Unit 3
Show the problems with the feudal system.
- The problem was that the system was not that neat in practice. Sometimes men became vassals of several lords at once in order to improve their economic position or increase their land holdings. thus pledging the same armed men to two or more different lords. Some lords maintained vassals in their households rather than give land. The Knights of the Round Table may be a memory of this arrangement. Sometimes land was never given at all; in 10th century France, some vassals actually got cash. The diagram below indicates how feudalism really worked.
Show the development of the Cluny order and assess its significance
A new standard of independence and sanctity was set by the Cluny monastery movement. The first house was founded in 909 by William the Pious of Aquitaine. The Cluniac movement came to stand for celibacy and suppression of simony (the sale of church offices). Cluny helped to reform others along its lines, and especially urged other monasteries to remain free of non-church or secular influences. The order mushroomed to 1184 houses by the 12th century. It was directly subject to the pope, not the neighborhood feudal lord, and in stressing celibacy and separation of church and state, the Cluniacs increased the differences between the Catholic Church in the west and the eastern church at Byzantium that allowed married clergy. In time, however, Cluny became so popular that spiritual fervor in the movement began to decline, as Cluniacs grew rich on the gifts of devout believers and became ever softer in lifestyle.
Explain why little remains of medieval London.
Almost none of medieval London remains, since the City was destroyed by the Great London fire of 1666. The fire destroyed 87 parish churches, over 13,000 homes, and the old St. Paul's cathedral, allowing the new Wren masterpiece to be erected on its ruins. Wooden structures did not stand a chance against the wind-whipped fireball that London had become. One of the few buildings that remain is this one below, Staples Inn. It actually dates from the 16th century, long after the medieval period, but one still sees the timbering and wattle and daub of the earlier houses we saw. One of the most famous paintings of the Great fire is reproduced below to give an idea of the extent of the conflagration.
Explain why and when the Vikings abandoned Greenland.
And then came the attacks of what the Vikings called skraelings, the native Inuit peoples of the region well-adapted to its harshness. They ate the abundant seal and whale meat the Vikings considered barbarian food, they were a nomadic people while the Vikings insisted on staying put around their churches as good Christians, and the skraelings were as desperate for food as were the surviving Vikings in Greenland. The Labrador forward post would be abandoned first, since it had never been self-sustaining and was impossible to reach now with the ice. Greenland was abandoned next, starting with the northernmost setlement. It appears the southernmost settlement held out to perhaps as late as 1500, although by the time the last Viking died, he or she had not been in contact with the homeland for decades if not centuries.
. Show how Philip Augustus created France.
Augustus (1180-1223), also known as Philip II. He vastly extended the land and power of the French king. One example of this was the war he fought with King John of England over Normandy, a war John lost at Bouvines, giving Philip control of that vital province to the northwest of Paris (and resulting in John having to sign the Magna Carta). Philip added Anjou, Maines and Tourraine, tripling the size of the royal domain. Although Philip himself did not take part in the Albigensian crusade, his vassals did, winning the southwestern part of what is now France to the crown, the symbol of the French king. and turning France into a Mediterranean power. By the end of the 13th century, the French king controlled most of modern day France, from Normandy in the north to Toulouse in the south
. Show how the economic revival helped the growth of anti-Semitism.
But closely related to the economic revival was the growth of anti-Semitism. When western rulers came to believe that banking services, heretofore performed only by Jews, could be performed equally well by Christians, maintaining and safeguarding the Jews was no longer necessary and to do so might even alienate the Christian bourgeoisie who competed with Jews. St. Augustine had said that Jews were part of God's plan, as the Old Testament was a pre-figuration of the New. But medieval people knew almost nothing about living Judaism, including the Talmudic tradition. They only knew Old Testament Judaism and when Christian discovered that contemporary Jews had a theology and practice different from that in the Bible, they accused Jews of deviating from the Old Testament plan and thus of being no longer part of the Christian plan. Franciscans and Dominicans saw Jews as mortal enemies who must be converted or expelled. Edward I of England ordered all Jews from his realm in 1290, a practice followed soon in France, Spain,
Describe medieval health problems
Church-People of the period suffered from eye troubles because fireplaces were located in the center of the room and produced a great deal of smoke, only some of which was exhausted through the roof. Low personal hygiene resulted in lice and fleas, helping to explain the loss of life to the Plague later on. Open wounds were recognized as possibly leading to gangrene, so wounds were cleansed with honey and water. Sometimes heroin and wine were given to patients during amputations. Sick people were frequently given to the church or local abbey that would then tend to them. There, at the local abbey, one could rest and get enough food, allowing one's own body to throw off the infection. But when the Black Death hit at the end of the 14th century, people continued to carry their sick to churches; those churches which did as they were supposed to do, namely take in the sick, found their numbers reduced when churchmen caught the disease and died, while those churchmen who refused to take in the sick survived to lower the moral tone of the Renaissance Catholic Church. Eye trouble- Lice- unique in having the nuclear family as the norm, with the average size 5.79 persons in the medieval period. Many siblings lived together. There was, of course, a high rate of infant mortality due to natural causes and as well infanticide, when parents unable or unwilling to care for their children chose death for them. Medieval tales of abandonment live on in stories of Hansel and Gretal, for example, that date from this period. Children were generally swaddled for the convenience of parents to keep the young ones out of trouble while parents worked, but the practice led to body rashes, lice and increased chance of disease. Noble parents had absolute authority to decide which son went to the church and which inherited. While it was the norm that the first son inherited the land, it was not required by law, and some fathers played off their sons against one another to secure his favor and his wealth. One such father was Henry II of England whose sons, furious over their father's treatment, hounded him to his death in France. Heroin- Dressing wounds-
Describe the medieval Catholic Church's view of marriage.
Condemns marriage- The Catholic Church of the Middle Ages took a strong stand against marriage which church fathers like St. Jerome condemned, seeing the taking of pleasure in anything in this world as idolatry. Since the church had a low view of marriage, it increased the number of people a person could not legally marry. The church thus prohibited marriage unto the seventh degree of consanguinity, reckoned according to Germanic, not Roman, standards. No group, including Muslims, Jews or ancient Romans, had such sweeping laws against marriage to "kin." In a small village, these rules meant effectively there was no one a person could legally marry. The church made money by giving dispensations that allowed peasants to marry, but these dispensations also disgraced the church that came to be seen as merely a money-making operation. The church not only prohibited close marriage, but as well adoption (which would not be reintroduced into France until 1892), divorce and remarriage.
Explain where feudalism came from.
