Chapter 12: The Crisis of the Later Middle Ages, 1300-1450

Chapter Outline
Prelude to Disaster
Climate Change and Famine
o Between 1300 and 1450, Europe experienced a Little Ice Age.
o Harsh weather led to ruined harvests.
o Poor nutrition increased susceptibility to disease and facilitated epidemics (for
example, typhoid).
o Social consequences of famines and epidemics included depopulation of some
areas, a volatile land market, and unstable international trade.
Government Ineptitude
o Government measures, such as price controls, were ineffective.
o The starving scapegoated and attacked Jews, lepers, and the wealthy.
o The Black Death
Arrival in Europe and Spread
o Genoese ships brought the plague to Italy in 1347.
o From there it spread to southern Germany, France, and then England.
Pathology
o Fleas often living on black rats bore the plague bacillus.
o Poor sanitary conditions and lack of bathing facilitated the spread of the disease.
o The appearance of a single boil was followed by bleeding under the skin,
vomiting of blood, and death.
o Medieval doctors had no way of coping with the plague.
Spread of the Disease
o Black rats mostly stayed in cities, so the disease was concentrated there.
o In England perhaps one-third of the population diedin some Italian cities more
than one-half.
o The plague reached Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Russia.
Care
o Doctors could sometimes ease the pain of the disease, but they had no cure.
o Many believed the plague was caused by poisoned or corrupted air.
o Strong-smelling substances were used in an effort to stop the spread of the
disease.
o Wealthy people often fled to the countryside.
o Many thousands of Jews were killed by people looking for a scapegoat.
o Hospitals served as a refuge for some sick people.
o Many people believed the plague was a sign of Gods anger.
Social, Economic, and Cultural Consequences
o Priests often took great risks to minister to the sick and had a high mortality
rate.
o Church officials sanctioned unorthodox measures in the emergency, such as
laymen administering extreme unction.
o New evidence suggests that the medieval agrarian economy showed remarkable
resilience in the face of the plague.
o Guilds accepted many new members, often unrelated to old guild members.
o The Black Death resulted in a general European inflation.
o The plague caused profound pessimism, religious fanaticism (flagellants),
suspicion of travelers and pilgrims, and slighting of funeral rites.
o New colleges were endowed to deal with the shortage of priests.
o By traumatizing medieval society and the church, the plague ultimately
contributed to the Reformation.
o The Hundred Years War
Causes
o In 1328 French barons denied the claim of English King Edward III to the French
throne and chose Philip VI of Valois as king.
o In 1337 Philip confiscated Edward IIIs holding of Aquitaine.
o The Hundred Years War also became a French civil war as some French barons
supported Edward IIIs claims to stop the centralizing drive of the French
monarchy.
o Economic factors involving the wool trade and control of Flemish towns created
tension between the English and the French.
The Popular Response
o Both English and French kings used priests to stimulate patriotism among the
people.
o War provided poor knights and others (criminals who enlisted, for example) with
opportunities for plunder and new estates.
The Course of the War to 1419
o The English scored successes early on.
o At Crcy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415), the English
longbowmen were instrumental in defeating the French.
Joan of Arc and Frances Victory
o In 1429, the French peasant girl Joan of Arc claimed divine inspiration and
helped turn the tide in favor of the French.
o She was captured by the English, tried, and executed on charges of witchcraft.
o The war ended in 1453 with the English holding only the port of Calais in
France.
Costs and Consequences
o The war was costly for both sides and local government in England fell into
disarray as so many sheriffs were serving abroad as knights.
o To pay for the war, Edward III had to negotiate almost constantly with the
barons in Parliament, thus strengthening the institution.
o The war promoted the growth of nationalism in both countries.
o Challenges to the Church
The Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism
o From 13091376 the popes resided in Avignon, France, under control of the
French monarchy.
o After returning to Rome in 1377, Urban VI succeeded to the papacy.
