THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
Medieval European society reached its high point in the 1200s. However,
everything changed in the 1300s when a series of disastrous forces overwhelmed
Europe. The Black Death spread, killing over one-third of the population. People’s faith
in the papacy was undermined when the Great Schism rocked the Catholic Church.
Then, the Hundred Years’ War started. Recovery began in the 1400s, and rulers
responded by establishing their “new” monarchies.
The Black Death
The Middle Ages in Europe had reached a high point in the 1200s. In the 1300s,
however, some disastrous changes took place. Especially catastrophic was the Black
Death, the most devastating natural disaster in European history. One observer wrote
that “father abandoned child, wife [abandoned] husband, one brother [abandoned]
another, for the plague seemed to strike through breath and sight. And so they died.
And no one could be found to bury the dead, for money or friendship.”
The Plague Spreads
Bubonic plague was the most common form of the Black Death. It was spread
by black rats infested with fleas carrying a deadly bacterium. Italian merchants brought
the plague with them from Caffa, on the Black Sea, to the island of Sicily in October
1347. The plague had spread to southern Italy and southern France by the end of
1347. Usually, the path of the Black Death followed trade routes. In 1348 and 1349,
the plague spread through France, the Low Countries (modern Belgium, Luxembourg,
and the Netherlands), and Germany. It ravaged England in 1349 and expanded to
northern Europe and Scandinavia. Eastern Europe and Russia were affected by 1351.
Out of a total European population of 75 million, possibly onethird to one-half of the
population died of the plague between 1347 and 1351. Especially hard hit were Italy’s
crowded cities, where 50 to 60 percent of the people died. In England and Germany,
entire villages disappeared.
Social and Economic Impact
People did not know what caused the plague. Many believed that God sent it as
punishment for their sins or that the devil caused it. Some reactions became extreme
and led to anti-Semitism—hostility toward Jews. Some accused Jews of causing the
plague by poisoning town wells. The worst attacks occurred in Germany. Many Jews
fled from Germany to Poland, where the king protected them. The death of so many
people also had severe economic consequences. Trade declined, and a shortage of
workers caused a dramatic rise in the price of labor. At the same time, the decline in
the number of people lowered the demand for food, resulting in falling prices.
Landlords were now paying more for labor while their incomes from rents were
declining. Some peasants bargained with their lords to pay rent instead of owing
services. This change freed them from serfdom, an institution that had been declining
throughout the High Middle Ages.
The Popes at Avignon
European kings had begun to reject papal claims of supremacy by the end of the
1200s. The struggle between Pope Boniface VIII and King Philip IV of France had
serious consequences for the papacy. Philip claimed the right to tax the clergy.
Boniface argued that taxing the clergy required the pope’s consent, because popes
were supreme over both Church and state. Philip rejected the pope’s position and sent
French forces to Italy to bring Boniface back to France for trial. The pope escaped but
died soon afterward. Philip then engineered the election of a Frenchman, Clement V,
as pope in 1305. Clement took up residence in Avignon (a•veen• YOHN), in southern
France. From 1305 to 1377, the popes lived in Avignon. Sentiments against the
papacy grew during this time. Many believed that the pope as bishop of Rome should
reside in Rome, not in Avignon. The splendor in which the pope and cardinals were
living in Avignon also led to strong criticism of the papacy.
The Great Schism
Perceiving the decline in papal prestige, Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome in
1377 but soon died. When the cardinals met to elect a new pope, the citizens of Rome
warned that the cardinals would not leave Rome alive unless they elected an Italian.
The cardinals wisely elected an Italian, Pope Urban VI. Five months later, a group of
French cardinals declared the election invalid and chose a Frenchman as pope. This
pope returned to Avignon.
Because Urban remained in Rome, there were now two popes, beginning the
Great Schism of the Church. Lasting from 1378 to 1417, the Great Schism divided
Europe. France and its allies supported the pope in Avignon. As France’s enemies,
England and its allies supported the pope in Rome. In addition to creating political
conflict, the Great Schism damaged the Church. The pope was widely believed to be
the true leader of Christendom. When each line of popes denounced the other as the
Antichrist (one who opposes Christ), people’s faith in both the papacy and the Church
were undermined. The situation became worse when an effort to resolve the problem
in 1409 resulted in the simultaneous reign of three popes. A church council finally met
at Constance, Switzerland, and ended the schism in 1417. The competing popes
either resigned or were deposed. A new pope, acceptable to all, was then elected.
