The Late Middle Ages

Population developments

The Roman Empire had an estimated population of between 60 and 80 million. At that time similar in population seize as the Chinese Empire. There was severe depopulation in many parts of Europe and in particular in north western Europe after the collapse of the Empire. It has been estimated that the population of Europe doubled between 600 and 1000 from about 12 to around 20 million, an annual rather meager growth of around a quarter of a percent. An estimated 15 million of them lived in the Carolingian Empire. This increased to 75 million during the population boom of the High Middle Ages. By this time the Chinese population had increased to an estimated 150 million.

The favourable climate conditions during the Medieval Warmth (800-1300) was the key reason for the population explosion during that period. This had grown from around 2-4 per sq.kilomer in 500AD to around 13 by 1500. Holland was the mostly densely populated country at that time with approx 30 people per sq. kilometer ¹

Assisted by the end of the Viking raids and their integration into the west European society as traders, remarkable progress was made during this dynamic period. In north-western Europe  Flanders was leading the economic revival. We see an increase in efficient government, peace, but also in agriculture production.  Money  reoccurred and started to replace the exchange system, which led to increase wealth. By medieval standards this was nothing less than miraculous. This progress, according to some historians, led to overpopulation and this in turn this was ‘kept in check’ by regular famine and pest epidemics.

While cities started to emerge and grow, the majority of the population explosion took place in the thousands of villages, these were the real seed beds of population.

Europe population levels during the Middle Ages

400-1000: stable at a low level.

1000-1250: population boom and expansion.

1250-1350: stagnation, slow decline.

1350-1420: steep decline

1420-1470: stable at a low level.

1470-onward: slow expansion gaining momentum in the early 16th century.

Late 11th century England had a population of around 1.4 million this had grown to 5 million by 1300, France saw its population increase from 6.2 million to 17.6 million over that same period. ‘Marginal’ Norway grew from perhaps a few tens of thounds of people to half a million.

However, the economies in these countries had not kept pace with this growth and from 1250 economic conditions started to deteriorate which led to a decline in population that was nor rectified untill many centuries later. Overall the European population dropped from around 75 million in 1300 to around 50 million by 1450. In some parts of north-western Europe it was not until the 19th century before those previous population levels were reached again.

Early urbanisation took place in North Italy, the Low Countries and England where during the Late Middle Ages 40-50% of the population lived in cities, other parts of Europe only reached such levels during the Industrial Revolution.

At the heights of the medieval boom average life expectation was between 35 and 40 years. However, we need to take into account that it was in particular the young (and the frail) who perished. A healthy, not by illnesses effected peasant boy, at the height of the boom could expect to live till the age of 54. A few would make into their 80s. In general this of course resulted in a low average age , this for example meant that people in the Middle Ages had less time to built up wisdom and knowledge and this had an effect on the overall population. Societies with more youthful populations tend to be more violent, less tolerant, more supportive of  slavery and saw nothing wrong in brutal combat.

Medieval men were in their prime in their 20s, mature in their 30s and growing old in the 40s. Responsibility was taken at a young age. Men could marry at the age of 14 (girls at 12)  and fight in the army at the age of 15. Some of the noblemen were in charge of battles and battalions at the age of 16. In some instances citizens as young as 12 could form part of the local jury and at the same age they could also  receive the death penalty for certain crimes. Many Medieval kings took decision at an age around  20 that are still having an impact today.

For girls cohabitation usually didn’t happen until they were 14, but by their mid twenties they would 5 or 6 children (of which 2 or 3 would have died by that time). At that age, many would also be widowed as their husbands would have died somewhere in a battle.

The average length of  men was between 171-172 centimeters  and of women 158-159 centimeters.

[x The Time Travellers Guide To Medieval England, Ian Mortimer, 2009]

 

Political and Bureaucratic structures

The early attempts of democracy

Around 500 BC the Athenians developed the system of democracy. While for many of our political institutions and symbols we use classical names and even classical designed buildings (Athenians would indeed be able see many similarities in several of the government buildings in Washington) the differences between the early democratic systems and the ones in use now are very different.

Greek democracy was limited to the male population of the top layer of the society; they didn’t include women and also not slaves – which together would have made up as much as 75% of the population of the Athenian city state, add the children to this group to it and you end up with only a few per cent of the population actually being active participants in this democracy. Nevertheless some very important democratic elements were established here.

Interestingly also the individual household was seen as one of the layers of the political system with the man of the household having autocratic authority.

In north-western Europe a rather different and arguable more democratic system – be it still at a very primitive level – existed at that same time.

Over the centuries tribal systems here had evolved into a tripartian system and consisted of chiefs, warriors and farmers. During tribal times the organisation of the tribe was rather flat. A tribe consisted of a number of families with a common ancestor. All free male members of the tribe could participate in the assembly (thing/ting/ding/mallus). This group elected their tribal king. The king was advised by the elders of the tribe.

Only from Merovingian times – when the tribes left their nomadic live behind –  are we seeing that the top worriers started to form a ‘nobility’ class. Initially the chief might also have had religious (sacral) powers. This tradition might also be the origin of the religious powers of the Carolingian rulers which started to become more profound again under Charlemagne.

We also saw a similar development in Mesopotamia around 3000BC when the first Sumerian city states started to develop, also here it has been argued that the first kings evolved from the city temples. However, as far as we know there was nothing democratic about the systems of the Sumerians and consequent dynasties in the Anatolian-Sumerian-Egyptian region.

The Greek system of institutionalised democracy was truly developed – as a world first – by the Athenians.

From Thing to Curia

However, in north-western Europe, it was these Germanic traditions that started to form the basis for our modern democratic societies. The early democratic developments here had more to do with the Germanic Thing than with the Greek and Roman Senate. However, interestingly Roman Law became the legal foundation of continental north-western Europe. This was thanks to the rediscovery of the Codex Justianius from 530, this originated in Constantinople and the surviving manuscript was kept in Pisa since 700. Here it was copied and brought to Bologna.Here the Italian jurist Irnerius of Bologna (ca 1055) studied and taught the Corpus juri and provided it with commentary. A century later, the Bologna jurist Gratianus brought the first collection of dialectical works together of Church law known as Decretum Gratiani. Because of these juridical activities the city became, during the High Middle Ages, the center for legal studies for continental Europe.

The tribal system was developed further during Merovingian and Carolingian times. However from Charlemagne onwards the tribal political structures started to be replaced with the institution of the king, however, the real power of the king was still manly limited to his own domain. That ‘s why we see Merovingian and Carolingian ’Empires’ so easily collapsing.

After the collapse we see the system of war chiefs and domain kings. Between the mid 9th century and the 12th century we see the development of the vassalage system whereby the nobility became more tightly brought under the control of regional ecclesiastical and secular powers. Instead of bounty increasingly these warriors received land and later on privileges and the local tribal chiefs became the dukes and counts of the Middle Ages. Within the feudal Curia – the Latin name for Thing/Mallus – vassals provided advice to their Lord.

A new level of ‘democracy’ starts now entering the medieval society which looks remarkably similar to the Athenian system of democracy; a rather small group of males from the upper level of society (nobles, merchants) becmes the ruling class. Curia now started to be used for this small group of nobles and this evolved in the court.

In France, Germany and England we see an even more centralised power arriving under king or emperor.

Council of the Count/Duke

The concept of the tribal Thing and the Curia continued in what would become the Council of the Duke or Count. Within this more formal structure key vassals continued to provide advice to their Lord, with ministerialis (unfree servants) providing the administrative and managerial services. By the 13th century this had become a more or less permanent college that travelled with the Court in order to provide advice where ever the Lord resided. Governance is this period depended still very much on the personal presence of the Lord.

Members of the nobility were ordered to participate in the Court Council to provide advice, some had a more permanent position, others only occasionally participated. When the Court was travelling it was mainly the local nobility who, outside the permanent Council, participated. The position within the nobility also played a role here the larger the landholding that resorted under a Lord the more influential his position in the Court Council.

Over time clerks became also part of this system, who were, unlike the ministerialis, paid for their services. Specialised departments started to develop such as those responsible for financial affairs and legal affairs.  This lead to more centralised places from where the governance of the area became centralised, slowly ending the period of travelling courts.

