☆ A dramatic coronation ceremony ☆
In February 1308, the King and Queen of England held a coronation ceremony at the newly inaugurated St. Paul's Cathedral in London. It was an important coronation ceremony that dates back to the Viking Age.
The new queen, Isabella, was 12 years old and the daughter of King Philippe Le Bel (reigned Philip IV) of France. She was inherited from her father and was born as beautiful as a flower. Isabella had thick blond hair and big blue eyes with a determined gaze. She is witty and cunning, cold and warm, and good at hiding her emotions.
Queen Isabella, played by Sophie Marceau in the movie Braveheart
Her new husband, King Edward II (reigned 1307-1327), was 24 years old and a brainless fool who understood the amusement of watching court courtiers fall off the table.
For young girls, it was a fairytale coronation. Of course, two things were worse: a stucco wall collapsed, smashed the altar, and killed a spectator, and the king spent the afternoon with his favorite, Piers Gaveston, turning a blind eye to his new queen.
Stills from the movie Edward II
Edward put Gaverston, who had just been appointed Earl of Cornwall, in charge of the ceremony. The king and the "guardian of the kingdom" sat side by side under a coat of arms hanging on the wall, but this coat of arms represented not the king and queen, but King Edward and the Earl of Gaverston.
After the ceremony, Edward continued to hook up with his "favorite" instead of with his queen. On this very special day for Isabella, Gaverton dressed extraordinarily gorgeously, stealing her limelight. According to one witness, "He was dressed gorgeously and dressed like Mars, the god of war, not like an ordinary mortal." "The king's favourite, dressed in a purple royal dress with pearls, was so prerogatory and provocative that it was not at all what a courtier from a minor aristocratic background should wear. He may have done so to deliberately provoke the queen and her relatives.
Most offensively, the jewels That Gaverston wore turned out to be a wedding gift from Isabella's father to Edward. Other gifts from the King of France, including superior war horses, were also given to his son-in-law's favorite. A London chronicler said:
Rumor has it that the king preferred the cunning and vicious man to his bride—the truly elegant woman, the most beautiful woman.
To make matters worse, Gaverston was in charge of the wedding feast, but the chicken wasn't cooked at all, which was unappetizing. No wonder the new queen was unhappy with the events of the day, as her uncles Louis and Charles left the table in anger and returned to France after "seeing the king frequently going to Pierce to fool around and snubbing the queen".2 (By visiting England, they must have been prepared for the terrible diet here.) Gafston also managed to greatly provoke the Dignitaries of England that day. The coronation ceremony is a highly symbolic and ancient event that dates back to the time of King Edgar in 973. It is derived from the coronation of the Franks and represents divine recognition.
But it's also a big party for everyone, and they can use it to show their importance. However, Gaverston was given the status of a man of great aristocratic origin and private armed forces. He held the crown and held the Katina, the "Sword of Mercy," which was placed on an altar until the king offered gold to redeem it. He could also put spurs on the king's left shoe. Garverston's actions greatly displeased the nobles, which led to a long-term hatred between them, and 20 years later, most of the people involved in the dispute were brutally murdered.
Unsurprisingly, Edward and Isabella's marriage did not end well. The union of the English and French royal families brought about by their marriage caused an even greater catastrophe.
☆ Dark Ages in History ☆
Philip IV died in 1314, a few months after ordering the burning of the leaders of the Knights Templar. The Commander-in-Chief of the Order cursed Philip and his family in a fire. He cursed that all three of his sons would die prematurely, leaving none of them male offspring.
Only one of Philip's grandchildren survived to become king, and that was Isabella's son Edward, and his ascension to the French throne would plunge the two countries into a fierce and brutal struggle that would later be known as the Hundred Years' War in Victorian times.
Historical picture of the "Hundred Years' War"
In the decades that followed, the whole of France was ravaged by outlaws, criminals and mercenaries on a massive scale, who ransacked villages and left many people living in caves. Entire towns were destroyed and residents were brutally killed.
It was the worst war of the European Middle Ages, but it also marked the end of the medieval knighthood, in which the dominance of the noble knights was first destroyed by the longbow and later by firearms.
