The High and Late Middle Ages

Chapter 8

Royal Power Grows

Section 1

Monarchs, Nobles, and the Church

• Monarchs stood at the head of society but had limited power.

• Nobles and the Church had as much power as monarchs.– Collected their own taxes– Had their own armies– Had their own courts

Monarchs, Nobles, and the Church

• High Middle Ages (1000-1300) the balance of power started to shift.

• Monarchs began to centralize power– Organized governments– Developed a tax system– Built standing armies– Strengthened ties with the townspeople and

middle class.

William of Normandy Conquered England

• William is from France and was a ruthless descendent of the Vikings who battled King Harold for the English throne

• William the Conqueror became the king of England on Christmas Day 1066 when he beat King Harold at the Battle of Hastings.

Expanding Royal Power

• Like other feudal lords, William granted fiefs to the Church and to his barons but also kept a large amount of land for himself.

• He monitored who built castles

• Required every vassal to swear first allegiance to him rather than to any other feudal lord.

Expanding Royal Power• William Had a complete census take n

1086 and listed every castle, field, and pigpen in England…Domesday Book

• Created the royal exchequer, or treasury, to collect taxes, fees, fines, and other duties

Developing a Unified Legal System

• In 1154 King Henry II inherited the throne.

• Common Law= a legal system based on customs and court rulings

• Henry also developed a jury system– Grand juries– Trial juries

Conflict With the Church

• Henry claimed the right to try clergy in royal courts.

• Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury fiercely opposed the King on this issue.

• 4 of Henry’s knights murdered the archbishop in his own cathedral.

Magna Carta

• King John was a clever, cruel, and untrustworthy ruler.

• In 1215 a group of rebellious barons cornered John and forced him to sign the Magna Carta.– Nobles had certain rights– Monarch must obay the law

Magna Carta

• Due process of the law• Habeas corpus= no one

person can be held in prison without first being charged with a specific crime.

• King could not raise taxes without the consent of his Great council

Development of Parliament

• The Kings Great Council would later develop into Parliament during the 1200’s.

• Parliament is England’s legislature.

• Two house body1. House of Lords (Nobles and high clergy)

2. House of Commons (Knights and middle class)

Successful Monarchs in France

• In 1179 Philip II became King of France

• Philip paid middle-class officials who would owe their loyalty to him to fill government positions.

• Granted charters to new towns and created a national tax

• Quadrupled royal land holdings

Louis IX, King and Saint

• In 1226, Louis IX became King of France

• Persecuted heretics and Jews

• Led French Knights in two Crusades, or wars against Muslims.

• Sent out royal officials to check on local administrators

• Helped create a strong nationalistic feeling

Clashing With the Pope

• Phillip IV, Louis grandson, ruthlessly extended royal power.

• To raise cash, he tried to collect new taxes from the clergy.

• The pope forbade the clergy to pay this tax, so Phillip threatened to arrest any clergy who did not pay.

• Phillip would eventually send troops to Rome to seize the pope.

Clashing with the Pope

• In 1305, a Frenchman was elected pope and moved the papal court to Avignon, just outside the southern border of France.

• This move would lead to crisis in the Church when another pope was elected in Rome….both popes claimed to be the leaders of the church.

Forming the Estates General

• Phillip rallied French support by setting up the Estates General in 1302.

• This body had representatives from all three classes of French society– Clergy– Nobles– Townspeople

The Holy Roman Empire and the Church

Section 2

Henry IV Pope Gregory VII

Emperor Frederick Barbarossa

Pope Innocent III

The Crusades and the Wider WorldSection 3

Crusades• In these wars Christians battled Muslims

for control of lands in the Middle East.

• As they moved eastward, Christians began to realize the world was much larger than they had ever dreamed.

The World in 1050

• The religion of Islam had given rise to a brilliant civilization that stretched from present day Spain to India.

• India was a land of thriving cities where wealthy princes built stunning temples and palaces.

The World in 1050

• In 1050’s the Seljuk Turks invaded the Byzantine empire and extended their power over the Holy Land

• Holy Land= Jerusalem and other places in Palestine where Christians believed Jesus lived and preached.

The Crusades

• The Byzantine emperor Alexius I urgently asked Pope Urban II for Christian knights to help him fight the Muslim Turks.

• At the Council of Clermont in 1095, Urban incited bishops and nobles take action

• By 1096 thousands of knights were on their way to the Holy Land

Called to War• Many knights hoped to win

wealth and land• Some crusaders sought to

escape troubles at home• Urban hoped to increase

his power in Europe and perhaps heal the split between the Roman and Byzantine churches.

Fighting a Losing Battle• After a long and bloody campaign,

Christian knights captured Jerusalem in 1099.– Capped their victory with a massacre of

Muslim and Jewish residents.

