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Late Middle Ages

May 20, 2023

The Late Middle Ages, or late medieval period, was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renaissance).[1]

Europe and the Mediterranean region, c. 1354.
Western/Central Europe:
  •   Holy Roman Empire
  •   Kingdom of France
  •   Duchy of Gascony
Eastern Europe:
Russia/Siberia:
Italian peninsula:
Iberian peninsula:
Nordics:
British Isles:
Balkans/West Asia:
North Africa:
From the Apocalypse in a Biblia Pauperum illuminated at Erfurt around the time of the Great Famine. Death sits astride a lion whose long tail ends in a ball of flame (Hell). Famine points to her hungry mouth.

Around 1300, 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.[2] Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare. France and England experienced serious peasant uprisings, such as the Jacquerie and the Peasants' Revolt, as well as over a century of intermittent conflict, the Hundred Years' War. To add to the many problems of the period, the unity of the Catholic Church was temporarily shattered by the Western Schism. Collectively, those events are sometimes called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages.[3]

Despite the crises, the 14th century was also a time of great progress in the arts and sciences. Following a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts that took root in the High Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance began. The absorption of Latin texts had started before the Renaissance of the 12th century through contact with Arabs during the Crusades, but the availability of important Greek texts accelerated with the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks, when many Byzantine scholars had to seek refuge in the West, particularly Italy.[4]

Combined with this influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing, which facilitated dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning. Those two things would later lead to the Reformation. Toward the end of the period, the Age of Discovery began. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire cut off trading possibilities with the East. Europeans were forced to seek new trading routes, leading to the Spanish expedition under Christopher Columbus to the Americas in 1492 and Vasco da Gama's voyage to Africa and India in 1498. Their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations.

The changes brought about by these developments have led many scholars to view this period as the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern history and of early modern Europe. However, the division is somewhat artificial, since ancient learning was never entirely absent from European society.[citation needed] As a result, there was developmental continuity between the ancient age (via classical antiquity) and the modern age.[citation needed] Some historians, particularly in Italy, prefer not to speak of the Late Middle Ages at all but rather see the high period of the Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance and the modern era.[citation needed]

Historiography and periodization

The term "Late Middle Ages" refers to one of the three periods of the Middle Ages, along with the Early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages. Leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodization in his History of the Florentine People (1442).[5] Flavio Biondo used a similar framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire (1439–1453). Tripartite periodization became standard after the German historian Christoph Cellarius published Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, and New Period (1683).

For 18th-century historians studying the 14th and 15th centuries, the central theme was the Renaissance, with its rediscovery of ancient learning and the emergence of an individual spirit.[6] The heart of this rediscovery lies in Italy, where, in the words of Jacob Burckhardt: "Man became a spiritual individual and recognized himself as such".[7] This proposition was later challenged, and it was argued that the 12th century was a period of greater cultural achievement.[8]

As economic and demographic methods were applied to the study of history, the trend was increasingly to see the late Middle Ages as a period of recession and crisis. Belgian historian Henri Pirenne continued the subdivision of Early, High, and Late Middle Ages in the years around World War I.[9] Yet it was his Dutch colleague, Johan Huizinga, who was primarily responsible for popularising the pessimistic view of the Late Middle Ages, with his book The Autumn of the Middle Ages (1919).[10] To Huizinga, whose research focused on France and the Low Countries rather than Italy, despair and decline were the main themes, not rebirth.[11][12]

Modern historiography on the period has reached a consensus between the two extremes of innovation and crisis. It is now generally acknowledged that conditions were vastly different north and south of the Alps, and the term "Late Middle Ages" is often avoided entirely within Italian historiography.[13] The term "Renaissance" is still considered useful for describing certain intellectual, cultural, or artistic developments, but not as the defining feature of an entire European historical epoch.[14] The period from the early 14th century up until – and sometimes including – the 16th century, is rather seen as characterized by other trends: demographic and economic decline followed by recovery, the end of western religious unity and the subsequent emergence of the nation state, and the expansion of European influence onto the rest of the world.[14]

History

The limits of Christian Europe were still being defined in the 14th and 15th centuries. While the Grand Duchy of Moscow was beginning to repel the Mongols, and the Iberian kingdoms completed the Reconquista of the peninsula and turned their attention outwards, the Balkans fell under the dominance of the Ottoman Empire.[a] Meanwhile, the remaining nations of the continent were locked in almost constant international or internal conflict.[15]

The situation gradually led to the consolidation of central authority and the emergence of the nation state.[16] The financial demands of war necessitated higher levels of taxation, resulting in the emergence of representative bodies – most notably the English Parliament.[17] 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.[18]

Northern Europe

Main articles: Denmark in the Middle Ages, Norway in the Middle Ages, Sweden in the Middle Ages, and Kalmar Union

After the failed union of Sweden and Norway of 1319–1365, the pan-Scandinavian Kalmar Union was instituted in 1397.[19] The Swedes were reluctant members of the Danish-dominated 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.[20] Norway, on the other hand, became an inferior party of the union and remained united with Denmark until 1814.

Iceland benefited from its relative isolation and was the last Scandinavian country to be struck by the Black Death.[21] Meanwhile, the Norse colony in Greenland died out, probably under extreme weather conditions in the 15th century.[22] These conditions might have been the effect of the Little Ice Age.[23]

Northwest Europe

Main articles: England in the Late Middle Ages, Scotland in the Late Middle Ages, Wales in the Late Middle Ages, and History of Ireland (1169–1536)
Further information: Hundred Years' War, Wars of the Roses, and Wars of Scottish Independence
 
The Battle of Agincourt, 15th-century miniature, Enguerrand de Monstrelet

The death of Alexander III of Scotland in 1286 threw the country into a succession crisis, and the English king, Edward I, was brought in to arbitrate. Edward claimed overlordship over Scotland, leading to the Wars of Scottish Independence.[24] The English were eventually defeated, and the Scots were able to develop a stronger state under the Stewarts.[25]

From 1337, England's attention was largely directed towards France in the Hundred Years' War.[26] Henry V's victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 briefly paved the way for a unification of the two kingdoms, but his son Henry VI soon squandered all previous gains.[27] The loss of France led to discontent at home. Soon after the end of the war in 1453, the dynastic struggles of the Wars of the Roses (c. 1455–1485) began, involving the rival dynasties of the House of Lancaster and House of York.[28]

The war ended in the accession of Henry VII of the House of Tudor, who continued the work started by the Yorkist kings of building a strong, centralized monarchy.[29] While England's attention was thus directed elsewhere, the Hiberno-Norman lords in Ireland were becoming gradually more assimilated into Irish society, and the island was allowed to develop virtual independence under English overlordship.[30]

Western Europe

Main articles: France in the Middle Ages, Duchy of Burgundy, and Burgundian Netherlands
 
France in the late 15th century: a mosaic of feudal territories

The French House of Valois, which followed the House of Capet in 1328, was at its outset marginalized in its own country, first by the English invading forces of the Hundred Years' War, and later by the powerful Duchy of Burgundy.[31] The emergence of Joan of Arc as a military leader changed the course of war in favour of the French, and the initiative was carried further by King Louis XI.[32]

Meanwhile, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, met resistance in his attempts to consolidate his possessions, particularly from the Swiss Confederation formed in 1291.[33] When Charles was killed in the Burgundian Wars at the Battle of Nancy in 1477, the Duchy of Burgundy was reclaimed by France.[34] At the same time, the County of Burgundy and the wealthy Burgundian Netherlands came into the Holy Roman Empire under Habsburg control, setting up conflict for centuries to come.[35]

Central Europe

Main articles: Holy Roman Empire, Lands of the Bohemian Crown (1348–1526), History of Poland during the Jagiellonian dynasty, Old Swiss Confederacy, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and Kingdom of Hungary (1301–1526)
 
Silver mining and processing in Kutná Hora, Bohemia, 15th century

Bohemia prospered in the 14th century, and the Golden Bull of 1356 made the king of Bohemia first among the imperial electors, but the Hussite revolution threw the country into crisis.[36] The Holy Roman Empire passed to the House of Habsburg in 1438, where it remained until its dissolution in 1806.[37] Yet in spite of the extensive territories held by the Habsburgs, the Empire itself remained fragmented, and much real power and influence lay with the individual principalities.[38] In addition, financial institutions, such as the Hanseatic League and the Fugger family, held great power, on both economic and political levels.[39]

The Kingdom of Hungary experienced a golden age during the 14th century.[40] In particular the reigns of the Angevin kings Charles Robert (1308–42) and his son Louis the Great (1342–82) were marked by success.[41] The country grew wealthy as the main European supplier of gold and silver.[42] Louis the Great led successful campaigns from Lithuania to Southern Italy, and from Poland to Northern Greece.

He had the greatest military potential of the 14th century with his enormous armies (often over 100,000 men). Meanwhile, Poland's attention was turned eastwards, as the Commonwealth with Lithuania created an enormous entity in the region.[43] The union, and the conversion of Lithuania, also marked the end of paganism in Europe.[44]

Louis did not leave a son as heir after his death in 1382. Instead, he named as his heir the young prince Sigismund of Luxemburg. The Hungarian nobility did not accept his claim, and the result was an internal war. Sigismund eventually achieved total control of Hungary and established his court in Buda and Visegrád. Both palaces were rebuilt and improved, and were considered the richest of the time in Europe. Inheriting the throne of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire, Sigismund continued conducting his politics from Hungary, but he was kept busy fighting the Hussites and the Ottoman Empire, which was becoming a menace to Europe in the beginning of the 15th century.

King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary led the largest army of mercenaries of the time, the Black Army of Hungary, which he used to conquer Bohemia and Austria and to fight the Ottoman Empire. After Italy, Hungary was the first European country where the Renaissance appeared.[45] However, the glory of the Kingdom ended in the early 16th century, when the King Louis II of Hungary was killed in the Battle of Mohács in 1526 against the Ottoman Empire. Hungary then fell into a serious crisis and was invaded, ending its significance in central Europe during the medieval era.

Eastern Europe

Main article: Grand Duchy of Moscow
 
Medieval Russian states around 1470, including Novgorod, Tver, Pskov, Ryazan, Rostov and Moscow.

The state of Kievan Rus' fell during the 13th century in the Mongol invasion.[46] The Grand Duchy of Moscow rose in power thereafter, winning a great victory against the Golden Horde at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380.[47] The victory did not end Tartar rule in the region, however, and its immediate beneficiary was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which extended its influence eastwards.[48]

Under the reign of Ivan the Great (1462–1505), 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.[49] 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 Tsar, and Moscow was described as the Third Rome.[50]

Southeast Europe

Main articles: Byzantine Empire, Second Bulgarian Empire, Serbian Empire, Albanian principalities, and Ottoman Empire
 
Ottoman miniature of the siege of Belgrade in 1456

The Byzantine Empire had for a long time dominated the eastern Mediterranean in politics and culture.[51] By the 14th century, however, it had almost entirely collapsed into a tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, centered on the city of Constantinople and a few enclaves in Greece.[52] With the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Byzantine Empire was permanently extinguished.[53]

The Bulgarian Empire was in decline by the 14th century, and the ascendancy of Serbia was marked by the Serbian victory over the Bulgarians in the Battle of Velbazhd in 1330.[54] By 1346, the Serbian king Stefan Dušan had been proclaimed emperor.[55] Yet Serbian dominance was short-lived; the Serbian army led by the Lazar Hrebeljanovic was defeated by the Ottoman Army at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, where most of the Serbian nobility was killed and the south of the country came under Ottoman occupation, as much of southern Bulgaria had become Ottoman territory in the Battle of Maritsa 1371.[56] Northern remnants of Bulgaria were finally conquered by 1396, Serbia fell in 1459, Bosnia in 1463, and Albania was finally subordinated in 1479 only a few years after the death of Skanderbeg. Belgrade, a Hungarian domain at the time, was the last large Balkan city to fall under Ottoman rule, in the siege of Belgrade of 1521. By the end of the medieval period, the entire Balkan peninsula was annexed by, or became vassal to, the Ottomans.[56]

Southwest Europe

Main articles: Italy in the Middle Ages, Spain in the Middle Ages, and Portugal in the Middle Ages
 
Battle of Aljubarrota between Portugal and Castile, 1385

Avignon was the seat of the papacy from 1309 to 1376.[57] With the return of the Pope to Rome in 1378, the Papal State developed into a major secular power, culminating in the morally corrupt papacy of Alexander VI.[58] Florence grew to prominence amongst the Italian city-states through financial business, and the dominant Medici family became important promoters of the Renaissance through their patronage of the arts.[59] Other city states in northern Italy also expanded their territories and consolidated their power, primarily Milan, Venice and Genoa.[60] The War of the Sicilian Vespers had by the early 14th century divided southern Italy into an Aragon Kingdom of Sicily and an Anjou Kingdom of Naples.[61] In 1442, the two kingdoms were effectively united under Aragonese control.[62]

