“The High Middle Ages”

CIV 101-03March 30, 2015

class 27

Prior to 1000…

• Europe sparsely populated, dotted with villages of farmers and warriors, covered with forests…

• Feudal system in place• Life expectancy around 30-35• The templates for the, later, High Middle

Ages are set– Then modified in the HMA

One sure thing(well, actually two or three)

• With a life like this– plagues/disease, poor hygiene/sanitation, bad outcomes at

childbirth, bad diet/low vitamins, hard work, wars/invaders, lack of literacy/little or no education, daylight and dark (candles), bad air as the forests are going to be denuded….

• since hell is even worse• The ONLY way to improve one’s lot is to be sure you

go to HEAVEN when you die• SO THE CHURCH IS EVERYTHING!!!!!!– Plus, those guys have things a little better, here, and are

connected to the leadership (or are the leadership)—all of which might help you out a bit in this life.

Prior to 1000… and beyond

http://www.slideshare.net/pcbersick/feudalism-and-life-in-the-middle-ages

Prior to 1000… and beyond

http://www.slideshare.net/pcbersick/feudalism-and-life-in-the-middle-ages

Toward the Renaissance, through the high(er) Middle Ages… things start to improve a bit

• population increased from 38.5M to 73.5M from 1000 to 1300– the rise of towns and cities intensifies density and

birth rates• life expectancy heads toward the top end of

30-35– Although the Black Plague sets this back • And the population density and filth in the cities makes

this even worse• 75 M in Europe; perhaps 250 M world-wide

Black Plague1347-1350 in Europe:

• 1347: Plague strikes Sicily• 1348: France struck by the Black Death in January; England in August• 1360: Recurrence of the Plague• 1369: Recurrence of the Plague

– In less than two years 30% to 60% of the population of Europe was wiped out

– Nearly 75 million died in western Europe alone.– 18000 people died in London in the course of three years.– Almost 1/3 of the worlds population had died from the plague by

1350– Estimates go from 100 to 200 million deaths worldwide.– The mortality rate of the bubonic plague was 30% to 75%– Within 1-7 days the first symptoms occurred, including fever,

nausea, headache and an infection the lymph nodes.

https://deathblack.wordpress.com/category/statistics/

• European “countries” are now more fully formed– The French Monarchy– The English Monarchy– The German Empire

• Papal monarchies still– 9 Crusades between 1095-1272

Toward the Renaissance, through the high(er) Middle Ages… things start to improve a bit

http://www.slideshare.net/pcbersick/feudalism-and-life-in-the-middle-ages

Crusades

• http://explorethemed.com/Crusades.asp– Really nice interactive map that I can’t use here

http://www.hsse.nie.edu.sg/maps/ancient_time%20map/DSC07843a.jpg

Beginnings of the balance between spiritual and secular

• but really, only because they interacted so much over the work of the church—which was also the work of the state.

• This isn’t going to move, much, until the Renaissance, the scientific revolution, and the Reformation.

Pick ups from the Islamic world (via the crusades, travel to Spain, and trade)

• Hospitals• Mathematical reasoning (that algebra thing is going to bring us

Copernicus and others soon),• Paper (and that leads to an increase in literature, copying)

– Calligraphy (illustrated manuscripts)• The textual recoveries by the Muslims leak into the West

– and encourage what comes later– the West doing it• Grand architecture• Better water power• Iron works• The bard (often with a stringed instrument)• Textile advances• House of Learning

Pick ups from the Islamic world (via the crusades, travel to Spain, and trade

• Magna Carta• English Parliament– Radically “new” form of government that

hearkens back to the best of the Greek democracy and Roman Republic.

• Investiture Controversies: working out Church/State relations (well, actually, “breaking down” some of the connections)

• Romanesque and Gothic architecture

Particularly Western Advances

• Christian religious order (groups)• Scholasticism: applying rhetorical techniques and

argument to controversial questions– Aided by advances from the House of Learning

• Rise of the Universities• Gregorian music/chant (at the start of the western 7

note major scale)• Dante• Some vernacular literature (courtly love and such—

heads toward setting “manners”

Particularly Western Advances

Particularly Western Advances

• Spinning wheels (cloth)• Hour glass• Blast furnaces for smelting iron• Better farming techniques– Rotating fields in 3 field systems– Horses instead of oxen (saddles and collars and

shoes)– Iron Plough