Feudalism began between the Loire and Rhine rivers and later spread throughout Europe and even into Palestine with the crusaders. It flowered between 1000 and 1350, before the Black Death and Hundred Years War changed Europe forever. Feudalism is the political organization system designed to provide physical security in the dangerous world that had grown up following the collapse of Roman authority in the west. Manorialism is the economic system characteristic of the same period. Technically, they are discreet from one another, but in fact the two are bound up so closely that we shall talk about them both at this time. Feudalism occurred in what we call the High Middle Ages before the rise of nation states with centralized bureaucracies. Protection from Roman nobles -Feudalism developed slowly as people sought protection from aristocrats in return for certain obligations. In the barbarian invasions following the disintegration of Charlemagne's empire, many small farmers were driven from their land or escaped to the relative safety of a lord's estate where they could be protected by groups of armed men. In return for physical security, they gave up some of their rights they had enjoyed as freemen; some no doubt saw this as a serious loss, but with their very survival at stake, those rights might have seemed a luxury they could do without. These freemen had become serfs who agreed to certain obligations in return for the protection the lord would provide. Generally, serfs agreed to farm the lord's lands for free, to do other chores for the lord as he requested, and to give the lord a portion of what his own land produced in payment. The bond between the lord and serf, as it would be between the lord and his vassals, was personal, however: this was not an oath of allegiance to a state but to the warrior aristocrat. Aristocratic land holdings grew as some farmers sold out. Debt later bound many other farmers to the soil, unable to move until the debt owed the lord was paid off. Sometimes great landowners just snapped up land cheaply from terrified civilians. Fief or Feud- In return for an act of homage where the vassal pledged under oath to carry out his obligations to the lord, the vassal received from the lord the symbols of control, not ownership, of the fief or feud. In theory, the lord still owned the land and was merely "loaning" it to he vassal for services rendered. But in time, as one family lived on the same land for decades, they came to see the property as hereditary instead of the gift of the king. The subinfeuded lords came to see the land as theirs. Debt-The bond between the lord and serf, as it would be between the lord and his vassals, was personal, however: this was not an oath of allegiance to a state but to the warrior aristocrat. Aristocratic land holdings grew as some farmers sold out. Debt later bound many other farmers to the soil, unable to move until the debt owed the lord was paid off. Sometimes great landowners just snapped up land cheaply from terrified civilians. Personal bond-A personal bond cemented by an oath was supposed to hold the system together; vassals would honor their commitments as Christians having sworn before God to do so. In fact, what really held the system together was it force. If one vassal rebelled, the king had to call on his other vassals to put down that rebellion, and it was in the vested interest of any vassal not to completely crush another. If the king could destroy one vassal, your turn might be next. Generally vassal lords honored their commitments as long as the king was nearby, but when he traveled to other parts of his realm, rebellions broke out. When the king returned to put down one rebellion, the place where he had just been frequently rose up, obliging him to return there. Demand for mounted knights-Feudalism was an attempt to find a way to raise an army if the need arose. A vassal would take an oath to a more powerful lord, promising him to appear with a certain number of knights ready for battle if called upon. In return the vassal got the fief or feud (hence the word feudalism), that is a portion of land. The most valuable defense the manors had were mounted knights. Only a mounted knight would be capable of driving off the Vikings who did not bring horses with them. Thus, the demand for mounted knights grew, so much so that fiefs were made hereditary rather than a gift of the lord for services rendered. So vital did the efficient use of horses become that, in the 8th century, warriors invented the stirrup, which allowed a mounted cavalryman to deliver a deathblow from atop his horse without falling off. To the left, compare the picture of Marcus Aurelius from the second century to a knight from the 12th below. Notice the latter Immunity from laws-In the disintegration of Charlemagne's empire and the invasions that followed, fief-owning landlords were either granted immunity from certain laws or simply took immunity. Kings could not make their will felt throughout their kingdoms without adequate transportation, and so were obliged to accept this diminution of their powers. In the dangerous world of the early Middle Ages, there was strength only in numbers. The Europeans enjoyed no technological superiority over their opponents, and little organizational superiority either. To make up the manpower needed to repel invasions, the feudal hierarchy was born Strength in numbers- In the dangerous world of the early Middle Ages, there was strength only in numbers. The Europeans enjoyed no technological superiority over their opponents, and little organizational superiority either. To make up the manpower needed to repel invasions, the feudal hierarchy was born
Show why Frederick Barbarossa failed to unify the Holy Roman Empire and what resulted.
Frederick Barbarossa attempted to correct the situation. He required iron-clad oaths of allegiance to him as William the Conqueror had done in England, but the problem was he had insufficient funds to hire enough mercenary soldiers to enforce his will on his rebellious nobles. His own lands in Swabia were very poor, denying to him the stable and rich power base the Capetian kings of France had enjoyed. Thus, Frederick looked across the Alps to Italy, hoping to get their wealth to create the mercenary armies that would allow him to subdue the princelings in Germany itself. The Italian city-states had weak governments and were warring with one another, so they looked like easy pickings. Milan put up a spirited defense, however, backed by the pope who did not want the Holy Roman Emperor in Italy, given the bad blood between these two factions dating back to the investiture controversy. Moreover, while Frederick was in Italy, Germany rebelled, and when he returned to Germany, Italy rebelled. Thus, Frederick failed to subdue the Italians and looked to the Holy Land to get the money he would need to unify Germany. It was this Frederick, however, who drowned on the third crusade as he struck out for land in the east.
Identify the major changes in agriculture and assess their significance.
Heavy plow- Mild weather caused by the slow and steady retreat of the polar ice cap, milder even than the early part of the 20th century, produced mild winters and dry summers that allowed agriculture to flourish. Major changes in agriculture increased food production, permitting the larger population to survive. The development of the heavy plow allowed the wet and heavy northern European soil to be turned over easily, thus aerating it and improving crop yields. The Roman scratch plow had been suitable for the lighter, sandier soils of southern Europe, but such plows broke frequently when used in the north. The heavy plow invented now not only turned over existing farmland to improve its yield, but it also allowed more land to be put to the plow, increasing the acreage available to grow food to feed an expanding population. The new plow also created deep furrows that allowed rainwater to drain quickly to avoid drowning the roots, again improving crop yield. A new system of field rotation left only one-third of the land fallow, as opposed to the 50% left fallow by the Romans. The use of the horse or ox as a draft animal to pull the heavy plow was made possible by a new harness design in the 9th century. (The Roman harness had had straps that went around the animal's throat, strangling it when it pulled with all its force.) The Middle Ages also saw the use of the tandem harness, allowing two animals to be yoked together for even more power. And the invention of horseshoes gave animals better traction to pull the heavier plows. All these developments in agriculture were vitally important: people lived longer because they ate more food, not because of better health care that remained primitive. Three field system- A new system of field rotation left only one-third of the land fallow, as opposed to the 50% left fallow by the Romans. The use of the horse or ox as a draft animal to pull the heavy plow was made possible by a new harness design in the 9th century. (The Roman harness had had straps that went around the animal's throat, strangling it when it pulled with all its force.) The Middle Ages also saw the use of the tandem harness, allowing two animals to be yoked together for even more power. And the invention of horseshoes gave animals better traction to pull the heavier plows. All these developments in agriculture were vitally important: people lived longer because they ate more food, not because of better health care that remained primitive. Harness- Horseshoes-
Discuss the background and significance of Parliament.
