View source for Late Middle Ages

{{short description|Period of European history between AD 1300 and 1500}}
[[File:Europe in the 14th Century.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Europe and the Mediterranean region, {{circa|1354}}<!--Caption is for an old version:<br/>
Western/Central Europe:
{{legend-col|thumb size=wide
|{{color box|#cecece|border=silver}} [[Holy Roman Empire]]
|{{color box|#add7e7|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of France]]
|{{color box|#e8c6ad|border=silver}} [[Duchy of Gascony]]
}}
Eastern Europe:
{{legend-col|thumb size=wide
|{{color box|#b5e6ae|border=silver}} [[State of the Teutonic Order]]
|{{color box|#aebde8|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of Poland|Poland]]
|{{color box|#afe8df|border=silver}} [[Duchy of Masovia]]
|{{color box|#aee7c6|border=silver}} [[Wallachia]]
|{{color box|#add7e7|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of Hungary (1301–1526)|Hungary]] and [[Croatia in personal union with Hungary|Croatia]]
|{{color box|#cee7ad|border=silver}} [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]]
}}
Russia/Siberia:
{{legend-col|thumb size=wide
|{{color box|#cecece|border=silver}} [[Khanate of the Golden Horde]]
|{{color box|#c4c8d3|border=silver}} [[Golden Horde#Vassals and allies|G. Horde Vassals]]
|{{color box|#cee7ad|border=silver}} [[Genovese Provinces|Genovese Prov.]]
}}
Italian peninsula:
{{legend-col|thumb size=wide
|{{color box|#b5e6ae|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of Sicily]]
|{{color box|#add7e7|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of Naples]]
|{{color box|#e7addf|border=silver}} [[Papal States]]
|{{color box|#e5adac|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of Sardinia]]
|{{color box|#e7e6ad|border=silver}} [[Republic of Venice]]
|{{color box|#cfe5b4|border=silver}} [[Republic of Genoa]]
}}
Iberian peninsula:
{{legend-col|thumb size=wide
|{{color box|#e7e6ad|border=silver}} [[Crown of Aragon]]
|{{color box|#e7adc6|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of Portugal]]
|{{color box|#cee7ad|border=silver}} [[Crown of Castile]]
|{{color box|#d6ade7|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of Navarre]]
|{{color box|#ade6dd|border=silver}} [[Emirate of Granada]]
}}
Nordics:
{{legend-col|thumb size=wide
|{{color box|#e6e7ad|border=silver}} [[Medieval Denmark|Denmark]]
|{{color box|#bcade6|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of Norway (872–1397)|Iceland]]
|{{color box|#bcade6|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of Norway (872–1397)|Norway]]
|{{color box|#e7adac|border=silver}} [[Lands of Sweden|Sweden]]
}}
British Isles:
{{legend-col|thumb size=wide
|{{color box|#e8c6ad|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of England|England]] and [[Wales in the Late Middle Ages|Wales]]
|{{color box|#e7e6ad|border=silver}} [[History of Ireland (1169–1536)|Ireland]]
|{{color box|#e7adac|border=silver}} [[Scotland in the late Middle Ages|Scotland]]
}}
Balkans/West Asia:
{{legend-col|thumb size=wide
|{{color box|#cee7ad|border=silver}} [[Principality of Achaea]]
|{{color box|#aee7de|border=silver}} [[Duchy of Athens]]
|{{color box|#e7addf|border=silver}} [[Byzantine Empire]]
|{{color box|#e7adac|border=silver}} [[Mamluk Sultanate]]
|{{color box|#aee7de|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of Serbia (medieval)|Serbia]]
|{{color box|#d6d6d6|border=silver}} [[Anatolian beyliks]]
|{{color box|#e7e6ae|border=silver}} [[Venetian Crete]]
|{{color box|#d1fed5|border=silver}} [[Knights of St. John]]
|{{color box|#d6d6d6|border=silver}} [[Tsardom of Vidin]]
|{{color box|#e8c6ad|border=silver}} [[Second Bulgarian Empire]]
|{{color box|#add7e7|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of Cyprus]]
|{{color box|#e8c6ad|border=silver}} [[Ilkhanate]]
|{{color box|#e7adc6|border=silver}} [[Kingdom of Georgia]]
|{{color box|#aee7de|border=silver}} [[Empire of Trebizond]]
}}
North Africa:
{{legend-col|thumb size=wide
|{{color box|#aee7c6|border=silver}} [[History of medieval Tunisia|Tunis]]
|{{color box|#b5e6ae|border=silver}} [[Marinid dynasty]]
|{{color box|#aee7c6|border=silver}} [[Ziyyanid dynasty]]
|{{color box|#add7e7|border=silver}} [[Hafsid dynasty]]
}}-->]]
[[File:Great famine.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|From the Apocalypse in a ''[[Biblia Pauperum]]'' illuminated at [[Erfurt]] around the time of the [[Great Famine of 1315–1317|Great Famine]]. Death sits astride a lion whose long tail ends in a ball of flame (Hell). Famine points to her hungry mouth.]]
The '''late Middle Ages''' or '''late medieval period''' was the [[Periodization|period]] of [[History of Europe|European history]] lasting from 1300 to 1500&nbsp;AD. The late Middle Ages followed the [[High Middle Ages]] and preceded the onset of the [[early modern period]] (and in much of Europe, the [[Renaissance]]).<ref>Wallace K. Ferguson, ''Europe in transition, 1300–1520'' (1962) [https://archive.org/details/europeintransiti00ferg online].</ref>

