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 181302: ultimate statement—temporal authority subject to spiritual.

  • Guillaume de Nogaret ( excommunicated after)assaults pope at Anagni Aug1303; 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.