Chapter 23
EUROPEAN NATIONS DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES [1]
181. GROWTH OF THE NATIONS
THE NEW NATIONALISM
The map of western Europe, that is, of Europe west of the great Russian plain and the Balkan peninsula, shows this part of the continent at present divided into no less than thirteen separate and independent nations. Most of them arose during the latter part of the Middle Ages. They have existed so long that we now think of the national state as the highest type of human association, forgetting that it has been preceded by other forms of political organization, such as the Greek republic, the Roman Empire, and the feudal state, and that it may be followed some day by an international or universal state composed of all civilized peoples.
THE NATIONAL STATE AND FEUDALISM
These national states were the successors of feudalism. The establishment of the feudal system in any country meant, as has been seen, its division into numerous small communities, each with a law court, treasury, and army. This system of local government helped to keep order in an age of confusion, but it did not meet the needs of a progressive society. In most parts of Europe the feudal states gradually gave way to centralized governments ruled by despotic kings.
THE NEW MONARCHIES
A feudal king was often little more than a figurehead, equaled, or perhaps surpassed, in power by some of his own vassals. But in England, France, Spain, and other countries a series of astute and energetic sovereigns were able to strengthen their authority at the expense of the nobles. They formed permanent armies by insisting that all military service should be rendered to themselves and not to the feudal lords. They got into their own hands the administration of justice. They developed a revenue system, with the taxes collected by royal officers and deposited in the royal treasury. The kings thus succeeded in creating in each country one power which all the inhabitants feared, respected, and obeyed.
THE SENTIMENT OF NATIONALITY
A national state in modern times is keenly conscious of its separate existence. All its people usually speak the same language and have for their "fatherland" the warmest feelings of patriotic devotion. In the Middle Ages, however, patriotism was commonly confounded with loyalty to the sovereign, while the differences between nations were obscured by the existence of an international Church and by the use of Latin as the common language of all cultivated persons. The sentiment of nationality arose earlier in England than on the Continent, partly owing to the insular position of that country, but nowhere did it become a very strong influence before the end of the fifteenth century.
182. ENGLAND UNDER WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, 1066-1087 A.D.; THE NORMAN KINGSHIP
THE LAST INVASION OF ENGLAND
The Normans were the last invaders of England. Since 1066 A.D. the English Channel, not more than twenty-one miles wide between Dover and Calais, has formed a watery barrier against Continental domination. The English people, for eight and a half centuries, have been free to develop their ideals, customs, and methods of government in their own way. We shall now learn how they established a strong monarchy and at the same time laid deep and firm the foundations of constitutional liberty.
WILLIAM'S DESPOTIC RULE
William the Conqueror had won England by force of arms. He ruled it as a despot. Those who resisted him he treated as rebels, confiscating their land and giving it to Norman followers. To prevent uprisings he built a castle in every important town and garrisoned it with his own soldiers. The Tower of London still stands as an impressive memorial of the days of the Conquest. But William did not rely on force alone. He sought with success to attach the English to himself by retaining most of their old customs and by giving them an enlightened administration of the law. "Good peace he made in this land," said the old Anglo-Saxon chronicler, "so that a man might travel over the kingdom with his bosom full of gold without molestation, and no man durst kill another, however great the injury he might have received from him."
WILLIAM AND FEUDALISM
The feudal system on the Continent permitted a powerful noble to gather his vassals and make war on the king, whenever he chose to do so. William had been familiar with this evil side of feudalism, both in France and in his own duchy of Normandy, and he determined to prevent its introduction into England. William established the principle that a vassal owed his first duty to the king and not to his immediate lord. If a noble rebelled and his men followed him, they were to be treated as traitors. Rebellion proved to be an especially difficult matter in England, since the estates which a great lord possessed were not all in any one place but were scattered about the kingdom. A noble who planned to revolt could be put down before he was able to collect his retainers from the most distant parts of the country.
DOMESDAY BOOK, 1085 A.D.
The extent of William's authority is illustrated by the survey which he caused to have made of the taxable property of the kingdom. Royal commissioners went throughout the length and breadth of England to find out how much farm land there was in every county, how many landowners there were, and what each man possessed, to the last ox or cow or pig. The reports were set down in the famous Domesday Book, perhaps so called because one could no more appeal from it than from the Last Judgment. A similar census of population and property had never before been taken in the Middle Ages.
THE SALISBURY OATH, 1086 A.D.
Almost at the close of his reign William is said to have summoned all the landowning men in England to a great meeting on Salisbury Plain. They assembled there to the number, as it is reported, of sixty thousand and promised "that they would be faithful to him against all other men." The Salisbury Oath was a national act of homage and allegiance to the king.
183. ENGLAND UNDER HENRY II, 1154-1189 A.D.; ROYAL JUSTICE AND THE COMMON LAW
HENRY II, PLANTAGENET Henry II, who ascended the English throne in 1154 A.D., was a grandson of William the Conqueror and the first of the famous Plantagenet [2] family, Henry spent more than half of his reign abroad, looking after his extensive possessions in France but this fact did not prevent him from giving England good government. Three things in which all Englishmen take special pride--the courts, the jury system, and the Common law--began to take shape during Henry's reign.
