. In theirschools, they taught students to be complete humanbeings: to be able to read and write Latin and Greek,to develop good manners and codes of politeness, tobe skilled fighters, to build up their bodies, and to bewell groomed.

The purpose of this system of study was to createstrong individuals who could think for themselves.In doing so, such individuals came to believe in theancient Greek maxim: Man is the measure of allthings. Each person, individually, determines his orher own values, morals, and interests.


The Birth of Humanism

The Renaissance inspired the creation of newideals and political thought. The knight was out;the gentleman was in. The noble lord, led by reli-gious conviction, was a creature of the past. Gov-ernment would now be led by discerning men andwomen who would use their conscience as theirguide.

Two important books, published just fouryears apart during the late Renaissance, set downthe new standards of the day. The author of TheCourtier was Baldassare Castiglione [CAST igleon] (1478–1529). The other book was known asThe Prince, and was written by NiccoloMachiavelli [MAH kyah VEL lee] (1469–1527).The Courtier was published in 1528 and ThePrince in 1532. Both had been written severalyears before they were made public.

These two books set the standard for the mod-ern man of Italian society politics. They present anew creature to the world, one quite differentfrom the medieval chivalrous knight or theChristian noble lord. Yet both books present twoideals which appear, at least on the surface, to bequite different from one another.

Castiglione’s The Courtier presents a pictureof the ideal Renaissance man. While not necessarilyborn an aristocrat, Castiglione assumed he wouldbe because typically only the upper class couldspend time developing this ideal. Castiglionewrites of his ideal man:

I would wish the Courtier endowed bynature not only with talent and with beautyof countenance [the face] and person, butwith that certain grace we call an ‘air,’which shall make him at first sightpleasing and lovable to all who see him.

Among the other virtues Castiglione requiredof his courtier were modesty, humanity, competi-tion, and fierceness. His skills were to includewrestling, horsemanship, swimming, jumping,running, dancing, and throwing stones. He neededto speak several languages, play a musical instru-ment, and write with flowing handwriting. Conversation was to come easily and he was to be

a good joke teller.If Castiglione’s courtier image was of one who

played fair and decently, then Machiavelli’s princelived by another set of rulesaltogether.

In his book, Machiavelliarticulates how a ruler—hepatterned his prince afterLorenzo (the Magnificent) de Medici—is to conductbusiness and diplomacy.

Machiavelli’s modelprince is wise and virtuous.But he is also cunning, devious, practical, arealist. He is to be self-interested. He may use anymeans to achieve his ends, no matter who is hurtin the process. In battle, the prince is ruthless anddoesn't worry about gaining a reputation forcruelty.

Machiavelli describes The Prince as one who:

...must imitate the fox and the lion, for thelion cannot protect himself from traps, andthe fox cannot defend himself fromwolves. One must therefore be a fox torecognize traps, and a lion to frightenwolves.

The Prince and The Courtier were importantbooks in their time, addressing the new ideals ofthe Renaissance. In fact, the Emperor Charles Vkept only three books by his bedside—the two byCastiglione and Machiavelli and the Bible.

Review and Write

1. Do you think it was possible for a Renaissanceman to follow the advice of both Castiglioneand Machiavelli at the same time? Explain in50 words or so.

2. What impact did The Courtier and The Princehave on Italian politics and society?

The Prince and The Courtier


Niccolo Machiavelli

The Renaissance witnessed a great flourishing ofart, science, literature, and music. Perhaps more thanany other, the great Italian painter Leonardo Da Vinciembodied all the skills of his age. If Machiavelli’sprince is patterned after Lorenzo the Magnificent, themodel for Castiglione’s courtier may well be Leonardo.

Not only was he one of the greatest artists of theRenaissance (after all, he painted the Mona Lisa),Leonardo was a genius in the sciences as well. Thelist of his skills and interests reads endlessly: painter,architect, sculptor, engineer, botanist, geologist,teacher, inventor, musician, writer, scientist, and critic.

Leonardo once wrote, “The natural desire ofgood men is knowledge.” He spent a lifetimeaccumulating information, insights, deductions, andsketches—thousands of sketches—in notebooks.Inquisitive, Leonardo often carried small sketchbookson his belt. Today, approximately 5700 pages ofwriting in his own hand exist.