Around 1350, centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe came to a halt. A series of [[famine]]s and [[Plague (disease)|plagues]], including the [[Great Famine of 1315–1317]] and the [[Black Death]], reduced the population to around half of what it had been before the calamities.<ref>Austin Alchon, Suzanne (2003). ''A pest in the land: new world epidemics in a global perspective''. University of New Mexico Press. p. 21. {{ISBN|0-8263-2871-7}}.</ref> Along with depopulation came social unrest and [[endemic warfare]]. [[Kingdom of France|France]] and [[Kingdom of England|England]] experienced serious peasant uprisings, such as the [[Jacquerie]] and the [[Peasants' Revolt]], as well as over a century of intermittent conflict, the [[Hundred Years' War]]. To add to the many problems of the period, the unity of the [[Catholic Church]] was temporarily shattered by the [[Western Schism]]. Collectively, those events are sometimes called the [[crisis of the late Middle Ages]].<ref>Norman Cantor, ''The Civilization of the Middle Ages'' (1994) p. 480.</ref>

Despite the crises, the 14th century was also a time of great progress in the arts and sciences. Following a renewed interest in ancient [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] and [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] texts that took root in the High Middle Ages, the [[Italian Renaissance]] began. The absorption of Latin texts had started before the [[Renaissance of the 12th century]] through contact with Arabs during the [[Crusades]], but the availability of important Greek texts accelerated with the [[fall of Constantinople]] to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Turks]], when many [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] scholars had to seek refuge in the West, particularly Italy.<ref>Cantor, p. 594.</ref>

Combined with this influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing, which facilitated the dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning. Those two things would later lead to the [[Reformation]]. Toward the end of the period, the [[Age of Discovery]] began. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire cut off trading possibilities with the East. Europeans were forced to seek new trading routes, leading to the Spanish expedition under [[Christopher Columbus]] to the [[Americas]] in 1492 and [[Vasco da Gama]]'s voyage to Africa and India in 1498. Their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations.