THE KING'S COURT
Henry, first of all, developed the royal court of justice. This had been, at first, simply the court of the king's chief vassals, corresponding to the local feudal courts. [3] Henry transformed it from an occasional assembly of warlike nobles into a regular body of trained lawyers, and at the same time opened its doors to all except serfs. In the king's court any freeman could find a justice that was cheaper and speedier than that dispensed by the feudal lords. The higher courts of England have sprung from this institution.
CIRCUIT JUDGES
Henry also took measures to bring the king's justice directly to the people. He sent members of the royal court on circuit throughout the kingdom. At least once a year a judge was to hold an assembly in each county and try such cases as were brought before him. This system of circuit judges helped to make the law uniform in all parts of England.
TRIAL BY "PETTY JURY"
The king's court owed much of its popularity to the fact that it employed a better form of trying cases than the old ordeal, oath-swearing, or judicial duel. Henry introduced a method of jury trial which had long been in use in Normandy. When a case came before the king's judges on circuit, they were to select twelve knights, usually neighbors of the parties engaged in the dispute, to make an investigation and give a "verdict" [4] as to which side was in the right. These selected men bore the name of "jurors," [5] because they swore to tell the truth. In Henry's time this method of securing justice applied only to civil cases, that is, to cases affecting land and other forms of property, but later it was extended to persons charged with criminal offenses. Thus arose the "petty jury," an institution which nearly all European peoples have borrowed from England.
ACCUSATION BY THE "GRAND JURY"
Another of Henry's innovations developed into the "grand jury." Before his time many offenders went unpunished, especially if they were so powerful that no private individual dared accuse them. Henry provided that when the king's justices came to a county court a number of selected men should be put upon their oath and required to give the names of any persons whom they knew or believed to be guilty of crimes. Such persons were then to be arrested and tried. This "grand jury," as it came to be called, thus had the public duty of making accusations, whether its members felt any personal interest in the matter or not.
THE COMMON LAW
The decisions handed down by the legal experts who composed the royal court formed the basis of the English system of jurisprudence. It received the name Common law because it grew out of such customs as were common to the realm, as distinguished from those which were merely local. This law, from Henry's II's time, became so widespread and so firmly established that it could not be supplanted by the Roman law followed on the Continent. Carried by English colonists across the seas, it has now come to prevail throughout a great part of the world.
184. THE GREAT CHARTER, 1215 A.D.
RICHARD I AND JOHN, 1189-1216 A.D.
The great Henry, from whose legal reforms English-speaking peoples receive benefit even to-day, was followed by his son, Richard, the Lion-hearted crusader. [6] After a short reign Richard was succeeded by his brother, John, a man so cruel, tyrannical, and wicked that he is usually regarded as the worst of English kings. In a war with the French ruler, Philip Augustus, John lost Normandy and some of the other English possessions on the Continent. [7] In a dispute with Innocent III he ended by making an abject submission to the Papacy. [8] Finally, John's oppressive government provoked a revolt, and he was forced to grant the charter of privileges known as Magna Carta.
WINNING OF MAGNA CARTA, 1215 A.D.
The Norman Conquest had made the king so strong that his authority could be resisted only by a union of all classes of the people. The feudal lords were obliged to unite with the clergy and the commons, [9] in order to save their honor, their estates, and their heads. Matters came to a crisis in 1215 A.D., when the nobles, supported by the archbishop of Canterbury, placed their demands for reform in writing before the king. John swore furiously that they were "idle dreams without a shadow of reason" and refused to make any concessions. Thereupon the nobles formed the "army of God and the Holy Church," as it was called, and occupied London, thus ranging the townspeople on their side. Deserted by all except the hired troops which he had brought from the Continent, John was compelled to yield. At Runnimede on the Thames, not far from Windsor, he set his seal to the Great Charter.
CHARACTER OF MAGNA CARTA
Magna Carta does not profess to be a charter of liberties for all Englishmen. Most of its sixty-three clauses merely guarantee to each member of the coalition against John--nobles, clergy, and commons--those special privileges which the Norman rulers had tried to take away. Very little is said in this long document about the serfs, who composed probably five-sixths of the population of England in the thirteenth century.
SIGNIFICANCE OF MAGNA CARTA
But there are three clauses of Magna Carta which came to have a most important part in the history of English freedom. The first declared that no taxes were to be levied on the nobles--besides the three recognized feudal aids [10]--except by consent of the Great Council of the realm. [11] By this clause the nobles compelled the king to secure their consent before imposing any taxation. The second set forth that no one was to be arrested, imprisoned, or punished in any way, except after a trial by his equals and in accordance with the law of the land. The third said simply that to no one should justice be sold, denied, or delayed. These last two clauses contained the germ of great legal principles on which the English people relied for protection against despotic kings. They form a part of our American inheritance from England and have passed into the laws of all our states.
185. PARLIAMENT DURING THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
HENRY III, 1216-1272 A.D.
The thirteenth century, which opened so auspiciously with the winning of the Great Charter, is also memorable as the time when England developed her Parliament [12] into something like its present form. The first steps in parliamentary government were taken during the reign of John's son, Henry III.
