The Middle Ages

1. The Middle Ages

2. Poor harvests led to famines in the years 1315-1322. • Fewer calories meant increased susceptibility to disease and less energy for growing food. • Diseases killed many people and animals. • Economies slowed down and population growth came to a halt.

3. Weak governments were unable to deal with these problems. • Starving people turned against rich people and Jews. • English kings tried to regulate the food supply, but failed.

4. Films – Middle Ages The Rise of Feudalism Europe's Feudal States Life in the Middle Ages 1000-1450 The High Middle Ages

5. The Black Death

6. The Culprits

7. The Black Death • Genoese ships brought the bubonic plague--the Black Death--to Europe in 1347. • The bacillus lived in fleas that infested black rats. • Some claim that it came from the east by way of the Crimea. • Pathology and care • The bubonic form of the disease was transmitted by rats; the pneumonic form was transmitted by people. • Unsanitary and overcrowded cities were ideal breeding grounds for the black rats. • Most people had no rational explanation for the disease, and out of ignorance and fear many blamed it on Jews, causing thousands of Jews to be murdered.

8. The Symptoms Bulbous Septicemic Form:almost 100% mortality rate.

9. The disease, which killed millions, recurred often and as late as 1700. • It spread to central Europe and eastward--although its toll was less in Poland. • In Hungary, type-D blood people may have been immune. • Its last occurrence was in France in 1721. • A vaccine was not developed until 1947.

10. Lancing a Buboe

11. The Disease Cycle Flea drinks rat blood that carries the bacteria. Bacteria multiply in flea’s gut. Human is infected! Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into human wound. Flea’s gut cloggedwith bacteria.

12. The social and cultural consequences of the Plague • Priests, monks, and nuns cared for the sick, and as the clergy were killed off even women performed the services of priests. • In the towns the plague meant population decline, labor shortage, and high inflation. Wages increased and labor productivity increased as did per-capita wealth. • The demand for slaves increased.

13. The psychological consequences of the plague were enormous: pessimism, gross sensuality, religious fervor, and flagellantism. • Society became divided and full of fear. • Artists and writers became obsessed with death. Video - The Black Death

14. Hundred Year’s War 1337-1453 • The causes of the war: • Edward III of England, claimed the French crown by seizing the duchy of Aquitaine in 1337. • French barons backed Edward's claim as a way to thwart the centralizing goals of their king.

15. Causes continued: • Flemish wool merchants supported the English claim to the crown. • Both the French and the English saw military adventure as an excuse to avoid domestic problems.

16. The course of the war to 1419 • The battles took place in France and the Low Countries. • At the Battle of Crécy (1346), the English disregarded the chivalric code and used new military tactics: the longbow and the cannon. • The English won major battles at Poitiers (1356) and Agincourt (1415) and had advanced to Paris by 1419.

17. Joan of Arc and France's victory • Joan of Arc participated in the lifting of the British siege of Orléans in 1429. • She was turned over to the English and burned as a heretic in 1431.

18. Costs and consequences • The war meant economic and population decline for both France and England. • Taxes on wool to finance the war caused a slump in the English wool trade. • In England, returning soldiers caused social problems.

19. The war encouraged the growth of parliamentary government, particularly in England. • The "Commons" (knights and burgesses) acquired the right to approve all taxes and developed its own organization. • In France, neither the king nor the provincial assemblies wanted a national assembly. • The war generated feelings of nationalism in England and France.

20. The Decline of the Church's Prestige

21. The Babylonian Captivity (1309-1377) • The pope had lived at Avignon since the reign of King Philip the Fair of France and thus was subject to French control. • The Babylonian Captivity badly damaged papal prestige. • It left Rome poverty stricken.

22. Pope Gregory XI brought the papacy back to Rome in 1377, but then Urban VI alienated the church hierarchy in his zeal to reform the church. • A new pope, Clement VII, was elected, and the two popes both claimed to be legitimate.

23. The Great Schism (1378-1417) • England and Germany recognized Pope Urban VI, while France and others recognized the antipope, Clement VII. • The schism brought the church into disrepute and wakened the religious faith of many.

24. The conciliar movement • Conciliarists believed that church authority rested in councils representing the people--not the authority of the pope. • Marsiglio of Padua had claimed in 1324, in Defensor Pacis, that authority within the church should rest with a church council and not the pope and that the church was subordinate to the state.

25. John Wyclif attacked papal authority and called for even more radical reform of the Church. • He believed that Christians should read the Bible for themselves, prompting the first English translation of the Bible. • His followers, the Lollards, spread his ideas.

26. Wyclif’s ideas were spread to Bohemia by Jan Hus. • An attempt to depose both popes led to a three fold schism. • The Council of Constance ended the schism with the election of Pope Martin V.