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 suffering traditionally known as the "Dark Ages," Western civilization finally flourished in the 12th century:
The first universities were established, literacy rates increased dramatically, great philosophers were born for the first time in centuries in Europe, cathedrals were built, wooden houses were replaced by stone houses, infighting wars were reduced, and Christians were on a par with the ancients in most technical fields. The "feudal anarchy" of the 11th century gradually evolved into a stable and organized state of central power through a war of mutual hatred, and created the conditions for the development of trade, industry, and art in a peaceful religious atmosphere.
European universities in the Middle Ages: Scenes of doctoral meetings at the University of Paris in the 14th century, painted by Étienne Colaud, Source: gallica.bnf.fr
The population is expanding, and so is the level of trade on the Continent. For the first time, a city like London reached the population of the Roman era. Pastor Thomas Malthus's theory of population points out that before agricultural technology could free Europe from the Malthusian trap, population growth meant more labor and more hungry people, and when population growth exceeded food production, it led to famine. (Agricultural progress over the past two hundred years refutes this, but it was possible until then.) The real wage growth rate of farm workers in England, if calculated from the beginning of the 13th century, had fallen to an all-time low. Resources and food are scarce, and many suffer from bone diseases, low immunity, and are much smaller than people two centuries ago.
For hundreds of years during the Warm Period of the Middle Ages, mild and dry weather allowed Europe to produce enough food – but now there is the Xiaoice River Period. Thus, in the spring of 1315, after the Templar Order was killed in Paris, the European continent was hit by a series of torrential rains and crop failures. In the Great Famine of 1315-1317, a tenth of England's population was killed, but even so, it was not the worst thing of the century. The worst thing is the plague.
☆ Plague, famine and art☆
This rat-borne disease claimed the lives of one-third or even half of Europe's population in the 1640s. In 1300, England had a population of 5 million, halved in just one century. For those who were not infected with the plague and therefore did not cough up "black blood", their lives were also miserable – half of them died before the age of 20. In some impoverished parts of England, life expectancy can be as low as 18 years.
Stills from the movie "The Black Death", at this time the Black Death has spread to Europe
While infancy is the most dangerous period, even those who have reached adulthood and have lived a relatively long time experience a variety of chronic illnesses and suffering. At that time, "childhood" in the modern sense did not exist – medieval boys had to work from the age of 7 and could be hanged. Girls usually become pregnant at the age of 14, the fertility period lasts 20 years, and the birth mortality rate is as high as one in sixty. So by the age of 30, women are exhausted, or, in the words of Geoffrey Chaucer, they are like "winter grass."
It wasn't just plagues, famines and wars. The Catholic Church was also divided, with two popes coexisting, and their mutual hostility caused endless suffering and even death. In the middle of the 14th century, Italy experienced a catastrophic banking collapse and several major earthquakes. Extremely violent rural uprisings broke out in both France and England.
In short, everything that could go wrong went wrong, and many writers lamented that the end of the world was coming.
However, this period also saw the emergence of some excellent works of art and poetry, such as those of Giotto, Dante, Boccaccio, and Jeffrey Chaucer of England. The art of painting was also sublimated during this period. In Wychton Tripdich, one of England's most famous works of art, the image of Richard II, the last monarch of the Plantagenet dynasty (who died in 1400, which coincided with the 14th century), bursts into the dazzling light of Renaissance art.
Historical picture of Richard II
At the same time, this period was also the most important period of development in the history of constitutional government, when the House of Commons was born and Parliament became the legislature on which the monarch relied. It all began with Edward II's frightening father (Edward I) and his insatiable desire to war.
If you want to see the ups and downs of this dark age, it is recommended to read The Age of Evil: Knights, Plague, the Hundred Years' War and the Withering of the Plantagenet Dynasty.
The Age of Sickness, by Ed West
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="154" > recommended reading:</h1>
One-hour History of England series
The Age of Evil: Knights, Plague, the Hundred Years' War, and the Fall of the Plantagenet Dynasty
by Ed West,
Translated by Shi Gengshan and Wan Hongfang
Looking back at the centuries-old great swing of the Middle Ages in England,
Get a glimpse of the various figurations of the knight era of swords and swords, and frequent disasters!