|
PERIOD II GENERAL COURSE SPRING TERM, 2004 LECTURES, DISCUSSION GROUPS, PRIMARY SOURCES, |
|
|
Introduction
Few students will have had previous experience of studying the later Middle Ages, but this may actually make it easier to capture the flavour of the period with an open mind. Sufficient evidence survives to pose a range of questions and to suggest a variety of answers, but only rarely if ever can the historian be satisfied with a single solution. The period demands imagination, a sense of adventure, but also level-headed scholarship. Chronologically the period ranges from the triumph of papal monarchy to the Reformation, from the supposed tripartite order of feudal society to the social fluidity and diversity of what some would label early capitalism, and from the Summa of Thomas Aquinas and the Matter of Britain to the Praise of Folly of Erasmus and the flowering of vernacular literature. It contains both the apparent harmony of Latin Christendom and the discords of emergent nation states, both the communal values of a ‘medieval’ society and the more individualistic values of the early modern era, both the Mongol and Turkish invasions and the sudden expansion of Europe into the New World, Africa, and the Far East. Yet this is no simple evolution. It is marked by apparent paradox: the roots of the Reformation are in an age of intense popular devotion; royal absolutism emerges from civil war. It is also marked by discord: the Peasants' Revolt in England, the Bundschuh in Germany, the urban risings in Paris, Florence, or Lübeck, the heresies of Wyclif and Hus. Period II is different; it is worth doing because it fits no ready-made model.
Teaching
The Period II General course is jointly taught by a group of tutors, through an integrated programme of lectures, discussion groups and tutorials. Students will attend two lectures and one 1-hour discussion group in weeks 2-4 and 6-8. You are required to complete two 1,000 word papers based on issues pertaining to the discussion groups to be submitted in week 4. This will be followed by a half hour tutorial with your discussion group leader in week 5. You are also asked to write a tutorial essay of 1,500-2,000 words by the end of week 8 of term. This likewise will be followed by a half-hour tutorial in week 9.
guidance on requirements for book review and document exercise here
Discussion groups
Discussion groups will take up issues raised in each week's lectures, in the related reading and from primary sources specified for the particular week. It is important that you read as much of this material as you are able. You will be expected to have read and to bring with you to the discussion groups the primary source(s) for the week. These primary sources will be issued as a document pack, but may also be found on the website. Tutors will use these last as the basis for discussion. Details of the individual discussion groups may be found be found by clicking on ‘The discussion group’ for any given week.
Assessment
Assessment for the Period General courses is by means of an open examination (9.15 am to 5.15 pm) on Monday of week 10. You will be required to answer one question in respect of each period you have studied this term. If you are only taking Period II this term, then you are required to return your paper by 1.15 pm.
A Note on Printing
You may print any of the pages accessible from this site. In some instances you may prefer to print only such parts as you need. You can do this either by clicking on File, on Edit Page and then editing and printing. Alternatively you can copy the section of the text you want, paste it into a Word or WordPerfect file and the edit and print.
Manchester
Medieval Sources On-Line
Some PCs seem not to be able to open the PDF files on this site. If you have difficulties, try using a different networked PC or another classroom. NB these and some other pages are only available on computers networked to the university system. When printing, be very careful to specify which pages you want.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Programme
Weeks 2-4: Structures, Peoples, Beliefs
Week 2: Peasants and Patriarchies
In this week the two lectures are on the themes of Peasant Society and Gender.
i. Peasant Society
please read:
Werner Roesener, Peasants in the Middle Ages, 1992, parts iv, v, vi
ii. Gender
please read:
Judith M. Bennett, Women in the Medieval English Countryside, 1987, chapters ii, iii
The discussion group will draw upon these lectures and reading. It will also use the following document:
‘The Ballad of the Tyrannical Husband’
In this week the two lectures are on the themes of Economic Development and Social Change and The Black Death.
i. Economic Development and Social Change
please read:
N.J.G.Pounds, An Economic History of Medieval Europe, chapter 10 [‘The Late Middle Ages’]
Christopher Dyer, Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages, 1989, chapter 7 [‘Urban Standards of Living’]
ii. The Black Death
please read:
Rosemary Horrox, ed., The Black Death, introductions to parts i, ii, iii [scroll down and click on numbered documents]
The discussion group will draw upon these lectures and reading. It will also use the following documents:
Rosemary Horrox, ed., The Black Death, documents 112, 113 [scroll down and click on numbered documents]
An incomplete version of document 112 [The Statute of Labourers, 1351] is here [Internet Medieval Sourcebook]
In this week the two lectures are on the themes of The Papacy and Popular Devotion.
i. Papacy
Please read:
Robert Swanson, Religion and Devotion in Europe, c.1215-c.1515, chapters 1, 4
ii. Popular Devotion
Please read:
John Bossy, Christianity in the West, chapters 1 - 4 (especially chapter 3)
The discussion group will draw upon these lectures and reading. It will also use the following document:
Robert Swanson, ed., Catholic England, part II, no. 5 [From John Mirk’s Festival, scroll down page and click on item]
|
|
Weeks 6-8: Governments, Ideologies, Conflicts
Week 6: Cities, Citizens and Civilisation
In this week the two lectures are on the themes of Urban Society and Civic Humanism.
i. Urban society
Please read:
David Nicholas, The Later Medieval City, chapter 4
James Farr, Artisans in Europe, chapter 4 [‘Artisans in the Polity’]
ii. Civic humanism
Please read:
Charles Nauert Jr., Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, chapters 1 and 2
D. Hay and J. Law, Italy in the Age of the Renaissance, 1380-1530, chapters 3 and 12
The discussion group will draw upon these lectures and reading. It will also use the following document:
The panegyric to the city of Florence by Leonardo Bruni
Week 7: Monarchies, State and
Nation
In this week the two lectures are on the themes of Kingship and The State.
i. Kingship
Please read:
W.M. Ormrod, Political Life in Medieval England, 1300-1450, chapter 4
Rosemary Horrox, ed., Fifteenth-Century Attitudes, chapter 1 [G.L. Harriss, ‘The King and His Subjects’]
ii. The State
Please read:
Bernard Guenee, States and Rulers in late Medieval Europe, chapter 3
Adrian Hastings, The construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion and Nationalism, chapter 1
The discussion group will draw upon these lectures and reading. It will also use the following document:
Instructions of
Louis IX of France to his Son
In this week the two lectures are on the themes of Chivalry and Warfare.
i. Chivalry
Please read:
Maurice Keen, Chivalry, chapters 1 and 12
B.J. Whiting, ‘The Vows of the Heron’, Speculum, 20 (1945), pp. 261-78. [available on-line]
ii. Warfare
Please read:
Christopher Allmand, The Hundred Years War: England and France at War c.1300 - c.1450, chapters 1 and 2
Maurice Keen, ed., Medieval Warfare: a History, chapter 7
G.P. Cuttino, ‘Historical revision: the causes of the Hundred Years War’ Speculum, 31 (1956), pp. 463-77 [available on-line]
The discussion group will draw upon these lectures and reading. It will also use the following document:
Edward III’s manifesto of 1340
|
|
|
|
|
|