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Late Middle Ages: the story on HearLore | HearLore
— Ch. 1 · Crisis And Demographic Collapse —
Late Middle Ages.
~9 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
Around 1350, centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe came to a halt. A series of famines and plagues, including the Great Famine of 1315, 1317 and the Black Death, reduced the population to around half of what it had been before the calamities. Estimates of the death rate caused by this epidemic range from one third to as much as sixty percent. By around 1420, the accumulated effect of recurring plagues and famines had reduced the population of Europe to perhaps no more than a third of what it was a century earlier. It took 150 years for the European population to regain similar levels to 1300.
The demographic consequences were not limited to numbers alone. As the European population was severely reduced, land became more plentiful for the survivors, and labour was consequently more expensive. Attempts by landowners to forcibly reduce wages, such as the English Statute of Laborers in 1351, were doomed to fail. These efforts resulted in nothing more than fostering resentment among the peasantry, leading to rebellions such as the French Jacquerie in 1358 and the English Peasants' Revolt in 1381. The long-term effect was the virtual end of serfdom in Western Europe. In Eastern Europe, on the other hand, landowners were able to exploit the situation to force the peasantry into even more repressive bondage.
The upheavals left certain minority groups particularly vulnerable, especially the Jews, who were often blamed for the calamities. Anti-Jewish pogroms were carried out all over Europe; in February 1349, two thousand Jews were murdered in Strasbourg. States were also guilty of discrimination against the Jews. Monarchs gave in to the demands of the people, and the Jews were expelled from England in 1290, from France in 1306, from Spain in 1492, and from Portugal in 1497.
Warfare And Military Innovation
Through battles such as Courtrai in 1302, Bannockburn in 1314, and Morgarten in 1315, it became clear to the great territorial princes of Europe that the military advantage of the feudal cavalry was lost and that a well equipped infantry was preferable. Through the Welsh Wars, the English became acquainted with, and adopted, the highly efficient longbow. Once properly managed, this weapon gave them a great advantage over the French in the Hundred Years' War. The introduction of gunpowder affected the conduct of war significantly. Though employed by the English as early as the Battle of Crécy in 1346, firearms initially had little effect in the field of battle.
It was through the use of cannons as siege weapons that major change was brought about; the new methods would eventually change the architectural structure of fortifications. Changes also took place within the recruitment and composition of armies. The use of the national or feudal levy was gradually replaced by paid troops of domestic retinues or foreign mercenaries. All over Europe, Swiss mercenaries were in particularly high demand. At the same time, the period also saw the emergence of the first permanent armies. It was in Valois France, under the heavy demands of the Hundred Years' War, that the armed forces gradually assumed a permanent nature.
Parallel to the military developments emerged also a constantly more elaborate chivalric code of conduct for the warrior class. This newfound ethos can be seen as a response to the diminishing military role of the aristocracy, and it gradually became almost entirely detached from its military origin. The spirit of chivalry was given expression through the new secular type of chivalric orders; the first of these was the Order of St. George, founded by Charles I of Hungary in 1325, while the best known was probably the English Order of the Garter, founded by Edward III in 1348.
What caused the population of Europe to drop by half around 1350?
A series of famines and plagues, including the Great Famine of 1315, 1317 and the Black Death, reduced the European population to around half of what it had been before the calamities. Estimates of the death rate caused by this epidemic range from one third to as much as sixty percent.
When did the Western Schism between different popes occur in Avignon and Rome?
The election of different popes in Avignon and Rome resulted in the Western Schism between 1378 and 1417. The Council of Constance between 1414 and 1418 united the Papacy once more in Rome.
Which Jewish communities were expelled from England France Spain and Portugal during the Late Middle Ages?
Jews were expelled from England in 1290, from France in 1306, from Spain in 1492, and from Portugal in 1497. Anti-Jewish pogroms were carried out all over Europe with two thousand Jews murdered in Strasbourg in February 1349.
How did military tactics change after battles like Courtrai in 1302 and Bannockburn in 1314?
Through battles such as Courtrai in 1302, Bannockburn in 1314, and Morgarten in 1315, it became clear that a well equipped infantry was preferable to feudal cavalry. The introduction of gunpowder affected the conduct of war significantly while cannons changed the architectural structure of fortifications.
When was the Order of St George founded by Charles I of Hungary compared to the English Order of the Garter?
The first secular chivalric order was the Order of St. George founded by Charles I of Hungary in 1325. The best known was probably the English Order of the Garter founded by Edward III in 1348.
The French crown's increasing dominance over the Papacy culminated in the transference of the Holy See to Avignon in 1309. When the Pope returned to Rome in 1377, this led to the election of different popes in Avignon and Rome, resulting in the Western Schism between 1378 and 1417. The Schism divided Europe along political lines; while France, her ally Scotland, and the Spanish kingdoms supported the Avignon Papacy, France's enemy England stood behind the pope in Rome, together with Portugal, Scandinavia, and most of the German princes.