A key development, in the 12th century, is also the introduction of the Exchequer system in England, which became the basis of the  financial accounting system of the kingdom. Twice a year sheriffs of all the shires had to deposit their royal revenues at the tresorier (treasury). They were administered on the so called Pipe Rolls.

From the 13th century onwards we do see that the nobility claimed more participation in relation to the governance of the country, especially in relation to the rulers demand for taxes to fight his many wars. We see the arrival of the Charter of Kortenberg in Brabant and the Magna Carta in England that are starting to formalise these arrangements.

We are now seeing a change happening from territorial developments based of the feudal rich to a structure of state formation around the king, here the king is not just the largest landowner but also the suzerain. From the 14th century onward we than see this further developed from suzerainty to sovereignty, whereby the king’s power is no longer linked to his domains but that he now full territorial control over all of the territory. At this stage the feudal state has been transformed into a monarchy. In this system the feudal Council will be transformed into a Parliament.

 

Council of the Estates

At the same time we do see the emergence of the new merchant elite in the rapidly growing cities in northern Italy and in Flanders.  Slowly but surely we now also see trades people and guilds becoming involved in these early medieval system of city democracies, in particular in Flanders, Brabant and the Rhine region. By the end of the 13th century, the ruling nobility could not simply any more, implement their will without the agreement of his subjects.

They did no longer want to pay for all the private wars the various nobilities did want to undertake. As an example after the disastrous defeat of Duke Reinoud I of Gelre in the Battle of Woeringen in 1288 he had run up such high personal debts that he had to mortgage his county to his father in law the count of Flanders. This had also enormous effects on the cities in Gelre who had to cough up most of the money to repay the debts of the count.

The more enlightened rulers adapted to these new developments (Flanders, Brabant, Holland, Normandy), others were reluctant and developments were delayed (France, England) other rulers again resisted (Germany and Italy) and the cities and city states by default started to take control over their own affairs.

In the more liberal emerging states, we see that the three estates (nobility, clergy and increasingly the burghers, represented by the cities) were frequently called together as the Estates (Staten, Parliament) during (annual) assemblies (Landtag, Diet, States General).  In the Low Countries we see the arrival of the Raad van Brabant, Raad van Vlaanderen, Raad van Henegouwen, Raad van Holland and the Raad van Zeeland. (Raad = Council)

They operated next to or in opposition of the Court Council, which in the Low Countries started to become known as the Ridderschap (college of the knights).  The measurement of wealth became money rather than land and this led to the end of the feudal (land based) system, a financial reward system also created a more independent position of both the king and the individual members of the nobility.

The Council of Brabant were established in the Charter of Kortenberg (1312). The Council of Flanders started to operate after 1330 and from 1384 onwards they were firmly established as the legislative body. Holland replaced its Council of the Count (Ridderschap) by the more representative  Estates after the Kiss of Delft in 1428. However, it was not until 1463-1464 that the cities of Holland officially called the first meeting of the Estates. Their trading interests stood often directly opposite of the waring interests of the nobility.  It would be very difficult for the Emperor, Count or Duke to make decisions without consulting the Estates. From these times onwards the Ridderschap is totally separated from the  Council. While Holland started rather late in this process, they would soon take the lead in the democratisation process of the Low Countries.

In several Counties and Duchies in the Low Countries – after the transition period – the nobility remained unified in the Ridderschap. This institution was further formalised under the Republic of the Seven United Provinces. They represented the nobility in the Estates. The Estates were chaired by the Stadtholder or the Ruwaard, the highest representative of the Count of Duke.

With the increased centralisation of power – from the High Middle Ages onwards – the tension between the king and the nobility increased as the kings became so powerful that they started to undermine the privileges of the Estates. Increasingly the councils from the various Dukes and Counts were centralised under the kings or in this part of the world the Dukes of Burgundy (States General). The Reichstag was the general assembly of the Holy Roman Empire. The first States General of the Low Countries took place in Bugge in 1464, from here the moved to Brussels and after the Dutch Revolt to Den Haag.

The Estates did lack the backing of a bureaucratic and a centralised financial system, this greatly limited the effectiveness of this institution.

Separately, in 1473 Charles the Bold established the Grote Raad van Mechelen (Great Council of Mechelen), the highest court in Burgundy (Supreme Court). After the Dutch Revolt the Hoge Raad (Supreme Court) of Holland was established in 1582, this became the highest court of the emerging  Dutch Republic  and was modelled on the Grote Raad of Mechelen.

Dyke-reeves

A special mentioning here should get the early democratic system that developed around land reclamation and the accompanying water management systems that had to be developed, this often involved different counties which in the Middle Ages often meant different political powers. However, it were the local farmers and the local communities that formed the management of these jurisdictions. See also: Villages and Serfdom.

During popular uprisings we also see other layers of the population participating, e.g. the Battle of the Gulden Spurs (Gulden Sporen Slag). However, none of the popular uprisings were able to establish a lasting democratic movement. There was little or no coordination and cooperation between these groups and as such they were rather easily suppressed by the ruling kings. The Reformation in the end did become a successful popular uprising and at least in some regions (Netherlands) led to very significant political changes, but nothing close to what we now call a democracy.

In the 15th and 16th centuries the smaller cities were also well represented in the democratic systems of the day. However, after the power struggles and internal wars after the death of Charles the Bald, the cities started to dominate these structures and in the following decennia they were basically subdued and lost their independent votes.  The region around Brugge (Brugse Vrije) was the last regional structure that was able to hang on to its powers.

Brabant was divided in four quarters, however there was a tack of centralised governance and in particular the Bailiwick (Meierij) of Den Bosch and the Markgrave Antwerp were more or less autonomous, the Maasland Quarter (with Oss) was part of the Bailiwick.

These early medieval systems of democracy started to crumble under the Habsburg rulers. Brugge lost its prominence after, in 1489,  the revolts against Maximilian of Australia were violently suppressed. But in particular under Charles V the end game for the cities was played out.  He brutally suppressed democratic movements in  Ghent (1540). Independent territories such as Gelre, Cleve, Utrecht and Friesland were all forcefully incorporated in the Spanish-Habsburg Empire.

The English Civil War, which ended in 1649, marks the start of the system of a Constitutional Monarch, but in fact the power still very much stayed at the top layer. The French Revolution was another attempt to create a more democratic system. 1848 – the year in which my great grandfather was born – marked another milestone especially in north-western Europe with popular uprisings and more demands for democratic principles and slowly but steadily over the next 50 years democracy started to emerge as we know it today.

Most democratic countries still have Parliamentary systems based on the governance structures as they were developed and shaped over the centuries since the Middle Ages.  The Estates are now the Parliaments and the Kings Councils are now what in most countries is called the Senate.

Case study of the declining power of the lower nobility

During the 12th and 13th centuries the political situation started to change whereby the kings, counts and dukes became more powerful at the expense of the many landholders who had been able to increase their power to become the new nobility, during the previous centuries.

Of course the lower nobility didn’t accept this laying down. They tried to fight this and wanted to continue to increase their powers – similar to how the rest of the nobility did this as well – through war and marriage.

An interesting case to illustrate how this worked in practice can be found in Holland. In analysing the political murder on Count Floris V of Holland in 1296, this struggle between the two classes of nobility as well as their internal relationships provides a good overview of this.  ²

Several of the lower nobility had been able to build up significant wealth and power during this period. For example the van Amstel family had been minesterialis under the Bishop of Utrecht and had since become knights. They used the ongoing power struggle between the Bishop of Utrecht and the Count of Holland to increase their own influence. However, Floris V was a powerful Count and wanted to increase his position by limiting that of what officially were his vassals, he even had international ambitions, he was one of many claimants of the title of the King of England.

Through marriage the van Amstels had built powerful relationships with other noble families, notably the van Cuyks, one of the old nobility families with extensive properties along the rivers in the Low Countries. At this time they had reached the summit of their powers, Jan van Cuyk being the highest advisor to the Duke of Brabant and an ambassador of the King of England. Other closely linked families included: van Woerden, van Velsen, van Heusden, van Brederode en van Tellingen.

