The European Middle Ages (Part 2 of 2)

Spring starts at the Home Depot and we are bringing the heat to your backyard this season.

Fire up the flavor with our wide variety of grills for under $300,

like the next grill for burner gas grill that's perfect for hosting your spring cookout.

Then set the scene and turn your outdoor space into the go-to spot the patio sets for every budget.

Bring it this season with grills that deliver flavor and patios that set the vibe from the Home Depot.

Start your spring with low prices guaranteed at the Home Depot,

including the pricey Home Depot dot com slash price match for details.

It is the 22nd of July, 1209.

Beneath the walls of the southern French city of Bessier,

the first rays of sunlight, glint off the swords and chain mail of a vast army

drawn up into ragged lines.

A young soldier shifts under the weight of the long pole arm he is gripping.

The Gambisson or padded jacket he wears chafes around his neck

and he twists his head to try and relieve the irritation.

Now the assembled soldiers fall quiet as a man in gleaming white robes ride through their ranks.

He is their leader, the representative of the Pope himself, the abbot or no.

Because this is not a secular war.

The soldier and his comrades are crusaders here to rid the city of the heretics who infected.

Reaching the front, the abbot turns his horse to face his men.

His words carrying easily in the early morning air,

he proclaims that diplomacy has failed.

It is now the soldier's Christian duty to cleanse Bessier of the evil that has overtaken it,

in the form of the Cathar faith, leading those in this city to scorn baptism

and holy communion and even to believe in two gods.

In a rising voice, the abbot implores his forces not to concern themselves

with distinguishing between Cathars and Christians once they are within the city walls.

They should kill them all because God will know his own.

Salvation will come to the crusaders so long as they do not falter in this task.

At this final exhortation, the crowd roars.

The soldier tightens his grip on his weapon, itching for the signal to attack.

Before any such order comes, a small gate built into the walls swings open

and dozens of men spill out.

Some are armed, but others wear only rough linen tunics.

Their hands empty as they approach the assembled forces screaming insults.

It is too much for one crusading knight who now breaks away and rides towards the rabble.

It happens in a flash.

One moment, the rider is sitting proudly on his high stepping chestnut horse.

The next, he's being dragged inexorably to the ground.

A flash of metal is followed by a scream abruptly terminated.

The knight does not rise again.

Without waiting for an order from the abbot, a large group of crusaders now tear after him,

looking for revenge.

Outnumbered, the citizens turn and sprint back to the safety of the city, but they are not quick enough.

Before they even reach the gate, the crusaders descend.

The soldier watches on as a compassionate upper head slaughters three in quick succession.

Before he thrusts his own weapon through the stomach of another, watching as crimson blood bubbles from his mouth

before he falls to the dusty ground.

Renching the blade free, the soldier advances through the open gate, hundreds of armed men thundering behind him.

The abbot has given the order to attack.

The fury of the crusade has come to bezier.

The term middle ages often evokes ideas of barbarism, a lack of enlightenment.

The antithesis of the supposedly rational civilized modern world that succeeded it.

But although it was undeniably a turbulent period in the history of Europe,

characterized in part by endemic violence, hardship and inequality,

the latter half of the era was also a time of great change and discovery.

What historians call be high and late middle ages saw a proliferation of philosophical and scientific inquiry and economic advancement.

This was a time of intense literary and artistic production, religious dynamism and global trade and travel,

an age of contradictions and complexities.

So what drove the immense changes of the later medieval period?

What dark currents swirled beneath this apparent progress?

And how did the latter half of the middle ages ultimately lay the foundation for our modern world?

I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is the second in a special two-part short history of the European middle ages.

The Middle Ages stretch from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 until around 1500.

As we learned in part one, the early medieval period, ending around the turn of the millennium,

saw the rebuilding of political systems in the aftermath of the Roman Empire's collapse.

The early medieval period, the early middle ages, was characterized by fragmentation of political structures,

barbarian invasions, declining urbanization, declining long-distance trade,

collapses of learning as the Western Roman Empire gave way to successor states in chaotic change.

But by the end of that period, urbanization was beginning to revive, long-distance trade was picking up.

The Christian Church had continued to be the soul-surviving transnational institution.

Monasticism was spreading, learning was beginning to consolidate again,

and population was beginning to slowly rise.

A number of interrelated trends marked the end of the early medieval period, including the strengthening of political institutions.

In particular, kings began to develop increasingly complex bureaucracies to manage the people and money under their control.

From 1100 onwards, Western Europe seized the rise of more centralized states,

and these states have increasingly professional administrations.

So, for example, monarchs like Henry II of England, ruled 1154 to 1189, developed royal law courts and systems of record keeping,

which gave us a great deal of insight into the running of the medieval state.

