Exploring Eras and Pivotal Events
This article follows John Wycliffe from the political resentment of English rulers toward papal taxation to his theology of predestination, his attack on clerical wealth, and his rejection of transubstantiation. It describes his protection by John of Gaunt, the trials he survived, the founding of the Lollard preachers, and the English Bible translation. It ends with his death, the posthumous burning of his remains at Constance, and the many ideas he passed on to later reformers.
This article describes the English society that produced the Great Revolt of 1381, from its class divisions and growing cloth industry to the Black Death and the failed attempts to freeze wages. It follows the rising from the poll tax riots in Essex and Kent through the capture of London, the killing of Archbishop Sudbury, and the death of Wat Tyler at Smithfield. It ends with the king's revocation of his promises, the executions that followed, and the refusal of Parliament to end serfdom.
This article traces how English gradually replaced French as the language of law, speech, and poetry in the fourteenth century. It covers the beginnings of English religious and secular drama, the visionary satire of Piers Plowman, and the moralizing Gower. The longest part follows the life and work of Geoffrey Chaucer, from his diplomatic career and Italian influences to Troilus and Criseyde and the Canterbury Tales.
This article first follows Richard II from his early courage and the Merciless Parliament to his tyranny, deposition, and death, which ended the Plantagenet line in 1399. It then opens the story of France around 1300, a patchwork kingdom with powerful fiefs, the rich and unruly cities of Flanders, and the mass uprising of poor peasants. It ends with the succession disputes that led Edward III to claim the French crown and begin the Hundred Years' War.
This article follows the first phase of the Hundred Years' War from the economic and political causes that led Edward III to declare war, through the naval victory at Sluys, the battle of Crécy, and the siege of Calais. It then describes the Black Death in Europe and its social effects, the English victory at Poitiers, and the French crisis that followed, including the Estates-General, Étienne Marcel, and the Jacquerie. It ends with the Treaty of Brétigny and the reconquest under Charles V and Bertrand du Guesclin.
This article follows France under the insane Charles VI, from the wave of popular revolts across Europe to Henry V's victory at Agincourt, the siege of Rouen, and the humiliating Treaty of Troyes. It describes the hunger and devastation of Paris and Normandy under Bedford's English rule. The second half surveys daily life in the ruined kingdom, covering morals, the Dance of Death, the troubled Church, Jean Gerson, fashion, and the great houses of the rich.
This article surveys French culture during the Hundred Years' War, when writers and artists kept working amid devastation. It covers biblical scholarship, the fabulous travels of the so-called John Mandeville, Froissart's Chronicle, the theater, the poetry societies, and poets such as Deschamps, Christine de Pizan, Alain Chartier, and Charles of Orléans. It then follows the move from Rayonnant to Flamboyant Gothic, the rise of secular architecture, the illuminated books of the Duke of Berry, and the painter Jean Fouquet.
A retelling of Will Durant's account of Joan of Arc: the weak king she served, the village that raised her, the relief of Orléans, the coronation at Reims, her capture and sale, and the Church trial that sent her to the stake and was reversed decades later.
A retelling of Durant's account of how a timid king, helped by a mother-in-law, a mistress, a merchant-financier and a new standing army, drove the English out of France and ended the Hundred Years' War.
A retelling of Durant's portrait of Louis XI: a plain, suspicious, ruthless and pious king who beat the great barons and Burgundy with diplomacy, spies and money, and left France more united, richer and more centralized.
A retelling of Durant's account of France after Louis XI: a wise regent, a teenage king's march on Naples, the chivalry of Bayard, and the popular reign of Louis XII, "Father of the People," whose Italian wars ended in failure.
A retelling of Durant's survey of French art at the turn of the sixteenth century: late Gothic churches, grand civic halls, Italian-inspired Loire châteaux, and the sculptors, painters and craftsmen who blended Gothic, Flemish and Renaissance styles.