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.[63] In 1492, Granada was captured from the Moors, thereby completing the Reconquista.[64] Portugal had during the 15th century – particularly under Henry the Navigator – gradually explored the coast of Africa, and in 1498, Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India.[65] The Spanish monarchs met the Portuguese challenge by financing the expedition of Christopher Columbus to find a western sea route to India, leading to the discovery of the Americas in 1492.[66]

Late Medieval European society

See also: Crisis of the Late Middle Ages, Black Death, and Little Ice Age
 
Peasants preparing the fields for the winter with a harrow and sowing for the winter grain. The background shows the Louvre castle in Paris, c. 1410; October as depicted in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

Around 1300–1350 the Medieval Warm Period gave way to the Little Ice Age.[67] The colder climate resulted in agricultural crises, the first of which is known as the Great Famine of 1315–1317.[68] The demographic consequences of this famine, however, were not as severe as the plagues that occurred later in the century, particularly the Black Death.[69] Estimates of the death rate caused by this epidemic range from one third to as much as sixty percent.[70] 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.[71] The effects of natural disasters were exacerbated by armed conflicts; this was particularly the case in France during the Hundred Years' War.[72] It took 150 years for the European population to regain similar levels of 1300.[73]

As the European population was severely reduced, land became more plentiful for the survivors, and labour consequently more expensive.[74] Attempts by landowners to forcibly reduce wages, such as the English 1351 Statute of Laborers, were doomed to fail.[75] 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.[76] The long-term effect was the virtual end of serfdom in Western Europe.[77] In Eastern Europe, on the other hand, landowners were able to exploit the situation to force the peasantry into even more repressive bondage.[78]

The upheavals caused by the Black Death left certain minority groups particularly vulnerable, especially the Jews,[79] who were often blamed for the calamities. Anti-Jewish pogroms were carried out all over Europe; in February 1349, 2,000 Jews were murdered in Strasbourg.[80] 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.[81]

While the Jews were suffering persecution, one group that probably experienced increased empowerment in the Late Middle Ages was women. The great social changes of the period opened up new possibilities for women in the fields of commerce, learning and religion.[82] Yet at the same time, women were also vulnerable to incrimination and persecution, as belief in witchcraft increased.[82]

The accumulation of social, environmental and health-related problems also led an increase of interpersonal violence in most parts of Europe. Population increase, religious intolerance, famine and disease led to an increase in violent acts in vast parts of the medieval society. One exception to this was North-Eastern Europe, whose population managed to maintain low levels of violence due to a more organized society resulting from extensive and successful trade.[83]

Up until the mid-14th century, Europe had experienced steadily increasing urbanisation.[84] Cities were also decimated by the Black Death, but the role of urban areas as centres of learning, commerce and government ensured continued growth.[85] By 1500, Venice, Milan, Naples, Paris and Constantinople each probably had more than 100,000 inhabitants.[86] Twenty-two other cities were larger than 40,000; most of these were in Italy and the Iberian peninsula, but there were also some in France, the Empire, the Low Countries, plus London in England.[86]

Military history

Main article: Medieval warfare
Medieval warfare
 
Miniature of the Battle of Crécy (1346)
Manuscript of Jean Froissart's Chronicles.
The Hundred Years' War was the scene of many military innovations.

Through battles such as Courtrai (1302), Bannockburn (1314), and Morgarten (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.[87] Through the Welsh Wars the English became acquainted with, and adopted, the highly efficient longbow.[88] Once properly managed, this weapon gave them a great advantage over the French in the Hundred Years' War.[89]

The introduction of gunpowder affected the conduct of war significantly.[90] Though employed by the English as early as the Battle of Crécy in 1346, firearms initially had little effect in the field of battle.[91] 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.[92]

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.[93] The practice was associated with Edward III of England and the condottieri of the Italian city-states.[94] All over Europe, Swiss soldiers were in particularly high demand.[95] 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.[96]

Parallel to the military developments emerged also a constantly more elaborate chivalric code of conduct for the warrior class.[97] This new-found ethos can be seen as a response to the diminishing military role of the aristocracy, and gradually it became almost entirely detached from its military origin.[98] The spirit of chivalry was given expression through the new (secular)[99] 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.[100]

Christian conflict and reform

The Papal Schism

Main article: Western Schism

The French crown's increasing dominance over the Papacy culminated in the transference of the Holy See to Avignon in 1309.[101] When the Pope returned to Rome in 1377, this led to the election of different popes in Avignon and Rome, resulting in the Papal Schism (1378–1417).[102] 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.[103]

At the Council of Constance (1414–1418), the Papacy was once more united in Rome.[104] 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.[105] 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.[106]

Protestant Reformation

Main articles: Reformation, Hussites, and Lollardy
 
Jan Hus burnt at the stake

Though many of the events were outside the traditional time period of the Middle Ages, the end of the unity of the Western Church (the Protestant Reformation), was one of the distinguishing characteristics of the medieval period.[14] The Catholic Church had long fought against heretic movements, but during the Late Middle Ages, it started to experience demands for reform from within.[107] The first of these came from Oxford professor John Wycliffe in England.[108] Wycliffe held that the Bible should be the only authority in religious questions, and he spoke out against transubstantiation, celibacy and indulgences.[109] In spite of influential supporters among the English aristocracy, such as John of Gaunt, the movement was not allowed to survive. Though Wycliffe himself was left unmolested, his supporters, the Lollards, were eventually suppressed in England.[110]

The marriage of Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia established contacts between the two nations and brought Lollard ideas to her homeland.[111] 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.[112] Hus gained a great following in Bohemia, and in 1414, he was requested to appear at the Council of Constance to defend his cause.[113] When he was burned as a heretic in 1415, it caused a popular uprising in the Czech lands.[114] The subsequent Hussite Wars fell apart due to internal quarrels and did not result in religious or national independence for the Czechs, but both the Catholic Church and the German element within the country were weakened.[115]

Martin Luther, a German monk, started the German Reformation by posting 95 theses on the castle church of Wittenberg on October 31, 1517.[116] The immediate provocation spurring this act was Pope Leo X's renewal of the indulgence for the building of the new St. Peter's Basilica in 1514.[117] Luther was challenged to recant his heresy at the Diet of Worms in 1521.[118] When he refused, he was placed under the ban of the Empire by Charles V.[119] Receiving the protection of Frederick the Wise, he was then able to translate the Bible into German.[120]

To many secular rulers the Protestant reformation was a welcome opportunity to expand their wealth and influence.[121] The Catholic Church met the challenges of the reforming movements with what has been called the Catholic Reformation, or Counter-Reformation.[122] Europe became split into northern Protestant and southern Catholic parts, resulting in the Religious Wars of the 16th and 17th centuries.[123]

Trade and commerce

Medieval merchant routes
 
Main trade routes of late medieval Europe.
  Hansa
  Venetian
  Genoese
  Venetian and Genoese
  (stippled) Overland and river routes

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.[124] Portuguese and Spanish explorers found new trade routes – south of Africa to India, and across the Atlantic Ocean to America.[125] As Genoese and Venetian merchants opened up direct sea routes with Flanders, the Champagne fairs lost much of their importance.[126]

At the same time, English wool export shifted from raw wool to processed cloth, resulting in losses for the cloth manufacturers of the Low Countries.[127] In the Baltic and North Sea, the Hanseatic League reached the peak of their power in the 14th century, but started going into decline in the fifteenth.[128]

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".[129] 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.[130]

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.[131] The beneficiaries of these developments would accumulate immense wealth. Families like the Fuggers in Germany, the Medicis in Italy, the de la Poles in England, and individuals like Jacques Coeur in France would help finance the wars of kings, and achieve great political influence in the process.[132]

Though there is no doubt that the demographic crisis of the 14th century caused a dramatic fall in production and commerce in absolute terms, there has been a vigorous historical debate over whether the decline was greater than the fall in population.[133] While the older orthodoxy held that the artistic output of the Renaissance was a result of greater opulence, more recent studies have suggested that there might have been a so-called 'depression of the Renaissance'.[134] In spite of convincing arguments for the case, the statistical evidence is simply too incomplete for a definite conclusion to be made.[135]

Arts and sciences

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 on by impulses from Byzantine scholars who had to seek refuge in the west after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.[136]

In science, classical authorities like Aristotle were challenged for the first time since antiquity. Within the arts, humanism took the form of the Renaissance. Though the 15th-century Renaissance was a highly localised phenomenon – limited mostly to the city states of northern Italy – artistic developments were taking place also further north, particularly in the Netherlands.[a]

Philosophy, science and technology

Main articles: Medieval philosophy, History of science in the Middle Ages, and Medieval technology
 
European output of manuscripts 500–1500. The rising trend in medieval book production saw its continuation in the period.[137]

The predominant school of thought in the 13th century was the Thomistic reconciliation of the teachings of Aristotle with Christian theology.[138] The Condemnation of 1277, enacted at the University of Paris, placed restrictions on ideas that could be interpreted as heretical; restrictions that had implication for Aristotelian thought.[139] An alternative was presented by William of Ockham, following the manner of the earlier Franciscan John Duns Scotus, who insisted that the world of reason and the world of faith had to be kept apart. Ockham introduced the principle of parsimony – or Occam's razor – whereby a simple theory is preferred to a more complex one, and speculation on unobservable phenomena is avoided.[140] This maxim is, however, often misquoted. Occam was referring to his nominalism in this quotation. Essentially saying the theory of absolutes, or metaphysical realism, was unnecessary to make sense of the world.

This new approach liberated scientific speculation from the dogmatic restraints of Aristotelian science, and paved the way for new approaches. Particularly within the field of theories of motion great advances were made, when such scholars as Jean Buridan, Nicole Oresme and the Oxford Calculators challenged the work of Aristotle.[141] Buridan developed the theory of impetus as the cause of the motion of projectiles, which was an important step towards the modern concept of inertia.[142] The works of these scholars anticipated the heliocentric worldview of Nicolaus Copernicus.[143]

Certain technological inventions of the period – whether of Arab or Chinese origin, or unique European innovations – were to have great influence on political and social developments, in particular gunpowder, the printing press and the compass. The introduction of gunpowder to the field of battle affected not only military organisation, but helped advance the nation state. Gutenberg's movable type printing press made possible not only the Reformation, but also a dissemination of knowledge that would lead to a gradually more egalitarian society. The compass, along with other innovations such as the cross-staff, the mariner's astrolabe, and advances in shipbuilding, enabled the navigation of the World Oceans, and the early phases of colonialism.[144] Other inventions had a greater impact on everyday life, such as eyeglasses and the weight-driven clock.[145]

Visual arts and architecture

Main articles: Medieval art and Medieval architecture
 
Urban dwelling house, late 15th century, Halberstadt, Germany.

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 a three-dimensional reality, and to endow his characters with true human emotions.[146] 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.[147]

The period saw several important technical innovations, like the principle of linear perspective found in the work of Masaccio, and later described by Brunelleschi.[148] Greater realism was also achieved through the scientific study of anatomy, championed by artists like Donatello.[149] This can be seen particularly well in his sculptures, inspired by the study of classical models.[150] As the centre of the movement shifted to Rome, the period culminated in the High Renaissance masters da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.[151]

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.[152] 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.[153] 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.[154]

In northern European countries Gothic architecture remained the norm, and the gothic cathedral was further elaborated.[155] In Italy, on the other hand, architecture took a different direction, also here inspired by classical ideals. The crowning work of the period was the Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, with Giotto's clock tower, Ghiberti's baptistery gates, and Brunelleschi's cathedral dome of unprecedented proportions.[156]

Literature

Further information: Medieval literature
 
Dante by Domenico di Michelino, from a fresco painted in 1465

The most important development of late medieval literature was the ascendancy of the vernacular languages.[157] The vernacular had been in use in England since the 8th century and France since the 11th century, where the most popular genres had been the chanson de geste, troubadour lyrics and romantic epics, or the romance.[158] Though Italy was later in evolving a native literature in the vernacular language, it was here that the most important developments of the period were to come.[159]

Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, written in the early 14th century, merged a medieval world view with classical ideals.[160] Another promoter of the Italian language was Boccaccio with his Decameron.[161] The application of the vernacular did not entail a rejection of Latin, and both Dante and Boccaccio wrote prolifically in Latin as well as Italian, as would Petrarch later (whose Canzoniere also promoted the vernacular and whose contents are considered the first modern lyric poems).[162] Together the three poets established the Tuscan dialect as the norm for the modern Italian language.[163]

The new literary style spread rapidly, and in France influenced such writers as Eustache Deschamps and Guillaume de Machaut.[164] In England Geoffrey Chaucer helped establish Middle English as a literary language with his Canterbury Tales, which contained a wide variety of narrators and stories (including some translated from Boccaccio).[165] The spread of vernacular literature eventually reached as far as Bohemia, and the Baltic, Slavic and Byzantine worlds.[166]

Music

Main article: Medieval music
 
A musician plays the vielle in a fourteenth-century Medieval manuscript.

