Medieval France sees many changes in the turmoil of war, plague, mad royals and the birth of the Inquisition. A precisely defined social structure is shaken and powers are turned upside down, amid one of the country's greatest cultural flowerings.
In medieval France (c. 814 - 1450) peasants make up the majority of the population, between 80 to 90%. Distinctions between free and unfree peasants, as well as between tenants and peasant landowners originate in the earlier Roman and Merovingian periods.
A growing health concern is malaria, spreading in the 6th-9th centuries. Romans believe it to come from swamp fumes. During the Middle Ages, treatments for malaria include blood-letting, induced vomiting, amputations, and trepanation, drilling a hole in the patient's skull.
Physicians and surgeons use herbal medicines like belladonna and henbane for pain relief in patients. Like the later Black Death, malaria affects poor and rich, man and woman, young and old alike, and plays no favorites. Throughout the centuries malaria is always lurking.
The concept of serfdom grows prevalent, eroding distinction between unfree and free tenants. From the mid-8th century onwards, particularly in the northern regions, the relationship between peasants and land transitions into a bipartite estate system or manorialism.
Under manorialism, the land is divided into manors, large agricultural estates owned by lords or nobles. Peasants of medieval Europe are dependent on their land and their lord.
Education is needed for political influence. The wealth and power of nobles are demonstrated by luxuries, lavish lifestyles and the maintenance of loyal followers (fideles who swear allegiance to them). From the 9th century, military prowess is linked to social status.
During the Carolingian era (800 - 887), the term "aristocracy" or Latin nobilis did not have a precise legal definition. It's considered noble to own substantial land, have links to king and court, and receive titles and benefits such as count or duke.
Between the late 9th and late 10th centuries, the noble class undergoes significant changes. Initially, focus shifts towards establishing strong regional land bases, gaining hereditary control over counties and duchies, and forming independent principalities.
The traditional rights of free peasants, such as serving in royal armies and participating in public assemblies and law courts, are gradually lost between the 9th and 10th centuries.
Peasants become increasingly dependent on nobles, churches and large landholders.
From mid-8th century to 1000 AD aristocratic and monastic control over land rises at the expense of peasant landowners. After 1000, counties break down into smaller territories as minor lords seize control in the "feudal revolution", and take over various powers.
Professional soldiers or milites, often part of the retinue of sworn lords, began to rise within the aristocracy, acquiring land, constructing private castles, and assuming judicial functions. This transformation leads to the emergence of a military noble class known as knights.
Between the 10th and 11th centuries, urban development expands across the country, particularly along the northern coasts. New ports emerge and dukes and counts foster creation of towns.
By 1025, the region north of the Loire River is dominated by six or seven virtually independent states. Social structure sees significant changes leading up to the 11th century.
In some regions, growth centers around monastic sites, while in others, market towns with limited privileges are established by local lords. Communes, governing assemblies, begin to emerge in towns from the late 11th century onwards.
The Medieval Inquisition originates in12th-century France. It seeks to extinguish perceived religious deviations like apostasy, the abandonment or renunciation of religious faith; and heresy, belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious doctrine.
One hundred and fifty thousand people in Europe perish by the Inquisition in thirty years. Within forty years after the edict of Charles V against the Protestants, fifty thousand people are hanged, beheaded, or burned alive for heresy.
The French peasants are bound to the land, upon tenant holdings from a lord or monastery for which they pay rent. At the same time they're required to work the lord's demesne, an arrangement persisting until the 12th century.
Urban networks extend through various regions, such as from Toulouse to Marseille along the Mediterranean coast and in the north with cities like Beauvais, Laon, Amiens. Market towns prosper and grow, many becoming free cities, as rural populations migrate to urban areas.
This era sees significant urban construction projects, including the expansion of city walls, the construction of Gothic cathedrals, urban fortresses, castles like Philip II Augustus' Louvre around 1200. It's also a good time to build bridges.
France is central to a flourishing cultural scene from the 12th and 13th centuries, influencing much of western Europe. Romanesque shifts to Gothic art and architecture and universities are founded such as Paris (1150), Montpellier (1220), Toulouse (1229), and Orleans (1235).
