An outline, era by era

Crusades; feudalism; Black Death (1347 – 1351)

Medieval / Post-Classical Era · ~500 – ~1500 CE

This entry covers three linked developments in medieval Europe. Feudalism was a web of obligations in which lords granted land, called fiefs, to vassals in return for loyalty and military service. It took shape in the Frankish lands in the ninth and tenth centuries and spread widely across western Europe, though historians debate how uniform it really was. The Crusades were a series of religious wars called by the papacy, beginning with Pope Urban II's appeal in 1095 and continuing in the Near East and elsewhere for some two centuries.

The Black Death was a plague pandemic that reached Europe in 1347 and swept the continent until about 1351, killing a very large share of the population, perhaps a third or more in many regions. Together these developments shaped medieval Europe. Feudal society supplied the knights and the lords who went on crusade. The crusades opened contacts and conflicts with the Islamic world and the Byzantine Empire. The plague then upset the labour system on which feudal landholding rested, with lasting effects on wages, serfdom and religious life.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Manzikert and the appeal at Piacenza

    Event

    What happened

    In 1071 the Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine army of Emperor Romanos IV at Manzikert in eastern Anatolia. Over the following decades the Byzantines lose much of Anatolia. In March 1095 envoys of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos ask for Western help against the Turks at the church council of Piacenza.

    The rest is history

    Later that year Pope Urban II preached at the Council of Clermont, in November 1095, calling Western knights to go to the East. The exact words of his speech are not certain, because the main accounts were written after the First Crusade. Historians still debate how far his aim was helping Byzantium and how far it was reaching Jerusalem. The First Crusade took Jerusalem in July 1099.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryFulcher of Chartres. Historia Hierosolymitana. Latin chronicle of the First Crusade, early 12th century.One of the main accounts of Urban II's call at Clermont.
    2. BookAsbridge, Thomas. The First Crusade: A New History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
    3. BookRiley-Smith, Jonathan. The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading. London: Athlone Press, 1986.

  2. The rise of feudal lordship in the Frankish lands

    Event

    What happened

    As Carolingian royal power weakens in the ninth and tenth centuries, local lords build up private power. Kings and great men grant land to followers in return for oaths of loyalty and armed service. Raids by Vikings, Magyars and Muslim raiders give local defence a new importance. The Capitulary of Quierzy of 877 shows counties passing toward hereditary holding.

    The rest is history

    By around 1000 these ties of lord and vassal formed the basis of political life across much of France and neighbouring lands. Castles multiplied, and a class of mounted knights grew. Historians such as Susan Reynolds have argued that the term feudalism hides great variety, and some doubt it is a useful label at all. Still, the system of knightly warriors it produced supplied the armies of the crusades.

    Sources

    1. BookBloch, Marc. Feudal Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961.
    2. BookReynolds, Susan. Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

  3. The Peace and Truce of God

    Event

    What happened

    From the late tenth century, bishops in southern France hold church councils, such as the one at Charroux in 989, to limit private warfare. They forbid attacks on clergy, peasants and church property. Later councils add bans on fighting on certain days and holy seasons. Bishops often ask local knights to swear oaths to keep the peace.

    The rest is history

    These movements gave the church a way to shape the conduct of knights. Some historians see them as one root of the crusading idea, in which warriors were offered spiritual rewards for fighting for a holy aim. Their effect on actual violence is debated. At Clermont in 1095 Urban II also renewed the Truce of God, alongside his call to the East.

    Sources

    1. BookCowdrey, H. E. J. Popes, Monks and Crusaders. London: Hambledon Press, 1984.
    2. ArticleCowdrey, H. E. J. "The Peace and the Truce of God in the Eleventh Century." Past and Present, no. 46 (1970): 42-67.

  4. The capture of Jerusalem and the crusader states

    Event

    What happened

    In July 1099 the crusaders storm Jerusalem after a siege of about five weeks. Earlier they had taken Antioch in 1098 and Edessa in 1098. They set up the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the Kingdom of Jerusalem and later the County of Tripoli. Many of the Muslim and Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem are killed in the capture.

    The rest is history

    These states, often called Outremer, survived in various forms for nearly two centuries. The fall of Edessa to Zengi in 1144 led to the Second Crusade. Saladin defeated the Kingdom's army at Hattin in July 1187 and took Jerusalem that October. The last crusader stronghold on the mainland, Acre, fell to the Mamluks in 1291.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryGesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum. Latin anonymous chronicle of the First Crusade, c. 1100-1101.
    2. BookTyerman, Christopher. God's War: A New History of the Crusades. London: Allen Lane, 2006.

  5. The Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople

    Event

    What happened

    In 1202 a crusading army gathers at Venice, unable to pay the agreed price for its ships. It helps Venice retake the Christian city of Zara in Dalmatia and then, in 1203, sails to Constantinople to support a claimant to the Byzantine throne. In April 1204 the crusaders storm and sack the city. They set up a Latin Empire there.

    The rest is history

    Pope Innocent III had condemned the attack on Zara and later criticised the sack of Constantinople. The Byzantines recovered the city in 1261, but the empire was much weakened. The crusade never reached the Holy Land. Many historians see it as deepening the split between Latin and Greek Christians.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryVillehardouin, Geoffroi de. La Conquête de Constantinople. Old French chronicle, early 13th century.
    2. BookPhillips, Jonathan. The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople. London: Jonathan Cape, 2004.

  6. The Great Famine of 1315 to 1317

    Event

    What happened

    From the spring of 1315, heavy rains across northern Europe ruin harvests for several years. Grain prices soar and livestock disease spreads. Chroniclers in England, the Low Countries and Germany describe widespread hunger and rising deaths. Population had grown for centuries, leaving many regions with little reserve.

