THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES. EDWARD III AND RICHARD II

Character of the New Era

The reign of Edward I in England, as of Philip IV in France, marks the beginning of the end of the Middle Ages. Mediaeval institutions were passing away. The great mediaeval empire, founded by Charles the Great (800) and revived by Otto I (962), had steadily lost in prestige and power after the death of the last of the Hohenstaufen emperors, Frederick II, in 1250. The great mediaeval church, the strongest and most influential of all institutions during the Middle Ages, which Gregory VII and Innocent III had placed higher in authority than kings and princes, was on the eve of a great downfall. The last upholder of the papal claim to temporal as well as spiritual supremacy, Boniface VIII, had been struck down at Anagni (1303) by Italian knights, as a result of the quarrel with Philip IV; and before the reign of Edward II had completed its course, the popes had taken up their residence in France at Avignon, there to remain for seventy years.

The influence of the church began to decline: bishops and priests became more secular and worldly; the lesser clergy lost their hold on the people; the teachings of the church no longer dominated the minds of men, and the commands of the pope were no longer heeded ; kings were no longer willing to direct their energies to the strengthening of the church, as had St. Louis of France, or to bow to its authority, as had the Emperor Henry IV in the penance at Canossa in 1077 and King Henry II in the flagellation at the tomb of Becket. The people, too, could see without superstitious dread a pope struck down in 1303; and before a century had passed, an archbishop of Canterbury murdered in London (1381). The Crusades no longer interested the leaders in the West. Kings in England, France, and Christian Spain were engaged in building up strong, centralized states, not in fighting Turks in the Holy Land. Royal aims became national. Kings were becoming more powerful, because they were substituting their law for the old feudal customs, and were taking into their own hands control of justice and finance. They founded schools of law, and in the place of feudal lords took lawyers for their advisers. In the administration of government they began to employ legal methods and forms.

Feudalism as a political force was passing away, though it was leaving its impress upon every part of the social structure. The new age was secular and political, rather than religious and feudal. Foreign relations assumed a new importance, diplomatic correspondence began, reports became more exact and precise, and ambassadors increased in number. Wars became national; battles were transformed into campaigns. Administration became more complicated as power became centralized in the hands of the kings ; expenses doubled ; revenues were increased by the taxing of new sources of wealth; commerce and trade were rapidly advancing to a position of equal importance with agriculture.

In England the period of the fourteenth century covered by the reigns of Edward III (1327-1377) and Richard II (1377-1399) was one of great contrasts. On one side were useless foreign wars, chivalry, luxury, and display among the nobility; extortion, corruption, and bad government among the administrators and political leaders ; moral decay and worldliness among the higher clergy ; and spiritual degeneracy among the monks and parish priests who stood nearest to the masses of the people. On the other side was great suffering among the people, due to plague and famine, to official oppression and abuses; social unrest and excitement; due to the breaking down of the old agricultural system and the passing away of the old serfdom; religious unrest, due to loss of faith in the old doctrines and forms; economic unrest, due to the shifting of population from country to town, where centred the new commercial activity; and in general, an unsettled condition of society which shows that the era was one of change.

Wars with Scotland and France: the Beginning of the Hundred Years' War

For thirty years a state of war had existed between England and Scotland. In 1329, fifteen years after the battle of Bannockburn, Robert Bruce died, and his son, a child but five years old, came to the throne as David II, under a regency. Immediately Edward Balliol, son of the old John Balliol, sought to become the king of Scotland, and appealed to Edward III for aid. To this appeal the English king responded, and in the battle of Halidon Hill, 1333, won a victory over the Scots. He placed Balliol on the Scottish throne, and received from him feudal homage. Balliol became a vassal of the king of England. In his turn, David Bruce fled to France, and there enlisted the aid of Philip VI, the new king of the Orleans house. Philip was not unwilling to aid the young David in restoring the independence of Scotland; but his real object was to provoke Edward into war with France. He wished not merely to prevent the annexation of Scotland to England, but to obtain, if possible, an opportunity of driving the English from Gascony and Guienne, and, by seizing these fiefs, to enlarge his own kingdom. He was a true successor of Philip II and Philip IV.

Edward was more than ready to take up the challenge. He had been king for nine years and was prosperous, and parliament was eager to support him. He was ambitious and full of warlike projects, and saw in a war with France an opportunity for adventure and fame. Not content with the pretext that Philip had offered in his alliance with the patriotic Scots, he made war inevitable by laying claim to the French throne as the son of Isabella, the daughter of Philip IV.

But Edward, too, as well as Philip, had a deeper motive, a determination to further the commercial interests of his realm. To lose Gascony was to sacrifice not only a fief long held by his predecessors, but also a great wine-growing district that brought wealth to England. Should he succeed in a war against France, he would be able to protect English fishermen in the Channel and to bind more closely to England the Flemish weavers, the chief customers of the English wool merchants. Edward had strengthened his relations with the Flemings by marrying a Flemish princess, Philippa of Hainault. He now still further won their support by assuming, in 1340, rather at their request than from any desire of his own, the arms and the title of the king kin of France. In so doing he declared himself the feudal lord of the Flemings, and broke the feudal bond which had existed between the king of France and the king of England since the Norman Conquest.