After learning about cultural, educational, and architectural advancements of the High Middle Ages (Chapter 9 lecture), answer the following question. Follow the directions carefully in o

In my last lecture, we discussed the connection between the Agricultural Revolution, the rise in

population, the development of manors, and the growth of cities between the 10th and 12th

centuries. Alongside this, we saw the dramatic rise of the popes, whose power grew to amazing

heights due to their use of tools like excommunication and crusades. But the power of the

medieval popes would not remain uncontested. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the kings of Europe

found ways to increase their own power, sometimes at the expense of the popes and other times

at the expense of their own people. It was also during this time that a new renaissance took place.

This was the aptly named Twelfth Century Renaissance, and it would lead to the creation of

institutions and ideas that we still use and enjoy today.

[SLIDE] Let’s start with our questions: Our first question is: how did kings gain power in the

12th and 13th centuries? Second, we’re going to consider how the Twelfth Century Renaissance

affected society.

[SLIDE] If you remember back to my last lecture, I explained that due to the invasions of

Vikings and other new barbarian groups in the 9th and 10th centuries, kings lost power. They

weren’t able to protect their people from attack, and so people turned instead to lords who had

the armies and castles needed to defend them. Fearing that these increasingly powerful lords

would try to unseat them from their thrones, the kings developed the concept of divine right. By

portraying themselves as chosen by God to rule, kings discouraged lords from trying to rise up

and overthrow the current kings. The concept of divine right was generally pretty successful, but

that was the only tool that kings had, and they remained pretty weak. This changed in the 12th

and 13th centuries. At this time, the kings of Europe took steps to expand their power and enforce

their authority, and of all of these kingdoms, the kings of England and France became the most

powerful. What’s interesting, though, is that the kings of England and France attained this status

through different means. So, I want to look at England and France separately to give you a better

sense of how this happened.

[SLIDE] Let’s first look at France. So, if you remember, back in the late 8th and early 9th

centuries, France was part of Charlemagne’s kingdom. It was part of a region that was called

Gaul. But after Charlemagne, the kings of what would become France were pretty insignificant.

They could barely control their tiny domain that was centered around Paris. But the French kings

had one important thing going for them- dynastic continuity. At the end of the 10th century, a

French king named Hugh Capet came to power and began the Capetian Dynasty. For nearly 350

years afterwards, the Capetian kings all had biological sons that could take their place. Adding to

this, most of those kings ruled for 30 years each on average. This sort of longevity, both in terms

of individual lifespans as well as consistency in producing male heirs, created stability in France.

There were no civil wars in which different people fought with each to be king. Instead, they

could focus on defending and expanding on the borders of their kingdom. And each new king

could keep building on the accomplishments of the rulers before them. And as a result, the kings

developed institutions, like universities, and found ways to expand the reach of their authority in

their kingdoms. For example, King Philip II of France created a new royal office called the

bailiff. These officials worked on a local level to make sure that the people were obeying the

king’s laws and paying their taxes.

[SLIDE] The rulers of England didn’t have the same dynastic continuity as the French kings, so

they took a different approach. When William of Normandy conquered England in 1066, he

claimed all of the land in England for himself. And then, gave it out– piece by piece– to people

as rewards for their loyalty. This policy ensured that every landowner in England was a vassal of

the king and loyal to him. This made William very powerful and enabled him to focus on

government rather than warfare. And as you can imagine, less warfare and better government led

to more stability in England. Like the kings of France, the subsequent kings of England used

royal officials to expand the reach of their authority in the kingdom. The son of William of

Normandy, a guy named Henry I, created a system of traveling judges to hear complaints and

court cases in the name of the king and hand out judgements. Henry also appointed a new official

known as the Exchequer, whose sole job was to keep track of tax collection and revenue for the

king. [SLIDE] Henry I’s grandson, similarly named Henry II, took all of this a step further. He

managed to expand England by marrying a lady named Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor had

initially been married to the King of France, but left him for the more powerful King of England.

