BY PRAGYANSHARMA POLAVARAPU
In a long period of 500-600
years after the historic Norman
conquest, England --living under Anglo-Saxon kings in a
rural oriented old world rural
atmosphere-- underwent a great change . Though
separated by the sea from the continent it was now becoming fully a part of European
cultural, religious and political changes . England was linked to European royal families by marriage
alliances. England was growing agriculturally prosperous and was becoming one
of the central players in west European
politics . England right from Anglo-Saxon times was an
active seafaring nation with its ships protecting the coasts from Viking and
Norwegian pirates. The Celtic people dominated areas of Ireland Scotland and Wales and were somewhat aloof
and backward.
The
Norman Conquest of England in 1066 was a great turning
point in history of England. The continental Norman French culture was brought
to England. Anglo-Saxon royal families were already familiar with this
continental urban culture and spoke the sophisticated Norman French instead of
old English. Now after Norman invasion there was a far bigger change.
Most land changed hands . Much
land was given permanently to Norman nobles and warlords . Land was given even to volunteers joining the Norman army .
In a few generations the special
identity of Normans disappeared and a common
culture developed in south England.
The Norman kings were autocratic and power hungry . But the Norman
nobles wanted to share power and wanted
to be consulted by the king on all important matters . They rebelled against
the kings when there was chance. The document “Magna Carta” was an achievement
on part of the Norman nobles in this
regard. The rich Anglo-Saxon landlords too
took special protective steps to guard their properties from
encroachment by the Norman warlords.
(2)ESTABLISHMENT OF UNIVERSITIES
There was a religious atmosphere in European
countries. There were learned monks
in churches and monasteries . There was
also desire to train monks in subjects like law, astronomy, mathematics . Great
centres of learning called “Universities” were established in some leading
cities perhaps with full royal help. It is said that past achievements of these
ancient universities
inspire the modern universities in Europe.
University of Bologna ,Italy--founded: 1088 ,
University of Oxford,England—founded
about 1096,
University of Paris, France---Around 1150,
University of Salamanca ,Spain---1134
University of Cambridge ,England--- 1209,
University of Padua,
Italy--- 1222,
University of Naples, Italy--- 1224
University of Siena,Italy--- 1240
(3)CRUSADES---(11TH TO 13TH
CENTURIES)
The Crusades were a series of religious - military campaigns initiated by European kings
and emperors in the period 1095-1291 to get back the Holy Land of
Jerusalem associated with birth and life of Lord Jesus Christ . The land was
holy both to Arabs and Christians and was claimed by both at the level of kings and emperors. In this
respect religious- military campaigns
(called as crusades) were fought between 1095 and 1291.There
were nine or ten crusades each lasing two or three years (and some a little
less and some longer ). They occurred in a long
period of two hundred years and
were personally commanded by kings and top generals . the
crusades affected the political and religious environment in Europe for centuries.
During this period there was a very great cultural rediscovery ,by European scholars, artists and philosophers, of the glorious philosophic,artistic and literary works of
ancient Greeks. Much of the ancient art and literary wealth was available in the cities of the Eastern Roman
Empire existing at that time(in the areas where the crusades were fought). But those
areas were subsequently conquered by the
modern Turks and forms part of modern Turkey (Turkiye).
(4)RENAISSANCE (1300–1600)
Many great Arab scholars of ancient
times even before crusades carefully
preserved the ancient invaluable Greek works . Some Arab scholars translated
the old Greek works. The European scholars and art lovers were stunned by the ethereal beauty and
sublime philosophy of ancient Greek works . This rediscovery of long- forgotten
Greek cultural treasures was one of the
main reasons for European Renaissance.
Previously there was the highly
religious Roman Catholic culture. The simple village people and townsfolk were
very religious and heard with great devotion the lectures of church fathers . But all knowledge was drawn from and inspired
by The Bible. After rediscovery of their
ancient Greek and Latin roots the European scholars, artists and philosophers
were overjoyed . There was creation of new vast literature and it combined the great Christian philosophies with the most
beautiful ancient Greek philosophy . The Greek classics Iliad and Odyssey were
translated in to European languages and also into English. In Europe the
serious scholars and philosophers gave topmost priority to spread of both modern
science and ancient classical Greek and Roman knowledge. The great scholars
supported by the kings and philosophers established great universities even from 11th
and 12th centuries
(5)RELIGIOUS WARS WITHIN
CHRISTIANITY(16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES)
The religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in Britain and
all Europe were closely linked to the political power struggles
of kings and nobles. Common people suffered because such religious quarrels created
tensions in society. The Catholic-Protestant divisions
in Britain in 16th century arose after
European Protestant Reformation. In England, King Henry VIII
a selfish king with harsh mentality, keeping
only his personal interests supreme, strongly
supported the Protestant Movement of Europe
for complete break with the Roman Catholic religion . He declared himself as the head of England’s Protestant Church .
