Late Middle Ages: Comprehensive Notes (AP Euro Summer Reading pp. 291-315)

Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)

• Duration: May $1337$ – Oct. $1453$ (≈ $116$ yrs, w/ $68$ yrs nominal peace, $44$ yrs hot war)

• Root causes

  • Conflict over crown claim: $15$-yr-old Edward III of England (grandson of Philip IV “the Fair”) claims French throne after Charles IV (last direct Capetian male) dies $1328$. The French choose Charles’ first cousin Philip VI of Valois to rule

  • Feudal complications: Edward is vassal of French king.; French see English holdings as obstacle to centralization.

  • Flanders: economically tied to English wool; politically a French fief ➔ competing influence.

  • Long-standing Anglo-French hostility & maritime clashes.

  • Struggle increasingly becomes question of national identity not just control of territory

• Comparative strengths/weaknesses

  • France: $\approx$ 3× England’s population, richer, fighting on home soil.

  • Weaknesses: feudal fragmentation, internal disunity, Estates-General bargaining for privileges, currency debasement, nobles vs towns ➔ inability to mobilize.

  • England: smaller but politically centralized; disciplined infantry + longbow (≈ $6$ arrows/min; penetrates $1$ in wood/knight’s armor @ $200$ yds). Kings shrewder

• Key stages & battles

  1. Edward III Phase (1337-1360)

  • Edward embargoed English wool to Flanders causing rebellions

  • $1340$: defeats French fleet at Sluys(June 23) English defeat; alliance w/ Flemish cities led by Jacob van Artevelde.

  • $1346$: invades Normandy; wins Crécy; seizes Calais.

  • $1347$: Black Death ➔ truce.

  • $1356$: Poitiers; French King John II captured ➔ Estates-General power led by Etienne Marcel ; Jacquerie peasant revolt $1358$ due to taxes and being forced to repair property.

  • $1360$: May 9 Peace of Brétigny: France pays $3{,}000{,}000$ gold crowns ransom; Edward renounces claim to crown, keeps enlarged French fiefs.

  1. French Resurgence (1360-1415)

  • Late 1360s-1370s Charles V & du Guesclin recover lands; by Edward’s death $1377$ English hold only coastal enclaves + Bordeaux.

  • England distracted: Peasants’ Revolt $1381$ (Wat Tyler, John Ball). During Richard II reign. Shirt but lasting affects.

  1. Henry V & Treaty of Troyes (1413-1422)

  • French turmoil allowed Henry to take Normandy

  • $1415$: English smash French-Armagnac forces at Agincourt.

  • Burgundy’s shifting alliance; duke assassinated $1419$ ➔ son allies w/ England.

  • $1420$: Treaty of Troyes: disinherits Dauphin; Henry V heir to Charles VI.

  • $1422$: Deaths of Henry V & Charles VI ➔ infant Henry VI proclaimed king of both realms. Charles VII hid in Bourges French people supported him

  1. Joan of Arc & French Victory (1429-1453)

  • Joan (Domrémy peasant, visions) persuades Charles VII (believes she is called by God); lifts Orléans siege March-May $1429$.

  • Boosts morale; Charles crowned at Reims.

  • Joan captured by Burgundians $1430$ ➔ Inquisition trial at Rouen; executed $30$ May $1431$ (relapsed heretic); retrial $1456$ innocence; canonized $1920$.

  • $1435$: Burgundy reconciles (Treaty of Arras).

  • By $1453$: English expelled except Calais.

• Consequences

  • France: devastation but rise of nationalism; acceleration from feudal monarchy ➔ centralized state.

  • Burgundy emerges powerful (soon absorbed by France/Habsburgs).

  • England: turns to domestic cloth industry, later Wars of the Roses.

  • Peasantry bears tax/military burden.

  • Warfare innovations: longbow, paid infantry, gunpowder & heavy artillery (later phase).

Popular Uprisings & Social Turmoil

• Jacquerie (France, $1358$)

  • Trigger: heavy taille taxes, forced unpaid repairs; led by mythic “Jacques Bonhomme”.

  • Brutally suppressed by nobility.

• English Peasants’ Revolt (June $1381$)

  • Causes: Statute of Laborers $1351$ (wage freeze), poll taxes.

  • Leaders: Wat Tyler (journeyman), John Ball (secular priest).

  • Crushed by Richard II’s gov’t; deep social divide persists.

Black Death (1347-1350 & later waves)

• Pre-conditions

  • $1000-1300$: pop. doubles; three-field system boosts land and food but by $1300$ food ≪ people. 90% work fields

  • Great Famine $1315-1317$; malnutrition lowers resistance.