THE WITENAGEMOT AND THE GREAT COUNCIL
It had long been the custom in England that in all important matters a ruler ought not to act without the advice and consent of his leading men. The Anglo-Saxon kings sought the advice and consent of their Witenagemot, [13] a body of nobles, royal officers, bishops, and abbots. It approved laws, served as a court of final appeal, elected a new monarch, and at times deposed him. The Witenagemot did not disappear after the Norman Conquest. Under the name of the Great Council it continued to meet from time to time for consultation with the king. This assembly was now to be transformed from a feudal body into a parliament representing the entire nation.
SIMON DE MONTFORT'S PARLIAMENT, 1265 A.D.
The Great Council, which by one of the provisions of Magna Carta had been required to give its consent to the levying of feudal dues, met quite frequently during Henry III's reign. On one occasion, when Henry was in urgent need of money and the bishops and lords refused to grant it, the king took the significant step of calling to the council two knights from each county to declare what aid they would give him. These knights, so ran Henry's summons, were to come "in the stead of each and all," in other words, they were to act as representatives of the counties. Then in 1265 A.D., when the nobles were at war with the king, a second and even more significant step was taken. Their leader, Simon de Montfort, summoned to the council not only two knights from each county, but also two citizens from each of the more important towns.
THE REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM
The custom of selecting certain men to act in the name and on the behalf of the community had existed during Anglo-Saxon times in local government. Representatives of the counties had been employed by the Norman kings to act as assessors in levying taxes. As we have just learned, the "juries" of Henry II also consisted of such representatives. The English people, in fact, were quite familiar with the idea of representation long before it was applied on a larger scale to Parliament.
"MODEL PARLIAMENT" OF EDWARD I, 1295 A.D.
Simon de Montfort's Parliament included only his own supporters, and hence was not a truly national body. But it made a precedent for the future. Thirty years later Edward I called together at Westminster, now a part of London, a Parliament which included all classes of the people. Here were present archbishops, bishops, and abbots, earls and barons, two knights from every county, and two townsmen to represent each town in that county. After this time all these classes were regularly summoned to meet in assembly at Westminster.
HOUSE OF LORDS AND HOUSE OF COMMONS
The separation of Parliament into two chambers came in the fourteenth century. The House of Lords included the nobles and higher clergy, the House of Commons, the representatives from counties and cities. This bicameral arrangement, as it is called, has been followed in the parliaments of most modern countries.
POWERS OF PARLIAMENT
The early English Parliament was not a law-making but a tax-voting body. The king would call the two houses in session only when he needed their sanction for raising money. Parliament in its turn would refuse to grant supplies until the king had corrected abuses in the administration or had removed unpopular officials. This control of the public purse in time enabled Parliament to grasp other powers. It became an accepted principle that royal officials were responsible to Parliament for their actions, that the king himself might be deposed for good cause, and that bills, when passed by Parliament and signed by the king, were the law of the land. England thus worked out in the Middle Ages a system of parliamentary government which nearly all civilized nations have held worthy of imitation.
186. EXPANSION OF ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD I, 1272-1307 A.D.
THE BRITISH ISLES
Our narrative has been confined until now to England, which forms, together with Wales and Scotland, the island known as Great Britain. Ireland is the only other important division of the United Kingdom. It was almost inevitable that in process of time the British Isles should have come under a single government, but political unity has not yet fused English, Scotch, Welsh, and Irish into a single people.
WALES
The conquest of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons drove many of the Welsh, [14] as the invaders called the Britons, into the western part of the island. This district, henceforth known as Wales, was one of the last strongholds of the Celts. Even to-day a variety of the old Celtic language, called Cymric, is still spoken by the Welsh people.
CONQUEST OF WALES
In their wild and mountainous country the Welsh long resisted all attempts to subjugate them. Harold exerted some authority over Wales, William the Conqueror entered part of it, and Henry II induced the local rulers to acknowledge him as overlord, but it was Edward I who first brought all Wales under English sway. Edward fostered the building of towns in his new possession, divided it into counties or shires, after the system that prevailed in England, and introduced the Common law. He called his son, Edward II, who was born in the country, the "Prince of Wales," and this title has ever since been borne by the heir apparent to the English throne. The work of uniting Wales to England went on slowly, and two centuries elapsed before Wales was granted representation in the House of Commons.
SCOTLAND
Scotland derives its name from the Scots, who came over from Ireland early in the fifth century. [15] The northern Highlands, a nest of rugged mountains washed by cold and stormy seas, have always been occupied in historic times by a Celtic-speaking people, whose language, called Gaelic, is not yet extinct there. This part of Scotland, like Wales, was a home of freedom. The Romans did not attempt to annex the Highlands, and the Anglo- Saxons and Danes never penetrated their fastnesses. On the other hand the southern Lowlands, which include only about one-third of Scotland, were subdued by the Teutonic invaders, and so this district became thoroughly English in language and culture. [16]
THE SCOTTOSH KINGDOM
One might suppose that the Lowlands, geographically only an extension of northern England and inhabited by an English-speaking people, would have early united with the southern kingdom. But matters turned out otherwise. The Lowlands and the Highlands came together under a line of Celtic kings, who fixed their residence at Edinburgh and long maintained their independence.
SCOTLAND ANNEXED BY EDWARD I
Edward I, having conquered Wales, took advantage of the disturbed conditions which prevailed in Scotland to interfere in the affairs of that country. The Scotch offered a brave but futile resistance under William Wallace. This heroic leader, who held out after most of his countrymen submitted, was finally captured and executed. His head, according to the barbarous practice of the time, was set upon a pole on London Bridge. The English king now annexed Scotland without further opposition.