A constant across the middle ages is the importance of land as a source of wealth.

Medieval society is largely agricultural, with most people farming or supporting such work through professions like blacksmithing and cutting.

The control of land, labor, and surplus lies at the heart of medieval social and political power.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, the class structure of many European societies initiated in the early middle ages solidifies.

Although the term remains much debated, it is most commonly known as the feudal system.

So, we have a roughly pyramidical situation in which we have monarchy at a ruler's top.

We have those below them who are directly working with, also on a face-to-face basis, with kings and rulers,

or we might call the baronial class, we have those below them of the nightly class who serve.

And each one is granted land and a state in return for this service.

And at the bottom of this pyramid, we have a peasant class, some free, some semi free.

Slavery is declining dramatically in Western Europe from the 11th century onwards.

But it's replaced in many areas by a servile status or a semi-servile status, sometimes called Serfdom or Villanige,

by which significant numbers of the people at the bottom of the pile do not hold the land freely and cannot move freely.

But have to, with various degrees of control, work unpaid for their Lord.

Going into the 12th century, village and parish boundaries are more strictly demarcated,

as land is passalled off and given to knights in return for their service to local Lords.

The landowners extract as much as possible from their peasants in the form of rents and agricultural surplus.

The workers see few of the benefits of their labor, and many are unable to do so much as marry without their Lord's permission and have no freedom of movement.

Partly as a result of this intensification of agricultural production, this is a time of significant economic growth.

In the first few centuries of the second millennium, the population of Europe more than doubles.

Woodland is cleared across the continent to make way for more agricultural land to feed these hungry new mouths.

An economy based on butter and exchange declines, replaced by a monetary system using silver currency.

But the increase in population coincides with the challenge to the rural focus of medieval society in the form of urbanisation.

Hi everyone, I'm Charlie Cox. Join us on Disney Plus as we talk with the cast and crew of Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again.

What happened to you gotten to do as Daredevil?

Being the Avengers?

Charlie and Vincent came to play.

I get emotional when I think about it.

One of the great finalities of any episode we've ever done.

We are going to play Truth or Daredevil.

What? No boy.

Fantastic.

You guys go hard, man.

Daredevil Born Again, official podcast, Tuesdays, and stream season two of Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again on Disney Plus.

So good, so good, so good.

Spring styles are at Nordstrom Rack stores now, and they're up to 60% off.

Stock up and save on Rack and Bone made well.

Vince, all scenes and more of your favourites.

How did I let no rack as a deedus?

Why do we rack for the hottest feel?

There's so many good brands.

Join the Nordie Club to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first and more.

Plus, buy online and pick up at your favourite rack store for free.

Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack.

At the end of the early Middle Ages, there are only around 100 towns and cities across the whole of Europe.

Over the next three centuries, that number swells to 4,000.

From 1,100 to 1,300, Europe's population grew dramatically,

leading to an expansion of towns such as Venice, Genoa, Paris, Bruges and London.

And below them, a network of smaller towns,

facilitated both local and international trade through fares and markets.

And these developments often driven by the crown and by local lords,

intent on benefiting from an increasingly monetised economy.

At the same time, there's a rising craft guilds and merchant guilds

who regulated production and trade.

And this increased the power and influence of an emerging urban entrepreneurial class,

whose wealth was not based on ownership of land.

Even so, most people still work the land.

It is likely that a mere 10% of Europe's population ever live in towns and cities.

Medieval Italy, with its network of city-states, is the only exception.

Yet, urban opportunities continue to increase into the late Middle Ages.

Women cluster in industries like that of silk or are employed as embroiderers,

guilds or professional bodies form for trades from brewing to baking to carpentry.

Young people come to towns to find work as servants in the increasing number of wealthy households.

The growing number of towns also provides a stage upon which intellectual inquiry can flourish.

We sometimes talk about a 12th century Renaissance, a remarkable intellectual and cultural revival

that historians call this early Renaissance.

After centuries of relative fragmentation, new prosperity, population growth and increased ability

under more unified monarchies and the Church set the stage for a renewal of learning.

This often begins in smaller or more informal schools,

with inspiring teachers of the Helms.

One such man is Peter Abelard, a philosopher who teaches in Paris in the early 12th century.

He is famed for his iconoclastic lectures in which he proposes the application of logical principles

to the study of God and the universe.

Students flock to hear him speak, but it is perhaps his affair with his teenage pupil Eloise

and his subsequent castration by her enraged relatives that lens him the greatest notoriety.

In some cities, once a critical mass of teachers and students exist,

educators begin to join together into formal universities.

Although the medieval church is popularly imagined to be opposed to scientific investigation,

many of the most important scholars of the age are Churchmen.

Important universities were formed, Blondja, 1088, Paris, 1150, Oxford, 1167, Cambridge, 1209.

