Europe in the High Middle AgesIt was an age of hope and possibility, of accomplishment and expansion. Europe's High Middle Ages spanned the Crusades, the building of Chartres Cathedral, Dante's Inferno, and Thomas Aquinas. Buoyant, confident, creative, the era seemed to be flowering into a true renaissance-until the disastrous fourteenth century rained catastrophe in the form of plagues, famine, and war. In Europe in the High Middle Ages, William Chester Jordan paints a vivid, teeming landscape that captures this lost age in all its glory and complexity. Here are the great popes who revived the power of the Church against the secular princes; the writers and thinkers who paved the way for the Renaissance; the warriors who stemmed the Islamic tide in Spain and surged into Palestine; and the humbler estates, those who found new hope and prosperity until the long night of the 1300s. From high to low, from dramatic events to social structures, Jordan's account brings to life this fascinating age. Part of the Penguin History of Europe series, edited by David Cannadine. |
Contents
Prologue | 1 |
Mediterranean Europe | 20 |
Northern Celts and AngloSaxons | 38 |
Copyright | |
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Europe in the High Middle Ages: The Penguin History of Europe William Chester Jordan Limited preview - 2002 |
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Anjou Aragon archbishop aristocratic army authority barons became bishops Byzantine Byzantine Empire Capetian Cathars Cathedral Catholic central Charles of Anjou Christendom Christian Church claim clergy conquest Council Crown crusade death despite duke dynasty early ecclesiastical eleventh century emperor England English Europe fiefs Flanders forces Fourth Lateran Council France Franciscan Frederick German Gothic Henry Henry II High Middle Ages Hohenstaufen Holy Land Hungary imperial Innocent Investiture Controversy Islamic Italian Italy Jerusalem Jews king's kingdom knights labour Languedoc large numbers later Latin less lords Louis Magna Carta medieval Mediterranean Middle Ages military monasteries monks Muslim nobles Norman Normandy northern pagan papacy papal Paris peasants perhaps period Philip philosophical Poland political pope population princes rebellion reform regions reign Roman Rome royal rule rulers scholars seemed settlement Sicily sometimes southern Italy succession territorial Teutonic Knights theology thirteenth century throne towns traditional twelfth century urban villages violence