Classical to Medieval

The debt to France and the Latin World

• The Dark Ages of Europe: 400-1000 CE

Dates to Know

• 622: Islamic “Hejira” or flight. First year of Islamic calendar. 10 years later, Islam spread through Middle East, Africa, and up through Spain. Stopped by Charles “The Hammer” Martel, a Frank, at the Battle of Tours, 732 CE.

• Pepin II Defeats the Frankish Kings at Battle of Tartry, 687 CE. This launches the successful Carolingian dynasty, during which Pepin the Short marries Big Footed Bertha and produce:

• Charlemagne, devout Christian,

• organizer, leader, 747-814

• Christmas day, 800 CE: Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III, IN ROME!!!!!

• Shift in power out of the Mediterannean basin to Northern Europe, and Christianity has a state to defend it.

• Charlemagne:

• Gathered intellectuals

• Defended against Northmen

• Spread the faith through baptism

• Built Monasteries, scriptoriums

• Had monks transcribe ancient classics

• Carolingian script—our italics. Learning!!!

• By the year 1000, the “Three Estates of Man:

• Those who fight

• Those who work

• Those who pray

• First Gothic Cathedral at St Denis

• 11th CE: Courtly Love tradition develops out of southern France (Lang-doc) troubadours and trobaritz.

• Manners at court

• Love is disease

• Ladies can have many lovers

• Men must prove their love

• The Romantic Quest born

• 1195 CE: Pope Urban II calls for first crusade against the Saracen.

• All Europe Responded—Lords mortgaged castles, went broke,

• Birth of towns, middle class

• 4th Estate: Those who Trade

• 1066: William the Conqueror, a Norman, crosses over to Angle-Land, and defeats the Anglo Saxons at Battle of Hastings.

• Domesday Book

• Mono-syllabic Language Grows Complex

• Mankinoles/Frenchified Latin mixes with Old English: Middle English born

• 13th-14th Century:

• Books (though pricey, in utero vellum)

• Cathedral Schools turn to Universities

• Linen recycled for cheaper books

• Prosperity, religious pilgrimages

• Great Cathedrals built

• Dante, divine commedia, 1300 CE

• Boccacio’s “Decameron” begins the “frame” narrative to be used by Chaucer, son of a London vitner, mid 14th.

• England 14th:

• Gower’s Confessio Amantis

• Langland’s Pier’s Ploughman

• Anon Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

• Bubonic Plaque first hits Europe, then England, 1348. Perhaps 50% die a horrible death, described by Boccaccio. The Black Death. The Red Death

• Made Human Labor valuable. Birth of Middle Class, independence.