They were all linked through marriages.

During one of the conflicts between the Count and the nobility, Floris imprisoned Gijbrecht van Amstel and Herman van Woerden for resp. 5 and 8 year. After his release Herman van Woerden was not allowed to marry his daughters without the approval of the Count, a clear indication of the power of the marriage relationships.

Also many of the properties were confiscated in this process.

Obviously these issues left deep scars in the families affected. Add to this the rather sudden change of alliance of Floris V from the King of England to the King of France and what could have remained rather parochial range of events – as there were so many throughout Europe – became one that made the history books to become a case study for these medieval developments.

Though Jan van Cuyk the King of England supported the kidnapping of Floris and Gijsbrecht van Amstel became the key organiser of the action plan.. Apparently the plan was to bring Floris to England however, the way the action was botched put questions around this. During a range of confusing and rather unexplainable events the Count was murdered by Gerard van Velsen, apparently in rage.

The conspirators didn’t gain anything from their action, to the contrary they were either killed or imprisoned , their property was confiscated and in the case of the van Amstels they had to flee to Brabant.

 

State finances

Wealth was created by rulers through taxes and other financial and in-kind levies. Throughout history – since the urban revolution, which started in the Middle East – we have seen political cycles linked to wealth creation by the ruling class, followed by debt problems in times of war and famine. This most often led to popular uprisings or external war which led to the overthrow of the ancient regime, the debts were wiped out and a new political cycle started.

The money economy remained rather small and for the ordinary people ‘debt’ often meant slavery or serfdom. This situation slowly started to change in the 14^th century, when vassalage and serfdom was replaced by taxes. Rulers started borrow money (mainly to wage war and run their courts) and taxes and other income were used to pay for it.

Until the 17^th century all state borrowings were basically private borrowings by the rulers and that meant that there was a huge risk involved as the debt was wiped out when a ruler died. But also a ruler could change the game at will and get rid of his debts in that way. This for example was one of the key reasons why Jews (key moneylenders) where so often expelled and prosecuted.

The Dutch were the first in the early 17^th century to change that system whereby the General Estates became the borrower. In this way taxpayers became involved in government and the debt was no longer wiped out at the death of the ruler. Of course there was now far less risk involved in lending money and this led to a large capital inflow into the Low Countries, which led to the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic. Britain was the second country to follow this system after the revolution of 1688. Changes in other parts of Europe – with more despotic forces in charge – didn’t happen until the 18^th or even the 19^th century.

The downside of this was that it became much more difficult to cancel debts in case of famine, war. This also especially in the 20^th century led to an increase of the political power of the financial institutions and as such their enormous influence in the financial affairs of the governments.

Powerful national monarchies

By 1200 the French and German countries were more or less defined and that – at least internally – led to an emphasis on peace rather than on war. The Church was also a great supporter of this developments and the ‘Peace of God’ slowly changed into the ‘Peace of the King’. While this did occur on the borders of the countries, the push for internal peace also led to the suppression of internal conflicts (heretics, witch hunts, Inquisition) and the suppression of differences in opinion. This would later on boil over into the Reformation.

By 1300 the possibility of military expansion by the many local warlords, which were so prominent in the 10th and 11th century, was more or less over, military action became more and more a national activity. However, most of these activities were driven by political particularism and this often became the stumbling block in the integration of the many small independent states.

However, internal conflict remained a problem in Germany and Italy, while England, France and Burgundy showed much greater cohesion. While France since 1200 focussed its efforts mostly on its internal affairs, Germany focussed on extending its powers in for example Italy, all the way to Sicily  and  through its ’Drang nach Osten’ on expansions to the east. The power of the Holy Roman Emperor was closely linked to the authority of the pope, with the decline of that authority also the Holy Roman Empire started a period of decline. Lack of powerful central control led to the splintering of over 300 small German states within the state, this situation lasted until the 19th century. Italy followed a similar cause of internal fragmentation, which also lasted until that time.However, that same fragmentation also led to competition between rival lords and rival city states and especially in Italy led to a cultural revival in art, literary, science and philosophy. These developments were so important that they eventually will mark the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance.

But back to the Middle Ages, France and England remained far more internally cohesive with strong centralised royal control. It were also these two countries who led the change to the abolishment of the feudal systems, as early as the 14th century, but as mentioned before some of my forebears in German didn’t become free until the 1850s.

Holy Roman Empire

The Empire – which was started by Otto the Great – was not united, like the Imperium Romanum or the British or Spanish Empires, but more a collection of independent territories. It had been largely brought together through inheritance. There was no united constitution and there was little interest from these territories in the other parts of the Empire, to the contrary they often warred amongst themselves. Most of these individual entities had a more developed political system the the Empire as a whole. The element that did unite the Empire the most was the network of the royal children, brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces which were despatched over the Empire to rule the various elements. While it didn’t unite the Empire itself, this network  did create a very significant international force.

This covered many elements of society, trade, commerce, finance, travel, culture, architecture and construction, arts and science. There was free flow of these activities throughout the Empire. In the Golden Bull of 1356  seven Kurfürsten or prince-electors were explicitly named who were to choose the King of the Romans, who would then usually be crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope later. These Electors held an proportional level of power greater that that their own territory warranted.

There were three  prelates, they were the archchancellors of Germany (Mainz), Gaul and Burgundy (Trier), and Italy (Cologne) and four secular ones the Bohemia cupbearer, the Palsgrave seneschal, Saxony marshal, and Brandenburg chamberlain.

For the emperor to be elected basically was a money matter, the votes of the Electors were depending on the money and privileges that would be provided to them. For example the election of Charles V had cost him a million gold Guldens of which half were bribes to the Electors. This was mainly financed by Fugger bankers. ³. This situation resulted in an ongoing increase of the powers of the local Electors and an increased weakening of the power of the emperor. Because of this it was impossible for the Emperor to built a similar national cohesion as started to happen in France and England. There was never a true imperial bureaucracy with any serious power that could lead to the formation of a state. While the Reichstag  brought in some cohesion it remained largely ceremonial.

The Bull also prescribed the election procedures in great detail as well as  the decision to hold the elections in Frankfurt (video clip) – reflecting a traditional feeling dating from East Frankish days that both election and coronation ought to take place on Frankish soil,  the coronation should take place in Aachen, and Nuremberg was ordered to be the place where the first diet of a reign should be held.

Interestingly while the rest of Europe abandoned the ceremony of coronation, this is still retained in Westminster Abbey, England (video link).

Throughout the Middle Ages (and beyond) there remained a strong belief in the empire. The emperor was seen as the protector of Christianity and played a key role in fighting the Turks, Mongols as well as internal heresy. Protecting the Papacy was another key function. In 1414 Emperor Sigismund called for the Council of Konstanz with the aim to unite the Latin-Christian world to fight against heresy. He was also the only one who could raise rulers to kings and found universities.

However, the strong national German focus on the emperor also limited its recognition  as the global ruler outside that territory and in particular Italy, where – after Frederick II -  there was a constant undermining of his powers. France, already at an early stage had taken the position the his reign was limited to his territory and while recognising its domination, never saw itself part of this. The Swiss communities – formerly part of the Empire, formed in 1291 their own union and were more or less independent.

France

Since the arrival of the Capet dynasty in the late 10^th century, we are seeing France slowly emerging into a more cohesive and larger entity.

However, it wasn’t until Louis VI before France slowly started to emerge as a European power. In 1124 the king was able to gather his nobles around him and combined they were able to warded off  a planned invasion of France by England and Germany. Louis had also founded the foundation of the feudal system that strengthened royal authority. However, France at that stage was still not much more than Paris-Orléans  and its direct surroundings. TheCounty of Anjou(including Normandy, Maine and Touraine) as well as theDuchy of Aquitaine(including Gascony and Poitou) were significantly larger in size.

The Duchy passed to France in 1137 when Eleanor of Aquitaine married Louis VII of France. However, in 1152, Aquitaine became an English possession when she married for the 2^nd time and now with the King of England. In 1214 France defeated the English and the Hohenstaufen armies. This secured him most of France north of the Loire. This was a critical time from France as its domains (in what is now France) were now smaller than those owned by the King of England.