The liberal arts, law, medicine, theology were systematized and developed in these important institutions.

And they began to reflect a Europe that was increasingly confident in reason as a path

that understanding the divine and the natural world.

And that is a reminder to us that the kind of world of science-based inquiry

is not just a product of the 18th century enlightenment.

That itself was rooted in the medieval inquiry that took seriously the concept

that the created order is created within laws, created within boundaries,

created within principles established by God.

Therefore the human mind, human being made in the image of God,

can study those things, understand them and explain them.

And there is a development of scholasticism, exemplified by Thomas Aquinas, for example,

which attempts to blend faith with reason and doesn't see them as being antagonistic towards each other.

These inquiries are aided by contact with Muslim scholars.

Much Greek and Roman learning is lost in the West after the fall of the Roman Empire,

but is preserved and translated into Arabic under the Abbasid Caliphate,

an empire ruled from Baghdad.

Places like Al-Andalus, the region of the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule,

have libraries filled with these classical texts,

alongside new works by Islamic intellectuals.

Especially from the 12th century, Al-Andalus, along with Sicily,

are places of contact between Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars,

and texts begin to be translated into Latin.

As such, the works of classical thinkers such as Aristotle make their way back

into the schools and universities of Europe.

It is not only men who contribute to the revitalization of learning,

Hildegard of Bingen, a German Abbas,

is one of the shining figures of the 12th century Renaissance.

A Christian, visionary and mystic, Hildegard apparently has the ability

to perform miraculous cures by touch alone.

She is also a prolific playwright, composer and author,

writing on theology, music, botany, and medicine.

It is a frigid winter's day in 1160.

Outside the Western German Convent of Rupert's Burg,

the Wind Hals, and rain falls in endless sheets from an iron sky.

Inside the buildings, in a snug, low-ceiling room,

a woman sits studying a well-thumbed book.

Absorbed in her task, every now and then she stops and scribbles a note

on a loose leaf of parchment.

The abbas of the Convent, Hildegard, is responsible for the well-being

of the nuns under her care.

Today, it is to their medical needs that she must attend.

Within a abrupt snap, she shuts the book,

before standing and marching crisply from the room.

Her black woolen robe, swishing around her ankles.

The door opens under the infirmary.

At this time of year, many of the beds that line the walls are full.

Coffing reverberates around the room,

but the sound of water from one corner draws her attention.

An infirmary assistant is helping an older nun into the bath,

knowing that the warm water soothes the woman's rheumatic pains.

Hildegard closes her eyes for a moment,

praying that her suffering might be eased.

She then heads to a sturdy wooden table set against a wall.

A jumble of jars, stone dishes and tools are piled to one side,

while common herbs hang from a drying rack above.

A locked cupboard at head height holds a selection of rarer medical ingredients.

Hildegard unlocks the cupboard and brings out a dried root of licorice

and a costly fragment of imported ginger.

Pounding them carefully in a pestle and mortar,

she adds in sugar until she has a thick, crumbly paste.

Into this, she sprinkles just a hazelnut shell full of flour

before retrieving a dish of milky, white plant sap from the cupboard

and adding just a drop to the mortar.

Satisfied with the consistency,

she scrapes up some of the mixture and stirs it into a wooden cup of water.

With the resulting murky drink in hand,

she makes her way over to a bed where a woman lies white-faced clutching her stomach.

Hildegard holds out the drink.

It is a purgative, she tells the woman soothingly,

and should clear up her digestive issues,

an ancient recipe with some of her own adjustments.

As the woman cautiously takes a sip,

grimacing at the bitter flavor,

Hildegard gets to her knees, offering a prayer for her recovery.

God made these plants to heal,

and hopefully she has combined them in the necessary quantities.

Then she stands quill in hand,

ready to record the outcome of the treatment.

Despite the intense intellectual activity of the 12th century Renaissance,

much of it driven by churchmen and women like Hildegard,

religious devotion remains central to medieval life.

Crusading activity continues in the Middle East.

In the middle of the 12th century,

one of the crusader states, Adessa, in modern-day Turkey,

is captured by the Muslim ruler Zenghi.

Armies from Europe are dispatched to retake it.

Then, in 1187, a catastrophe.

Jerusalem is taken by the Kurdish commander Saladin.

Christendom responds with a third crusade,

led by Richard the Lionheart of England

and Philip II of France.

But the campaign fails, and the city remains in Muslim hands.

This episode is brought to you by State Farm.

Listening to this podcast, Smart Move.

Being financially savvy, Smart Move.

Another Smart Move.

Having State Farm help you create a competitive price

to choose to bundle home and auto.

Bundling.

Just another way to save with the personal price plan.

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state.

