West Civ lecture 11/17

1. Lecture
November 17

2. England
 Henry II became king after a civil war that began when the English
barons refused to be ruled by Henry I’s daughter Matilda.
 The house of Anjou (Henry II’s family) struggled for power with the
house of Blois from 1139–1153.
 Stephen of Blois was eventually forced to name Mathilda’s son, Henry
of Anjou, as his successor, beginning the Angevin dynasty.
 In 1152, Henry married Eleanor of Aquitaine, formerly the wife of
Louis VII of France.
 Eleanor, who brought heirs and territory to the marriage, was powerful
and independent-minded, but she lost much of her power to the
domineering Henry.
 She later plotted with her eldest son to overthrow Henry, but the
rebellion was put down.

3. Common Law
 Henry II was determined to restore the power of the monarchy
 He imposed monarchial power by expanding his system of
courts.
 He built on the existing Anglo-Saxon tradition of local courts, but
added eyres, regular visits to every locality in England.
 Eyres: judicial visits from royal officials to localities
 In this way, the Angevin kings made local affairs royal business
and united the kingdom under a system of common law.
 Common law: unified body of law formed by the rulings of royal
justices.
 Common law offered new civil remedies for disputes, and the
monarchy benefited from associated fines and fees.
 Conflict occurred over the jurisdiction of royal courts over
churchmen.

4. Henry’s Successors
 His sons Richard I (r. 1189–1199) and then John (r. 1199–
1216) took the throne.
 They further strengthened the financial condition of the
monarchy, which grew rich from court fees, royal estates,
taxes, and feudal dues.
 Richard was captured in the Third Crusade and died
protecting his continental possessions
 Richard led the Third Crusade, and eventually came to an
agreement with Saladin, allowing Christian pilgrims to visit
Jerusalem.
 John was desperate for crown revenues to finance his
struggle for continental territories.

6. The Magna Carta
 Written in 1215
 A baron’s rebellion in 1215 forced King John to sign the
Magna Carta
 A charter granting personal rights and liberties
 It defined the customary obligations of the nobility
 Gave nobles certain personal rights
 Obliged the king to uphold certain rights of his subjects,
implying that the king was not above the law
 Expanded the definition of free men to include all subjects.

7. France
 In 1180 at the age of 14, Philip Augustus, son of Louis VII,
became king of France, (although Henry II of England
controlled much of the territory of what would become
modern France).
 Henry and the counts of Flanders and Champagne tried to
control the young king, but Philip quickly learned to play
the three rulers against each other and gain territory for
the crown.
 Victory over King John at the battle of Boucines in 1214
strengthened his grip on power.

8. Philip’s Rule
Phillip used officers who followed many Norman
customs, and he received a great deal of Norman
support.
He introduced new efficient administrative
practices and increased the use of written records.
He made good use of the minor nobility in serving
his court and as tax collectors.

9. Germany
 Aristocratic families in the German empire were strengthened by the
weakening position of the emperor after the Investiture Conflict.
 During that conflict, the Staufer clan rallied support for the emperor
 the Hohenstaufens did the same for the papacy, involving both in a
legendary struggle for power that extended beyond the 1122 Diet of
Worms.
 Longing for peace, they agreed in 1152 to elect Frederick I emperor, a
strong candidate with support in both families.
 Once in power, the bearded Frederick of Barbarossa was impressive
and firm.
 He strengthened the power of the emperor and succeeded in
subordinating the princes.
 He saw his imperial office as sacred and sought to extend its rights.
 His marriage to Beatrice of Burgundy strengthened him politically and
territorially.

10. Frederick Barbarossa
 Having gained control of Rome, Frederick sought more Italian territory.
 The emperor’s control of Italy was largely nominal, with independent cities jealous
of Rome’s liberty and the pope jealous of the emperor’s authority.
 By 1158, Frederick conquered northern Italy, but heavy-handed rule by German
magistrates led cities to rebel and join with the pope in the Lombard League by 1167.
 The league defeated Frederick at the Battle of Legano in 1176 and pushed Frederick
out of most of Italy.
 Frederick’s dependency on older systems of personal loyalty and vassalage had
internal consequences in Germany.
 Henry the Lion (c. 1130–1195), the duke of Saxony and Bavaria, grew so powerful
and wealthy that he came into conflict with Frederick, whose authority he refused to
recognize.
 By 1180, Henry had been driven out of Germany and his estates were confiscated.
 To accomplish this, Frederick had to grant additional power and influence to the
princes who supported him and divide Henry’s lands among all of them rather than
keeping them for himself.

11. The East
 Regions where rulers failed to establish effective bureaucratic
institutions struggled to hold together.
 In Hungary, King Bela III (r. 1172-1196) built up a large and powerful
state, but after his death his failure to establish effective institutions led
to the splintering of his kingdom.
 Similarly in Rus, the emerging muscovite (Moscow) state, built on the
accomplishments of the Rus at Kiev, crumbled as rival claimants fought
for power and control.
 While western rule became more bureaucratic, Byzantine rule became
increasingly personal during the last half of the twelfth century.
 The Fourth Crusade’s sacking of Constantinople in 1204 weakened the
state considerably.
 Although they retook Constantinople from its crusader-appointed
“emperor” in 1261, the empire never recovered.