ROBERT BRUCE AND BANNOCKBURN, 1314 A.D.
But William Wallace by his life and still more by his death had lit a fire which might never be quenched. Soon the Scotch found another champion in the person of Robert Bruce. Edward I, now old and broken, marched against him, but died before reaching the border. The weakness of his son, Edward II, permitted the Scotch, ably led by Bruce, to win the signal victory of Bannockburn, near Stirling Castle. Here the Scottish spearmen drove the English knighthood into ignominious flight and freed their country from its foreign overlords.
SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE
The battle of Bannockburn made a nation. A few years afterwards the English formally recognized the independence of the northern kingdom. So the great design of Edward I to unite all the peoples of Britain under one government had to be postponed for centuries. [17]
IRELAND
No one kingdom ever arose in Ireland out of the numerous tribes into which the Celtic-speaking inhabitants were divided. The island was not troubled, however, by foreign invaders till the coming of the Northmen in the ninth century. [18] The English, who first entered Ireland during the reign of Henry II, did not complete its conquest till the seventeenth century. Ireland by its situation could scarcely fail to become an appanage of Great Britain, but the dividing sea has combined with differences in race, language, and religion, and with English misgovernment, to prevent anything like a genuine union of the conquerors and the conquered.
187. UNIFICATION OF FRANCE, 987-1328 A.D.
PHYSICAL FRANCE
Nature seems to have intended that France should play a leading part in European affairs. The geographical unity of the country is obvious. Mountains and seas form its permanent boundaries, except on the north-east where the frontier is not well defined. The western coast of France opens on the Atlantic, now the greatest highway of the world's commerce, while on the southeast France touches the Mediterranean, the home of classical civilization. This intermediate position between two seas helps us to understand why French history should form, as it were, a connecting link between ancient and modern times.
RACIAL FRANCE
But the greatness of France has been due, also, to the qualities of the French people. Many racial elements have contributed to the population. The blood of prehistoric tribes, whose monuments and grave mounds are scattered over the land, still flows in the veins of Frenchmen. At the opening of historic times France was chiefly occupied by the Celts, whom Julius Caesar found there and subdued. The Celts, or Gauls, have formed in later ages the main stock of the French nation, but their language gave place to Latin after the Roman conquest. In the course of five hundred years the Gauls were so thoroughly Romanized that they may best be described as Gallo-Romans. The Burgundians, Franks, and Northmen afterwards added a Teutonic element to the population, as well as some infusion of Teutonic laws and customs.
THE CAPETIAN DYNASTY
France, again, became a great nation because of the greatness of its rulers. Hugh Capet, who became the French king in 987 A.D., [19] was fortunate in his descendants. The Capetian dynasty was long lived, and for more than three centuries son followed father on the throne without a break in the succession. [20] During this time the French sovereigns worked steadily to exalt the royal power and to unite the feudal states of medieval France into a real nation under a common government. Their success in this task made them, at the close of the Middle Ages, the strongest monarchs in Europe.
FRANCE AND ITS FIEFS
Hugh Capet's duchy--the original France--included only a small stretch of inland country centering about Paris on the Seine and Orléans on the Loire. His election to the kingship did not increase his power over the great lords who ruled in Normandy, Brittany, Aquitaine, Burgundy, and other parts of the country. They did homage to the king for their fiefs and performed the usual feudal services, but otherwise regarded themselves as independent in their own territories.
PHILIP II, AUGUSTUS, 1180-1223 A.D.
The most considerable additions to the royal domains were made by Philip II, called Augustus. We have already referred to his contest with Pope Innocent III and to his participation in the Third Crusade. [21] The English king, John, was Philip's vassal for Normandy and other provinces in France. A quarrel between the two rulers gave Philip an opportunity to declare John's fiefs forfeited by feudal law. Philip then seized all the English possessions north of the river Loire. The loss of these possessions abroad had the result of separating England almost completely from Continental interests; for France it meant a great increase in territory and population. Philip made Paris his chief residence, and that city henceforth became the capital of France.
LOUIS IX, THE SAINT, 1226-1276 A.D.
During the long reign of Philip's grandson, Louis IX, rich districts to the west of the Rhone were added to the royal domains. This king, whose Christian virtues led to his canonization, distinguished himself as an administrator. His work in unifying France may be compared with that of Henry II in England. He decreed that only the king's money was to circulate in the provinces owned directly by himself, thus limiting the right of coinage enjoyed by feudal lords. He restricted very greatly the right of private war and forbade the use of judicial duels. Louis also provided that important cases could be appealed from feudal courts to the king's judges, who sat in Paris and followed in their decisions the principles of Roman law. In these and other ways he laid the foundations of absolute monarchy in France.
PHILIP IV, THE FAIR, 1265-1314 A.D.
The grandson of St. Louis, Philip IV, did much to organize a financial system for France. Now that the kingdom had become so large and powerful, the old feudal dues were insufficient to pay the salaries of the royal officials and support a standing army. Philip resorted to new methods of raising revenue by imposing various taxes and by requiring the feudal lords to substitute payments in money for the military service due from them.
