A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

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Blamires, Alcuin, ed. Woman Defamed and Woman Defended. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1992. This anthology excerpts medieval texts from anti-and pro-feminist writers from Ovid to Chaucer and John Gower. It is an excellent sourcebook for those who wish to study and document the widespread ambiguity toward women in medieval thought. Attitudes towards children at the time are even more interesting. Attachment to children was virtually non-existent or very negligible, and child-rearing was left almost to chance. That slight attention is evidenced in the arts and literature of that time from which children are almost absent. The author makes a point that this may be due to the fact that deaths of infants were common and pretty much expected, and, this, coupled with frequent child-bearing, meant that love and attachment to children were discouraged since both would, more likely than not, prove to be meaningless in the end and only lead to the experience of sorrow upon sorrow. However, “ if children survived to the age of seven”…”their recognised life began, more or less, as miniature adults” [1978: 52]. The increasingly bizarre machinations involving the split in the Catholic Church and the damage this did to both the church and society at large makes for fascinating reading in that it confirms yet again that people are often the last people you can rely on to act in any way that might be in accordance with their own best interests. If you want to know what happened during the plague and why, and what it meant read A Distant Mirror. If you want to know what it felt like read the Doomsday Book. Better yet, read them both.

For me this book was a revelation. I hadn’t read anything before this that had made History seem so weird, nor had any history book made me want to read much deeper into the subject. I only read the book because I knew I had to do some reading, my dad recommended it, and I didn’t know where else to start; but it was a really good choice. Not only is the style of writing very engaging, the book is full of really interesting and funny details and stories that give you a glimpse into a world so unlike our own that you’ll want to know more. Humanity has always been depressingly stupid, violent, and apathetic. Earth should just be demolished by Vogons to make the hyperspace bypass. On some key fronts we’ve learned nothing of importance in 700 years. The Four Horsemen had their way in the fourteenth century. Tuchman portrays a brutal decadent European society terrorized and demoralized by the plague, war, violence and deprivation. She focuses on France, England and the Italian city-states from 1350 to 1400. The religious leaders were hypocritical and profane; the aristocracy was arrogant and venal. Kings, nobles, popes and prelates accumulated fantastic wealth at the expense of everyone else for whom it was the worst of times. The century marked the decline of the Roman Catholic Church’s power, the feudal system and the myth of the chivalrous knight.A beautiful, extraordinary book . . . Tuchman at the top of her powers . . . She has done nothing finer.” — The Wall Street Journal Everybody hates the church in the 14th century it seems. Including reformers within who think it ought to reflect Jesus ideal of poverty. Franciscans excommunicated for such ideas. Kings resist Pope’s right to crown emperor. Merchants change at silly economics. Contemporary verse about Louis 1, Duc d’Orleans. Apparently a mix of hedonist and ascetic, and a gambling addicted politically ambitious scholar. furniture was meager. Beds, which served for sitting as well as sleeping, were the most important item. Chairs were few: even kings and popes received ambassadors sitting on beds Long section on predictable antisemitism followed by fascinating but, new to me, about how flagellants were a heretical movement that challenged the intercessionary authority of priests by claiming their self-flagellation as saving humanity/Christianity.

Herlihy, David. Opera Muliebria: Women and Work in Medieval Europe. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990. A survey of the work done by women of all classes from Roman times through the fifteenth century, this study focuses attention on how their sense of duty and dignity was threatened by the exclusiveness of medieval guilds. This aspect of medieval times fascinated me as a child; at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art my favorite exhibit was the knights on their great chargers. But above all Tuchman’s gifts are her sweeping vision and the poetry of her writing through which we glimpse the wheel of time and human fortunes slowly turning: Long passage now about the Visconti family of Italy who sound like psycho gangsters. They are challenging papal forces. Brigand company called the White Company fights on all sides of all conflict. Hobbesian ergodicity going on here. [Mercenary John Hawkwood features prominently] The fight between secular kings and the Papacy was a key conflict of the 14th century. Money and power were at stake. In 1303 King Philip IV of France in conjunction with the anti-papist Italian army captured Pope Boniface VIII, who not surprisingly, soon was dead. Philip felt the many Church fees collected in France were rightfully his. The Pope said Philip was subject to him. The Pope lost. The next Pope, Clement V, set up shop in Avignon and worked hand in glove with Philip. Popes ruled from Avignon from 1307 to 1377 with ever increasing domination by the French kings, which was deeply resented outside of France.

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So, what to do? I tried to read this one ignoring the advice of friends and plunged in. And my reactions are as mixed as those of my friends. I’ve ended up having to agree with virtually all of them. Second chapter is discussion of the deep corruption of the Church in the years following France king Philip IV “the fair” takedown of Pope Boniface and the papacy moving to Avignon and basically turning into a sort of super corrupt Davos set. Long section on how extremely communal guild life was. Capitalists pretty much owned towns and had captured city governments. Town and rural poor equally oppressed.

One big difference: they had no idea how it spread. Didn’t even suspect fleas and rats apparently. Though rats were associated with pestilence generally (the Pied Piper story is from 1284 it seems). That’s our one big advantage. Perhaps the main one.In Part Two, the military exploits of Enguerrand de Coucy VII are chronicled, including his campaigns in Switzerland, Italy, North Africa, and Bulgaria (Nicopolis). Through the accounts of these battles we appreciate the futility of what was then a defeated sense of chivalry; the end of the era of crusades had come. Simultaneously, we witness a rising sense of nationality among the people of France as they resist English control of their provinces. This sense of nation is fulfilled during the next century by French military victories. Gies, Frances, and Joseph Gies. Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages. New York: Harper & Row, 1987. This study surveys the reformulation of marriage codes and practices through the early, high, and late Middle Ages, showing the evolution of family concept and the significance of blood ties in the social, cultural, economic, and political spheres.

The main title, A Distant Mirror, conveys Tuchman's thesis that the death and suffering of the 14th century reflect those of the 20th century, particularly the horrors of World War I. Once more, he must wait for France to raise enough money to ransom him, except Enguerrand doesn’t live long enough. After his death, his second wife and his daughter Marie squabble over the Coucy estate, which ends up belonging to the crown. Marie is an ancestor of King Henry IV. England and France were not always fighting. So what was an unemployed knight to do? “Left unemployed by the truce the [mercenary] companies reverted to plundering the people they lately liberated." Apparently this was when nationalism began superseding feudal allegiances crafted by marriages. Eng’s divorce was symbolic. This was when the channel became basis of boundary between England and France rather than noble family land titles. Nobility= tax-haven corps today.

Big lesson from this book: never bet on the commoners. They get their periodic opportunities to blow up violently but pay a heavy price later. Being a countryside noble is good. Being a town noble is sketchy. Being upper bourgeoisie is dangerous. Being Jewish is very dangerous.