La Fresne Social Status

The Crusades of the High Middle Ages (a.d. 1050-1300) was a period of conquest or rather, reconquest, of Christian lands taken from Muslims in the early Middle Ages. It is an era romanticized by fervent Christians as the time when Christianity secured its honorable status as the true religion of the world. The affect of the Crusades is still with us today. It sailed from Spain and Portugal to the Americas in the fifthteenth century aboard sailing ships carrying conquistadors who sought new territory and rich resources. They used the shield and sword of Christianity to justify a swift conquest of mass territory and the subjugation of the indigenous peoples; a mentality learned, indeed,

The Crusades was a very important moment in human history, it showed the clashes between religions for land that most people considered to be sacred or holy. There isn’t one Crusade but rather a series of them, but we’ll be looking primarily at the First Crusade, Second Crusade, Third Crusade, and a little bit of the Fourth. It all starts in Rome (Nov 27th 1095) where Pope Urban the Second receives an important message from Byzantine Emperor Alexios the First where he pleads for help in supressing the Turkish troops. After receiving the message the Pope (standing in a field outside the city of Clermont) calls for the public to join the military excursion to the Middle East, and swiftly declares a Crusade with the primary objective of securing holy sites [Jaspert, Nikolas. The Crusades]. What followed was a large migration of troops from France and Italy on August and September of 1096. The

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the book "The Return of Martin Guerre" by Natalie Zamon Davis. Specifically, it will discuss the life of the peasant during the Middle Ages. This book is a fascinating account of a true case that happened during the 16th century in France. The book is also an excellent example of how the peasants lived in the Middle Ages, from what they ate, to how they traveled and what their family lives were like.

The crusaders traveled by land and by sea to take back the holy land from the Muslim infidels they tried to set up crusader states to claim more land but they failed. The crusades contributed to the construction of many European castles and missions and gave more power to the church. The crusades also helped contribute to the start of

The Crusades brought back many ideas to the western upon arrival. They brought back spices, sugars, and silk, which they later adopted and are used in the western states today. In the DBQ packet, it states, “When the Crusaders returned to Europe, they brought back things such as spices, sugars, and silk.” This quote shows a positive impact on the Western world. One negative impact that impacted the Western world was that rather than reuniting the Greek and Latin churches, the Crusades only caused them to be further apart. The text states, “When one of the goals of the Fourth Crusade was reunion of Greek and Latin Churches, made the split between Greek and Latin churches permanent.” This quote shows a negative impact that the Crusades had on the western world. Even though the western world had to face these things, the Eastern world had to face many things as

Before the crusades, Europeans were self sufficient, living off the their Lord’s Manor. Peasants and serfs traded using items, and there was no need for money. However, nobles needed money in order to pay for travel to the Holy Land. Thus, they allowed the serfs to pay rent in money as well as goods. In order to earn money, peasants sold their items in town, which in turn lead to growth of towns and cities. With an increase in urbanization, serfs saw an opportunity to start a better life away from manoralism. Hence, many serfs ran towards rapidly growing cities. Trade finally flourished throughout Europe, and as stated in More on the Effects of the Crusades, “Nobles and merchants enjoyed the new luxuries and wanted more of them” (Document 8). However, as trade rapidly increased, it not only brought goods from the Islamic Empire, but it also ideas. As new ideas reached Europe, people shifted interest towards education, and life in towns and cities became more popular. Additionally, the Description of the Motivation Behind the Crusaders Desire to Fight in the Holy War illustrates that many Europeans went to the Holy Land in order to “[look] for adventure, for estates, or for commercial opportunities” (Document 3). Although the crusades’ primary goal was to conquer the Holy Land, many Europeans were attracted to the crusades because new experience and opportunity. Serfs and low class citizens

There was a time when social classes were most easily identified through material goods and possessions. Whether wealth was gained through inheritance or hard work, it was the luxury items that made the most visible and tangible statement regarding a person’s social status. Men could rely on a large house or expensive car to proclaim the success they had earned. It was much more common to see women adorned in jewels, designer clothes, and furs as symbols of her upper class status. The extravagance of a woman’s appearance was a reflection of the success of her husband, so it was natural to indulge her desire for expensive material possessions.

