An overview of many aspects of the Medieval Ages with some youtube clips thrown in

1. THE MEDIEVAL AGES
A B R I E F OVE RVI EW

2. PEACE AND PROSPERITY FACTORS
• Revitalization of the Church (Crusades)
• Agricultural revolution and rise of feudalism
• Revival of trade and the urban revolution
• Rise of national monarchies
• Development of universities
• Architecture: cathedrals
and castles
King John
of England
Flying
Buttress

3. THE CRUSADES 1095-1291 CE
• Effects
• Reduced internal warring in Europe
• Papacy gains prestige as defender of Christendom
• Rise of trade in Italy (transporting men, supplies)
• Contact with Muslims
• New foods, bathing, fine Asian goods
• Scientific and cultural knowledge
• Islamic learning schools established in France and Spain

4. THE BUBONIC PLAGUE
• Aka – the black death/bubonic plague
• 1300’s killed between ¼ and 1/3 of population in
Europe
• Estimates of death toll: 75-200 million people
• Came from ships that originated from the orient,
carried by fleas on black rats
• Symptoms: Buboes (swollen lymph nodes) would
appear in the groin, neck and armpits
• Oozed puss and blood when opened
• Next the sick would develop a fever and vomit
blood
• Most victims died two to seven days after infection

5. ACCOUNT OF THE PLAGUE
• By Boccaccio, medieval writer:
In men and women alike it first betrayed itself by the
emergence of certain tumours in the groin or armpits,
some of which grew as large as a common apple, others
as an egg...From the two said parts of the body this
deadly gavocciolo soon began to propagate and spread
itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of
the malady began to change, black spots or livid making
their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh
or elsewhere, now few and large, now minute and
numerous. As the gavocciolo had been and still was an
infallible token of approaching death, such also were
these spots on whomsoever they showed themselves

6. THE BUBONIC PLAGUE
• Its spread:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death#mediavie
wer/File:Blackdeath2.gif
• Poor sanitation and lack of bathing meant it spread
quickly
• Jews, foreigners, beggars, pilgrims and Roma were
all blamed and persecuted
• Most of the art and literature from the time focus on
the effects of the plague.

8. MEDIEVAL KNIGHTS
• Medieval Warriors on horseback, most sought after
military weapon, bought by Lord
• Had Armour (chain mail and plate)
• Lived by a Code of Chivalry
• Moral Code tied to religion
• Squire: Knight’s aid
• Watch: Terry Jones' Medieval Lives: The Knight
• Take notes on other aspects of the life of a
Medieval Knight
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhWFQtzM4r0
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtjSS5FmQc0

9. CHURCH AND KINGS
Church
• Was granted favours by
Roman Emperors/Kings
• land
• exemption from taxes
• immunity in courts
• positions in courts
• In return church helped
kings secure control of
territory
• Most influential
organization in Europe
Kings
• Got a supply of
educated administrators
from Church
• In return kings would
enforce laws that
prohibited other religions

10. MONASTICISM
• Most dynamic and significant institution in the Early
Middle Ages
• Impulse to withdraw from the world and devote
one’s self to God
• Regarded as the most perfect form of the Christian
life
• “And every man that has forsaken home, or
brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or
children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive
his reward a hundredfold, and obtain everlasting
life.” Matt. 19:29

11. MONASTICISM
• Started with St. Anthony from Egypt
• Retired to the desert to live the ascetic life of
a good hermit
• A colony of would-be ascetics gathered
around him to draw inspiration from his
holiness
• The colony lived together but did not
communicate to one another
• Soon other colonies grew in Egypt and other
areas of the Roman Empire
• St. Simeon Stylites lived atop a 60 ft
pillar for 30 years!

