The West in Crisis: The Later Middle Ages, 1300-1450

The WestThe West

CHAPTER 10

Mass Starvation

• By fourteenth century, virgin land in western Europe was exhausted

• Medieval agriculture could not sustain unchecked population growth

• Cycle of famine and disease began after 1310

The Black Death

• Bubonic and pneumonic plagues • Spread from central Asia into Europe along

trade and shipping networks• Between ca. 1345 and ca. 1355, one-third of

the population between India and Iceland died from plague

• Network of contagion in western Europe persisted, from 1348 to 1721

The Mongol Invasions

• 1206-1258 Mongols established the most extensive empire in the world, stretching from China to Hungary

• Altered the economic, ethnic and political composition of Asia and eastern Europe

• Mongol Peace - restored trade networks• Collapse of Peace, in fourteenth century,

severed commercial links across Eurasia

The Rise of the Ottoman Turks

• Ottoman Turks founded an empire and dynasty that endured until 1924

• Ottoman state built upon a network of personal and military loyalties to the sultan, rather than upon ethnic or linguistic unity

• 1308-1453 Ottomans conquered Byzantine Empire• Created a lasting Muslim presence in eastern

Europe and altered the boundaries of the West

The Collapse of International Trade

• Financial infrastructure of medieval Europe depended upon trade in luxury goods

• End of Mongol Peace disrupted supply of luxury items

• Italian bank collapses extinguished lines of credit in western Europe

• War between France and England consumed aristocratic wealth

Rebellions From Below

• Guild monopolies of economic, social and political power, in cities, created resentment

• Economic depression confounded rising expectations, in cities and countryside

• Urban revolts in Florence, Ghent, Bruges, Paris and Rouen, ca. 1380

• Rural uprisings in France (1358) and England (1381)

• Lack of any clear alternative to existing socio-political order led to universal failure

The Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism

• 1305-1378 popes resided in Avignon, rather than in Rome - The Babylonian Captivity

• Politicized papacy increased corruption and led to selling of indulgences

• Great Schism 1378-1417 - western Europe divided in allegiance to rival popes in Rome and Avignon

• Conciliar Movement resolved the schism and provided a model for modern Catholicism

The Search for Religious Alternatives

• New heretical movements in England and Bohemia - John Wycliffe and Jan Hus

• Criticized the political power and wealth of the Church, emphasized preaching and scripture over sacraments

• Modern Devotion - Thomas à Kempis• Emphasized individual piety and spiritual

responsibility

The Fragility of Monarchies

• Aristocratic privilege of jurisdiction limited authority of the monarch and led to conflicts of loyalty

• Strength of monarchy and centralized government depended upon individual king

• French monarchy was constitutionally very weak

The Hundred Years’ War

• Dispute over the duchy of Aquitaine - the king of England was also a vassal of the king of France

• Succession crisis in France, 1328 - Edward III of England claimed French crown

• A series of occasional pitched battles, with long periods of truce and exhaustion

• By 1453, England had lost the majority of its French possessions

The Hundred Years’ War in Perspective

• Drew in other states, becoming a European-wide war, at certain times

• Demographic and agricultural devastation of France

• Deepened European economic depression

• England became more English - aristocracy abandoned French language and culture

The Military Revolution

• Increased importance of infantry units

• Need to train and maintain large standing armies

• Introduction of gunpowder and firearms

• Declining importance of cavalry challenged the social status of the aristocracy

Reminders of Death

• Death constituted a pervasive cultural theme and obsession

• Encouraged ethical behavior by emphasizing the transitory nature of life

• Disturbingly graphic depictions of death and dying in art and literature

• Dying was a public event and a crucial religious moment

Illusions of a Noble Life

• Escapist fantasy world of chivalry• Aesthetic and ethical ideal of the knight-

errant• Erotic desire in the myth of the knight

suffering to save his beloved• New chivalric crusading orders formed• Cultural significance of the court of

Burgundy

Pilgrims of the Imagination

• Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) - The Divine Comedy• Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) - The

Decameron• Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1342-1400) - The

Canterbury Tales• Margery Kempe (1373-1440) - The Book of

Margery Kempe• Christine de Pisan (1364-1430) - The City of

Ladies, The Book of Three Virtues

Defining Cultural Boundaries

• Spanish Reconquest led to systematic policies to destroy Muslim and Jewish culture in the Iberian peninsula

• Defensive legislation to protect ethnic identity of settlers in eastern Europe, Ireland and Wales

• Search for scapegoats and increasing concern about a Satanic conspiracy to destroy Christianity - idea of the reality of witchcraft emerged

Looking Inward

• Shift in the political and religious frontiers of the West

• Reinforcement of Christian identity• Development of self-consciously national

identities• Inability to understand causes of economic and

demographic catastrophes led to search for scapegoats

• Development of new spiritual sensibilities