02x01 - High Middle Ages

EUH2001 – High Middle Ages

09/07/2007 10:21:00

Carolingian Eclipse • Charlemagne was the undisputed leader • From Conquest to Defense o Charlemagne began to have invasions from the Vikings, Magyars, Saracens • Their economy went down because the economy was based on conquest o their money dried up pretty quickly trying to defend themselves • Divided Kingdom o Charlemagne’s son (Louis the Pious)  He was the ruler, yet, he shared his power  His three sons did not want to share power o Treaty of Verdun, 843 [Lothair, Louis, Charles]  Divide the kingdom in three parts • Weak Central Authority o Very weak

o the system of nobles and kingships granted a great deal of local autonomy but did not have a central control o when they were attacked they did not have a central system to defend so the locals had to defend themselves • New Royalty o Hugh Capet, Western Kingdom  Decided that his prestige entitled him to a bigger cut  He and his predecessors began to alternate the thrown with the descendents of the Carolingian  By his time the Carolingian were gone o Otto The Great, Eastern Kingdom  By the 10th century Carolingian cease to be a political force Population Growth

• Doubles between 1000 – 1300 o From 38 million to 74 million o part of this is the decline of slavery after the collapse of the roman empire  slaves could marry whom they wanted o agricultural technology  a lot more food, with only slightly less work  more farms pop up throughout the continent o the climate at the time improved for farming and growing crops Feudalism • Fief o Partial of land called a 3Fief o collection of farms with their own serfs o the privilege or ruling a small farm • Vassals

o Take an oath of service and take control of a Fief o Vassals often time had Vassals of their own o Vassalage implied military service • Serfs o Those living on these Fief were serfs o cultivate crops and have a place to live • Kinship, Alliance, Heritage o Like the Mafia o central authority is fairly limited • Decline of autonomy o The autonomy of local rulers begin to decline o beginnings of a hierarchy Peasantry • Homogonous group living under equal conditions • Serfs o Land for labor

o Giving a plot of land by a vassal in exchange of demesne o Demesne  A portion of crop to the land owner that he could either eat of sell o Living in small houses o Eavesdropping  lifting the eaves to hear neighbors’ gossip o Terrible dark  Could light fires but localized to one room  they had fire pits and left the smoke go out through a whole in the room  small, dark, sooty o Manor  Better than the alternative of living without land  Fortification  farming plots surrounded by a wall

 bandits were kept out, lived in relative safety  Farming Essentials  Shared across the serfs, bought by the land holders  sharing plows, draft animals  Church  Each manor had their own church  a source of comfort  the land holders received income from the church as well o Communal Farming  Shared pastures for animals  farming equipment  helped each other farm the land  strong sense of community amongst the serfs

 alleviated the loss of crops because of weather o Agricultural Innovation  Farming improved by the invention of the plow  Expensive so generally owned by land owner  It reinforced the feudal system  Crop rotation  Instead of one field with one crop they had the land split into three fields and had one empty, one with a crop that would increase the nutrients of the field and then rotate them  Little bit more work, but much greater output of crops o Women

 Cared for children, fields, and clothing Negotiating Freedom • Labor shortage o Greater farming technology created a labor shortage • Collective Bargaining o Travel from manner to manner with someone to negotiate on their behave to see which land owner would give them a better deal o land owners were also part of a greater group • Cash Crop Market o Specialization  Allowed farmers to become specialized in specific crops  broader market for the trade of crops  Germany became known for its grain  France had grapes with vineyards • Cheap Labor

o Land lords were able to bypass the bargaining power of the serfs by hiring cheaper labor o they worked under a cash system instead of a barter system • Paying for Freedom o Those that were above the barter system had certain benefits o Marriage & Movement  you could marriage who you wanted now, and if they did not like their land lord then they come move to another one. A certain sense of freedom o Land & Rent  the sense of cash/rent comes from here o Kings & Towns  strengthened the nobility

 if a vassal owner had 20 farms and was collecting rent from all of them then the dukes said they were in power and took a share as well • New Dangers o if there was a bad crop then it would be disastrous for the whole manner o no longer the protection of the manner o there were people who made a living off robbery and farmers became much more vulnerable now o the crops were not guaranteed so you could have a crop that produced just enough for themselves but not enough to sell o a lot of farmers went to town for jobs and when they could not find jobs then they just begged Aristocracy & Church

• Aristocracy o Knights  neither aristocrat or serfs  warrior elite  new class  secular group of warriors  they served land owners in exchange for a part of the spoils and nobility  they wanted to become nobility  Education  chivalry • a sense of honor and duty  youth • jousting • to prove themselves  marriage

• the hope is to marry into a good family, acquire some land, and get some real power o Women  Marriage & Breeding  To marry into another family to form an alliance or to acquire a new land and have children  “Courtliness”  placing a woman so high on a pedestal that nothing was within their reach  next to no social power  Foul Temptress  when they married into a family they were often seen suspicious because she might want their land • Church

o Saints: Divine Protectors  became widespread around this period  saints were favored by God  preserved in death  protection by the saints could be petitioned by prayer o Monks: Spiritual Elites  saints were preserved through relics and they were maintained by monasteries  monasteries had great power in the community and the church as a whole o Monastic Culture  nobility  monks and nuns came from nobles  dedicated their lives in the pursuit of God  learned scripture  Lectio Divina

 scriptures  Professional Prayers  monks became professional prayers  expected not only the souls of the people in their community but also of those that were dead o Monastic Reforms  Cistercians  Worried that the monks were becoming too powerful  they moved the monasteries to the wilderness  they lived very simple. Did they own maintenance and work  still became very wealthy  Peace of God and the Truce of God  Christians would not fight Christians on certain days