Henry II's grandson, Edward, continued the tradition of evolving law by creating Parliament. The word comes from the French parler, meaning "to speak" in Norman French (reminding us that the court continued to speak primarily French). Edward summoned the representatives of the shires and towns to meet with the Great Council of barons, thus recognizing the growing wealth and influence of the middle class following the economic revival we have already spoken of. These groups were called the commons, not because they were common in any sense we would recognize it—serfs, peasants and women were not represented at all--but because they were simply not noble. In the 14th century, these commons began to meet separately from the lords spiritual and temporal. The Parliament could withhold financial support from the king, although they rarely did so, but they did establish a precedent of requiring the king to redress certain grievances before the money would be allocated. As the name Parliament, or speaking house, suggests, the main function of the body at first was to have the king justify his requests for money. The king would persuade the Parliament to go along, frequently putting on a aweinspiring show to ice the deal. The formation of Parliament in England was similar to developments elsewhere in Europe. Representative assemblies were started in France (the Estates General), in Spain (the Cortes) and in Russia (the Duma). But only in England, and only after a long time, did Parliament become really independent.
Describe the Albigensian crusade.
Heresy-ndalous behavior. The most infamous of the crusades was the one against the Albigensians between 1208 and 1226. Innocent III called the crusade against the culturally advanced French region around Toulouse in southeastern France to wipe out the Cathar or Albigensian heresy. Albigensians thought of the world as battleground between good and evil and so condemned many activities of the church, including marriage, which simply propagated more humans and thus more suffering. They believed in dualism, that the pure soul was encased in evil flesh that had to be mortified. Their denial of the luxury of the Catholic Church and its lack of spiritualism found a responsive chord in many Frenchmen angry over church taxes. The crusade resulted in horrible slaughter and a free for all to acquire the wealth of the area. It destroyed the flourishing culture of southern France, but the heresy was simply driven underground, perhaps helping to explain the fact that later Protestantism grew up in the same place. One of the most famous kings of France, Henry IV, came from Navarre where much of the slaughter occurred, and he took the throne of France as a Protestant. Toulouse- Culture of area- Effect on french king and papacy- Dominicans-ce as a Protestant. The Albigensian crusade made France a Mediterranean power since her borders now extended to that sea, but it weakened the authority of the pope further since he was seen to be merely a creature of the French king. This was especially true when the crusaders, having gobbled up the land, stopped any prosecution of the heresy, clearly tipping their hands that land and wealth had been their prime motivation, not religion. In fact, it was the Dominicans who actually wiped out the heresy, or better yet drove it into hiding, when they instituted an Inquisition. Land grab-
. Identify the outcomes of the economic revival.
Higher standard of living- The effects of this economic revival included great wealth that meant a higher standard of living. Dietary habits changed and clothes became richer and more elaborate. More important, an alliance between the king and middle class in towns was increasingly used to curb the power of the warrior lords and permit nation states to develope Male heirs- Lived long time- Growth of trade and agriculture- Alliance with church- Crushed barons-
. Describe the career of Joan of Arc.
It was Joan of Arc who turned the tide of battle against England. Joan had visions that convinced her the dauphin, the future Charles VII, should be crowned king. While it was clear Charles was the Queen's child, the Queen's scandalous sexual behavior left it an open question whether Charles was also the King's son. Chased out of Paris by the English and obliged to take refuge in the Loire valley, Charles' shaky claim to be the legitimate heir was strengthened by the arrival of Joan. She led the relief of Orleans which the English had been besieging, and the English, weakened by disease and lack of supplies, gave up. Joan then fought her way to Reims to have Charles crowned king at the sacred site all French kings had been anointed at. But on her way back to Charles, the Burgundians captured her and sold her to the English who tried her for heresy and burned her at the stake in Rouen in 1431
Discuss Viking raids and settlements in Russia.
Let's begin by discussing Russia. Map showing Viking penetration of Russia from Lake The center of Viking settlement there was Ladoga to Novgorod, down the Dnieper to Kiev in the north at Novgorod. The picture below and the Black Sea shows what their settlement might have looked like. Vikings easily imported into northern Russia their traditional architecture based on wood that was abundant there as it was in Sweden and Norway. Notice the wooden stockade around the town. As they traded and carried off booty, the Vikings grew rich enough to become objects of raids themselves, and they set up defenses to protect their town. As time went on, more permanent buildings were created that adopted a style of architecture still seen in Scotland today, namely a rubble stone tower plastered and then painted. Below is a recent photo of Novgorod: the white tower in the center was built in the 11thcentury.
Describe the new knightly orders arising from the Crusades
New states were founded in the Holy Land along feudal lines (See map to the left), and new religious orders were set up. The most important of these were the Knights Templar, so called because they were originally housed in the remains of Crusaders charge Arabs during the first crusade the Old Temple in Jerusalem. The Templars were originally a group of about 600 knights who could field up to 2000 people if necessary, and they were much feared for their military prowess. Eventually, they learned about moneylending and banking from the Muslims and brought the concept of banks back into Europe with them, helping to pave the way for the economic revival of the 12th New states were founded in the Holy Land along feudal lines (See map to the left), and new religious orders were set up. The most important of these were the Knights Templar, so called because they were originally housed in the remains of Crusaders charge Arabs during the first crusade the Old Temple in Jerusalem. The Templars were originally a group of about 600 knights who could field up to 2000 people if necessary, and they were much feared for their military prowess. Eventually, they learned about moneylending and banking from the Muslims and brought the concept of banks back into Europe with them, helping to pave the way for the economic revival of the 12th New states were founded in the Holy Land along feudal lines (See map to the left), and new religious orders were set up. The most important of these were the Knights Templar, so called because they were originally housed in the remains of Crusaders charge Arabs during the first crusade the Old Temple in Jerusalem. The Templars were originally a group of about 600 knights who could field up to 2000 people if necessary, and they were much feared for their military prowess. Eventually, they learned about moneylending and banking from the Muslims and brought the concept of banks back into Europe with them, helping to pave the way for the economic revival of the 12th Templars became the targets of kings who coveted their money. Their main fortress in Paris, for example, after the order was disbanded, became a prison called the Temple, that would eventually house Marie Antoinette and her family. The Teutonic Knights were an exclusively German order. Their main task was to conquer Eastern Europe for Catholicism. They took as their sign not the Latin cross seen above on the robes of a Knight Templar, but rather the eastern cross they to care for the sick, and learned from the Muslims their advanced arts of medicine, especially how to combat the fevers which took more lives among the Europeans than battle ever did. (See picture to the left.) Formally called the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, these knights opened hospitals in the Holy Land, and then in Rhodes when they were obliged to evacuate. On Rhodes they continued to practice what they had learned from the Muslims, including quarantining the contagious. The picture below shows the great hall of their hospital in Rhodes. To the left are small rooms for the contagious, better seen in the photo beneath it. The Hospitalers too, however, like the Knights Templar, were also prepared to fight, and they held off the Muslim attacks on Rhodes until the 15th century
Describe the Gregorian revolution
One of the first popes elected under these new rules was Gregory who gave his name to the Gregorian Revolution. Unlike most popes, Gregory was lowborn, the son of Tuscan peasants. His meteoric rise to the papacy reminds us that the medieval church was the most democratic institution of the time, where even those of low birth, by means of education and exhibited talent, could aspire to the highest reaches of church authority.
