We divide the Middle Ages or the Medieval period into three key periods: the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages, and the Late Middle Ages. In this blog post, we will discuss the socio-political-cultural changes that appeared in The Late Middle Ages. 

The Late Middle Ages, which spanned from the 13th to the 15th century, witnessed social, political, economic, and cultural changes that impacted England and Europe as a whole in diverse ways. 

The Hundred Years’ War

In terms of politics, constant wars, and conflicts marked the Late Medieval period. The Hundred Years’ War was a series of conflicts between England and France from 1337 to 1453 over control of the French throne and territory. They primarily fought it on French soil. 

The Black Death 

What is Black Death?

The Black Death is a bacterial disease that occurred in the middle of the fourteenth century in Western Eurasia and Northern Africa. 

Its Three Variations and why is It Called the Bubonic Plague or the Black Death?

The Black Death had three variations: Bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic.

When an infected flea bit a human being, commonly in the neck, groin, and armpit, an inflamed lymph gland or bubo was visible. From this bubo, the term bubonic plague became popular. 

The buboes were a red and purple tinge at first and later turned black. The victim felt extreme pain, and the buboes caused death within one week because of a black tinge. Therefore, we can consider the black tinge gave the name Black Death.  

The pneumonic plague was an airborne infection. It means it spreads through the air when the infected person sneezes or coughs. It affected the respiratory system and the lungs and caused the infected being to cough and blood vomiting. 

In the case of the Septicemic plague, the bacteria entered the victim’s bloodstream and some black patches were apparent on the skin. The victim would die a short, yet painful death. The black patches also perhaps gave the name the Black Death. 

How did Occur?

In 1894, two bacteriologists, Kitasato Shibasaburo and Alexandre Yersin discovered Yersinia pestis was the pathogen responsible for the catastrophe. A pathogen is a microorganism that can cause disease in its host. The rats and other small rodents were the places where the bacteria used to live. 

After a flea was inflected, it carried it from the rodents’ bodies to humans through bites. The rodents escalated, for the rodents came into contact with human environments. Since it was passed from animals to humans, the disease is called zoonosis. Therefore, we can consider that fleas and rodents were the carriers of the bacteria. 

Its Origin

This contagious disease had its origin in the Gobi desert in Mongolia. From Mongolia, the Mongol army seized the Black Sea port of Caffa on the Crimean coast, a Genoese trading port, under the leadership of Jani Beg in 1347. The Mongol army who brought the disease with them started to die and the number kept increasing. Some studies believe they threw the dead bodies into the town to use them as their means to attack its people. Consequently, it affected the local populations. Having seen the disaster, the frightened Genoese merchants fled on their ships to Italy. After they reached Italy, it became the epicenter of the plague in Europe. This is how the plague found its way to Europe from Crimea. 

Its Impact on the English Soil

The outbreak of the Black Death had unprecedented consequences in England. These were: 

High Mortality: The first impact was a massive loss of life. The first English soil that the pandemic hit was Melcombe Regis, Dorset in June 1348. After a few months, London witnessed the plague on November 01, 1348. It wiped out almost 30,000 of the 70,000 city dwellers who became victims of the plague. The Black Death also hit hard the English villages. “About 20 percent of the villages were either abandoned or completely depopulated” (Choudhury 21). However, more than villages, the towns and cities were easily contaminated because of overcrowding and lack of sanitation facilities. Other crowded places like prisons and monasteries also became contaminated. The overall death toll was one-third of the English population and 30-60% of Europe’s population.

Depopulation: Due to the high mortality rate of the disease, there was a decline in the population in England. Survivors fled the rural and mostly the urban areas to keep themselves away from infected areas. 

Disruption of Agriculture: Because of depopulation, they left many lands untilled. There was no man in the hovels and the field to take care of them. Instead of crops, the lands were filled with weeds. The shortage of labor led to a twofold increase in labor. Therefore, many free laborers demanded their wages, whereas some villeins tried to untie their feudal agreement. 