But after him, his daughter Princess
Mary who became Queen of England
followed Roman Catholic region and married Emperor Phillip ll of Spain . She was a harsh ruler and severely
punished Protestant Christians and even got many executed. After her Princess
Elizabeth another daughter of late king Henry the Eighth became Queen of
England and followed Protestantism . She
was a kind hearted philosophic queen and was a gentle ruler and tolerated Roman
Catholic religion. She also encouraged
literary activity, foreign trade and development of the country’s navy. She
gave royal support to exploration of the seas . She was praised as the “Fairie
Queene” .
At the time Protestantism separated
from Roman Catholic religion there were very serious religious wars between the adherents of the two religions in Europe
of 16th and 17th centuries . Those wars were extremely violent and resulted
in death of thousands of people. Most of
these religious wars --just as in case of England then ruled by king Henry the
Eighth--- were due not entirely to religious reasons but had political
overtones. The wars were very severe and resulted in deaths of thousands of
people troubled European society for more than a century. The printed political
pamphlets supporting different factions also helped rapid spread of the news of
the wars.
The Counter-reformation in Catholic
Church tried to sincerely emphasize the sublime basic Christian moral principles , to
establish religious schools to educate
the priests, to establish new religious orders like Jesuits etc. The church
schools trained scholars to become good,
efficient and knowledgeable religious preachers.
During the revolutionary times of
Reformation, Counter- Reformation and Renaissance the intelligent citizens and
scholars started thinking about the good
and evil sides of the religious wars. Many of these wars in France, Germany
etc resulted in very large number of
deaths. Finally commonsense dawned on the ruling classes. At last the kings, scholars
and intellectuals all accepted the principle
that different types of Christianity can
coexist.
The chain of bloody religious wars was
halted and the important Peace Treaty of Westphalia(1648) was signed by all
warring countries . It was universally agreed that countries and states should be ruled
without undue interference of religious heads
. It was generally agreed that establishing
a democratic model of a state based
on principles of justice and having the aim
of welfare of common people should be
the foundation for modern politics. But the wounds to human conscience that
resulted from killing of large numbers
of people ,both Protestant and Catholic, in the name of religion could not be erased .
(6)CATOSTROPHIC EVENTS
There were some big catastrophic events in medieval European
history which killed millions of people and
some countries even lost a big part of their populations. It was the
poor people who suffered greatly and were frightened at the scale of the
tragedies. One was the great famine 1315-1317 which came after years of good
agricultural production in many parts of Europe. Strange to know that the
famine was result of continuous and unusually heavy rains which inundated crop lands in many areas.
The crop stayed in standing water for
long periods and did not mature. There
were heavy shortages of food, mass starvation, deaths and riots. (Another such famine occurred in far later times in period 1845-1852 in Ireland
. It was the great potato famine of Ireland
where potato was in those times a main daily food item. It is said that one million people died and
2.5 million people emigrated to other parts of world.)
Far more ghastly is the “black death”
in medieval Europe of the period 1347-1351.history tells us that during this
short period a terrific “plague” (a
bacterial disease caused by rats causing high fatalities ) swept through
Europe. There was no immediate cure and persons affected by it died within
hours or a few days. History on the net shows that in Europe 25 to 30 million people died. The
disease spread via
rats, which were common on ships and in urban areas. It
is believed to have started
in Central Asia and spread to Europe via trade routes. It
is said to have started in the port city of Messina, Italy
in 1347. From there, it rapidly spread into
both urban and ryral areas across Europe. The Black Death created
panic in many people and caused social
unrest.ithad profound effects on European society for
centuries. The great loss of life,the great
human suffering and the economic catastrophe caused even
spiritual upheavals. people questioned even
the authority of the Church. Even after several generations
people could not get over the shock and spiritual upheavas the black death
caused everywhere. In a way the black death catastrophe changed the course of
european history.
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