Discuss gargoyles.
One of the most curious developments of the Gothic style are the gargoyles at the roofline. The ones to the left are from Notre Dame in Paris and clearly serve as water spouts. Water puddling on flat stone runs through the sculptures and pours out their mouths in a rainstorm. But many gargoyles, such as the ones pictures below, have no architectural function. No one knows for sure why gargoyles were added to Gothic cathedrals. The usual interpretation is that these mythical, nasty looking creatures were designed to ward off evil spirits that might try to infest the church. Others argue that by breaking larger spaces up into odd smaller ones, the gargoyles reduce wind speeds at the top of the church—and the howling wind sound the congregation might be subjected to if that did not happen. It is important to remember that even in Christian Europe, in the Middle Ages witches, wizards and evil spirits inhabited the universe. Even the Catholic Church accepted the existence of strange beings like these. It is perhaps understandable that even on cathedrals the beasts like gargoyles could find a home. But the gargoyles bring us to a final problem shared by all these old monuments. Over 800 years old, cathedrals were built in a world with no automobiles, acid rain, or thundering underground subway systems. The pollution of major cities like Paris first soiled the creamy limestone Notre Dame was constructed with, and then it began eating away at the statues on 11 it. An elaborate cleaning of the building in the 1970s revealed the creamy color once again— only to have the church becomes a grimy black in less than a decade. Cleaning is very
. Identify the motives for the crusades.
Papacy to strengthen position of leadership-The papacy was locked in a bitter struggle with the Holy Roman Emperor over the investiture controversy, and if the church could raise an international army loyal to the church, in which nationalistic identities would be submerged, it would strengthen the papacy's claim to leadership of Europe. In 1095, the very year he had preached the crusade, Pope Urban had been obliged to flee Rome for the safety of France; Urban may have claimed enormous powers as God's vicar on earth, but his earthly security would be enhanced with an international army raised loyal to him alone. Secular rulers went along with the idea of crusades, because they got rid of troublemakers. Unruly knights who had never adjusted to the demands of chivalry, land hungry second sons eager to find a fortune, and serfs eager for escape from the dullness of everyday manor life could be dispatched. Moreover, for the duration of the crusades, those engaged would be exempt from taxes, and debts would be temporarily canceled. True religious zeal played a part, of course, since the Holy Land was in infidel hands, and many crusaders were promised time off of purgatory for their participation, something done without Urban's consent. Troublemakers- True religious zeal- Exempt from taxes- First crusade successful-The first crusade was successful in freeing Jerusalem in spite of the Europeans' ignorance about the area and the tremendous incompetence of the crusade's leaders. They could never agree upon a single leader and the Europeans had no real lines of communication or supply. Their success was mainly due to Arab disunity and the Muslims' falling back before these strange, savage westerners who caught them by surprise. The Arabs, a horse people, refused to stand and fight the one pitched battle Europeans were used to, and instead simply waited for the Crusaders to die of disease, wounds or boredom Pitched battle-
. Describe developments in marriage and the family during the Middle Ages.
People did not live in extended, three generational families. In fact, Europe has always been unique in having the nuclear family as the norm, with the average size 5.79 persons in the medieval period. Many siblings lived together. There was, of course, a high rate of infant mortality due to natural causes and as well infanticide, when parents unable or unwilling to care for their children chose death for them. Medieval tales of abandonment live on in stories of Hansel and Gretal, for example, that date from this period. Children were generally swaddled for the convenience of parents to keep the young ones out of trouble while parents worked, but the practice led to body rashes, lice and increased chance of disease. Noble parents had absolute authority to decide which son went to the church and which inherited. While it was the norm that the first son inherited the land, it was not required by law, and some fathers played off their sons against one another to secure his favor and his wealth. One such father was Henry II of England whose sons, furious over their father's treatment, hounded him to his death in France.
. Show the main developments under Henry II of England.
Royal justice-Henry sent out royal justices annually to dispense royal justice in circuit courts and thus weaken his barons. The royal justices gave out more uniform justice than the feudal courts did, and they were cheap to run. The judges traveled about in circuits, meaning one judge could do for a rather large area, and these judges built up a body of decisions that would serve as precedent in later cases, a system known as common law. Henry also developed the jury system to solve problems of land disputes, but these juries were used in civil cases only. People accused of criminal offenses were not tried by jury but rather by ordeal. Henry thought this latter system irrational, but only gradually did the jury system begin to be seen in criminal trials. Henry believed in one justice, and nowhere was this more clearly shown than in his battle to control the English church. Thomas Beckett had been named Archbishop of Canterbury by Henry; they had been close friends and carousers, so Henry thought Becket would do his bidding. But once made Archbishop of Canterbury, Beckett became even more solicitous of church prerogative than had his predecessor. The two men soon fell to feuding because Beckett demanded that churchmen be tried in church courts only and not be subject to royal justice. Since Henry had been at great pains to decrease the number and influence of the many feudal courts, a separate system of ecclesiastical courts would defeat his purpose of bringing uniform justice to England. Moreover, the punishments in royal courts were more severe than in church ones; in royal courts the condemned could be mutilated by having arms or feet cut off, while the most severe punishment in church courts was a pilgrimage. Henry wanted the right to name his own bishops, a request Beckett firmly refused Jury system- Trial by ordeal- Thomas beckett- Richard-Henry had four sons, one of whom died. He played the three adult men off against one another, promising first one and then another that he would inherit the crown of England or the Aquitaine; in time all three aggrieved brothers ganged up on their father and eventually hunted him down in France. Henry's son, Richard the Lion Hearted, had him killed. Richard took the throne but looked on England merely as source of revenue for his military exploits elsewhere. Although Richard ruled from 1189-98, he was in England for less than six months. He is even buried in Normandy. Henry's bureaucracy was so well developed that it could keep the country going even in the king's prolonged absence.