It led to people from different civilizations sharing the knowledge that they had gathered throughout the years and also some received land from the war. Document 4 has stated, “The opportunity for combining Christian duty with the acquisition of land in a southern climate was very attractive.” This statement proves that soldiers received land from the Crusades. They needed this land because there was a law in France which had stated that everything a man owned would going his first son, which left the others with nothing. They then had to find a way to make their own living/ income.

If the Crusades were more positive and didn’t have so many battles or wars maybe other tribes and groups of people would join the Crusades more often. Document 2 states that the economic impact of the Crusades were “Merchants in Venice and other northern Italian cities built large fleets to carry Crusaders to the Holy Land. They later used those fleets to open new markets in the Crusaders’ land. This is interesting because it tells you what the Crusaders built and later tells us what they use it for. Document

During Flaubert’s lifetime, the Revolution of 1789 and the autocratic reign of Napoleon were recent memories. With the revolution came the end of the feudal system and a rise to a new group: the bourgeoisie. This group was made up of merchants, capitalists, and other professionals who did not inherit their fortune and were not born into the nobility. Emma and her husband belonged to this group. Her disappointments in life stemmed from her dissatisfaction with the lifestyle of the French bourgeoisie. She aspires to be a part of the aristocratic lifestyle of the nobility; a lifestyle more sophisticated, refined and glamorous than her own. The bourgeoisie craved the same treatment as the nobility, and were constantly attempting to exhibit their wealth creating tastes that were often characterized as gaudy. As a member of the educated elite with inherited money, Flaubert despised the moral conservatism, rough manners, and unsophisticated taste of this new class. Frustrated by the mediocracy of rising middle class, Flaubert uses Emma’s disgust with her lifestyle to convey his own dislike for the bourgeoisie. Emma felt the full suffering of the middle class as "the appetites of the flesh, the craving for money, the melancholy of passion, all blended together in one general misery” just like France’s

From the start of The Crusades, it was made clear that there would be a reward for Christians taking part in the action. People had to be persuaded into joining the fight and so they were promised a holy

In addition, the author creates a paradox in describing the differences in the world between different socioeconomic classes. He again uses repetition emphasizing that the increase of meaningless possessions can higher your social status: “…the better texture of his clothes ,the better quality of his food and drink, his two or three servants…”, “The social atmosphere is that of a besieged city, where the possession of a lump of horseflesh makes the difference between wealth and

In the basis of ancient medieval literature, there were at least three principle concepts that were guidelines for writers: the tradition of chivalry, use of power, and the art of courtly love. In her lais, or lyrical narrative, Marie de France uses all three of them, but not exactly in the traditional sense that men of her time favored. Through her writings, Marie de France has shown great focus on members of the aristocracy that were not as prominently acknowledged, which included both women and single knights, and portrayed characters that she observed in real life in ways that did or did not conform to their stereotypes. Additionally, she challenged the roles often found in 12th century writings by using ordinary heroines and heroes to work through both genuine and figurative conflicts. Through the lai of “Lanval”, Marie subtly works through the theme of courtly love in a separate ideal setting that both challenges and reverses the typical gender roles without completely letting go of the accepted cultural standards of that time.

One can also only speculate that how Madame Lantin’s insatiable craving for jewels, that her husband cannot afford, is motivated by the socioeconomic condition of the world in which she moves. When Maupassant explains that Madame Lantin is extremely reluctant at first to go out in the evenings without her husband to escort her, he gives the reader one of the only clues about her possible feelings as she makes the transformation from a dutiful and virtuous wife into a woman who is extravagantly showered with expensive gems by other men. (Constantakis 1)

“Useless Beauty” is the story of Countess de Mascaret and her husband, Count de Mascaret. During their eleven-year marriage, they have seven children and the Countess has fallen deaf to otiose adulation from her husband. The Countess feels as though her husband loves her only because he asserts claim over her youth and life, over her ability to have children. He loves their children not as a father but again as a victory over her youth and life. One day the