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.