And with Eleanor went some large chunks of French territory that she owned. Finally, Henry II

grew his power by taking on the Roman Catholic Church. If you recall, the pope and his papacy

were pretty powerful by the 12th century, and the popes had done their best to demonstrate that

they were superior even to the kings of Europe. Well, Henry began to eat away at the power of

the papacy in England by declaring that the priests, bishops, and archbishops in his kingdom

were subject to his authority. If they committed serious crimes, they would be tried and punished

by his officials rather than Church officials. Furthermore, Henry declared that if they were

declared guilty of whatever crime they had been accused of, he could strip them of their office.

This, of course, made some officials in the Roman Catholic Church pretty upset, including the

English Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket. When Becket tried to argue that Church

officials were not the jurisdiction of the king, Becket was first exiled. When Becket tried to

return to continue the argument, Henry was furious. He declared, “What sluggards, what

cowards have I brought up in my court, who care nothing for their allegiance to their lord. Who

will rid me of this meddlesome priest?!” This outrage inspired four of Henry’s knights to take

matters into their own hands. Recognizing the intent of these knights, Becket fled to the

Cathedral of Canterbury where a service was in progress. But this didn’t deter the knights.

Finding Becket at the altar, the knights drew their swords and killed him. Although King Henry

was compelled to do some public penance for his role in Thomas Becket’s murder, this event

succeeded in boosting his power in England and over the Catholic clergy in the kingdom.

[SLIDE] Unfortunately, the kings of England didn’t get to keep all of their power for much

longer. The sons of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine were Richard and John. Richard, better

known as Richard “the Lionheart” was the eldest, and when he became king, he spent most of his

reign crusading in the Holy Land. When Richard was killed, his younger brother John became

king. King John governed the kingdom well, but he wasn’t as skilled at predicting the outcome

of wars. And as a result, he lost battle after battle with France and consequently, most of the

territory in France that John’s mother, Eleanor, had brought with her to her marriage to Henry.

The battles that King John waged and loss were expensive, so he decided to raise taxes. This

issue is actually what Disney’s Robin Hood story is based on. Eventually, the English lords got

tired of being taxes, and in 1215, they refused to pay any more until John signed a charter that

came to be known as the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta established some general principles that

still form the basis of English laws- and also American laws- today. The Magna Carta stated that

the king could not establish any more taxes without the consent of his people. This statement led

to the establishment of Parliament, which was made up of representatives elected by the people.

From here on out, the kings of England would have to consult with Parliament before making

decisions about the kingdom. This is similar to our Congress today, in which elected

representatives work with the President to make decisions. Now, to be clear, at the time that

Parliament was first established in the 13th century, only members of the upper class- the

nobility- could be representatives in Parliament. And these representatives tended to push for

things that benefited them specifically. But, it was still progress. In addition to Parliament, the

Magna Carta also declared that no man could be punished until he had been judged guilty by a

jury of his peers and that no one could be arrested or imprisoned without a warrant. Again, this

should sound pretty familiar. In terms of the larger picture, the Magna Carta was important

because it emphasized that the king was not above the law. The king of England could no longer

just do what he wanted to do; he would have to actually listen to the will of the people.

[SLIDE] We talked about the Crusades in my last lecture. And I explained that only the First

Crusade was truly successful. In 1095, Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to retake the Holy

Land and defend the Christians living in the East, and in response, hundreds of thousands took

up the cross and helped to establish crusader kingdoms. But soon after, Muslim rulers, like the

famous Saladin, retook much of the region. Between 1099 and 1291, eight more Crusades took

place, most of which failed spectacularly. But even though the Crusades weren’t entirely

successful, the idea of crusade- this idea of fighting in the name of God- remained in Europe and

it was applied to other endeavors. We’ve already seen how Pope Innocent III used a crusade

against the Cathars and Waldensian heretics in order to establish uniform religious practice in

Europe. In addition to this, kings in Europe also began to use the concept of crusade to expand

their territory and power. If you remember back to when we discussed the expansion of Islamic

Civilization, I explained that Muslim armies conquered territory as far as Spain in the early 8th

century. And Muslim rulers maintained control over much of Spain until the 12th century. But,

during those four centuries of Muslim rule, Christian kings kept control of a tiny sliver of

territory in the northern most part of Spain. And eventually, they began to look for ways to

conquer Muslim territory. They found a good tool in the form of crusades. Remember- the First

