(1066-1485)

William the Conqueror and his Norman army defeated English King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The new king and integration of the Normans into England.

William became the new king and divided up Britain among barons loyal to him. This started the feudal system.

Feudalism was a system that assigned economic, political, and social position to every individual at birth.

Feudalism is a caste system, a property system, and a military system.

God headed this system with “divine right” , then the pyramid leaked down from the king all the way down to the serfs.

When feudalism fails.

King – all-powerful overlord and landowner

Barons/Lords – lord of their own land and all upon that land

Vassals – a dependent lord

Knights – served their Vassals as requested

Serfs – peasants who worked on vassal’s lands.

Chivalry is a series of ideals and social codes to govern the behavior of knights and gentlewomen:

* Taking an oath of loyalty to a lord

* Rules of warfare (never attack an unarmed man, etc)

* “Courtly Love” - adoring a woman from afar: nonsexual.

Over time, a class system developed in the cities. They developed their own form of culture as well.

Ballads – the commoner POV put into song

Miracle Plays – plays with heavy religious subject matter

Guilds formed, so a great deal of medieval art is the “people’s art”

Holy wars waged by the pope against Muslims to reclaim Jerusalem.

Thousands of Jews and Muslims were slaughtered.

In the Children’s Crusade, even women and children were swept into the bloodshed.

The only real positive from these wars was exposure the Middle Eastern Culture. Math, astronomy, architecture, and crafts all enriched England greatly in the future.

Thomas was a Norman who was great friends with King Henry II (reigned 1154-1189).

In order to gain power over the Pope, Henry appointed Thomas as archbishop of Canterbury (head of the Catholic Church in England).

Thomas, though, often sided with the Pope over Henry in disputes. Henry got fed up and raged aloud “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?!” Four knights took Henry literally and brutally killed Priest Thomas.

There was a big public backlash towards King Henry. Thomas was martyred.

King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215; the aristocrats created the Carta to put a check on the powerful central papal power in England.

The Magna Carta was not created for the sake of the lower classes, but later it became the basis for British Constitutional law.

First national war waged by England against France.

Edward III and Henry V both laid weak claims for the throne of France.

It was not a successful war, but it put and end to chivalry and knighthood and gave England a new identity.

* the yeoman – the small landowner who used bow and arrow, was now the dominant force as the feudal system ended

Spread by fleas from infected rats

England’s population was reduced by a third.

The labor shortage gave the lower classes more bargaining power with their lords, which also contributed to the end of feudalism.

Songs or songlike poems that tell stories in simple, rhythmic language.

Often coming from the oral tradition alone, so no strict rules on form.

Subject Matter: supernatural events; sensational, sordid, or tragic subject matter; a refrain; and the omission of details

Incremental Repetition – a phrase is repeated with a new element added each time until the climax is reached – used to build up suspense.

Question-and-answer format – facts are added little by little from the answers – also used for suspense.

Conventional phrases – understood by listeners to have meaning beyond the literal. “Make my bed soon” meaning preparing for death.

A strong, simple beat – uncomplicated verse forms, easily remembered and sung to for a general audience

The father of English poetry, making the English language (the vernacular) “respectable” for literature.

Little is known about Chaucer, known facts: - Born to the middle-class - Well-read and well trained - Had a government career and several noble

patrons - Captured in France during the Hundred Years’

War - Eventually became a member of Parliament

Tells the tale of a group of twenty-nine pilgrims taking a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas a Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.

Inspired by Boccaccio’ Decameron, using a frame story format and tales based on similar plots.

Written in mostly iambic pentameter.

Works on several levels: as a quest narrative, an ironic commentary on society, and as a story of renewal and optimism that can be accepted as a pilgrimage that everyone must take through life.

The legend of King Arthur was most likely based upon a Celtic chieftain (a Briton) who lived in southwestern England during the 6th century and led his warriors against invading armies of Saxons.

Arthur was a greatly admired man during his life, but as time passed, his legend grew exponentially.

The first mention of Arthur was in the Y Gododdin, a collection of elegies commemorating the fallen heroes of a battle fought in 600 CE at Catraeth.

Of the fallen warriors, one is praised as having glutted ravens on a fortress rampart, "though he was no Arthur.“ The elegy recalls Arthur slaying 960 men in his final battle, already elevating Arthur beyond human martial prowess.

In the early stages of Arthur’s legend, he was already being considered a “Christian King” comparable to (and sometimes even greater than) Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne.

According to a Latin History of the Britons around the year 800, ascribed to Nennius, "Arthur fought against the Saxons in those days together with the kings of Britain, but he was himself the leader of battles." Nennius names twelve battles, one which Arthur is said to have carried an image of the Virgin Mary on his shoulders.

The Latin Annals of Wales (ca. 950) has an entry for the year 516 concerning "the Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ on his shoulders for three days and three nights, and the Britons were victorious."

Geoffery of Monmouth wrote Historia Regum Britaniae in 1133 as a true account of England’s history. It is the roots of the Medieval stories because it does include Merlin and many other familiar elements. It was uber-popular.

Describe Arthur’s character according to these histories. What does Arthur seem to stand for in these narratives? Give examples.

What can we infer about the societies in which these historians lived from the ways they present Arthur and his actions?

The main source of Arthurian legend as we know it today.

Divided by Mallory into eight tales: The birth and rise of Arthur King Arthur's war against the Romans The book of Lancelot The book of Gareth (brother of Gawain) Tristan and Isolde The Quest for the Holy Grail The affair between Lancelot and Guinevere The breaking of the Knights of the Round Table The death of Arthur: "The Death of Arthur"

Themes of chivalry are strongly emphasized and romanticized.

For instance, Sir Gareth defeated the Red Knight to win the love of Lady Lyonesse. Their story ended in marriage, the ideal love according to chivalry and Christianity. Meanwhile, in contrast, we have the adulterous relationship of Lancelot and Guinevere which was dishonorable in the eyes of God and country. The whole of Camelot suffers for their sin.

Mallory’s legends were popular until Realism became favored over romantic legend. But the Romanticism movement of the 19th century brought a renewed appreciation for Arthurian legend.

What superhuman qualities of a romance hero do you see in Sir Gawain? What human qualities/frailties do you see in him?

“The Day of Destiny” is full of romantic motifs (archetypes). Name three (remember, events and things can also be motifs).

Describe this Arthur as well as you can. What is admirable about him, is there any sort of weakness in his character?

What is Bedivere’s weakness?

The Victorian Period was one of progress, prudish morals, and struggle.

“The Lady of Shalott” reflects the dreams and anxieties of the Victorian Period: the wonderful world of progress – an ideal or an illusion.

On a personal level, Tennyson also used this poem as a way to analyze the role of an artist, and the conflicts between their imagination and the real world.

Tennyson wrote a long series of Arthurian poetry called the Idylls of the King.

Analyze the symbolic purpose of the mirror.

Who is the main character in the poem? How do we know? Why she is not named in this version of the story?

The Lady represents the artist, high above ordinary life, practicing her art and observing life but never mixing in it directly. When she is drawn into real life, her art is destroyed and she dies. Relate this reading of the story to other possible interpretations

of the story. What does this interpretation of the story tell us about Victorian views of art and artists?