At the start of the 14th century France was the strongest power in Europe, it had gone through a century of peace. The King of France had the support of the Pope – who he more or less controlled as the Pope since 1309  resided in Avignon. Both the King of France and the Pope were not keen in seeing England becoming too powerful on the continent. This assisted the kings of France on increasing moral powers that led to an increase in his prestige. France was the center of new technological and (new Gothic) cultural developments; of which the many  cathedrals are still a lasting monument. European trade was also dominated by France, which at that time had a population of 21 million, 5 times that of England.

Louis VII’s  successor, Philip II Augustus, was able to extend the territorial boundaries.  Philip II and his successor Louis the Saint were able to develop a just legal system that obtained the trust in royal jurisdiction. Philip IV (the Handsome) extended this further into the Parliament of Paris  - the first meeting of the Etats-Généraux took place in 1302 – wit had specialised offices in particular in relation to finance, with paid expert staff. However, his military successes  IV were rather poor and in particular the Battle of the Golden Spur in 1302, was a serious defeat. He also tried to invaded Aquitaine (now called Guyenne) but also her he was not successful. All of this was an enormous drain on his finances and this led to more participation of the nobility. Philip died in 1312 and his third son Charles too the throne.

When Charles IV died childless in 1328, the crown went from the Capetians to the Valois and Philip, Count of Valois, Anjou and Maine became King Philip VI of France.  The English king Edward II claimed the French crown for the House of Plantagenet – trough his marriage with Isabel the sister of Charles IV. However, this was reacted by the Paris Parliament. The resulting conflict would become the start of the Hundred Years’ War.

Under Charles V a civil war broke out between the two families vying for the power of France the Burgundians and the Armagnacs. This allowed England to seize the opportunity and again invade France the won the famous battle of Argincourt in 1417 and through its slash and burn tactics(chevauchée) terrorised the country in excepting his rule. English rule ended abruptly, when France got their act together, while throughout this period they had lost most of the battles, in the end they did win the war in 1453.

England

In England we saw the beginning of the institutionalisation of the Common Law, a process which already had been started here by the invading Anglo-Saxons.This was further strengthened by the arrival of William the Conqueror in 1066. He united the country under one monarch and established a national feudal system, this allowed the developments of a  strong monarch into a national entity. The power of England increased significantly when his grandson Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine. Their daughter Matilda married Geoffrey of Anjou and this led to the establishment of the House of Plantagenet, with significant British territories now on mainland Europe (France).

England also rapidly saw the development of a sophisticated bureaucratic system also here staring with finance ((Exchequer) .

However,  the next kings,  the two sons and one grandson of Henry and Eleanor all had more interest in warfare than governing and at the battle of Bouvines (1214) England lost most of its territories in France. Like elsewhere it were such dire situations that strengthened the other nobles and in 1215 King John had to sign the Magna Carta. In general the English Parliament hd greater influence that the French Parliament.

London, at that time had 12,000 inhabitants, a century later that number had doubled and London was bigger than all other cities in Britain combined. It was by far the most importance trading center, dominated by foreign traders who controlled 67% of the properties in the city. In order to maintain  its trading position it relied on its surroundings for produce, its reach by ship was 80kms and its reach by wagons 40kms, a much larger country side that most other European cities.

During the Hundred Years War there were roughly 50 leading families in England, they were the military leaders  and were also the large landowners. They were also the nobles who made up the Parliament. They increased their influence by binding the lower nobility (gentry) through a system of patronage to their interests. Slowly the court changed from a travelling one to one that became concentrated in one or two towns. In 1337 Edward III concentrated its civil services in one place: Westminster. This led to the lower nobility and the representatives of the cities met in the House of Commons, while the higher nobility as well as the ecclesiastical representatives structured themselves around the House of Lords. These Houses also started to employ their own judges and administrative staff and became more and more professional.

Edward III  had strong ties with the continent he was married to the daughter of the Count of Holland and Hainault and many of his children married within the European nobility. This also brought him important support during the Hundred Year War with France.

The power of the Parliament became obvious in 1399 when they impeded King Richard II and appointed his uncle John of Gaunt as King Henry IV. His son Henry V lost the Hundred Years’ War,  left the country near bankrupt and suffered from mental illness, this allowed the Parliamant to further increase its powers. This resulted between 1455 and 1485 in the Wars of Roses between rival Houses of the Plantagenets  (The House of York –  with a white rose in their coats of arms, against the House of Lancaster – who carried a red rose) for the right of succession to the English throne. In the end it was a remote relative of the  House of Lancaster, Henry Tudor Henry VII) , who came out on top. He defeated the last Yorkist king Richard III and married Edward IV’s daughter Elizabeth of York to unite the two houses. The House of Tudor subsequently ruled England and Wales for 117 years.  The most famous member of this House is Henry VIII who reigned from 1509-1547. He ruled at the same time of Emperor Charles V and shared with him the turbulent starting years of the Reformation.

Italy

Many of the old Roman civitates who survived the collapse of the empire and the barbarian invasions, continued to play a key role during the Middle Ages. Their leading families provided bishops as well as many of the administrative officials linked to the new rulers such as the Ostrogoths, Langobards, Franks and Germans and of course to the many ecclesiastic rulers including the popes. These new rulers were also supported by their own militiae (capitanei, seniores, valvassores). Many of the large property owners around the civitates also had their own manor-like properties within the neighbouring towns and also happily played their role in the new power struggles.

After a range of failed attempts the Holy Roman Emperor was finally able to end the unruly situation in and around Rome, known as the pornocracy. However, despite some early successes of Frederick II the emperor was unable to permanently include Italy in the empire. The ongoing power struggle between the Pope and the Emperor resulted in two fractions the Guelphs and Ghibellines respectively supporting the Pope and the Emperor.

During the 10th century cities along the Amalfi coast became the dominant traders along the Mediterranean coast. However, the center of Mediterranean trade eventually moved to Genoa. This led to a shift in power from central Italy to north Italy. Far away from Rome these cities were able to largely develop independently from the rulers in Rome.

The lack of central power and the power of the north Italian cities created a rather different ruling society than in the rest of the territory of the old Carolingian Empire (East and West Francia).

In particular Genoa played a key role in the early development of the cities, they had to expand further west as Venice increasingly started to dominate the east-Mediterranean trade.

At their height of their trading power, around 1300, 13 cities in Italy had more than 50,000 inhabitant. With the exception of Palermo all the other cities were in north Italy. Venice, Milan and Florence each had more tan 100,000 inhabitants. Trade required a good hinterland the fertile Po flats provides much of the needed produce, this created wealth and that attracted others to dominate the trade not just to the sea ports but also across the few trading routes via the Alps between north and south Europe. This with only possible through the deployment of the city militiae as mentioned above. This was a bit different from the situation above the Alps were the nobility developed its own unique feudal systems of vassals linked to military obligations. The cavalry however, also in Italy, was expensive and only those who could afford to supply horses and cavalrymen could participate, this led to the term’ cavaliere nobile’ and for a while membership of this group also became hereditary. This situation started to change when the city states were ruled by dictators as mentioned below.

Of course the Holy Roman Emperor, the Pope as well as other European leaders from France, Aragon and Anjou all  tried hard to obtain (feudal)  control over these wealthy cities and the fractional divisions linked to these feudal powers were also very apparent in the emerging city states , allegiances could easily change depending on who was needed to advance the cause of the independence of the city. The Guelphs and Ghibellines feuds further splintered these cities with many supporting either party. Rather remarkable is that throughout this period they all vied for the formal recognition of the Pope or the Emperor for their legitimacy.

The city rulers started to turn into dictatorships, assisted by their militiae strengthened with mercenaries and paid cavalrymen they took over local power and gave themselves titles such as Duce (Duke) and Marquis. They formed formidable dynasties such as the Visconti’s in Milan, Scaligeri in Verone, Maltestas in Rimini, Medici in Florence and the Montefeltros in Urbino. They were able to extend their powers beyond their cities and as such created small principalities.

