Crisis of the Late Middle Ages
Essay on Nationalism
In its discussion of the Hundred Years� War (pp. 342-48),
your text enumerates several consequences of this conflict. It mentions the devastation to France,
the worsening of the European economy, and the worsening of the divisions in
the church. It also mentions that
the war made the English �more English.�
There is more to said in this respect, because not only did the English
become more English, but the French also became more French. The war helped to shape a new sense of
identity in both England and France.
For centuries, Europeans identified by their loyalties to their feudal
lords, or they identified themselves as �Christians,� meaning that they were
subjects of Christendom. By the 15th
century this was changing. By the
end of the Hundred Years� War, English people identified themselves as
�English� and French identified themselves as �French.� In both France and England, the
subjects� primary loyalty was to their king and their country. This nationalist identity was the
critical first step towards the modern nation state. The middle ages were over. Feudalism was dying, as was the
universal authority of the church.
The way in which the war was fought was one reason for this
transformation. As your book
states, the infantry and archery of the English forces proved vastly superior
to older tactics of the French knighthood. To have a large and effective infantry, however, is very
expensive. One must recruit, train
and maintain large numbers of men who, unlike medieval knights, have few
resources of their own. The
complexity and expense of infantry only became greater when the first firearms
were introduced in following century.
These changes in warfare gave put a premium on an accumulation of wealth
and organizing capacity that only the greatest rulers could accomplish. This gave a great advantage to kings
over the nobility, and to more centralized and organized kingdoms over more
disorganized ones. England was
much smaller than France, but its kings had more power, and through parliament,
more money. They could therefore organize
more military might than the French kings could. On the other hand, the wars forced the French kings and
subjects to learn their lesson.
With the help of Joan of Arc, they rallied around their king to fight
off the English, and in so doing made the French kings far more powerful than
they had been before.
The role of Joan of Arc illustrates an important facet of
this transformation of national identities. Joan�s message essentially was that God wished to save the
French people by making the king victorious. In other words, God was to work salvation through the French
king and his armies, not only through priests and prayer. It was important for late medieval
people, whose ideals were still so strongly connected to Christianity, to see
their nation as an instrument of God.
This enabled them to transfer their loyalties more completely to their
country. The same was true of the
English. A very telling piece of
evidence is the Agincourt Carol, written to celebrate the English king Henry
V�s great victory over the French at Agincourt in 1415. These are the words:
Deo gracias, Anglia, redde pro
victoria!
(Give thanks to God, England, for
bringing victory)
Our King went forth
to Normandy
With grace and might
of chivalry
There God for him
wrought marvelously:
Wherefore England may
call and cry Deo gracias
Then went him forth,
our king comely,
In Agincourt field he
fought manly;
Through grace of God
most marvelously,
He had both field and
victory.
Deo gracias
The lords, earls and
barons
Were slain and taken
in that full soon,
And some were brought
to London
With joy and bliss
and great renoun.
Deo gracias
Almighty God he keep
our king.
His people, and all
his well-willing.
And give them grace
without ending;
Then may we call and
savely sing:
Deo gracias.
The
first line is in Latin, the language of the church and of faith. It calls upon English people to give
thanks to God for victory. There
are two things to notice right away.
First, is the way in which the lyrics call for England to join together
as English people to celebrate their victory. Second, is the close association
of God and the English nation.
These are the two themes that the verses flesh out in greater
detail. All this may seem
unremarkable, but that is only because we are used to this sort of patriotism
in our society. We have long been
trained to think in the way this carol teaches. But in 1415, this was new, just as the polyphonic carol
music was itself a relatively new form of music.
When
William Shakespeare wished to write historical plays honoring the greatest
moments in the rise of the English kingdom, he quite focused especial attention
on Henry V. In three plays, Henry
IV pt. 1, Henry IV, pt. 2, and Henry V, Shakespeare carefully traced the development of Henry�s character
from a fun-loving wastrel prince to the victor of Agincourt and builder of the
greatest kingdom since Charlemagne. In his famous St. Crispin�s Day speech, Shakespeare�s Henry
declares all who fight with him will be his �brothers,� no matter their rank,
suggesting that there is a sort of unity and equality for those who dedicate
themselves to their king and to their nation. No doubt
Shakespeare reads more into Henry and into that moment of history than was
really there. But his works do
evoke something of that tremendous transformation at the time when subjects devoted
their full allegiance to their king and country and ushered in the age of the
modern nation state.