Unit 1: Topic 6 - Developments in Europe from c. 1200 to c. 1450

Question 1

What concept governed the conduct of the nobility during the Middle Ages?

Answer 1

As Christian warriors, noble knights were to follow chivalry’s code of virtuous conduct in religion, battle, social conduct, and romance.

Chivalrous examples, such as King Arthur, Tristan, and Parsifal, provided examples of how knights were to behave.

Question 2

Although decentralized, what institution bound Central and Western Europe together politically and culturally during the Middle Ages?

Answer 2

The Christian faith, directed by the Catholic Church, was one of the few unifying forces in Central and Western Europe. The Church was a powerful political force, and the head of the Catholic Church (the Pope) exercised a great deal of temporal authority over the princes and kings of Europe through his spiritual authority.

Question 3

What were the origins of the Crusades?

Answer 3

In 1095, claiming the Seljuk Turks were desecrating the Holy Land, the Byzantine Empire requested assistance from Pope Urban II and the European monarchs.

At the Council of Clermont, the Pope organized a military effort (termed a “Crusade”) to retake Jerusalem. By the summer of 1099, Jerusalem had been retaken, and its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants were slaughtered. In the First Crusade’s wake, four Christian kingdoms were established in the Middle East.

Question 4

What were the results of the Crusades?

Answer 4

The Crusades led to increased interaction with the Muslim world and a significant worsening of the relationship between the two sides. There was, however, increased trade with Muslim merchants and an increase in European demand for the Asian goods to which Europeans had been exposed during the Crusades.

Question 5

Who authored the Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia)?

Answer 5

The Divine Comedy was the work of Dante Alighieri of Rome and was completed in 1321. In it, Dante described a journey to hell (Inferno), purgatory (Purgatorio), and Heaven (Paradiso).

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.

Question 6

Define the Renaissance

Answer 6

Renaissance means rebirth. Beginning in Florence in about 1300 before spreading to Northern Europe, the Renaissance refers to the outgrowth of a culture that marked a sharp break from the Medieval period.

Question 7

Define humanism

Answer 7

Humanism is a school of thought which places primary importance on the individual rather than on God.

During the Italian Renaissance, humanists turned away from medieval scholarship and towards the classic Greek and Roman authors, such as Homer, Livy, and Cicero.

Question 8

During the Renaissance, architecture blossomed in Italy. From what source did architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) draw their inspiration?

Answer 8

Brunelleschi, Alberti, and other Italian architects drew their inspiration from the Roman ruins that littered Italy. Arches, columns, capitals, and domes came into fashion once again, first in Florence and then throughout Italy.

Question 9

What artistic development in the early Italian Renaissance allowed for the creation of more visually accurate paintings?

Answer 9

Florentine artists grasped the importance of linear perspective, which required making more distant objects smaller. Henceforth, painters would focus not on two-dimensional representations of objects but on making their art appear three-dimensional.

Question 10

How did humanism in the Northern Renaissance differ from Italian humanism?

Answer 10

While Italian humanism looked to classical Greco-Roman texts for inspiration, the Northern Renaissance was influenced by the writings of Church Fathers, such as St. Augustine. Historians call this reconciled version “Christian Humanism.”

Question 11

The Great Schism

Answer 11

Or the East-West Schism (also known as the Great Schism or Schism of 1054) is the break of communion since 1054 between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Immediately following the beginning of the schism, it is estimated that Eastern Christianity comprised a slim majority of Christians worldwide, with the majority of remaining Christians being Western. The schism was the culmination of theological and political differences which had developed during the preceding centuries between Eastern and Western Christianity.

Question 12

What are the Middle Ages?

Answer 12

The Middle Ages refers to European civilization from the fall of Rome in 476 to the rise of more modern nations beginning in the 1500s.

During the Middle Ages, political power throughout Europe was decentralized, with many small states and little political unity.

Question 13

What is feudalism?

Answer 13

In a feudal system, a ruler provides land (known as a fief) to a vassal. In turn, the vassal provides the ruler with military service and loyalty. To farm the land, peasants known as serfs were used.

Question 14

What document, signed by King John in 1215, gave English nobles rights such as a trial by jury and due process under the law?