Milan became the largest in the Po Valley, however towards the end of the Middle Ages Venice became a strong power here as well – they needed a strong hinterland – a terra firma – and dominated the regions around Verona and Padua, without giving up its dominance in the eastern Mediterranean. Florence became the dominant force in Toscana, they received strong resistance from Pisa and Sienna.

In the south the Normans had conquered Sicily and the southern part of Italy with Naples as its capital. Since 1282 (Sicilian Vespers) the two parts were split again into two independent kingdoms, the one in Sicily in a personal union with Aragon. These two monarchies had well established centralised bureaucracies and were among the most professional in Europe.

The ongoing feuds within the cities however, severely undermined the power of the unit and in turn the European powers and the Papacy were able to gain greater control over the cities. The plague in the 1350s assisted the decline of the cities even further, with some of the cities loosing close to 50% of their population. Only Milan and Florence could maintain their central functions and they largely did so by conquering the regions around them and in particularly the conquest of Pisa by Florence secured its ongoing importance. However, the region never regained the leading position it held until that time.

Republic of Venice

Its marshland made an attractive refuge for neighbouring populations during the invasions first of the Huns and the Goths and later the Lombards. It became a semi-independent entity under Byzantine rule; it had its own duke (doge).  It received significant privileges in the Golden Bull of 1092. With Byzantine power decreasing Venice became more and more powerful. The declining nature of its overlord also allowed for an increase in its participation in the east-Mediterranean sea trade, they also built its own navy. Between the 10^th and 12^th centuries it became as the Republic of Venice – a powerful thalassocracy (see state) with extended territories along the Adriatic (including Istria, Dalmatia –Ragussa/ Dubrovnik) and on the islands of Crete and Cyprus. It also started to dominate large areas of the Po Vally.  During the crusades they became an important ally to the Franks both in relation to logistics as well as military. Despite its autocratic nature, governance in the Republic was relative enlightened, this level of freedom contributed significantly to its prosperity. After the crusaders conquest of Constantinople, a significant part of the booty ended up in Venice and it was also able to further expand  its territory. Now Independence it became the Duchy of  the Archipelago. By the late 13th century, Venice was the most prosperous city in all of Europe. At the peak of its power and wealth, it had 36,000 sailors operating 3,300 ships, dominating Mediterranean commerce.

The city was governed by the Great Council, which was made up of members of its noble families. The Great Council appointed all public officials and elected a Senate of 200 to 300 individuals. However,it was the Council of Ten (also called the Ducal Council or the Signoria) who controlled much of the administration. One member of the Great Council was elected “Doge”,  the ceremonial head of the city, who normally held the title until his death.

By 1482 Venice was the printing capital of the world, and the leading printer was Aldus Manutius, who invented the concept of paperback books that could be carried in a saddlebag. The decline of Venice started when Portugal became its main maritime competitor and was further undermined by the Turkish-Venice confrontations that started to occur after the fall of Constantinople. This led to a sharp decline in Adriatic trade.

Continuation of the history of Holy Roman Empire and its conflicts in Italy (Investiture Conflict, Guelphs and Ghibellines).

 

Spain and Portugal

Since the invasion of the Muslim Moors, Catholic Spain in the north of the peninsula had been involved in the Reconquista and this was finally taking on a more serious turn during the 12th and 13th centuries. It was until 1492 until finally the Sultanate of Granada fell. However, it only was able to survive that longs because it was prepared to pay tribute to Castille.  This was the strongest of the four kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula:

• Castille, the largest of the four
• Aragon and  Catalonia, they  merged into one kingdom in 1258
• Portugal, which remained independent after they won the strategic battle of Aljubarrota in 1385

Castille evolved along the lines of the other European states. In the other two states however, the feudal powers were significantly larger which hampered a more centralised approach the king had significantly less influence here. The involvement of Castille in the Hundred Years ’ War and the subsequent involvement of England and France in its internal affairs, weakened the position of the king and allowed the nobility to increase its power in the Cortes. A separate Audiencia (high court) was established in 1371. A separate Council was established that represented all the estates as well as the financial and administrative office as they had developed elsewhere in Europe.

During the course of the 14th century, Castille was also able to establish a successive navy that earned them a strong (but not dominant)position in the western Mediterranean. This severely started to undermine the position of Aragon, who had been able to control the Balearic Islands, Sicily, Naples and for a short time even parts of Greece. Its major city Barcelona became isolated and missed the strong communications and trading links with the rest of Europe. Political conflicts within Aragon also hampered the developments of strong political, financial and administrative institutions.

In 1469 Castille, Aragon and  Catalonia merged into one and became the Kingdom of Spain. This became a strong and powerful monarchy under Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabelle of Castille (the maternal grandparents of Emperor Charles V)

Under King Henry the Navigator, Portugal became the first European nation to start large scale exploration of new worlds. Portugal by that time had already conquered Ceuta on the West African coast. Under Henry they established a very successful and profitable trade monopoly along the African and Asian coasts. Its success became also its downfall. When Spain rose to power it wasn’t impressed by Portugal’s trade hegemony and King Philip II grabbed the Portugeese crown in 1580 and combined the two kingdoms. While this only lasted 60 years, that was too little too late by that time of the take-over, the Dutch had started to emerge on the scene and rapidly replaced both the Portuguese and the Spanish trade monopolies in most of Asia.

Russia

After the Mongol invasion it took the Russian Principalities several centuries before they started to recover from the devastation. It finally was Ivan the Great (1462-1502) who was able to rid Moscow of its Mongol overlords.

Zoe (renamed Sophia) Palaiologina, a niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI, was taken to Rome after the conquest of Morea by Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire in 1460. In 1469, Pope Paul II offered to marry her to the Russian monarch in order to unite the Orthodox and Catholic churches. The widowed Ivan married her in 1472.

Without any strong Russian culture and with the strong influence of Sophia, he remodelled the Kremlin on the now extinct Byzantium Empire. Through his marriage with her, Ivan proclaimed himself the successor of the Byzantium emperors. Moscow also became the seat of the Eastern (Greek) Orthodox Church.

Sophia is said to also have played a key role in the steps taken that led to the overthrow of the Mongolians.

Ivan conquered and annexed Novgorod – which had aligned itself with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania against the expansion of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.. In 1478 he crowned himself Czar.  The other principalities were virtually absorbed, by conquest, purchase or marriage: Yaroslavl in 1463, Rostov was bought in 1474, Tver in 1485, Vyatka 1489.

Ivan and Sophia’s  grandson,  Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584) conquered the Mongol Kingdom of Kazan as well as large parts of Siberia. The spectacular eastward conquest continued Russian settlers founded Tomsk (1604) and Irkutsk (1661). In 1636 Russian forces had reached the Sea of Okhotsk on the northern shores of the Pacific.

Rest of Europe

In the rest of Europe the privileges given to internal regions in relation to customary law made it more difficult to centralise legal and administrative procedures. Especially the cities in Flanders as well as the Duchy Gelre resisted this level of centralisation until finally Charles V ended that situation. He strengthen the imperial military and financial systems and basically developed through this an imperial constitution in the direction of autocracy. However, this didn’t last for long as this ongoing demand for independence, only a few decades later, led to the Dutch Revolt (1568-1648), which saw the creation of the Dutch Republic.

While the Crusades for the first time focused people attention on ‘nationalism’ that ‘nationalism’ was focussed on territories ‘overseas’ namely Palestine. It still would take centuries before the people of Europe started to focus on their own lands, beyond simply the ruling house. Slowly between 1300 and 1500, the European monarchies  were able to strengthen themselves, creating a clearer sense of nationality and racial identity. Not that this sentiment was prevalent at that time. The most successful states at that time where the multi-national conglomerates: the Hapsburg and Ottoman Empires. France certainly also aspired to expand their reign in particular into the direction of Italy, where it kept it claims on Milan and Naples, in the north they claimed areas such as Flanders and in the south it kept its claims on Navarra. The Scandinavian countries led by Denmark and Sweden has similar aspirations in their region.

Nevertheless it was around these times that people started to identify themselves more and more as a nation, they also started to link that to a common language.

