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The deadliest plague of all occurred during the Middle Ages – the Black Death. The Bubonic Plague devastated Europe in the 1340s killing between 25 and 50,000,000 people ... By the year 1400 it’s thought the death toll may have reached 100,000,000 people worldwide, reducing the population of Europe by as much as 50% ... The Spanish Flu was more deadly than the Great War. Seven Signs of the Apocalypse
People who are always praising the past
And especially the times of faith as best
Ought to go and live in the Middle Ages
And be burnt at the stake as witches and sages. Stevie Smith, The Past, 1957
William’s victory at the Battle of Hastings has given us England’s most famous date: 1066. But this wasn’t just a battle, it was a momentous turning point in European history. In the years that followed, the Normans transformed England, and then the rest of Britain and Ireland ... across Europe, from northern France to southern Italy and on to the Middle East and Jerusalem. Robert Bartlett, The Normans I, BBC 2010
A forest of masts lit up with burning torches slipped across the Channel. ibid.
On this hillside on Saturday 14th of October 1066 a single battle between a few thousand men permanently changed the course of history in England and beyond. It was said to have taken place at the Grey Apple Tree. Nowadays the site is simply known as Battle. ibid.
Two early accounts of the battle say that an arrow struck the King in the eye. The King was dead. And a world was coming to an end. ibid.
The future belonged to the Normans. ibid.
William the Conqueror established the Normans as a formidable force in history. He dominated Normandy for fifty-two years. But his greatest achievement was the conquest of England in 1066. The years that followed saw one of the most fundamental transformations in British history. Robert Bartlett, The Normans II
The coronation of William the Conqueror marks one of the sharpest breaks there has ever been in English history. Anglo-Saxon England was dead. ibid.
This was a complete militarisation of England. ibid.
The systematic slaughter and destruction is known as the Harrying of the North. ibid.
Alongside hundreds of castles they built abbeys and cathedrals on a scale never seen before in England. ibid.
The monks attempted to force William’s corpse into the space. According to Audrick his swollen belly burst and an intolerable stench filled the noses of the crowd. ibid.
Savagery and piety. Conquest and colonisation. The Normans used every weapon in their armoury to re-shape Norman France and the British Isles. They were powerful rulers and state builders. And their legacy can be seen all around us. Robert Bartlett, The Normans III: Normans of the South
In 1099 an international force of 10,000 soldiers stormed through the streets of Jerusalem. This would be the most divisive part of the Norman inheritance: the first Crusade. Among the leaders were Norman knights, including the son of William the Conqueror. As the Crusaders tore through the Holy City they cut down thousands of Muslims. According to one chronicler the slaughter was so great men waded in blood up to their ankles. ibid.
But what the Normans were really hungry for was territory and the fertile plains of southern Italy must have presented a tempting site. Southern Italy was a promised land ripe for the picking. ibid.
Muslim Sicily was a difficult island to conquer. ibid.
On their way to Jerusalem the Crusaders arrived at the capital of the Byzantine Empire – Constantinople was one of the greatest cities of the medieval world. ibid.
Bohemond established a new Norman state – the principality of Antioch. ibid.
On the night of 10th July 1099 the Crusaders attacked in force from both north and south using battering rams and siege towers. For two days the conflict hung in the balance. Then the Crusaders broke into the city. Tancred was amongst the leaders. Pillage and massacre followed. The Crusaders rampaged through the city seizing gold and silver as they went. The slaughter of the Muslims was savage. Chroniclers record that thousands were killed. ibid.
The Normans had taken part in a slaughter that would never be forgiven. ibid.
For three hundred years the Normans were among the most dynamic forces in Europe. They colonised countries and created new states and kingdoms. They became patrons of art and learning. And they transformed the landscape with magnificent castles and cathedrals. But the age of the Normans wouldn’t last for ever. In England the Norman dynasty founded by Norman the Conqueror gave was to the Plantagenets. ibid.
To the early medieval mind the world could appear as mysterious, even enchanted. Behind the wonder was a faith that the world was divinely ordered. But in time that faith would be shaken by an extraordinary cultural revolution: a revolution in the way we think, in the way we analyse the physical world and in our experience of other cultures and continents. Robert Bartlett, Inside the Medieval Mind I: Knowledge, BBC 2008
There’s scholarship, science, intellectual exploration and sophisticated logic. ibid.
Medieval records are brimful of sightings of strange creatures. ibid.
Throughout the Middle Ages people believed things that today strike us as paradoxical. ibid.
Human reasoning, argued [Thomas] Aquinus, derives from God. ibid.
Contact with the Arab world brought more than an introduction to Aristotle. ibid.
Bacon’s vision of a technological future clearly signals a radical shift that was to occur in our attitude to the physical world. ibid.
In the medieval world women are adored but also prompt loathing and disgust. Robert Bartlett, Inside the Medieval Mind II: Sex
Most parents would have lost one or more of their children. ibid.
Humans beings occupied a position halfway between the animals and the angels. ibid.
The cult of virginity exerted a powerful grip on the minds of many medieval women. ibid.
The Black Death was a fourteenth century apocalypse. ibid.
Between the 10th and 15th centuries the West was dominated by religious and supernatural beliefs. Robert Bartlett, Inside the Medieval Mind III: Belief
The connection between this world and the next was an everyday reality. ibid.
Relics ... objects of supernatural power, they were to be approached with awe. ibid.
Medieval pilgrimage became a great industry. ibid.
The word of the Church was the word of God. ibid.
Jews were treated with growing intolerance. ibid.
Hostility towards Jews was fuelled by an increasingly intolerant Church and State. ibid.
They wouldn’t return until the time of Oliver Cromwell. ibid.
Wycliffe returned to Lutterworth forbidden to ever speak out against the Church ... The religious landscape of Britain would never be the same again. ibid.
Inequality and oppression were part of the natural order ordained by God. This was a class of staggering extremes. Robert Bartlett, Inside the Medieval Mind IV: Power
A noble’s life was worth six times a peasant’s. ibid.
Serfs had to work on their lord’s lands ... For most serfs there was no escape. ibid.
Inequality was enforced by law. ibid.
The medieval world was studded with castles – hundreds of them ... It was a symbol of the power of the aristocracy, the centre of their great estates and the foundation of their military might. ibid.
Chivalry was a form of class solidarity. ibid.
The central duty of the knight was to go to war ... War was ennobling. ibid.
John’s brutality was matched by his incompetence in war. ibid.
Magna Carta was the start of an irreversible process. ibid.