Music was an important part of both secular and spiritual culture, and in the universities it made up part of the quadrivium of the liberal arts.[167] From the early 13th century, the dominant sacred musical form had been the motet; a composition with text in several parts.[168] From the 1330s and onwards, emerged the polyphonic style, which was a more complex fusion of independent voices.[169] Polyphony had been common in the secular music of the Provençal troubadours. Many of these had fallen victim to the 13th-century Albigensian Crusade, but their influence reached the papal court at Avignon.[170]

The main representatives of the new style, often referred to as ars nova as opposed to the ars antiqua, were the composers Philippe de Vitry and Guillaume de Machaut.[171] In Italy, where the Provençal troubadours had also found refuge, the corresponding period goes under the name of trecento, and the leading composers were Giovanni da Cascia, Jacopo da Bologna and Francesco Landini.[172] Prominent reformer of Orthodox Church music from the first half of 14th century was John Kukuzelis; he also introduced a system of notation widely used in the Balkans in the following centuries.

Theatre

Main article: Medieval theatre

In the British Isles, plays were produced in some 127 different towns during the Middle Ages. These vernacular Mystery plays were written in cycles of a large number of plays: York (48 plays), Chester (24), Wakefield (32) and Unknown (42). A larger number of plays survive from France and Germany in this period and some type of religious dramas were performed in nearly every European country in the Late Middle Ages. Many of these plays contained comedy, devils, villains and clowns.[173]

Morality plays emerged as a distinct dramatic form around 1400 and flourished until 1550, an example being The Castle of Perseverance, which depicts mankind's progress from birth to death. Another famous morality play is Everyman. Everyman receives Death's summons, struggles to escape and finally resigns himself to necessity. Along the way, he is deserted by Kindred, Goods, and Fellowship – only Good Deeds goes with him to the grave.

At the end of the Late Middle Ages, professional actors began to appear in England and Europe. Richard III and Henry VII both maintained small companies of professional actors. Their plays were performed in the Great Hall of a nobleman's residence, often with a raised platform at one end for the audience and a "screen" at the other for the actors. Also important were Mummers' plays, performed during the Christmas season, and court masques. These masques were especially popular during the reign of Henry VIII who had a House of Revels built and an Office of Revels established in 1545.[174]

The end of medieval drama came about due to a number of factors, including the weakening power of the Catholic Church, the Protestant Reformation and the banning of religious plays in many countries. Elizabeth I forbid all religious plays in 1558 and the great cycle plays had been silenced by the 1580s. Similarly, religious plays were banned in the Netherlands in 1539, the Papal States in 1547 and in Paris in 1548. The abandonment of these plays destroyed the international theatre that had thereto existed and forced each country to develop its own form of drama. It also allowed dramatists to turn to secular subjects and the reviving interest in Greek and Roman theatre provided them with the perfect opportunity.[174]

After the Middle Ages

Main article: Early modern period

After the end of the late Middle Ages period, the Renaissance spread unevenly over continental Europe from the southern European region. The intellectual transformation of the Renaissance is viewed as a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Modern era. Europeans would later begin an era of world discovery. Combined with the influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing which facilitated dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning. These two things would lead to the Protestant Reformation. Europeans also discovered new trading routes, as was the case with Columbus' travel to the Americas in 1492, and Vasco da Gama's circumnavigation of Africa and India in 1498. Their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations.

Ottomans and Europe

Main article: Ottoman wars in Europe
Ottomans and Europe
 
Saint John of Capistrano and the Hungarian armies fighting the Ottoman Empire at the Siege of Belgrade in 1456.
 
King Matthias Corvinus's Black Army Campaign.

By the end of the 15th century the Ottoman Empire had advanced all over Southeastern Europe, eventually conquering the Byzantine Empire and extending control over the Balkan states. Hungary was the last bastion of the Latin Christian world in the East, and fought to keep its rule over a period of two centuries. After the death of the young king Vladislaus I of Hungary during the Battle of Varna in 1444 against the Ottomans, the Kingdom was placed in the hands of count John Hunyadi, who became Hungary's regent-governor (1446–1453). Hunyadi was considered one of the most relevant military figures of the 15th century: Pope Pius II awarded him the title of Athleta Christi or Champion of Christ for being the only hope of resisting the Ottomans from advancing to Central and Western Europe.

Hunyadi succeeded during the Siege of Belgrade in 1456 against the Ottomans, the biggest victory against that empire in decades. This battle became a real Crusade against the Muslims, as the peasants were motivated by the Franciscan friar Saint John of Capistrano, who came from Italy predicating Holy War. The effect that it created in that time was one of the main factors that helped in achieving the victory. However the premature death of the Hungarian Lord left Pannonia defenseless and in chaos. In an extremely unusual event for the Middle Ages, Hunyadi's son, Matthias, was elected as King of Hungary by the Hungarian nobility. For the first time, a member of an aristocratic family (and not from a royal family) was crowned.

King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1458–1490) was one of the most prominent figures of the period, directing campaigns to the West, conquering Bohemia in answer to the Pope's call for help against the Hussite Protestants. Also, in resolving political hostilities with the German emperor Frederick III of Habsburg, he invaded his western domains. Matthew organized the Black Army of mercenary soldiers; it was considered as the biggest army of its time. Using this powerful tool, the Hungarian king led wars against the Turkish armies and stopped the Ottomans during his reign. After the death of Matthew, and with end of the Black Army, the Ottoman Empire grew in strength and Central Europe was defenseless. At the Battle of Mohács, the forces of the Ottoman Empire annihilated the Hungarian army and Louis II of Hungary drowned in the Csele Creek while trying to escape. The leader of the Hungarian army, Pál Tomori, also died in the battle. This is considered to be one of the final battles of Medieval times.

Timeline

Main article: Timeline of the Middle Ages
Mississippian cultureIslamic empires in IndiaJoseon DynastyGoryeoMuromachi periodKenmu restorationKamakura periodMing DynastyYuan DynastyGolden HordeChagatai KhanateMamluk SultanateKingdom of GeorgiaOttoman EmpireSerbian EmpireSecond Bulgarian EmpireRenaissanceItalian RenaissanceGerman RenaissanceHoly Roman EmpireRenaissanceGrand Duchy of MoscowGrand Duchy of LithuaniaRenaissanceReconquistaKingdom of EnglandKalmar UnionChristianization of ScandinaviaEarly modernModernCrisis of the Late Middle Ages

Dates are approximate, consult particular articles for details    Middle Ages Themes   Other themes

See also: Universal history

14th century

Main article: 14th century

15th century

Main article: 15th century

Gallery

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b For references, see below.

