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Kevin A. Brown, Esquire

B.A., M.A., J.D.

Phone 323-1236

[email protected]

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What are the Humanities?

How does “Humanities” differ from “History”?

-History tends to focus only on wars, politics, and economics.

-Humanities looks at the broader cultural aspects of the human experience.

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Why is Humanities Important?

History/Humanities is the story of “us”!
“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.
CICERO, First Century BCE

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Why is Humanities Important?

“History is important. If you don’t know history it is as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday, anybody up there in a position of power can tell you anything, and you have no way of checking up on it.”
Howard Zinn, 20th Century Historian

“Anyone who cannot give an account to oneself of the past three thousand years remains in darkness, without experience. Living from day to day.”
GOETHE. 19th Century, BCE

The Late Middle Ages:
Crisis and Recovery, 1300–1500

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The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Conquest, War, Famine/Plague, and Death

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Hard Times Come to Europe (1330-1500)

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; Conquest, War, Famine and Plague, and Death rode roughshod over Europe in the late Middle Ages.
The Black Death ravaged the population.
The Economy suffered one shock after another.
Warring European states destroyed the Catholic Church’s dream of a united Christendom.
New military tactics and weapon rendered the romantic concept of chivalry obsolete.
New intellectual currents drove a wedge between philosophy and theology.
The powerful Ottoman Empire rose to threaten Europe.

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This painting by Christine de Pizan of women in wealth and luxury, makes a sharp contrast to the horrors of the late Middle Ages. It shows the artist presenting her Book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria (Late 15th Century)

Hard Times Come to Europe (1330-1500)

In the 1300’s Europe entered a disastrous period of economic depression, soaring prices, and widespread famine.
The Bubonic Plague raged through the continent.
The Hundred Years’ War (which lasted for 116 years) raged between England and France as their armies ravaged Western Europe.
The Church, in disarray and disgrace, was unable to provide moral or political leadership.
The optimistic mood of the High Middle Ages gave way to a sense of impending doom.

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The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of at least 35%-40% of the population of Europe and peaking in the years 1346–53.
The Black Death is thought to have originated in the arid plains of central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road, reaching the Crimea by 1343.
The Black Death arrived in Europe by sea in October 1347 when 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea. The people who gathered on the docks to greet the ships were met with a horrifying surprise: Most of the sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those who were still alive were gravely ill.

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The Black Death Decimates Europe

“In men and women alike,” the Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio wrote, “at the beginning of the malady, certain swellings, either on the groin or under the armpits…waxed to the bigness of a common apple, others to the size of an egg, some more and some less, and these the vulgar named plague-boils.”
Blood and pus seeped out of these strange swellings, which were followed by a host of other unpleasant symptoms–fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, terrible aches and pains–and then, in short order, death.
The Black Death was terrifyingly, indiscriminately contagious: “the mere touching of the clothes,” wrote Boccaccio, “appeared to itself to communicate the malady to the toucher.”
The disease was also terrifyingly efficient. People who were perfectly healthy when they went to bed at night could be dead by morning.

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The Black Death Decimates Europe

Today, scientists understand that the Black Death, now known as the plague, is spread by a bacillus called Yersina pestis. They know that the bacillus travels from person to person pneumatically, or through the air, as well as through the bite of infected fleas and rats.
Both of these pests could be found almost everywhere in medieval Europe, but they were particularly at home aboard ships of all kinds–which is how the deadly plague made its way through one European port city after another.
Not long after it struck Messina, the Black Death spread to the port of Marseilles in France and the port of Tunis in North Africa. Then it reached Rome and Florence, two cities at the center of an elaborate web of trade routes. By the middle of 1348, the Black Death had struck Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon and London.

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Plague Victims being blessed by a priest (late 1300’s)

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Progress of the Black Death Across Europe in the Fourteenth Century

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The Black Death Decimates Europe

In the middle of the 14th century, however, there seemed to be no rational explanation for it. No one knew exactly how the Black Death was transmitted. Physicians relied on crude and unsophisticated techniques such as bloodletting and boil-lancing (practices that were dangerous as well as unsanitary). and superstitious practices.
People stopped bathing (something that would last in Europe for a few hundred years) for fear that baths spread the disease.
Many people fled the cities for the countryside, but even there they could not escape the disease: It affected cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens as well as people. In fact, so many sheep died that one of the consequences of the Black Death was a European wool and livestock shortages.
Many people, desperate to save themselves, even abandoned their sick and dying loved ones. “Thus doing,” Boccaccio wrote, “each thought to secure immunity for himself.”

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Citizens of Tounai Bury Plague Victims.