12. Medieval Learning
 By the end of the eleventh century in some cities, schools developed
reputations for particular approaches or specialization in theology,
literature, or law.
 Many students were willing to pay to hear lectures from the best
teachers.
 Using the common language of Latin, students could drift from
school to school throughout Europe, stopping wherever a noted
master was teaching.
 Courses of study focused on the seven liberal arts, which included
grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music theory, and
astronomy.
 Logic had the most appeal to medieval students, for many saw it as a
discipline that would bring order and clarity to other issues.
 The study of medicine, theology, and law prepared students for jobs.
 A remarkable renewal of scholarship and learning was taking place.

13.  Peter Abelard (1079–1142) was one of the era’s greatest thinkers.
 He is known for his lectures.
 He renounced both his inheritance and the soldier’s lifestyle to become
a student and then a teacher.
 His work Sic et Non juxtaposed authoritative sources on both sides of
important questions.
 Abelard was engaged as a private tutor for Heloise, the niece of a
Parisian cleric named Fulbert.
 Abelard and Heloise were secretly married, but were eventually
separated and entered separate monasteries.
 Abelard’s writings about the Trinity were condemned by the Council of
Soissons in 1121.
 Peter the Chanter (d. 1197) was an influential master of scholars whose
lectures and commentary focused on biblical texts.
 Unlike most theology masters, Peter commented on all books of the
Bible, and also “disputed” the texts, drawing on the logic of Aristotle to
describe other explanations and refute them.
 He also offered popular sermons.

14. Universities
 Universities began as guilds, and they developed their own
rules and regulations, with apprentices (students) and
masters (teachers).
 Students were disciplined, tested, and housed at the
university.
 Different universities had different characters and
specialties, and curriculum varied.
 Masters and students were considered to be clerics, which
barred women from joining.
 The special privileges of universities made them virtually
self-governing corporations, which sometimes led to
friction with their respective towns.

15. Romanesque Style
Romanesque church buildings were heavy, serious, and
solid.
They had massive stone walls and interiors decorated with
wall paintings.
Different parts of the church functioned as discrete units.
Plainchant (or Gregorian chant) melodies, sung in unison
and rhythmically free, worked well in large Romanesque
churches with cavernous choirs.
Elaborate reliquaries and altars were considered the
appropriate accoutrements of worship in Romanesque
churches, and monks and priests who benefited from the
gift economy offered prayers to God in the most splendid of
settings.

16. Gothic Style
Gothic churches emerged in cities in the twelfth to fifteenth
centuries and reflected the wealth and self-confidence of
merchants, guilds people, bishops, and kings.
Gothic churches were usually cathedrals, characterized by
pointed arches and features designed to invoke heaven,
including ribbed vaulting, flying buttresses, and large rose
windows.
The Gothic style began with Abbot Suger’s rebuilding of
portions of the church at St. Denis around 1135.
Gothic exteriors were opaque, bristling and forbidding,
while the interior invoked light, harmony, and order. With
regional variations, the style spread across Europe.

17. Music
 By the beginning of the twelfth century, influenced by Arab and
Hebrew love poetry, troubadours began performing dazzling and original
songs and verse in Occitan, the language of southern France.
 Troubadour: traveling poet and musician
 The meters were borrowed from Latin religious poetry, but troubadour
songs were usually about love.
 Whatever the theme, the songs celebrated the power and influence of
women and were particularly patronized by aristocratic women.
 Troubadour poetry spread from southern France throughout Europe
via Italy, northern France, England, and Germany, with other vernacular
languages imitating the style.
 Vernacular: common, local language

18. Literature
 Narrative epic poems about war appeared around the same time
in Europe.
 As knights lost their military importance to mercenary soldiers
and lost influence relative to merchants and increasingly
powerful lords, they increasingly desired a code of conduct that
would set them apart and provide solidarity and a knightly
ethos.
 Chivalry: the moral code for knights, ideal behaviors focusing on
courage, loyalty, and devotion.
 Epic war poems explored themes of contradictory values,
including friendship, vassalage, and competing loyalties.
 Some epic poems emphasized romantic themes as well, with
many focusing on the court of King Arthur.
 Lancelot of King Arthur’s court embodied the principles of
chivalry that the poems focused on.
 Chivalry constrained warriors through its code of refinement,
fair play, piety, and idealistic devotion.

19. New Religious Orders
 New urban-based religious orders thrived as a new religious enthusiasm
set in.
 The most famous of the orthodox movements was founded by St. Francis
of Assisi (c. 1182–1226).
 Born into a wealthy family, religious introspection led Francis to renounce
his wealth in favor of a simple life of preaching.
 His model was to embrace poverty and bring the faith to people, and he
attracted many followers and had his friars recognized as a religious order
that spread across Europe, particularly in urban areas.
 St. Francis started the Franciscan Order of friars
 Friar: a traveling monk who owned nothing and begged for food.
 Clare, a noblewoman and a follower, established the Sisters of St. Francis
in 1212, who were eventually confined to cloisters under the Benedictine
rule.
 Many women were part of the revival of religion, and the Beguines were
societies of laywomen who lived together in informal communities that
accepted celibacy and served the poor.
 They encouraged emotional and ecstatic religious experiences.