References

  1. ^ Wallace K. Ferguson, Europe in transition, 1300–1520 (1962) online.
  2. ^ Austin Alchon, Suzanne (2003). A pest in the land: new world epidemics in a global perspective. University of New Mexico Press. p. 21. ISBN 0-8263-2871-7.
  3. ^ Norman Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages (1994) p. 480.
  4. ^ Cantor, p. 594.
  5. ^ Leonardo Bruni, James Hankins, History of the Florentine people, Volume 1, Books 1–4, (2001), p. xvii.
  6. ^ Brady et al., p. xiv; Cantor, p. 529.
  7. ^ Burckhardt, Jacob (1860). The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. p. 121. ISBN 0-06-090460-7.
  8. ^ Haskins, Charles Homer (1927). The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-19-821934-2.
  9. ^ "Les périodes de l'histoire du capitalisme", Académie Royale de Belgique. Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres, 1914.
  10. ^ Huizinga, Johan (1924). The Waning of the Middle Ages: A Study of the Forms of Life, Thought and Art in France and the Netherlands in the XIVth and XVth Centuries. London: E. Arnold. ISBN 0-312-85540-0.
  11. ^ Allmand, ed. The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 7: c. 1415 – c. 1500, (1998) p. 299.
  12. ^ Norman Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages (1994) p. 530.
  13. ^ Le Goff, p. 154. See e.g. Najemy, John M. (2004). Italy in the Age of the Renaissance: 1300–1550. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-870040-7.
  14. ^ a b c Brady et al., p. xvii.
  15. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 3; Holmes, p. 294; Koenigsberger, pp. 299–300.
  16. ^ Brady et al., p. xvii; Jones, p. 21.
  17. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 29; Cantor, p. 514; Koenigsberger, pp. 300–303.
  18. ^ Brady et al., p. xvii; Holmes, p. 276; Ozment, p. 4.
  19. ^ Hollister, p. 366; Jones, p. 722.
  20. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 703
  21. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 673.
  22. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 193.
  23. ^ Alan Cutler (1997-08-13). . The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2019-10-22. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
  24. ^ Jones, pp. 348–349.
  25. ^ Jones, pp. 350–351; Koenigsberger, p. 232; McKisack, p. 40.
  26. ^ Jones, p. 351.
  27. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 458; Koenigsberger, p. 309.
  28. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 458; Nicholas, pp. 32–33.
  29. ^ Hollister, p. 353; Jones, pp. 488–492.
  30. ^ McKisack, pp. 228–229.
  31. ^ Hollister, p. 355; Holmes, pp. 288–289; Koenigsberger, p. 304.
  32. ^ Duby, pp. 288–293; Holmes, p. 300.
  33. ^ Allmand (1998), pp. 450–455; Jones, pp. 528–529.
  34. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 455; Hollister, p. 355; Koenigsberger, p. 304.
  35. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 455; Hollister, p. 363; Koenigsberger, pp. 306–307.
  36. ^ Holmes, pp. 311–312; Wandycz, p. 40
  37. ^ Hollister, p. 362; Holmes, p. 280.
  38. ^ Cantor, p. 507; Hollister, p. 362.
  39. ^ Allmand (1998), pp. 152–153; Cantor, p. 508; Koenigsberger, p. 345.
  40. ^ Wandycz, p. 38.
  41. ^ Wandycz, p. 40.
  42. ^ Jones, p. 737.
  43. ^ Koenigsberger, p. 318; Wandycz, p. 41.
  44. ^ Jones, p. 7.
  45. ^ Louis A. Waldman; Péter Farbaky; Louis Alexander Waldman (2011). Italy & Hungary: Humanism and Art in the Early Renaissance. Villa I Tatti. ISBN 978-0-674-06346-4.
  46. ^ Martin, pp. 100–101.
  47. ^ Koenigsberger, p. 322; Jones, p. 793; Martin, pp. 236–237.
  48. ^ Martin, p. 239.
  49. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 754; Koenigsberger, p. 323.
  50. ^ Allmand, p. 769; Hollister, p. 368.
  51. ^ Hollister, p. 49.
  52. ^ Allmand (1998), pp. 771–774; Mango, p. 248.
  53. ^ Hollister, p. 99; Koenigsberger, p. 340.
  54. ^ Jones, pp. 796–797.
  55. ^ Jones, p. 875.
  56. ^ a b Hollister, p. 360; Koenigsberger, p. 339.
  57. ^ Hollister, p. 338.
  58. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 586; Hollister, p. 339; Holmes, p. 260.
  59. ^ Allmand, pp. 150, 155; Cantor, p. 544; Hollister, p. 326.
  60. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 547; Hollister, p. 363; Holmes, p. 258.
  61. ^ Cantor, p. 511; Hollister, p. 264; Koenigsberger, p. 255.
  62. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 577.
  63. ^ Hollister, p. 356; Koenigsberger, p. 314
  64. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 162; Hollister, p. 99; Holmes, p. 265.
  65. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 192; Cantor, 513.
  66. ^ Cantor, 513; Holmes, pp. 266–267.
  67. ^ Grove, Jean M. (2003). The Little Ice Age. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-01449-2.
  68. ^ Jones, p. 88.
  69. ^ Harvey, Barbara F. (1991). "Introduction: The 'Crisis' of the Early Fourteenth Century". In Campbell, B.M.S. (ed.). Before the Black Death: Studies in The 'Crisis' of the Early Fourteenth Century. Manchester: Manchester University Press. pp. 1–24. ISBN 0-7190-3208-3.
  70. ^ Jones, pp. 136–8;Cantor, p. 482.
  71. ^ Herlihy (1997), p. 17; Jones, p. 9.
  72. ^ Hollister, p. 347.
  73. ^ "World History in Context - Document - The Late Middle Ages". Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  74. ^ Duby, p. 270; Koenigsberger, p. 284; McKisack, p. 334.
  75. ^ Koenigsberger, p. 285.
  76. ^ Cantor, p. 484; Hollister, p. 332; Holmes, p. 303.
  77. ^ Cantor, p. 564; Hollister, pp. 332–333; Koenigsberger, p. 285.
  78. ^ Hollister, pp. 332–333; Jones, p. 15.
  79. ^ Chazan, p. 194.
  80. ^ Hollister, p. 330; Holmes, p. 255.
  81. ^ Brady et al., pp. 266–267; Chazan, pp. 166, 232; Koenigsberger, p. 251.
  82. ^ a b Klapisch-Zuber, p. 268.
  83. ^ Baten, Joerg; Steckel, Richard H. (2019). "The History of Violence in Europe: Evidence from Cranial and Postcranial Bone Traumata". The Backbone of Europe: Health, Diet, Work and Violence over Two Millennia: 300–324.
  84. ^ Hollister, p. 323; Holmes, p. 304.
  85. ^ Jones, p. 164; Koenigsberger, p. 343.
  86. ^ a b Allmand (1998), p. 125
  87. ^ Jones, p. 350; McKisack, p. 39; Verbruggen, p. 111.
  88. ^ Allmand (1988), p. 59; Cantor, p. 467.
  89. ^ McKisack, p. 240, Verbruggen, pp. 171–2
  90. ^ Contamine, pp. 139–40; Jones, pp. 11–2.
  91. ^ Contamine, pp. 198–200.
  92. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 169; Contamine, pp. 200–7.
  93. ^ Cantor, p. 515.
  94. ^ Contamine, pp. 150–65; Holmes, p. 261; McKisack, p. 234.
  95. ^ Contamine, pp. 124, 135.
  96. ^ Contamine, pp. 165–72; Holmes, p. 300.
  97. ^ Cantor, p. 349; Holmes, pp. 319–20.
  98. ^ Hollister, p. 336.
  99. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Chivalry". from the original on 2018-01-09. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
  100. ^ Cantor, p. 537; Jones, p. 209; McKisack, p. 251.
  101. ^ Cantor, p. 496.
  102. ^ Cantor, p. 497; Hollister, p. 338; Holmes, p. 309.
  103. ^ Hollister, p. 338; Koenigsberger, p. 326; Ozment, p. 158.
  104. ^ Cantor, p. 498; Ozment, p. 164.
  105. ^ Koenigsberger, pp. 327–8; MacCulloch, p. 34.
  106. ^ Hollister, p. 339; Holmes, p. 260; Koenigsberger, pp. 327–8.
  107. ^ A famous account of the nature and suppression of a heretic movement is Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie. (1978). Montaillou: Cathars and Catholics in a French Village, 1294–1324. London: Scolar Press. ISBN 0-85967-403-7.
  108. ^ MacCulloch, p. 34–5.
  109. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 15; Cantor, pp. 499–500; Koenigsberger, p. 331.
  110. ^ Allmand (1998), pp. 15–6; MacCulloch, p. 35.
  111. ^ Holmes, p. 312; MacCulloch, pp. 35–6; Ozment, p. 165.
  112. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 16; Cantor, p. 500.
  113. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 377; Koenigsberger, p. 332.
  114. ^ Koenigsberger, p. 332; MacCulloch, p. 36.
  115. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 353; Hollister, p. 344; Koenigsberger, p. 332–3.
  116. ^ MacCulloch, p. 115.
  117. ^ MacCulloch, pp. 70, 117.
  118. ^ MacCulloch, p. 127; Ozment, p. 245.
  119. ^ MacCulloch, p. 128.
  120. ^ Ozment, p. 246.
  121. ^ Allmand (1998), pp. 16–7; Cantor, pp. 500–1.
  122. ^ MacCulloch, p. 107; Ozment, p. 397.
  123. ^ MacCulloch, p. 266; Ozment, pp. 259–60.
  124. ^ Allmand (1998), pp. 159–60; Pounds, pp. 467–8.
  125. ^ Hollister, pp. 334–5.
  126. ^ Cipolla (1976), p. 275; Koenigsberger, p. 295; Pounds, p. 361.
  127. ^ Cipolla (1976), p. 283; Koenigsberger, p. 297; Pounds, pp. 378–81.
  128. ^ Cipolla (1976), p. 275; Cipolla (1994), p. 203, 234; Pounds, pp. 387–8.
  129. ^ Koenigsberger, p. 226; Pounds, p. 407.
  130. ^ Cipolla (1976), pp. 318–29; Cipolla (1994), pp. 160–4; Holmes, p. 235; Jones, pp. 176–81; Koenigsberger, p. 226; Pounds, pp. 407–27.
  131. ^ Jones, p. 121; Pearl, pp. 299–300; Koenigsberger, pp. 286, 291.
  132. ^ Allmand (1998), pp. 150–3; Holmes, p. 304; Koenigsberger, p. 299; McKisack, p. 160.
  133. ^ Pounds, p. 483.
  134. ^ Cipolla, C.M. (1964). "Economic depression of the Renaissance?". Economic History Review. xvi (3): 519–24. doi:10.2307/2592852. JSTOR 2592852.
  135. ^ Pounds, pp. 484–5.
  136. ^ Allmand (1998), pp. 243–54; Cantor, p. 594; Nicholas, p. 156.
  137. ^ Buringh, Eltjo; van Zanden, Jan Luiten: "Charting the “Rise of the West”: Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries", The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 69, No. 2 (2009), pp. 409–445 (416, table 1)
  138. ^ Jones, p. 42; Koenigsberger, p. 242.
  139. ^ Hans Thijssen (2003). "Condemnation of 1277". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. from the original on 2017-03-11. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
  140. ^ Grant, p. 142; Nicholas, p. 134.
  141. ^ Grant, pp. 100–3, 149, 164–5.
  142. ^ Grant, pp. 95–7.
  143. ^ Grant, pp. 112–3.
  144. ^ Jones, pp. 11–2; Koenigsberger, pp. 297–8; Nicholas, p. 165.
  145. ^ Grant, p. 160; Koenigsberger, p. 297.
  146. ^ Cantor, p. 433; Koenigsberger, p. 363.
  147. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 155; Brotton, p. 27.
  148. ^ Burke, p. 24; Koenigsberger, p. 363; Nicholas, p. 161.
  149. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 253; Cantor, p. 556.
  150. ^ Cantor, p. 554; Nichols, pp. 159–60.
  151. ^ Brotton, p. 67; Burke, p. 69.
  152. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 269; Koenigsberger, p. 376.
  153. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 302; Cantor, p. 539.
  154. ^ Burke, p. 250; Nicholas, p. 161.
  155. ^ Allmand (1998), pp. 300–1, Hollister, p. 375.
  156. ^ Allmand (1998), p. 305; Cantor, p. 371.
  157. ^ Jones, p. 8.
  158. ^ Cantor, p. 346.
  159. ^ Curtius, p. 387; Koenigsberger, p. 368.
  160. ^ Cantor, p. 546; Curtius, pp. 351, 378.
  161. ^ Curtius, p. 396; Koenigsberger, p. 368; Jones, p. 258.
  162. ^ Curtius, p. 26; Jones, p. 258; Koenigsberger, p. 368.
  163. ^ Koenigsberger, p. 369.
  164. ^ Jones, p. 264.
  165. ^ Curtius, p. 35; Jones. p. 264.
  166. ^ Jones, p. 9.
  167. ^ Allmand, p. 319; Grant, p. 14; Koenigsberger, p. 382.
  168. ^ Allmand, p. 322; Wilson, p. 229.
  169. ^ Wilson, pp. 229, 289–90, 327.
  170. ^ Koenigsberger, p. 381; Wilson, p. 329.
  171. ^ Koenigsberger, p. 383; Wilson, p. 329.
  172. ^ Wilson, pp. 357–8, 361–2.
  173. ^ Brockett and Hildy (2003, 86)
  174. ^ a b Brockett and Hildy (2003, 101-103)

Further reading

Surveys

  • Jones, Michael, ed. (2000). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume 6, c.1300–c.1415. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-13905574-1.
  • Allmand, Christopher, ed. (1998). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume 7, c.1415–c.1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-13905575-8.
  • Brady, Thomas A., Jr., Heiko A. Oberman, James D. Tracy (eds.) (1994). Handbook of European History, 1400–1600: Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation. Leiden, New York: E.J. Brill. ISBN 90-04-09762-7. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  • Cantor, Norman (1994). The Civilization of the Middle Ages. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-017033-6.
  • Ferguson, Wallace K. Europe in transition, 1300-1520 (1962) online.
  • Hay, Denys (1988). Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (2nd ed.). London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49179-7.
  • Hollister, C. Warren (2005). Medieval Europe: A Short History (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education. ISBN 0-07-295515-5.
  • Holmes, George, ed. (2001). The Oxford History of Medieval Europe (New ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280133-3.
  • Keen, Maurice (1991). The Penguin History of Medieval Europe (New ed.). London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-013630-4.
  • Koenigsberger, H.G. Medieval Europe 400 - 1500 (1987) excerpt
  • Le Goff, Jacques (2005). The Birth of Europe: 400–1500. WileyBlackwell. ISBN 0-631-22888-8.
  • Waley, Daniel; Denley, Peter (2001). Later Medieval Europe: 1250–1520 (3rd ed.). London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-25831-6.

Specific regions

  • Abulafia, David (1997). The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms: The Struggle for Dominion, 1200-1500. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-07820-2.
  • Duby, Georges (1993). France in the Middle Ages, 987–1460: From Hugh Capet to Joan of Arc (New ed.). WileyBlackwell. ISBN 0-631-18945-9.
  • Fine, John V. A. Jr. (1994) [1987]. The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08260-4.
  • Jacob, E.F. (1961). The Fifteenth Century: 1399–1485. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-821714-5.
  • McKisack, May (1959). The Fourteenth Century: 1307–1399. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-821712-9.
  • Mango, Cyril, ed. (2002). The Oxford History of Byzantium. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-814098-3.
  • Martin, Janet (2007). Medieval Russia, 980–1584 (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85916-5.
  • Najemy, John M. (ed.) (2004). Italy in the Age of the Renaissance: 1300–1550 (New ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-870040-7. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  • Wandycz, Piotr (2001). The Price of Freedom: A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-25491-4.

Society

  • Behrens-Abouseif, Doris (1994). Cairo of the Mamluks: A History of Architecture and its Culture (Reprint ed.). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08260-4.
  • Chazan, Robert (2006). The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom: 1000–1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-61664-6.
  • Herlihy, David (1985). Medieval Households. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-56375-1.
  • Herlihy, David (1968). Medieval Culture and Society. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-88133-747-1.
  • Jordan, William Chester (1996). The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01134-6.
  • Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane (1994). A history of women in the West (New ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-40368-1.

The Black Death

Warfare

  • Allmand, Christopher (1988). The Hundred Years War: England and France at War c. 1300–c. 1450. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-31923-4.
  • Chase, Kenneth (2003). Firearms: A Global History to 1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521822749.
  • Contamine, Philippe (1984). War in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-13142-6.
  • Curry, Anne (1993). The Hundred Years War. Basingstoke: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-53175-2.
  • Davis, Paul K. (2001). 100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195143663.
  • Keen, Maurice (1984). Chivalry. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03150-5.
  • Verbruggen, J. F. (1997). The Art of Warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages: From the Eighth Century to 1340 (2nd ed.). Woodbridge: Boydell Press. ISBN 0-85115-630-4.

Economy

  • Cipolla, Carlo M. (1993). Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy 1000–1700 (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-09005-9.
  • Cipolla, Carlo M. (ed.) (1993). The Fontana Economic History of Europe, Volume 1: The Middle Ages (2nd ed.). New York: Fontana Books. ISBN 0-85527-159-0. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  • Postan, M.M. (2002). Mediaeval Trade and Finance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52202-1.
  • Pounds, N.J.P. (1994). An Economic History of Medieval Europe (2nd ed.). London and New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-21599-4.