  • Overpopulation, economic depression, famine, and bad health weakened Europe

• Cause & spread

  • Spread via flea-bearing rats from Black Sea trade.

  • Sicily $1347$ ➔ Italian ports (Venice, Genoa, Pisa) $1348$ ➔ Spain, S France, N Europe; reaches Scandinavia $1350$. Isolated areas ex. Bohemia largely spared.

  • Mortality: up to $\frac{1}{3}$ – $\frac{2}{5}$ of Europe; est. $25$ million deaths (low estimate).

  • Recurred for centuries. Full recovery 16th century

• Medical understanding & responses

  • Transmitted by rats and fleas, from lungs spread through sneezing/wheezing

  • No germ theory; blamed “corrupted air”, earthquakes, divine wrath.

  • Remedies: aromatic amulets, moderation vs debauchery (Boccaccio, Decameron), flight & seclusion.

  • Flagellants: beat themselves for penance processions, outlawed by church for disorder.

  • Scapegoating of Jews ➔ pogroms(violent ethnic riot) ; flagellants incite violence.

• Economic & social impacts

  • Labor shortage ➔ rising wages for peasants & artisans, decline of manor system.

  • Agriculture prices fell while luxury goods rose

  • Landowners shift to sheep pasture; attempt repression (Statute of Laborers( limited wages and can’t leave land), increased taille(direct peasant tax)).

  • Urban guilds gain power; journeymen vs masters conflict. Strict laws to protect industry

  • Church: clergy losses (≈ $\frac{1}{3}$ German clergy); income rises via indulgences, masses for dead. Land loss and political strength loss

  • Cultural: obsession with death (Dance of Death), demand for luxury rose.

  • Kings on defensive centralize economy and gov nobility less power

Late Medieval Church: Crisis & Reform

Papal Monarchy Peak & Decline

• Pope Innocent III (r.$1198-1216$): papal plentitude of power ➔ height of political/secular authority.

• Urban IV (1261-1264)establishes Rota Romana(COURT); papal bureaucracy & taxation expand. Centralization undermined dioscean authority and popular support.

• Local bishops & reformers (Waldensians, Cathars, Franciscans) critique worldliness.

  Political Fragmentation

• Pope Gregory X (1271-1276) established conclave immediately in order to minimize secular influence after papal death due to Italian politics having power within the college of cardinals in

• 1294: 2 year conclave elected Pope Celestine V ho abdicated quickly and shortly died suspiciously

• Replaced by very opposite Pope Boniface VIII(1294-1303)

Boniface VIII vs Philip IV (France)

• England formal parliaments Henry III and Edward I

• Philip the fair goal: end UK holdings, Flanders, establish dominance

• Clericis laicos $1296$: forbids lay taxation of clergy without consent.

• Philip retaliates: blocks money to Rome. Edward withdraws their protection in court

• Boniface yields partially, canonizes Louis IX.

• Italian enemies clam in heresy and even muder of ex pope

• 1300: jubilee year all Catholics who came to Rome had sins forgiven there Boniface spoke on politics choosing Scottish independence over England

• Further clash over arrest of Bishop Saisset; bull Ausculta fili.

• Unam Sanctam Nov 18$1302$: ultimate statement—temporal authority subject to spiritual.

• Guillaume de Nogaret ( excommunicated after)assaults pope at Anagni Aug$1303$; Boniface dies Oct

• Never again do popes seriously threaten kings or empires

Avignon Papacy (“Babylonian Captivity”, $1309-1377$)

• Clement V forced to sling with French lifts excommunication

• Clement V relocates court to Avignon; . 1311 becomes his residence and papacy stays to 1377

• Financial devices: annates (first-year revenues), expanded fees, sale of indulgences.

• Avignon papacy= French, matealism, political scheming

• Pope John XXII (r.$1316-1334$): tries to move back to Italy ward with Visconti. conflicts w/ Emperor Louis IV over his ; Ockham & Marsilius of Padua (Defender of Peace) support imperial autonomy. Claiming spiritual crimes should be dealt in the eternal not the present. Are deemed heretics and excommunicated. Direct challenge to papal power over countries and saw the church as a member of society under the emperor.

• Curia (papal court) mastered Europe Money Ecom. Benedict XII constructed Palace of the popes in order to reform papal gov and religious life. Clement VI backtracked this creating merely lobbyists for secular patrons.

• National resistance: Gallican liberties approved in Pragmati Sanction of Bourges (allowed France to choose own clergy), English Statutes of Provisors & Praemunire (1351-1393) restrict papal appointments/appeals.

Great Schism (1378-1417)

• Gregory XI returns to Rome $1377$, dies.

• Urban VI elected; reformist, alienates French cardinals ➔ they elect rival Clement VII (Avignon) $1378$.