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The Black Death Decimates Europe

Because they did not understand the biology of the disease, many people believed that the Black Death was a kind of divine punishment–retribution for sins against God such as greed, blasphemy, heresy, fornication and worldliness.
By this logic, the only way to overcome the plague was to win God’s forgiveness. Some people believed that the way to do this was to purge their communities of heretics and other troublemakers–so, for example, many thousands of Jews were massacred in 1348 and 1349.
Some people joined processions of flagellants that traveled from town to town and engaged in public displays of penance and punishment: They would beat themselves and one another with heavy leather straps studded with sharp pieces of metal while the townspeople looked on.
Many people just gave up, refused to plant crops and waited for death.

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Flagellants Would Travel From Town to Town Whipping Themselves and Beg for God’s Forgiveness

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Danse

Macabre

14th Century

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Danse

Macabre

14th Century

Danse Macabre, 14th Century

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Danse Macabre, 14th Century

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Danse Macabre, 14th Century

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Danse Macabre

14th Century

Danse Macabre, 14th Century

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Danse Macabre, 14th Century

The Black Death Decimates Europe

The Black Death epidemic in Europe had run its course by the early 1350s, but the plague reappeared every few generations for centuries.
The plague repeatedly returned to haunt Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the 14th to 17th centuries. There was a another serious outbreak in the 1360’s and 1370’s.
The plague was present somewhere in Europe in every year between 1346 and 1671.
Today plague occurs in fewer than 5,000 people a year worldwide. It can be deadly if not treated promptly with antibiotics.

Agricultural Harvests Failed

The effects of the plague was compounded by growing famine conditions across the European continent.
Starting in 1315, agricultural harvests failed with some regularity for the next century.
Incessant warfare between the Italian city-states, the French and the English, the Burgundians and the Germans, and the Ottomans occupying the Greek and Balkan peninsula interfered with the planting of crops.
The severe manpower shortage caused by the Black death also undermined agricultural operations.

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In 1066 the Normans, under William the Conqueror defeated the Anglo-Saxon king Harold at the Battle of Hastings and the Normans ruled England.

William’s grandson, Henry II ruled England from (1154–89) and created the “Angevin Empire.” In addition to being King of England he was Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and controlled Wales, Scotland, and Brittany. He ruled more of France then the French king.

Henry II’ sons (Richard the Lionheart and John I) lost most of those French possessions and the war was an attempt to recover them from the French.

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Hundred Years’ War

Henry II’s “Angevin Empire”

The war (which actually last 116 years) starts off in 1337 with several stunning successes on England’s part, and the English forces dominate France for decades.
Then, the struggle see-saws back and forth. In the 1360s, the French are winning. From 1415-1422, the English are winning.
After 1415, King Henry V of England, revives the campaign and he conquers large portions of France, winning extraordinary political concessions.
From 1422 onward, however, the French crown strikes back. The teenage girl Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc), a remarkable young mystic, leads the French troops to reclaim their lands.

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Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)

Lands Reconqured by the English

King Edward the III of England, provoked by French attacks on lands he owns in France, decides upon a desperate gamble. He declares himself King of France, arguing that he can legally claim the French throne through line of descent via his mother, Isabella of France.
Edward invaded northern France in 1345. The Black Death had arrived, and his army was weakened by sickness. As the English force tried to make its way safely to fortified Channel port, the French attempted to force them into a battle. The English were finally pinned against the coast by a much superior French army at a place called Crecy.
Edward's army was a combined force: archers, pikemen, light infantry, and cavalry; the French, by contrast, clung to their old-fashioned feudal cavalry.

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Major Battles in the Hundred Years’ War: Crecy

Fully Armored Knight of the 100 Years War

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Fully Armored Knight of the 100 Years War

Full Plate Armor was very Expensive and Only Worn by the Wealthiest Knights and Men-at-Arms

French Warriors 100 Years War

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French Warriors 100 Years War

English Longbow Men

Medieval Crossbowmen

Medieval Crossbowmen with Pavises

The Longbow, Pike, and Crossbow would signal the eventual end of the dominance of mounted knight.
A common man could stand equal to the greatest mounted warrior.

French Town Under Siege
100 Years War

100 Years War

Hundred Years’ War: Battle of Crecy (1346)

The English had archers using the longbow, a weapon with great penetrating power that could sometimes kill armored knights, and often the horses on which they rode.
The battle was a disaster for the French. The English took up position on the crest of a hill, and the French cavalry tried to ride up the slope to get at their opponents.
The long climb up soggy ground tired and slowed the French horses, giving the English archers and foot soldiers ample opportunity to wreak havoc in the French ranks.
Those few French who reached the crest of the hill found themselves faced with rude, but effective, barriers, and, as they tried to withdraw, they were attacked by the small but fresh English force of mounted knights.
Crecy was also the first major European battle where cannon were used (the cannon were not very effective).