His life took place against the backdrop of thecreative era of the Renaissance. Born in 1452 in thesmall Italian village of Vinci, young Leonardo wasraised by his grandparents. As a boy, he displayedgenius by solving difficult mathematical problems.But he was also artistic. His father took him toFlorence where he studied under the artist Verrocchio.

Here, Leonardo improved his skills of painting,sculpting, and engineering. By 1472, his talentsadmitted him to the painters’ guild in Florence.During these years, he was busy with some of hisearly works of art, including the painting Adorationof the Magi, which he never finished.

While in his early 30s, Leonardo served the Dukeof Milan, Ludovico Sforza. While in Milan, Leonardodesigned military equipment for the Duke. He developed canal systems and new fortifications forMilan and painted some of his greatest works, suchas The Madonna of the Rocks. But his greatest workof this period was his painting of The Last Supper, amural adorning a wall in the refractory, or diningroom of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

This detailed work shows Jesus and his apostlesat their final meal together before Christ’s arrest andcrucifixion. It is considered by many to be one of thegreatest paintings of all time. The Last Supper was atriumph of balance, anatomy, and subject. It has not

weathered well over the centuries, however, and hasbeen restored by artists over the past twenty years.

When French troops invaded Milan in 1499,Leonardo returned to Florence for a few years. Herehe painted his most famous portrait, the Mona Lisa.It is a painting of a young Italian woman named Lisadel Giocondo, and it continues to captivate peoplehundreds of years after its completion.

Leonardo's notebooks swelled with sketches ofinventions including models of a helicopter, glider,parachute, machine gun, and armored vehicle. Hestudied anatomy and included scores of drawings ofthe human body in his notebooks.

In 1506, he returned to Milan to serve the Kingof France, Louis XII. There his work continued, ashe studied anatomy and made engineering designs.By 1512, he was in Rome working on designs forthe new Church of St. Peter. In 1516, he was invitedto France by Francis I, and there he died in 1519.

Leonardo’s work in the arts and the sciences gavehim a reputation during the Renaissance of a genius.He was a man of his age, the gentleman courtier whowas the best example of a Renaissance man.

Review and Write

How did da Vinci live out his maxim that “thenatural desire of good men is knowledge?”

The World of Leonardo Da Vinci


Leonardo's helicopter design

The Italians made the greatest contribution to Renaissance art. These skilled and inspired artistswere first known for their painting. Much of theirsculpture is considered less significant, with theexception of that carved by Michelangelo.

Much of the painting done during the MiddleAges had been religious in subject. Biblical scenessuch as Christ’s crucifixion or the Virgin Mary andstories such as Noah and the Flood or Adam and Evein the Garden of Eden were commonly captured inpaintings, carvings, and stained glass.

During the Renaissance, many painters continuedto rely on Biblical and religious subjects. However,just as scholars were discovering Classical Greek andRoman literature, so Renaissance painters werepainting scenes of Greek mythology, Roman history,and other secular subjects.

These new artists tried to capture their subjects,whether Biblical or not, in more realistic poses.People were portrayed sitting and lying down withtheir faces turned toward the viewer. These paintingsoften depicted dramatic scenes. Technically, theirwork improved owing to the development of newpaints and pigments, and the use of canvas surfaces(rather than parchment, wood, or stone). The resultwas an art which elevated the artist from the class ofcraftsman to that of a skilled professional. Whiledozens and scores of painters produced thousands ofRenaissance works, several stand out from the ranksof their peers.

An early Renaissance painter of note was Giotto(1266–1337), who is credited with founding theFlorentine school of Renaissance painting. Many ofhis works survive today as frescoes—wall paintingsmade from watercolors applied to wet plaster. Hissubjects were nearly always religious. Unlike hiscontemporaries, Giotto painted his figures in realisticposes, including some with their backs to the viewer.His characters reveal high emotions during highlycharged dramatic scenes.

In addition, Giotto experimented with light andshade to give his paintings a three-dimensionalappearance.

While Giotto enjoyed both fame and wealth as apainter, other artists did not. One such artist wasTommaso Cassai from Florence. Today he is known

for his nickname, Masaccio (1401–1428), whichmeans Simple Tom. Masaccio died at the age of 27 inpoverty, but his paintings were admired by manyduring his lifetime. As did Giotto, Masaccio used lightand shadow to give depth and perspective to hisworks. As a result, his painted figures appear realisticcompared to earlier medieval paintings.

