The Transition of the High Middle Ages to the Renaissance

The Middle Ages in Europe, which followed the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century A.D., were a period of turmoil in human history. Characterized by plagues, famine, ceaseless warfare, and warrior-nobles who controlled power over the majority, the Middle Ages were indeed also known as the Dark Ages and were a time of difficulty for most. Between plague and warfare alone, some countries in Europe lost half or more of their population. Despite this, among the darkness of the Middle Ages grew the roots of the Renaissance, which eventually gave way to a return to the classical ideology of Greece and Rome, a blossoming of art, culture, philosophy, and a powerful middle class. While there were many catalysts for the Renaissance, among the most influential were the weakening of the feudal system due to aspects of the Hundred Year’s War, the Black Death, and disillusionment with the Church.

The Hundred Year’s War resulted in several important changes to the political and social framework of both France and England. During the Hundred Year’s War, England and France were at war over a contested throne. The King of England, Edward III, refused to pay homage to French King Philip VI, which Edward III was obliged to do under fealty to France. The result was a seizing of the rich, English wine lands of Aquitaine by Philip VI and the beginning of the Hundred Year’s War which lasted from 1337 to 1453 (Seward 35). During the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, a major defeat of the French by the English led to the eventual end of heavily armored, trained Heavy Calvary units, which were the embodiment of the power and profession of nobles. During the decisive battle, the French Heavy Calvary become overly encumbered by the woodland surroundings and was subsequently defeated by the more agile English infantry units (Downing 62). The dissolution of the Heavy Cavalry, the elite’s justification for power as professional soldiers to the king, caused the feudal relationship to dissolve (Downing 62-63). With the use of fealty by vassals being replaced by contractual agreements between the king, hired hands, and mercenaries, the lofty code of chivalry and the noble’s base of power became obsolete.

The changes in fealty were also spurred by innovations in weaponry, such as firearms, which were used effectively even by poorly trained peasants and foreigners (Downing 63-64). In fact, Downing points out that the beginnings of what would later develop into the power of the urban bourgeoisie likely began with “impertinent peasants and townsmen who, banded together into disciplined phalanxes of pikemen, proved invulnerable to the charges of Heavy Calvary” (61). Additionally, huge losses in population in both southern and northern Europe led to a lack of labor to cultivate fields and perform work. These losses resulted in a more empowered peasant class that could barter for better wages and even obtain more lands with the monetary surplus (Hodgett 206-208). With more money flowing into the hands of peasants and away from nobles, the beginnings of an impending, strong middle class in a market commerce system was apparent.

Meanwhile, in southern Europe, the Black Death arrived in Sicily in 1347 and in less than a year was spreading rapidly through Genoa and Venice, then through Pisa to northern Italy. The bubonic plague left a swath of death that shook the social and spiritual centers of everyone in Europe (Thomsett 127). Among the most devastated by the plague were members of the powerful Catholic Church, which caused disillusionment among the public (Thomsett 126). In Italy, common knowledge of the Church’s corruption and their failure to both explain the plague reasonably and heal the sick crucially undermined the Church’s power. Humanism, based on classical teachings from Greece and Rome, emerged as a suitable, even preferable alternative to the growing doubt in the Church. Further emphasizing the decline in the Church among the public, Thomsett writes that Giovanni Boccaccio, a Humanist author, and poet, would satirize monks and nuns in his “more obscene” writings, which were disseminated and read by nearly all social classes (124). Also damaging the Church’s reputation was the dreaded Inquisition, which was a spectacle of fear and abuse (Thomsett 127). With the Church dwindling due to its own excesses and corruption, the public began searching for other ways to connect to the spiritual, which eventually led to an explosion of intellectual exploration and culture as seen in the popular Florentine and Venetian painting, ushering in the Renaissance.

There were many aspects in Europe of the Middle Ages that led to the Renaissance in 1400 A.D. In the north, England and France commenced a war that lasted for 116 years through several phases of history, resulting in the breakdown of the feudal system by undermining the essential power of the nobility. The years of war also empowered peasants as the death toll from warfare and the Black Plague left labor in high demand, which was the underpinnings of a burgeoning middle class. The Black Death mercilessly ravaged Europe, leaving millions of people dead, and the Church unable to handle the amount of death and suffering questioned by the populous. In response, the public began to look elsewhere to their connection to god, in Humanism and the classics from Greece and Rome. The Renaissance was born of time in human history when people were seeking answers, truth, and meaning to their tumultuous lives. In that pursuit, people found new ways to explain and express the world, their lives, and god.

Works Cited

Downing, Brian M.. The military revolution and political change: origins of democracy and autocracy in early modern Europe. Princeton University Press, 1992.

Hodgett, Gerald Augustus John. A social and economic history of medieval Europe. Methuen, 1972.

Seward, Desmond. The Hundred Years War: the English in France, 1337-1453. Atheneum, 1978.

Thomsett, Michael C.. Heresy in the Roman Catholic Church: a history. McFarland, 2011.