Medieval Towns • Introduction o Centers of Commerce  centering around markets where people sold their crops and other goods o Repulsed & Attracted Rural Dwellers  nobles did not like them because they were new forms of power that were being shaped and developed within towns  clergy viewed them with suspicion  perverse and immoral places  they were also attracted to towns • towns liked their icons and could preach  peasants came looking for work o New legal & Social Structures • Italian Cities o Urban Traditions of Antiquity

o Gate to East  offered access to good from the Byzantine world and Persian kingdoms o Powerful Fleets  owned by merchants  merchants of Venice become powerful both economically and militarily • Merchants & Capitalists o Go-Betweens  common ground where people could come together and trade o New Practices  double-entry book keeping  limited liability partnership  and commercial insurance  development of credit and loans in towns  Christian doctrine forbid the charging of interest on loans

 Jews, however, did not have a ban on interest of credit. They could not own land, though, because of their doctrine o Challenge to Aristocratic Values  honorable commerce  they frown on the selling and buying things  the prestige came from owning land  they saw commerce as second grade  merchants, however, began to rise • they commanded a certain prestige like aristocracy  social mobility  this is a scary things to nobles  the changes of going from peasant to business mogul was next to none.

 however, through a couple generations your family could have a certain wealth Northern Towns • New Markets, New Practices o Northern traffic  northern Europe “countries” o cloth  Ghent, Cypress, Bruges, London  all over England, Belgium, and Germany  clothing market was the first large scale market since the collapse of the empire  textile industry arose because it required a great amount of centralization  you need looms to spin the wool into cloth, and sheep  quality control

 London had a great ability to trade textiles o new social order  Drapers (patricians)  master drapers  to purchase looms, wool, dyes, and coordinate the business end of the industry  wealthiest and most powerful of this social order  artisans  oversaw the operation of the looms  learning about the production and craft of the industry  laborers (Blue Nails)  the dye turned their nails blue  paid very little  no recourse, no bargaining power

 whenever they got together to demand more power and pay the bosses would hire mercenaries and crush them o Guilds  Where the artisans and the patricians could regulate the industry • Cathedral Schools o Revision of curriculum o development to schools to meet the demand of the urban economy o religious schools with secular training o attended by the wealthy and the elite o they would learn law, rhetoric and logic • Universities o From the cathedral schools we have the modern development of universities

o University of Bologna was one of the first and specialized in the study of law  it was student run  they chose the faculty and curriculum o the professors were regulated by a guild  they maintained the standards of professors o Paris  Not student run  chartered by the French king in 1200  administration did it's own hiring  students living in the university border were immune from local law o University Life  Rowdy  many brothels close to the university  this led to many incidents

 closed down at one point because a group of students refused to pay their tab  after 6 years of studying you had a degree  after 3 more years you had a master of the arts Invention of the State • German Kingdoms o Otto the Great  invades Italy and ceases Rome  gets crowned as emperor by the pope o Imperial Church  control of Rome  he elects the Pope  papal legitimacy  he then uses the pope to make him Emperor

 “western eunuchs”  the church bureaucracy becomes its own bureaucracy  since the church people could not reproduce they would not pass down their power o the kingdom had a great deal of local autonomy o the position of emperor continued but only with the cooperation of the lesser nobility o Magnates  election  the lesser nobles were given the power to elect an heir to the thrown if there was no male heir by the emperor  expansion

 the emperor did not currently have the power to check the military power of the magnates which lead to the expansion of magnate’s power o German knights: serfs up, lords down  the emperor devised a system of knights  unlike the other knights, the German knights were serfs given military commands in service of the emperor in exchange for land and greater political power  you know have a class of serfs that have royal authority that compete with the aristocracy and overtake the aristocracy that are dying out o Papacy  resisting imperial influence  pope start questioning their authority

 pope Leo the 9th he takes power away from the kings  reducing lay control  moral reform • the elimination of married priests • and forbid priests to marry  lay investiture • he stops the ability for the emperor to appoint people to the church positions  assertion of sovereignty  bitter conflict  legal debate • between the pope and kings of Europe • both sides scourge legal law to see who had the power  propaganda

• there are speeches, pamphlets to sway the common people  the conflict resolves itself  this is an ongoing problem for several hundred years  Concordat of Worms (1122)  Acknowledges the separation between the kingdoms and churches  this weakened both authorities  the emperor becomes a symbolic leader that loses his legitimacy by being crowned by the pope  the pope loses a tremendous political power  Calixtus II & Henry V • they convened the Concordat of Worms Nation-States

a beginning of national unity France • biology o male heirs o divorce  they would divorce if they wife could not provide a male heir until they got a male son o son crowned before death of father  greater legitimacy because the king passed down the thrown himself o uninterrupted for several generations o the Capetian Dynasty • bureaucracy o Basillis  salaried agents from commoners that work in the royal bureaucracy to bypass noble authority

 they collect taxes, draft laws, collecting census  they are salaried so are not influenced by other parties o King Louis VIIII  Establishes a nationwide court that enables anyone to travel to Paris and could plead their case • with the central form of government they were able to weakened French nobles England • Royal Court o a system like the Basillis • Henry II o Strengthened the royal court o uses his army to curb his authority over barons o maintains his authority over the Church

• he does this by the establishment of common law o takes the law out of the hands of the church and barons o anyone could purchase a rit that allowed them to appear before court and express their grieves. It was heard by the court and the dispute settled • Magna Carta (1215) o Uniform rights and privileges o Confers the uniform rights and says the king himself is not above the law • Parliament o Created by Edward I o He summoned local authorities to come to him and debate the course of the kingdom and hear grievances by local rulers o the beginnings of the parliament

09/07/2007 10:21:00

09/07/2007 10:21:00