Chapter 12 lesson 4

Chapter 12 lesson 4

The Late Middle Ages

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

How did the Church influence political and cultural changes in medieval Europe?

How did both innovations and disruptive forces affect people during the Middle Ages?

The Little Ice Age

Toward the end of the thirteenth century, noticeable changes in weather patterns were occurring as Europe entered a period that has been called a "little ice age." A drop in overall temperatures led to shorter growing seasons and bad weather conditions.

The Little Ice Age

Between 1315 and 1317, heavy rains in northern Europe destroyed harvests and caused food shortages, resulting in extreme hunger and starvation. The Great Famine expanded to other parts of Europe as well. Famine might have led to chronic malnutrition and in turn to higher susceptibility to disease because malnourished people are less able to resist infection. 

Multiple Choice

The phenomenon characterized by colder temperatures and a long period of torrential rains during the early fourteenth century is known as

• the Great Famine.

• the little ice age.

• the Black Death.

• the Great Schism

The Black Death

Bubonic plague was the most common form of the Black Death. It was spread by black rats infested with fleas carrying a deadly bacterium. Italian merchants brought the plague with them from Kaffa, on the Black Sea, to the island of Sicily in October 1347. 

Multiple Choice

The Black Death was brought to Europe in 1347 by

• merchant ships traveling from the Black Sea to Sicily.

• soldiers returning home from the Crusades.

• flea-infested rats that swam across the Mediterranean.

• chronic malnourishment caused by the Great Famine.

Spread Of the Black death

The plague had spread to southern Italy and southern France by the end of 1347. The path of the Black Death followed trade routes. In 1348 and 1349, the plague spread through France, modern Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, and Germany. It ravaged England in 1349 and expanded to northern Europe and Scandinavia. Eastern Europe and Russia were affected by 1351.

Open Ended

Why might Europeans have thought the plague was a punishment from God?

Effects of the Black Death

Out of a total European population of 75 million, possibly more than one-third of the population died of the plague between 1347 and 1351.

Effects of the Black Death

The death of so many people had economic consequences. Trade declined, and a shortage of workers caused a dramatic rise in the price of labor. At the same time, the decline in the number of people lowered the demand for food, resulting in falling prices. Landlords were now paying more for labor while their incomes from rents were declining

Effects of the Black Death

Some peasants bargained with their lords to pay rent instead of owing services. This change freed them from serfdom, an institution that had been declining throughout the High Middle Ages.

Decline of Church Power

• The Popes at Avignon

• The Great Schism

Popes Of Avigon

Philip claimed the right to tax the clergy. The Pope argued that taxing the clergy required the pope's consent, because popes were supreme over both Church and state. Philip rejected the pope's position and sent French forces to Italy to bring The Pope back to France for trial.

Multiple Choice

King Philip of France challenged the pope's supremacy because

• he wanted a divorce from his wife, but the pope would not allow it.

• he did not like Pope Boniface VIII.

• he wanted to be the head of the Church.

• he wanted to be able to collect taxes from the clergy.

Return to Rome

Many believed that the pope as bishop of Rome should reside in Rome, not in Avignon. The splendor in which the pope and cardinals were living in Avignon also led to criticism. At last, Pope Gregory XI, perceiving the disastrous decline in papal prestige, returned to Rome in 1377.

Multiple Choice

Many people thought the popes should live in Rome because

• the facilities for housing a pope were better in Rome.

• art of a pope's job was to serve as the bishop of Rome.

• the Roman people had special need of the pope's presence.

• they felt that living in Rome would cause the popes to scale back their extravagant lifestyles.

The Great Schism

Gregory XI died soon after his return to Rome. When the cardinals met to elect a new pope at the behest of the citizens of Rome, they elected an Italian, Pope Urban VI. Five months later, a group of French cardinals declared the election invalid and chose a Frenchman as pope. This pope returned to Avignon. 

The Great Schism

Because Urban remained in Rome, there were now two popes, beginning the Great Schism of the Church. Lasting from 1378 to 1417, the Great Schism divided Europe. France and its allies supported the pope in Avignon; England and its allies supported the pope in Rome.

The Great Schism

In addition to creating political conflict, the Great Schism damaged the Church. The pope was believed to be the true leader of Christendom. When each line of popes denounced the other as the Antichrist (one who opposes Christ), people's faith in both the papacy and the Church were undermined.

The Great Schism

The situation became worse when an effort to resolve the problem in 1409 resulted in the simultaneous reign of three popes. A Church council finally met at Constance, Switzerland, and ended the schism in 1417. The competing popes either resigned or were deposed. A new pope, acceptable to all, was then elected.

Multiple Choice

The Great Schism began in 1378, when

• King Philip tried to capture Boniface VIII and bring him to trial.

• France declared war against Italy.

• a group of French cardinals who opposed the election of an Italian pope elected a second pope.

• the popes decided to live in Avignon rather than Rome.

The Great Schism

 In England, John Wyclif’s disgust with clerical corruption led him to a far-ranging attack on papal authority. Because of a marriage between the royal families of England and Bohemia, Wyclif’s ideas spread to a group of Czech reformers led by John Hus.

John Hus

They called for an end to clerical corruption and to excessive papal power within the Church. Hus was accused of heresy by the Council of Constance and burned at the stake in 1415. In response, the Czechs led a revolutionary upheaval in Bohemia that was not crushed until 1436. Hus’s ideas would later have an impact on the German monk Martin Luther.

