HST 1100 Lecture 9: Module 9: High Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
Mini Agricultural Revolution
• The Heavy Plough – carruca
o The hardest part of farming was plowing
o Used to use scratch plows
o Large with metal blade and mull board
▪ Allowed for better fertility
• Water and wind mills
o Used to use man powers
o Development of mills
▪ Grain mills
▪ Powered by water and wind
o Development of the rotary cam
▪ From rotary to linear
▪ Rotary crown gear
▪ Adopted for use in water and wind mills
o Allows for greater yields of flour
• Three Field Crop Rotation
o Fallow field regains fertility
o Nitrogen fixing plants used like legumes, oats, and beans
o Medieval diet
• The Horse Collar
o Allows horses to pull cultivators and occasionally plows
• The Impact of Technology
o Greater yields of food
o More people can be fed
▪ Population growth
o More people = more jobs
▪ Specialization of labor
o Urbanization and industry
▪ Larger cities
o Food became a commodity
▪ Something to be bought and sold
▪ Increase of wealth
Lords and Knightly Ethos
• Primogeniture and the limitations of the feudal pyramid
o Only first son got inheritance, others were “left out” of power structure
o Some sons became clergy – bishops and priests, or monks
▪ Offers power
o Leftover sons became vassals and knights and warriors
▪ Lord might have sons grow up with a family connection
▪ No land, reliant of bond of loyalty
▪ Could become a mercenary knight if you didn’t have a lord
• Way of being is very violent
o Status based solely on battlefield prowess
o Be a good “protector” of your people
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• Disintegration of the Carolingian empire led to chaos
o Local lords and local rule – attempts at centralization were not welcomed
▪ Resistant to a unifying king
• Castles – defensive structures and structure of dominance
o Motte and bailey to stone structures
▪ Motte and baily were earthen and there was a fort of a hill and then a gate
around surrounding land
▪ Allowed knights to offer protection but also gave them control
The Peace of God
• Noble classes were gaining power at the expense of the king and one another
o The church tried to control this with The Peace of God movement
• La Marche, France (989)
o Council of Bishops: called peasants and lords and knights together
o Called for the protection of “noncombatants” in war
▪ No attacking peasants, the poor, clergy, or monks
▪ Role of the knight was to protect the helpless
▪ Followed the Three Orders Idea
o Knights were to swear oaths
▪ Punishment was excommunication
▪ More psychologically effective than anything
The Truce of God
• Movement started to augment the peace of god around 1027
• Christians are prohibited from fighting on certain days
o From lent to easter, some Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays
• Lords and knights were to uphold the truce
o Some fulfilled their promises but most broke their oaths
o However it fulfilled an idea of what a knight should be
o And the idea that Christians should not fight one another
▪ Factors into the crusades
Chivalry and Courtesy
• Peace and Truce of God led to a code of conduct for the knights
o Along with the Oath of Loyalty in Feudalism (proper relationship of feudalism)
o There are knightly virtures
▪ The should act with honor and valor
▪ service
▪ and they should defend the defenseless
• poor and women
• Chivalry derives its name from Cheval – French for horse
o Because being able to afford and ride horses marks the identity of knights
Courtesy and Courtly Conduct
• Courtesy and a code of behavior for court begins
o Limited violence and competing interests
o It prized politeness, Proper humility, comportment, way of dress, over violence and
battle
▪ Especially in presence of a king
o Courtesy means courtly conduct
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• Originated from kings getting more control over vassals
o Educated their knights
o Rhetoric becomes political capital
o Education becomes power and allows you to be recognized by the king
• Courtiers and “lawyer” culture
o Protocol, dress, and status
▪ Even eating
o Courts of the king become like a law court
Social Importance
• Declining position of nobles in power and wealth
o Rising merchant class and king
▪ Cloth trade and towns
o Able to have power in government
• Knights stressed their position and authority with behavior
o Set them apart and provided them with a group identity
o The chivalry and courtesy gives them authority
• Less importance of mounted cavalry
o Hired infantry from towns are more used
o Crossbowman and hired pikemen began to be the mainstay of royal armies
o Chivalry emphasized the hierarchy and honor of mounted combat in response
▪ Crossbowman are dishonorable etc.
• Tournaments and Jousting
o Develop from the attempts to curb violence
▪ People can still prove their prowess without killing
o Battle practice, friendly warfare, and the celebration of knightly honor
o Replaces battle
▪ Development of coat of arms
• Etiquette and dress become important
o Table manners
o Sumptuary laws
▪ Laws that controlled consumption of goods of others
▪ Certain people couldn’t wear certain things
▪ Trying to control the rising merchant class
▪ Largely ineffective
High and Late Middle Ages: Commercial Growth and Urbanization
Renewal of trade
• Return to east-west trade – exploration and long distance trade with East
o Italians and Jews bridge gap between east and west
▪ The Jewish diaspora is major part of the return of trade
▪ Italians have equal access to east and west
▪ Urban centers in Italy better survived the fall of the Roman empire
▪ Italian ports survived so they further trade
▪ Increased ability to go back and forth
o Luxury goods: spices, silk, cloth, coral, gold
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