The Late Middle Ages the Hundred Years War the Great Famine the Black Death the Peasants’ Revolt the War of the Roses the Princes in the Tower
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the late Middle Ages The Hundred Years War The Great Famine The Black Death The Peasants’ Revolt The War of the Roses The Princes in the Tower Plantagenet Kings Anjevin Line [1154 - 1399] Henry II Curtmantle (1154 - 1189) Richard I the Lionheart (1189 - 1199) John Lackland (1199 - 1216) Henry III (1216 - 1272) Edward I Longshanks (1272 - 1307) Edward II (1307 - 1327) Edward III (1327 - 1377) Richard II (1377 - 1399) Edward II (1307 - 1327) son of Edward I & (I)Eleanor of Castille married Isabella of France had few qualities of a successful medieval king surrounded himself with favourites barons feeling excluded from power rebelled large debts (many inherited) and the Scots’ victory at Bannockburn by Robert the Bruce in 1314 made Edward more unpopular in 1326 Isabella of France led an invasion against her husband in 1327 Edward II was made to renounce the throne in favour of his son Edward (III) he was later murdered at Berkeley Castle perhaps in a brutal way mocking his homosexuality (Isabella & John Mortimer) or strangled & suffocated “He was held in a cell above the rotting corpses of animals, in an attempt to kill him indirectly. But he was extremely strong, fit and healthy, and survived the treatment, until on the night of 21 September 1327, he was held down and a red-hot poker pushed into his anus through a drenching-horn.” Edward III (1327 - 1377) son of Edward II & Isabella of France married Philipa of Hainault he was 14 when crowned king created the Duchy of Cornwall to provide the heir to the throne with an income independent of the sovereign or the state an able soldier and an inspiring leader founded the Order of the Garter in 1348 at the beginning of the Hundred Years War in 1337 actual campaigning started when the King invaded France in 1339 and laid claim to the throne of France by 1360 Edward and his son Edward the Black Prince controlled over a quarter of France under the 1375 Treaty of Bruges the French King Charles V reversed most of the English conquests; Calais and a coastal strip near Bordeaux were Edward’s only lasting gain the Black Death plague outbreaks of 1348-9, 1361-2 and 1369 inflicted severe social dislocation and caused deflation severe laws were introduced to attempt to fix wages and prices in 1376, the “Good Parliament” attacked the high taxes and criticised the King’s advisers the ageing King withdrew to Windsor for the rest of his reign; died at Sheen Palace, Surrey Richard II (1377 - 1399) son of Edward, the Black Prince & Joan of Kent married (I)Anne of Bohemia, (II)Isabel of France Edward III's son, the Black Prince, died in 1376. The king's grandson, Richard II, succeeded to the throne aged 10, on Edward's death. In 1381 the Peasants' Revolt broke out and Richard, aged 14, bravely rode out to meet the rebels at Smithfield, London. Wat Tyler, the principal leader of the peasants, was killed and the uprisings in the rest of the country were crushed over the next few weeks (Richard was later forced by his Council's advice to rescind the pardons he had given). Highly cultured, Richard was one of the greatest royal patrons of the arts; patron of Chaucer, it was Richard who ordered the technically innovative transformation of the Norman Westminster Hall to what it is today. (Built between 1097 and 1099 by William II, the Hall was the ceremonial and administrative centre of the kingdom; it also housed the Courts of Justice until 1882.) Richard II (1377 - 1399) Richard's authoritarian approach upset vested interests, and his increasing dependence on favourites provoked resentment. In 1388 the 'Merciless Parliament', led by a group of lords hostile to Richard (headed by the King's uncle, Gloucester), sentenced many of the king's favourites to death and forced Richard to renew his coronation oath. The death of his first queen, Anne of Bohemia, in 1394 further isolated Richard, and his subsequent arbitrary behaviour alienated people further. Richard took his revenge in 1397, arresting or banishing many of his opponents; his cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke, was also subsequently banished. On the death of Henry's father, John of Gaunt (a younger son of Edward III), Richard confiscated the vast properties of his Duchy of Lancaster (which amounted to a state within a state) and divided them among his supporters. Richard pursued policies of peace with France (his second wife was Isabella of Valois); Richard still called himself king of France and refused to give up Calais, but his reign was concurrent with a 28 year truce in the Hundred Years War. His expeditions to Ireland failed to reconcile the Anglo-Irish lords