THE ESTATES-GENERAL
Philip also called into existence the Estates-General, an assembly in which the clergy, the nobles, and representatives from the commons (the "third estate") met as separate bodies and voted grants of money. The Estates-General arose almost at the same time as the English Parliament, to which it corresponded, but it never secured the extensive authority of that body. After a time the kings of France became so powerful that they managed to reign without once summoning the nation in council. The French did not succeed, as the English had done, in founding political liberty upon the vote and control of taxation.
188. THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND, 1337-1453 A.D.
PRETEXT FOR THE WAR
The task of unifying France was interrupted by a deplorable war between that country and England. It continued, including periods of truce, for over a century. The pretext for the war was found in a disputed succession. In 1328 A.D. the last of the three sons of Philip IV passed away, and the direct line of the house of Capet, which had reigned over France for more than three hundred years, came to an end. The English ruler, Edward III, whose mother was the daughter of Philip IV, considered himself the next lineal heir. The French nobles were naturally unwilling to receive a foreigner as king, and gave the throne, instead, to a nephew of Philip IV. This decision was afterwards justified on the ground that, by the old law of the Salian Franks, women could neither inherit estates nor transmit them to a son. [22]
REASONS FOR THE WAR
Edward III at first accepted the situation. Philip VI, however, irritated Edward by constant encroachments on the territories which the English still kept in France. Philip also allied himself with the Scotch and interfered with English trade interests in the county of Flanders. [23] This attitude of hostility provoked retaliation. Edward now reasserted his claim to the crown of France and prepared by force of arms to make it good.
BATTLES OF CRÉCY, 1346 A.D., AND POITIERS, 1356 A.D.
In 1346 A.D. Edward led his troops across the Channel and at Crécy gained a complete victory over the knighthood of France. Ten years later the English at Poitiers almost annihilated another French force much superior in numbers. These two battles were mainly won by foot soldiers armed with the long bow, in the use of which the English excelled. Ordinary iron mail could not resist the heavy, yard-long arrows, which fell with murderous effect upon the bodies of men and horses alike. Henceforth infantry, when properly armed and led, were to prove themselves on many a bloody field more than a match for feudal cavalry. The long bow, followed later by the musket, struck a deadly blow at feudalism.
THE "BLACK PRINCE"
Edward's son, the Prince of Wales, when only sixteen years of age, won his spurs by distinguished conduct at Crécy. It was the "Black Prince," [24] also, who gained the day at Poitiers, where he took prisoner the French king, John. Toward his royal captive he behaved in chivalrous fashion. At supper, on the evening of the battle, he stood behind John's chair and waited on him, praising the king's brave deeds. But this "flower of knighthood," who regarded warfare as only a tournament on a larger scale, could be ruthless in his treatment of the common people. On one occasion he caused three thousand inhabitants of a captured town--men, women and children--to be butchered before his eyes. The incident shows how far apart in the Middle Ages were chivalry and humanity.
RENEWAL OF THE WAR
The English, in spite of their victories, could not conquer France. The French refused to fight more pitched battles and retired to their castles and fortified towns. The war almost ceased for many years after the death of Edward III. It began again early in the fifteenth century, and the English this time met with more success. They gained possession of almost all France north of the Loire, except the important city of Orléans. Had the English taken it, French resistance must have collapsed. That they did not take it was due to one of the most remarkable women in history--Joan of Arc. [25]
THE "MAID OF ORLÉANS," 1429 A.D.
Joan was a peasant girl, a native of the little village of Domremy. Always a devout and imaginative child, she early began to see visions of saints and angels and to hear mysterious voices. At the time of the siege of Orléans the archangel Michael appeared to her, so she declared, and bade her go forth and save France. Joan obeyed, and though barely seventeen years of age made her way to the court of the French king. There her piety, simplicity, and evident faith in her mission overcame all doubts. Clad in armor, girt with an ancient sword, and with a white banner borne before her, Joan was allowed to accompany an army for the relief of Orléans. She inspired the French with such enthusiasm that they quickly compelled the English to raise the siege. Then Joan led her king to Reims and stood beside him at his coronation in the cathedral.
END OF THE WAR
Though Joan was soon afterwards captured by the English, who, to their lasting dishonor, burned her as a witch, her example nerved the French to further resistance. The English gradually lost ground and in 1453 A.D., the year of the fall of Constantinople, abandoned the effort to conquer a land much larger than their own. They retained of the French territories only the port of Calais and the Channel Islands. [26]
EFFECTS OF THE WAR
Few wars have had less to justify them, either in their causes or in their consequences, than this long struggle between England and France. It was a calamity to both lands. For England it meant the dissipation abroad of the energies which would have been better employed at home. For France it resulted in widespread destruction of property, untold suffering, famines, and terrible loss of life. From this time dates that traditional hostility between the two countries which was to involve them in future conflicts. One beneficial effect the war did have. It helped to make the two nations conscious of their separate existence. The growth of a national feeling, the awakening of a sentiment of patriotism, was especially marked in France, which had fought so long for independence.