At the Council of Constance between 1414 and 1418, the Papacy was once more united in Rome. Even though the unity of the Western Church was to last for another hundred years, and though the Papacy was to experience greater material prosperity than ever before, the Great Schism had done irreparable damage. The internal struggles within the Church had impaired her claim to universal rule and promoted anti-clericalism among the people and their rulers, paving the way for reform movements.
A famous account of the nature and suppression of a heretic movement is Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's work on the Cathars. The first of these came from Oxford professor John Wycliffe in England. Wycliffe held that the Bible should be the only authority in religious questions, and he spoke out against transubstantiation, celibacy, and indulgences. Though influential supporters existed among the English aristocracy, such as John of Gaunt, the movement was not allowed to survive. The marriage of Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia established contacts between the two nations and brought Lollard ideas to her homeland. The teachings of the Czech priest Jan Hus were based on those of John Wycliffe, yet his followers, the Hussites, were to have a much greater political impact than the Lollards.
Economic Revolution And Trade Routes
In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, a process took place primarily in Italy but partly also in the Empire that historians have termed a commercial revolution. Among the innovations of the period were new forms of partnership and the issuing of insurance, both of which contributed to reducing the risk of commercial ventures; the bill of exchange and other forms of credit that circumvented the canonical laws for gentiles against usury and eliminated the dangers of carrying bullion; and new forms of accounting, in particular double-entry bookkeeping, which allowed for better oversight and accuracy.
With the financial expansion, trading rights became more jealously guarded by the commercial elite. Towns saw the growing power of guilds, while on a national level, special companies would be granted monopolies on particular trades, like the English wool Staple. Families like the Fuggers in Germany, the Medicis in Italy, and the de la Poles in England and individuals like Jacques Cœur in France would help finance the wars of kings, achieving great political influence in the process.
The increasingly dominant position of the Ottoman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean presented an impediment to trade for the Christian nations of the west, who in turn started looking for alternatives. Portuguese and Spanish explorers found new trade routes south of Africa to India, as well as across the Atlantic Ocean to America. As Genoese and Venetian merchants opened up direct sea routes with Flanders, the Champagne fairs lost much of their importance. The Hanseatic League reached the peak of their power in the 14th century but started going into decline in the fifteenth.
Renaissance Arts And Humanism
In the 14th century, the predominant academic trend of scholasticism was challenged by the humanist movement. Though primarily an attempt to revitalise the classical languages, the movement also led to innovations within the fields of science, art, and literature, helped by impulses from Byzantine scholars who had to seek refuge in the West after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. In science, classical authorities like Aristotle were challenged for the first time since antiquity. Within the arts, humanism took the form of the Renaissance.
A precursor to Renaissance art can be seen already in the early 14th-century works of Giotto. Giotto was the first painter since antiquity to attempt the representation of three-dimensional reality and endow his characters with true human emotions. The most important developments, however, came in 15th-century Florence. The affluence of the merchant class allowed extensive patronage of the arts, and foremost among the patrons were the Medici. The period saw several important technical innovations, like the principle of linear perspective found in the work of Masaccio and later described by Brunelleschi.
Though not as previously believed the inventor of oil painting, Jan van Eyck was a champion of the new medium and used it to create works of great realism and minute detail. The two cultures influenced each other and learned from each other, but painting in the Netherlands remained more focused on textures and surfaces than the idealized compositions of Italy. The ideas of the Italian Renaissance were slow to cross the Alps into northern Europe, but important artistic innovations were made also in the Low Countries.
Political Consolidation Of Nation States
The situation gradually led to the consolidation of central authority and the emergence of the nation state. The financial demands of war necessitated higher levels of taxation, resulting in the emergence of representative bodies most notably the English Parliament. The growth of secular authority was further aided by the decline of the papacy with the Western Schism and the coming of the Protestant Reformation.
In Northern Europe, after the failed union of Sweden and Norway between 1319 and 1365, the pan-Scandinavian Kalmar Union that also included Denmark was instituted in 1397. The Swedes were reluctant members of the union from the start. In an attempt to subdue the Swedes, King Christian II of Denmark had large numbers of the Swedish aristocracy killed in the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520. Yet this measure only led to further hostilities, and Sweden broke away for good in 1523. Meanwhile, Poland's attention was turned eastwards, as its Commonwealth with Lithuania created an enormous entity in the region.
Under the reign of Ivan the Great between 1462 and 1505, Moscow became a major regional power, and the annexation of the vast Republic of Novgorod in 1478 laid the foundations for a Russian national state. After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Russian princes started to see themselves as the heirs of the Byzantine Empire. They eventually took on the imperial title of Tzar, and Moscow was described as the Third Rome. The 1469 marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon and the 1479 death of John II of Aragon led to the creation of modern-day Spain.