The changes brought about by these developments have led many scholars to view this period as the end of the [[Middle Ages]] and the beginning of [[modern history]] and of [[early modern Europe]]. However, the division is somewhat artificial, since ancient learning was never entirely absent from European society.{{Citation needed|date=March 2019}} As a result, there was [[Continuity thesis|developmental continuity]] between the [[Ancient history|ancient age]] (via [[classical antiquity]]) and the [[modern age]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2019}} Some historians, particularly in Italy, prefer not to speak of the late Middle Ages at all; rather, they see the high period of the Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance and the modern era.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

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==Historiography and periodization==
{{Human history}}

The term "late Middle Ages" refers to one of the three periods of the [[Middle Ages]], along with the early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages. [[Leonardo Bruni]] was the first historian to use tripartite periodization in his ''History of the Florentine People'' (1442).<ref name="Hankins">Leonardo Bruni, James Hankins, ''History of the Florentine people'', Volume 1, Books 1–4, (2001), p. xvii.</ref> [[Flavio Biondo]] used a similar framework in ''Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire'' (1439–1453). Tripartite periodization became standard after the German historian [[Christoph Cellarius]] published ''Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, and New Period'' (1683).

For 18th-century historians studying the 14th and 15th centuries, the central theme was the [[Renaissance]], with its rediscovery of ancient learning and the emergence of an individual spirit.<ref>Brady ''et al.'', p. xiv; Cantor, p. 529.</ref> The heart of this rediscovery lies in Italy, where, in the words of [[Jacob Burckhardt]], "Man became a spiritual individual and recognized himself as such."<ref>{{cite book|first=Jacob|last=Burckhardt|author-link=Jacob Burckhardt|title=The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy|year=1860|page=[https://archive.org/details/civilizationofre00burc_2/page/121 121]|publisher=Harper & Row |url=https://archive.org/details/civilizationofre00burc_2/page/121|isbn=0-06-090460-7}}</ref> This proposition was later challenged, and it was argued that the 12th century was a period of greater cultural achievement.<ref>{{cite book|first= Charles Homer|last=Haskins|author-link=Charles Homer Haskins|title= The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century|publisher= Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|year=1927|url=https://archive.org/details/renaissanceoftw00char|url-access= registration|isbn= 0-19-821934-2}}</ref>

As economic and demographic methods were applied to the study of history, the trend was increasingly to see the late Middle Ages as a period of recession and crisis. [[Belgium|Belgian]] historian [[Henri Pirenne]] continued the subdivision of [[early Middle Ages|Early]], [[High Middle Ages|High]], and late Middle Ages in the years around [[World War I]].<ref>"Les périodes de l'histoire du capitalisme", ''Académie Royale de Belgique. Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres'', 1914.</ref> Yet it was his [[Netherlands|Dutch]] colleague, [[Johan Huizinga]], who was primarily responsible for popularising the pessimistic view of the late Middle Ages, with his book ''[[The Autumn of the Middle Ages]]'' (1919).<ref>{{cite book|first=Johan|last=Huizinga|author-link=Johan Huizinga|title=The Waning of the Middle Ages: A Study of the Forms of Life, Thought and Art in France and the Netherlands in the XIVth and XVth Centuries|publisher=E. Arnold|location=London|year=1924|url=https://archive.org/details/waningofmiddle00huiz|isbn=0-312-85540-0}}</ref> To Huizinga, whose research focused on France and the [[Low Countries]] rather than Italy, despair and decline were the main themes, not rebirth.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last =Allmand|title =The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 7: c. 1415 – c. 1500|date =1998|page =299|publisher =Cambridge University Press|isbn =9780521382960|url =https://books.google.com/books?id=Qzc8OeuSXFMC&pg=PA299|access-date =2023-12-07|archive-date =2024-06-10|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20240610000439/https://books.google.com/books?id=Qzc8OeuSXFMC&pg=PA299#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status =live}}</ref><ref>Norman Cantor, ''The Civilization of the Middle Ages'' (1994) p. 530.</ref>

Modern historiography on the period has reached a consensus between the two extremes of innovation and crisis. It is now generally acknowledged that conditions were vastly different north and south of the Alps, and the term "late Middle Ages" is often avoided entirely within Italian historiography.<ref>Le Goff, p. 154. See e.g. {{cite book|first=John M.|last=Najemy|title=Italy in the Age of the Renaissance: 1300–1550|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2004|isbn=0-19-870040-7}}</ref> The term "Renaissance" is still considered useful for describing certain intellectual, cultural, or artistic developments but not as the defining feature of an entire European historical epoch.<ref name="Bradyxvii">Brady ''et al.'', p. xvii.</ref> The period from the early 14th century up until&nbsp;– and sometimes including&nbsp;– the 16th century is rather seen as characterized by other trends: demographic and economic decline followed by recovery, the end of Western religious unity and the subsequent emergence of the [[nation-state]], and the expansion of European influence onto the rest of the world.<ref name="Bradyxvii"/>

