The Hundred Years' War began as a dispute over succession to the French throne between the English and French royal families. Over time, it evolved into a war over territory in France that had been contested between the two powers for centuries. Craft guilds organized tradespeople and established standards for quality, prices and training apprentices. Growing trade in medieval Europe led to more goods, travel, towns, wealth outside the nobility, and social mobility based on money rather than birth. This weakened the rigid feudal structure and the power of the Catholic Church, which faced new questioning of its doctrines, wealth and authority in the 14th-15th centuries. Peasant revolts in France and England responded to attempts to rollback wages and impose new

1. 1. Why was the
Hundred Years’ War fought?
•TheHundred Years’ War began as a
dispute over who should become king of
France.
•The French supported a cousin of the
dead king. Edward III of England was a
nephew of the dead king, and felt he had
a stronger claim to the French throne.

2. 1. Why was the
Hundred Years’ War fought?
• The conflict eventually became a war over
French territory.
• The English and the French had been fighting
over French territory since the time of William
the Conqueror.

3. 2. Describe the purpose and operation
of a craft guild
• Craft guilds were designed to
provide organization for the
activities of people who
specialized in trades.
• Each trade had its own guild,
• These guilds were responsible
for setting the quality of
goods, controlling prices
charged for goods, and ensuring
that non-guild crafts people did
not compete with guild
members.

4. 2. Describe the purpose and operation
of a craft guild
• The guilds were also responsible for a system
of training guild members from apprentices
through journeymen to masters.
• guilds also acted to protect and assist
members who could not work due to sickness
or accident.
• specific trades: baker, tailor, sword maker.

5. 3. How did the growth of trade
change medieval society?
The growth of trade led to:
• more products being available for sale,
• more travel, the development of towns as trading
centres,
• a rising standard of living,
• and the development of a whole new class of
people who could make, often, a great deal of
money.

6. 3. How did the growth of trade
change medieval society?
• These people were not members of the nobility.
• This new wealth enabled towns to become more
powerful.
• Because the feudal system did not operate in
towns, peasants from the countryside could leave
their manors and move to towns, where they
gained their freedom.
• ***As a result, the rigid social organization of
feudal society began to weaken, and social
mobility based on wealth, not
nobility, developed.

7. 3. How did the growth of trade
change medieval society?
• Towns developed their own systems of
government
• freedom and education increased for women.
• Increased trade and life in towns would have
contributed to the spread of the Black
Death, which killed so many people in
medieval Europe.

8. Why did some attitudes towards the Catholic
church change after the 13th Century?
• Several factors led to the Church losing power.
• The Black Death was an important starting
point.
• Medieval people believed that God protected
the good and punished the wicked. Yet the
Black Death killed people randomly without
regard for their goodness.
• Many priests and nuns died because they had
cared for the sick.

9. 4. Why did some attitudes towards the Catholic
church change after the 13th Century?
• The Black Death seemed like a punishment from God
and some people spread this idea.
• This led many to question their faith. The development
of trade and towns was creating new roles in society in
the middle class and power for this middle class that
did not depend on the old feudal structure.
• One result of the growing middle class was that more
people could read and write, and some people
discovered that Church teachings did not always agree
with what they read in the Bible, and this led to more
questioning.

10. 4. Why did some attitudes towards the Catholic
church change after the 13th Century?
• Some people began to question the great
wealth of the Church, taxes the Church
collected, fees for Church services, and
whether the Church should have authority
over what individuals believe.
• This combination led to a weakening of
Church authority in the 14th and 15th
centuries.

11. 5. Discuss the reasons for the
Peasants’ Revolts in France & England
In France
• manor lords continued to charge high rents on
northern lands affected by the Hundred Years’
War and where the serfs had been robbed and
assaulted by mercenaries.
• The peasants revolted in response.

12. 5. Discuss the reasons for the
Peasants’ Revolts in France & England
• In England, labour shortages and food shortages, and
resulting rising food prices and wages led to lords
attempting to roll back wages to the levels they were
before the Black Death.
• Also, Parliament approved a poll tax to pay for the Hundred
Years’ War – a tax that would be the same for every
person, both rich and poor. The combination of the
proposed wage reduction and the poll tax caused the
English peasants to revolt.
• Most students will point out that, in both countries, the
revolts were brutally suppressed by the nobles, but that the
revolts had the lasting effect of further weakening the
feudal system.