The organisation of the Court

For most of the Middle Ages the Court and the governance of the country were totally intertwined. It is only that during the Burgundian Court slowly a separation started to emerge. For moredetail information see: Dukes of Burgundy.

Also government and the Church were fully intertwined and the secular court also addressed many religious matters.

As an example of this, after 1070 the Counts of Flanders still appointed the provosts of the St Donations chapter in Bruges as their chancellors. From the 14th century onwards secularisation started to set in, however initially only in France. By 1500 only 8% of the French courts still were clerics (the word clerk is derived from this).

From Royal Court to National Bureaucracy

The Royal Courts slowly started to grow into bureaucratic entities which allowed the monarchs and their counts, dukes and bishops (Germany)  to extend their powers to all of the corners of their territories. This greatly improved their ability to enforce tax collection. Under a more stable regime it became easier to institutionalise these powers. Kings started to stop moving around and Courts were established and embellished, administrative and legislative complexes followed suit.

This also undermined the influence of the ancient nobility, while the king still needed them for military support, the governance of the countries became increasingly in the hands of a new professional elite of lawyers and bureaucrats trained at the newly established universities.

The ancient nobility maintained their power to approve and grant taxation. As we saw above this was a very powerful tool and led to the first set of democratic principles laid down in charters in Flanders, Brabant and England. However, towards the end of the Middle Ages their position was further weakened partly because the rise of paid-for military services and a forever quarreling nobility with their internal feuds.

It was in Flanders that we come across one of the first civil servants starting to record civil service history. Galbert of Bruges, worked as a notary for the chapter of his cathedral in his town. The occasion for his writing was the murder of the Count Charles the Good of Flanders in 1127 ⁴ .

An example of the raise of power of the civil service can be seen at the court in France there were 8 master accountants at the beginning of the 14th century, 19 by 1484. In 1286 the chancery had ten notaries this increased to 59 in 1361, 79 in 1418 and 120 by the early 16th century. Around 1200 the king of England had 15 messengers and in 1350 60 of them, they were looking after the weekly mail between the court and the county sheriffs.

By 1300 most institutions that would govern Europe well into modern times had been established. We also now start to see the formation of a new group of nobility. Many of them evolved around the Court (Court Nobility). Increasingly they received charters that indicated their nobility. They remained distinctively different from the ancient nobility (allodial nobility).

Nobility

Within the Holy Roman Empire the rank order of the nobility was known as the ‘Heerschild’ it was divided in seven shields:

1. Emperor/king
2. Church nobility including bishops and abbots
3. Dukes and Counts
4. Lords
5. Schepenen (bailiffs and magistrates of the cities)
6. Their vassals
7. The function of the 7th group is not well understood they later became the free men within the cities (burghers).

 

State and Church remain intertwined

This more stabilised environment also allowed the Church to increase its influence on the society; already since Emperors  Constantine and Justinius (Codex Justianius), Christian values had become State values, enforcement of them became thus far more easier.  Charlemagne picked this up again and followed the same principle. The 6th century historian Tribonian famously wrote:  ”The will of the Prince has the force of law“.

This enforcement was mainly executed on a national basis, eventually through inquisitions.. On that level the authority of the Church remained important and also provided a level of intellect and organisation that was used by the earlier warring lords to try and establish their power base and to provide a range of administrative and legislative services. This very much assisted the monarchies to develop more modern forms of government.

It was in the interest of both the King and the Church to create an emotional and spiritual authority around this. This was a direct extension of the situation as did exist in the later period of the Roman Empire, which was carried on by the East Roman Empire and also well understood by Charlemagne. The Imperial Insignia played a key role in this as well as the rich cultural traditions that were also institutionalised around King and Church.

The sacral elements provided credibility and authority that made it very difficult for others to attack, as an attack on this institution would be an attack on God.

However, increasingly we also see the flawed fundamentals of this rather unholy alliance as increasingly conflicts arose between the secular and ecclesial powers. While the influence of the Pope had increased after the Investiture Controversy, towards 1500 their authority was clearly in decline. Of course what hadn’t helped the image of Church during that period was the fact that there were regular rival popes, many had mistresses and children and a very large number of them were mainly interested in the wealth and the power that the office brought with it and made sure that their family members and associates were enriched by it, rather than that they were concerned in what was  good for the Church, let alone that they were seriously concerned about their flocks out there in the various countries. Especially on an international level the influence of the pope was waning.

Equally, increased opposition also challenged the secular powers of the local bishops, who of course with the examples in Rome and Avignon often also misused their powers and moral authority. Furthermore the taxes the Church charged led to an increasing number of peasant revolts, especially in the German countries. This reached a climax with the Ninety Nine Theses of Martin Luther.

The powerful role of women

In general terms the fundamental platform upon women were judged and treated are founded in the Bible, through Eve they were to blame for the ruin of mankind. They were not much helped either by the ‘intellectual’ works of Plato and Aristotle, also in their writings women are always coming off 2nd best, they are the property of their men, have to stay in house and are in general seen as being incapable of any intellectual activity. In the Middle Ages they were portrayed as being a feeble person, not very trustworthy, envious and more malicious then men.

Another incredible misconception that lasted for nearly 1500 years was based on the third century ‘medical’ writer Galen. He stated that women’s wombs are ‘cold’ and need constant warming by ‘hot’ male sperm. In addition if women don’t regularly copulate their seed (as Galen calls it) might coagulate and suffocate their wombs, thereby damaging their health. Therefor it is widely understood that women have a physical need to have sex regularly. Marriage is seen as an essential means of satiating both female and male lust through making each partner indebted to the other. By this reckoning, neither partner might deny the other repayment of the martial debt. You therefore have a society in which men are led to believe that their wives are continuously aching to have sex as often as they can. At the same time women are led to believe that they are physical manifestation of lust, and that their wombs will suffocate with excess ’seed’ unless they have sex regularly. [x The Time Travellers Guide To Medieval England, Ian Mortimer, 2009]

The position of aristocratic women in the early Middle Ages was often not much more than a trading object. They were exchanged as a ‘gift’ in order to secure peace or they were ‘acquired’ and became ‘security’ to keep conquered rivals in check. They were also used to expand territories by giving them into marriage to neighbouring rulers. The Burgundian Dukes and Habsburg Emperors became absolute masters in such deals.

Double marriages

A good example of the value of noble women (girls) can be seen in three double marriages which became key to the development of Europe as we now it today. Bavaria and Burgundy were united through the double marriage of 1385, this also led of the inclusion of Hainault, Holland and Zeeland into the Burgundian empire. In 1495 a double marriage between Burgundy and Castille/Aragon brought Spain and Habsburg together, laying the foundation of the European Empire under Charles V. Perhaps of a lesser importance was the double marriage between Louis and Anna, children of Ladislaus V Jagiellon King of Hungary between Maria and Ferdinand, children of Philip the Fair, Duke of Burgundy. The effects of these double marriages are still felt in the local politics and management of Belgium and the Netherlands. See also: Brabant under Burgundian rule.

Despite their subservient treatment, aristocratic women often themselves played an active and leading role in peace negotiations, heritage issues, etc. They were often referred to as ‘Peace-Spinsters’.

The legal position of women was based on the status of her father, rarely of that of the mother. When she married she took the status of her husband. However, in case of a marriage between a noble lady and a lesser nobleman his status was not upgraded, he only slightly rose in his status. The order of nobility is clear in the signing of the various protocols; it preciously lists the signatories in the orderof their ranking importance. After the deathof her husband the widow received the status of her husband. We therefore do see some very powerful widowed queens and princess in particular in the Low Countries: Duchess Margret of York, saved Burgundy after the death of Charles the Fearless in 1477. Margareta Archduchess of Austria, Maria Queen of Hungary and Margareta Duchess of Parma (all related to Charles V – aunt, sister and illegitimate daughter) were all powerful Regents of the Netherlands between 1507  and 1567 (see: Dukes of Burgundy).

However, the majority of widowed queens and princess ended up in convents after they had fulfilled their task and for whatever reason had lost their ‘value’.

