Introduction for Chapter 11

322

11

The Later Middle Ages

1300–1450

During the later Middle Ages the last book of the New Testament, the book of Revelation, inspired thousands of sermons and hundreds of religious tracts. The book of Revelation deals with visions of the end of the world, with disease, war, famine, and death — often called the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” — triumphing everywhere. It is no wonder this part of the Bible was so popular in this period, for between 1300 and 1450 Europeans experienced a frightful series of shocks. The climate turned colder and wetter, leading to poor harvests and famine. People weakened by hunger were more susceptible to disease, and in the middle of the fourteenth century a new disease, probably the bubonic plague, spread throughout Europe. With no effective treatment, the plague killed millions of people. War devastated the countryside, especially in France, leading to widespread discontent and peasant revolts. Workers in cities also revolted against dismal working conditions, and violent crime and ethnic tensions increased as well. Massive deaths and preoccupation with death make the fourteenth century one of the most wrenching periods of Western civilization. Yet, in spite of the pessimism and crises, important institutions and cultural forms, including representative assemblies and national literatures, emerged. Even institutions that experienced severe crisis, such as the Christian Church, saw new types of vitality.

323

image
Life and Death in the Late Middle Ages In this French manuscript illumination from 1465, armored knights kill peasants while they work in the fields or take refuge in a castle. Aristocratic violence was a common feature of late medieval life, although nobles would generally not have bothered to put on their armor to harass villagers.
(From Cas de Nobles Hommes et Femmes, 1465/Musée Condé, Chantilly, France/Bridgeman Images)

CHAPTER PREVIEW

Prelude to Disaster

How did climate change shape the late Middle Ages?

The Black Death

How did the plague reshape European society?

The Hundred Years’ War

What were the causes, course, and consequences of the Hundred Years’ War?

Challenges to the Church

Why did the church come under increasing criticism?

Social Unrest in a Changing Society

What explains the social unrest of the late Middle Ages?

Chronology

1300–1450 Little ice age
1309–1376 Babylonian Captivity; papacy in Avignon
1310–1320 Dante writes Divine Comedy
1315–1322 Great Famine in northern Europe
1320s First large-scale peasant rebellion in Flanders
1337–1453 Hundred Years’ War
1347 Black Death arrives in Europe
1358 Jacquerie peasant uprising in France
1366 Statute of Kilkenny
1378–1417 Great Schism
1381 English Peasants’ Revolt
1387–1400 Chaucer writes Canterbury Tales