1. Crisis and Disintegration in the Fourteenth Century
Chapter 11
The Late Middle Ages:
Crisis and Disintegration in the Fourteenth Century

2. A Time of Troubles: Black Death and Social Crisis
“Little Ice Age”
The Great Famine (1315 – 1317)
The Black Death

3. The Black Death Most devastating natural disaster in European History
Bubonic Plague
Rats and Fleas
Yersinia Pestis
Originated in Asia
Arrived in Europe in 1347
Mortality reached 50 – 60 percent in some areas
Wiped out between 25 – 50 percent of European population (19 – 38 million dead in four years)
Plague returns in 1361 – 1362 and 1369

4. Spread of the Black Death
©2003 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.

5. Life and Death: Reactions to the Plague
Plague as a punishment from God
The flagellants
Attacks against Jews
Violence

6. Fig. 11-CO, p. 303 Mass burial and cremation of plague victims.
The Art Archive/Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice, Italy/Gianni Dagli Orti
Fig. 11-CO, p. 303

7. Mass burial of victims in Tournai…still time to make coffins
Mass Burial of Plague Victims.
The Black Death had spread to northern Europe by the end of Shown here is a mass burial of victims of the plague in Tournai, located in modern Belgium. As is evident in the illustration, at this stage of the plague, there was still time to make coffins for the victims’ burial. Later, as the plague intensified, the dead were thrown into open pits.
Bibliothèque Royale Albert I (Ms , c.24t, Fol. 24v), Brussels, Belgium//Snark/Art Resource, NY
Mass burial of victims in Tournai…still time to make coffins
p. 307

8. Flagellants wandered from town to town flogging themselves
The Flagellants.
Reactions to the plague were extreme at times. Believing that asceticism could atone for humanity’s sins and win God’s forgiveness, flagellants wandered from town to town flogging themselves and each other with whips, as in this illustration.
Image Select/Art Resource, NY
Flagellants wandered from town to town flogging themselves
p. 307

9. Economic Dislocation and Social Upheaval
Labor Shortage + Falling prices for agricultural products = Drop in aristocratic incomes
Statute of Laborers (1351) : Limit Wages
Social Mobility
Peasant Revolts
Jacquerie in France (1358)
English Peasants’ Revolt (1381)
Revolts in the Cities
Ciompi Revolt in Florence (1378)

10. Peasant Rebellion.
The fourteenth century witnessed a number of revolts of the peasantry against noble landowners. Although the revolts often met with initial success, they were soon crushed. This fifteenth-century illustration shows nobles during the French Jacquerie of 1358 massacring the rebels in the town of Meaux, in northern France.
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France//© Art Media/HIP/The Image Works
French nobles massacring the rebels in Meaux during the Jacquerie in 1358
p. 309

11. War and Political Instability
The Hundred Years’ War
French Attack on English Gascony (1337)
Edward III of England claims French Crown
Differences in the armies
Battle of Crecy (1346)
Henry V (1413 – 1422)
Battle of Agincourt (1415)
Charles the Dauphin (heir to the French throne)
Joan of Arc (1412 – 1431)
Siege of Orleans
Captured by allies of the English in 1430
Burned at the Stake (1431)
Gunpowder
War Ends with French victory (1453)

12. The Hundred Years’ War
©2003 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.

13. Chart 11-1, p. 311

14. Battle of Crecy…English longbows won
Battle of Crécy.
This fifteenth-century manuscript illustration depicts the Battle of Crécy, the first of several military disasters suffered by the French in the Hundred Years’ War, and shows why the English preferred the longbow to the crossbow. At the left, the French crossbowmen stop shooting and prime their weapons by cranking the handle, while English archers continue to shoot their longbows (a skilled archer could launch ten arrows a minute).
© Bibliotheque Nationale (Fr 2643 f.165v), Paris, France/The Bridgeman Art Library
Battle of Crecy…English longbows won
p. 312

15. Map 11-2, p. 314 Map 11.2: The Hundred Years’ War.
This long, exhausting struggle began in 1337 and dragged on until The English initially gained substantial French territory, but in the later phases of the war, France turned the tide, eventually expelling the English from all Continental lands except the port of Calais.
What gains had the English made by 1429, and how do they correlate to proximity to England and the ocean?
Map 11-2, p. 314

16. Joan of Arc.
Pictured here in a suit of armor, Joan of Arc is holding aloft a banner that shows Jesus and two angels. This portrait dates from the late fifteenth century; there are no known portraits of Joan made from life.
Musée de l'Histoire de France aux Archives Nationales, Paris, France//Bridgeman-Giraudon/Art Resource, NY
Joan of Arc
p. 316

17. p. 317 Film & History: Joan of Arc (1948).
Joan (Ingrid Bergman) prepares for battle.
p. 317

