The Middle Ages

Question 1

Great Schism

Answer 1

occurring in 1054, this was when the Eastern Orthodox Church broke off from that of Roman Catholicism

Question 2

Christendom

Answer 2

a theoretical political order that was sought after by medieval popes for many years, it entailed joining the nations of Europe into a common Christian community in which kings and emperors were subject to the pope; while never realized, the pope’s did hold great political power for many years

Question 3

Holy Inquisition

Answer 3

a set of special courts with wide-ranging powers that were established in 1231 to hunt out and punish heresy and religious nonconformity

Question 4

Vikings

Answer 4

expert warriors and fierce sailors from Scandinavia, the poured out of the north from the 800s through the 1100s, mainly due to overcrowding in their homelands

Question 5

Normans

Answer 5

descendants of Vikings who had settled in France; because William and his successors were these, and thus connected to the French throne by blood ties and feudal obligations, there was much competition between England and France over land and political legitimacy until the middle of the 1400s

Question 6

Norman Conquest

Answer 6

another term used to refer to William the Conqueror’s 1066 conquest of England, in which he brought French-style feudalism and helped create a rich cultural fusion, not only Celtic and Anglo-Saxon, but also Latin-based, to the British Isles

Question 7

English government

Answer 7

by medieval standards, England became quite centralized despite the significant checks put upon the king; this included the Magna Carta in 1215 (guaranteed the nobility certain rights), and the nobles’ right to form a Parliament which was won in the 1200s; in the 1200s and 1300s, English monarchs extended their rule to Wales and Scotland, and Ireland would follow later

Question 8

Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)

Answer 8

beginning with the onset of other European crises such as social uprising and the Black Death, this began with English victories in which they took over half of France, but after the 1420s, with the help of the warrior maid Joan of Arc, the French drove the English out; this war ended most of the awkward connections between the French and English royal families

Question 9

Holy Roman Empire, aka Austrian Empire

Answer 9

dominating the middle of Europe was this, a multicultural monarchy founded in the 900s by the heirs of Charlemagne; it’s name was inspired by the theoretical ideal of a state that was large and powerful (Roman) and brought a variety of peoples into a single Catholic (holy) community; it’s population was ethnically diverse (German, Italian, Hungarian, Slavic, and more), and consisted of dozens of duchies, kingdoms, and principalities (almost 200 in the mid-1300s); from the 1300s onward it served as Europe’s military bulwark against the wave of Turkish attacks from the east

Question 10

Holy Roman Emperor

Answer 10

though he was supposed to work in partnership with the pope, in real life the two clashed more than they cooperated; though the empire was large, the emperor’s powers were comparatively weak, and his position was not hereditary- he was chosen by the empire’s most powerful noble families

Question 11

Habsburg family

Answer 11

a noble family that gained permanent control over the imperial throne from 1438 until 1918, it was a key centralizing factor in the Holy Roman Empire

Question 12

Italy

Answer 12

even more decentralized than the Holy Roman Empire during medieval times, most of the northern portions were under Holy Roman Imperial control, and many southern areas passed in and out of the hands of other foreigners; it’s position in the middle of the Mediterranean enabled it to engage in widespread trade

Question 13

Reconquista

Answer 13

Spain and Portugal had been taken over by the Muslim Moors in the 700s; from 1031 onward, the people of Spain and Portugal fought the Moors in a long struggle known as this; by the end of the 1200s, the Spanish had pushed the Moors into Granada, the southernmost portion of the country; for the next 200 years the Moors held out there, until they were expelled completely in 1492 by the armies of Ferdinand and Isabella; the war caused Catholic authorities in Spain to be extremely rigid in terms of doctrine and hostile to unbelievers; Muslims and Jews were persecuted, and by the end of the 1400s, forced to convert to Catholicism or leave the country

Question 14

Moors in Spain and Portugal

Answer 14

the presence of these individuals in his region brought benefits; Islamic culture was more advanced than that of medieval Europe, so Spain was able to take advantage of the medical, scientific, and technological knowledge brought there by the Muslim conquerors (as well as the Jewish scholars and professionals who came with them); the Spanish city of Cordoba was one of Europe’s greatest centers of learning and science, thanks to the long-standing Muslim presence there

Question 15

Seljuk Turks

Answer 15

Muslims who appeared on the eastern frontier from the 11th century onwards and influenced the Abbasid; they were succeeded by the Ottoman Turks

Question 16

Battle of Manzikert

Answer 16

a battle that occurred in 1071 between Byzantium and the Seljuk Turks and marked the beginning of Byzantine decline; by the 1400s, Constantinople itself was under threat

Question 17

Hungary, Sweden, and Poland

Answer 17

territories on Europe’s eastern and northern fringe tended to be more poorly defined politically; much of this had to do with the stress of invasions from the east; these 3 countries were the exceptions: they were stable and sophisticated

