4.7 High and Late Middle Ages
Overview
The High and Late Middle Ages – the period from approximately 1000 CE – 1500 CE in Europe saw the development of a social structure that should begin to look more familiar. The Crusades, the Norman Conquest and the Black Death fostered changes that nobody could have anticipated amidst the clashes of people and cultures in their struggle for survival. Social concepts of governance, personal power and social responsibility shifted in this period as well. The Common Law and Magna Carta emerged in England even as the Early Renaissance unfolded across Europe.
Social Status
A person’s life in the Middle Ages was defined by his/her birth. There was very little chance for any kind of mobility and very few people even considered the possibility of something else “out there. Read the History Guide’s account below for an overview of this period.
Kreis, Steven. “Lecture 23, Medieval Society: The Three Orders.” History Guide. September 24, 2008.
If the link above doesn’t work. Use this link: http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture23b.html.
Sometime in the 12th century the Second Estate (nobility), particularly related to knights, there developed a code of conduct called chivalry. This was a highly idealized set of rules for behavior. It was made popular in medieval literature and was supposedly widely practiced in the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine (Queen of France and later Queen of England). It is debatable just how well the code of chivalry was followed, but it is a good representation of the European vision of self.
“French Chivalric Code.” Agincourt. 2005. Films on Demand. 2:41.
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