Show how and why towns developed.
Source of cash- Sometimes kings gave towns their self liberties: at other times, the towns bought their rights from needy noblemen in debt for the Eastern luxuries they could not really afford. Towns were most important because they provided a source of steady income for the king, as opposed to the serf's labor, and because towns also provided administrators for the growing royal bureaucracy; townsmen had to know how to read and write to keep the accounts which made their businesses profitable. Instead of relying of churchmen with divided loyalties, between king and pope, the kings of the emerging nation states preferred working with townsmen who would be loyal to the secular authorities alone. Trained administrators- Town liberties-Towns were important for many reasons. They pioneered town liberties, especially self government, as they learned how to govern themselves through town courts, selecting a mayor, learning how to tax, etc. All these skills would be put to use later by kings eager to take advantage of townsmen's ability to set taxes and collect them without proving riots Weakened feudalism-By the 12th century, however, a revival was underway, and one sees the emergence of a money economy. This period is called the High Middle Ages, because the economic revival caused the Middle Ages to reach its full flower in the age of crusades and cathedrals. But the economic revival also caused the disintegration of feudalism and prepared the way for the Renaissance; the debt-ridden nobility was weakened and the kings who used taxes to create mercenary armies and end their dependence on the warrior lords were strengthened. CAtholicism-ular authorities alone. Towns fit no place in the old feudal system and like tree roots growing into a slab of concrete, towns eventually cracked the feudal hierarchy and brought the system down. Peasants were there to produce, the clergy to pray and the nobles to protect, but no place was any mention made of towns to exchange; when towns became vitally important, feudalism could not cope. Finally, townsmen who made money in trade were a challenge to the Catholic Church, for which the charging of interest and making of money was suspect; the Church preferred instead the voluntary poverty of the monks and nuns. The same townsmen also represented a threat to the old nobles whose chivalric ideas contrasted markedly with the goals of the new businessmen, and who frequently fell into debt to the town dwellers.
Distinguish between Gothic and Romanesque cathedral styles
The Gothic style replaced the Romanesque, named for the Roman models Europeans were familiar with. Romanesque style featured rounded arches, massive stone walls and small windows. Most look like the fortresses they frequently became during the Viking invasions. To provide fireproofing against possible invaders, roofs were made of stone, but this required massive walls and few windows. Windows would have weakened the walls that supported the heavy roofs. The inside of these churches was dark as a result. The Romanesque cathedral reflects the military, pre-urban society of the 10th century, where defense was the primary concern. Romanesque cathedrals did, however, reintroduce sculpture to Europe as the stories of the church were told in carvings around the outside. Most surviving Romanesque churches are outside of the towns; the towns frequently destroyed them to make way for the new Gothic style. (See the sidebar on Vézelay.)
Discuss the background and appearance of the Magna Carta.
The Magna Carta forms part of the English constitution. Unlike the American one, the English constitution is not a single document, but rather a series of papers signed over centuries that defined the relationship between the king and his people and Parliament. The bedrock is the Magna Carta that requires the king to consult with his barons. Clearly, any king wanting money without a fight would have consulted with his lords to begin with, and many did, but John's stupidity in ignoring his barons' wishes while he pursued hopeless dreams of glory in faraway France led the English nobles to write down the agreement and have the king sign it. Like the ancient Romans before them, the English solved a problem of potential civil war not with bloodshed but rather with law, just as the Romans had employed the Law of 12 Tables. That said, in no way did the Magna Carta create a modern democracy as we would recognize it. There was no provision for the views of any except the powerful barons, for example. But it was the beginning of a tradition that laws must be clear to human reason, that they can and should be written down for all to know, and that the signature of one king would bind his successors. This is a government based on law, not the law of the jungle, on reason, not whim, and on negotiation, not fiat
Show how the Viking ship made raiding possible.
The Viking ship made possible their raids and exploration. It was a model of both strength and elasticity. The ship shown above was recovered from a grave site and is now on display in Oslo. It probably never sailed the rough seas of the North Atlantic. Instead, it was a ceremonial vessel for a powerful chieftain in which he was buried with grave goods. The piece of wood jutting out the back of the ship was the steering mechanism. The picture to the left shows a ship from the same museum that definitely was sailed. Note how shallow it is; its keel would have gone down less than three feet into the water. The ship could easily be run aground once having reached the desired location and the men on it disembarked quickly by simply jumping into the shallow water. No need here for canoes or rowboats to ferry the men from the ship moored in the harbor to the shore. The ship could be both sailed to allow it to cover the huge distances in Atlantic exploration, but it could also be rowed to make a fast getaway from pursuers. On the open sea it could easily outrun the clumsy ships the continent possessed
. Show what happened in the investiture controversy and assess its significance.
The chief bone of contention became lay investiture. In 1075, Gregory prohibited lay investiture, the practice whereby secular authorities chose their own bishops. Gregory threatened to excommunicate any lay person who did it or any churchman who submitted to it. Had lay investiture been abolished, kings would have been hard pressed to rule their lands, given there were very few educated people who could read and write, and most of them were churchmen. Kings wanted to insure that these churchmen would be loyal to them, and, not surprisingly, kings wanted to name their own bishops. With equal fervor, Gregory maintained that the church should be free of secular influence, and that only the church should name its bishops based not on loyalty to the kings but rather upon deep religiosity and proven accomplishment Henry returned to the Holy Roman Empire—and continued to name his own prelates in violation of Gregory's ban on lay investiture. So in 1080, Henry was excommunicated again. This time, however, Henry invaded Italy and dragged the pope off to die in exile. The problem of lay investiture continued in France and England all along, something Gregory could not do anything about since he was so engaged with the Holy Roman Empire on his border. Theoretically, the problem was solved at the Council of Worms in 1122, when bishops would be chosen by the clergy in the presence of the king, giving the latter a kind of veto power, but in spite of the compromise, civil war raged in the empire for many years and occupied Germany with Italy and the pope rather than the process of nation building. German lords, claiming devotion to the pope, built castles as signs of independence and the emperor could do nothing about it. Thus, the Investiture Controversy was in part responsible for the long delay in German unification that would not occur until 1871
Discuss the results of the Crusades.