    The rest is history

    The famine is often seen as the end of the long medieval growth in population. Estimates of deaths vary, and in some towns the toll was heavy. The weakened and poorly fed population faced further shocks in the following decades. Some historians therefore view Europe as already under strain when the plague came in 1347.

    Sources

    1. BookJordan, William Chester. The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

  7. The plague reaches Europe

    Event

    What happened

    In 1347 plague arrives in Sicily, brought by ships from the Black Sea, where Genoese traders had been besieged at Caffa. By 1348 it spreads through Italy, France and Spain, and by 1349 into England, Germany and Scandinavia. It reaches much of Europe by 1351. The cause is the bacterium Yersinia pestis.

    The rest is history

    Deaths were very high, with many regions losing perhaps a third or more of their people, though estimates vary. In 2011 researchers recovered Yersinia pestis DNA from skeletons in the East Smithfield plague pit in London, confirming the cause. Outbreaks returned in later decades. Rulers and cities began early quarantine measures, such as the 40 day isolation of ships at Ragusa from 1377.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryBoccaccio, Giovanni. Decameron. Italian prose work, c. 1349-1353, introduction describing plague in Florence.
    2. BookBenedictow, Ole J. The Black Death 1346-1353: The Complete History. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2004.
    3. ArticleBos, Kirsten I., et al. "A draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death." Nature 478 (2011): 506-510.

  8. Labour shortage and the Peasants' Revolt

    Event

    What happened

    After the plague, labourers are scarce and demand higher wages. In England the Ordinance of Labourers of 1349 and the Statute of Labourers of 1351 try to hold wages at pre-plague levels. A poll tax in 1380 and 1381 adds to resentment. In June 1381 rebels from Kent and Essex march on London.

    The rest is history

    The revolt was put down within weeks and its leaders executed, and the poll tax was dropped. Serfdom nonetheless declined in England over the following century. Historians link this decline and rising real wages to the labour shortage after the plague, though other causes mattered too. Similar unrest appeared elsewhere, such as the Jacquerie in France in 1358.

    Sources

    1. BookDobson, R. B., ed. The Peasants' Revolt of 1381. London: Macmillan, 1970.
    2. BookHilton, Rodney. Bond Men Made Free: Medieval Peasant Movements and the English Rising of 1381. London: Temple Smith, 1973.

  9. The Children's Crusade

    Popular belief

    The legend

    In 1212 a boy named Stephen in France and another named Nicholas in Germany lead thousands of children toward the Holy Land. They believe the sea will part for them. Many are sold into slavery by wicked merchants, and none reach Jerusalem.

    The rest is history

    Real popular movements did take place in 1212, and chroniclers wrote of them. Yet the sources do not agree, and many scholars think the marchers were largely poor people and not only children, since the Latin word used could mean the poor. Peter Raedts and Gary Dickson have argued this. The slave-trade story appears in later chronicles and is hard to confirm. The idea of a crusade of children is largely a later development.

    Sources

    1. BookDickson, Gary. The Children's Crusade: Medieval History, Modern Mythistory. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
    2. ArticleRaedts, Peter. "The Children's Crusade of 1212." Journal of Medieval History 3, no. 4 (1977): 279-323.

  10. Richard the Lionheart and Saladin

    Folk tale

    The legend

    In tales of the Third Crusade, Richard I of England and the Muslim leader Saladin meet as noble rivals. Richard is said to split a floating cushion with his sword, while Saladin cuts a silk veil in the air. In some versions Saladin sends Richard fruit, ice or a horse when he falls ill.

    The rest is history

    Richard and Saladin never met in person. They negotiated through envoys, including Saladin's brother al-Adil. The Treaty of Ramla, signed in September 1192, left the coast to the Franks and allowed Christian pilgrims to visit Jerusalem. The tale of the sword test appears in later romance and in Walter Scott's The Talisman of 1825. Some gestures of courtesy, such as Saladin sending fruit and ice, are reported by contemporary chroniclers.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryIbn Shaddad, Baha al-Din. The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin. Arabic biography, c. 1200.
    2. BookGillingham, John. Richard I. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.

  11. The Pied Piper of Hamelin

    Folk tale

    The legend

    A piper in colourful clothes rids the German town of Hamelin of rats by luring them into the river with his music. The townsfolk refuse to pay him, so he plays again and leads away their children, who vanish into a hill. The tale is dated to 26 June 1284.

    The rest is history

    A town record of Hamelin from the later fourteenth century begins with a note that it was 'the year 100' since the departure of the children, so the town did remember a loss. The rats appear only in versions from the sixteenth century on. Theories include a plague, a children's crusade, or emigrants recruited to settle eastern lands. None is proven. The Brothers Grimm and Robert Browning's 1842 poem made the tale famous.

    Sources

    1. BookGrimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. Deutsche Sagen. Berlin: Nicolai, 1816-1818.
    2. BookWolff, Hans. Der Rattenfänger von Hameln. Hameln: Verlag Bernhard C. Seifert, 1976.

  12. The Black Death and the poisoned wells

    Popular belief

    The legend

    In 1348 and 1349 rumours spread that Jews have poisoned the wells to spread the plague. Many communities believe it and attack their Jewish neighbours. The story is repeated as if the cause of the disease had been found.

    The rest is history

    The accusation was false. The plague spread by fleas and rats and people, and Jews died of it like everyone else. Pope Clement VI issued bulls in 1348 condemning the charge and urging protection of the Jews. Even so, massacres occurred in many towns, such as Strasbourg in February 1349 and Mainz later that year, and many communities were destroyed. Many Jews fled east to Poland, where they were welcomed.

    Sources

    1. BookCohn, Samuel K. The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe. London: Arnold, 2002.
    2. BookBenedictow, Ole J. The Black Death 1346-1353: The Complete History. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2004.

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