Giotto and Masaccio were both from Florence, aswas a third painter, Sandro Botticelli (1444–1510).Botticelli worked under the patronage of the Medicifor part of his career. He painted both religious andsecular subjects. Among his most famous paintingswas the Birth of Venus, which used the figure of anude woman in the composition. (During the MiddleAges, the female nude was not allowed as an artsubject.) Botticelli also enjoyed painting the VirginMary. Like Giotto, Botticelli became wealthy throughhis painting.

A contemporary of Botticelli’swas Raphael (1483–1520). Origi-nally from Urbino, young Raphael(he died in his mid-20s) painted inFlorence and Rome. Many ofRaphael’s subjects are young,attractive women and children. He painted with soft colors and his paintingsreveal a wide variety of stylesand emotions. He painted several Madonnas, just asBotticelli did.

With the work of these artists, the dimensions ofRenaissance art expanded and were redefined to fitinto their new era.

Review and Write

What were some of the subjects which the followingpainters depicted in their art?

Giotto: ____________________________________

Botticelli: __________________________________

Raphael: __________________________________

Italian Renaissance Art, Part I


Raphael (1483–1520)

Renaissance Map of Italy


Beginning in the early 1300s, Italy became thecenter of a new era which brought about the age ofthe Renaissance. Renaissance Italy was not a countryunited under one powerful monarch. (In fact, Italy didnot become a single nation until the 1860s.) Rather, itwas a landscape dominated by powerful rulers ininfluential city-states.

Using the map below, place each of the followingin the proper places. First, draw the borders that separated the following states. (Be careful here. You

are not yet identifying the cities of the same names.)Venice, Milan, Florence, the Papal States, Siena, Genoa,Savoy, and the Kingdom of Naples. Shade each stateusing a different colored pencil. Now identify thelocations of the following cities: Milan, Venice, Padua,Bologna, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Genoa, Urbino, Turin,Siena, Mantua, and Naples. Then identify the islandslocated off the west coast of Italy: Corsica, Sicily, andSardinia.

The artists of the Italian Renaissance continuedto redefine the dimensions of their field throughoutthe 1300s and 1400s. Their work continued to serveas the model to the rest of the art world throughoutEurope. Leading figures, men of great talent andgenius towered in a world already filled with giftedpainters, sculptors, and architects.

Leonardo Da Vinci was one artist who used hisgreat powers of observation and imagination andapplied them to his art. In paintings of common subjects—portraits, Madonnas, Biblical scenes—Leonardo filled his canvas with precise renderingsof plants, animals, fossils, and human figures withextremely accurate anatomy. His use of light andshadow took Masaccio’s work a step further.

One Italian artist who dominated the art of the15th century was Michelangelo Buonarroti ofFlorence [mi EL an’ je lo bwo nah rot’ TEE](1475–1564). He was an artist of extraordinarygenius. Although he was a man of his times when itcame to his art, he was often gloomy and restless,much like a medieval artist.

Among his greatest works was the painting ofthe ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Takingover four years to complete, he worked in solitudeon top of a scaffolding. Using the Old Testament ashis inspiration, Michelangelo’s frescoes cover over10,000 square feet of the ceiling. (Years later,Michelangelo returned to the chapel to paint theLast Judgment on the altar wall.)

Despite his skill as a painter, Michelangelo mostwanted to be known as a sculptor. His sculpturalworks stand as some of the most famous in history,including his statue of the biblical David with aslingshot in his hand.

Michelangelo spent his entire life producingmonumental images of art. By the time of his death,at age 89, he was the most famous Renaissanceartist of his time, and was loved and respected forhis accomplishments. Few artists left as extensive alegacy of painting, sculpting, and architecturaldesign as did this tempestuous Florentine.

The period of Italian dominance in the Renais-sance art world reached its final stage in the city-state of Venice. Two brothers, Gentile Bellini (1429–1507) and Giovanni (1430–1516), estab-

lished a famous school of Renaissance art in Venice.Their students included the Venetian greats, includ-ing Giorgione, Tintoretto, and, perhaps the best ofthem all, Titian [tee SHUN] (1477–1576), who livednearly a century.

These artists painted religioussubjects, yet they also renderedworks of pure landscapes andnudes. Their subjects werepainted in vivid colors.Venetian painters oftenproduced their works oncanvas, since the wet Veniceclimate caused paintings tobleed and mold.