The crusade resulted in horrible slaughter and a free for all to acquire the wealth of the area. It destroyed the flourishing culture of southern France, but the heresy was simply driven underground, perhaps helping to explain the fact that later Protestantism grew up in the same place. One of the most famous kings of France, Henry IV, came from Navarre where much of the slaughter occurred, and he took the throne of France as a Protestant
Name the first Gothic church.
The first Gothic cathedral is generally said to be St. Denis, in a Parisian suburb, where the kings of France were traditionally buried. Begun in 1136 , it was consecrated in 1144. Here for the first time elements that had been used in disparate buildings were brought together for the first time. Chief among these were the pointed vaults, flying buttresses, and arched windows.
Identify important developments under Ivan III the Great.
The first important tsar for the unification of Russia was Ivan the Great (Ivan III) a contemporary of the Tudors in Europe. He greatly extended the size of Russia by placing the northern states under his control. Of these, the most important was Novgorod which had been associated with the Hanseatic League. The Novgorodian merchants were allied to Catholic Lithuania and preferred to stay with them, but the population of the city was Orthodox Russian and so welcomed Ivan as a liberator. Ivan took 80% of Novgorodian land, keeping most of it for himself, but handing out the rest to a new class of people, the service nobility. The land the new service nobility got was theirs only on the explicit condition that they serve in the tsar's army and bureaucracy. The old aristocracy of Russia, the boyars, had served only if they wanted to. And they rarely wanted to; the boyars saw the tsar as merely one among them, a noble prince, of course, but then so were they. They served the tsar only when it benefited them to do so. The new service nobility, however, received noble status only through their service to the tsar. Instead of making allies of the Ivan the Great (1440-1505) townspeople, as the English and French had done so well, to contain the power of the warrior lords, the Russian state simply increased the number of warrior lords. Over time, this new breed of service nobility demanded the same prerogatives as the old boyars enjoyed. As a result, the Russian state was rich in nobles, no country had more nobles relative to the population, but the state received almost no service from them. As a result, Russia either never delivered services to the population, like schools, or it taxed the peasants extravagantly. While the Spanish state of Ferdinand and Isabella wiped out their middle class of Jews and Muslims in the interests of religious conformity, the Russian state never bothered to court the merchants at all, leaving the country increasingly backward in relation to Europe
. Identify important developments under Ivan IV the Terrible.
The other important tsar was Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV) (1533-84). He came to the throne at the age of three and as a result of the regency, the boyars regained some control, especially after they poisoned his mother when Ivan was eight. After years of being insulted and abused by his rebellious nobles, Ivan had The Russian imperial emblem himself crowned in an awe-inspiring ceremony when he was 16, taking the title tsar. According to legend, his servants poured baskets of gold coins over his shoulders until he was literally buried up to the head in gold. Unlike Ivan the Great who had turned north to Novgorod, Ivan the Terrible turned south, declaring war on the remnants of Mongol power there and added vast new territories in the south and east to his realm. Ivan fought unsuccessfully to push Russia to the Baltic, but was stopped by the Poles and Hanseatic League. Ironically, when the Poles invaded Russia, the tsar received help from Queen Elizabeth of England, a forerunner of the British-Russian alliance of both World Wars I and II, help that came the same way, by water through the White Sea. Ivan decided to get rid of the boyars who had caused him so much grief as a child and whom he believed had poisoned his wife, Anastasia Romanov. He thus created a praetorian guard called the oprichniki, a vigilante group made up of commoners. They operated in Old Russia, not the newly conquered lands to the east and south, and were designed to eliminate the power of the boyars by fair means or foul. Oprichniki means literally "a world apart," and that it was, operating outside the law and steeped in violence. So-called enemies were murdered without trial and without remorse. When its work was done, the oprichniki itself was destroyed, and the mere mentioning of its name was made a criminal act. While Ivan did try to increase the power of the royal courts to bring uniformity of justice to Russia, and tried to bring that justice under the Ivan the Terrible (1530-1584) control of the monarch rather than the nobles, he is most remembered for his rampage against the aristocracy outside the law. Many boyars were killed en masse, including women and children. Whole families were wiped out, including their servants and even their pets. In his delirium, Ivan ordered the destruction of the entire city of Novgorod on the mere suspicion of treason. He even killed his own son in a rage.
. Describe the building of the Gothic cathedrals.
The other main example of the brash self-confidence was the Gothic cathedrals. There was a boom of cathedral building in the 12th century, with more stone quarried in about 100 years than had been quarried in the totality of the history of ancient Egypt. Between 1180-1270, in France alone, 80 cathedrals were built, and over 500 abbey churches, most in the new Gothic style. These cathedrals were built mostly in towns, and serve as an example of middle class wealth and civic pride, as they beautified their cities with such remarkable edifices. Almost all social classes worked on the cathedrals at one point or another. They frequently, such as at Chartres, donated money for stained glass windows that showed them practicing their craft, as in this famous window from the bread makers' guild. (This window is reproduced to the left.) And sometimes, cathedral building led to rivalries among towns for the biggest and best. In 1163, Notre Dame was built in Paris to be 114 feet high. 1194 saw Chartres challenge this with a cathedral 119 feet high. In 1247, in Beauvais, the cathedral was to be
Show the results of the bubonic plague on European society.
The plague certainly solved Europe's overpopulation problem. The number of people in Normandy fell by 30%, in Toulouse by 50%, and Florence lost two-thirds of its 1347 population in a few months. As late as the 1940s, the plague was still 40% fatal if it did not change into the deadly pneumonic form. The death rate among churchmen was especially high, because they stayed behind to tend the sick when everyone else fled. Those churchmen more concerned with saving their skins who fled with everyone else were the ones who survived the outbreak; their scandalous shirking of their duties led to a general diminution of the clergy's prestige. Some people turned to finding scapegoats in the population, a fact that led to wholesale pogroms against the Jews who were frequently blamed for the outbreak. Some people escaped into orgies, while others tried asceticism and frenzied religious fervor.