Covered options are selected by the customer.

Availability, amount of discounts and savings

and eligibility vary by state.

Where's your playlist taking you?

Down the highway? To the mountains?

We're just into daydream mode while you're stuck in traffic.

With over 4,000 hotels worldwide,

Best Western is there to help you make the most of your getaway.

Wherever that is.

Because the only thing better than a great playlist.

Is a great trip.

Life's the trip.

Make the most of it at BestWestern.

Book direct and save at bestwestern.com.

Back in Europe, a religious revolution is brewing.

Against a backdrop of increased urbanism

and the new monetary economy,

charismatic individuals begin to preach a return to the poverty

and simplicity of early Christianity

as the only route to salvation.

It's a doctrine that soon gains traction among ordinary people.

We see significant efforts to revitalize spiritually Western Christendom.

Menderkin orders approved by the Catholic Church

include the Franciscans founded in 1209.

The Dominicans in order of preachers founded in 1216

to combat heresy and to be active in universities

and finally in the Inquisition.

And their common features were preaching,

taking the word out into communities, into towns and villages.

Community engagement with everyday life.

The same time as this was happening,

unofficial groups were also seeking to

have greater purity of lifestyle, poverty, communal living,

separate to the much more powerful monastic communities

which were well developed by this type.

Women are early and enthusiastic participants

in this spiritual movement.

From the start of the 13th century,

female religious communities are founded,

especially in northern France and the low countries.

Taking personal vows of chastity,

these women known as baguines often live communally

and pursue lives that mix contemplative prayer

and charitable service in the world.

The wider church establishment, however,

is often ambivalent about the freedoms

apparently enjoyed by these devout sisters

who operate without the stewardship

of a male religious figure.

Baguines, for example, sometimes regarded

as suspicion by church authorities

because they were not, it was felt,

fully under the monastic rule way of doing things,

but themselves were really sincerely attempting

to create a model of Christian community

in their own lives,

although not under direct monastic control.

Other groups form that face more explicit opposition

from the church.

In the 1170s, a merchant from the French city of Lyon,

Peter Voldes, renounces his personal wealth

and begins to preach about the holiness of poverty

and the evils of greed.

He quickly gains a significant following.

But soon comes to the attention of church authorities.

In 1184, Voldes and his adherents,

the Voldensians, are excommunicated

from the Christian community after disobeying

an injunction not to preach.

Formal public sermonizing at this time

is reserved for approved male clerics

with a firm grasp of Catholic orthodoxy.

The Voldensians are later declared heretics

and systematically persecuted.

In 1211 alone, 80 are burned to death in Strasbourg.

But the greatest threat to the religious establishment

in the high middle ages are the Cathars,

or Albert Jensians,

though they call themselves good Christians.

Much of their belief system is debated to this day,

since our only sources are the hostile records

of church inquisitors sent to suppress them.

But they likely believe in two gods,

the god of heaven associated with the spirit

and the god of evil associated with the physical world.

Many are strict vegetarians

and all reject the sacraments of the church,

including baptism and holy communion.

By the early 13th century,

Catharism is widespread throughout southern France.

The church does not stand idly by

as these groups grow in popularity.

In response to the perceived threat posed

by what is called the Cathar Heresy,

Pope Innocent III sends preachers to the south of France

in 1208.

He hopes to convert the population back

to proper Catholic beliefs.

But when the papal legate leading this mission is murdered,

Innocent employs bloodier methods.

Drawing on the ideology's youth to justify

the holy wars in the Middle East,

he declares a crusade against the Heretics.

Soon, an army of knights, mercenaries

and zealous volunteers has been assembled

under the command of Abbott Arna.

The first major action in this war occurs

in 1209, in the city of Bezier,

where thousands are massacred.

For the next two decades,

crusade armies fight to exterminate Catharism

in the south of France.

Especially in later years,

this action is infusiastically supported by the French king,

who uses it as an opportunity to extend royal power

over the largely independent lords of the south.

As the crusade continues,

the church's stance on Heretics and unbelievers

is formalized.

The fourth Lateran Council, Lateran 4,

one of the most important church councils in medieval history

convened by Pope Innocent III in 1215 in Rome,

at the Lateran Palace,

played a key role in taking forward the system

and the structure and the content of church life.

Some 70 cannons or lords of a large and comprehensive set for its time

began to regulate heresy,

condemning groups considered heretical.

Cathars,

Woldensians,

and also strengthened inquisitorial processes

to try to enforce uniformity of ideology.

In particular,

Pope Innocent attempts to redirect crusading energies elsewhere

within Europe.

By the end of the 13th century,

the crusader states had collapsed.