ENGLAND AFTER THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR
Shortly after the conclusion of the Hundred Years' War the two branches of the English royal family became involved in desperate struggle for the crown. It was known as the War of the Roses, because the house of York took as its badge a white rose and the house of Lancaster, a red rose. The contest lasted 1485 A.D., when the Lancastrians conquered, and their leader, Henry Tudor, ascended the throne as Henry VII. He married a Yorkist wife, thus uniting the two factions, and founded the Tudor dynasty. The War of the Roses arrested the progress of English freedom. It created a demand for a strong monarchy which could keep order and prevent civil strife between the nobles. The Tudors met that demand and ruled as absolute sovereigns. It was more than a century before Parliament, representing the people, could begin to win back free government. It did this only at the cost of a revolution.
FRANCE AFTER THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR
France also issued from the Hundred Years' War with an absolute government. Strengthened by victory over the English, the French kings were able to reduce both the nobility and the commons to impotence. During the reign of Louis XI (1461-1483 A.D.) the royal domains were enlarged by the addition of Anjou, Provence, and the duchy of Burgundy. His son, Charles VIII (1483-1498 A.D.), made Brittany a possession of the French crown. The unification of France was now almost complete.
189. UNIFICATION OF SPAIN (TO 1492 A.D.)
THE SPANISH PENINSULA
The Spanish peninsula, known to the Romans as Hispania, is sharply separated from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees Mountains. At the same time the nearness of the peninsula to Africa has always brought it into intimate relations with that continent. Just as Russia has formed a link between Asia and Europe, so Spain has served as a natural highway from Africa to Europe.
THE SPANISH PEOPLE
The first settlers in Spain, of whom we know anything, were the Iberians. They may have emigrated from northern Africa. After them came the Celts, who overran a large part of the peninsula and appear to have mingled with the Iberians, thus forming the mixed people known as Celtiberians. In historic times Spain was conquered by the Carthaginians, who left few traces of their occupation, by the Romans, who thoroughly Romanized the country, by the Visigoths, who founded a Germanic kingdom, and lastly by the Moors, who introduced Arabian culture and the faith of Islam. [27] These invaders were not numerous enough greatly to affect the population, in which the Celtiberian strain is still predominant.
CHRISTIAN STATES OF SPAIN
The Moors never wholly conquered a fringe of mountain territory in the extreme north of Spain. Here a number of small Christian states, including León, Castile, Navarre, and Aragon, came into being. In the west there also arose the Christian state of Portugal. Geographically, Portugal belongs to Spain, from which it is separated only by artificial frontiers, but the country has usually managed to maintain its independence.
RECOVERY OF SPAIN FROM THE MOORS
Acting sometimes singly and sometimes in concert, the Christian states fought steadily to enlarge their boundaries at the expense of their Moslem neighbors. The contest had the nature of a crusade, for it was blessed by the pope and supported by the chivalry of Europe. Periods of victory alternated with periods of defeat, but by the close of the thirteenth century Mohammedan Spain had been reduced to the kingdom of Granada at the southern extremity of the peninsula.
THE CID
The long struggle with the Moors made the Spanish a patriotic people, keenly conscious of their national unity. The achievements of Christian warriors were recited in countless ballads, and especially in the fine _Poem of the Cid_. It deals with the exploits of Rodrigo Diaz, better known by the title of the Cid (lord) given to him by the Moors. The Cid of romance was the embodiment of every knightly virtue; the real Cid was a bandit, who fought sometimes for the Christians, sometimes against them, but always in his own interest. The Cid's evil deeds were forgotten, however, and after his death in 1099 A.D. he became the national hero of Spain.
UNION OF CASTILE AND ARAGON, 1479 A.D.
Meanwhile the separate Spanish kingdoms were coming together to form a nation. León and Castile in 1230 A.D. combined into the one kingdom of Castile, so named because its frontiers bristled with castles against the Moors. But the most important step in the making of Spain was the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon to Isabella of Castile, leading in 1479 A.D. to the union of these two kingdoms. About the same time the Castilian language began to crowd out the other Spanish dialects and to become the national speech.
CONQUEST OF GRANADA, 1492 A.D.
The new sovereigns of Spain aimed to continue the unification of the peninsula by the conquest of Granada. No effort was made by the Turks, who shortly before had captured Constantinople, to defend this last stronghold of Islam in the West. The Moors, though thrown upon their own resources, made a gallant resistance. At least once Ferdinand wearied of the struggle, but Isabella's determination never wavered. In 1492 A.D. Granada surrendered, and the silver cross of the crusading army was raised on the highest tower of the city. Moslem rule in Spain, after an existence of almost eight centuries, now came to an end.
RULE OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA
Ferdinand and Isabella belong in the front rank of European sovereigns. Like their contemporaries, Henry VII and Louis XI, they labored with success to build up an absolute monarchy. Spain had found, as England and France had found, that feudalism spelled disorder, and that only a strong central government could keep the peace, repress crime, and foster trade and commerce. Ferdinand and Isabella firmly established the supremacy of the crown. By the end of the fifteenth century Spain had become a leading European power. Its importance in the councils of Europe was soon to be increased by the marriage of a daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella to the heir of the Austrian house of Hapsburg.
