Middle English and
Early Renaissance Periods
Historical and Cultural
Outline
- Edward the Confessor (last
Anglo-Saxon king) r. 1042-1066, son of Aethelred II Unraed and Emma (daughter
of Richard II, duke of Normandy); lived in exile in Normandy, during Danish
rule of England, until 1041; conflicts and power sharing with Godwine, earl
of Wessex, and his son Harold; supposedly Edward, on his deathbed, designated
Harold as his successor, reversing an earlier promise to William, duke of
Normandy
- William, duke of Normandy,
invasion of England (1066);
claim to the English throne based on Edward the Confessor's earlier designation
of William as his successor; French conquest and unification of England under
William's rule as King William I the Conqueror (r. 1066-1087); the
Normans (North-man) were descendants of Danish Vikings who setttled in northern
France; Normans spoke French and imposed their language and culture on England;
William in full control of England within ten years
- Norman French rule of England:
death of many Anglo-Saxon nobles; end of internal conflicts and Viking invasions;
control of the Welsh; Frenchmen in all high offices; imposition of feudal
system, vassalage, peasants bound to the land kings of England spoke French,
took French wives and lived mostly in France, French-speaking court, English
language relegated to the lower classes
- William II, king of England (r.
1087-1100), son of William
I
- First Crusade (1095-1099),
called by Pope Urban II; conquest of Jerusalem (1099)
- Henry I, king of England (r. 1100-1135),
son of William I
- Mabinogion, collection
of eleven Welsh stories including Kulhwch and Olwen (c. 1100)
one of the earliest literary treatments of Arthurian legends
- origins of Order of the Knights
Templar (c. 1119-1120), military religious order founded for the purposes
of supporting the Crusades and the presence of Europeans in the Holy Land;
Templars became very wealthy and influential; eventually the Order was officially
suppressed (1312) and many Templars were executed or imprisoned, their property
confiscated (1307-1314)
- Henry I succeeded by his nephew
Stephen of Blois, king of England (r. 1135-1154); Stephen overrode
Matilda's (Henry's daughter) claim to the throne
- Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia
Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain, 1136-1139),
in Latin; covers period till 689 A.D.; source of many Arthurian legends
- Second Crusade (1147-1149),
preached by St. Bernart de Clairvaux (1090-1153) (Bernart also promoted
Mariology, the cult of the Virgin Mary, and the Order of the Knights
Templar)
- Matilda's son, Henry of Anjou
(soon to become king of Englandas Henry II), invaded England in 1153
- Anglo Saxon Chronicle
continued to be written until 1154
- Henry II (House of Plantagenet,
Angevine Empire) (r. 1154-1189), son of Matilda and grandson of Henry
I; married in 1152 to Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) (divorced
from Louis VII of France); Eleanor and Henry were the parents of Richard the
Lion-Heart and John Lackland; Eleanor was patroness of French/Provençal
courtly poets/troubadours (e.g. Bernart de Ventadorn, fl. 1150-1180) and
performers (jongleurs)
- Wace, Roman de Brut
(Romance of Brutus) (1155), romance
in French, verse couplets; based on Geoffrey of Monmouth's work; dedicated
to Eleanor of Aquitaine
- Marie
de France (second half of 12th c.) (perhaps a half sister of Henry
II), Lais (c. 1160), Celtic/Breton verse narratives in
French (Anglo-Norman) language, octosyllabic couplets
- assassination of Archbishop
of Canterbury Thomas Becket in 1170
- Marie de Champagne, daughter
of Eleanor, patroness of Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1165-1180),
romances in French octosyllabic couplets, Erec et Enide,
Cliges, Lancelot, Yvain, Perceval, major
influence on subsequent Arthurian literature; Andreas Capellanus,
Art of Courtly Love (1184-1186)
- Third Crusade (1189-1192)
- King Richard I, the Lion-Heart
(r. 1189-1199)
- King John (John Lackland) (r.
1199-1216), loss of Normandy in 1204; many Norman landholders chose to
stay in England, spoke Anglo-French dialect
- Fourth Crusade (1202-1204), redirected
against Christian Byzantine Empire; capture and sack of Constantinople
- Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229),
called by Pope Innocent III against Albigensian/Catharist heretics
and culture of southern France; destruction of courtly Provençal civilization
- Children's Crusade (1212)
- Barons' revolt against King John;
Magna Carta (1215), development of institution of Parliament
- Layamon's Brut (c.
1189-1205), romance in English, mixture
of alliterative verse and rhyming couplets; based on Wace's and Geoffrey of
Monmouth's work; first account in English of Arthurian stories, King Lear,
Cymbeline
- The Owl and the Nightingale
(c. 1200), English octosyllabic couplets, debate between the speakers
(an owl and a nightingale) about their contributions to humankind; learned
work; humour
- Ancrene Riwle
("Rule of Anchoresses" also known as Ancrene Wisse)(c.