Multiple Choice

The Czech reformer who was burned at the stake for heresy was named

• John Hus.

• Joan of Arc.

• Urban VI.

• John Wycliffe.

The Hundred Years' War

Trouble began over the duchy of Gascony in France. England possessed it, and France wanted it. King Edward III of England was also the duke of Gascony and a vassal to the French king. However, when King Philip VI of France seized the duchy in 1337, Edward declared war on Philip, thus beginning the Hundred Years' War.

The Hundred Years War

France's heavily armed noble cavalrymen viewed foot soldiers as social inferiors. The English also used heavily armed cavalry, but they relied more on large numbers of peasants, paid to be foot soldiers. English soldiers were armed with pikes, or heavy spears, and longbows, which had greater striking power, longer range, and more rapid speed of fire than the crossbow (formerly the weapon of choice).

Battle of Crecy

The first major battle of the Hundred Years' War occurred in 1346 at Crécy. The larger French army followed no battle plan and attacked in a disorderly fashion. The English archers devastated them.

Battle of Agincourt

The English did not have enough resources to conquer all of France. Nevertheless, they continued to try. The English king, Henry V, achieved victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The French knights who attacked Henry's forces across a muddy field were disastrously defeated, and 1,500 French nobles died in battle

Joan of Arc

The seemingly hopeless French cause now fell into the hands of Charles, heir to the French throne. Quite unexpectedly, a French peasant woman saved the timid monarch. The daughter of prosperous peasants, Joan of Arc was a deeply religious person. She experienced visions and believed that saints had commanded her to free France.

Joan of Arc

Though only 17, Joan's sincerity and simplicity persuaded Charles to allow her to accompany a French army to Orléans. Apparently inspired by Joan's faith, the French armies found new confidence and seized Orléans. 

Joan had brought the war to a turning point but did not live to see its end. The English captured Joan in 1430 and turned her over to the Inquisition on charges of witchcraft.  

Multiple Choice

Although the English did not win the Hundred Years' War, they achieved dramatic victories in the battles at

• Gascony and Orléans.

• Avignon and Paris.

• Normandy and Aquitaine.

• Crécy and Agincourt.

Political Recovery

In the 1300s, European rulers faced serious problems. Many hereditary monarchies or dynasties in Europe were unable to produce male heirs. The founders of new dynasties had to fight for their positions when groups of nobles supported opposing candidates for the kingship.

France

The development of a strong French state was greatly advanced by King Louis XI, who ruled from 1461 to 1483. Known by many as the Spider because of his devious ways, Louis strengthened the use of the taille—an annual direct tax usually on land or property—as a permanent tax imposed by royal authority. 

France

To curb the power of the great French nobles, Louis relied on support from the lower nobility and middle class. He added Anjou, Maine, Provence, and other regions to his kingdom. By consolidating power and by promoting industry and commerce, he created the foundations of a strong monarchy.

England

The cost of the war and losses in manpower strained the economy. At the end of the war, England faced even greater turmoil when civil conflicts—known as the Wars of the Roses—erupted. Noble factions fought to control the monarchy until 1485, when Henry Tudor established a new dynasty.

England

Henry VII worked to create a strong royal government. Henry ended the wars of the nobles by abolishing their private armies. He was also very thrifty. By not overburdening the nobles and the middle class with taxes, Henry won their support.

Multiple Choice

Henry VII of England won the support of his nobles by

• fighting valiantly in the Wars of the Roses.

• supporting the nobles in their struggles against the pope.

• not burdening the nobles with too many taxes.

• imposing an annual direct tax, or taille.

Spain

Spain, too, experienced the growth of a strong national monarchy at the end of the 1400s. During the Middle Ages, Christian rulers in Spain fought to regain their lands from the Muslims. Several independent Christian kingdoms emerged in the course of the long reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Among them were Aragon and Castile.

Spain

When Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469, it was a major step toward unifying Spain. Though Castile and Aragon remained distinct kingdoms, Isabella and Ferdinand worked together to strengthen their royal control in the dual monarchy.

Spain

Ferdinand and Isabella believed that religious unity was necessary for political unity, pursuing a policy of strict conformity to Catholicism. This policy meant the forced conversion of both Jews and Muslims. In 1492 the monarchy took the drastic step of expelling from Spain all Jews who did not convert.

Central and Eastern Europe

Unlike France, England, and Spain, the Holy Roman Empire did not develop a strong monarchical authority. Germany was a land of hundreds of states, most of which acted independently of the German ruler. After 1438, the position of Holy Roman emperor was held by the Hapsburg dynasty, who ruled the Austrian lands along the Danube.

Central and Eastern Europe

In Eastern Europe, rulers found it difficult to centralize their states. Religious differences troubled the area as Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and other groups, including Mongols and Muslims, confronted one another.

Central and Eastern Europe

Since the 1200s, Russia had been under Mongol domination. But by 1480, Ivan III had thrown off the yoke of the Mongols. The next ruler of Muscovy, Ivan IV, was recognized as the legitimate ruler and czar of Russia by the Orthodox Church.

Multiple Choice

After almost 300 years of domination, Czar Ivan III freed Russia from the control of the

• Mongols.

• Orthodox Church.

• Slavs.

• Ottoman Empire.

Open Ended

How did both innovations and disruptive forces affect people during the Middle Ages?