with the Gaels. In 1399, whilst Richard was in Ireland, Henry of Bolingbroke returned to claim his father's inheritance. Supported by some of the leading baronial families (including Richard's former Archbishop of Canterbury), Henry captured and deposed Richard. Bolingbroke was crowned King as Henry IV. Risings in support of Richard led to his murder in Pontefract Castle; Henry V subsequently had his body buried in Westminster Abbey. the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) Roots of War in 1337, Edward III had responded to the confiscation of his duchy of Aquitaine by King Philip VI of France by challenging Philip’s right to the French throne, while in 1453 the English had lost the last of their once wide territories in France, after the defeat of John Talbot’s Anglo-Gascon army at Castillon, near Bordeaux Edward III claimed the throne of France through his mother (the daughter of the king of France) - it was an absurd claim but it led to a long lasting conflict between England and France the French crown went through males NOT females English long-bowmen - made up for six French bowmen England vs. France first truly national European war marked the end of feudalism which depended on the superiority of the lord on the battlefield the longbow proved to be a master weapon of everyday man, proved more successful than knights plundering expeditions capturing nobles for money and then the English were defeated by the Black Death through the Treaty at Bretigny Edward II gave up his claim to the throne of France in return for Aquitaine the Black Prince renewed the war, invasion of Spain, had to tax his subjects in Aquitaine; contracted Spanish fever and died in 1376 It all gave France a national unity; French hatred united all classes - the story of Joan of Arc and the English defeat Rulers During the Hundred Years War The Kings of The Kings of The Dukes England: France: of Burgundy: Edward III Philip VI Philip II the Bold Richard II John II John the Henry IV Charles V Fearless Henry V Charles VI Philip the Henry VI Charles VII Good the Century of Plague tha Great Famine (1315-1317) tha Great Famine (1315-1317) from 800 to 1300, the total production of Europe had increased steadily although there had been local food shortages in which many people died of starvation, the standard of living in Western Europe had risen even while the population had steadily increased by the beginning of the 14th century, however, the population had grown to such an extent that the land could provide enough resources to support it only under the best of conditions there was no longer any margin for crop failures or even harvest shortfalls the Western European climate was undergoing a slight change, with cooler and wetter summers and earlier autumn storms - worse conditions for agriculture there had been famines before, but none with such a large population to feed, and none that persisted so long a wet Spring in 1315 made it impossible to plough all of the fields that were ready for cultivation heavy rains rotted some of the seed grain before it could germinate the harvest was smaller than usual and the food reserves of many families were quickly depleted people gathered food from the forest: edible roots, plants, grasses, nuts, and bark although many people were weakened by malnutrition the historical evidence suggests that relatively few died tha Great Famine (1315-1317) the Spring & Summer of 1316 were cold and wet again peasant families had less energy to till the land needed for a harvest to make up for the previous shortfall possessed a much smaller food supply in reserve to sustain them until the next harvest by the spring of 1317, all classes of society were suffering, the lowest the most draft animals were slaughtered, seed grain was eaten, infants and the younger children abandoned many of the elderly voluntarily starved themselves to death so that the younger members of the family might live to work the fields again there were numerous reports of cannibalism the weather had returned to its normal pattern by the summer of 1317, but the people of Europe were incapable of making a quick recovery an important factor was the scarcity of grain available to be used as seed any of the surviving people and animals were simply too weak to work effectively about 10-15% of the population died of pneumonia, bronchitis, tuberculosis, and other sicknesses that the starving sufferers’ weakness had made fatal, and there were fewer mouths to feed so Europe was able to recover, although slowly (by 1325 the food supply had returned to a relatively normal state and population began increasing again the Black Death (1347-1351) medieval people actually liked to wash... conversion of forest into arable land --> reduced supply of wood --> bath houses began shutting down by mid 14th c.