Battle of Crecy (1346)

Battle of Crecy (1346)
The French Knights
Foolishly
Rode to the English
Longbowmen

Battle of Crecy (1346)

Edward the Black Prince, son of King Edward III, begins raiding France in 1356. Facing much the same battlefield situation some ten years later, the French employed the same tactics they had used at Crecy, with the same dismal result, at the battle of Poitiers (1356).
The initial French cavalry charge was turned back. A second dismounted wave of heavily armored French attacked next. The fighting was fierce and when the third wave of French retreated the second wave was overcome.
The French king and many nobles were captured, and many, many others were killed. Old fashioned feudal warfare, in which knights fought for glory, was ended. The first phase of the war ended with a treaty in 1360, but France continued to suffer.

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Battle of Poitiers (1356)

The English army continued to use “chevauchée” tactics (destructive “scorched earth” raids) that devastated the French countryside and the peasants.
Most French peasants would have found it difficult to distinguish between war and this sort of peace.
In 1360, King John of France, in order to save his title, was forced to accept the Treaty of Calais, which granted complete independence to the duchy of Gascony, now considerably enlarged to include almost a third of France.
As the war dragged on, the English were slowly forced back. They had less French land to support their war effort as they did so, and the war became more expensive for them.
However, King John’s son, Charles V, by 1380 succeeded in reconquering much of the ceded territory, notably by a series of sieges.

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Hundred Years’ War

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Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt

During the reign of Henry V, the English took the offensive once again. At Agincourt, not far from Crecy, the French relapsed into their old tactics of feudal warfare once again, and were again disastrously defeated (1415).

Henry’s force of about 6000 knights, archers and men-at-arms were met by a French force of 20,000. But Henry used a narrow front channeled by woodland to give his heavily outnumbered force a chance.

The French deployed in three lines on foot. The first line of French knights attacked only to be repulsed by the English longbow men. The second line attacked and was beaten back, their charge bogged down by the mud on the field. The third line moved to engage but lost heart when they crossed the field covered with French dead.

The English recovered much of the ground they had lost, and a new peace was based upon Henry's marriage to the French princess Katherine.

Battle of Agincourt (1415)

Hundred Years’ War

The siege of Orleans was the turning point of the Hundred Years' War. After over 80 years of warfare the French finally gained the upper hand with the decisive victory at Orleans.
5,000 English troops begin the siege of Orleans, the largest fortified position held by Charles of France, on October 23, 1428. The siege lasted months.
At around this same time, sixteen year-old Joan of Arc appears at the court of the Dauphin, Charles VII. Joan said she received visions of the Archangel Michael, Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine instructing her to support the Dauphin and recover France from English domination.
Charles allows Joan to lead a relief force in April. In May, Joan attacks the English in unison with a force from Orleans and she drives the English from their positions. The next day they abandon the siege; military advantage now lies with the French.

Joan of Arc

Joan leads the forces that lift the siege at Orleans. Joan was then instrumental in a series of French victories, including the Battle of Patay (1429) which was a sort of Agincourt in reverse. It was a decisive victory for the French and turned the tide of the war.
In late 1430 Burgundians (English sympathizers in Northern France) capture Joan of Arc and delivered her to English courts.
Joan was accused of heresy. The charge was politically motivated and the tribunal was composed entirely of pro-English and Burgundian clerics, and overseen by English commanders.

Joan of Arc

The major crime that Joan of Arc was actually convicted of was “cross-dressing.” Nevertheless at the trial in 1431 she was condemned and sentenced to die.
Joan was burned at the stake although in 1456 the church reversed her conviction and she was later declared a saint.
The war drags on for a number of years more, but the French now had a greater unity and begin to use a more "modern" style of warfare including guerilla and "small war" tactics of fighting.
After the death of Henry V in 1422 England was subject to the long and factious minority of Henry VI. Henry VI was a weak and ineffectual king and by 1456 the English lost all of their French possessions and the war cames to an end.

Joan of Arc Being Burned at the Stake (15th century)

Joan of Arc Being Burned at the Stake

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The Secular Monarchies

Early in the Hundred Years War the Valois dynasty gained control in France and would rule until the 1500’s.
In England the powerful Angevin kings gave way to the Lancaster and York dynasties which would fight a civil war called the “War of the Roses” (1455–1487) because the Lancaster’s sigil was a red rose and the York sigil was a white rose).

