HSY1010

Medieval Europe

Peter Howard, Bill Kent and Constant Mews

6 points
* Two lectures and one tutorial per week
* First semester
* Clayton

Objectives Students who successfully complete this subject should have acquired and demonstrated a critical understanding of the evolution of European society between 800 and 1400, and developed skills in the analysis of both primary sources and historiography.

Synopsis The subject will look at the long term changes in European society and civilisation from the time of Charlemagne in the late eighth century to the first signs of the breaking apart of the idea of a unified Christendom in the early fourteenth century. Charlemagne endeavoured to impose some stability on barbarian Europe by creating a renovated Roman empire in the west. The subject will examine the disintegration of this ideal in the face of further invasions, the consequent decentralisation of authority in a society increasingly dominated by a feudal aristocracy and the gradual emergence of national identities in France and England. Themes studied in tutorials include social structure, urbanisation, relationships between men and women, education, the crusades, the role of the church and the relationship between religious reform and heresy. Emphasis is placed in tutorials on the interpretation of primary sources from the period. No prior knowledge of the Middle Ages is required.

Assessment Essay (1000 words): 20%
* Essay (1500 words): 30%
* Examination (2 hours): 40%
* Class participation/attendance: 10%

Prescribed texts

Keen M The Pelican history of medieval Europe Penguin, 1969
Ross J B and McLaughlin M M The portable medieval reader Viking or Penguin, 1977

Recommended texts

Barber M The two cities: Medieval Europe, 1050-1320 Routledge, 1992
Bartlett R The making of Europe: Conquest, colonization and cultural change, 950-1350 Penguin, 1994
Heer F The medieval world Mentor, 1990
Southern R W Western society and the church in the Middle Ages Penguin, 1990