Religion

Arts and sciences

  • Brotton, Jerry (2006). The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280163-5.
  • Burke, Peter (1998). The European Renaissance: Centres and Peripheries (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19845-8.
  • Curtius, Ernest Robert (1991). European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (New ed.). New York: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01899-5.
  • Grant, Edward (1996). The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional, and Intellectual Contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56762-9.
  • Snyder, James (2004). Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575 (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-189564-8.
  • Welch, Evelyn (2000). Art in Renaissance Italy, 1350–1500 (reprint ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-284279-X.
  • Wilson, David Fenwick (1990). Music of the Middle Ages. New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-02-872951-X.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Late Middle Ages.
  • The Medieval and Classical Literature Library: Original sources on the Late Middle Ages
  • Historyteacher.net: Collection of links on the Late Middle Ages in Europe

May 20, 2023
late, middle, ages, late, medieval, period, period, european, history, lasting, from, 1300, 1500, followed, high, middle, ages, preceded, onset, early, modern, period, much, europe, renaissance, europe, mediterranean, region, 1354, western, central, europe, ho. The Late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500 The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period and in much of Europe the Renaissance 1 Europe and the Mediterranean region c 1354 Western Central Europe Holy Roman Empire Kingdom of France Duchy of Gascony Eastern Europe State of the Teutonic Order Poland Duchy of Masovia Wallachia Hungary and Croatia Grand Duchy of Lithuania Russia Siberia Khanate of the Golden Horde G Horde Vassals Genovese Prov Italian peninsula Kingdom of Sicily Kingdom of Naples Papal States Kingdom of Sardinia Republic of Venice Republic of Genoa Iberian peninsula Crown of Aragon Kingdom of Portugal Crown of Castile Kingdom of Navarre Emirate of Granada Nordics Denmark Iceland Norway Sweden British Isles England and Wales Ireland Scotland Balkans West Asia Principality of Achaea Duchy of Athens Byzantine Empire Mamluk Sultanate Serbia Anatolian beyliks Venetian Crete Knights of St John Tsardom of Vidin Second Bulgarian Empire Kingdom of Cyprus Ilkhanate Kingdom of Georgia Empire of Trebizond North Africa Tunis Marinid dynasty Ziyyanid dynasty Hafsid dynasty From the Apocalypse in a Biblia Pauperum illuminated at Erfurt around the time of the Great Famine Death sits astride a lion whose long tail ends in a ball of flame Hell Famine points to her hungry mouth Around 1300 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 2 Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare France and England experienced serious peasant uprisings such as the Jacquerie and the Peasants Revolt as well as over a century of intermittent conflict the Hundred Years War To add to the many problems of the period the unity of the Catholic Church was temporarily shattered by the Western Schism Collectively those events are sometimes called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages 3 Despite the crises the 14th century was also a time of great progress in the arts and sciences Following a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts that took root in the High Middle Ages the Italian Renaissance began The absorption of Latin texts had started before the Renaissance of the 12th century through contact with Arabs during the Crusades but the availability of important Greek texts accelerated with the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks when many Byzantine scholars had to seek refuge in the West particularly Italy 4 Combined with this influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing which facilitated dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning Those two things would later lead to the Reformation Toward the end of the period the Age of Discovery began The expansion of the Ottoman Empire cut off trading possibilities with the East Europeans were forced to seek new trading routes leading to the Spanish expedition under Christopher Columbus to the Americas in 1492 and Vasco da Gama s voyage to Africa and India in 1498 Their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations The changes brought about by these developments have led many scholars to view this period as the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern history and of early modern Europe However the division is somewhat artificial since ancient learning was never entirely absent from European society citation needed As a result there was developmental continuity between the ancient age via classical antiquity and the modern age citation needed Some historians particularly in Italy prefer not to speak of the Late Middle Ages at all but rather see the high period of the Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance and the modern era citation needed Contents 1 Historiography and periodization 2 History 2 1 Northern Europe 2 2 Northwest Europe 2 3 Western Europe 2 4 Central Europe 2 5 Eastern Europe 2 6 Southeast Europe 2 7 Southwest Europe 3 Late Medieval European society 4 Military history 5 Christian conflict and reform 5 1 The Papal Schism 5 2 Protestant Reformation 6 Trade and commerce 7 Arts and sciences 7 1 Philosophy science and technology 7 2 Visual arts and architecture 7 3 Literature 7 4 Music 7 5 Theatre 7 6 After the Middle Ages 8 Ottomans and Europe 9 Timeline 10 Gallery 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References 14 Further reading 14 1 Surveys 14 2 Specific regions 14 3 Society 14 4 The Black Death 14 5 Warfare 14 6 Economy 14 7 Religion 14 8 Arts and sciences 15 External linksHistoriography and periodization EditThe term Late Middle Ages refers to one of the three periods of the Middle Ages along with the Early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages Leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodization in his History of the Florentine People 1442 5 Flavio Biondo used a similar framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire 1439 1453 Tripartite periodization became standard after the German historian Christoph Cellarius published Universal History Divided into an Ancient Medieval and New Period 1683 For 18th century historians studying the 14th and 15th centuries the central theme was the Renaissance with its rediscovery of ancient learning and the emergence of an individual spirit 6 The heart of this rediscovery lies in Italy where in the words of Jacob Burckhardt Man became a spiritual individual and recognized himself as such 7 This proposition was later challenged and it was argued that the 12th century was a period of greater cultural achievement 8 As economic and demographic methods were applied to the study of history the trend was increasingly to see the late Middle Ages as a period of recession and crisis Belgian historian Henri Pirenne continued the subdivision of Early High and Late Middle Ages in the years around World War I 9 Yet it was his Dutch colleague Johan Huizinga who was primarily responsible for popularising the pessimistic view of the Late Middle Ages with his book The Autumn of the Middle Ages 1919 10 To Huizinga whose research focused on France and the Low Countries rather than Italy despair and decline were the main themes not rebirth 11 12 Modern historiography on the period has reached a consensus between the two extremes of innovation and crisis It is now generally acknowledged that conditions were vastly different north and south of the Alps and the term Late Middle Ages is often avoided entirely within Italian historiography 13 The term Renaissance is still considered useful for describing certain intellectual cultural or artistic developments but not as the defining feature of an entire European historical epoch 14 The period from the early 14th century up until and sometimes including the 16th century is rather seen as characterized by other trends demographic and economic decline followed by recovery the end of western religious unity and the subsequent emergence of the nation state and the expansion of European influence onto the rest of the world 14 History EditThe limits of Christian Europe were still being defined in the 14th and 15th centuries While the Grand Duchy of Moscow was beginning to repel the Mongols and the Iberian kingdoms completed the Reconquista of the peninsula and turned their attention outwards the Balkans fell under the dominance of the Ottoman Empire a Meanwhile the remaining nations of the continent were locked in almost constant international or internal conflict 15 The situation gradually led to the consolidation of central authority and the emergence of the nation state 16 The financial demands of war necessitated higher levels of taxation resulting in the emergence of representative bodies most notably the English Parliament 17 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 18 Northern Europe Edit Main articles Denmark in the Middle Ages Norway in the Middle Ages Sweden in the Middle Ages and Kalmar Union After the failed union of Sweden and Norway of 1319 1365 the pan Scandinavian Kalmar Union was instituted in 1397 19 The Swedes were reluctant members of the Danish dominated 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 20 Norway on the other hand became an inferior party of the union and remained united with Denmark until 1814 Iceland benefited from its relative isolation and was the last Scandinavian country to be struck by the Black Death 21 Meanwhile the Norse colony in Greenland died out probably under extreme weather conditions in the 15th century 22 These conditions might have been the effect of the Little Ice Age 23 Northwest Europe Edit Main articles England in the Late Middle Ages Scotland in the Late Middle Ages Wales in the Late Middle Ages and History of Ireland 1169 1536 Further information Hundred Years War Wars of the Roses and Wars of Scottish Independence The Battle of Agincourt 15th century miniature Enguerrand de Monstrelet The death of Alexander III of Scotland in 1286 threw the country into a succession crisis and the English king Edward I was brought in to arbitrate Edward claimed overlordship over Scotland leading to the Wars of Scottish Independence 24 The English were eventually defeated and the Scots were able to develop a stronger state under the Stewarts 25 From 1337 England s attention was largely directed towards France in the Hundred Years War 26 Henry V s victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 briefly paved the way for a unification of the two kingdoms but his son Henry VI soon squandered all previous gains 27 The loss of France led to discontent at home Soon after the end of the war in 1453 the dynastic struggles of the Wars of the Roses c 1455 1485 began involving the rival dynasties of the House of Lancaster and House of York 28 The war ended in the accession of Henry VII of the House of Tudor who continued the work started by the Yorkist kings of building a strong centralized monarchy 29 While England s attention was thus directed elsewhere the Hiberno Norman lords in Ireland were becoming gradually more assimilated into Irish society and the island was allowed to develop virtual independence under English overlordship 30 Western Europe Edit Main articles France in the Middle Ages Duchy of Burgundy and Burgundian Netherlands France in the late 15th century a mosaic of feudal territories The French House of Valois which followed the House of Capet in 1328 was at its outset marginalized in its own country first by the English invading forces of the Hundred Years War and later by the powerful Duchy of Burgundy 31 The emergence of Joan of Arc as a military leader changed the course of war in favour of the French and the initiative was carried further by King Louis XI 32 Meanwhile Charles the Bold Duke of Burgundy met resistance in his attempts to consolidate his possessions particularly from the Swiss Confederation formed in 1291 33 When Charles was killed in the Burgundian Wars at the Battle of Nancy in 1477 the Duchy of Burgundy was reclaimed by France 34 At the same time the County of Burgundy and the wealthy Burgundian Netherlands came into the Holy Roman Empire under Habsburg control setting up conflict for centuries to come 35 Central Europe Edit Main articles Holy Roman Empire Lands of the Bohemian Crown 1348 1526 History of Poland during the Jagiellonian dynasty Old Swiss Confederacy Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Hungary 1301 1526 Silver mining and processing in Kutna Hora Bohemia 15th century Bohemia prospered in the 14th century and the Golden Bull of 1356 made the king of Bohemia first among the imperial electors but the Hussite revolution threw the country into crisis 36 The Holy Roman Empire passed to the House of Habsburg in 1438 where it remained until its dissolution in 1806 37 Yet in spite of the extensive territories held by the Habsburgs the Empire itself remained fragmented and much real power and influence lay with the individual principalities 38 In addition financial institutions such as the Hanseatic League and the Fugger family held great power on both economic and political levels 39 The Kingdom of Hungary experienced a golden age during the 14th century 40 In particular the reigns of the Angevin kings Charles Robert 1308 42 and his son Louis the Great 1342 82 were marked by success 41 The country grew wealthy as the main European supplier of gold and silver 42 Louis the Great led successful campaigns from Lithuania to Southern Italy and from Poland to Northern Greece He had the greatest military potential of the 14th century with his enormous armies often over 100 000 men Meanwhile Poland s attention was turned eastwards as the Commonwealth with Lithuania created an enormous entity in the region 43 The union and the conversion of Lithuania also marked the end of paganism in Europe 44 Ruins of Beckov Castle in Slovakia Louis did not leave a son as heir after his death in 1382 Instead he named as his heir the young prince Sigismund of Luxemburg The Hungarian nobility did not accept his claim and the result was an internal war Sigismund eventually achieved total control of Hungary and established his court in Buda and Visegrad Both palaces were rebuilt and improved and were considered the richest of the time in Europe Inheriting the throne of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire Sigismund continued conducting his politics from Hungary but he was kept busy fighting the Hussites and the Ottoman Empire which was becoming a menace to Europe in the beginning of the 15th century King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary led the largest army of mercenaries of the time the Black Army of Hungary which he used to conquer Bohemia and Austria and to fight the Ottoman Empire After Italy Hungary was the first European