Later historians invented the term "Hundred Years' War" as a periodization to encompass all of these events, thus constructing the longest military conflict in history. The fourteenth century was a time of fabled crusades and chivalry, glittering cathedrals and grand castles. N]ot a king or queen, because everything about such persons is ipso facto exceptional, and besides, they are overused; nor a commoner, because commoners’ lives in most cases did not take in the wide range that I wanted; nor a cleric or saint, because they are outside the limits of my comprehension; nor a woman, because any medieval woman whose life was adequately documented would be atypical.

Among the clergy there were those who became obsessed with witchcraft, demonology and heresy—fueling the fires of the Inquisition. Since he (Enguerrad de Coucy) had first marched at fifteen against the English, and at eighteen hunted down the Jacquerie, the range of Coucy’s experience had extended over an extraordinary variety of combat, diplomacy, government, and social and political relationships. A Distant Mirror makes us appreciate that the society back then was very different from the society and the state as we know it now. The centre of the narrative here is the lifetime of Enguerrand VII de Coucy, whose double allegiances and adventures could be compared to some mythical storytelling. As a case in point – I had heard of the flagellants before, those fun guys who would whip themselves until they were a bleeding mess as their way to seek God’s forgiveness and thereby stop the plague.As the century entered its last quarter, the reality and power of demons and witches became a common belief…. The book's focus is the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages which caused widespread suffering in Europe in the 14th century. Chapter 6 tells the story of the start of the war between France and England that would last for a hundred years.

Afterwards, the French populace was horrified by this ghastly tragedy, a perverse playing on the edge of madness and death nearly killing their King. The increasingly bizarre machinations involving the split in the Catholic Church and the damage this did to both the church and society at large makes for fascinating reading in that it confirms yet again that people are often the last people you can rely on to act in any way that might be in accordance with their own best interests. This passage is better than an the Index to offer a glimpse to that Distant Mirror that Tuchman has approached to us for our close examination.

The Medieval Suite for Flute and Piano by Katherine Hoover: An Examination, Analysis, and Performance Guide (DMA thesis). This was a historical period that was deeply paradoxical and chaotic, in which famine, peasant revolts, foreign wars, the bubonic plague and religious struggles were all taking place in a non-stop succession amidst the existence and the proclamation of the high moral code of chivalry among the nobility, and where magic and superstition reigned inexplicably alongside one strict religious canon. Four and a half stars, with a half star off because all the battles and political machinations really were a bore, at least for me. He is like Sean Patrick Flanery in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, showing up and playing a role in a remarkable number of landmark 14th Century events.

With him when he’s taken hostage and shipped to England (likely in the same group with Geoffrey Chaucer! 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 goods where received after driving on public roads, policed by a series of wonderful police forces and if the driver had an accident he could go direct to a NHS hospital – all paid for by taxes, UK taxes.The oppressed were no longer enduring but rebelling, although, like the bourgeois who tried to compel reform, they were inadequate, unready, and unequipped for the task. In my own review (totally pathetic compared to yours), I explained that focusing on Enguerrand was clever.

The treatment of Jews throughout this century is also something that is designed to induce nightmares. And then, why even be afraid, cautious and serious about something you normally expect and see almost on a daily basis? Example: the invention of chimneys in the 14th century made separate bedrooms possible and introduced notions of privacy that had never before been possible in Northern Europe and so she wove her web again, catching me for another hundred pages.

Throughout the fourteenth century peasants in both France and England were being transformed from serfs to tenant farmers. His reviews generally give valuable insights into a book and unfortunately far too often have me adding books to my ‘to read’ list that I really will probably never get around to reading – but if I ever do read any of them I will read purely due to Eric’s recommendations. Tuchman examines not only the great rhythms of history but the grain and texture of domestic life: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes, and war dominated the lives of serf, noble, and clergy alike. That said, her chronological sections are just as engaging, displaying her rare gift for giving life to people who lived hundreds of years ago. Much faster to reload than the French crossbow, the longbow proved a decisive advantage, particularly as deployed by the far more organized and disciplined English army.