Although the ItalianRenaissance artists are oftenthought of first as painters, there were many great sculptors as well. One of the first of the great wasGhiberti (1378–1455). His most noted work is a pair of bronze doorsdepicting scenes from the Old Testament. Both he and another sculptor,Donatello (1386–1466),lived in Florence. His statues are noted for theirbeauty and grace, such as his own David.

Research and Write

This page and the previous one introduce thesubject of Italian art. Using other sources (especiallyart books), compare the work of an earlyRenaissance painter or sculptor (Giotto, Masaccio,Ghiberti, or Donatello, for example) to the work oflater artists (such as Raphael, Michelangelo, DaVinci, or Titian).

What differences do you see? What changeswere made in painting or sculpture during the Renaissance period?

Italian Renaissance Art, Part II


Donatello's David

Most historians agree that Italy was the sourceof the Renaissance movement in art, literature,sculpture, philosophy, and architecture. However,the influence of the Italians spread from their nativecity-states to the far corners of Europe, especiallythe north.

Italian Renaissance ideals, attitudes, and stylesfound their way across nation-state borders. Notuntil the 1500s, however, did these impulses finallytake root outside Italy—two hundred years after thefirst sparks of Italian genius began forming theRenaissance outlook in Italy.

Even then, things were not exactly the same asin Italy. Politically, northern Europe was a collectionof nation-states, not city-states as in Italy. Theinfluences of the medieval world were more deeplyrooted in the north and harder to abandon than inItaly. The Church still controlled much of theeducation system of the north. Even many of thesources for Italian Renaissance art, such as theGreek and Byzantine worlds, were further from thenorth geographically, making them more difficultfor northerners to access and model.

And when Renaissance ideas found their way tothe northern states of Europe, they were applied differently than in Italy, often because the north followed different political, economic, and socialgoals than did the Italians.

In England, the Italian Renaissance influencedthe work of the great English poet, GeoffreyChaucer. [CHAW suhr] (1340–1400). Earlier in hislife, Chaucer had served in Italy as a diplomat.There he may have met the Italian poet and writer,Boccaccio, and read other Italian poets such asDante. Chaucer’s greatest work, Canterbury Tales,is a work of humanist Renaissance literature.

Humanism found its way to England in time,and found its greatest supporter in the English writerand theologian Thomas More (1478–1535). Morewas a brilliant writer and thinker. His best-knownwork, Utopia (1516), takes much of its inspirationfrom a writing by the ancient Greek philosopher,Plato, called The Republic. Once again, a classicalwork influenced a Renaissance writer.

Perhaps the most significant humanist writer andthinker of the northern Renaissance was DesideriusErasmus [ur AS mus] (1466–1536). He was born aDutchman, but was a true Renaissance man teachingand writing in France, Italy, England, Switzerland,and Germany. Noted for his translations of theScriptures in Greek, Erasmus also edited severalclassical Greek and Roman works. His writingsreveal a strong faith in reason. He was an influentialscholar and reformer.

The Italian Renaissance also had an impact onnorthern European painting and art. The Dutchbrothers Hubert (1366 –1426) and Jan (1390 –1441)Van Eyck were greatly influenced by Italian art.Their works are highly realistic. They inspired latergenerations of Dutch painters.

Hans Holbein (1497–1543),a German painter, studied artin Italy. His special masterywas found in portraits—especially of the Englishroyal family—works whichare charged with depthand personality.

A German painterdramatically influencedby the Italians wasAlbrecht Durer(1471–1528). His trips to Italy inspired him. Histechnical skill as a draftsman and engraver causedhis art to be extremely popular, making himwealthy.

Research and Write

Many other artists left their mark on Renais-sance painting, sculpture, and architecture. From thefollowing list, select one and write a short report onhis work and contribution to Renaissance art: LeonAlberti, Donato Bramante, Pieter Bruegel, FraAngelico, El Greco, Piero della Francesca, PaoloUccello, Matthias Grunewald.

The Northern Renaissance


Albrecht Durer

Renaissance merchants, shippers, and lendersoften lived in relative luxury and stability. Theirhomes and the lives they created there reveal asense of pride in accomplishment in the businessworld. The homes of these merchants were placeswhere their owners could show off their success.

A typical Renaissance merchant’s house was atleast two stories tall, sometimes three or four. Thefront door was usually a large opening made ofthick wooden planks attached to its frame by heavyiron hinges. (In an urban world where city riotsoccurred frequently, such a door protected themerchant’s family from outsiders.)