Antagonized by Urbans anti-corruption campaign, a number of cardinals
returned to France and chose a different Pope, Clement VII, who would reside in
Avignon.
o Kings lined up behind one pope or the other based on political considerations.
o The schism confused common people and discredited the Church among some.
The Conciliar Movement
o Before the schism, Marsiglio, rector of the University of Paris, argued that the
Church should be led by a council superior to the pope.
o The English scholar John Wyclif (ca 13301384) argued that there was no
scriptural foundation for the popes temporal power. He also argued that all
Christians should read the Bible for themselves.
o The cardinals of Avignon and Rome summoned a council at Pisa in 1409 that
deposed both popes and elected a third, but the old popes refused to step down,
leading to a threefold schism.
o The German emperor Sigismund organized a council at Constance that met from
14141418 and resolved the schism, electing a new pope (and burning the
heretic John Hus at the stake).
Lay Piety and Mysticism
o During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the laity began to exercise
increasing control over parish affairs.
o Laymen and women often formed confraternities.
o In late fourteenth-century Holland, a group of laypeople formed the Brethren
and Sisters of the Common Life.
o For some people, lay piety found expression in mystical experiences.
o Economic and Social Change
Peasant Revolts
o Frequent revolts provide evidence of the suffering and exploitation of peasants.
o Flanders was the most highly urbanized region in northern Europe.
o Uprisings in Flanders (13231328) represent the first mass movements of the
fourteenth century.
o Following fighting along the French-Flemish border, heavy indemnities were
placed on the peasants.
o In response, revolts broke out in 1323, revolts that evolved into a larger
movement.
o A French army crushed the peasant forces in 1328.
o In 1358 French peasants, tormented by famine, plague, and high taxes to
finance the Hundred Years War, rebelled in the so-called Jacquerie.
o In 1381 rising peasant expectations of well-being in England collided with
reimposition of a head tax on peasants to start a peasant rebellion, probably the
largest of the Middle Ages.
Urban Conflicts
o Rebellions also occurred in the late fourteenth century in Florence, Spain, and
the cities of Germany.
o Revolts often occurred in cities where the conditions of work were changing for
many people.
o Urban uprisings were most often touched-off by economic issues, but they were
also sparked by issues involving honor.
o The sense of honor developed by craft and journeymens guilds was a gendered
one.
Sex in the City
o The trend in this period was toward later marriage for women, especially
peasant and poor urban women.
o Men of all social groups were older when they married.
o Letters between John and Margaret Paston of the gentry class show that
Margaret managed family lands and business while John worked in London.
o Men in their mid-twenties generally married women in their mid-teens.
o Late age of marriage for most men and prohibitions on marriage for certain
groups of men contributed to urban unrest.
o Many cities established rules for brothels and their customers.
o Unmarried women were often the victims of unwanted sexual contact.
o Hostility to same-sex relations increased over the course of this period.
o It is difficult to establish the prevalence of homosexuality in the Late Middle
Ages.
o Same-sex relations involving women almost never came to the attention of legal
authorities.
Fur-Collar Crime
o To maintain their standard of living as prices rose, some nobles and gentry
turned to outright robbery and extortion.
o Fur-collar criminals often got away with their crimes.
Ethnic Tensions and Restrictions
o In early periods of conquest and colonization in the Middle Ages, newly arrived
populations tended to live under their own laws, while the native populations
retained their own laws and customs. Only in Ireland did England impose its
legal system, and exclude the Irish from it.
o In the fourteenth century, regulations, laws, and customs discriminating among
different ethnic groups on the basis of blood descent multiplied. These
separated Germans from Slavs in Eastern Europe, Irish from English in Ireland,
Spanish from Moors in Spain, and so on.
Literacy and Vernacular Literature
o In the fourteenth century, writers began writing in their vernacular languages all
over Europe.
o Dante Alighieri of Florence wrote the Divine Comedy in Italian.
o Geoffrey Chaucer of London wrote The Canterbury Tales in English.
o Beginning in the fourteenth century, literacy rates rose among men and women,
reflecting the greater complexity of society, the growth of commerce, and
expanding government bureaucracy.