Question 18

Russia

Answer 18

a more typical northern European region, it was a loose confederation of city-states governed by constantly feuding princes; they were ruled by the Golden Horde until the mid-1400s; only after this did a Russian nation begin to take shape, under the leadership of the tsars of Moscow

Question 19

motivations for the Crusades

Answer 19

• religious fervor on the part of both Muslims and Christians
• geopolitical conflict between Europe and the Middle East
• the European’s desire to become more involved in the international trade network stretching from the Mediterranean to China
• personal ambitions of Europeans hoping to gain wealth and land in the Middle East

Question 20

Council of Clermont

Answer 20

a meeting summoned by Pope Urban 2 in which he called upon the knights of Catholic Europe to retake the Holy Land from the Turks; in 1096, a massive army of Crusaders set out, and they accomplished their goal in 1099

Question 21

The Hammer of Witchcraft

Answer 21

a manual issued by Catholic authorities in the late 1400s to aid in spotting and trying witches

Question 22

women

Answer 22

during the medieval period, they could own and inherit land and property and separate from their husbands if they so desired although this was difficult especially for those in the upper class; they had protection, but not equality, before the law

Question 23

convents

Answer 23

women could enter religious life, but could not become priests in either the Catholic or Orthodox Church; because marrying of daughters of nobility required providing the husband with land, money, or a title, expenses were often spared by placing younger daughters in one of these; this was also an opportunity for women who preferred intellectual pursuits

Question 24

Hildegard of Bingen

Answer 24

an abbess of a German convent who was celebrated for her mystical writings and songs

Question 25

aristocratic women

Answer 25

while not legally the equal of men, they could exert informal political and cultural influence; they often managed their husband’s estates and financial accounts; frequently, mothers of young kings whose fathers died early served as regents until their sons came of age

Question 26

queens

Answer 26

these would come to rule England, parts of Spain, Russia, and elsewhere; the situation was not common, and countries such as France and the Holy Roman Empire whose legal systems were based on tribal German (Salic) law did not allow this

Question 27

Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204)

Answer 27

the most famous example of a politically important woman during the Middle Ages, she was dynamic and intelligent, and married first Louis the 7th of France, then Henry the 2nd of England; she had much influence over politics in both countries, and was a great patron of art and music

Question 28

Latin

Answer 28

Europe’s language of learning and culture; Europeans had much less knowledge of Greek until later, when Arab and Jewish translators made materials in that language more accessible; medieval scientific thought was dominated by the theories of the ancient Greeks, mainly through Latin translations

Question 29

Aristotle

Answer 29

this Greek scholar’s writings on science, politics, ethics, and philosophy were adapted by Christian scholars and placed at the center of the medieval world; it taught much, but also propagated the geocentric theory; because he believed fetuses were not distinctly human, he did not

Question 30

troubadours

Answer 30

mainly French medieval lyric poets composing and singing in the 11th to 13th centuries, esp. on the theme of courtly love; other favorite topics included King Arthur, Charlemagne’s knight Roland, and El Cid of Spain

Question 31

Renaissance

Answer 31

beginning during the early 1300s, it was an important cultural and intellectual revival that began in parts of southern Europe, especially the city-states of the Italian peninsula; by the end of the 1400s, it was spreading from Italy to the rest of Europe; it is considered to have lasted until approximately 1600

Question 32

classicism

Answer 32

one of the hallmarks of Renaissance culture, it was a greater understanding of and admiration for Greco-Roman literature and learning; while these had already been known and deeply influential, people during the Renaissance probed more deeply into Latin sources and, thanks largely to translations provided by Jews and Arabs, the learning of the Greeks

Question 33

Renaissance secularism

Answer 33

while the Renaissance did not ignore religion (even if it had wanted to, to do so would have been dangerous), but Renaissance writings and artworks placed a greater emphasis on worldly matters

Question 34

causes of the Italian Renaissance

Answer 34

• Italy’s city-states were urban and sophisticated
• they were commercially strong, generating the excess wealth necessary for a sustained cultural revival
• their success in trade and commerce gave birth to a class of patrons who, though not always of noble blood, were rich, educated, and eager to improve their status by sponsoring artists and writers
• it’s position in the Mediterranean exposed it to new ideas and more advanced knowledge more quickly than the rest of Europe

Question 35

key figures of the Italian Renaissance

Answer 35

• Petrach, poet (1304-1374)
• Giovannia Boccaccio, author (1313-1375)
• Giotto, painter (1267-1337)
• Niccolo Machiavelli, political philosopher (1469-1527)
• Leonardo da Vinci, artist and scientist (1452-1519)
• Michelangelo, painter and sculptor (1472-1564)

Question 36

northern Renaissance

Answer 36

this had come into definite form by the late 1400s; it had a profound impact on the rest of Europe, especially with regard to the religious controversies of the 1500s that led to the Protestant Reformation