country where the Renaissance appeared 45 However the glory of the Kingdom ended in the early 16th century when the King Louis II of Hungary was killed in the Battle of Mohacs in 1526 against the Ottoman Empire Hungary then fell into a serious crisis and was invaded ending its significance in central Europe during the medieval era Eastern Europe Edit Main article Grand Duchy of Moscow Medieval Russian states around 1470 including Novgorod Tver Pskov Ryazan Rostov and Moscow The state of Kievan Rus fell during the 13th century in the Mongol invasion 46 The Grand Duchy of Moscow rose in power thereafter winning a great victory against the Golden Horde at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 47 The victory did not end Tartar rule in the region however and its immediate beneficiary was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania which extended its influence eastwards 48 Under the reign of Ivan the Great 1462 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 49 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 Tsar and Moscow was described as the Third Rome 50 Southeast Europe Edit Main articles Byzantine Empire Second Bulgarian Empire Serbian Empire Albanian principalities and Ottoman Empire Ottoman miniature of the siege of Belgrade in 1456 The Byzantine Empire had for a long time dominated the eastern Mediterranean in politics and culture 51 By the 14th century however it had almost entirely collapsed into a tributary state of the Ottoman Empire centered on the city of Constantinople and a few enclaves in Greece 52 With the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 the Byzantine Empire was permanently extinguished 53 The Bulgarian Empire was in decline by the 14th century and the ascendancy of Serbia was marked by the Serbian victory over the Bulgarians in the Battle of Velbazhd in 1330 54 By 1346 the Serbian king Stefan Dusan had been proclaimed emperor 55 Yet Serbian dominance was short lived the Serbian army led by the Lazar Hrebeljanovic was defeated by the Ottoman Army at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 where most of the Serbian nobility was killed and the south of the country came under Ottoman occupation as much of southern Bulgaria had become Ottoman territory in the Battle of Maritsa 1371 56 Northern remnants of Bulgaria were finally conquered by 1396 Serbia fell in 1459 Bosnia in 1463 and Albania was finally subordinated in 1479 only a few years after the death of Skanderbeg Belgrade a Hungarian domain at the time was the last large Balkan city to fall under Ottoman rule in the siege of Belgrade of 1521 By the end of the medieval period the entire Balkan peninsula was annexed by or became vassal to the Ottomans 56 Southwest Europe Edit Main articles Italy in the Middle Ages Spain in the Middle Ages and Portugal in the Middle Ages Battle of Aljubarrota between Portugal and Castile 1385 Avignon was the seat of the papacy from 1309 to 1376 57 With the return of the Pope to Rome in 1378 the Papal State developed into a major secular power culminating in the morally corrupt papacy of Alexander VI 58 Florence grew to prominence amongst the Italian city states through financial business and the dominant Medici family became important promoters of the Renaissance through their patronage of the arts 59 Other city states in northern Italy also expanded their territories and consolidated their power primarily Milan Venice and Genoa 60 The War of the Sicilian Vespers had by the early 14th century divided southern Italy into an Aragon Kingdom of Sicily and an Anjou Kingdom of Naples 61 In 1442 the two kingdoms were effectively united under Aragonese control 62 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 63 In 1492 Granada was captured from the Moors thereby completing the Reconquista 64 Portugal had during the 15th century particularly under Henry the Navigator gradually explored the coast of Africa and in 1498 Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India 65 The Spanish monarchs met the Portuguese challenge by financing the expedition of Christopher Columbus to find a western sea route to India leading to the discovery of the Americas in 1492 66 Late Medieval European society EditSee also Crisis of the Late Middle Ages Black Death and Little Ice Age Peasants preparing the fields for the winter with a harrow and sowing for the winter grain The background shows the Louvre castle in Paris c 1410 October as depicted in the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry Around 1300 1350 the Medieval Warm Period gave way to the Little Ice Age 67 The colder climate resulted in agricultural crises the first of which is known as the Great Famine of 1315 1317 68 The demographic consequences of this famine however were not as severe as the plagues that occurred later in the century particularly the Black Death 69 Estimates of the death rate caused by this epidemic range from one third to as much as sixty percent 70 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 71 The effects of natural disasters were exacerbated by armed conflicts this was particularly the case in France during the Hundred Years War 72 It took 150 years for the European population to regain similar levels of 1300 73 As the European population was severely reduced land became more plentiful for the survivors and labour consequently more expensive 74 Attempts by landowners to forcibly reduce wages such as the English 1351 Statute of Laborers were doomed to fail 75 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 76 The long term effect was the virtual end of serfdom in Western Europe 77 In Eastern Europe on the other hand landowners were able to exploit the situation to force the peasantry into even more repressive bondage 78 The upheavals caused by the Black Death left certain minority groups particularly vulnerable especially the Jews 79 who were often blamed for the calamities Anti Jewish pogroms were carried out all over Europe in February 1349 2 000 Jews were murdered in Strasbourg 80 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 81 While the Jews were suffering persecution one group that probably experienced increased empowerment in the Late Middle Ages was women The great social changes of the period opened up new possibilities for women in the fields of commerce learning and religion 82 Yet at the same time women were also vulnerable to incrimination and persecution as belief in witchcraft increased 82 The accumulation of social environmental and health related problems also led an increase of interpersonal violence in most parts of Europe Population increase religious intolerance famine and disease led to an increase in violent acts in vast parts of the medieval society One exception to this was North Eastern Europe whose population managed to maintain low levels of violence due to a more organized society resulting from extensive and successful trade 83 Up until the mid 14th century Europe had experienced steadily increasing urbanisation 84 Cities were also decimated by the Black Death but the role of urban areas as centres of learning commerce and government ensured continued growth 85 By 1500 Venice Milan Naples Paris and Constantinople each probably had more than 100 000 inhabitants 86 Twenty two other cities were larger than 40 000 most of these were in Italy and the Iberian peninsula but there were also some in France the Empire the Low Countries plus London in England 86 Military history EditMain article Medieval warfare Medieval warfare Miniature of the Battle of Crecy 1346 Manuscript of Jean Froissart s Chronicles The Hundred Years War was the scene of many military innovations Through battles such as Courtrai 1302 Bannockburn 1314 and Morgarten 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 87 Through the Welsh Wars the English became acquainted with and adopted the highly efficient longbow 88 Once properly managed this weapon gave them a great advantage over the French in the Hundred Years War 89 The introduction of gunpowder affected the conduct of war significantly 90 Though employed by the English as early as the Battle of Crecy in 1346 firearms initially had little effect in the field of battle 91 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 92 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 93 The practice was associated with Edward III of England and the condottieri of the Italian city states 94 All over Europe Swiss soldiers were in particularly high demand 95 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 96 Parallel to the military developments emerged also a constantly more elaborate chivalric code of conduct for the warrior class 97 This new found ethos can be seen as a response to the diminishing military role of the aristocracy and gradually it became almost entirely detached from its military origin 98 The spirit of chivalry was given expression through the new secular 99 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 100 Christian conflict and reform EditThe Papal Schism Edit Main article Western Schism The French crown s increasing dominance over the Papacy culminated in the transference of the Holy See to Avignon in 1309 101 When the Pope returned to Rome in 1377 this led to the election of different popes in Avignon and Rome resulting in the Papal Schism 1378 1417 102 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 103 At the Council of Constance 1414 1418 the Papacy was once more united in Rome 104 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 105 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 106 Protestant Reformation Edit Main articles Reformation Hussites and Lollardy Jan Hus burnt at the stake Though many of the events were outside the traditional time period of the Middle Ages the end of the unity of the Western Church the Protestant Reformation was one of the distinguishing characteristics of the medieval period 14 The Catholic Church had long fought against heretic movements but during the Late Middle Ages it started to experience demands for reform from within 107 The first of these came from Oxford professor John Wycliffe in England 108 Wycliffe held that the Bible should be the only authority in religious questions and he spoke out against transubstantiation celibacy and indulgences 109 In spite of influential supporters among the English aristocracy such as John of Gaunt the movement was not allowed to survive Though Wycliffe himself was left unmolested his supporters the Lollards were eventually suppressed in England 110 The marriage of Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia established contacts between the two nations and brought Lollard ideas to her homeland 111 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 112 Hus gained a great following in Bohemia and in 1414 he was requested to appear at the Council of Constance to defend his cause 113 When he was burned as a heretic in 1415 it caused a popular uprising in the Czech lands 114 The subsequent Hussite Wars fell apart due to internal quarrels and did not result in religious or national independence for the Czechs but both the Catholic Church and the German element within the country were weakened 115 Martin Luther a German monk started the German Reformation by posting 95 theses on the castle church of Wittenberg on October 31 1517 116 The immediate provocation spurring this act was Pope Leo X s renewal of the indulgence for the building of the new St Peter s Basilica in 1514 117 Luther was challenged to recant his heresy at the Diet of Worms in 1521 118 When he refused he was placed under the ban of the Empire by Charles V 119 Receiving the protection of Frederick the Wise he was then able to translate the Bible into German 120 To many secular rulers the Protestant reformation was a welcome opportunity to expand their wealth and influence 121 The Catholic Church met the challenges of the reforming movements with what has been called the Catholic Reformation or Counter Reformation 122 Europe became split into northern Protestant and southern Catholic parts resulting in the Religious Wars of the 16th and 17th centuries 123 Trade and commerce EditMedieval merchant routes Main trade routes of late medieval Europe Hansa Venetian Genoese Venetian and Genoese stippled Overland and river routesThe 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 124 Portuguese and Spanish explorers found new trade routes south of Africa to India and across the Atlantic Ocean to America 125 As Genoese and Venetian merchants opened up direct sea routes with Flanders the Champagne fairs lost much of their importance 126 At the same time English wool export shifted from raw wool to processed cloth resulting in losses for the cloth manufacturers of the Low Countries 127 In the Baltic and North Sea the Hanseatic League reached the peak of their power in the 14th century but started going into decline in the fifteenth 128 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 129 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 130 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 131 The beneficiaries of these developments would accumulate immense wealth Families like the Fuggers in Germany the Medicis in Italy the de la Poles in England and individuals like Jacques Coeur in France would help finance the wars of kings and achieve great political influence in the process 132 Though there is no doubt that the demographic crisis of the 14th century caused a dramatic fall in production and commerce in absolute terms there has been a vigorous historical debate over whether the decline was greater than the fall in population 133 While the older orthodoxy held that the artistic output of the Renaissance was a result of greater opulence more recent studies have suggested that there might have been a so called depression of the Renaissance 134 In spite of convincing arguments for the case the statistical evidence is simply too incomplete for a definite conclusion to be made 135 Arts and sciences EditIn 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 on by impulses from Byzantine scholars who had to seek refuge in the west after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 136 In science classical authorities like Aristotle were challenged for the first time since antiquity Within the arts humanism took the form of the Renaissance Though the 15th century Renaissance was a highly localised phenomenon limited mostly to the city states of northern Italy artistic developments were taking place also further north particularly in the Netherlands a Philosophy science and technology Edit Main articles Medieval philosophy History of science in the Middle Ages and Medieval technology European output of manuscripts 500 1500 The rising trend in medieval book production saw its continuation in the period 137 The predominant school of thought in the 13th century was the Thomistic reconciliation of the teachings of Aristotle with Christian theology 138 The Condemnation of 1277 enacted at the University of Paris placed restrictions on ideas that could be interpreted as heretical restrictions that had implication for Aristotelian thought 139 An alternative