190. AUSTRIA AND THE SWISS CONFEDERATION, 1273-1499 A.D.
RISE OF AUSTRIA
The name Austria--in German Oesterreich--means simply the eastern part of any kingdom. It came to be applied particularly to the territory on the Danube east of Bavaria, which Otto the Great had formed into a mark or border province for defense against the Magyars. [28] This mark, soon to be known as Austria, gained an important place among German states. The frontiers were pushed down the Danube valley and the capital was finally located at Vienna, once a Roman city. Frederick Barbarossa raised Austria to the rank of a duchy. Rudolf of Hapsburg, who became emperor in 1273 A.D., first brought the country into the hands of the Hapsburg family. [29]
GROWTH OF AUSTRIA UNDER THE HAPSBURGS
The Hapsburgs founded the power of the present Austrian monarchy. At the end of the fourteenth century their dominions included a large part of eastern Germany, [30] reaching from beyond the Danube southward to the Adriatic. Early in the sixteenth century they secured Bohemia, a Slavic land thrust like a wedge into German territory, as well as part of the Magyar land of Hungary. The possession of these two kingdoms gave Austria its special character of a state formed by the union under one ruler of several wholly distinct nations. Meanwhile the right of election as Holy Roman Emperor became hereditary in the Hapsburg family.
SWITZERLAND
Switzerland, during the earlier period of the Middle Ages, formed a part of the German duchy of Swabia and belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. [31] About two-thirds of the population of Switzerland remain German in speech and feeling, though now the country includes districts in which French or Italian are spoken. All Swiss laws are still proclaimed in the three languages.
SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
Swiss history is closely bound up with that of Austria. The little mountain communities of Schwyz, [32] Uri, and Unterwalden, on the shores of beautiful Lake Lucerne, were possessions of the counts of Hapsburg. In 1291 A.D., the year when Rudolf of Hapsburg died, these three "Forest Cantons" formed a confederation for resistance to their Hapsburg overlords. Additional cantons joined the league, which now entered upon a long struggle, dear to all lovers of liberty, against Austrian rule. Nowhere did the old methods of feudal warfare break down more conspicuously than in the battles gained by Swiss pikemen over the haughty knights of Austria. The struggle closed in 1499 A.D., when Switzerland became practically a free state. [33]
WILLIAM TELL AND ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED
Switzerland has two heroes of her war for independence. William Tell is a wholly mythical character, for the story of a skillful marksman who succeeds in striking off some small object placed on a child's head is found in England, Norway, Denmark, and other countries. The Swiss have localized it in Uri. Another popular hero has a better claim to historical existence. It is said that at a critical moment in the battle of Sempach, when the Swiss with their short weapons failed to break the Austrian ranks, Arnold von Winkelried, a man of Unterwalden, came to the rescue. Rushing single-handed upon the enemy, he seized all the spears within reach and turned them into his own body. He thus opened a gap in the line, through which the Swiss pressed on to victory. Winkelried's deed might well have been performed, though the evidence for it is very scanty.
THE SWISS CONFEDERATION
Little Switzerland, lying in the heart of the Alps and surrounded by powerful neighbors, is one of the most interesting states in Europe. The twenty-two communities, or cantons, which make up the Swiss Confederation, differ among themselves in language, religion (Roman Catholic or Protestant), and customs, according to their nearness to Germany, France, or Italy. Nevertheless the Swiss form a patriotic and united nation. It is remarkable that a people whose chief bond of union was common hostility to the Austrian Hapsburgs, should have established a federal government so strong and enduring.
191. EXPANSION OF GERMANY
LINES OF GERMAN EXPANSION
An examination of the map shows how deficient Germany is in good natural boundaries. The valley of the Danube affords an easy road to the southeast, a road which the early rulers of Austria followed as far as Vienna and the Hungarian frontier. Eastward along the Baltic no break occurs in the great plain stretching from the North Sea to the Ural Mountains. It was in this direction that German conquests and colonization during the Middle Ages laid the foundation of modern Prussia.
THE GERMAN AND THE SLAV
The Germans, in descending upon the Roman Empire, had abandoned much of their former territories to the Slavs. In the reign of Charlemagne all the region between the Elbe and the Vistula belonged to Slavic tribes. To win it back for Germany required several centuries of hard fighting. The Slavs were heathen and barbarous, so that warfare with them seemed to be a kind of crusade. In the main, however, German expansion eastward was a business venture, due to the need for free land. It was the same need which in the nineteenth century carried the frontiers of the United States from the Alleghanies to the Pacific.
BRANDENBURG AND POMERANIA
German expansion began early in the tenth century, when Henry the Fowler annexed Brandenburg between the Elbe and the Oder. [34] Subsequently much of the territory between the Oder and the Vistula, including Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic, came under German control. The Slavic inhabitants were exterminated or reduced to slavery. Their place was taken by thousands of German colonists, who introduced Christianity, built churches and monasteries, cleared the woods, drained the marshes, and founded many cities destined to become centers of German trade and culture.
PRUSSIA
Between the Vistula and the Niemen lay the lands of the Prussians, a non- Teutonic people closely related to the Slavs. The Prussian language and religion have disappeared, the Prussians themselves have been completely absorbed by the Germans who settled in their country, but the Prussian name is borne to-day by one of the great states of modern Europe.
THE TEUTONIC ORDER
The conquest and conversion of the Prussians was accomplished by the famous order of Teutonic Knights. It had been founded in Palestine as a military-religious order, at the time of the Third Crusade. [35] The decline of the crusading movement left the knights with no duties to perform, and so they transferred their activities to the Prussian frontier, where there was still a chance to engage in a holy war. Throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Teutonic Order flourished, until its grand master ruled over the entire Baltic coast from the Vistula to the gulf of Finland. The knights later had to relinquish much of this region to the Slavs, but they sowed there the seeds of civilization. Russia's Baltic provinces [36] are to-day the richest and most advanced in the empire.