. Show the development of the Cistercian order and assess its significance
Thus a new revival of fervor occurred with the Cistercians in the 12th century who devoted them-selves to a severe code of morality. They refused all gifts and lived only in uninhabited areas where they would be free of corrupting worldly influences. No high or powerful laymen were even allowed inside Modern Cluny their walls to preserve their simplicity and indepen-dence. Because they paid no taxes to Rome, they could utilize less profitable areas such as the moors of northern England into which they introduced sheep grazing. They developed a new breed of sheep with superior Poblet monastery in Spain, a Cistercian order wool. This high quality wool fetched four times what average wool did, and thus many locals began to the same kind of sheep the Cistercians did. The Cistercians were also quick to employ technological advances such as water mills, like the modern one pictured below. The monks themselves spent so much time at their devotions that conversi, those who had not taken full vows as yet, actually did a great deal of the work. Like others in the Middle Ages, therefore, the Cistercians sought to increase productivity by finding ways to use labor more effectively—hence the waterwheel (see below). As a result, the Cistercians became the great pioneers of the 12th and 13th centuries, engaging in massive land reclamation. They brought under cultivation areas of the Black Forest in Germany and low-lying swamps in eastern England--and in the process died in droves. On the other hand, they created some of the most fertile and well kept agricultural lands in Europe, and in time became the victims of their own success as worldly people eyed their land holdings greedily.
. Show how St. Louis and Philip IV continued the advancement of the French monarchy.
Unlike the tradition in England of creative tension between the monarchy and nobles as exemplified by the Magna Carta, in France the French kings pursued an unremitting policy of absolutism, trying to crush nobles instead of working with them. St. Louis (Louis IX) believed in divine right of kings, that is, that he was responsible to God alone. Thus he issued edicts without consulting the council of nobles, a far cry from the requirement in England contained in the Magna Carta that the king must consult with his barons. St. Louis outlawed trial by battle and private wars, thus further reducing the power of the nobles. He instituted a system of royal courts to which any decision of a feudal court run by his nobles could be appealed, thus helping to ensure more uniform decisions and justice throughout the realm. Following his death, St. Louis was quickly made a saint, again demonstrating the special relationship between the French king and the pope. In France, the king became a saint: in England, the king's enemy, Beckett, became a saint. Moreover, all French kings were now literally descended from an acknowledged saint, something no other noble in France could claim France was really a series of independent provinces, rather than a united country, and the entire area was characterized by disunity. France had many different local rulers with different laws and customs, different coinages, and even different languages. The Languedoc spoken in the south would have been incomprehensible to a Parisian. Worse, before the 10th century, there were more than 30 great feudal princes, supposedly vassals to the French king, but in fact almost independent from the monarchy. Castles originally built in France to defend against the Vikings were almost always used to defend vassals against the king. The French king really only had control over a small piece of France, the area around Paris and St. Denis. Called even today the Ile de France (French island), the name reminds us that what we know as France was merely one isolated island in a sea of competing warlords. The kings of England who actually owned more land in what is now France than the French king did, sneeringly referred to the latter as "le roi de St. Denis"(the king of St. Denis), rather than the king of France. Rebellious nobles resented the power of the French king and worked to thwart it, but in the long run, the kings with the aid of the town based bourgeoisie helped curb the power of the warrior lords to create the French monarchy and modern France.
Explain who the Vikings were, and why and how they attacked Europe.
Viking raids occurred throughout Europe. The northeastern part of England, the area surounding present day York, was settled by Vikings, while the area in northern France around modern day Caen was also a Norse settlement. In fact, the French word for this region, Normandy, is a linguistic reminder that this was "Norse country." The Vikings ventured as far south as the Iberian peninsula, traveling up the Tagus river almost as far as Toledo, and moving up the Garonne in France, where the modern city of Bordeaux is located. They went as far east as Russia where they established a home base in Novgorod; moving across Lake Ladoga, they took the Lovat river inland, ported their boats about 40 miles to the headwaters of Dnieper river from which they sailed easily south to Kiev and even across the Black Sea to Constantinople. Vikings settled in many of these locales and intermarried with the local populations
Show the causes of the Hundred Years War.
While the Black Death haunted Europe for a century, so did the on again, off again Hundred Years War (1337-1453). The English kings wanted to regain their large holdings in France which they had had in the days of Henry II but which they had lost under King John. The French by contrast wanted to retain what they had acquired and drive the English out of France altogether. (See the map below.) There were also problems in the wool trade. Wool from England was made into cloth in Flanders (modern day Belgium). When the French attempted to control Flanders, the wool trade was disrupted, causing a problem for the English king whose revenues came to a large degree from a tax on wool going to Flanders. Both the English and French wanted glory on the battlefield as chivalry demanded. And neither England nor France had been able to solve its internal social, economic or political problems; wars would divert attention from difficulties at home. The immediate cause was a dispute over the French throne when the last Capetian king died without heirs. The closest to the throne was in fact the king of England, Edward III, but the French quickly passed the Salonic law saying the throne of France could not descend through the female line, thus voiding the English king's claim and giving the throne to a Frenchman, the first Valois, Philip VI. Feeling cheated, the English attacked. The war was fought almost completely on French soil, a strategy that devastated French agriculture. The armies in this war were commanded by the princes of the blood themselves, such as Edward the Black Prince, who got his nickname because of the black armor he wore in battle. A huge number of people fought on both sides, some 10% or so of English English holdings in France. population and maybe even more in France. Given these numbers, the wars strained the finances of both England and France to the breaking point. At first, France raised money by depreciating her currency and borrowing from Italian bankers, but the inability of the French crown to make good on their debts would cause a financial panic by mid century.
Explain why Bubonic Plague spread so fast in the 14th century
Why did it spread so fast and kill so many? First, there was no resistance among the people, since it had been 800 years since the last outbreak of the disease. Even today, without antibiotics, plague kills four out of five infected. Second, some plague historians believe the plague metamorphosed into a pneumonic plague, spreading to the lungs and developing into pneumonia. Had that been so, the disease could have spread from human to human without the flea as intermediary, and this would account for its incredibly rapid spread. The picture to the left shows a lung infected with plague; the plague bacillus literally eats the lung tissue making breathing impossible. This pneumonic plague remained 100% fatal without antibiotics as was demonstrated when it broke out in the trenches of World War I
Discuss how William the Conqueror took England and what he did with it.
William, Duke of Normandy, who claimed the throne of England on rather flimsy hereditary grounds. At the Battle of Hastings, William's mounted cavalry broke the English shield wall and Harold was killed. The conquest of England by a Frenchman oriented England away from Scandinavia and back towards Europe. ince England was now his by right of conquest, William kept some of the land for himself but ceded the rest to his Norman nobles in exchange for military service. He was using feudalism to help govern his realm, because there were simply not enough trained administrators to do it any other way. William, did, however, hedge his bets by scattering the fiefs all over England to avoid having large concentrations of land in potentially rebellious hands.
Explain where Westminster was and the significance of its location.
