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A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

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It was a way of life for intellectuals and scholars back then to use scripture and ancient literature to interpret events (doctors read Galen instead of just actually looking at what was wrong with their patients). You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Granting her subjects their loyalties, treacheries, and guilty passions, Tuchman re-creates the lives of proud cardinals, university scholars, grocers and clerks, saints and mystics, lawyers and mercenaries, and, dominating all, the knight—in all his valor and “furious follies,” a “terrible worm in an iron cocoon.

In his book written in 1387, The Tree of Battles, he asked “Whether this world can by nature be without conflict and at peace? The book opens with the description of the castle of Coucy in Picardy, northern France, a magnificent structure, which showcased the extent of the power of the clan of Coucy in the region in the 14 th century: “ the Coucy maintained a sense of eminence second to none and conducted their affairs after the usage of sovereign princes” [Barbara Tuchman, 1978: 14].The Middle Ages present a fascinating conundrum in the history of mankind since it was the period of immense losses, violence and stagnation while, at the same time, there reigned in the land the idea of the chivalric behaviour worthy of every admiration, and religious devotion and loyalty to masters like few periods have seen before or since. Mrs Woolf, wife of the manager, is a very celebrated author and, in her own way, more important than Galsworthy. The killing, dislocation and destruction combined with recurring plague epidemics reduced the population of Europe to half its 1347 count by the end of the century. Perhaps that's a naive thing to say about a historical account, and perhaps it's the sort of thing that leads to a flawed understanding of historical events.

My interest in medieval times is not incredibly strong; it is, in fact, relegated mostly to the hope of someday going to a Medieval Times restaurant. Again believing in chivalry, Jean used his knights to lead the charge just as Philip VI had done at Crecy with the same result. Indeed, reading about 14th century economic upheaval one is reminded of Karl Marx’s scathing observations four hundred years later.and each was to produce unsurpassed works of art: The Apocalypse series of tapestries for Anjou; the Tres Riches Heures and Belles Heures illuminated for Berry; and the statues of the Well of Moses and the Mourners for Burgundy. This time Edward III's son, Edward Prince of Wales, faced the French King Jean II at Poitiers in 1356. I am now reading Tuchman’s The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam and I hope it will be equally good. Tuchman’s focus on the 14th Century began with an interest in the Black Death of 1348-1350, which she states killed an estimated one-third of the people “living between India and Iceland.

I am going to try to keep this review short, maybe a reaction to having just completed Tuchman's extensive opus.Here, Barbara Tuchman masterfully reveals the two contradictory images of the age, examining the great rhythms of history and the grain and texture of domestic life as it was lived: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes and war dominated the lives of serf, noble and clergy alike. The disease (advanced by the Yersinia pestis bacteria) spread faster than fire across Europe from 1347, with victims displaying surprising symptoms that only confused and bewildered those who wanted to ascertain the cause and progress of the mysterious disease. In my own review (totally pathetic compared to yours), I explained that focusing on Enguerrand was clever. The internal lawlessness was also prevalent, especially after 1376, when the Statute of Labourers meant that the wages of farmers remained those of pre-plague years. Scientific knowledge was growing, but “could not dispel the sense of a malign influence upon the times.

Read around Richard III and - love him or hate him - along the way you’re not only going to get into the foreground detail of the Wars of the Roses, you’ll begin making some sense of the backstory of the Plantagenet dynasty. For younger bookworms – and nostalgic older ones too – there’s the Slightly Foxed Cubs series, in which we’ve reissued a number of classic nature and historical novels.From changes in climate to political changes, all will have far-reaching consequences for the European world. A curious situation arises involving Enguerrand VII de Coucy, a distinguished French Knight, who acquired a double allegiance when he married Isabella, the daughter of the King of England, only to forsake this allegiance and fight for the French later in his life. But then, I’ve read quite a few books on Ancient Greece and Rome and have never felt they are receding too far into the distance (although, admittedly, there is a sense in which Classical Societies do seem closer to us than those in the Middle Ages). Thomas Ohlgren agreed with many of Bachrach's criticisms, and further took issue with many perceived anachronisms in Tuchman's characterization of the medieval world and a lack of scholarly rigor. Her history of the events leading up to World War I, "The Guns of August," earned her the first of two Pulitzer Prizes.

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