The Age of Evil | Knights, plagues, the Hundred Years' War and the withering of the Plantagenet Dynasty

The Age of Evil

Ed West, senior British writer and journalist, associate director of UK2020, Daily Telegraph, Times, Guardian, The Observer, London Evening Standard, And The Week) and other front-line media magazines long-term contributors.

Introduction to the content of "The Age of Evil":

The book covers the period of violence and disease in 1272-1399, England in the Age of Knighthood and Sickness, and deals with events, people, and ideas, including Jeffrey Chaucer, the Peasant Revolt, the Scottish War of Independence, the Great Famine of 1315, the Black Death, and the Hundred Years' War. At the heart of this period was King Edward III, who waged the Hundred Years' War and defined chivalry, including the Garter Medal of England. Historians call this period "the crisis of the late Middle Ages." Despite the crisis, this dark period has also brought some benefits to people. After centuries of chaos and misery traditionally known as the "Dark Ages," Western civilization finally flourished in the 12th century: early universities were established, literacy rates increased dramatically, great philosophers were born for the first time in centuries in Europe, cathedrals were built, stone houses replaced wooden houses, infighting wars diminished, and Christians were on a par with the ancients in most technical fields. In the "feudal anarchy" of the 11th century, a war of mutual hatred gradually evolved into a stable and organized central power, and created the conditions for the development of trade, industry, and art in a peaceful religious atmosphere.

The sudden arrival of the new crown in 2020 has made the original rift between the East and the West more antagonistic, breaking the original world pattern. Isolationism and hegemonism run rampant, the cloak of freedom and equality is stained with the "Chinese virus" dominated by the West, and the spirit of "gentleman" is trampled on to the point that only turmoil, riots, and escapes are left, which is the so-called Western freedom and democracy.