You can just make out on the map from 1300 above to the far left, a small church symbol. That was Westminster where the Westminster cathedral stands today, and where the king's Westminster Palace once stood. The only bridge across the river was London Bridge that connected to Southwark where bear baiting and theater venues would thrive. (This was where Shakespeare's Globe theater would later stand and where the National Theater complex stands today.) London Bridge was the first stone bridge across the Thames; built between 1176 and 1209, it illustrates London's growing sense of safety since the city was willing to risk enemies using the bridge to attack over the river with ease. It is almost impossible to imagine how London looked in the Middle Ages. Almost all buildings would have been built of wood that was plentiful in the area and much easier to work with that stone. Only a church steeple would have been more than three stories high. Although from a slightly later date, the map above gives one an idea. London bridge is in the center, the large church to the left is the Gothic St. Paul's cathedral that later burned, and the Tower is the white enclosure to the far right. London was effectively flat, huddled behind walls for protection, with green spaces outside. Staying within the safety of the walls was sufficiently important that almost every square inch was taken up with buildings, even London Bridge. In the picture above you can see buildings on it, and in the drawing below from the 13th century, you see what the bridge must have looked like to someone approaching upriver.
Discuss chivalry.
comes from the French cheval, meaning horse, for to be involved in chivalry required one to be noble and thus own a horse. Early chivalry of the 11th century was rough and masculine, stressing combat abilities. Indeed, as late as the 11th century, knights could not take the sacraments if in armor since the church regarded them as killers. Special war wagons were built to carry off booty from the defeated after battle. But later chivalry was designed to do something with the increasingly unemployed warriors as peace broke out in Europe following the end of the Viking invasions. Now the former warrior was to spend his time wooing the lady of the house. This form of chivalry influenced attitudes towards women who were now to be honored and protected; the church, by contrast, had always identified women with the temptress Eve and blamed them for the fall. In fact, the church responded to chivalry by stressing the cult of Mary that came into its own in the 12th century. Chivalry also influenced the sports of nobles, who engaged in jousts and tournaments to keep up their fighting skills while showing off. Jousts were combats between two men only, riding against one another with lances out ( see below). Tournaments by contrast, were mini-wars where two sides charged one another, hacking away until a horn blew to stop the fighting. The side with the most dead lost. These noble chivalric games, however, led to loss of life and so would be outlawed by nation states because they encouraged bloodshed and divisiveness. King Henry II of France, for example, held a tournament to celebrate the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth to the king of Spain, and even though an old man, Henry insisted on taking part in a joust. Unfortunately, he held his lance incorrectly, with the result that the opponent's lance slid up his shield and entered the visor—braining him on the spot. The most brilliant chivalric court was that of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife to Henry II of England. Here is where Chrétien de Troyes wrote the story of King Arthur, portraying him as a chivalric hero when in fact he was most likely a rather grubby 6th century king. But the story of Guinevere and Lancelot demonstrated the perils of exchanging chivalric love for the lady from afar for carnal love up close. Eleanor's court saw medieval troubadours write poetry to her, and she even engaged in "love courts" to "try" chivalric knights for failure to live up to the code. Some noblemen adapted to the new chivalric code, but most did not. King Richard I of England, also known as the Lion-Hearted, could apparently write poetry in the morning and fight a battle that afternoon, both equally well. The average knight, however, had little aptitude for poetry and was trained only in the art of battle. Chafing under the restraints of chivalry, these young men were the first to sign up for the crusades that promised travel and excitement in a world of men
Describe the major physical changes between the 10th to 14th centuries.
increased population- Major physical changes occurred. The first is an increase in population, made possible by the cessation of foreign invasions. Feudal armies continued their destruction, of course, but feudal wars were rarely pitched battles; Malaria, Leprosy- The two diseases widespread at the time were leprosy and malaria. Leprosy appeared early in the Middle Ages. It was caused by a virus and was not very contagious, although Europeans did not know that and so feared lepers. Their gangrenous sores and horrible smell produced disgust. Lepers were segregated in hospitals outside towns, hospitals that would later be used for plague victims when leprosy mysteriously disappeared in the 15th century. Malaria was spread by mosquitoes in swampy areas, producing alternating chills and fever that left the victim weak. Malaria ceased to be a problem when the swamps throughout Europe were drained, mostly because the population grew in the Middle Ages and needed more farm land. Important in this clearing of land was the Cistercian order who became the great pioneers of the 12th century. Mild weather- ave labor. Mild weather caused by the slow and steady retreat of the polar ice cap, milder even than the early part of the 20th century, produced mild winters and dry summers that allowed agriculture to flourish. Major changes in agriculture increased food production, permitting the larger population to survive. The development of the heavy plow allowed the wet and heavy northern European soil to be turned over easily, thus aerating it and improving crop yields. The Roman scratch plow had been suitable for the lighter, sandier soils of southern Europe, but such plows broke frequently when used in the north. The heavy plow invented now and tandem not only turned over existing farmland to Inventions- The most important invention was surely the waterwheel that substituted another source for human energy. 250 mills using the waterwheel supplied one million horsepower equal to the labor of three million slaves. The waterwheel took advantage of the many streams and rivers in Europe that may have been unnavigable. Although they could not serve as avenues of commerce, once dammed, their water fell onto the spokes of the waterwheel producing power to run mills for grinding wheat. With the waterwheel, the stirrup and the improved harness, we can see that the Middle Ages was a time of important, laborsaving inventions that the Roman empire, in spite of its size and glory, never dreamed of because of their heavy reliance on slave labor.
. Compare and contrast the Kievan state with the Mongol one in Russia
the 11th century, Kiev was a rival to Constantinople, with over 400 churches, attempting in their wooden onion domes to duplicate the architecture of the capital at Byzantium. The Kievan state maintained close ties with Europe, unlike the Mongol state that succeeded it. What the Kievan state could not do, however, was solve the problem of succession. In Europe this was increasingly done by primogeniture, that is by passing the throne from father to eldest son. But in Russia, the estate of a king would be divided among all his sons. This meant that one son would murder or dispatch all his siblings, both sisters and brothers, to achieve the unity his father had had. Thus, once in power, Vladimir the Avenger became known as Vladimir the Great, after he had secured the throne with vicious bloodletting
Discuss the development of a unified Spain.
unsure At first, Ferdinand and Isabella continued religious toleration of the Jews, in part because Ferdinand himself was part Jewish. But in 1492 when Granada fell, the last Moorish holdout to a reunified Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews and Muslims from Spain. 150,000 Jews left, taking with them their skills as traders and merchants. That meant that Spain was living on borrowed time. The wealth other monarchs got from taxing their own, growing middle class, Spain got from the New World. When that New World wealth ran out, or when the flow of wealth was interrupted by hostile attacks on the high seas, Spain would have nothing to fall back on. unsure