But the crusader movement had not ended,

and in many ways it was refocused

on conflicts closer to home,

campaigns in the Baltic by, for example,

the Ciotonic Knights and the Soared Brethren,

targeted still-pagan communities in the eastern Baltic,

in states that we now call the Tuania, Estonia, and Latvia.

So this saw a refocusing of the crusading movement

against people closer to home

who were regarded as not being part of the overall community,

overall community of Christendom.

The 4th Laturn Council is also innocent

the 3rd's response to the spiritual currents embodied

by groups such as the Woldensians and Franciscans.

Steps are taken to reform the church,

tackling clerical misconduct

and the buying and selling of church offices.

A perennial problem never fully eradicated

despite the best efforts of the 11th century Gregorian reformers.

Yearly confession of sins is mandated for all,

and improvements are sought in the education of priests.

The council is still viewed today

as a watershed moment in the history of Western Christianity.

But in addition to these positive reforms,

the 4th Laturn Council also represents a key moment

in what one historian termed the formation

of a persecuting society.

Violence against those considered different

in the Christian European imagination

had always existed in some form.

Jews in Eastern Europe, for example,

had been massacred by crusaders

on their way to the Middle East in 1096.

But from the year 1200,

the persecution of a variety of groups,

including Jewish people, sex workers,

homosexual men and heretics,

becomes systematized across many European countries.

There were processes of othering

and control of marginalized groups.

Jews were expelled from England in 1290,

from France in 1306,

and Spain in 1492.

In what we could only describe

as institutionalized religious intolerance

that sought Jews increasingly marginalized

from the economy,

removed from their role within finance,

and often forced to wear badges

and other uniform

in order to identify them within the Christian community.

Leppers also were often accused

of being the hideout breaks of disease

and were subject to significant control.

And it does remind us that the drive

for medieval Europe's unity and cohesion,

which we see increasing in this time,

often also depended on exclusion as well.

And this is the dark underside

of the late medieval period.

Yet, despite this move by many towards persecution,

not all European Christians and Middle Ages

are opposed to contact

with those of different creeds and cultures.

The high and late Middle Ages

are marked by increased connections across Eurasia.

This is not the beginning of this.

This has been going on for hundreds and hundreds of years.

But what we see is an acceleration

of connectivity in which things like

the so-called silk roads

see increased trade between Central Asia

and further east with Western Europe

and accompanied voyages of discovery

that also saw European activities

more in Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean.

Italian city-states dominate

this ever-expanding trade with Asia and the Middle East,

and none more so than Venice.

After the success of the first crusade in 1099,

Venice expands its trade outposts

far beyond its borders,

for example, in the Middle Eastern port city of Arca.

From there, further connections are made.

In 1173, the Muslim leader Saladin

grants the Venetians a trading complex

in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

And, after the fourth crusade,

captures Constantinople in 1204,

its new rulers, Grant Venice,

unprecedented access to the Black Sea trade.

Exporting grain and wine overseas,

they bring silk and spices into Western Europe.

Much of it exchanged for silver from European mines.

By the mid-13th century,

the Venetians and others find new trading partners in the Mongols.

Under their famous leader, Genghis Khan,

and his descendants,

the Mongols consolidate a vast territory

between the Caspian and China seas.

They even threaten Europe,

attacking modern-day Poland and Hungary.

The relatively stable and safe land empire of the Mongols

encourages merchants from Europe

to set out in search of new trading opportunities.

But trade is not the only motivation for journeying east.

In 1253,

French Franciscan friar William of Rubruk

embarks on a mission to convert non-Christians

in the Mongol domains.

On his return,

Rubruk writes an account of his voyage,

detailing everyday Mongol life,

including their hairstyles, dresses, and food.

He also recounts his meeting with the great Khan

at his court at Karakorum in modern-day Mongolia.

In his ornate golden throne room,

the leader hears Rubruk's intention to spread God's word.

Draped in furs,

the Khan instructs him to publicly debate Muslims,

Eastern Christians, and Buddhists

on the merits of his beliefs.

This greater connectivity between east and west

enriches the city of Venice,

facilitates Christian missionary activity

and brings exotic goods into the markets of Europe.

But dark clouds are gathering on the horizon.

And in the 1340s,

these trade routes bring terror and death to the west.

It is autumn, 1346,

and the fortified Genoese outpost of Caffer,

on the Crimean black sea coast, is under fire.

A Genoese captain races up a set of stone steps

to the walkway that runs along the top

of the town's defensive wall.

They have been besieged by the Mongol army,

camped below for weeks.

But in recent days, the enemy has been silent.

And though he can't be certain of the cause,

the captain has noticed bodies piling up

on the outskirts of their camp.

But as the captain reaches the top of the wall,

it is immediately clear that Mongols

have once again set up their catapults,

they are preparing to fire.

