Monday, April 2, 2007

The Middle Ages

The Crusades were one of the main historical events of the Middle Ages. They were a series of military conflicts fought by Christians to regain the Holy Lands of Jerusalem from Muslim rule. The first crusade started in 1095 when the leader of the Eastern Orthodox (Christain) Byzantine Empire asked the Vatican Pope for help in stopping the Turkish Seljuq dynasty (Muslim) from invading into Byzantine territory in Anatolia. Pope Urban II responded by calling for a huge number of forces to take back territory all the way to Jerusalem. This was the first time rival kingdoms of Europe were united to fight for a common cause, and since many of these Christain knights had known nothing but fighting their whole lives they were hard to stop, often described as cruel and savage. Some historians would even argue that most of the knights weren't fighting for their religion but they were fighting just to plunder and kill. The Crusades ended in 1291 and the main changes that took place as a result were that the European world obtained knowledge of science, architecture, and mathematics from the Islamic world. Trade routes opened up and new technology would come from the east to the west. This would all later lead to the European Renaissance in later years.

The Magna Carta or "Great Paper" in Latin is a famous English document that was first issued in 1215, (although most of the rights came from the one issued in 1225) when Pope Innocent III, King John, and English barons disagreed about the rights and powers of the King. Since the Norman conquests of 1066, The King of England had become the most powerful position in all of Europe at that time, but after King John made some big mistakes including giving up land to the French to save face, killing his cousin Arthur, and disagreeing with the Pope about who the Archbishop of Canterbury should be. This caused the English barons to rebel and there was a civil war until the barons forced the King to put his seal on the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta is famous for including the right of Habeas Corpus and for making the King accept that his will could be limited by the law. The King no longer had absolute power. This is why historians say it was the "most significant early influence on the extensive historical process that led to constitutional law today."

Thomas a Becket was King Henry's chief administrator and a "carousing chum" and when the Archbishop of Canterbury seat fell open in 1162, Henry II persuaded a reluctant Thomas to become the new Archbishop. He was expecting that since they were friends to begin with that Thomas would support the King in the battle between church and state. However, Thomas changed as Archbishop and became a strict observer of church law, even going so far as to wear a hair shirt under his vestments and choosing to be flogged. He sided with the Pope instead of with King Henry II and infuriated the monarch. He was eventually killed by four of the King's knights in Canterbury Cathedral and was made a martyr.

The Black Plague was one of the the worst known pandemics in human history, assumed to be spread by rats. It started around the 14th century and killed 75 million people, at least a third of Europe's population at the time. It was characterised by swollen lymph nodes in the victims. It affected European culture by making it very morbid and pessimisstic for a while and people became cynical of the church and religious officials when they couldn't keep their promises of providing cures.

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