The result of the war was the rise of the powerful Tudor dynasty.

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Battle of Twekesbury (1471)
During the War of the Roses

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Royal Dynasties in Late Medieval France and England

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The Papal Monarchy

The Papacy lost considerable power during this time. The Church had been at the height of power in the 1200’s, but in the early 1300’s the pope came under the control of the French king (1309-1377).
The Papacy was moved from Rome to Avignon, France papacy. Opponents of this relocation called it the “Babylonian Captivity” (referring to the captivity of the ancient Jews in Babylon).

Great Schism

In 1378 Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome, but died shortly thereafter. At this point the Italian cardinals elected one pope (in Rome) and the French cardinals elected another pope in Avignon. Western Christendom was divided with two popes and papal courts. This is referred to as the “Great Schism.”
In 1409 a church council at Pisa attempted to heal the divide by electing a new pope and calling for the other two to resign. This resulted in a period of time where there were THREE popes!

Great Schism

The Great Schism was finally resolved at the Council of Constance (1414-1418) which deposed the Avignon pope, accepted the resignation of the Roman pope, and ignored the Pisan pope. Martin V became the new unified pope.
The Conciliar movement (rule by councils) enjoyed some success for a while, but ultimately strong popes reasserted their monarchial power.
The popes would rule the Papal States in Italy as secular princes in the continuing struggles for control of Italy well into the 1800’s.

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Technology

The Rise of Industries. Hand-loomed textile manufacturing remained the leading industry in Europe. England began exporting finished wool cloth.
Wool merchants organized the new textile industry in England. The “putting-out system” where there was a cottage industry where families were assigned tasks (shearing, carding, combing, spinning, weaving, fulling, felting, dyeing, and cutting the clothe) at home.
The textile industry was improved by the introduction of the spinning wheel which was brought in from China.
Other industries such as the iron industry for weapons, armor, tools and horseshoes flourished. Rag paper was produced in Spain, Italy, France, and Germany. Silk was woven in Florence, Venice, and Lucca and salt was produced in Venice and Lisbon.

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Technology

Few inventions would have the tremendous effect of the Printing Press.
Johannes Gutenberg (1397-1468) is credited with the invention of a workable printing press in Europe.
Now books could be mass-produced (rather than the slow, laborious process of hand-copying).
This gave rise to the printing and publishing industries. (printers, engravers, type finders, writers, editors, booksellers, etc.)
Books became an agent of democracy and the spread of ideas. Literacy became more widespread and education and literature made huge changes in society.

Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press

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The Late Middle Ages: Religion

Some voices began to challenge the power of the Catholic Church.
John Wycliffe (ca. 1320-1384), an Oxford teacher in England wished to purify the church of worldliness and urged the abolition of ecclesiastical property, argued for the subservience of the church to the state, and denied papal authority. Wycliffe’s movement resulted in the first English language Bible.
Jan Hus (ca. 1359-1415) began the Hussite movement in the Holy Roman Empire, based on Wycliffe’s teaching. He was condemned for heresy and burned at the stake by the church. The Hussite movement continued into the next century.
The church used the powerful weapon of the Inquisition, which had been founded in the 13th century to Albigensian heretics, to prosecute heretics through the use of torture

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The Late Middle Ages: Religion

Theology and Philosophy: Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican friar who taught at University of Paris, set forth a middle road (“via media”) between reason and faith in thinking. He argued that both reason and faith were gifts form God and that each could prove certain things.
After his death in 1274 opponents termed his teachings “Via Antiqua” (the old-fashioned way) and instead argued for the “Via Moderna” (the modern way) which separated faith from reason. This would eventually allow for the separation of philosophy (and later science) from the limitations of religion.
Duns Scotus (“Via Antiqua”) and William of Ockham (“Via Moderna” ) were major voices in this debate.

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The Late Middle Ages: Science

Robert Grosseteste (ca. 1175-1253), a Franciscan at Oxford, utilized the scientific method for investigating natural phenomenon, using step-by-step procedures, he used mathematics and tested hypotheses until he reached a satisfactory conclusion.

Roger Bacon (ca. 1220-1292), another Franciscan, pioneered the use of the experimental method in science. He used the experimental method in his studies of optics, solar eclipses, and rainbows in his treatises on mathematics, physics, and philosophy.

Thinkers like these paved the way for the scientific method and challenged the superstition and religious-based pseudo-science that dominated medieval thought.