Economic impact: The decrease in manufacturing units affected trade. However, the countryside allowed cloth and woolen industries. The landowners took the advantage of the uncultivated lands and utilized the deserted lands for sheep pasturing. As a result, this increased the export of raw wool to places like Flanders and the English cloth manufacturing industry was thriving. This helped to sustain the economy of England during a rough time. 

The Widespread of superstition, stigma, and religious fervor: The plague was unstoppable because neither the medical system nor the medicine practitioners were ready for such a devastating situation. There was a shortage of medical facilities as it is now available. Unlike modern medical advancements, medical science was not a popular subject of study to study scientifically and there was no medical professional. The medicine practitioners knew nothing except about some herbs. 

Amidst such a critical situation, panic and anxiety were widespread. Since there was a lack of scientific study and explanation, illogical beliefs became acceptable reasons for the minds of ordinary people about the cause of the plague. For many, it resulted from God’s anger. Therefore, people did various processions to appease God. Some believed that it was “the result of a noxious or evil mist” (21). Some dragged an anti-Semantic view into the explanation and blamed the Jews poisoned the wells.

Changes in Literature: The Black Death had a profound impact on the literary landscape of the 14th century. The changes in society in a period affect the mode of literature. Unlike the idealistic literature in the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman period, the writers shifted to a realistic and serious outlook on life and society. Instead of the heroic tales of larger-than-life characters in Anglo-Saxon literature, the experiences of the common man in the plague became the center of literary works. For example, the daughter in the poem “Pearl” by Pearl Poet probably dies in the plague. Sudden loss of dear ones became a frequent occurrence to the average person. Therefore, it was not surprising for Pearl Poet to question death and introspect the Christian doctrine. Unlike the celebratory tone in heroic literature of the Anglo-Saxon period, “Pearl” has an emotional tone and personal experience of spirituality. 

In the case of the courtly love and chivalry themes in Anglo-Norman literature, the literature of the fourteenth century became more grounded in reality. For example, it was seen in the works of the age of Chaucer. 

The Lollard Movement 

What is It? 

The Lollard was a proto-Protestant movement that started in the mid-14th century. It was the movement that rejected certain practices and doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and advocated a simple teaching of the Bible which later became the early foundation of Protestantism, a major branch of Christianity in the 16th century. 

John Wycliffe: The Forerunner of Church Reform

During the fourteenth century, the churches of England were under Roman Catholicism, and the Pope was their supreme authority. The concentration of power in the Pope’s hands resulted in the corruption of religion. 

John Wycliffe was an Oxford theologian and a teacher who opposed the authority of the Pope. He thought Pope’s authority should not extend up to political and secular matters. It should be limited to only spirituality. 

Wycliffe was also not happy to see the incompetency of the clerics. Therefore, he sought to replace them with new secular personnel and reform the corrupted church with Christian doctrines. 

Chaucer’s two characters in The Canterbury Tales: The Monk’s lavish lifestyle and the Pardoner’s exploitation of the common men by the selling of indulgences suggest the corruption of the church’s members.

The Bible was mainly available in Latin which was a factor for which the common men were far behind the teachings of their religion. The church took it as an advantage to manipulate them. Therefore, Wycliffe translated the Bible into English so that anyone can directly access the true teachings of Christ.

Sadly, he died in 1384 and left it to his followers to continue. 

The Movement 

After his death, his followers took responsibility for the reformation. The followers are called the Lollards. The Lollards denounced the wealth of the Church and questioned the doctrines and practices of the church such as transubstantiation, pilgrimages, and clerical celibacy. They focused on the teachings of the Bible and asserted the Bible itself had the sole authority. 

Their popularity among the people became a concern for the church. Therefore, the Parliament passed a Statute for heresy in 1382. In 1401, the parliament again passed the Statute De Haeretico Comburendo under King Henry IV of England. The Statute of Heretics made it possible for the church to suppress the movement. Under the law, the Church considered the Lollards heretics and had the right to burn the reformists as punishment. Many Lollards were burned and consequently, the influence of the movement eventually declined.

The Western Schism 

The Schism was a series of internal conflicts of the Catholic Church between 1378 and 1417 over the papal authority. 

