Europe in the high Middle Ages / William Chester Jordan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jordan, William Chester, 1948-

Series:

Penguin history of Europe

The Penguin history of Europe

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civilization, Medieval.

Crusades.

Middle Ages--Historiography.

Middle Ages.

Kings and rulers, Medieval.

Europe--History--476-1492.

Europe.

History.

Europe--Church history--600-1500.

Church history.

Physical Description:

xi, 382 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, genealogical tables ; 25 cm.

Edition:

First American edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Viking, 2003.

Summary:

It was an age of hope and possibility, of accomplishment and expansion. Europe's High Middle Ages spanned the Crusades and the building of Chartres Cathedral, Dante's Inferno, and Thomas Aquinas. Buoyant, confident, creative, the era seemed to be flowering into a true renaissance -- until the disastrous fourteenth century rained catastrophe in the form of plagues, famine, and war. In Europe in the High Middle Ages, William Chester Jordan paints a vivid, teeming landscape that captures this lost age in all its glory and complexity. Here are the great popes who revived the power of the Church against the secular princes; the writers and thinkers who paved the way for the Renaissance; the warriors who stemmed the Islamic tide in Spain and surged into Palestine; and the humbler estates, those who found new hope and prosperity until the long night of the 1300s. From high to low, from dramatic events to social structures, Jordan's account brings to life this fascinating age.

Contents:

Part I Europe in the Eleventh Century

1 Christendom in the Year 1000 5

2 Mediterranean Europe 20

3 Northern, Celts and Anglo-Saxons 38

4 Francia/France 52

5 Central Europe 66

Part II The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century

6 The Investiture Controversy 85

7 The First Crusade 100

8 The World of Learning 113

9 Cultural Innovations of the Twelfth Century: Vernacular Literature and Architecture 129

10 Political Power and Its Contexts 143

Part III The Thirteenth Century

12 Social Structures 181

13 The Pontificate of Innocent III and the Forth Lateran Council 194

14 Learning 213

15 The Kingdoms of the North 226

16 Baltic and Central Europe 243

17 The Gothic World 259

18 Southern Europe 271

Part IV Christendom in the Early Fourteenth Century

19 Famine and Plague 289

20 Political and Social Violence 302

21 The Church in Crisis 314

Appendix Genealogical Tables 329.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 344-354) and index.

ISBN:

0670032026