MEDIEVAL EUROPE

677 CE

Medieval Europe - The Arabs attempt to conquer

Constantinople but fail.

750 CE

Irish monks establish early-medieval art. The

greatest surviving product of these monks is the

Book of Kells, a Gospel book of decorative art.

800 CE

On Christmas Day, Charlemagne is crowned

emperor by the pope in Rome. This event indicates

an autonomous Western culture based on Western

Christianity and Latin linguistics. Charlemagne

establishes schools in all bishoprics and monasteries

under his control.

1066 CE

William the Conqueror invades England and

asserts his right to the English throne at the Battle

of Hastings. The Norman Conquest fuses French and

English cultures because William is both the King of

England and the Duke of Normandy. The language of

England evolves into Middle English with an English

syntax and grammar and a heavily French

vocabulary.

1168 CE

English scientist Robert Grosseteste translates

Aristotle's Ethics and makes technological advances

in optics, mathematics and astronomy. He dies in

1253 CE.

1187 CE

Muslims recapture Jerusalem, and the Third

Crusade is ordered. It is led by German Emperor

Frederick Barbarossa, French King Philip Augustus

and English King Richard the Lionhearted. It is not

successful.

1212 CE

Spain reconquers the Iberian peninsula from the

Muslims in the name of Christianity.

1252 CE

The papacy approves the use of torture for

religious disobedience, following Innocent III's

brutal "inquisitions" against heresy (namely the

Waldensian and Albigensian heretics).

1280 CE

Eyeglasses are invented and later improved in the

late medieval period.

1328 CE

The last heir of the Capetian dynasty dies and is

replaced by the first ruler of the Valois dynasty.

Because the English kings are also descended from

the Capetian line, England attempts to claim the

French crown.

1358 CE

Economic hardship in France results in an uprising

of the lower-class, called the "Jacquerie" (taken from

the French peasant "Jacques Bonhomme"). The

peasants burn castles, murder and rape their lords

and lords' wives and take advantage of the political

confusion in France by attempting to reform the

governmental system. The revolt occurs during the

king's captivity in England.

1429 CE

Joan of Arc, a peasant girl in France, seeks out the

French leader and relates her divinely-inspired

mission to drive the English out of France. She takes

control of the French troops and liberates most of

central France.

1454 CE

Italy is divided into five major regions: Venice,

Milan, Florence, the Papal States and the southern

kingdom of Naples.

1505 CE

Ivan the Great of Moscow extends the Russian

border into the Byelorussian and the Ukrainian

territories, before his death. Muscovian Russia is

recognized as a major Eastern-oriented power in

Europe.

1509 CE

Henry VIII succeeds his father, Henry VII, for the

English crown.

IN DEPTH LOOK AT 1358 CE

Economic hardship in France results in an uprising of the

lower-class, called the "Jacquerie" (taken from the French

peasant "Jacques Bonhomme"). The peasants burn castles,

murder and rape their lords and lords' wives and take

advantage of the political confusion in France by attempting to

reform the governmental system. The revolt occurs during the

king's captivity in England.

JACQUERIE

The Jacquerie was a popular revolt in late medieval Europe by peasants

that took place in northern France in the summer of 1358, during the

Hundred Years' War. The revolt, which was violently suppressed after a

few weeks of violence, centered in the Oise valley north of Paris. This

rebellion became known as the Jacquerie because the nobles derided

peasants as "Jacques" or "Jacques Bonhomme" for their padded surplice

called "Jacque". Their revolutionary leader Guillaume Cale was referred

to by the aristocratic chronicler Froissart as Jacques Bonhomme or Callet.

The word Jacquerie became synonymous with peasant uprisings in

general in both English and French.

THE UPRISING

This combination of problems set the stage for a brief series of bloody

rebellions in northern France in 1358. The uprisings began in a village of St. L

eu near the Oise river, where a group of peasants met in a cemetery to discuss

their perception that the nobles had abandoned the King at Poitiers. "They

shamed and despoiled the realm, and it would be a good thing to destroy them

all.’ The account of the rising by the contemporary chronicler Jean le Bel

includes a description of horrifying violence. According to him, peasants

"killed a knight, put him on a spit, and roasted him with his wife and children

looking on. After ten or twelve of them raped the lady, they wished to force

feed them the roasted flesh of their father and husband and made them then

die by a miserable death.”

The peasants involved in the rebellion seem to

have lacked any real organization, instead rising up

locally as an unstructured mass. It is speculated by

Jean le Bel that evil governors and tax collectors

spread the word of rebellion from village to village to

inspire the peasants to rebel against the nobility.

When asked as to the cause of their discontent they

apparently replied that they were just doing what

they had witnessed others doing.

CANADA’S PAST

Augusta Stowe, daughter of Emily, is the first

woman to graduate from the Toronto Medical

School. The Toronto Women's Suffrage Association

replaces the Literary Club of 1876. It opened new

doors for women in that time and let people know

that women were part of it. They gained respect

from it and approval. Women in our society today are

more connected with schooling and careers thanks

to the few women in the past that stood up for what

they wanted .