12. MONASTICISM
• St. Benedict of Nurisa (c. 480-544)
added common sense
• Changed from severe fasting, hair shirts,
and lashings
• Benedict was born into a rich family
and had keen psychological insight
• Well organized and learned from
experiences
• Founded a number of monasteries
(Monte Cassino)
• Became a model monastery
• Focused on comprehensive, practical
and compassionate rule

13. MONASTICISM
AND SAINTS
• Monasteries grew 400 -700 CE
• centres of education, literacy and
learning
Saints
• performs miracles as evidence of a
special relationship with God
• Must be canonized after death
• St. Augustine
• wrote “Confessions”
• ideas of ethics, self knowledge, and
the role of free will
• Wrote treatise allowing violence against
heretics – the “just war”

14. THE FLAGELLANTS
• Religious sect seeking
salvation through self
abuse
• Tied to Christianity,
used psalms, hymns
• Spread word as an
act of piety
• Worked towards
spiritual goals through
our actions in this world

15. THE CHURCH TAKES CHARGE
• Peace of God: 989 CE
• No stealing from church
• No assaulting clerics, women, peasants
• Excommunication
• Truce of God: 1027 CE
• No fighting Thursday to Monday, feast days, holy
days
• No killing Christians
• Led to justification for Crusades
Truce created a paradox: Peace & Truce of God
created to bring order and civility to society, yet
this peace movement also contributed to idea of
the righteousness of holy war.

16. CHURCH TAKES CHARGE, CONT’D
• Church Schism: 1054 CE
• Pope and Patriarch excommunicate each other
• Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox split
• War of Investitures: 1075 CE
• Who gets to appoint bishops? Pope or King?
• 50 years of bloodshed
• Concordat of Worms: 1112 CE
• King appoint bishops and abbots as vassal
of empire
• Pope then gives staff and ring
• Kings gave up religious influence

17. CHURCH TAKES CHARGE, CONT’D
• Pope Innocent III
• Believed in supreme power of the papacy
• Emperors and kings were servants of the church
• Involved himself in disputes all over Europe
• Freely used his power of excommunication
• Placed kings in France and England were
placed under interdict (removing sacramental
and burial privileges).
• Other kings were overthrown and replaced by
rulers of his choice
• Innocent started the trend of using the
faith of various kings to their people to their
advantage

18. WITCHES
• An estimated 1 million
were executed
• Trial by water – frown =
innocent, float =
guilty/burned at the stake
• Initiated by Catholic
Church
• they were thought to be
connected with the devil
but most think they were
used as a scapegoat
• Blamed for the plague,
drought and other
problems
• Martin Luther supported
hunting for witches

19. AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
• Three-field rotation
• Heavy plough and horse collar
• Windmills and water power
• Led to population growth and urban renewal

20. AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

21. TRADE AND URBANIZATION
Rise of
Guilds
Medieval
Street
Increased
Trade
Walled City
of
Carcassone,
France

22. UNIVERSITIES
12th century
Renaissance
• Greek and Roman
classics rediscovered
• Universities
established in
Bologne, Paris, Oxford
• Trivium (grammar,
logic, rhetoric) and
Quadrivium (math,
geometry, music,
astronomy)

23. ARCHITECTURE
• Romanesque to Gothic
San
Pantaleo
Italy
Last
Judgement at
Conques,
France
Flying
Buttress
Chartres
Cathedral
, France

24. MEDIEVAL CASTLES
• Defensive fortress of
Kings and Lords
• Fight by laying “siege”
(towers/rams/ladders)
• Defended with hot
oil/water, arrows,
catapults
• Catapults: fire dead
animals, heads,
burning objects

25. CASTLES
Motte & Bailey
Castle
Stone Castles
Bamburgh
Castle, England
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F
qGZbJEL21Q

26. 100 YEARS WAR: ENGLAND VS FRANCE
• Edward III of England claimed the throne of France
• Edward married the king’s daughter but rules state it
can’t be passed down through the female line
• England won early battles at Crecy, Poitiers and
Agincourt with longbow
• In 1429, 17 yr old Joan of Arc was inspired by God to
save France
• Defeated the English at the Battle of Orleans
• She was captured by the English and burnt at the stake
for heresy, her legend grew
• War lasted from 1337-1453 and had 4 stages
• End result was that the French Kept their land

27. 100 YEARS WAR