The High Middle Ages

1. The High Middle Ages Morgan Uerling

2. Growth of Royal Power in England • William the Conqueror took throne in 1066 • Helped strengthen the monarchy • William’s successors • Built system of tax collecting • Strengthened finances and laws • Other English kings developed the basis for English common law • Common law – law that is common for all people • Early jury system was developed • Jury – group of men sworn to speak the truth, determine d which cases should be brought to trial

3. Evolving Traditions • Strengthening of the throne conflicted with nobles and the Church • Forced King John to sign Magna Carta in 1200’s

4. The Magna Carta • Two basic ideas • Nobles had certain rights • Over time these rights were granted to all English citizens • The monarch must obey the law • Respecting legal rights of the people • Not raising new taxes without first consulting his Great Council of lords and clergys • The Great Council eventually became the Parliament

5. The holy roman empire and the church • Arose from Germanic states after the death of Charlemagne • By the High Middle Ages, popes and monarchs were extending their authority • Conflicts • Who would control appointments to high Church offices • Some popes claimed the rights to remove kings and emperors • Refusal to obey the Church resulted in excommunication • Excommunication – could not receive the sacraments • Sacraments – sacred rituals of the Church • 1200’s – Roman Catholic Church reached its peak of power • After a French king made an election for a French pope the papacy declined

6. Europeans look outward • 1050 • Western Europe was emerging from isolation • Middle East and Asia had been thriving political and economic powers • Muslims built an empire and created a major civilization • Reached from Spain across North Africa and the Middle East to India

7. The crusades begin • Eastern Mediterranean, Byzantine civilization was a rival to Islam • Byzantines were Christians • Muslim Turks invaded the Byzantine empire • Muslim Turks also attacked Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land, or Palestine • Byzantine Empire asked the pope in Rome for help • Thousands of Christian knights from Europe went to the Holy Land to fight a series of crusades • Crusades – holy wars

8. Effects of the crusades • Crusaders marched and fought for 200 years • They failed in the conquest of the Holy Land • Left a bitter legacy of religious hatred • Crusades increased European trade. Heightened papal power, increased the power of feudal monarchs • Contact with the Muslim world introduced Christians to regions they didn’t know existed

9. Learning, literature, and the arts • The Church wanted better-educated clergy • Royal rulers needed literate officials for their growing bureaucracies • Schools started around the cathedrals • Became the first universities • Ideas and texts that originated in Greece reached the universities through Muslim scholars • New writings were produced in the vernacular • Vernacular – everyday languages of ordinary people • Spain’s great epic, Poem of the Cid, told the conflict with Islam • Famous Italian poet Dante Alighieri wrote Divine Comedy • An imaginary journey into hell and purgatory

10. A time of crisis • Bubonic plague raged throughout the world • Disease spread by fleas on rats • Helped spread by unsanitary conditions • Called the Black Death • 1 in 3 people died, more than in any war in history • The plague caused social problems and brought the European economy to a low ebb • The Church faced opposition and reform efforts • Famine and war • It took Western Europe 100 years to recover from the effects of the Black Death

11. Bibliography • http://www.biography.com/people/william-the-conqueror-9542227 • http://conservapedia.com/Early_Middle_Ages