was presented by William of Ockham following the manner of the earlier Franciscan John Duns Scotus who insisted that the world of reason and the world of faith had to be kept apart Ockham introduced the principle of parsimony or Occam s razor whereby a simple theory is preferred to a more complex one and speculation on unobservable phenomena is avoided 140 This maxim is however often misquoted Occam was referring to his nominalism in this quotation Essentially saying the theory of absolutes or metaphysical realism was unnecessary to make sense of the world This new approach liberated scientific speculation from the dogmatic restraints of Aristotelian science and paved the way for new approaches Particularly within the field of theories of motion great advances were made when such scholars as Jean Buridan Nicole Oresme and the Oxford Calculators challenged the work of Aristotle 141 Buridan developed the theory of impetus as the cause of the motion of projectiles which was an important step towards the modern concept of inertia 142 The works of these scholars anticipated the heliocentric worldview of Nicolaus Copernicus 143 Certain technological inventions of the period whether of Arab or Chinese origin or unique European innovations were to have great influence on political and social developments in particular gunpowder the printing press and the compass The introduction of gunpowder to the field of battle affected not only military organisation but helped advance the nation state Gutenberg s movable type printing press made possible not only the Reformation but also a dissemination of knowledge that would lead to a gradually more egalitarian society The compass along with other innovations such as the cross staff the mariner s astrolabe and advances in shipbuilding enabled the navigation of the World Oceans and the early phases of colonialism 144 Other inventions had a greater impact on everyday life such as eyeglasses and the weight driven clock 145 Visual arts and architecture Edit Main articles Medieval art and Medieval architecture Urban dwelling house late 15th century Halberstadt Germany 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 a three dimensional reality and to endow his characters with true human emotions 146 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 147 The period saw several important technical innovations like the principle of linear perspective found in the work of Masaccio and later described by Brunelleschi 148 Greater realism was also achieved through the scientific study of anatomy championed by artists like Donatello 149 This can be seen particularly well in his sculptures inspired by the study of classical models 150 As the centre of the movement shifted to Rome the period culminated in the High Renaissance masters da Vinci Michelangelo and Raphael 151 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 152 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 153 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 154 In northern European countries Gothic architecture remained the norm and the gothic cathedral was further elaborated 155 In Italy on the other hand architecture took a different direction also here inspired by classical ideals The crowning work of the period was the Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence with Giotto s clock tower Ghiberti s baptistery gates and Brunelleschi s cathedral dome of unprecedented proportions 156 Literature Edit Further information Medieval literature Dante by Domenico di Michelino from a fresco painted in 1465 The most important development of late medieval literature was the ascendancy of the vernacular languages 157 The vernacular had been in use in England since the 8th century and France since the 11th century where the most popular genres had been the chanson de geste troubadour lyrics and romantic epics or the romance 158 Though Italy was later in evolving a native literature in the vernacular language it was here that the most important developments of the period were to come 159 Dante Alighieri s Divine Comedy written in the early 14th century merged a medieval world view with classical ideals 160 Another promoter of the Italian language was Boccaccio with his Decameron 161 The application of the vernacular did not entail a rejection of Latin and both Dante and Boccaccio wrote prolifically in Latin as well as Italian as would Petrarch later whose Canzoniere also promoted the vernacular and whose contents are considered the first modern lyric poems 162 Together the three poets established the Tuscan dialect as the norm for the modern Italian language 163 The new literary style spread rapidly and in France influenced such writers as Eustache Deschamps and Guillaume de Machaut 164 In England Geoffrey Chaucer helped establish Middle English as a literary language with his Canterbury Tales which contained a wide variety of narrators and stories including some translated from Boccaccio 165 The spread of vernacular literature eventually reached as far as Bohemia and the Baltic Slavic and Byzantine worlds 166 Music Edit Main article Medieval music A musician plays the vielle in a fourteenth century Medieval manuscript Music was an important part of both secular and spiritual culture and in the universities it made up part of the quadrivium of the liberal arts 167 From the early 13th century the dominant sacred musical form had been the motet a composition with text in several parts 168 From the 1330s and onwards emerged the polyphonic style which was a more complex fusion of independent voices 169 Polyphony had been common in the secular music of the Provencal troubadours Many of these had fallen victim to the 13th century Albigensian Crusade but their influence reached the papal court at Avignon 170 The main representatives of the new style often referred to as ars nova as opposed to the ars antiqua were the composers Philippe de Vitry and Guillaume de Machaut 171 In Italy where the Provencal troubadours had also found refuge the corresponding period goes under the name of trecento and the leading composers were Giovanni da Cascia Jacopo da Bologna and Francesco Landini 172 Prominent reformer of Orthodox Church music from the first half of 14th century was John Kukuzelis he also introduced a system of notation widely used in the Balkans in the following centuries Theatre Edit Main article Medieval theatre In the British Isles plays were produced in some 127 different towns during the Middle Ages These vernacular Mystery plays were written in cycles of a large number of plays York 48 plays Chester 24 Wakefield 32 and Unknown 42 A larger number of plays survive from France and Germany in this period and some type of religious dramas were performed in nearly every European country in the Late Middle Ages Many of these plays contained comedy devils villains and clowns 173 Morality plays emerged as a distinct dramatic form around 1400 and flourished until 1550 an example being The Castle of Perseverance which depicts mankind s progress from birth to death Another famous morality play is Everyman Everyman receives Death s summons struggles to escape and finally resigns himself to necessity Along the way he is deserted by Kindred Goods and Fellowship only Good Deeds goes with him to the grave At the end of the Late Middle Ages professional actors began to appear in England and Europe Richard III and Henry VII both maintained small companies of professional actors Their plays were performed in the Great Hall of a nobleman s residence often with a raised platform at one end for the audience and a screen at the other for the actors Also important were Mummers plays performed during the Christmas season and court masques These masques were especially popular during the reign of Henry VIII who had a House of Revels built and an Office of Revels established in 1545 174 The end of medieval drama came about due to a number of factors including the weakening power of the Catholic Church the Protestant Reformation and the banning of religious plays in many countries Elizabeth I forbid all religious plays in 1558 and the great cycle plays had been silenced by the 1580s Similarly religious plays were banned in the Netherlands in 1539 the Papal States in 1547 and in Paris in 1548 The abandonment of these plays destroyed the international theatre that had thereto existed and forced each country to develop its own form of drama It also allowed dramatists to turn to secular subjects and the reviving interest in Greek and Roman theatre provided them with the perfect opportunity 174 After the Middle Ages Edit Main article Early modern period After the end of the late Middle Ages period the Renaissance spread unevenly over continental Europe from the southern European region The intellectual transformation of the Renaissance is viewed as a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Modern era Europeans would later begin an era of world discovery Combined with the influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing which facilitated dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning These two things would lead to the Protestant Reformation Europeans also discovered new trading routes as was the case with Columbus travel to the Americas in 1492 and Vasco da Gama s circumnavigation of Africa and India in 1498 Their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations Ottomans and Europe EditMain article Ottoman wars in Europe Ottomans and Europe Saint John of Capistrano and the Hungarian armies fighting the Ottoman Empire at the Siege of Belgrade in 1456 King Matthias Corvinus s Black Army Campaign By the end of the 15th century the Ottoman Empire had advanced all over Southeastern Europe eventually conquering the Byzantine Empire and extending control over the Balkan states Hungary was the last bastion of the Latin Christian world in the East and fought to keep its rule over a period of two centuries After the death of the young king Vladislaus I of Hungary during the Battle of Varna in 1444 against the Ottomans the Kingdom was placed in the hands of count John Hunyadi who became Hungary s regent governor 1446 1453 Hunyadi was considered one of the most relevant military figures of the 15th century Pope Pius II awarded him the title of Athleta Christi or Champion of Christ for being the only hope of resisting the Ottomans from advancing to Central and Western Europe Hunyadi succeeded during the Siege of Belgrade in 1456 against the Ottomans the biggest victory against that empire in decades This battle became a real Crusade against the Muslims as the peasants were motivated by the Franciscan friar Saint John of Capistrano who came from Italy predicating Holy War The effect that it created in that time was one of the main factors that helped in achieving the victory However the premature death of the Hungarian Lord left Pannonia defenseless and in chaos In an extremely unusual event for the Middle Ages Hunyadi s son Matthias was elected as King of Hungary by the Hungarian nobility For the first time a member of an aristocratic family and not from a royal family was crowned King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary 1458 1490 was one of the most prominent figures of the period directing campaigns to the West conquering Bohemia in answer to the Pope s call for help against the Hussite Protestants Also in resolving political hostilities with the German emperor Frederick III of Habsburg he invaded his western domains Matthew organized the Black Army of mercenary soldiers it was considered as the biggest army of its time Using this powerful tool the Hungarian king led wars against the Turkish armies and stopped the Ottomans during his reign After the death of Matthew and with end of the Black Army the Ottoman Empire grew in strength and Central Europe was defenseless At the Battle of Mohacs the forces of the Ottoman Empire annihilated the Hungarian army and Louis II of Hungary drowned in the Csele Creek while trying to escape The leader of the Hungarian army Pal Tomori also died in the battle This is considered to be one of the final battles of Medieval times Timeline EditMain article Timeline of the Middle Ages Dates are approximate consult particular articles for details Middle Ages Themes Other themes See also Universal history 14th century Main article 14th century 1305 William Wallace was executed 1307 The Knights Templar were destroyed 1309 Beginning of Avignon papacy 1310 Dante began Divine Comedy 1314 Battle of Bannockburn 1315 1317 Great Famine 1321 1328 Byzantine civil war 1328 First War of Scottish Independence ends 1337 The Hundred Years War begins 1346 Stephen Dusan established a short lived Serbian Empire 1347 The Black Death begins 1347 University of Prague was founded 1348 Giovanni Villani finishes work on Nuova Cronica 1348 1349 Byzantine Genoese War 1364 Jagiellonian University was founded 1371 Battle of Maritsa first substantial Ottoman victory in Europe partition of Bulgaria 1376 Avignon Papacy ended 1380 Battle of Kulikovo 1380 The Canterbury Tales 1381 Peasants Revolt England 1381 John Wycliffe translated the Bible 1385 Union of Krewo initiation of the Polish Lithuanian union 1385 Battle of Aljubarrota 1386 University of Heidelberg was founded 1389 Battle of Kosovo Serbian and Bosnian forces defeated by the Ottomans 1342 1392 Partitioning of the Kingdom of Rus Galicia between Poland and Lithuania Galicia Volhynia Wars 1396 Battle of Nicopolis and first Ottoman conquest in Europe 1397 Kalmar Union 15th century Main article 15th century 1402 Battle of Ankara 1409 Venetian Dalmatia 1410 Battle of Grunwald 1415 Conquest of Ceuta 1415 Battle of Agincourt 1415 Jan Hus was burned at the stake 1417 The Council of Constance 1419 1434 Hussite Wars in Bohemia 1429 Battle of Orleans 1431 Joan of Arc was burned at the stake 1434 The Medici family in Florence 1439 Johannes Gutenberg first used movable type printing in Europe 1444 Battle of Varna 1445 Battle of Suzdal 1453 Constantinople falls to Ottoman conquest 1455 Gutenberg Bible printed in Mainz 1456 Siege of Belgrade 1461 The Empire of Trebizond fell to the Turks 1469 Catholic Monarchs 1470 Battle of Lipnic 1474 1477 Burgundian Wars 1478 Muscovy conquered Novgorod 1478 The Catholic Monarchs established the Spanish Inquisition 1479 Battle of Breadfield 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River The end of the Tatar Mongol yoke over the Russian principalities 1485 Thomas Malory Le Morte d Arthur 1492 Alhambra Decree 1492 Reconquista ended with the fall of Granada 1492 Christopher Columbus reached the New World 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas 1497 1498 Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama s first voyage reached India after circumnavigating Africa 1499 Battle of ZonchioGallery Edit Peasants in fieldsTres Riches Heures Joan of Arc Hundred Years War Charles I Kingdom of Hungary Jan Hus Bohemian Reformation See also Edit Middle Ages portal History portalList of basic medieval history topics Timeline of the Middle Ages Church and state in medieval Europe Jews in the Middle AgesNotes Edit a b For references see below References Edit