==History==
The limits of [[Christendom|Christian Europe]] were still being defined in the 14th and 15th centuries. While the [[Grand Duchy of Moscow]] was beginning to repel the [[Mongol Empire|Mongols]], and the [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberian]] kingdoms completed the [[Reconquista]] of the peninsula and turned their attention outwards, the [[Balkans]] fell under the dominance of the [[Ottoman Empire]].{{efn|name="For references, see below"|For references, see below.}} Meanwhile, the remaining nations of the continent were locked in almost constant international or internal conflict.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 3; Holmes, p. 294; Koenigsberger, pp. 299–300.</ref>

The situation gradually led to the consolidation of central authority and the emergence of the [[nation state]].<ref name="BradyJones">Brady et al., p. xvii; Jones, p. 21.</ref> The financial demands of war necessitated higher levels of taxation, resulting in the emergence of representative bodies&nbsp;– most notably the [[Parliament of England|English Parliament]].<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 29; Cantor, p. 514; Koenigsberger, pp. 300–303.</ref> The growth of secular authority was further aided by the decline of the papacy with the [[Western Schism]] and the coming of the [[Protestant Reformation]].<ref>Brady et al., p. xvii; Holmes, p. 276; Ozment, p. 4.</ref>

===Northern Europe===
{{Main|History_of_Denmark#Middle_Ages|History_of_Norway#Middle_Ages|History_of_Sweden_(800–1521)#Middle_Ages|l1=Denmark in the Middle Ages|l2=Norway in the Middle Ages|l3=Sweden in the Middle Ages|Kalmar Union}}

After the failed union of [[Sweden]] and [[Norway]] of 1319–1365, the pan-Scandinavian [[Kalmar Union]] was instituted in 1397.<ref>Hollister, p. 366; Jones, p. 722.</ref> The Swedes were reluctant members of the [[Denmark|Danish]]-dominated union from the start. In an attempt to subdue the Swedes, King [[Christian II of Denmark]] had large numbers of the Swedish aristocracy killed in the [[Stockholm Bloodbath]] of 1520. Yet this measure only led to further hostilities, and Sweden broke away for good in 1523.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 703</ref> Norway, on the other hand, became an inferior party of the union and remained united with Denmark until 1814.

[[Iceland]] benefited from its relative isolation and was the last [[Scandinavia]]n country to be struck by the [[Black Death]].<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 673.</ref> Meanwhile, the [[Norse Greenland|Norse colony in Greenland]] died out, probably under extreme weather conditions in the 15th century.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 193.</ref> These conditions might have been the effect of the [[Little Ice Age]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102/text/extlittleice.htm|title=The Little Ice Age: When global cooling gripped the world|newspaper=The Washington Post|author=Alan Cutler|date=1997-08-13|access-date=2008-03-12|archive-date=2019-10-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022092543/http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102/text/extlittleice.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Northwest Europe===
{{Main|England in the Late Middle Ages|Scotland in the Late Middle Ages|Wales in the Late Middle Ages|History of Ireland (1169–1536)}}
{{Further|Hundred Years' War|Wars of the Roses|Wars of Scottish Independence}}
[[File:Schlacht von Azincourt.jpg|thumb|The Battle of Agincourt, 15th-century miniature, [[Enguerrand de Monstrelet]]]]

The death of [[Alexander III of Scotland]] in 1286 threw the country into a [[succession crisis]], and the English king, [[Edward I of England|Edward I]], was brought in to arbitrate. Edward claimed overlordship over Scotland, leading to the [[Wars of Scottish Independence]].<ref>Jones, pp. 348–349.</ref> The English were eventually defeated, and the Scots were able to develop a stronger state under the [[House of Stuart|Stewarts]].<ref>Jones, pp. 350–351; Koenigsberger, p. 232; McKisack, p. 40.</ref>

