An overview of the historical context of the Medieval Period

2.  The Anglo-Saxon period ended and the Medieval
period began in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings when
William the Conqueror defeated King Harold.
 It ended in 1485 with the final battle of the Wars of the
Roses.

3.  He was a very authoritative and very organized king.
He enacted the first tax record and census. He wanted
records of every property and taxable asset owned by
his people. To such an end he had his scribes create
the Domesday Book which recorded every animal or
piece of land owned by his subjects. His rule was a
time of prosperity and safety. It was said that a man
could travel over the whole kingdom with a bag of gold
without fearing for his life during William’s reign. His
death left years of war as a successor was chosen.

4.  Great-grandson of William of Normandy. He reformed
the judicial system to be more regular and systematic
so that a criminal in one county would receive much
the same treatment as a criminal in another county.
Henry began the ruling house of Plantagenet.

5.  He reigned for ten years but spent the majority of that
time fighting in the crusades, religious wars, fought
against Islam, which aimed at recapturing Jerusalem
as a Christian holy city. The wars were sanctioned by
the Catholic church and funded by monarchs across
Europe. Richard was renowned for his bravery but
didn’t succeed at much more than bankrupting the
country by pouring its tax revenues into the crusades.
His younger brother John plotted against him and
became the villain of the Robin Hood legends: Prince
John.

6.  As a king, John was difficult to get along with and
constantly raised taxes to refill the treasury that his
older brother had emptied. Eventually, he was forced
to sign the Magna Carta which limited royal authority
and granted more power to the barons. This set the
stage for the gradual decrease in monarchial power
until we have today’s system which is more like
democracy than monarchy.

7.  The Hundred Years’ War
 Fought between England and France, on and off, for more than a
century. By the end, England had lost nearly all of the French lands
that it had owned since the time of William of Normandy.
 The Black Death
 This plague killed more than a third of England’s population and
decimated Europe. It was called the “black death” because of the
grotesque way that the victim would swell at their lymph nodes and
the swellings turn black before the victim finally died. Unsanitary
conditions and lack of proper medical understanding of contagion,
led to a nearly uncontrollable spread of the disease.
 The Wars of the Roses
 A war fought between the rival families of York and Lancaster,
symbolized by a white rose and red rose respectively. It ended when
Henry Tudor defeated the York family and took the throne.

8.  This system was introduced by William of Normandy and
dictated both the politics and the economy of England. The
idea was that the king owns all of the land in his kingdom
and can give and take it as he chooses. He sets aside pieces
of land as rewards to his faithful warriors and loyal barons.
In return, they supply him with knights to fight for him.
The barons would swear allegiance to their king, the
knights to the barons and so forth so that everyone had
someone to answer to. The bottom of the social ladder was
the conquered Anglo-Saxons who were serfs. Serfs had
little more freedom than slaves and were not allowed to
own land.

9.  The church was the only social group outside the rules of
feudalism. The church could levy taxes, make and enforce
its own laws, and threaten even the king with ex-
communication. The church owned more land than
anyone else in Europe and its wealth was made apparent by
its extravagant cathedrals and the luxury in which the
higher members of the clergy lived. The king had the
power to appoint high ranking church officials in return for
their support in matters of policy. One such archbishop
was Thomas a Becket who was murdered by knights loyal
to the king when he began favoring church interests over
the king’s interests. He was declared a saint and the
cathedral at Canterbury where he had been archbishop
became a popular shrine visited by religious pilgrims.

10.  One of the major influences on the literature of the
Medieval Period was the ideals of chivalry and courtly
love. Henry II’s French wife Eleanor brought the
concept of chivalry from the French courts. It was a
code of conduct for knights which governed their
morals and honor. Knights should be generous, brave,
honest, pious, and honorable. They were expected to
defend the weak and to battle evil and uphold good.

11.  Queen Eleanor took it a step farther and applied
chivalric ideals to relationships between men and
women as well. The rules of courtly love governed the
proper conduct of courtship. Rules included “marriage
is no real excuse for not loving”, “he who is jealous
cannot love”, “when made public, love rarely endures”,
“a new love puts an old one to flight”, “every lover
regularly turns pale in the presence of his beloved”.
These concepts represented ideals rarely met in real
life but inspired many great stories of the time such as
the stories of King Arthur.

12.  Stories of adventure, gallant love, chivalry, and
heroism
 Set in an idealized, unrealistic world that was unlike
medieval England meant to help listeners escape from
harsh day to day realities.
 The stories of King Arthur are the most famous
romances.
 The real King Arthur is thought to have been a Briton
(a Celt who had been Romanized). Artorius was a
leader in the battles against the Anglo-Saxon invaders.