Origin

The Schism started the conflicts between the papacy and the French monarchy. Both wanted to take control of the Church in France. In 1378, Pope Gregory XI transferred the Curia, his court, from Avignon to Rome. After he died in 1378, the College of Cardinals elected an Italian pope, Urban VI.

Pope Urban VI had the intention of restoring the power of the Pope over the cardinals which was the opposite thought with the Cardinals. Soon, the cardinals realized that they had done a mistake. Urban seemed adamant in his intention. Hence, his relations with the cardinals deteriorated. The cardinals selected a different Pope named Clement VII to replace him. 

As a result, the two popes: Pope Urban VI in Rome and Clement VII in Avignon became rivals for the authority over the Church. The split became the interest of Rome and France to keep the power of the Church.

The Ongoing Conflict

The cardinals gave the argument that Rome forced them to select the former Pope to dispel him. But it was an invalid reason for two reasons: first, the election was not illegal, and second, they accepted him. Moreover, there was no provision of dispelling the Pope after the selection was complete. Therefore, they called for a council of the Church, known as the Council of Pisa, in 1409. The council declared both Popes illegitimate and dismissed them. Thereafter, the cardinals elected another Pope, Alexander V, for the third time.

However, the issue was not resolved because both Urban VI nor Clement VII were not agreed to the election. The cardinals again called for another council, the Council of Constance in 1414. The council finally resolved the ongoing issues by electing a common and undisputed Pope Martin V, for Christendom. This is how the conflict of the Church was resolved.

Its Effects on the Loss of Papal Authority

The Western Schism caused the loss of papal authority due to the display of power struggles within the Church. It was known to people publically what was going on within the church. It turned out to be the opposite of the teachings of the Church. As a result, the Church lost the creditability it used to have before the conflict. It became hard for the Popes to exercise their power effectively. The people became confused and did not know whom to follow. The division weakened the influence of the Church and the papacy.

Peasants’ Revolt or Wat Tyler’s Rebellion (1381) 

Introduction

The Peasants’ Revolt was a rebellious movement in 1381 by the peasants over the issues of the heavy taxes imposed on the working classes. 

The Factors behind the Rebellion

The Statute of Labourers: There were many empty lands as a result of depopulation after the Black Death. But the scarcity of the labor and sudden rising in the cost of labor made the landowners upset despite having many lands. The landowners earlier relied on the manorial villeins for cultivation and they were not happy with the new demand for labor. Therefore, they appealed to the parliament to stop them. As a result, the parliament passed the Statute of Labourers in 1351 under the approval of King Edward III. 

It was in the favor of the landowners and intended to suppress the rise of the working class. It prohibited every free laborer from the freedom to choose. Any landowner could choose any laborer whether man or woman though they were free to choose the landowner. The workers had to work under the landowners under compulsion and the landowners treated them as their personal property despite being free laborers. 

If any worker left the work and his service abruptly, he would be imprisoned. It aimed to control the wages of workers and set the law that the wage structure would be the same as it used to be before the plague. 

Poll Tax: The oppressive Parliament decreased the wages, but increased the amount of tax. The parliament imposed a poll tax on the peasants. In 1377, the parliament “imposed a poll tax of a groat or four-pence on all English people above 14 years, except beggars (25 Choudhury). 

In 1380, a new law was introduced where it was mandatory for everyone above fifteen years to pay a tax of three groats regardless of their condition. The working classes felt the injustice that was imposed upon them as a result of heavy taxes. It contributed to a growing sense of discontent and anger among the common men.

The Horrors of the Revolt

The first sign of revolt was seen when Wat Tyler murdered a tax collector and led a large group of protestors as their leader to Canterbury. Therefore, the revolt is also known as Wat Tyler’s Rebellion. They destroyed every manorial record that they found. The Archbishop of Canterbury was murdered. 

Tyler led them to march into London. Upon reaching London, they looted the tower of London and several justices and manorial heads were the targets of their attacks. This directly affected the city dwellers who instead of supporting the causes of the revolt detested the protest. As a result, Wat Tyler was executed and Richard II was able to pacify them. The rebels had basic demands such as the abolition of the institution of villeinage, their freedom, and a reduction in taxation.

Neither the king nor the nobility fulfilled the promises they made after the group became powerless.