Crusade began at the end of the 11th century, and it emphasized this idea of carrying out the will

of God, which was something that everyone could get behind. Seeing this, the Christian kings of

Spain decided to carry out their own crusades in Spain. They declared that it was God’s will that

Christians throughout Europe should come to Spain and “reconquer” their lost territory. This

declaration led to the more common name of this event- the Reconquista, which translated to the

“Reconquest.” These Christian rulers even got some popes to promise the same sort of rewards

that they had given crusaders in the Holy Land- forgiveness of sins if they fought and immediate

salvation if they died. This use of crusade in Spain proved pretty successful- Europeans from

different kingdoms arrived to fight alongside Spanish Christians. By the beginning of the 1200s,

most of Spain was in the hands of Christian rulers and it had been divided into four major

kingdoms- Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and Portugal. As you can imagine, the success of the

crusades, which were headed by the Christian kings, boosted their power and authority in their

individual kingdoms. From their perspective, their victories were reflective of God’s approval.

[SLIDE] Since we've been talking about kings, we need to talk about castles. Kings lived in

castles, but so did the lords of the regions. In fact, there were a growing number of castles in the

kingdoms of Western Europe between 1000 and 1300. The castle was the residence of the king

or lord and his family, as well as his officials and servants. But castles were not just homes. They

were also defensive structures, built to withstand war. [SLIDE] Most castles were surrounded by

large stone walls, sometimes multiple sets of stone walls that would make it harder for the enemy

to break through. [SLIDE] They often had a moat that surrounded the castle. The walls and

surrounding castles had battle parapets that archers could hide behind as they shot arrows at the

enemy. The gate had a drawbridge that could be raised from within the castle. [SLIDE] And

castles were normally constructed on the edges of cliffs or on top of the hill so that an enemy

could be seen approaching. When a castle came under attack, the lord would bring all of his

vassals– including the serfs and peasants who worked the surrounding land– into the castle and

shut the door.

[SLIDE] But while castles were intended as defensive structures, they were still houses for kings

and lords, and kings and lords liked to have fun. As the power of the power of kings in Europe

increased in the 12th and 13th centuries, so too did the prestige of their royal courts. These royal

courts were the places to be if you wanted to be someone. And if you made it to the royal court,

you had to act that you belonged. It was within the environment of the royal court that the

concept of nobility and courtliness evolved. No longer was being noble just an economic class, it

was also reflective of your lineage and behavior. You had to come from a good family-

preferably an aristocratic one-, you had to be educated, you to be loyal to the king, and you had

to be a brave fighter. It was no longer enough to just own a sword and a horse, to be a knight fit

for the royal court, you needed money to afford a full set of armor made of iron, a visored

helmet, a broadsword, a spear, a shield, and several warhorses capable of carrying all of this

gear. In addition to this, you needed your own assistances- squires or grooms to take care of all

your stuff. And more importantly, you needed to show off just how awesome you were at

fighting and how cool your gear and horse were by participating regularly in tournaments.

[SLIDE] In the 12th century, kings throughout Europe began holding tournaments for

entertainment in which knights essentially beat the crap out of each other. At first, these

tournaments consisted of the melee, in which warriors on horseback fought with blunted

weapons, in a free-for-all combat. The goal was to take prisoners, who would then be ransom. In

other words, if you beat someone in this free-for-all combat, they have to pay you for their

freedom. Being the last man standing could make you pretty rich in these tournaments. In one

case, an English knight named William Marshall, defeated 203 other knights in a series of

tournaments over the course of eight months. He made so much money, that he had to hire

financial advisors to take care of it. [SLIDE] But by the 12th century, the melee evolved into the

joust, which was a combat between two individuals, who ran at each other on horseback with

lances. The goal was to knock the rider off the horse.