18. p. 317 Film & History: The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999).
Joan (Milia Jovovich) rides into battle.
p. 317

19. p. 316

20. Political Instability
Breakdown of Feudal Institutions
Scutage
New Royal Dynasties
Financial Problems
Parliaments gain power

21. The Holy Roman Empire in the Fourteenth Century.

22. Western Europe: England and France
England: Edward III (1327 – 1377)
Parliament
House of Lords
House of Commons
England: War of the Roses
France: Charles VI (1380 – 1422)
France: Civil War
Burgundy and Orleans

23. Soldiers ransacking a house in Paris, mid 14th century
Mercenaries as Looters.
Mercenary soldiers, like medieval armies in general, were notorious for causing havoc by looting when they were not engaged in battle. This mid-fourteenth-century manuscript illustration shows soldiers ransacking a house in Paris.
© British Library, London, UK//HIP/Art Resource, NY
Soldiers ransacking a house in Paris, mid 14th century
p. 320

24. Germany & Italy The German Monarchy The States of Italy
Breakup of the Holy Roman Empire
Hundreds of States
Elective Monarchy
The Golden Bull (1356)
Weak kings
The States of Italy
Lack of centralized authority
Republicanism to Tyranny
Development of regional states
Milan
Florence
Venice

25. Italian states in the 14th century
The States of Italy in the Fourteenth Century.
Italian states in the 14th century
p. 321

26. The Ponte Vecchio – Venice

27. The Decline of the Church
Boniface VIII and the Conflict with the State
Boniface VIII (1294 – 1303)
Conflict with Philip the Fair of France
Unam Sanctam (1302)
Captured by French at Anagni
Clement V
The Papacy at Avignon (1305 – 1378)
Stay at Avignon leads to a decline in papal prestige
Captives of the French monarchy
New Sources of revenue
Catherine of Siena (c – 1380)

28. Boniface VIII presiding over a gathering of cardinals
Pope Boniface VIII.
The conflict between church and state in the Middle Ages reached its height in the struggle between Pope Boniface VIII and Philip IV of France. This fourteenth-century miniature depicts Boniface VIII presiding over a gathering of cardinals.
© British Library (Ms Add f.2), London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library
Boniface VIII presiding over a gathering of cardinals
p. 323

29. Bridge at Avignon – The City of the Popes

30. Avignon.
p. 323

31. The Great Schism Papacy returns to Rome in 1378 Rival Popes elected
Pope Urban VI
Pope Clement VII
The Great Schism divides Europe
Council of Pisa (1409)
Deposed both popes and elected a new pope
Popes refuse to step down
Results in three popes
Council of Constance (1414 – 1418)
End of the Schism
Pope Martin V (1417 – 1431)

32. p. 324

33. Culture and Society in an Age of Adversity
The Developments of Vernacular Literature
Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321)
The Divine Comedy (1313 – 1321)
Geoffrey Chaucer (c – 1400)
The Canterbury Tales
Christine de Pizan (c – 1400)
The Book of the City of Ladies (1404)
Art and the Black Death
Giotto (1266 – 1337)
Ars Moriendi

34. Christine de Pizan, vernacular writer late 14th-early 15th century
Christine de Pizan was one of the extraordinary vernacular writers of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. In this fifteenth-century French illustration, she is shown giving instructions to an assistant from the Works of Christine de Pizan.
© British Library (Harl.4431, f.261v), London, UK//HIP/Art Resource, NY
Christine de Pizan, vernacular writer late 14th-early 15th century
p. 328

35. Change & Invention Changes in Urban Life Medicine]
Greater Regulation
Marriage
Gender Roles
Male: Active and Domineering
Women: Passive and Submissive
Medicine]
Medical schools---Salerno, Montpellier, Bologna, Oxford, Padua, and Paris.
Midwives, barber-surgeons
Inventions and New Patterns
The Mechanical Clock
New Conception of Time
Gunpowder

36. Mechanical Clock in the Prague Town Hall

37. Discussion Questions
What impact did the Black Death have on medieval European society?
What were the causes of the Hundred Years’ War?
Who was Joan of Arc and what role did she play in the Hundred Years’ War?
How did the Hundred Years’ War impact the relations between the English King and his Parliament?
Why did the stay at Avignon lead to a decline in papal prestige?
How was the Great Schism finally ended?
How did Dante, Chaucer and Christine de Pisan reflect the values of their respective societies?
How did the Black Death affect urban and family life?

38. Web Links ORB – Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies
The End of Europe’s Middle Ages
The Black Death, 1347 – 1350
Medieval Dance of Death
De Re Militari – Society for Medieval Military History
The Age of King Charles V
The World of Dante
Geoffrey Chaucer