Short History Of... - The European Middle Ages (Part 2 of 2)

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

Although the Middle Ages were an undeniably turbulent period in the history of Europe, characterised 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 the High and Late Middle Ages saw a proliferation of philosophical and scientific enquiry, 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? This is a Short History Of The European Middle Ages, Part 2 of 2. A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Martyn Whittock, author of many books on the medieval period, including A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages. Written by Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Anisha Deva | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact Check: Sean Coleman Get every episode of Short History Of… a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions ⁠A Short History of Ancient Rome⁠ - the debut book from the Noiser Network is out now! Discover the epic rise and fall of Rome like never before. Pick up your copy now at your local bookstore or visit ⁠⁠noiser.com/books⁠⁠ to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It is the 22nd of July 1209. Beneath the walls of the southern French city of Bezier, the first rays of sunlight glint off the swords and chainmail 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 gambeson, 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 rides through their ranks.

He is their leader, the representative of the Pope himself, the abbot, are now. 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 Bezier 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 fore. 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 to attack, 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 is being dragged inexorably to the ground. A flash of metal is followed by a scream abruptly terminated. The night 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 compatriot up ahead, 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. Wrenching 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 called the 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, barbaricions, declining urbanization, declining long-distance trade, collapses of learning, as the Western Roman Empire gave way to success estates in chaotic change.

But by the end of that period, urbanisation was beginning to revive, long-distance trade was picking up, the Christian church had continued to be the sole surviving transnational institution, monasticism was spreading, learning was beginning to consolidate again, and population was beginning to slowly rise, A number of interrelated trends mark the end of the early medieval period, including the strengthening of political institutions. In particular, kings begin to develop increasingly complex bureaucracies to manage the people and money under their control.

From 1,100 onwards, Western Europe sees the rise of more centralised 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 give 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 and carting. The control of land, labour 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 pyramidal situation in which we have monarchy and rulers at the top,

We have those below them who are directly working with, or on a face-to-face basis with kings and rulers, of what we might call the Boronial class. We have those below them of the knightly class who serve, and each one is granted land and estate 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-survile status, sometimes called serfdom or villainage, by which significant numbers of the people at the bottom of the pile do not hold their 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 parceled 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 labour, 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 barter and exchange declines, replaced by a monetary system using silver currency. But the increase in population coincides with a challenge to the rural focus of medieval society in the form of urbanization.

Where are my gloves? Come on, heat. Any. Winter is hard, but your groceries don't have to be. This winter, stay warm. Tap the banner to order your groceries online at voila.ca. Enjoy in-store prices without leaving your home. You'll find the same regular prices online as in-store.

Many promotions are available both. in store and online, though some may vary. Every family tree holds extraordinary stories, especially those of the women who shaped who we are. In honor of International Women's Month, Ancestry invites you to shine a light on their legacy. Until March 10th, enjoy free access to over 4 billion family history records

and discover where they lived, the journeys they took, and the legacy they left behind. Start with just a name or place and let our intuitive tools guide you. Visit Ancestry.ca to start today. No credit card required. Terms supply. 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. towns facilitated both local and international trade through fares and markets. And these developments are 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, that after centuries of relative fragmentation, new prosperity, population growth, and increased stability 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, 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 lends 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. Bologna, 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 to 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. Hildegarde of Bingen, a German abbess, is one of the shining figures of the 12th century Renaissance. A Christian visionary and mystic, Hildegarde 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 Rupertzburg, the wind howls and rain falls in endless sheets from an iron sky. Inside the buildings, in a snug, low-ceilinged 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 abbess 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. With an abrupt snap, she shuts the book, before standing in her own. before standing and marching crisply from the room, her black woolen robe swishing around her ankles. The door opens onto the infirmary. At this time of year, many of the beds that line the walls are full. Coughing 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. Hildegarde 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 dried root of licorice, and a locked cupboard.

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 And she makes her way over to a bed where a woman lies white-faced clutching her stomach. Hildegarde 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, Edessa, 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. Cresendom responds with the 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. At Desjardin, our business is helping yours.