1230), in English prose, book of advice and instruction for nuns
and women religious recluses
- Henry III (r. 1216-1272), son
of John; francophilia of Henry III, many Frenchmen given official positions
- English verse
romances: King Horn (mid 13th c.), stressed verse lines;
Havelok the Dane (late 13th c.), in rhymed octosyllabic
verse
- Edward I (r. 1272-1307), son of
Henry III, conquered Wales and waged war with Scotland, father of Edward II
(r. 1307-1327)
- Gesta Romanorum
(13th-14th c.), Latin collection of moral fables, influence on Chaucer
and others
- Edward III (r. 1327-1377),
son of Edward II; Edward III's claim to French throne led to Hundred Years'
War (1337-1453), English victories at Crécy (1346), Poitiers
(1356), Agincourt (1415); role of Joan of Arc in French defense (1429); final
French victory (1453), English lost all continental holdings; French language
and culture now averse to the English; rebirth of English as national language
- Black Death 1348-1351, death
of one third of English population, social chaos, labor shortages, emancipation
of peasants, wage increases
- Alliterative Morte Arthure
(Death of Arthur)(c. 1370-1380), alliterative verse romance, part
of movement known as Alliterative
Revival
- Richard II (r.1377-1399) (grandson
of Edward III and son of Edward the Black Prince)
- Peasants' Revolt (Wat Tyler)
suppressed by Richard II (1381)
- John of Gaunt (1340-1399),
duke of Lancaster (son of Edward III), one of the most influential noblemen,
patron of Chaucer, father of Henry IV
- Richard II deposed by Henry
IV (House of Lancaster) (r. 1399-1413)
- William Langland (c. 1330-1387),
Piers Plowman, part of Alliterative
Revival, dream visions, moralistic and religious purpose, use of allegorical
figures
- Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400),
Canterbury Tales (1386-1400), connected to courts and circles of
Edward III, Richard II, and John of Gaunt
- Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight (c. 1375-1400), romance, part of Alliterative
Revival, contained in single manuscript Cotton Nero
- Pearl (1380-1400),
alliterative poem in 12-line octosyllabic stanzas;about author's only child,
Pearl, who died before two years of age; vision of heaven; also in Cotton
Nero
- Julian of Norwich (1342-c.
1416), Book of Showings or Revelations; Margery Kemp (c. 1373-1438);
English prose; mystical, religious works
- War of the Roses (1455-1485),
York (white rose) vs. Lancaster (red rose), Richard Duke of York vs. Henry
VI
- Henry VI executed 1471; Edward
IV (r. 1461-70, 1471-83), son of Richard, Duke of York
- printers' activity (William
Caxton 1474), increased literacy
- Sir Thomas Malory (c. 1405-1471),
Morte D'Arthur (Death of Arthur) (c. 1469-70)
(printed by William Caxton in 1485), English prose
- Wakefield Master, Second
Shepherds' Play (c. 1475), mystery
play
- Richard III (1483-85) (last
Plantagenet king; Edward IV's brother) killed by Lancastrian Henry
VII in the final battle of the War of the Roses at Bosworth Field (1485);
Henry VII (r. 1485-1509) marries Elizabeth of York (daughter of Edward
IV), fathers Henry VIII, and begins Tudor dynasty
- Everyman (after
1485), morality play
- c. 1500, end of Middle English
Period, beginning of English Renaissance
- Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547),
establishment of Church of England; incorporation of Wales; ministers Cardinal
Thomas Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell (executed for treason in 1540); Henry VIII
married Katharine of Aragon (mother of Mary I), Anne Boleyn (beheaded in 1536,
mother of Elizabeth I), Jane Seymour (mother of Edward VI), Anne of Cleves,
Catherine Howard (beheaded in 1542), and Catherine Parr
- Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603),
defeat of the Spanish Armada 1588, begins period of colonial expansion
- Sir Thomas More (1478-1535),
Utopia (1516), in Latin prose; features a traveler, Raphael Hythloday,
who discovers land of "Utopia" which is characterized by communistic
life, education for all, and religious freedom
- Early Renaissance Poetry: John
Skelton (1460-1529), Thomas Wyatt the Elder (1503-1542), Henry Howard, Earl
of Surrey (1517-1547)
- Edmund Spenser (1552-1599),
The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596), allegorical verse romance
in Spenserian stanza (8 lines of 10 syllables plus 1 line of twelve syllables
rhyming ababbcbcc); Amoretti, series of 88 sonnets, record of
Spenser's wooing of Elizabeth Boyle; Epithalamion (1595), hymn
celebrating Spenser's marriage to Elizabeth Boyle (1594)
- Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586),
Astrophil and Stella (1582), sequence of 108 sonnets
and 11 songs, likely written for Penelope Rich; Arcadia (two
versions 1581, 1583-84), prose romance including some poems; complex story
of intrigue, disguises, love affairs, and near tragedies in pastoral setting;
written as entertainment for his younger sister, the Countess of Pembroke;
The Defence of Poesie (1579), essay in defense of poetry,
imagination, and literary creation as vehicles of both teaching and entertainment
- Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593),
Tamburlaine (first staging 1587, first edition 1590), Dr.
Faustus (1592-93)