Inside the house, the rooms were usually dividedby partitions. There was little privacy and onecould pass from room to room. Hallways were rare.Often rooms were used for more than one purposeowing to a lack of adequate space.

The master bedroom, for example, might havebeen used to entertain company. A large, four-poster bed dominated the space. To provide privacyand to keep out the cold, curtains were hung aroundthe bed. A small children’s bed was often storedunder the big bed and brought out at night for use.

Much of family life centered in a great roomwhich was a combination kitchen, dining room, andliving room. Such a room included a broadfireplace where meals were cooked, shelves forfood storage and utensils, a few chairs, perhaps alarge table, a long bench, and side tables featuringvases, candles, and other smaller items.

Renaissance houses did not feature many piecesof furniture. The rooms were uncluttered anduncrowded compared to today’s homes. Some ofthe more ornate pieces included intricately carvedwood chests, which were typically long, rectangularboxes with heavy lids. Today’s cedar chests are themodern equivalent of these functional yet elaboratepieces. A new bride often kept her important itemsin such a box, and the piece and its contents wentwith her when she married and left home.

Typically, a family ate two meals during theday—the first at 10 a.m. and supper around 5 p.m.Generally, utensils included a plate, a knife, and aspoon. People drank from wooden cups or metalmugs and tankards. Glasses were very rare. Nearly

everyone drank ale and wine, even children, and agallon a day for an adult was not considered toomuch. (Pure drinking water was rare.) By the mid-1500s, drinking chocolate was introduced from theNew World, and later, coffee and tea

Glass was available for windows as early as the1200s, but remained rare as late as the 1500sbecause of its expense. Windows were often opento the outside world, with wooden shutters to shutout cold weather and bad smells. In winter, suchhouses, with their shutters closed, were darkindeed. Wood burning fires provided the heat insuch houses.

By the late Renaissance, tiled floors were morecommon in houses. However, many houses had dirtfloors scattered with grass rushes as an insulationand to absorb moisture. They also harbored mice,fleas, and lice.

While many Renaissance people did not batheregularly, most middle-class homes had a bathtub.The old Roman and medieval public baths hadfallen out of use since the days of the Black Death,when people feared the spread of the dreadeddisease.

Review and Write

What glaring differences do you notice betweenthe description given here of a typical Renaissancemerchant’s house and the place where you live?

Home Life During the Renaissance


In our modern world, we take information forgranted. Today, we have ready access to dozens ofsources of knowledge, including libraries, television,radio, and newspapers. The media are importanttools for keeping us up-to-date and informed.

Despite the presence of the electronic media—from news programs to satellite feeds to theInternet—the printed word continues toplay a vital role in keeping us informed.Newspapers, magazines, newsletters,books, even billboards lining the roadsand highways provide people with theinformation they want and need.

It is difficult for us to imagine aworld where access to information wasalmost nonexistent. In the medievalworld, producing a book was aslow and involved process. Monksoften copied manuscripts by hand,which took many weeks and muchconcentrated effort. Such bookswere also highly expensive.

A rapid mechanical means ofprinting did not come into existencein Europe until the Renaissance.Printing was not, however, a Europeaninnovation. Early printed works were first producedin the Far East as early as the A.D. 700s. Such worksfeatured sheets printed from a single wooden block.The Koreans were the first people who producedprinted material using movable type. Movable typerefers to small individual letters which, put in theright combination, spell words.

Early European printing came into being duringthe mid-1400s. In the German city of Mainz, a printernamed Johann Gutenberg produced a Bible by usingmovable type and a printing press. The book wasprinted in Gothic script, which made it look muchlike the letters formed by medieval monks. However,each letter was produced by a single movable typepiece of cast metal. Gutenberg called his methodartificial writing.

This now famous Gutenberg Bible was huge. Itwas printed in two volumes, with a total runninglength of 1282 pages, featuring over one millionindividual letters, each representing a single piece of

movable type. Gutenberg printed about 150 copies ofhis Bible. (Approximately 21 of them still existtoday.) He was, at first, very secretive about hiswork, not wanting the general public to know he wascreating an artificial system of publishing short ofwriting by hand.

Some of his Bibles were printed on animalskin called vellum, the traditional printingmaterial of European scholars forcenturies. Other copies were printed onpaper. Paper was produced from old linenrags and old clothes which were boiled and

beaten to a pulp. The pulp wasthinned and the water wassqueezed out to form a sheet.