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Manuel Chrysoloras Teaching Greek in Florence.
Greek scholarship, and eventually the teachings of Plato were reintroduced to Europe

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The Late Middle Ages: Literature

The rise of literacy produced a growing educated class who learned to read and write the local languages rather than Latin, and a shift to vernacular literature began to occur.
Northern Italian Literature: Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) captured the mood of transition and change in Florence.
Boccaccio’s “Decameron” (1351) tells the tale of ten young men and women who flee to the country to escape the Black Death. They pass the time, each telling a story a day for ten days. The 100 stories are mostly based on folklore and popular legend and tell various tales of love that range from the tragic to the erotic.
French Literature: Christine de Pizan, was a leading writer. Her works often called for peace and appealed for the recognition of women’s contributions to culture and social life.

The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of over 20 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century, during the time of the Hundred Years War.
The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.
The Canterbury Tales is near-unanimously seen as Chaucer's greatest work. He uses the tales and the descriptions of its characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society at the time, and particularly of the Church. Additionally, these tales are in vernacular English, not French or Latin.

Mural of the “Canterbury Tales” and Canterbury Cathedral

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Characters from the Canterbury Tales

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The Late Middle Ages: Art and Architecture

The Gothic style continued to dominate architecture, but the balanced and unified High Gothic style was replaced with the ornate effects of the late Gothic style. The late Gothic builders pushed the Gothic style to extravagant limits.
The “Flamboyant” style, so named because of its flame-like effects with high sky-piercing spires and lacy, wavy decorations became common in France and spread across Europe.
In England the late Gothic style was called “Perpendicular” because of its dramatic emphasis on verticality lines generally extending from the floor the ceiling.

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Church of St. Maclou (1453-1514) Rouen, France, an example of the “flamboyant “ style of High Gothic

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Siena Cathedral, 1250-1400

Abbaye de la Trinité,
Vendôme
France
(12th Century)

Milan Cathedral begun in 1386 is an example of High Gothic Architecture and the 5th largest cathedral in the world

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The Choir of Gloucester Cathedral, England represents the Perpendicular Gothic style

Chartres Cathedral Became the Model for High Gothic Churches

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Giotto, Campanile of the Florentine Cathedral (1334-1350)

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The Late Middle Ages: Sculpture

During the late Middle Ages sculpture, like architecture, continued to undergo stylistic changes.
There was a return to classical themes that foreshadowed later Renaissance art.
Sculpture often showed great detail, blending Christian and classical symbols, often with a sense of dramatic movement and emotion.

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Pulpit in the Pisa

Cathedral (1302-10), Giovani Pisano

Claus Sluter, The Well of Moses,” (1395-1406)

Claus Sluter, “The Well of Moses,” (1395-1406)

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The Madonna and the Baby Jesus were a Popular Subject for High Gothic Sculpture

Saints, Angels, and other Religious Symbols

Dominated High Gothic Sculpture

Saints, Angels, and other Religious Symbols Dominated High Gothic Sculpture

And of Course, Many, Many

Gargoyles!

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Gargoyles

A gargoyle is a carved or formed “grotesque” with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between.
Gargoyles were viewed in two ways by the church throughout history. The primary use was to convey the concept of evil through the form of the gargoyle, which was especially useful in sending a stark message to the common people, most of whom were illiterate.
Gargoyles also are said to scare evil spirits away from the church, this reassured congregants that evil was kept outside of the church’s walls.

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Gargoyles!

Gargoyles

The Late Middle Ages: Art

Illuminated Manuscripts became more widespread.

The Print, a new artistic medium developed. Prints were initially woodcuts and later engravings often painted, which became popular.

Panel paintings and portraits on wood by artists like the Flemish Painters, Jan Van Eyck and Hans Memling, were popular. They showed both religious and secular scenes.

Music-Secular music began to be more popular with ballads and other songs with instrumental accompaniment .

Prints from the “Medieval Housebook”

A popular late 15th century German Manuscript

Prints from the “Medieval Housebook,”

Hubert and Jan van Eyck, “Ghent Alterpiece” (1432)

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Jan van Eyck, “Arnolfini Wedding Portrait” (1434) Oil on Wood.

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Giotto, “Madonna

Enthroned” (1310)

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Hans Memling, “Madonna and Child with Angels” (1479)

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Hans Memling, Virgin with Child Between St. James and St. Dominic (1488–1490)

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Hans Memling, Triptych of Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation (c.1485)

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“Music and Her Attendants” (14th Century). Miniature Painting Using Both Secular and Religious Imagery

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The Legacy of the Late Middle Ages

Competition between France and England during the Hundred Years War.
The separation of philosophy and theology and the hastening of secularization.
The rise of wealthy laymen as patrons of
the arts which will have a huge impact during the Renaissance.
The Printing Press and its tremendous impact on society.