A guard stationed further down the wall

shouts a warning,

and the captain instinctively ducks,

shielding his head with his arms.

He hears the sound of a heavy object

sailing high overhead.

But as the missile lands somewhere below him

inside the town,

it does so with an unusually soft thump.

Peering over the edge of the walkway,

the captain sees a body lying

displayed on the rocky ground.

It is dressed in a Mongol-style tunic.

A shiver runs down his spine

as he realizes their enemies are using corpses

as projectiles.

Calling two men to him,

he hastens back down the steps.

They hear the catapults release another volley

and flatten themselves against the wall

to avoid being struck.

Two more bodies hit the ground

and lie there motionless.

Reaching the sight of impact,

the captain instructs his men to turn

one of the corpses over.

As they do,

he claps a hand over his face at the stench.

A foul odor of rot

coupled with the iron tang of dried blood.

Taking a deep breath of fresh air,

he kneels down to better inspect the body.

From his hair and beard,

this is clearly a Mongol soldier,

dead for at least a day.

Holding his coat sleeve over his nose,

the captain leans in for a closer look.

The skin is covered in purple blotches.

Frowning,

he notes the dark stains on the silk clothing,

concentrated under the arms.

Gesturing for someone to pass him a knife,

the captain slices through the fabric.

But when the body beneath is revealed,

he immediately recoils.

One of his men turns and wretches,

bile splattering the ground.

An enormous swelling,

the size of a fist,

is nestled in the dead man's armpit.

It is deep, blackish blue,

and the skin has started to split

like an overripe plum.

The captain gasps,

knowing what this means.

It seems the Mongols are trying to break the siege

by spreading the very plague

that has devastated their own number.

Shouts of warning echo from overhead,

before more bodies strike the ground.

The captain makes a decision.

Standing, he orders guards to gather as many men as possible

and cart the bodies away to throw them into the sea.

They need to keep the unknown pestilence out of the city.

As they hurry off to do as he says,

a flea crawling up his arm.

Absent mindedly, he smacks it away

before heading back to his post.

Score more with the college branded Venmo debit card

and earn up to 5% cash back with Venmo stash.

Got paid back?

With the Venmo debit card,

you can instantly access your balance

and spend on what you want,

like game day snacks, gear, tickets, and more.

The more you do, the more cash back you can earn.

Plus, there's no monthly fear minimum balance.

Sign up now at Venmo.com slash college card.

The Venmo master card is issued by the bank court bank NA.

Select schools available.

Venmo stash terms and exclusions apply at Venmo.me slash stash terms.

Max $100 cash back per month.

It's crunch time at work,

and you need to bring wings to your workday.

Visit redbull.com slash getting it done.

And answer a couple questions about your workstyle

to get a Spotify customized playlist

tuned to your productivity.

Plus, score a can of redbull on us

while you go from to do to done.

And remember, redbull gives you wings.

Supplies are limited. Terms apply.

Visit the website for more information.

When Genoese sailors flee the besieged trading post at Qatar,

they carry with them one of history's most feared diseases,

the bubonic plague.

The devastating pandemic in the mid-14th century

is at the time given various names,

including the pestilence and the great mortality.

It will later be known better as the Black Death.

Trade products were not the only items

that traveled these trade routes.

Diseases traveled them as well.

And the most famous of these, of course,

was the infamous Black Death,

which began with a pretty sure in Central Asia,

pretty somewhere around Lake Baikal or into Mongolia,

and yet moved through the trade systems

into China, into South Asia,

and eventually across the whole of Eurasia

until it reached Europe in the 1340s.

Caused by the bacterium Eucinia Pestis,

it had reached Western Europe by 1347,

that we think initially arriving via Genoese ships

who were trading into the Black Sea.

Though the Mongols' early foray into biological warfare

is certainly noteworthy,

it is likely flea-infested rats

who spread the plague from the Mongol camp to Kaffa

weeks before the first cases in humans are discovered.

And while bubonic plague is primarily spread by flea bites,

the most lethal and contagious form

spreads via infected droplets in the air.

Sailors escaping Kaffa take the disease westwards,

first to Constantinople.

It's then carried to Italy,

hitting Genoa, Venice, and Pisa in 1347.

From there, it spreads into Spain, Portugal, and France

with the first cases in England reported the next year.

Within five years, Germany, Scotland,

Scandinavia, and Russia are all affected.

It is a spectacularly cruel disease.

Symptoms include a dangerously high fever,

headaches, painful joints, and nausea.

As the illness progresses, large painful growths,

known as buboes appear in the groin and armpits.

In severe cases, victims suffer internal bleeding,

sometimes coughing up blood, and the skin may darken

as tissue begins to die.

No one is safe.

