spine=21.675 mm History ™ Rattle through 1000 years of Making Everything Easier! horrible history, from the fifth Medieval History Medieval century to the sixteenth century Open the book and find: Famine, plague and public execution – the medieval • Why the peasants revolted period wasn’t the best time for some, but heroic rulers like • Where Chaucer gained inspiration Charlemagne, William the Conqueror and Henry V made to write The Canterbury Tales sure that it was full of action. Brimming with facts, this book helps you get under the skin of the people who lived at the • Which religious groups fought for power time, from impoverished peasants to opulent monarchs. Medieval History From the Dark Ages to the Renaissance and all the upheavals • How the Magna Carta shaped our in between, this book takes the pain out of medieval history. present-day legal system • Why the Vikings may have got to • The Black Death – assess the deadly pandemic that swept America before Columbus through Britain and Europe killing millions of people • The Holy Roman Empire strikes back – understand how the • Profiles of the best and worst empire fought to maintain its position medieval monarchs • Falling apart – witness the arrival of powerful armies from the • How Joan of Arc made her name east and invaders from the north, and the dramatic effects of religious schisms • The great and grisly histories of surviving medieval castles • Heading for the Holy Land – uncover the reasons why crusading became so popular, and ultimately so unsuccessful, between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries • Living in the medieval world – understand the lives of monks and monarchs, peasants and popes, and travellers and traders Learn about: of the period • The Early Middle Ages to the Age of Go to Dummies.com® Discovery • Waging conflicts, battles and wars – a look through the troubles for videos, step-by-step examples, that shaped the medieval age; from the fall of the Roman Empire how-to articles or to shop! to the Wars of the Roses • Gory invasions and the importance of the Crusades • Power-wielding monks, money-making merchants and infectious peasants • Weird and wonderful customs and £15.99 UK / $19.99 US / $23.99 CN pastimes Stephen Batchelor is Head of School for Creative and Visual Arts at ISBN 978-0-470-74783-4 MidKent College and has taught ancient history and classical studies for many years. Stephen has written book reviews for Current Archaeology and History Today, and is the author of The Ancient Greeks For Dummies. Stephen Batchelor Batchelor History lecturer and author spine=21.675 mm Get More and Do More at Dummies.com® Start with FREE Cheat Sheets Cheat Sheets include • Checklists • Charts • Common Instructions • And Other Good Stuff! To access the Cheat Sheet created specifically for this book, go to www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/medievalhistoryuk Get Smart at Dummies.com Dummies.com makes your life easier with 1,000s of answers on everything from removing wallpaper to using the latest version of Windows. Check out our • Videos • Illustrated Articles • Step-by-Step Instructions Plus, each month you can win valuable prizes by entering our Dummies.com sweepstakes. * Want a weekly dose of Dummies? Sign up for Newsletters on • Digital Photography • Microsoft Windows & Office • Personal Finance & Investing • Health & Wellness • Computing, iPods & Cell Phones • eBay • Internet • Food, Home & Garden Find out “HOW” at Dummies.com *Sweepstakes not currently available in all countries; visit Dummies.com for official rules. Medieval History FOR DUMmIES‰ by Stephen Batchelor A John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, Publication 01_747834-ffirs.indd i 4/26/10 7:37 PM Medieval History For Dummies® Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ England E-mail (for orders and customer service enquires): [email protected] Visit our Home Page on www.wiley.com Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, England Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex All Rights Reserved. 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For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-470-74783-4 Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 01_747834-ffirs.indd ii 4/26/10 7:37 PM About the Author Stephen Batchelor has taught Ancient and Medieval History for a number of years to a wide variety of student groups, and is currently Head of Faculty for Creative & Visual Arts at MidKent College. Stephen has travelled extensively around the Mediterranean and worked there as an archaeological tour guide. He has written book reviews for Current Archaeology and History Today and is the author of The Ancient Greeks For Dummies. Author’s Acknowledgements I would like to thank several people for their involvement in this book: fi rstly, thanks to Steve Edwards and all the team at Wiley who worked on the project, and to Samantha Spickernell for her enthusiastic support of the original idea. I would also like to thank my mother for her support and the loan of her spare room to use as a library, and my partner Samantha for putting up with me once again spending hours in the solitary activity of writing. Special thanks too are due to the very talented Sarah Shade for the tremendous illustration of a Viking ship that appears in Chapter 8. Finally, I would like to thank the students at Richmond Adult Community College whom it was my pleasure to teach between 1998 and 2007. As a group they reignited by my interest in the Medieval World and their enthusiasm, ideas and desire to make the connections between so many disparate places and peoples played a big part in my thinking for this book. 01_747834-ffirs.indd iii 4/26/10 7:37 PM Publisher’s Acknowledgements We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Commissioning, Editorial, and Media Composition Services Development Project Coordinator: Lynsey Stanford Project Editor: Steve Edwards Layout and Graphics: Tim Detrick, Content Editor: Jo Theedom Joyce Haughey, Melissa K. Smith Commissioning Editor: Samantha Spickernell Proofreader: Laura Albert Assistant Editor: Ben Kemble Indexer: Cheryl Duksta Development Editor: Brian Kramer Brand Reviewer: Jennifer Bingham Copy Editor: Andy Finch Technical Editor: Amanda Richardson Proofreader: Dawn Bates Production Manager: Daniel Mersey Cover Photos: © Photononstop/Photolibrary.com Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)