THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD 1066-1490-ISH

1. THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD1066-1490-ISH Coach Jay Adams Fall 2008 AP British Literature

2. The Norman Conquest • By the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, their culture looked more like what we’d expect of a “country,” • National leader instead of scattered tribes. • 601: Paulinus • In 1066, the Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Confessor, died and passed his throne on to a distant relative, Harold II. • William of Normandy, another distant relative of Edward’s, claimed the throne had been promised to him by the dead king. Late in the year, he brought his forces across the English channel and defeated Harold’s army, taking the kingship on Christmas Day of 1066.

3. Language • The Anglo-Saxon nobility, descended from the ancient tribal leaders, were not thrilled. • William was forced to deal with several rebellions. As he squashed these rebellions by the Anglo-Saxon nobility, he confiscated their lands and gave it to his French buddies, who became the new nobility in England. • This meant that the upper levels of culture and government were French, with the lower levels still speaking English. • And since the Normans forced the Anglo-Saxons into service jobs, like shepherd and farmer, and kept their own household help, like cooks, we wound up with two names for a lot of things. • Thus, it’s a pig (Anglo-Saxon) if you see it on a farm, but it’s pork (French) when you eat it. The same for cow / beef, deer / venison, sheep / mutton and a lot of other animal / food names. • English was rapidly becoming a mutt of a language.

4. Feudalism • Feudalism was not something William invented; rather, it was a necessary evil and an evolution of the earlier tribal warlord-style system. Europe on the whole had no centralized government powerful enough to keep order, so the individual land-owners became responsible for controlling law and order. • The king owned everything, and gave big chunks of it (called fiefs) to the barons, his chief supporters and friends, in exchange for their support. He also granted land for the church. • The Barons, in return, gave properties to the next level beneath them, the lords, in exchange for their support • Lords gave property (called manors) to their knights in exchange for doing battle (similar to the ancient Nordic ring-giver system). • The barons, lords, and knights needed people to keep their property running smoothly in the fields, barns, etc. These were the serfs, the lowest class in the feudal system. • So…in any conflict, the king called on his barons to provide him with knights, who called on the lords beneath them, who called on the knights beneath them.

5. Canterbury • 1154—the last of the Norman kings died. • Henry II (of the Plantagenet line) takes the throne and immediately decides to do something about the corrupt Roman Catholic church. • When the Archbishop of Canterbury position came open, he appointed his friend Thomas a Becket to the post, expecting him return the favor by giving Henry an “in” with the pope. • Becket did not. • In a cabinet meeting in 1170 Henry wished out loud that someone would do something about Becket. • Some brilliant knights thus concluded that they should assassinate him, which they did on the steps of the Canterbury cathedral after Becket preached the morning mass. • Henry II condemned the crime and his “accidental” role in it. He made a pilgrimage to the Cathedral to visit his friend’s tomb. This quickly became a religious ritual for the citizens of Britain.

6. The Crusades / Magna Carta • The two great religions of the period were Catholicism and Islam. The Christians determined that it was God’s will for them to drive the Muslims from the Holy Land. It turned out that Muslims are tenacious fighters, and the Christians failed. • However, there were some interesting theological spinoffs from this campaign with artifacts of the “fathers” being sold left and right, like Peter’s pinky bone • Richard I took England deep into debt fighting the Crusades. His successor, John, came to the throne saddled with debt. • When he attempted to cut off government services and raise taxes on the Barons to alleviate the debt, they revolted, nearly leading to civil war. • John was only able to avoid such a war by signing the Magna Carta, the first document that ever limited the power of a king, and the first document to require the consent of a body before a leader could tax the people. This document laid the foundation for the constitutional government many cultures employ today.

7. The Black Death • The plague killed a third of the population of Europe between 1348 and 1349. led directly to the end of the feudal system; because more peasants died than nobles, they became very valuable and were able to negotiate salaries and working conditions for the first time in history.

8. Wycliffe • Opposed wealthy priests…claimed that all religious authority is from the Bible, not the church. Translated the Bible into English, making it accessible to the common man and removing the need of a priest.

9. Chivalry • From the French for knight, chevalier. A code of conduct that knights sought to live by… • live to serve God and King • never attack an unarmed for • never attack from behind • avoid lying, cheating, and torture to win • protect the innocent • respect women • never abandon an ally or cause • die with valor

10. Chaucer • The most important literary figure from the Medieval Era. • Served the king as a spy, for which he was rewarded with a comfortable government job. • However, when the new king took over, Chaucer was out on the street. With his free time, he began writing the Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories that is 17,000 lines long. • It centers around a group of travelers headed out on a religious pilgrimage. They engage in a story telling contest, which Chaucer reports. It is notable for the picture of medieval culture which it paints, as well as the excellence of the stories it contains.

11. Arthur • Real, fake, a combination—who knows? • There was apparently an actual grave, with an actual stone cross—but it disappeared in the 18th century. • Most scholars believe that Arthur is an amalgam of many people, primarily taking his roots from a fifth-century tribal king. • By the time his story was written down (800), a lot had been added.

12. What we know about Arthur • Most comes from Thomas Malory, a French poet, who wrote La Morte d’Arthur in 1485. • Britain’s own Lord Tennyson wrote Idylls of the King in the late 1800s. • From these two sources, we get most of our movies and stories.

13. What to notice • Regarding medieval literature: • The primacy of the church • The untouchableness of the clergy • The importance of works to faith • The static state of social class, giving way to the birth of a middle class after the plague • The birth of popular literature