• Christendom split (Eng./Ger. support Rome; Fr./Scot./Spain Avignon).

• Council of Pisa $1409$ deposes both, elects Alexander V ➔ three popes.

• Council of Constance $1414-1417$ (Emperor Sigismund): issues Sacrosancta, deposes/resigns all, elects Martin V; condemns Jan Huss (burned $1415$).

• Conciliarism: council > pope; regular councils mandated.

• Council of Basel $1431-1449$ reaches Compacts of Prague w/ moderate Hussites (cup & bread, preaching, clergy punishable). Movement wanes after papacy strikes union w/ Byzantines $1439$; bull Exsecrabilis $1460$ by Pius II condemns appeals to councils.

Heretical & Reform Currents

• John Wycliffe (Oxford, d.$1384$): Scripture supreme, clerical poverty, accused of Donatism sacraments depend on merit of clergy, denial of transubstantiation; followers = Lollards England (persecuted $1401$ after revolt).

• University of Prague center for Czech nationalism and religious reform

• Jan Huss (Prague): pro- Wycliffe, vernacular liturgy, lay chalice(bread+wine); executed at Constance.

• Taborites under John Ziska in Bohemia; wars $1419-1434$; limited autonomy secured.

Medieval Russia

• Conversion: Prince Vladimir of Kiev (r.$980-1015$) adopts Greek Orthodoxy ➔ ties to Byzantium.

• Apex under Yaroslav the Wise (r.$1016-1054$); after death: fragmentation into Great, White, Little Russians.

• Mongol (Tatar) Yoke $1243-1480$

  • Genghis Khan’s forces invade $1223$; Batu Khan sacks Kiev $1240$; Golden Horde at Sarai collects tribute, drafts soldiers.

  • Cultural isolation from West; some benefits: trade, relative peace.

• Rise of Moscow

  • Princes act as Mongol tax farmers; expand via “gathering of the Russian land”.

  • Battle of Kulikovo $1380$: Grand Duke Dimitri defeats Tatars.

  • Ivan III (the Great) ends tribute $1480$, absorbs Novgorod & others, claims title “czar”, Moscow = “Third Rome” after $1453$ fall of Constantinople.

Key Terms & Concepts

• $\textbf{Estates-General}$ (France): representative nobles + townspeople; levies taxes, gains privileges during crises.

• $\textbf{Longbow}$: English weapon, decisive at Crécy, Poitiers, Agincourt.

• $\textbf{Flagellants}$: lay penitents scourging selves during plague.

• $\textbf{Babylonian Captivity}$: nickname for Avignon papacy.

• $\textbf{Conciliarism}$: theory that church councils hold supreme authority.

• $\textbf{Unam Sanctam}$ $1302$: papal bull asserting absolute papal supremacy.

Quantitative References

• Population loss: up to $\frac{2}{5}=40\%$; lower est. $25{,}000{,}000$.

• Ransom Peace of Brétigny: $3{,}000{,}000$ gold crowns.

• Joan of Arc executed $1431$; rehabilitated $1456$; canonized $1920$.

• Universities: increase $20 \rightarrow 70$ between $1300-1500$ (≈ $250\%$ growth).

Chronological Quick-View (Select Dates)

• $1296$ Clericis laicos | $1302$ Unam Sanctam

• $1309-1377$ Avignon Papacy

• $1337$ War begins | $1347-1350$ Plague peak

• $1358$ Jacquerie | $1381$ English revolt

• $1378-1417$ Great Schism

• $1415$ Agincourt; Huss executed

• $1429$ Joan relieves Orléans

• $1453$ Fall of Constantinople & end of war

• $1480$ Moscow ends Mongol tribute

Ethical & Philosophical Implications

• Crisis spurs critiques of authority: growth of lay literacy, vernacular scripture, questioning of indulgences & clerical wealth.

• National monarchies use religion for state aims (e.g., Gallican liberties, royal taxes on clergy).

• Conciliarism plants seeds of constitutionalism in church ➔ later echoes in Reformation & secular governance: ruler accountable to community.

Connections & Relevance

• Military innovations foreshadow early-modern warfare & demise of chivalric knight.

• Plague’s demographic shock paves way for Renaissance economic & cultural dynamism; higher wages & urban growth.

• Church crises prefigure Protestant Reformation; Wycliffe & Huss influence Luther.

• Mongol impact shapes Russian autocracy & Orthodox identity distinct from Latin West.

Study Prompts

• Compare English Parliament vs French Estates-General in wartime financing.

• Evaluate how Black Death altered feudal obligations.

• Trace shift from papal to royal supremacy $1200-1450$.

• Debate conciliar theory’s legacy: failure or precursor to modern conciliar/constitutional ideas.