These crises led to calls for reform. Czech reformers led by John Hus called for
an end to corruption of the clergy and to excessive papal power within the Church.
Hus was accused of heresy by the Council of Constance and burned at the stake in
1415. In response, the Czechs led a revolutionary upheaval in Bohemia that was not
crushed until 1436. By the early 1400s, then, the Church had lost much of its political
power. The pope could no longer assert supremacy over the state. Although
Christianity remained central to medieval life, the papacy and the Church had lost
much of their spiritual authority.
The Hundred Years’ War
Plague, economic crisis, and the decline of the Catholic Church were not the only
problems of the late Middle Ages. War and political instability must also be added to
the list. The Hundred Years’ War was the most violent struggle during this period.
The War Begins
Trouble began over the duchy of Gascony in France. England possessed it, and
France wanted it. King Edward III of England was also the duke of Gascony and a
vassal to the French king. However, when King Philip VI of France seized the duchy
in 1337, Edward declared war on Philip. Thus began the Hundred Years’ War between
England and France. The war began in a burst of knightly enthusiasm. Trained to be
warriors, knights viewed battle as a chance to show their fighting abilities. The Hundred
Years’ War proved to be an important turning point in the nature of warfare, however.
Peasant foot soldiers, not knights, won the chief battles of the war.
France’s heavily armed noble cavalrymen, or knights, viewed foot soldiers as
social inferiors. The English also used heavily armed cavalry, but they relied more on
large numbers of peasants, paid to be foot soldiers. English soldiers were armed not
only with pikes, or heavy spears, but also with longbows. The longbow had greater
striking power, longer range, and more rapid speed of fire than the crossbow (formerly
the weapon of choice).
Crecy and Agincourt
The first major battle of the Hundred Years’ war occurred in 1346 at Crécy. The
larger French army followed no battle plan and attacked in a disorderly fashion. The
English archers devastated them. As the chronicler Froissart described the stunning
English victory: “[with their longbows] the English continued to shoot into the thickest
part of the crowd, wasting none of their arrows. They impaled or wounded horses and
riders, who fell to the ground in great distress, unable to get up again without the help
of several men.” The Battle of Crécy was not decisive, however. The English simply
did not have enough resources to conquer all of France. Nevertheless, they continued
to try. The English king, Henry V, achieved victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.
The heavy, armor-plated French knights tried to attack Henry’s forces across a muddy
field. They were disastrously defeated, and 1,500 French nobles died in battle. The
English were masters of northern France.
Joan of Arc
The seemingly hopeless French cause now fell into the hands of Charles, heir to
the French throne. Quite unexpectedly, a French peasant woman saved the timid
monarch. The daughter of prosperous peasants, Joan of Arc was a deeply religious
person. She experienced visions and believed that saints had commanded her to free
France. Though only 17, Joan’s sincerity and simplicity persuaded Charles to allow
her to accompany a French army to Orléans. Apparently inspired by Joan’s faith, the
French armies found new confidence and seized Orléans. Joan had brought the war
to a turning point but did not live to see its end. The English captured Joan in 1430
and turned her over to the Inquisition on charges of witchcraft. At the time, visions
were thought to be inspired by either God or the devil. Joan was condemned to death
as a heretic. Joan’s achievements, however, were decisive. Although the war dragged
on for another two decades, defeats of English armies in Normandy and Aquitaine led
to a French victory by 1453. Also important to the French success was the use of the
cannon, a new weapon made possible by the invention of gunpowder.
