27.4 Europe: a.d. 1201 to 1300  (Page 8/14)

The French language was spoken by the elite abroad before the French nation learned it. Marco Polo wrote the account of his travels in French. Since the time of Hugh Capet (10th century) about half a dozen dialects struggled for preponderance. The Crusade against the Albigensian heretics, for instance, was less a religious struggle than France 's version of a north-south civil war between the langue d'oc (language of the south) and the "langue d'oil" (language of the north). The latter won. (Ref. 74 )

The whole of France now used the vertical plane windmill as a source of power. By 1200 Montpellier, on the southern coast, had become the premier medical school of all Europe.

The netherlands and belgium

The Hanseatic League continued an active existence on the Baltic Sea and their ships were now using a new, true rudder and bowsprit, which allowed better close- hauled sailing. (Ref. 222 ) Holland, which had been a part of the Frank Kingdom from the 3rd to the 9th centuries, then an area of German feudal fiefs, began to have some unity in this 13th century. The Hague became the capital in 1250 and Amsterdam became a great free port in about 1297. Rotterdam had also began to rise in importance, with increasing trade with England. Hereafter Holland played a large part in the economic world. The Zuider Zee, which was originally a large, shallow lake in a swamp, became swollen with floods in this period and broke through to the North Sea, thereafter to be an arm of the ocean.

In Flanders the textile industry assumed a large scale, semi-capitalistic structure in which thousands of workers produced goods for investors of capital. Modern Belgium came chiefly from this Flanders territory. The people were Flemish, speaking a low German and Walloons, who were a mixture of Germans and French on a Celtic base, speaking a dialect of French. Throughout the Middle Ages they were variously dominated now by the English and now by the French.

British isles

Additional Notes

England

As the century opened King John (Lackland) lost all of the crown's possessions on the continent north of the Loire and got into serious trouble with the pope. To increase his difficulties his nobles insisted on limiting his powers, forcing him to reluctantly sign the Magna Charta, which was to have far reaching and long-lasting effect in the entire English speaking world. That document freed the Church of England from the monarchy, established the principles of Habeas Corpus and trial by jury, increased the power of the purse to Parliament and transformed an absolute monarchy into a limited and constitutional one. When King John died of dysentery in the next year, his nine year old son was crowned as Henry III. As he matured, Henry developed a love of splendor and unfortunately contributed very little to the English nation. His son, Edward I, who became king in 1272, however, was the best of the Plantagenet line. Because he established a Code of Laws, he has been called "the English Justinian" and he also was the foster father of the House of Commons and the first truly English king. He died in a campaign against Scotland.