Those in towns fare worse than those in the countryside,

but otherwise the plague kills indiscriminately,

from the poorest in society to royalty.

The death toll is staggering.

Within four years, it had killed perhaps one-third

to perhaps one-half of Europe's population,

and it continued to reoccur for the next 200 years

in explosions of lethality.

It came in various forms, making it very, very hard

to identify it as one disease,

and anyway, in the absence of germ theory, Europeans,

as others, had no real systematic way of both voiding it

or of treating it, which is why the death toll was so high.

Few sources offer an insight into what life is like

during these years.

Flashes of religious zealotry are visible in the historical record,

as people attempt to understand why this calamity has befallen them.

Social trauma, the trauma of mass deaths,

encouraged religious movements,

hoping to take upon themselves the punishment they believe

was being visited by God on the world,

apocalyptic visionaries who believe they were in the end times,

and escape-goating, especially of Jews,

accused of well-poisoning, thousands being murdered

in the Rhineland and elsewhere,

and clearly would have been killed in England too,

had they not been expelled from England in the 13th century.

The worst of this wave peeters out within a few years,

but given the devastation it wreaks,

the Black Death astonishingly has little long-lasting effect on Europe's economy.

For many of those who survive,

the years after the pandemic bring an upswing in living standards.

There is more land for the peasants that remain,

a shortage of labour means that workers can demand higher wages,

and with greater material wealth comes an improvement in diet.

And though in Eastern Europe,

systems of unfree labour persist, or even intensify,

towards the west, this shift in the balance of power contributes

to the gradual decline of Serfdom.

By the early 15th century, many peasants are no longer legally unfree,

though poverty and dependence on landlords remain common.

These changes are naturally resisted by those at the top of the social pyramid.

elites try to push back,

some tree laws try to restrict what clothing can be worn.

The statute of labourers in England, for example,

tries to turn wages back to pre-pandemic levels.

These are impossible to enforce,

and the explosion of violence of the so-called peasants revolt in this country

is also accompanied by explosions of extreme violence,

often against landed gentry, aristocracy,

which you see across France as well in the same period.

Those people who have found their economic status has improved

as an unexpected consequence of the population collapse

are not about to see their rights rolled back,

not without a fight anyway.

Women are a key part of the social changes in the decades after the Black Death,

although not without significant backlash.

There's evidence that later 14th century saw women more active than before,

in trade, craft, and property management,

especially after the population decline of the Black Death.

But by the 15th century patriarchal authorities,

both secular and ecclesiastical, pushed back against this increased prominence

of women within the economy.

Gills restricted women's participation,

sermons and laws emphasised female subordination,

and attempted to push women out of roles

where they come to dominate, for example, in brewing,

and in alehouse keeping,

to try to return these damasculine control again.

By now, another period of artistic reinvigoration has begun across Europe.

The realistic paintings of Jota, for example,

and the Tuscan poetry of Dante Allegierri

help lay the groundwork for the cultural flourishing of the later Renaissance.

In England, though Latin has long dominated literature and academia,

Geoffrey Chaucer is one of the first to write poetry in Middle English in the 1370s,

popularising it as an appropriate language in which to compose great works.

His Canterbury Tales about a group of pilgrims sharing stories on the road

is still widely read to this day.

Middle English also flourishes thanks to the first Bibles written to appear in the vernacular tongue.

Around the same time that Chaucer is writing,

Oxford University Theologian John Wickliffe and colleagues produce handwritten translations

in Middle English.

His work, however, is seen by many in the church as heretical,

and after his death, it is decreed that his bones are exhumed, burned, and thrown into a river.

After the biological devastation of the 14th century,

the late Middle Ages play host to a series of man-made conflicts.

The most famous of these is a series of wars between England and France.

The French King has never had complete control over the entirety of his kingdom.

Much of it is controlled by powerful lords,

who swear loyalty to him but are largely independent.

When Charles IV of France dies in 1328 with no sons or brothers,

one of those claiming the right to the crown is none other than England's Edward III, Charles's nephew.

But the French nobility throw their support behind Charles's cousin Philip instead.

The ensuing fight over succession, beginning around a decade later,

becomes known as the Hundred Years War.

Though it, in fact, lasts for 116 years,

albeit with significant periods of truce.

From the English point of view, but also from the French, of course, as well,

it is famous for battles such as Classi, 1346, Puatier, 1356, Ashinkor, 1415.

But although these are very often lauded and focused on as chivalric victories from the English point of view,

the simple reality is the English lost the Hundred Years War.

But what this war did was it solidified both English and French national identity

and it helped centralise monarchy and the professionalisation of armies.

On the Aberian Peninsula, Christian kings in the north had been attempting to conquer

the Muslim kingdom of Al-Andalus for centuries.

Puatierge's territory is largely under Christian control as early as the 1240s.

