The Late Middle Ages

Overview

The Late Middle Ages (c. 1300–1500) was an era of extremes—marked by calamities like the Black Death and the Hundred Years’ War, yet also witnessing the dawn of Humanism, gunpowder warfare, and the Age of Exploration.

Course No. 8296

Was this period the tragic end of the medieval world or the birth of modernity? These 24 provocative lectures explore major events, conflicts, and intellectual movements that shaped Europe during these transformative centuries.

Course Content

Crisis and Conflict in the 14th Century

• Late Middle Ages—Rebirth, Waning, Calamity? (30 min)
  • Introduction: Was this era a decline or a transition to modernity?

• Philip the Fair versus Boniface VIII (30 min)
  • The clash between French monarchy and papal authority.

3. Fall of the Templars and the Avignon Papacy (30 min)
   • French influence over the Church and the Templars’ downfall.

4. The Great Papal Schism (31 min)
   • Rival popes in Rome and Avignon divide Christendom.

• The Hundred Years’ War, Part 1 (30 min)
  • England vs. France: Causes and early battles.

6. The Hundred Years’ War, Part 2 (30 min)
   • Longbows, infantry armies, and the war’s political fallout.

7. The Black Death, Part 1 (31 min)
   • The plague’s catastrophic arrival (1347–1351).

8. The Black Death, Part 2 (31 min)
   • Economic upheaval, social unrest, and cultural trauma.

9. Revolt in Town and Country (31 min)
   • Peasants’ Revolt (England, 1381) and the Ciompi uprising (Florence, 1378).

Religious and Intellectual Upheaval

10. William Ockham (31 min)
    • Theologian whose critiques challenged Church doctrine.

• John Wycliffe and the Lollards (30 min)
  • Early reformist ideas and England’s first heretical movement.

• Jan Hus and the Hussite Rebellion (31 min)
  • Bohemian reformer and Europe’s first successful heretical revolt.

13. Witchcraft (30 min)
    • The fusion of heresy and magic in early witch trials.

14. Christine de Pizan and Catherine of Siena (30 min)
    • Influential women: a proto-feminist writer and a mystic saint.

Technology and Transformation

• Gunpowder (31 min)
  • How firearms ended knightly warfare and reshaped armies.

• The Printing Press (30 min)
  • Gutenberg’s revolution in knowledge dissemination.

17. Renaissance Humanism, Part 1 (30 min)
    • Revival of classical thought and emphasis on human potential.

18. Renaissance Humanism, Part 2 (32 min)
    • Humanism vs. Scholasticism and its cultural impact.

Empires and Exploration

19. The Fall of the Byzantine Empire (32 min)
    • 1453: Ottoman conquest and the flight of Greek scholars to Italy.

20. Ferdinand and Isabella (32 min)
    • Unification of Spain and the end of the Reconquista.

21. The Spanish Inquisition (31 min)
    • Religious persecution and the expulsion of Jews (1492).

22. The Age of Exploration (30 min)
    • Portuguese and Spanish voyages beyond Europe.

• Columbus and the Columbian Exchange (30 min)
  • 1492: Global consequences of transatlantic contact.

Legacy of the Middle Ages

24. When Did the Middle Ages End? (32 min)
    • Debating the transition to modernity.