Gutenberg’s press was copiedand in just a few years, printing becamebig business in many parts of Europe.By 1500, 250 European towns werehome to at least 1000 printing presses.

Other printers traveled around withportable presses, taking onpublishing jobs from town to town.Gutenberg printed his Bible in the

mid-1450s. By 1460, printing wascommonplace in Europe. Italy saw its first

printing press in 1465 and it had found its way toFrance by 1470. By the end of the century, theprinting presses of Europe had produced roughlynine million copies of Bibles, books, and pamphlets.

They also produced copies of maps, musicalcompositions, and pictures. This new innovation andtechnology made the passing of information andknowledge much easier, at a fraction of the cost ofprevious centuries.

Review and Write

How did the printing press dramatically increasethe number of books in print in Renaissance Europe?

The Printing Press


By the late 1400s and the early 1500s, changes inEurope brought about an era of global expansion andexploration. Europe’s economic development in the1400s allowed nation-states and individuals such asmerchants and bankers to accumulate enough wealthto take risks in overseas investment. Monarchsextended their rivalries to other continents, paying forships to explore and discover new markets.

Other changes also made overseas expansionpossible for Europe during these decades. Ship construction and navigational technology improved.Ships built with the stern-post rudder werebecoming widespread. Changes in how sailswere rigged—such as the lateen rig createdby Arab sailors—allowed ships to sail intothe wind. An improved compass was intro-duced by the 1400s. Other devices,such as the astrolabe, a metal ringmarked off in degrees, allowed sailors toknow their latitudinal position at sea.

One hindrance to Europeanexploration had always beeninaccurate maps. Even late medi-eval maps were notoriouslywrong. Earlier sailors told wildstories about nonexistent lands. Some believed that ifthey sailed into the tropics, they would boil to deathand sailing to the southern African coast would turntheir skin as dark as the Africans themselves. The mostaccurate maps of the early 1400s were Moslem andOriental. These foreign rivals saw no reason to sharetheir geographical information with the Europeans. By1500, some fairly accurate maps were circulating inEurope, but they were few.

Among the leading European nations supportingexploration and expansion around the globe wasPortugal. This nation’s efforts to sail to distant landsbegan as part of a campaign against the Moslems. In1415, a Portuguese army captured the Moslem port ofCeuta, located just 15 miles south of Gibraltar on thenorthern African coast. A 21-year-old Portugueseprince named Henry (1394–1460) was appointed asgovernor of Ceuta. He was the youngest son of thePortuguese king, John I.

Enticed by stories of fabulous wealth in Africa tothe south, including gold and ivory, Henry begansending seafaring expeditions along the west coast of

the African continent. Not only did he desire thewealth of Africa for his nation, he also wanted toChristianize the Moslems.

Henry was so interested in exploiting the riches ofAfrica and the East, he established a school wherenavigators and seamen could be exposed to the latestequipment, the newest, most accurate maps, and heartrue stories told by explorers who had made voyages tothe south.

His voyages brought success. By the early 1420s,Portuguese seamen had explored the MadeiraIslands. They also landed at the Canary Islandsin 1425 and at the Azores just two years later.

(These three island chains arelocated in the Atlantic, west

and south of Portugal.) When Henrydied in 1460, his explorers had mapped

over 2,000 miles of thewest coast of Africa.

In 1487, the Portugueseking, John II (1455–1495), great

grandson of John I, sent a seamannamed Bartholomew Diazto venture as far south

along Africa’s coast as possible.By 1488, he reached the southern tip of the continent.His reports encouraged others to follow in his path.

One such seafarer was Vasco da Gama who sailedfrom Portugal in 1497. By 1498, he reached theOrient. His voyage marked the first time a modernEuropean had sailed around Africa and landed in India.

Vasco da Gama’s voyage proved the existence of adirect sea route from Europe to India, which laterdestroyed the monopoly of the Moslems in the Easterntrade. Only a few years passed before the Portuguese,in 1513, landed in the Chinese port of Canton.

Review and Write

1. What are some reasons why the Portuguese andothers wanted to discover an all-water route to theOrient?

2. What discoveries and improvements in sailinghelped European explorers in their search forglobal expansion?

Europe Discovers the World



Part I. Multiple Choice (Worksheets 15-20) Match the answers to the right with the statement on the left.

