HIST 2053 - Medieval Europe: Crusades to the Black Death

A study of the civilization of Western Christendom with particular emphasis on the High Middle Ages, c. 1050-1350. Lecture and tutorial topics will be from the following: The fall of the Roman Empire; The conversion of Europe; Vikings, Saracens and Magyars; the real Dark Ages? Feudal and manorial systems; The agricultural, urban and commercial revolutions; Models of Christendom; the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire; The medieval church: popular religious culture: saints, relics and pilgrimages; The medieval reformation: monastic revival: The apostolic life, the Friars, medieval heresy. Vernacular culture: epics and romances; Occitan culture; courtly love and Arthurian legends; War and Society: chivalry and the just war. The Crusades, the rise and fall of the crusading ideal; The Mediterranean dimension: impact of Arabic and Byzantine worlds on Latin culture. Christianity v Islam; A Twelfth-Century Renaissance? Recovery of law and philosophy, rise of scholasticism, monastic and university learning, Gothic art and architecture; Decline: demographic crisis, the Black Death, bastard feudalism, The Hundred Years' War.