We are here to support your business through every stage of growth, from your first pitch to your first acquisition. Whether it's improving cash flow or exploring investment banking solutions, with Desjardin business, it's all under one roof. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us and contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk. Business.

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 revitalise spiritually Western Christendom. Mendocan orders approved by the Catholic Church include the Franciscans founded in 1209, the Dominicans and 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 time. 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 Beguines, 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. Beguins, for example, sometimes regarded with 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 we were. 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 Leon, 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, Valdes and his adherents, the Valdensians, 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 Valdensians are later declared heretics and systematically persecuted. In 12-11 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 Albigensians,

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. 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 12th. 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 ideologies used 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 Arnau.

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 enthusiastically 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 Four, 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 canons or laws are very large and comprehensive set for its time, began to regulate heresy, condemning groups considered heretical, Cathars, Waldensians, 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, close. to home, campaigns in the Baltic by, for example, the Teutonic Knights and the Sword Brethren, targeted still pagan communities in the Eastern Baltic in states that we now call Lithuania,

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 of Christendom. The Fourth Lateran Council is also innocent the Third's response to the spiritual currents embodied by groups such as the Valdensians 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 fourth Lateran 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, from, from France in 1306 and Spain in 1492, in what we could only describe as institutionalised religious intolerance that saw Jews increasingly marginalised 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. Lepers also were often accused of being behind outbreaks 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 in the 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, Rubrik 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 Karakoram in modern-day Mongolia. In his ornate golden throne room, the leader hears Rubruk's intention to spread God's word. Draped infers, 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 Kaffa 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 splayed 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 corpse. 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, he notices a flea, crawling up.

his arm. Absent-mindedly, he smacks it away before heading back to his post. When Genoese sailors flee the besieged trading post at Kaffa, 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 travelled these trade routes. Diseases travelled them as well. And the most famous of these, of course,

was the infamous Black Death, which began, we're now pretty sure, in Central Asia, probably 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. 40s. Caused by the bacterium eucinia pestis, it had reached Western Europe by 1347, we think initially

arriving via Genoese ships who were trading into the Black Sea. Though the Mongol's early foray into biological warfare is certainly noteworthy, it is likely flea-infested rats who spread the plague from the Mongol camp to Kaffir 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 CAFA 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 avoiding 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,

encourage religious movements, flagealants, 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 the scapegoating, 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 peters out within a few years.

But given the devastation, The station it reeks. 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 labor persist or even intensify, towards the 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. Sumptuary laws try to restrict what clothing can be worn. The statute of labourers in England, for example, tries to take to take to take to push back. 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 as 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 the later 14th century saw women more active than before in trade, crafts 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 alehousekeeping to try to return these to masculine control again. By now, another period of artistic reinvigoration has begun across Europe. The realistic paintings of Giota, for example, and the Tuscan poetry of Dante Aligieri 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, popularizing 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 Wickcliffe and colleagues produce handwritten translation. 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 power Lord's, 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 160. 16 years, albeit with significant periods of truce. From the English point of view, but also from the French, of course, as well, it's famous for battles such as Kressi 1346, Poitiers, 1556, Agincourt 1415. But although these are very often lauded and focused on as Chevalric victories, from the English point of view, the simple reality is the English lost the 100 years war. But what this war did was, it solidified.

both English and French national identity, and it helped centralize monarchy and the professionalization of armies. On the Iberian Peninsula, Christian kings in the north had been attempting to conquer the Muslim kingdom of Al-Andalus for centuries. Portuguese territory is largely under Christian control

as early as the 1240s. In Spain, what becomes known as the Reconquista, or Reconquest, 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 Granada 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, a precociously 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 fracturing Christendom and initiating two centuries of violent turbulence, the European voyages of 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 it, 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 Europeanness, 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 our 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, we'll 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 boorishness, 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 in glasses trying to get his work done.

That's next time. If you can't wait a week until the next episode, you can listen to it right away by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Head to www.org.com forward slash subscriptions for more information. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything. Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared.

That's why I remember 988, Canada's Suicide Crisis Helpline. It's good to know just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 Suicide Crisis Hubline is funded by the government in Canada.