______ 1. Word “rebirth,” which is used to describe an artistic flourish in Europe

______ 2. Name for wealthy bankers, merchants and traders in Italy

______ 3. Italian small business owners, artisans, and craftsmen

______ 4. Italian city-state known for its banking and woolens trade

______ 5. Wealthy family which dominated Florentine politics through the 1400s

______ 6. 15th-century Dominican friar who criticized Florentines for their luxury

______ 7. Italian Renaissance ideal that emphasized having many talents

______ 8. Writer and scholar who is considered the Father of Humanism

______ 9. This philosophy emphasized individualism

______10. Author of The Prince

______ 11. Author of The Courtier

______12. Painter of the Mona Lisa

Part II. Multiple Choice (Worksheets 21-27)

______ 1. This early Italian Renaissance painter’s nickname meant “Simple Tom”

______ 2. His Birth of Venus featured a mythological female nude

______ 3. He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome

______ 4. Author of Canterbury Tales

______ 5. Northern Renaissance humanist writer

______ 6. German painter known for his portraits of the English royal family

______ 7. German printer who printed a famous Bible in the mid-1400s

______ 8. Metal ring marked off in degrees which gave sailors their latitude

______ 9. Portuguese seaman who reached the southern tip of Africa in 1488

______10. Portuguese seaman who sailed around Africa and reached the East in 1498

______ 11. English Humanist who wrote Utopia

______12. Portuguese prince who encouraged sailing explorations in the 1400s

Part III. Respond and WriteThe Renaissance brought many changes to Europe. Describe some of the changes Europe experienced andexplain which ones you believe were the most significant.

Test II

A. astrolabe

B. Botticelli

C. Gutenberg

D. Holbein

E. Henry

F. Michelangelo

G. Thomas More

H. Erasmus

I. Chaucer

J. Da Gama

K. Masaccio

L. Diaz

A. Humanism

B. populo minuto

C. Castiglione

D. Florence

E. Leonardo da Vinci

F. Renaissance

G. virtu

H. Savonarola

I. Machiavelli

J. Medici

K. Petrarch

L. populo grosso

Page 11. Agricultural expansion made food more abundant and

allowed for more trade. Warm weather patterns insured goodharvests. Population expanded, new towns and cities dottedthe landscape. Gothic cathedrals and schools of higherlearning were constructed. Wars were kept to a minimum. Itwas a time of peace, security, and an expanding economy.

2. Widespread financial chaos, years of rivalry, revolution,peasant riots, international rivalries with the Church,famines, and the Black Death.

Page 31. Answers will vary. People did not understand how the

disease was spread. When they fled from it, they oftencarried it with them to the next town. There were noeffective medical ways of dealing with the plague.Quarantine was not commonly practiced in the day. Peoplein cities lived in relative filth where rats and their fleas werecommon.

2. Frightened people tried to flee ahead of the disease andcarried it with them instead. Their dancing and singing ingraveyards to ward off evil spirits were based on superstition.

Page 51. Christians blamed Jews for the Black Death. Campaigns to

kill Jews took place all over Europe.2. With the deaths of so many people, a scarcity of labor

developed across Europe. This shortage of workers causedthe labors of those still alive to be worth more.

Page 61. When Philip attempted to tax the clergy in France, Boniface

announced that clergy in any state were not to pay taxes to asecular ruler without permission from the Church. Philip IVresponded by dispatching soldiers to Rome, taking Bonifaceprisoner.

2. The Great Schism caused many Christians to doubt papalauthority and led to great confusion.

Page 8Various biographies and encyclopedia citations will providethe information sought by students. Answers will varyindividually.

Page 91. The cause of the wars was basically a challenge to the

ineffective reign of Henry VI.2. Henry VII proved to be one of the most capable kings seen

in England in 20 years. He selected capable ministers whoserved him well, balanced the kingdom’s budget, and

accumulated a treasury surplus. He avoided war and marriedhis children to the royal families of Soctland and theGermanies. He forced his nobles to treat their serfs and thelower classes with justice. He managed to bring to England anew order of stability and security.

Page 10She helped to restore to the French people their Christianityand faith in the French monarchy. Charles could not have hada better ally than Joan of Arc.

Page 11They managed to extend and strengthen their royal powerover the nobility, the towns, and all legislative bodies. Theymade the Council of Castile answerable to the monarchy. TheSpanish army became one of the best equipped in Europe.They dominated the Church in Spain. They ordered theremoval of all Moslems and Jews from Spain.