This time period's nicknamed "Renaissance of the 12th century." A rise in secular vernacular literature includes works like chanson de geste, chivalric romance, troubadour and trouvère poetry, and medieval music.
In the mid-12th century, the Crown delegates its financial matters to the Knights Templar, who operate a banking facility in Paris. Consequently, the royal Treasury adopts a banking structure, facilitating the transfer of salaries and revenues across accounts.
The Knights Templar are a French military order of the Catholic faith. Despite their alternate name, The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ, the Knights Templar are among the wealthiest and most popular military orders in Western Christianity.
During the 13th and 14th centuries, significant urbanization occurs. Paris is the largest city in the realm and one of the largest in Europe, with a population exceeding 200,000. Rouen is second-largest city. Other major centers include Orléans, Bordeaux, Lyon, Dijon, and Reims.
In the 14th century France is hit by a terrible plague. The Black Death holds the country in the grip of terror c.1347 - 1352. The bubonic plague pandemic arrives by ship from Italy to Marseille. It decimates the south of France, and then heads north.
At the time, Clement VI, resides in Avignon. In 1317, due to the amount of counterfeit coinage in France, he denounces fraudulent claims of alchemists and passes a decree of penalties involved in falsifying precious metals anywhere the Catholic Church presides.
He also condemns Jewish persecutions during the Black Death, as well as the flagellants. King Philip VI of France orders the University of Paris to compile the Compendium de epidemia due to the pandemic, a vast work on illness, causes and treatments.
Charles VI takes the throne in 1380. He begins having major psychotic episodes in 1392, in his twenties. He attacks his retinue thinking them enemies. He has phases of violence and forgetfulness, storming through the castle, or not knowing his wife or his own name.
Despite this the French court goes through an intellectual, academic and literary flowering, already begun in the 13th century and gathering speed. In this environment the first female professional writer in France, Christine de Pizan, makes a powerful impression.
An early feminist writer, Christine endears herself to Charles' wife, long-suffering Isabeau of Bavaria, Queen of France. By writing about Isabeau's accomplishments Christine raises the influence of women in medieval France.
In the medieval era, the king is expected to sustain himself from income generated by the "domaine royal", consisting of lands directly owned by him. In times of financial necessity, a special tax known as the taille could be enforced and gathered.
This measure becomes more prevalent during the prolonged conflicts of the 14th - 15th centuries, leading to the establishment of a permanent taille in 1439. This decision allows Charles VII of France levy taxes to support a standing army amidst the Hundred Years' War.
The economic and demographic challenges of the 14th and 15th centuries lead housing changes. Landlords begin offering serfs freedom in exchange for working abandoned lands. Ecclesiastical and royal authorities establish new "free cities".
In 1431 Joan of Arc is put on trial by Bishop Pierre Cauchon on accusations of heresy, such as blasphemy by wearing men's clothes, acting upon demonic visions and refusing to submit her words and deeds to the judgment of the church.
Despite her influence in bringing Charles VII to the throne, and her championship of virtuous ideals, nineteen-year-old Joan is declared guilty and burned at the stake 30 May 1431. Joan is the patron saint of France and the greatest French martyr.
By the end of the 15th century, serfdom has largely disappeared. Free peasants pay rent for their own lands, while the lord's demesne is cultivated by hired labor. Despite a newfound freedom this arrangement increases peasant vulnerability during economic instability.
Landlords rent out their holdings for fixed rents, initially to their benefit. As time goes on, life becomes more expensive, and landlords find themselves under inflationary pressure. This opens the door to the practice of rent increase.
The basic urban network of cities persists and grows into a system of regional hubs and capitals. Certain cities ae designated as bishoprics by the church, like Paris, Reims, Aix, Tours, Carcassonne, Narbonne, Auch, Albi, Bourges, and Lyon.
Others are seats of local administrative power, such as Angers, Blois, Poitiers, and Toulouse. In many instances, cities like Poitiers held both episcopal and administrative authority.
Catherine de Medici becomes Queen of France in 1559, incurring hostility as religious wars escalate. While medieval days progress into the heart of the Renaissance, religious conflicts provoke bloody battles between Huguenot Protestants and French Catholics 1562 - 1598.
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