Table Of Content

Cover Page: i Title Page Page: iii Copyright Page: iv Contents Page: v List of Illustrations Page: vii List of Maps Page: ix Acknowledgements Page: x Note on Names Page: xi Prologue Page: 1 Part I: Europe in the Eleventh Century Page: 3 1 Christendom in the Year 1000 Page: 3 2 Mediterranean Europe Page: 19 3 Northmen, Celts and Anglo-Saxons Page: 37 4 Francia/France Page: 51 5 Central Europe Page: 65 Part II: The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century Page: 79 6 The Investiture Controversy Page: 83 7 The First Crusade Page: 99 8 The World of Learning Page: 112 9 Cultural Innovations of the Twelfth Century: Vernacular Literature and Architecture Page: 128 10 Political Power and Its Contexts I Page: 142 11 Political Power and Its Contexts II Page: 160 Part III: The Thirteenth Century Page: 176 12 Social Structures Page: 179 13 The Pontificate of Innocent III and the Fourth Lateran Council Page: 193 14 Learning Page: 212 15 The Kingdoms of the North Page: 225 16 Baltic and Central Europe Page: 242 17 The Gothic World Page: 258 18 Southern Europe Page: 270 Part IV: Christendom in the Early Fourteenth Century Page: 285 19 Famine and Plague Page: 287 20 Political and Social Violence Page: 301 21 The Church in Crisis Page: 313 Epilogue Page: 325 Appendix: Genealogical Tables Page: 328 References Page: 343 Suggested Reading Page: 347 Index Page: 354

Description:

"The Penguin History of Europe series... is one of contemporary publishing's great projects."--New Statesman It was an age of hope and possibility, of accomplishment and expansion. Europe's High Middle Ages spanned the Crusades, the building of Chartres Cathedral, Dante's Inferno, and Thomas Aquinas. Buoyant, confident, creative, the era seemed to be flowering into a true renaissance-until the disastrous fourteenth century rained catastrophe in the form of plagues, famine, and war. In Europe in the High Middle Ages, William Chester Jordan paints a vivid, teeming landscape that captures this lost age in all its glory and complexity. Here are the great popes who revived the power of the Church against the secular princes; the writers and thinkers who paved the way for the Renaissance; the warriors who stemmed the Islamic tide in Spain and surged into Palestine; and the humbler estates, those who found new hope and prosperity until the long night of the 1300s. From high to low, from dramatic events to social structures, Jordan's account brings to life this fascinating age. Part of the Penguin History of Europe series, edited by David Cannadine.