[SLIDE] So the Middle Ages, it wasn't just about war and religion, people were interested in

having fun, and they were also interested in learning. Universities and colleges with faculty,

students, and degrees, were a product of the Middle Ages. In the sixth and seventh centuries, the

only schools available were in monasteries. The schools in monasteries were intended to train

monks how to read the books available in their libraries. When Charlemagne became king in the

eighth century, he created palace schools, which created more places for people to gain an

education. In the 11th and 12th centuries, as the governments of kingdoms grew more complex,

new schools developed in cathedrals. In response to the growth of towns and cities, more

churches were being built and there was a need for more priests, bishops, and archbishops who

were educated enough to carry out their duties properly. So, in 1179, Pope Alexander III decreed

that all cathedrals should set aside income for at least one schoolteacher. At first, these cathedral

schools only taught people who wanted to become priests. But overtime, they expanded to teach

more men the skills necessary to work in government or get jobs as notaries, estate managers, or

merchants. Students started at these cathedral schools between the ages of 12 and 16. And the

classes were mostly taught in Latin, which provided a common means of communication for

students, regardless of country of origin. [SLIDE] Their curriculum consisted of two parts. The

first part was the trivium, which included grammar, rhetoric, and logic. The second part was the

quadrivium, which included arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, as well as music. When you

completed this curriculum, you received a bachelor's degree. Some students stayed on for a

Master of Arts degree, after which, you could teach. The lectures that students attended mostly

consisted of the instructor reading from a book and then, offering an explanation of what they

read. This was because books were still very expensive and few students could afford them. In

fact, the instructor normally had the only copy of the textbook. [SLIDE] By 1200, however,

schools began to form outside of cathedrals and outside of the oversight of religious leaders.

These schools were known as universities, and they form the basis of the universities and

colleges we see today. The first two universities developed in Paris and Bologna, but they were

established using two different approaches. The university in Paris was established by instructors

who came together to create a guild, which is sort of like a union. These instructors agreed on the

price of tuition and rules of conduct. The university of Bologna was established by students, who

came together and used their tuition to hire teachers, and these students could fine or fire

instructors who didn’t meet their standards. These universities that developed in Europe kept the

same sort of curriculum that cathedral schools had, but they developed education programs

further, eventually forming four programs of studies. These included the liberal arts, theology,

law, and medicine.

[SLIDE] There are obvious similarities between medieval and modern students. Many students

took their studies seriously and worked hard, but others spent a lot of their time entertaining

themselves. Alcohol, sex, and other vices were common. In fact, university towns attracted the

biggest population of prostitutes. In medieval universities, handbooks provided foreign letters

that students could use in requesting money from fathers, guardians, or patrons. And like today, a

lack of studiousness was also a problem. This is illustrated by a letter from a medieval father to

his son. It says, “I have recently discovered that you live desolately and slothfully, preferring

license to restraint and play to work and strumming a guitar while the others are at their studies,

whence it happens that you have read but one volume of law while your more industrious

companions have read several. Wherefore I have decided to exhort you herewith to repent utterly

of your dissolute and careless ways, so that you may no longer be called a waster and your

shame may be turned into good repute.” Finally, medieval universities could be very violent

places. Records from law courts reveal many disturbances in European universities. Here are a

couple of examples. In one case, a German Professor was finally dismissed for stabbing

colleagues in a faculty meeting. At the University of Leipzig, they initiated a series of graded

penalties for students who picked up objects to throw at professors. These penalties differed

depending on whether the student did so through a miss or hit their target. But despite the

pervasive violence, medieval universities did provide the trained personnel who served as

teachers, administrators, lawyers, and doctors in the Western kingdoms. The increase in number

of schools and people's desire to learn instead of just fight, led to what many historians call the

Renaissance of the 12th Century.

[SLIDE] We talked last week about the Carolingian Renaissance during which Charlemagne

encouraged learning and the spread of knowledge. And now, we're seeing another Renaissance–

another rebirth of knowledge. In the case of the 12th Century Renaissance, people began reading

the works of the Greeks and Romans again. People began to read what the ancient Greeks had to

say about medicine, and geography, and astronomy, and mathematics. People were learning all

sorts of things that had been previously forgotten. The people in Western Europe lost this

information when the barbarians invaded. Interestingly, it was Muslims who re-introduced

ancient Greek and Roman knowledge to Western European kingdoms. The Muslims appreciated

ancient civilizations and when they conquered areas in the seventh and eighth centuries, they

translated the old Greek and Roman books there into Arabic. As trade increased between the

kings and kingdoms of Western Europe and Islamic civilization, people began translating these

texts into Latin, making the information more accessible. In addition to reintroducing ancient

works to northern Europe, the Muslims also had their own intellectuals, like the famous Averroes

(Ah-ver-oh-ayz), who developed concepts of logic and philosophy. Similarly, Jews scholars, like

Moses Maimonides, created important commentaries on Jewish law that shaped Christian

theology and history.