POLITICAL GERMANY
Germany at the close of the Middle Ages was not a united, intensely national state, such as had been established in England, France, and Spain. It had split into hundreds of principalities, none large, some extremely small, and all practically independent of the feeble German kings. [37] This weakness of the central power condemned Germany to a minor part in the affairs of Europe, as late as the nineteenth century. Yet Germany found some compensation for political backwardness in the splendid city life which it developed during the later Middle Ages. The German cities, together with those of Italy and other European lands, now call for our attention.
STUDIES
1. On an outline map indicate (a) William the Conqueror's French dominions and (b) additional dominions of the Plantagenet kings in France.
2. Prepare a chart showing the leading rulers mentioned in this chapter. Arrange your material in parallel columns with dates, one column for England, one for France, and one for the other European countries.
3. Locate the following places: Crécy; Calais; Poitiers; Salisbury; Stirling; Edinburgh; Orléans; and Granada.
4. What happened in 987 A.D.? in 1066 A.D.? in 1215 A.D.? in 1295 A.D.? in 1346 A.D.? in 1453 A.D.? in 1485 A.D.?
5. Distinguish between a nation, a government, and a state.
6. Are unity of race, a common language, a common religion, and geographical unity of themselves sufficient to make a nation? May a nation arise where these bonds are lacking?
7. "The thirteenth century gave Europe the nations as we now know them." Comment on this statement.
8. Account for the rise of national feeling in France, Spain, Scotland, and Switzerland.
9. "Good government in the Middle Ages was only another name for a public- spirited and powerful monarchy." Comment on this statement.
10. What advantages has trial by jury over the older forms of trial, such as oaths, ordeals, and the judicial duel?
11. Explain the difference between a grand jury and a trial, or petty jury.
12. Compare the extent of territory in which Roman law now prevails with that which follows the Common law.
13. Why was the Parliament of 1295 A.D. named the "Model Parliament"?
14. Why has England been called "the mother of parliaments"?
15. Distinguish between England and Great Britain. Between Great Britain and the United Kingdom.
16. What were the Roman names of England, Scotland, and Ireland?
17. "Islands seem dedicated by nature to freedom." How does the history of Ireland illustrate this statement?
18. Trace on the map the main water routes in France between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
19. Show that Paris occupies an exceptionally good location for a capital city.
20. What French kings did most to form the French nation?
21. Why have queens never ruled in France?
22. Compare the Hundred Years' War and the Peloponnesian War as needless conflicts.
23. Compare Joan of Arc's visions with those of Mohammed.
24. "Beyond the Pyrenees begins Africa." What does this statement mean?
25. Why was Spain inconspicuous in European politics before the opening of the sixteenth century?
26. Look up in an encyclopedia the story of William Tell and prepare an oral report upon it.
27. Why was the German system of elective rulers politically less advantageous than the settled hereditary succession which prevailed in England and France?
FOOTNOTES
[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History,_ chapter xiv, "St. Louis"; chapter xv, "Episodes of the Hundred Years' War"; chapter xvi, "Memoirs of a French Courtier."
[2] The name comes from that of the broom plant (Latin _planta genesta_), a sprig of which Henry's father used to wear in his hat. The family is also called Angevin, because Henry on his father's side descended from the counts of Anjou in France.
[3] See page 419.
[4] Latin _verum dictum_, "a true statement."
[5] Latin _juro_, "I take an oath."
[6] See pages 475-476.
[7] See page 514.
[8] See page 461.
[9] A term which refers to all freemen in town and country below the rank of nobles.
[10] See page 418.
[11] Made up of the chief lords and bishops.
[12] The word "parliament," from French _parler,_ "to speak," originally meant a talk or conference. Later, the word came to be applied to the body of persons assembled for conference.
[13] See page 407 and note 1.
[14] See page 319.
[15] See page 246.
[16] See the map, page 321.
[17] In 1603 A.D. James VI of Scotland ascended the throne of England as James I. In 1707 A.D. the two countries adopted a plan of union which gave them a common Parliament and one flag.
[18] See page 397.
[19] See page 403.
[20] From 987 A.D. to 1328 A.D. France had only fourteen kings. The average length of their reigns was, therefore, something more than twenty- four years.
[21] See pages 461, 475.
[22] Hence the name "Salic law" applied to the rule excluding women from succession to the French throne.
[23] See page 550.
[24] Probably so called from the black armor which he wore. It may still be seen above his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral.
[25] In French, Jeanne d'Arc.
[26] Calais went back to the French in 1558 A.D. The Channel Islands are still English possessions.
[27] See pages 164, 169, 244, 378. The Arabs and Berbers who settled in Spain are generally called Moors.
[28] See page 316.
[29] See page 462.
[30] The duchies of Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, and the county of Tyrol.
[31] See the map facing page 462.
[32] From Schwyz comes the name Switzerland.
[33] The independence of the country was not formally recognized till 1648 A.D.
[34] See page 315.
[35] See page 473.
[36] Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia.
[37] See pages 319, 462.