The Calamitous Fourteenth Century

The Four Horsemen

The High Middle AgesCirca 1050-1300

Investiture Controversy--England

Key Terms Henry II (r. 1154-1189) Thomas Becket(ca. 1118-1170) Councils of

Clarendon (1164) John I(r. 1199-1216) Pope Innocent III(r. 1198-1216)

Investiture Controversy—Holy Roman Empire

Key Terms Henry VI(r. 1056-1106) Pope Gregory VII(r. 1073-1085) Matilda of

Tuscany Canossa Concordat of

Worms (1122)

What is the historical significance of the investiture contest?

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Key Terms Pope Boniface VIII (r. 1294-1303)

Unum Sanctum (1302) Philip IV (the Fair) of France (r. 1285-1314) Avignon Pope Gregory IX (r. 1370-1378) Pope urban VI (r. 1378-1389) (Rome) Pope Clement VII (r. 1378-1394) (Avignon) Pope Martin V (r. 1417-1431) (Rome)

Babylonian Captivity (1304-1374)

Schism (1378-1417)

Key Terms Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)

Essay on the Principle of Population Malthusian Crisis

Little Ice Age Great Famine (1315-1317)

Malthusian Crisis

The dearth began in the month of May and lasted until the feast of the nativity of the Virgin [September 8]. The summer rains were so heavy that grain could not ripen. It could hardly be gathered and used to bake bread down to the said feast day unless it was first put in vessels to dry. Around the end of autumn the dearth was mitigated in part, but toward Christmas it became as bad as before. Bread did not have its usual nourishing power and strength because the grain was not nourished by the warmth of summer sunshine. Hence those who ate it, even in large quantities, were hungry again after a little while. There can be no doubt that the poor wasted away when even the rich were constantly hungry....

Johannes de Trokelowe, Annales, 1315

Four pennies worth of coarse bread was not enough to feed a common man for one day. The usual kinds of meat, suitable for eating, were too scarce; horse meat was precious; plump dogs were stolen. And, according to many reports, men and women in many places secretly ate their own children....

Johannes de Trokelowe, Annales