Wallace K Ferguson Europe in transition 1300 1520 1962 online Austin Alchon Suzanne 2003 A pest in the land new world epidemics in a global perspective University of New Mexico Press p 21 ISBN 0 8263 2871 7 Norman Cantor The Civilization of the Middle Ages 1994 p 480 Cantor p 594 Leonardo Bruni James Hankins History of the Florentine people Volume 1 Books 1 4 2001 p xvii Brady et al p xiv Cantor p 529 Burckhardt Jacob 1860 The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy p 121 ISBN 0 06 090460 7 Haskins Charles Homer 1927 The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century Cambridge Massachusetts Harvard University Press ISBN 0 19 821934 2 Les periodes de l histoire du capitalisme Academie Royale de Belgique Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres 1914 Huizinga Johan 1924 The Waning of the Middle Ages A Study of the Forms of Life Thought and Art in France and the Netherlands in the XIVth and XVth Centuries London E Arnold ISBN 0 312 85540 0 Allmand ed The New Cambridge Medieval History vol 7 c 1415 c 1500 1998 p 299 Norman Cantor The Civilization of the Middle Ages 1994 p 530 Le Goff p 154 See e g Najemy John M 2004 Italy in the Age of the Renaissance 1300 1550 Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 870040 7 a b c Brady et al p xvii Allmand 1998 p 3 Holmes p 294 Koenigsberger pp 299 300 Brady et al p xvii Jones p 21 Allmand 1998 p 29 Cantor p 514 Koenigsberger pp 300 303 Brady et al p xvii Holmes p 276 Ozment p 4 Hollister p 366 Jones p 722 Allmand 1998 p 703 Allmand 1998 p 673 Allmand 1998 p 193 Alan Cutler 1997 08 13 The Little Ice Age When global cooling gripped the world The Washington Post Archived from the original on 2019 10 22 Retrieved 2008 03 12 Jones pp 348 349 Jones pp 350 351 Koenigsberger p 232 McKisack p 40 Jones p 351 Allmand 1998 p 458 Koenigsberger p 309 Allmand 1998 p 458 Nicholas pp 32 33 Hollister p 353 Jones pp 488 492 McKisack pp 228 229 Hollister p 355 Holmes pp 288 289 Koenigsberger p 304 Duby pp 288 293 Holmes p 300 Allmand 1998 pp 450 455 Jones pp 528 529 Allmand 1998 p 455 Hollister p 355 Koenigsberger p 304 Allmand 1998 p 455 Hollister p 363 Koenigsberger pp 306 307 Holmes pp 311 312 Wandycz p 40 Hollister p 362 Holmes p 280 Cantor p 507 Hollister p 362 Allmand 1998 pp 152 153 Cantor p 508 Koenigsberger p 345 Wandycz p 38 Wandycz p 40 Jones p 737 Koenigsberger p 318 Wandycz p 41 Jones p 7 Louis A Waldman Peter Farbaky Louis Alexander Waldman 2011 Italy amp Hungary Humanism and Art in the Early Renaissance Villa I Tatti ISBN 978 0 674 06346 4 Martin pp 100 101 Koenigsberger p 322 Jones p 793 Martin pp 236 237 Martin p 239 Allmand 1998 p 754 Koenigsberger p 323 Allmand p 769 Hollister p 368 Hollister p 49 Allmand 1998 pp 771 774 Mango p 248 Hollister p 99 Koenigsberger p 340 Jones pp 796 797 Jones p 875 a b Hollister p 360 Koenigsberger p 339 Hollister p 338 Allmand 1998 p 586 Hollister p 339 Holmes p 260 Allmand pp 150 155 Cantor p 544 Hollister p 326 Allmand 1998 p 547 Hollister p 363 Holmes p 258 Cantor p 511 Hollister p 264 Koenigsberger p 255 Allmand 1998 p 577 Hollister p 356 Koenigsberger p 314 Allmand 1998 p 162 Hollister p 99 Holmes p 265 Allmand 1998 p 192 Cantor 513 Cantor 513 Holmes pp 266 267 Grove Jean M 2003 The Little Ice Age London Routledge ISBN 0 415 01449 2 Jones p 88 Harvey Barbara F 1991 Introduction The Crisis of the Early Fourteenth Century In Campbell B M S ed Before the Black Death Studies in The Crisis of the Early Fourteenth Century Manchester Manchester University Press pp 1 24 ISBN 0 7190 3208 3 Jones pp 136 8 Cantor p 482 Herlihy 1997 p 17 Jones p 9 Hollister p 347 World History in Context Document The Late Middle Ages Retrieved 19 September 2018 Duby p 270 Koenigsberger p 284 McKisack p 334 Koenigsberger p 285 Cantor p 484 Hollister p 332 Holmes p 303 Cantor p 564 Hollister pp 332 333 Koenigsberger p 285 Hollister pp 332 333 Jones p 15 Chazan p 194 Hollister p 330 Holmes p 255 Brady et al pp 266 267 Chazan pp 166 232 Koenigsberger p 251 a b Klapisch Zuber p 268 Baten Joerg Steckel Richard H 2019 The History of Violence in Europe Evidence from Cranial and Postcranial Bone Traumata The Backbone of Europe Health Diet Work and Violence over Two Millennia 300 324 Hollister p 323 Holmes p 304 Jones p 164 Koenigsberger p 343 a b Allmand 1998 p 125 Jones p 350 McKisack p 39 Verbruggen p 111 Allmand 1988 p 59 Cantor p 467 McKisack p 240 Verbruggen pp 171 2 Contamine pp 139 40 Jones pp 11 2 Contamine pp 198 200 Allmand 1998 p 169 Contamine pp 200 7 Cantor p 515 Contamine pp 150 65 Holmes p 261 McKisack p 234 Contamine pp 124 135 Contamine pp 165 72 Holmes p 300 Cantor p 349 Holmes pp 319 20 Hollister p 336 CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA Chivalry Archived from the original on 2018 01 09 Retrieved 2010 01 26 Cantor p 537 Jones p 209 McKisack p 251 Cantor p 496 Cantor p 497 Hollister p 338 Holmes p 309 Hollister p 338 Koenigsberger p 326 Ozment p 158 Cantor p 498 Ozment p 164 Koenigsberger pp 327 8 MacCulloch p 34 Hollister p 339 Holmes p 260 Koenigsberger pp 327 8 A famous account of the nature and suppression of a heretic movement is Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie s Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie 1978 Montaillou Cathars and Catholics in a French Village 1294 1324 London Scolar Press ISBN 0 85967 403 7 MacCulloch p 34 5 Allmand 1998 p 15 Cantor pp 499 500 Koenigsberger p 331 Allmand 1998 pp 15 6 MacCulloch p 35 Holmes p 312 MacCulloch pp 35 6 Ozment p 165 Allmand 1998 p 16 Cantor p 500 Allmand 1998 p 377 Koenigsberger p 332 Koenigsberger p 332 MacCulloch p 36 Allmand 1998 p 353 Hollister p 344 Koenigsberger p 332 3 MacCulloch p 115 MacCulloch pp 70 117 MacCulloch p 127 Ozment p 245 MacCulloch p 128 Ozment p 246 Allmand 1998 pp 16 7 Cantor pp 500 1 MacCulloch p 107 Ozment p 397 MacCulloch p 266 Ozment pp 259 60 Allmand 1998 pp 159 60 Pounds pp 467 8 Hollister pp 334 5 Cipolla 1976 p 275 Koenigsberger p 295 Pounds p 361 Cipolla 1976 p 283 Koenigsberger p 297 Pounds pp 378 81 Cipolla 1976 p 275 Cipolla 1994 p 203 234 Pounds pp 387 8 Koenigsberger p 226 Pounds p 407 Cipolla 1976 pp 318 29 Cipolla 1994 pp 160 4 Holmes p 235 Jones pp 176 81 Koenigsberger p 226 Pounds pp 407 27 Jones p 121 Pearl pp 299 300 Koenigsberger pp 286 291 Allmand 1998 pp 150 3 Holmes p 304 Koenigsberger p 299 McKisack p 160 Pounds p 483 Cipolla C M 1964 Economic depression of the Renaissance Economic History Review xvi 3 519 24 doi 10 2307 2592852 JSTOR 2592852 Pounds pp 484 5 Allmand 1998 pp 243 54 Cantor p 594 Nicholas p 156 Buringh Eltjo van Zanden Jan Luiten Charting the Rise of the West Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe A Long Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries The Journal of Economic History Vol 69 No 2 2009 pp 409 445 416 table 1 Jones p 42 Koenigsberger p 242 Hans Thijssen 2003 Condemnation of 1277 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Archived from the original on 2017 03 11 Retrieved 2008 04 21 Grant p 142 Nicholas p 134 Grant pp 100 3 149 164 5 Grant pp 95 7 Grant pp 112 3 Jones pp 11 2 Koenigsberger pp 297 8 Nicholas p 165 Grant p 160 Koenigsberger p 297 Cantor p 433 Koenigsberger p 363 Allmand 1998 p 155 Brotton p 27 Burke p 24 Koenigsberger p 363 Nicholas p 161 Allmand 1998 p 253 Cantor p 556 Cantor p 554 Nichols pp 159 60 Brotton p 67 Burke p 69 Allmand 1998 p 269 Koenigsberger p 376 Allmand 1998 p 302 Cantor p 539 Burke p 250 Nicholas p 161 Allmand 1998 pp 300 1 Hollister p 375 Allmand 1998 p 305 Cantor p 371 Jones p 8 Cantor p 346 Curtius p 387 Koenigsberger p 368 Cantor p 546 Curtius pp 351 378 Curtius p 396 Koenigsberger p 368 Jones p 258 Curtius p 26 Jones p 258 Koenigsberger p 368 Koenigsberger p 369 Jones p 264 Curtius p 35 Jones p 264 Jones p 9 Allmand p 319 Grant p 14 Koenigsberger p 382 Allmand p 322 Wilson p 229 Wilson pp 229 289 90 327 Koenigsberger p 381 Wilson p 329 Koenigsberger p 383 Wilson p 329 Wilson pp 357 8 361 2 Brockett and Hildy 2003 86 a b Brockett and Hildy 2003 101 103 Further reading EditSurveys Edit Jones Michael ed 2000 The New Cambridge Medieval History Volume 6 c 1300 c 1415 Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 13905574 1 Allmand Christopher ed 1998 The New Cambridge Medieval History Volume 7 c 1415 c 1500 Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 13905575 8 Brady Thomas A Jr Heiko A Oberman James D Tracy eds 1994 Handbook of European History 1400 1600 Late Middle Ages Renaissance and Reformation Leiden New York E J Brill ISBN 90 04 09762 7 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a first has generic name help Cantor Norman 1994 The Civilization of the Middle Ages New York Harper Perennial ISBN 0 06 017033 6 Ferguson Wallace K Europe in transition 1300 1520 1962 online Hay Denys 1988 Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries 2nd ed London Longman ISBN 0 582 49179 7 Hollister C Warren 2005 Medieval Europe A Short History 10th ed McGraw Hill Higher Education ISBN 0 07 295515 5 Holmes George ed 2001 The Oxford History of Medieval Europe New ed Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 280133 3 Keen Maurice 1991 The Penguin History of Medieval Europe New ed London Penguin Books ISBN 0 14 013630 4 Koenigsberger H G Medieval Europe 400 1500 1987 excerpt Le Goff Jacques 2005 The Birth of Europe 400 1500 WileyBlackwell ISBN 0 631 22888 8 Waley Daniel Denley Peter 2001 Later Medieval Europe 1250 1520 3rd ed London Longman ISBN 0 582 25831 6 Specific regions Edit Abulafia David 1997 The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms The Struggle for Dominion 1200 1500 London Longman ISBN 0 582 07820 2 Duby Georges 1993 France in the Middle Ages 987 1460 From Hugh Capet to Joan of Arc New ed WileyBlackwell ISBN 0 631 18945 9 Fine John V A Jr 1994 1987 The Late Medieval Balkans A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest Ann Arbor Michigan University of Michigan Press ISBN 0 472 08260 4 Jacob E F 1961 The Fifteenth Century 1399 1485 Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 821714 5 McKisack May 1959 The Fourteenth Century 1307 1399 Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 821712 9 Mango Cyril ed 2002 The Oxford History of Byzantium Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 814098 3 Martin Janet 2007 Medieval Russia 980 1584 2nd ed Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 85916 5 Najemy John M ed 2004 Italy in the Age of the Renaissance 1300 1550 New ed Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 870040 7 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a first has generic name help Wandycz Piotr 2001 The Price of Freedom A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present 2nd ed London Routledge ISBN 0 415 25491 4 Society Edit Behrens Abouseif Doris 1994 Cairo of the Mamluks A History of Architecture and its Culture Reprint ed Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press ISBN 0 472 08260 4 Chazan Robert 2006 The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom 1000 1500 Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 61664 6 Herlihy David 1985 Medieval Households Cambridge Massachusetts London Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 56375 1 Herlihy David 1968 Medieval Culture and Society London Macmillan ISBN 0 88133 747 1 Jordan William Chester 1996 The Great Famine Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century New Jersey Princeton University Press ISBN 0 691 01134 6 Klapisch Zuber Christiane 1994 A history of women in the West New ed Cambridge Massachusetts London Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 40368 1 The Black Death Edit Benedictow Ole J 2004 The Black Death 1346 1353 The Complete History Woodbridge Boydell Press ISBN 0 85115 943 5 Herlihy David 1997 The Black Death and the transformation of the West Cambridge Massachusetts London Harvard University Press ISBN 0 7509 3202 3 Horrox Rosemary 1994 The Black Death Manchester Manchester University Press ISBN 0 7190 3497 3 Shillington Kevin 2004 Encyclopedia of African History Volume 1 1st ed Taylor amp Francis Inc Cambridge University Press ISBN 9781579582456 Ziegler Philip 2003 The Black Death New ed Sutton Sutton Publishing Ltd ISBN 0 7509 3202 3 Warfare Edit Allmand Christopher 1988 The Hundred Years War England and France at War c 1300 c 1450 Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 31923 4 Chase Kenneth 2003 Firearms A Global History to 1700 Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521822749 Contamine Philippe 1984 War in the Middle Ages Oxford Blackwell ISBN 0 631 13142 6 Curry Anne 1993 The Hundred Years War Basingstoke Macmillan ISBN 0 333 53175 2 Davis Paul K 2001 100 Decisive Battles From Ancient Times to the Present Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0195143663 Keen Maurice 1984 Chivalry New Haven Yale University Press ISBN 0 300 03150 5 Verbruggen J F 1997 The Art of Warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages From the Eighth Century to 1340 2nd ed Woodbridge Boydell Press ISBN 0 85115 630 4 Economy Edit Cipolla Carlo M 1993 Before the Industrial Revolution European Society and Economy 1000 1700 3rd ed London Routledge ISBN 0 415 09005 9 Cipolla Carlo M ed 1993 The Fontana Economic History of Europe Volume 1 The Middle Ages 2nd ed New York Fontana Books ISBN 0 85527 159 0 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a first has generic name help Postan M M 2002 Mediaeval Trade and Finance Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 52202 1 Pounds N J P 1994 An Economic History of Medieval Europe 2nd ed London and New York Longman ISBN 0 582 21599 4 Religion Edit Kenny Anthony 1985 Wyclif Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 287647 3 MacCulloch Diarmaid 2005 The Reformation Penguin ISBN 0 14 303538 X Ozment Steven E 1980 The Age of Reform 1250 1550 An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe New Haven and London Yale University Press ISBN 0 300 02477 0 Smith John H 1970 The Great Schism 1378 London Hamilton ISBN 0 241 01520 0 Southern R W 1970 Western society and the Church in the Middle Ages Harmondsworth Penguin Books ISBN 0 14 020503 9 Arts and sciences Edit Brotton Jerry 2006 The Renaissance A Very Short Introduction Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 280163 5 Burke Peter 1998 The European Renaissance Centres and Peripheries 2nd ed Oxford Blackwell ISBN 0 631 19845 8 Curtius Ernest Robert 1991 European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages New ed New York Princeton University Press ISBN 0 691 01899 5 Grant Edward 1996 The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages Their Religious Institutional and Intellectual Contexts Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 56762 9 Snyder James 2004 Northern Renaissance Art Painting Sculpture the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575 2nd ed Prentice Hall ISBN 0 13 189564 8 Welch Evelyn 2000 Art in Renaissance Italy 1350 1500 reprint ed Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 284279 X Wilson David Fenwick 1990 Music of the Middle Ages New York Schirmer Books ISBN 0 02 872951 X 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