Answer 14

The Magna Carta extended rights to the English nobles and acted as a check on the power of the King. In the later 1200s, English nobles gained the right to form a Parliament, which would pass laws to govern England.

Question 15

How did Edward III respond to Philip VI’s confiscation of his lands in Aquitaine?

Answer 15

Edward III declared himself the legal king of France (a claim with some backing in dynastic law) and dispatched an army to France, starting the Hundred Years’ War. Initially, the English were successful with victories at Crecy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415).

The Hundred Years’ War is a term coined by historians to describe the conflict that raged off and on between France and England from 1337 to 1453.

Question 16

In 1429, the French defeated English forces laying siege to the town of Orleans. Who led the French forces?

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

What act caused the Hundred Years’ War in 1337?

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

How did Joan of Arc die?

Answer 18

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 toward the English channel.

Question 19

Historians date the end of the Hundred Years’ War to 1453, although peace was not formally declared until 20 years later. Who won the war?

Answer 19

Victory in the Hundred Years’ War belonged to the French, who conquered all of the English possessions in modern-day France except for Calais on the French coast.

Some 20 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.

Question 20

How did the English kings meet the expense of the Hundred Years’ War?

Answer 20

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 request funds continually. Parliament’s taxing power proved a check on any absolutist ambitions harbored by English monarchs.

Question 21

How did the French kings meet the expense of the Hundred Years’ War?

Answer 21

In France, the King convinced France’s legislative assembly, the Estates General, to authorize the King to collect a tax on land (taille) and a tax on salt (the gabelle). The French nobility and clergy supported the taxes because they were exempt from the tax.

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.”

Question 22

Who are generally considered the most powerful political figures in the late Medieval period?

Answer 22

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.

Question 23

Which city-state was Italy’s strongest naval power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance?

Answer 23

Venice, built on small islands along the coast, was Italy’s strongest naval power and one of the world’s great naval powers.

Venice was a republic with territory on both sides of the Adriatic Sea and a large trading network. In 1450, Venice’s combined naval strength numbered some 4,500 ships.

Question 24

Why were the Italian city-states able to fund the Renaissance?

Answer 24

Italy was in a geographically advantageous position, and her cities served as Western markets for Eastern goods, and her merchants invented modern banking.

Through contact with the Middle East and Asia, wealthy Italians became aware of Asian and Arabic technology, goods, and ideas. As a consequence, many of the leading Italians earned vast fortunes, which they used to commission art, buildings, and literature.

Question 25

Manorial System (Manorialism)

Answer 25

A method of land ownership (or “tenure”) in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. Its defining features included a large, sometimes fortified manor house in which the lord of the manor and his dependents lived and administered a rural estate and a population of laborers who worked the surrounding land to support themselves and the lord. These laborers fulfilled their obligations with labor time or in-kind produce at first and later by cash payment as commercial activity increased. Manorialism is sometimes included as part of the feudal system.

Question 26

Three-field system

Answer 26

A regime of crop rotation in which a field is planted with one set of crops one year, a different set in the second year, and left fallow in the third year. A set of crops is rotated from one field to another. The technique was first used in China in the Eastern Zhou period and was adopted in Europe in the medieval period. The three-field system lets farmers plant more crops and therefore increases production. Under this system, the arable land of an estate or village was divided into three large fields: one was planted in the autumn with winter wheat or rye; the second field was planted with other crops such as peas, lentils, or beans; and the third was left fallow (unplanted).

Question 27

What was the geopolitical makeup of Italy at the time of the Renaissance?

Answer 27

At the time of the Renaissance, Italy was a hodgepodge of small, independent states, usually centered around a single city, such as Florence, Rome, or Naples. A balance-of-power pattern emerged as weaker states allied with stronger states to defend themselves against larger states.

That Italy was a collection of more than 15 countries is not odd, as most of the nation-states of modern Europe were still fragmentary in 1400.

Question 28

What family ruled the Republic of Florence?

Answer 28

Although a titular republic, Florence was under the domination of the Medici family for decades. Cosimo de’ Medici and his grandson Lorenzo “the Magnificent” de’ Medici were both patrons of the arts.

Question 29

Define serfs.

Answer 29

In feudal societies, serfs were peasants who farmed noble fiefs. Although not technically slaves, serfs were not free and were bound to the land that they farmed.