In general the position of the women remained largely the same throughout the classical, medieval and renaissance periods. Even during the Renaissance the role of the women was to serve and to know of God. Education was seen as important for men  for trade, a profession or to serve a city or a state, these were not seen as proper roles for women and therefore it was also not necessary to educate them. It was also thought that women did not have the intellectual capacity to take on education or more senior positions in society.

 

Influential women

There were some very notable exceptions. Very influential women of the Middle Ages include:

·Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim (c.935 – c.1002)

·Heloise (c.1095 – 1164)

·Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 1179)

·Marie de France 1160 – c.1215)

·Christine de Pizan (c.1354 – c.1429)

These women were all prolific writers and were involved in a range of theological and rhetorical arts and other intellectual activities that were normally only conducted by men. Society and in particular the Church saw women of incapable and inferior. This makes them even more remarkable and their behaviour doesn’t fit the usual medieval stereotype.

There is very little information on these women, mainly based on information that can be gathered from their writings. They also were highly educated and it is puzzling were some of their knowledge came from Heloise for example already mastered at a young age apart from the vernacular languages of France and England, Latin, Hebrew and Greek.

Hrotsvitha

Hrotsvitha was of noble birth and studied, at the monastery of Gandersheim, under Gerberg, the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry I (the Fowler) and became a secular canoness of the Benedict Order. Her name in Saxon means ‘strong voice’. She is seen as the first secular writer since antiquity to compose drama again. While this in itself attest for an independent thinking person, unlike some of the other women her writing is very much within the constraints of the medieval Christian mind, she is highly pious and doesn’t stray outside that pattern. Her writings above all triumphs the virtue of virginity, if a decision is needed than death is preferred over loosing that virginity.

There is strong evidence that her work was inspired by the Roman playwright Publius Terentius Afer (Terence) (190-158BCE). Terence most probably started hid life as a slave in North Africa (near Carthage) and was brought to Rome, he mainly translated Greek plays into Roman plays. Her six plays are all love stories, interestingly in one of her plays (Dulcitius) Hrotsvitha describes a (devil inspired) masturbation scene of one he male characters in a kitchen, while maidens where watching him (and rescued him). From a modern perspective her writing would have a significant amount of suppressed sexuality in it.

Being close to the imperial family Hrotsvitha also wrote poetry based on the history that Gerberg’s brother Otto (the next emperor) had written about his family (Carmen de Gestis Oddonis Imperatoris the Ottonian).

Heloise

Heloise was raised at the monastery of Argenteuil, 20km north of Paris, close the St Denis. In her late teens she moved to her uncle Fulbert in Paris, a Canon at the Cathedral of Notre Dam. He arranged for her to have her tutored by Peter Abelard a radical and rather arrogant new thinker for his time. He challenged the traditional teachers of the day and was often thrown out of these institutions; he sharpened the way philosophy needed to be approached in a rational way, separate from the doctrine of the Church. He had a huge following and often attracted more pupils somewhere in a park or in front of his house than the established teachers of the day.

Teachers at Cathedral schools could not be married and when he met Heloise he was close to 40 years old. However, they fell in love and she became pregnant. He had her send to his home in Brittany but was forced by Fulbert to marry Heloise, this was done quietly to not endanger his position as teacher. However, the news spread. In order to protect his reputation (and probably also as a punishment) Fulbert had Abelard castrated. After this, he decided to become a monk in St Denis and pursued Heloise to become a nun at Argenteuil. She was deeply saddened about the affair and remained totally in love with him.

Abelard was regularly accused of heresy, he regularly had to flee and hide from his persecutors.His main enemy here was Bernard of Clairvaux he saw Abelard’s rational approach as a sheer revolt against the unconditional Catholic faith. St Denis acquired Argenteuil and Heloise, who was a prioress at that time, and her nuns had to find another place. Abelard gave them the Paraclete (Comforter) property that he owned in Troyes and they established a very successful monastery and as the abbess, she was able to further found six daughter monasteries in France.

From her she had a very interesting and highly intellectual (and sometimes passionate) exchange of letters and documents with Peter. First of all she reacted agitated on the way he had portrayed her to an open letter that he wrote in 1132 on his troubled life (Historia calamitatum mearum). In the exchange that followed Heloise wrote passionate about her own situation and also questioning some of the Christian values in relation to that and asked Peter to explain 42 questions regarding Bible texts and the way she experienced them in daily life (Problemata Heloissae). It is amazing to read her spirited letters and the often rather lame responses from Abelard. She dissected the Benedictine Rules and asked Peter rewrite them, which he did, but she didn’t implement them instead using the ones she had written herself.

He wrote over 100 hymns for her as she disliked the traditional ones; he wrote the history of the nuns and the history of the six days of creation for her as well as numerous other documents. Bernard of Clairvaux however, with the support of the pope, condemned Abelard for heresy. Broken and disappointed he retired, in 1141, at the monastery of Cluny, where his friend and defender Peter the Venerable was the Abbott. He received his second condemnation (and that meant excommunication), the following year at the Council of Sens, where he failed to defend himself.

Shortly there after died at Cluny. However, Peter the Venerable was eventually able to reconcile Abelard with his principal condemner and after his death, Peter granted him absolution from his sins, at the personal request of Heloise. His body was buried in Paraclete. Heloise died in 1164. Their joint tomb is now in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Her legacy goes well beyond her life and she is still an inspirational woman and attracts ongoing interests both in her powerful writings as well as in her life with Peter Abelard. Bernard of Clairvaux was also not happy with the monastery of Cluny who he accused of being to wealthy.

Hildegard von Bingen

A similar influential woman andwriter was Hildegard von Bingen and like Heloise she also remains a person of great interest to modern people both scholars and ordinary people.She lived at the same time and while their paths may have crossed in one way or another there is no indication that they knew of each other. Hildegard’s life took mainly place in Rhineland.

As the 10^th child in the family she was donated to the church (the tithes) and she went to the monastery of Disibodenberg between the age of 8 and 14 where she lived enclosed with her teacher the older nun Jutta, who was also a visionary. She died in 1137 and Hildegard was offered the position of magistra, she refused as she wanted to become the abbess of her own monastery. This eventually happened in 1150 when she moved with her nuns to Rupertsberg.

Hildegard was a mystic, she had visions. She had great troubles of justifying for herself that she should write them down. While Heloise husband Peter Abelard was condemned by the powerful Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildegard received his full support and he actually urged her to write down her visions. These were also accepted by Pope Eugenius III – who read them out in public – and this gave her legitimacy and as such she became a well known prophetess.

She had an amazing range of skills and knowledge, she was a theologian, composer, dramatist, visionary, maker of public speeches, herbalist, gardener, naturalist, healer and the writer of powerful letters. The Ordo Virtutum she composed is seen as the first opera.

Similar to Heloise she challenges Christian texts and practices she was in particular very vocal against the misbehaviour of the clergy, but she also strongly condemned the Cathars, which practices had also reach Rhineland.

Like Hrotsvitha also Hildegard maintain that virginity is the highest level of the spiritual life; however, she also wrote about secular life, including motherhood. In several of her texts, Hildegard describes the pleasure of the marital act.

The importance of her and her influence becomes clear in her correspondence with several Popes and Emperors as well as many other churchmen and statesmen, but equally she wrote caring letters to local nuns. She also corresponded with her friend who later became St Elisabeth of Schönau in Nassau. The Nassau link made Elisabeth a popular saint in the Low Countries and she is the patron saint of the church in Grave. Hildegard also undertook four preaching tours throughout the region.

She also played a role in the Investiture Controversy. In meetings with Emperor Frederick Barbarossa around 1150 she urged him to not challenge the Pope. While she initially was not successful, two anti-popes were appointed Paschall III (who canonised Charlemagne in 1165 – never recognised by the Church) and Callixtus III. However, the emperor later on (1177) accepted the earlier agreements whereby the pope had the power to appoint the bishops.

Hildegard’s writings concentrate on het mystic insights and analyses in relation to pastoral care, theological matters, the regulations of monks and nuns. She also provided personal spiritual advice and she was widely visited (religious tourism) which also resulted in many gifts to het monastery in Rupertsberg.