In Spain, what becomes known as the Ricanquista or Ricanquist also comes to a climax

at the very end of the Middle Ages.

It advanced rapidly in the 13th century with the capture of Cordoba in 1236,

Seville in 1248.

And was completed when Ferdinand and Isabella took Grenada in 1492.

The same year, they sponsored Columbus's voyage marking Europe's expansion overseas.

These wars helped to create the modern map of Europe and many of the institutions of the modern nation state.

We see an increasingly united France.

We see an increasingly united under Christian rule Spain Portugal.

Hypocociously united since the 10th century England.

We see a Germany that has some degrees of unification under the imperial control

but is largely a patchwork of different states, principalities, bishops, etc.

and is more of a geographical expression.

Italy too is more of a geographical expression.

So what's interesting is that these periods of significant extended warfare

fostered alongside terrible suffering for many people particularly in the rural classes who are often forgotten

who suffer terribly in the depredations of knights and armies sweeping backwards and forwards over them.

But alongside these terrible suffering, these wars also fostered administrative centralization,

standing armies and patriotic sentiments.

Historians still disagree about the exact end point for the Middle Ages.

As a defined period in European history, it is an invention of later centuries.

Renaissance intellectuals immersed in Greek and Roman texts identify the period they are living through

as a revival and continuation of classical times.

The millennium from 500 to 1500 is seen as just an inconvenient middle period.

Yet this does not mean that what we now call the medieval age lacks coherence or a distinct identity.

The European world changed forever with the fall of Rome and was on the brink of yet more seismic changes 1,000 years later.

There's no one bookend to a period of time as long and complex as the Middle Ages.

If one had to identify some key contenders, one might cite the 15th century invention of printing

accelerating the distribution of knowledge and challenging contemporary society.

The 16th century reformation of fracturing Christendom and initiating two centuries of violent turbulence.

The European voyage is a discovery which began in the 15th century but themselves had deep roots,

opening up a new era of colonialism.

Either way, while we may not find a bookend that sums it up completely,

something very significant is happening that will be the basis of the modern world at the end of the Middle Ages.

By 1500, a new age is dawning across the continent.

Though the writers of this new age might see the medieval period as no more than the span of time between themselves

and the Greeks and Romans they idolized, it is the epoch that created the world in which they lived.

And there is no doubt that the Middle Ages laid the foundations for the way we live today.

I would say that in several significant ways the Middle Ages are the foundation for what we now are

and our self-understanding in a way that we need to recognize.

The concept of European-ness, of Christendom, of something that is bigger than the nation-state,

that's a product of the Middle Ages, the concept of the emerging nation-states themselves,

the idea of the challenge of how communities should live together and work together both religiously and ethnically

and are contested and complex global world also has its roots in the voyages of discovery

with their positive and terribly negative effects too, which are also products of the late medieval period.

The Middle Ages are still very much with us, whether we like it or not.

Next time on Short History of Will Bring You a Short History of Ernest Hemingway.

I'm accused of sometimes standing up too much for Hemingway, I'm proud to say I'm guilty of that.

I think he was on a strange quest for his sainthood and he destroyed it at every turn,

but you can't deeply read Hemingway without seeing the decency and the goodness in him.

And it's covered up so much by his boreshness, his macho demand that he is the alpha male in every situation in every moment.

You scrape all that away, there's a bookish man and glass is trying to get his work done.

That's next time.

forward slash subscriptions for more information.

Exema is unpredictable, but you can blur a less with epglis.

A once monthly treatment for moderate to superior exema.

After an initial four-month or longer dosing phase, about four and ten people taking epglis,

achieved itch relief and glare are almost glare skin at 16 weeks.

And most of those people maintain skin that's still more glare at one year with monthly dosing.

Epglis, library kizumap lbkz.

A 250mg per 2ml injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older,

who weigh at least 88 lbs or 40kg with moderate to severe exema.

Also called atopic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin,

or topicals, or who cannot use topical therapies.

Epglis can be used with or without topical corticosteroids.

Don't use if you're allergic to epglis.

Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe.

Eye problems can occur.

Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems.

You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with epglis.

Before starting epglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection.

Ask a doctor about epglis and visit epglis.lili.com or call 1-800-LiliRX,

or 1-105-4-5-5-9-7-9.

It's tax season.

And at life lock, we know you're tired of numbers.

But here's a big one you need to hear.

Billions.

That's the amount of money and refunds the IRS has flagged for possible identity fraud.

Now here's another big number.

100 million.

That's how many data points life lock monitors every second.

If your identity is stolen, we'll fix it guaranteed.

One last big number.

Save up to 40% your first year.

Visit lifelock.com slash podcast for the threats you can't control.

Terms apply.