Section 5 Notes

The Black Death The Plague started in Italy

33% of people who contracted the disease died

Black Death---really Bubonic Plague (as opposed to Pneumonic Plague)

The Black Death was spread by fleas on rats

Yersinia pestis

Epidemic---outbreak of a rapid-spreading disease

At it’s height, the Black Death was killing 7,000 people per day in Cairo, Egypt (more than the entire population of Minersville per day)

Spread of Black Death

Yersinia pestis

Rats and Fleas!!!

The Black Death The Black Death made society turn to magic and witchcraft

to try to cope with what was happening to them…Why???

Eventually, Europeans began to blame Jewish people for the outbreak of the Black Death (obviously this is ridiculous!!!)

The Italian poet Boccaccio wrote The Decameron in which he described the social decay he saw in Florence, Italy during the Black Death…”and scarcely to be believed, fathers and mothers were found to abandon their own children…as if they had been strangers”

Boccaccio’s Delcameron

The Black Death Within hours of getting bitten, victims developed egg-

sized lumps under their arms (buboes)

Black spots then appeared on their skin

Spitting blood usually signified death was near

Unsanitary conditions in towns and cities helped lead to the quick spread of the plague (people threw garbage and human waste into the streets)

So many people were dying that gravediggers used carts to collect all the corpses and buried victims in mass graves…”Bring out your dead” was often called out

Bubonic vs. Pneumonic Plague

Bubonic Plague Symptoms

Effects of Bubonic Plague

Effects of Bubonic Plague

“Ring around the Rosie”

“Ring around the Rosie”

“Ring around the Rosie”

Death and the Economy The Black Death greatly affected the medieval economy As both workers and employers died, production began to

decline People who survived the Black Death demanded to be paid more

money to work This rise for labor led to inflation in the price of goods To stem the rise in wages, farmers converted croplands to sheep

raising Guilds limited apprenticeships, refused to accept new members,

and denied journeymen the chance to become masters Revolts sprung up all of Europe The plague spread both death and social unrest and it took

Western Europe 100+ years to fully recover from it

Upheaval in the Church Pope Clement V moved the papal court to Avignon

Critics spoke out against the worldly, pleasure-loving papacy and anticlergy feelings grew

For a period of time, there were two popes---one in Avignon in southern France and one in Rome

This caused a schism in the Church

Problem was not resolved 1417 when a Church council at Constance finally ended the crisis

Upheaval in the Church John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, began to attack

Church corruption

Wycliffe said that the Bible not the Church was the source of truth for Christians

His followers began translating the Bible into English so that people could read it for themselves and not have to rely on the clergy to read it

John Wycliffe

Upheaval in the Church Wycliffe’s ideas spread to Bohemia (today’s Czech

Republic) where Jan Hus began leading calls for reforming the Church

The Church got angry and began persecuting Wycliffe and suppressing the Hussites

Hus ended up getting but on trial for preaching heresy and was burned at the stake in 1415

Jan Hus

Jan Hus’ Punishment

The Hundred Years’ War War fought by England against France between 1337

and 1453

3 causes for the long conflict---

English rulers holding onto French land

French kings extending their own power

Economic rivalry and national pride

Hundred Years’ War

Hundred Years’ War

The Hundred Years’ War At first the English claimed a string of victories that

made it seem like they were going to bring all of France under their control

This success was made possible by the English longbow---powerful new weapon (its arrows could pierce all but the heaviest armor) six feet long that could shoot 3 arrows in the same time a French archer could fire 1 with his crossbow

Soon the tide would turn in France’s favor

English Longbow

French Crossbow

The Hundred Years’ War Joan of Arc was a 17-year old peasant woman when she

began inspiring the French troops to fight and leading them to several victories

She ended up being taken captive by allies of the British, turned over to the British, put on trial for witchcraft, convicted, and burned at the stake

The Church later declared her a saint

The death of Joan of Arc rallied the French and with this motivation along with their powerful new weapon, the cannon, they pushed the English back all the way to Calais, a port in northwestern France

Joan of Arc

French Cannon

The Hundred Years’ War Changes in France--- increased sense of national pride

and allowed French kings to expand their power

Changes in England--- Parliament gets “power of the purse”, dreams of an English continental empire snuffed out, future rulers look for trading opportunities overseas

Changes in military strategy---common soldiers gain new importance on battlefield due to the longbow and cannon, castles and knights become obsolete due to superior firepower, kings realize they need large armies and not feudal vassals to fight wars

A Look Ahead 1400s Europe recovers after the Black Death and

undergoes changes

Population expands, manufacturing grows, trade expands

Italian cities become important shipping centers

New technologies developed

German miners use water power to crush ore and build blast furnaces to make cast iron