This strong headed lady also faced excommunication in 1177. This was in relation to a man buried in Rupertsburg who had died after excommunication from the Church. Therefore, the clergy wanted to remove his body from the sacred ground. Hildegard did not accept this idea, replying that it was a sin and that the man had been reconciled to the church at the time of his death. Eventually the situation was rectified and just before her death in 1179 the ban lifted.

Hildegard left behind over 100 letters, 72 songs, 70 poems, and 9 books.

Marie de France

Even less is known about the personal life of this poet. Most scholars accept that she most likely was born in Brittany and moved to England. She was fluent in Anglo-Norman(a sort of a pidgin Latin) as well as in Latin, French and English.

She lived and wrote at an unknown court, but was almost certainly at least known about at the royal court of King Henry II of England.

She contributed greatly to what became known as the heydays of French literature during the 12^th century. Sheis the author of the Lais of Marie de France; translated Aesop’s Fables from Middle English into Anglo-Norman French and wrote Espurgatoire seint Partiz, Legend of the Purgatory of St. Patrick, based upon a Latin text. Her Lais in particular were and still are widely read, and influenced the subsequent development of the romance genre.

Christine de Pizan

She is also known as Europe’s first professional female writer. She was born in Venice, the town of her mother – and would all her life mention het Italian roots. Her father Tommaso di Benvenuto da Pizzano was a physician, court astrologer, and Councillor of the Republic of Venice. During the 14^th century Italy was at the forefront of a new cultural revolution what would become known as the Renaissance a far more humanistic approach to life was certainly also part of her writing and what made her so successful.

The family moved to the French Royal Court of Charles V when Christine was 4 years old where he father became the court astrologer, alchemist, and physician. Christine married a French courtier at the age of 15 and at all accounts this was a very happy marriage. They had 3 children, but her husband died when she was 25. She had great problems securing her husband’s pension and was forced to look after her young family and this is when her writings start.

Scholars argue that she might have been taught by her father as her writing has – at times – a bureaucratic/notaries style. At the height of her career she had her own studio and employed her own staff. She had a large number of powerful patrons for which she wrote large bodies of writing from poetry to letters and political statements.

Her poetry has a strong autobiographic element in it and includes great details of courtly life with all of its intrigues and often focuses on gender inequality and the underlying misogyny apparent both at the courts and at the Church. Interestingly she also uses here a self-belittling approach in the way that Hildegard also used that tactic in the male dominated societies the both were part of.

While there are similarities here wit the writings of Hildegard and Heloise, Christine never had the political or social influence that the other two achieved; this also reflects the cultural and humanistic regression that had taken place since the 12^th century. She clearly used her’ renaissance thinking’ to address these issues. Her influence in European poetry however, is very significant, and goes well beyond the 15^th century. She surely was a proto-feminist.

Her patrons included nobility both in France and England who during that period were also engulfed in the 100 year war. She became a fierce supporter of the French cause and wrote about the dysfunctional French society at times at each others throat in civil war. She lamented this in a letter to Marie de Berry after the slaughtering of the French army at Agincourt.

In all of this turmoil she brought her son back from England, without securing him an immediate position in France, adding to her financial problems. Once she finally received her husband’s pension some unwise investments didn’t improve that situation.

She retired to a monastery of Poissy outside Paris in 1418 and didn’t write again until 1429 when she clearly was overjoyed by Jean’ d’Arc leadership resulting in a victory on the English. This was the last poem she wrote and the first literally account of Jean.

Ongoing warfare

While most of the small scale warfare between the various warlords started to decline, the new regional and later on the even larger powers that emerged out of the above mentioned new political and administrative structures created a whole new level of warfare. There was still a mix of the old feudal knightly conflicts involving a local town or fortress, than there were the wars involving the Hanse (see below) or the English and Scottish rulers, which  resulted in smaller regional conflicts especially along the north western coast lines.

However, increasingly it were the kings and emperors who started to dictate warfare and under their absolute reign they wanted the local nobility, towns and rulers to contribute to war to defend their boarder, fight the Turks, assist the Pope. Key areas of conflicts were the boarders between the Holy Roman Empire and France along the Flemish and Brabant counties. The boarders between Spain and France and the conflicts between the Emperor and France in Italy. Gelre was an ongoing problem threatening the peace in the Low Countries and  brought untold misery to the Brabant town of Oss one of the most effected town in this conflict (see Gelre Wars).

There was most of the time a great reluctance from the local nobility, States and cities to pay their contribution for these wars, they wanted peace not was as it greatly effected their economic prosperity. This caused many conflicts to drag on for decades with many stop and start wars depending on the available money at the time.

Strategic military warfare was largely non-existing. There was the occasional great general, initially still leading rather small raiding parties, but increasingly these military elite on horseback  were complimented with large, ill equipped, underpaid and underfed soldiers (landsknechts). There were some more specialised and better trained ‘professional’ armies mainly made out of German and Swiss landskechts. Interestingly these armies were employed by both sides of the conflicts and based on where the money came from these troops could one day fight the enemy and the next day they were the enemy.

The (fighting or financial supporting) nobility became more powerful during this period as in exchange for their services privileges were handed out to them. This gave them more and more power within their own ‘State’. A good example here are the Dutch nobility who played key roles under the reign of Charles V to only claim their own independence a decade after Charles died.

By the 17th century the situation had deteriorated to such an extend that 30% of the German population was killed during the 30 year war (1618 – 1648).

The end of the Middle Ages

Similar to its start also its end is not clear cut. It can be argued that in some parts of Europe the Middle Ages did not finis untll well into the 19th century, especially in many rural areas.

However, there are a number of key events that clearly showed that the end of a period had been reached. Society had moved on from the rather ridged Middle Ages. While the power of the Church and the  State as intertwined entity remained in place. Popular uprisings against that underlying structure started already in hte early 14th century in Flanders(1325) and Forty France and spread to England to reach Germany in the beginning of the 16th century (1525), roughly at the same time as the Reformation (1517).

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the consequent invasions of the Turkish people into Eastern and even Middle Europe is another milestone date, as is the discovery of America in 1492.

The death of Charles V in 15558, marks the death of the last Emperor of the Middle Ages and Charles certainly was a man who stood in between these two periods and he had personally great difficulties with the transition of times.

Many of the devotional elements that were born in the late Middle Ages lingered on to well into modern times. I still vividly remember the last procession held in the parish I lived in  Oss somewhere in the late 1950s. The adoration of Mary is still very much alive in places such as Den Bosch. Guilds have recently going through of a rebirth and are still playing key social roles in many of the towns and villages in Brabant, Flanders as well as in other parts of Europe. The St Sebastian Guild in Oss is such an example abandoned by the church in the 19^th century it was reinaugurated more than a hundred years later.

Many social, political, hierarchical, economic and agrarian structures remained in place until the French Revolution and in rural areas even longer.

That’s not to say that nothing changed, to the contrary. Following the massive social and economic changes of the late Middle Ages we did see a prolonged period of expansion and innovations between 1450 and 1650.

Nevertheless Western Europe remained an agriculture based society; it certainly had not achieved a higher political, economic or cultural levels than others such as China, Japan or India.

After the death of Charles the Reckless, the Habsburg Empire started to take control of the Netherlands. The seat of power moved from Brussels to Vienna and Madrid. This of course had serious consequences for the importance of this region. After the Dutch Revolt the southern parts of the Low Countries became an outpost and border region of the Habsburg Empire and as a consequence its once powerful position in Europe was relegated to a military zone.

Holland, which has wrestled itself away from the Empire, started to emerge as a new global economic power. This development started after the fall of Antwerp (1586) the massive departure of business, artistic and intellectual resources that followed this event saw the centre of innovation moved northward to Amsterdam. The famous cloth industry in Flanders collapsed and Leyden became the new centre for the cloth trade. There was a great influx of refugees from the south and based on a more modern form of capitalism this allowed the rich merchants to exploit this oversupply of labour and in particular the rural industry was the victim of this exploitation.

The Age of Discoveries started to broaden the view of the Europeans and that led to a more rapid development. Also here Holland played a key role in these developments not just in relation to discoveries but also in relation to the knowledge that this brought with it. Travel stories and reported were printed and spread throughout Europe. The atlases of Ortelius, Mercator and Blauw are world renown.