Fighting a losing battle

• The Crusades continued on for over 200 years

• Divided their captured lands into four small states called crusader states.

• In 1187, Jerusalem fell to the Muslims and Christians failed to retake it.– The victor was the Muslim leader Saladin

Fighting a losing battle

• Also launched crusades against other Muslim lands, especially North Africa.– All ended in defeat

European Economies Expand

• Europeans had developed a taste for luxuries from the Byzantine Empire

• Trade increased and expanded because of the crusades.

Effects on Monarchs and the Church

• Helped to increase the power of monarchs.

• These rulers won new rights to collect taxes in order to support crusades

• Enthusiasm for the crusades brought papal power to its greatest height

A Wider Worldview Evolves• Contacts with the Muslim world led

Christians to realize that millions of people lived in regions they had never known.

• Soon, a few curious Europeans left to explore India and China

• Marco Polo, set out for China.

The Reconquista• North African Muslims called Moors, had

conquered most of present day Spain

• The Christian campaign that sought to drive Muslims from the Iberian peninsula became known as the Reconquista, or “reconquest”.

Christians Conquer Spain

• In 1085 Christians captured the city of Toledo

• By 1044 the Christian capital of Portugal had been established

• By 1300 Christians controlled the entire Iberian Peninsula except for Granada.

• Ferdinand and Isabella created the unified state of Spain and helped Granada fall in 1492.

Spain Expels Non-Christians

• Ferdinand and Isabella wanted to impose unity on their diverse peoples.

• Spanish Inquisition= Church court set up to try people accused of heresy.– If Muslims or Jews were found practicing their

religions they could be turned over to the secular authorities for punishment

– Many were burned at the state– More than 150,000 people fled Spain.

Learning and Culture Flourish

Section 4

Canterbury Tales

Gothic Cathedral

Flying Buttresses

Illumination Books

A time of CrisisSection 5

A Black Death: A Global Epidemic

• Autumn of 1357 a fleet of trading ships landed in Messina and the townspeople began to die.

• By 1348, it had reached Spain and France.

• 1 out of 3 people died.

The Plague Spreads to Asia• Bubonic Plague= a disease spread by

fleas carried by rats

• In pre- modern world rats infested ships, towns, and even homes

• In the early 1300’s rats spread the plague in crowded Chinese cities which killed about 35 million people.

Normal Life Breaks Down

• People had no way to stop the disease---terror set in.

• Some say the Plague as Gods punishment.

• Some Christians blamed Jews for the Plague, as a result thousands were slaughtered.

• People left cities to avoid contracting the disease.

The Economy Suffers• When workers and employers died,

production declined

• Survivors demanded higher wages

• Inflation broke out

• People forced off land

• Revolts erupted

The Church Splits

• In 1309, Pope Clement V had moved the papal court to Avignon. It remained there for 70 years under French domination.

• In 1378, reformers elected their own pope to rule from Rome.

• This led to a schism, or split, in the church

• During a schism, two or three popes claimed to be the true pope.

The church Splits

• In 1417, a church council at Constance, Germany voted to remove authority from all three popes and elected a compromising candidate.

• Pope Martin V returned the papacy to Rome.

Responding to New Heresies

• John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, attacked corruption in Church– The Bible was the source of Christian truth– His followers began to translate the Bible into

English so that people could read it themselves rather than rely on clergy to interpret it.

• People were tired and burned at the stake for preaching heresy.

The Hundred Years’ War

• Between 1337 and 145, England and France engaged in a series of conflicts, knows as the Hundred Years’ War.

• English rulers wanted to hold onto their lands in present-day Northern France.

• When Edward III of England, whose mother had been a French princess, claimed the French crown in 1337, war erupted between these rival powers.

Hundred Years’ War• England and French fought for control of

the English Channel.

• Both wanted to control trade in the region

The English Win Early Victories• For time, it looked like England would

bring all of France under its control.

• Much success was due to the new longbow wielded by English archers.

Joan of Arc fights for France

• In 1429, a 17-year old peasant women, Joan of Arc, appeared at the Court of Charles VII and told him that God had sent her to save France.

• Joan inspired the battered French troops to fight anew.

• After Joan was killed by the English, it rallied the French troops who took the offensive in the war.

Joan of Arc fights for France

• With a powerful new weapon, the cannon, The French attacked English held castles.

• By 1453, the English held only the port of Calais in northwestern France

Impact of the Hundred Year’s War

• The was created a growing sense of national feeling in France and allowed French kings to expand their power.

• Power in the English government began to swing towards Parliament

• Castles and armored knights were doomed to disappear because their defenses could not stand up to the more deadly firepower of the longbow and cannon.