But literature during the 12th Century Renaissance wasn't just about learning, it was also for

enjoying. Courtly Love literature became very popular, particularly among the elite society– The

kings, queens, lords, and ladies. Courtly Love literature often emphasized romantic subjects like

brave nights, virtuous ladies, evil, magicians, and bewitched palaces. And the stories of Courtly

Love literature, authors demonstrated that a true knight was to love, serve, and protect women-

elite women in particular. But knights in this type of literature tended to fall in love with women

they couldn't have. You may know the tales of King Arthur. In these tales, Lancelot falls in love

with Guinevere– King Arthur's queen. And the whole kingdom essentially falls apart when

Lancelot and Guinevere have an affair.

[SLIDE] Finally, we can't forget the development of cathedral architecture. Prior to the 12th

century, most churches were built in a style of architecture called Romanesque. These churches

had massive walls and pillars. The reason for this was that people still hadn't quite figured out

how to increase the height of the building without also having to increase the width of the walls.

Consequently, Romanesque churches tended to have very small slitted windows, which made the

church's very dark on the inside. [SLIDE] The image on her screen shows an example of a

cathedral built with Romanesque architecture. [SLIDE] But the spread of new knowledge of the

12th Century Renaissance, encouraged the development of Gothic architecture. The most

important architectural innovation was the flying buttresses. Flying buttresses were a heavy

arched pier of stone built on the outside of the wall, which made it possible to distribute the

weight of the wall and ceiling outwards and downwards. [SLIDE] The image on your screen

shows a cathedral with flying buttresses. The flying buttresses are the structures on the left side

of the picture that look a little like the cathedral sprouted legs. [SLIDE] In these pictures, you

can see the flying buttresses a little bit closer. [SLIDE] By using flying buttresses, architects

could create tall, thin walls that were filled with magnificent stained glass windows. Medieval

craftspeople of the 12th century, perfected the art of stained glass. Small pieces of glass were

stained in glowing colors, like jewels. For people in the 12th and 13th centuries, the color light

that filled Gothic cathedrals represented the divine light of God.

[SLIDE] Let’s return to the questions we started with. We first asked how kings gained power in

the 12th and 13th centuries. Kings throughout Europe regained power during this time after

centuries of weakness due to Viking attacks and other circumstances. However, kings used

different means to regain power, and we looked at a few kingdoms individually to see this. In

France, the kings were lucky enough to all have biological sons for about 350 years straight. This

dynastic continuity helped to establish stability in the kingdom and it allowed the kings to

develop institutions and expand their reach by creating new royal positions like the bailiff. In

England, we see the expansion of royal power starting with William of Normandy, who gave out

land in England piece by piece to loyal subjects after he conquered the kingdom. His descendants

continued to expand royal power by creating new institutions, like a circuit court, and new

positions like Exchequer. They also made smart marriages that brought new territory to England

and took steps to assert authority over the Roman Catholic Church. In Spain, the Christian rulers

conquered Muslim territory and expanded their kingdoms by using the concept of crusade. And

finally and more generally, rulers throughout Europe developed their royal courts to become

centers of culture and prestige that anyone who was someone wanted to be part of.

[SLIDE] Our second question asked how the Twelfth Century Renaissance affected society. And

I told you, that people had access to new information from the works of the ancient Greeks and

Romans. New ideas about logic, philosophy, and theology were introduced by Muslim and

Jewish scholars. Europeans began to write Courtly Love literature. And the introduction of

Gothic architecture helped to create light-filled cathedrals with lots of windows and tall, thin

walls.

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