The Late Middle Ages Flashcards
How did workers and peasants who survived the plague benefit from the Black Death?
Millions of workers died from the Black Death, resulting in a labor shortage. Surviving workers were able to demand higher wages. In the countryside, many serfs and free peasants simply left the farms in search of better opportunities, or were able to extract concessions from their superiors.
Practitioners of what religion were targeted as causing the Black Death?
Blame for the Plague fell upon the Jews. Jews suffered a lower mortality rate (aided by Jewish isolation in the ghetto and kosher practices), and were easy targets for those looking to assign blame. Jews were accused of poisoning wells and sacrificing children.
In the period’s worst massacre, some 900 Jews were burned at the stake in Strasbourg, France in 1348.
What act caused the Hundred Years’ War in 1337?
In addition to being the King of England, Edward III was the Duke of Normandy, and as such was required to pay homage to Philip VI of France. Edward III refused to do so, and the French king confiscated Edward’s lands in Aquitaine.
How did Edward III respond to Philip VI’s confiscation of his lands in Aquitaine?
Edward III declared himself the legal king of France (a claim with some backing in dynastic law), and dispatched an army to France. Initially, the English were successful, with victories at Crecy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415).
The Hundred Years’ War is a term by historians coined to describe the conflict that ranged off and on between France and England from 1337 to 1453.
In 1429, the French defeated English forces laying siege to the town of Orleans. Who led the French forces?
Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl who claimed she spoke with God, led the French. The victory strengthened the French cause, and proved the turning point in the Hundred Years’ War.
How did Joan of Arc die?
Burgundy, an English ally located in the northeast of modern-day France, captured Joan and turned her over to the English, who burned her at the stake as a witch. After Joan’s death, English fortunes plummeted, and they were steadily driven out France.
Historians date the end of the Hundred Years’ War to 1453, although peace was not formally declared until twenty years later. Who won the war?
Victory in the Hundred Years’ War belonged to the French, who conquered all of the English possessions in modern-day France except for Calais.
Some twenty years later the French defeated Burgundy’s forces at the Battle of Nancy, and France emerged as a strong monarchical state with a centralized government.
How did the English Kings meet the expense of the Hundred Years’ War?
In England, the King had to ask Parliament for taxes to fund the conflict. Throughout the War, Parliament reserved to itself the power to debate taxes, and required the King to continually request funds. Parliament’s taxing power proved to be a strong check on any absolutist ambitions harbored by English monarchs.
How did the French Kings meet the expense of the Hundred Years’ War?
In France, the King convinced France’s legislative assembly, the Estates General, to authorize the King to collect a tax on land (the taille) and a tax on salt (the gabelle). The French nobility and clergy supported the taxes in large part because they were exempt from both taxes.
The tax revenue ensured that the French Kings were not beholden to the Estates General, and they quickly became absolute monarchs. As Louis XIV expressed it, “I am the State.”
Who are generally considered the most powerful political figures in the late Medieval period?
Popes and the Catholic Church dominated Western and Central Europe during the late Medieval period. The Church had vast landholdings, extensive revenues, and significant moral power.
Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, once stood barefoot in the snow for three days until the Pope responded to his request to have his excommunication lifted.
Who was John Wycliffe?
John Wycliffe (1321-1384) was an English advocate for Catholic Church reforms. Contending that the Church should follow Scriptural law, Wycliffe denounced the extravagance of bishops, cardinals, and the Papacy, with whom lavish expenditures of wealth were commonplace.
Wycliffe also translated the Bible into English so that the common people could understand God’s Word.
How did the Great Schism of 1377 arise?
Pope Gregory IX had returned to Rome in 1377, ending the Babylonian Captivity, but died shortly thereafter. Under pressure by a mob in Rome to name a Roman successor, the College of Cardinals appointed the closest candidate they could find: Pope Urban VI from Naples, who established himself at Rome.
However, after quickly regretting their decision, they chose a second Pope, Clement VII, who established his court at Avignon. The religious crisis soon became a political one as rulers throughout Europe chose to follow one Pope or the other.
What was the Conciliar Movement?
The Conciliar Movement was an effort by leading cardinals to resolve the Great Schism. Their first attempt, at the Council of Pisa (1409), led to the creation of a third Pope. However, at the Council of Constance (1414-1418), all three Popes resigned and a new Pope was elected, reunifying the Church.
Further efforts to reform the Church and keep the Papacy inferior to the councils failed in the face of Papal resistance.
The Turks captured _____ in 1453, bringing an end to the Byzantine Empire.
Constantinople
The fall of Constantinople marked the end of an unbroken chain of government stretching back over 2000 years. Scholars fleeing the Turks headed to Italy and the West, where they would influence Renaissance thinkers and expose them to ancient Greek and Latin literature.
Who authored The Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia)?
The Divine Comedy was the work of Dante Alighieri and was completed in 1321. In it, Dante described a journey to hell (Inferno), purgatory (Purgatorio), and Heaven (Paridiso).
Rather than writing in Latin, Dante adopted the vernacular, writing in the common language of the day (Florentine Italian), an unusual practice at the time. Dante’s work is considered one of the finest ever written, and has been an inspiration to countless authors.