Page 121. Answers will vary. The Holy Roman Empire was ruled by an

emperor who had only minimal sway over his subjects.There was no united Germany of the period and the HolyRoman Empire was a mish-mash of hundreds of middle-sized, small, and even tiny states, kingdoms, fiefdoms,duchies, and independent towns. One-man rule over these“Germanies” was nearly impossible.

2. Mehmed’s cannon knocked down the walls of Con-stantinople. His soldiers rode into the city on horseback,killed all who resisted, and enslaved 60,000 others.

Page 13The nations of Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Scotland, England,France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Poland,Russia, and Hungary will show on both maps.

Page 14 Part I. Part II.

1. F 7. G 1. J 7. F2. L 8. K 2. C 8. B3. B 9. A 3. I 9. D4. E 10. C 4. E 10. L5. J 11. I 5. G 11. H6. D 12. H 6. A 12. K

Part III.The plagues disrupted life in Europe by killing one-third of thepopulation, spreading fear, causing people to abandon theirvillages, towns, farms, castles, monasteries, etc. The plaguekilled off many members of the clergy, making it difficult for


Answer Key


the Church to administer its members. Trade, commerce, andagriculture were seriously disrupted. Despite an economicdownturn and inflation, workers received better wages andwere able to buy their freedom.

Page 151. Answers will vary. Church problems caused by

powerful secular rulers seemed to even out. Economicdownturns seemed to level out, new industries developed,and new trade routes were established, causing Europeanwealth. The arts were changing, indicating a new creativespirit. Such changes helped Europeans to throw off their pes-simism about the future. They thought in terms of newhorizons, new beginnings, new possibilities.

2. Black Death, inflation, economic depression and wars, pluschallenges of the Church from secular rulers.

Page 161. Answers will vary. Italy had always been out of the

mainstream of medieval culture, thought, and politics. It hadnever truly been completely medieval. It did not rely on thevassal-serf model. Medieval thought, such as scholasticism,had not taken root in Italy. Italian city-states were nothindered by a powerful secular ruler. They pursued theirindividual goals without restrictions.

2. In Venice, nearly the entire population was involved in someway with Oriental trade.

Page 17The Medici supported the arts of Florence with money andinfluence. They gave support to the new liberal education ofthe period. They controlled the city’s politics. They were theleading banking family of Florence.

Page 191. Answers will vary. Students will probably note the

distinction between Castiglione’s warm, multitalentedRenaissance man and Machiavelli’s calculatingruthlessness.

2. These two books set the standard for the modern man ofItalian society politics. They present a new creature to theworld, one quite different from the medieval chivalrousknight or the Christian noble lord.

Page 20His studies and skills included painter, architect, sculptor,engineer, botanist, geologist, teacher, inventor, musician,writer, scientist, and critic.

Page 21Giotto: Religious subjects.

Botticelli: Both religious and secular subjects. He paintedworks which included female nudity.Raphael: Young attractive women, children, and Madonnas.

Page 23Answers will vary. Differences between early and lateRenaissance painters could include the use by later artists ofmore light and shadow contrasts, more vivid colors, moresecular subjects such as the female nude, etc.

Page 24Answers will vary. Students will complete research work ontheir own.

Page 25Answers will vary. Students may note how in their ownhomes, each room generally has a singular purpose(bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room, etc.). They willalso note technological changes— running water, electriclights, insulation in walls, furnaces, etc.

Page 26In the medieval world, producing a book was an involvedand slow process of copying each volume by hand. Theprinting press allowed for multiple copies of the same workby a device, rather than by hand copying.

Page 271. Answers will vary. They wanted to rival the Moslems in

trade, convert Moslems to Christianity, gain wealth, gainpower beyond other European countries.

2. The stern-post rudder, lateen rigging, improved compass,astrolabe, accurate maps.

Page 28 Part I. Part II.1. F 7. G 1. K 7. C2. L 8. K 2. B 8. A3. B 9. A 3. F 9. L4. D 10. I 4. I 10. J5. J 11. C 5. H 11. G6. H 12. E 6. D 12. E

Part III.Answers will vary. Changes brought about during the Renais-sance include more secular literature and thinking, increasedunderstanding of the world, increased trade and commerce,new views of art and aesthetics, and the end of thepredominance of medieval economic structures in Europe.

Answer Key

Documents

Downloadable Reproducible eBooks - …The 14th century wouldsoon usher in 150 years of problems and peril, plagues and peace-breaking. Until about 1450, Europe—especially western