FAMINE, DISEASE, AND WARFARE

How did climate change and disease combine to devastate Europe’s population?

Why did the Hundred Years’ War drag on as long as it did? What explains the inability of French and English leaders to bring the conflict to a final resolution? Did they even want to?

CHALLENGES TO THE CHURCH

In your opinion, is it fair to describe the fourteenth-century Roman Church as a failed institution? Why or why not?

What does the lay religious activity of the fourteenth century tell us about the values and beliefs of late medieval Europeans? What kind of religious life did fourteenth-century Europeans want? What religious ideals did they hold?

SOCIAL UNREST

Compare and contrast fourteenth-century rebellions and uprisings in England and France. What common causes and conditions linked rebellions in both countries?

Why did perceptions of ethnic difference and ethnic hierarchy sharpen in the fourteenth century? Can you think of any, more recent parallels to this development?

MAKE CONNECTIONS

Why did the growth and vitality of the High Middle Ages prove unsustainable?

In your opinion, are the late Middle Ages best viewed as the end of one of phase of Western development or the beginning of a new one? Why?