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Conflict and Plague



Just as French influence pervaded England during the Middle Ages, so did the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. Between 1095 and 1270, the church sponsored a series of military expeditions to the Middle East, called the Crusades, to win Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Muslims. Some English nobles and knights took part in the Crusades. In 1190, King Richard I of England, known as Richard the Lion-hearted, helped lead the Third Crusade.

Ultimately, the Crusades failed to win the Holy Land. However, they indirectly contributed to the weakening of the feudal power of kings and barons in England. To help finance the Third Crusade, Richard I had heavily taxed his barons, often disregarding their rights. He further weakened the feudal system by selling privileges of self-government to towns. In addition,

Richard was captured and held for ransom on his way home from the crusade. Paying the ransom required further taxation, causing resentment toward the crown. This resentment would break out in open revolt under Richard’s successor.

As the medieval period drew to a close, war was a near-constant fact of life. The Hundred Years’ Warbetween England and France began in 1337, during the reign of Edward III. In a struggle for control of lands in France, the English and French fought a series of wars between 1337 and 1453. Together, these wars became known as the Hundred Years’ War. France was victorious, and England lost all of its remaining territory in continental Europe, except for Calais, which was eventually taken over by the French. These wars took a tremendous financial toll on England. However, the break with France that resulted from the Hundred Years’ War helped England develop a new national identity, one that was not tied to France. Even before the wars began, French influence on English society had begun to wane. After the loss of Normandy, English had returned as the language of the aristocracy, and before the wars were over, English had replaced French in the courts, Parliament, and official legal documents.

As the war continued on and off for more than a century, England also had to weather several domestic crises, including a terrible plague known as the Black Death,which killed a third of England’s population. The plague first hit England in 1348, and new outbreaks occurred over the next decades. Spread by the bite of infected fleas carried by rodents, the plague caused painful swellings, high fever, and body aches. Victims often died within five days of contracting the disease.

When the war finally ended in 1453, England had lost nearly all of its French possessions. Two rival families claimed the throne—the house of York, whose symbol was a white rose, and the house of Lancaster, whose symbol was a red rose. The fighting that ensued, known as the Wars of the Roses,ended in 1485 when the Lancastrian Henry Tudorkilled the Yorkist king Richard III at Bosworth Field and took the throne as Henry VII. This event marked the end of the Middle Ages in England.

 







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