Political Recovery
In the 1300s, European rulers faced serious problems. Many hereditary
monarchies or dynasties in Europe were unable to produce male heirs. The founders
of new dynasties had to fight for their positions when groups of nobles supported
opposing candidates for the kingship. Rulers found themselves with financial problems
as well. In the 1400s, however, recovery set in as a number of new rulers in Europe
attempted to reestablish the centralized power of monarchies. Some historians have
spoken of these reestablished states as the new monarchies. This term applies
especially to the monarchies of France, England, and Spain as they existed at the end
of the 1400s.
France
The Hundred Years’ War left France exhausted. However, the war had also
developed a strong degree of French national feeling toward a common enemy. The
kings used that spirit to reestablish royal power. The development of a strong French
state was greatly advanced by King Louis XI, who ruled from 1461 to 1483. Known by
many as the Spider because of his devious ways, Louis strengthened the use of the
taille—an annual direct tax usually on land or property—as a permanent tax imposed
by royal authority. This tax gave Louis a sound, regular source of income.
To curb the power of the great French nobles, Louis relied on support from the
lower nobility and middle class. He added Anjou, Maine, Provence, and other regions
to his kingdom. By consolidating power and by promoting industry and commerce, he
created the foundations of a strong monarchy.
England
The Hundred Years’ War had also strongly affected the English. Both the cost of
the war and losses in manpower strained the economy. At the end of the war, England
faced even greater turmoil when civil conflicts—known as the Wars of the Roses—
erupted. Noble factions fought to control the monarchy until 1485, when Henry Tudor
established a new dynasty. As the first Tudor king, Henry VII worked to create a strong
royal government. Henry ended the wars of the nobles by abolishing their private
armies. He was also very thrifty. By not overburdening the nobles and the middle class
with taxes, Henry won their favor. They thus provided much support for his monarchy.
Spain
Spain, too, experienced the growth of a strong national monarchy at the end of
the 1400s. Muslims had conquered much of Spain by about 725. During the Middle
Ages, Christian rulers in Spain had fought to regain their lands from the Muslims.
Several independent Christian kingdoms had emerged in the course of the long
reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Among them were Aragon and Castile. Aragon
and Castile were both strong kingdoms. When Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand
of Aragon in 1469, it was a major step toward unifying Spain. Castile and Aragon
remained distinct political kingdoms with separate councils of state and parliaments.
However, Isabella and Ferdinand worked together to strengthen their royal control in
the dual monarchy. Ferdinand and Isabella also believed that religious unity was
necessary for political unity. The rulers pursued a policy of strict conformity to
Catholicism. In 1492, they took the drastic step of expelling all professed Jews from
Spain. Muslims, too, after their final loss in 1492 to the armies of Ferdinand and
Isabella, were “encouraged” to convert to Catholicism. They had the choice of
conversion or voluntary exile. In 1502, Isabella issued a decree expelling all professed
Muslims from her kingdom. To a very large degree, Ferdinand and Isabella, the “most
Catholic” monarchs, had achieved their goal of religious uniformity. To be Spanish was
to be Catholic.
Central and Eastern Europe
Unlike France, England, and Spain, the Holy Roman Empire did not develop a
strong monarchical authority. The failures of German emperors in the 1200s had made
Germany a land of hundreds of states. Almost all of these states acted independently
of the German ruler. After 1438, the position of Holy Roman emperor was held by the
Hapsburg dynasty. As rulers of the Austrian lands along the Danube, the house of
Hapsburg had become one of the wealthiest landholders in the empire. By the mid-
1400s, these rulers had begun to play an important role in European affairs.
In eastern Europe, rulers found it difficult to centralize their states. Religious
differences troubled the area as Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and
other groups, including Mongols and Muslims, confronted one another. In Poland, the
nobles gained the upper hand and established the right to elect their kings, a policy
that drastically weakened royal authority. In Hungary, one king broke the power of the
wealthy lords and created a wellorganized central administration. After his death,
however, his work was largely undone. Since the 1200s, Russia had been under the
domination of the Mongols. Gradually, the princes of Moscow rose to prominence by
using their close relationship to the Mongol khans to increase their wealth and expand
their possessions. During the reign of the great prince Ivan III, a new Russian state
was born. Ivan III annexed other Russian territories. By 1480, he had thrown off the
yoke of the Mongols.