From 1337, England's attention was largely directed towards France in the [[Hundred Years' War]].<ref>Jones, p. 351.</ref> [[Henry V of England|Henry V's]] victory at the [[Battle of Agincourt]] in 1415 briefly paved the way for a unification of the two kingdoms, but his son [[Henry VI of England|Henry VI]] soon squandered all previous gains.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 458; Koenigsberger, p. 309.</ref> The loss of France led to discontent at home. Soon after the end of the war in 1453, the dynastic struggles of the [[Wars of the Roses]] (c. 1455–1485) began, involving the rival dynasties of the [[House of Lancaster]] and [[House of York]].<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 458; Nicholas, pp. 32–33.</ref>

The war ended in the accession of [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]] of the [[House of Tudor]], who continued the work started by the Yorkist kings of building a strong, centralized monarchy.<ref>Hollister, p. 353; Jones, pp. 488–492.</ref> While England's attention was thus directed elsewhere, the [[Hiberno-Norman]] lords in [[Ireland]] were becoming gradually more assimilated into Irish society, and the island was allowed to develop virtual independence under English overlordship.<ref>McKisack, pp. 228–229.</ref>

===Western Europe===
{{Main|France in the Middle Ages|Duchy of Burgundy|Burgundian Netherlands}}
[[File:Map France 1477-en.svg|thumb|France by 1477: a mosaic of feudal territories]]

The [[France|French]] [[House of Valois]], which followed the [[House of Capet]] in 1328, was at its outset marginalized in its own country, first by the English invading forces of the [[Hundred Years' War]] and later by the powerful [[Duchy of Burgundy]].<ref>Hollister, p. 355; Holmes, pp. 288–289; Koenigsberger, p. 304.</ref> The emergence of [[Joan of Arc]] as a military leader changed the course of war in favour of the French, and the initiative was carried further by King [[Louis XI of France|Louis XI]].<ref>Duby, pp. 288–293; Holmes, p. 300.</ref>

Meanwhile, [[Charles the Bold]], [[Duke of Burgundy]], met resistance in his attempts to consolidate his possessions, particularly from the [[Old Swiss Confederacy|Swiss Confederation]] formed in 1291.<ref>Allmand (1998), pp. 450–455; Jones, pp. 528–529.</ref> When Charles was killed in the [[Burgundian Wars]] at the [[Battle of Nancy]] in 1477, the [[Duchy of Burgundy]] was reclaimed by France.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 455; Hollister, p. 355; Koenigsberger, p. 304.</ref> At the same time, the [[County of Burgundy]] and the wealthy [[Burgundian Netherlands]] came into the [[Holy Roman Empire]] under [[Habsburg]] control, setting up conflict for centuries to come.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 455; Hollister, p. 363; Koenigsberger, pp. 306–307.</ref>

===Central Europe===
{{Main|Holy Roman Empire|Lands of the Bohemian Crown (1348–1526)|History of Poland during the Jagiellonian dynasty|5=Old Swiss Confederacy|6=Grand Duchy of Lithuania|7=Kingdom of Hungary (1301–1526)}}
[[File:Silver mine, Kutna Hora.jpg|thumb|left|Silver mining and processing in [[Kutná Hora]], Bohemia, 15th century]]

[[Bohemia]] prospered in the 14th century, and the [[Golden Bull of 1356]] made the king of Bohemia first among the [[Prince-elector|imperial electors]], but the [[Hussite Wars|Hussite revolution]] threw the country into crisis.<ref>Holmes, pp. 311–312; Wandycz, p. 40</ref> The [[Holy Roman Empire]] passed to the [[House of Habsburg]] in 1438, where it remained until its [[Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire|dissolution]] in 1806.<ref>Hollister, p. 362; Holmes, p. 280.</ref> Yet in spite of the [[Habsburg monarchy|extensive territories held by the Habsburgs]], the Empire itself remained fragmented, and much real power and influence lay with the individual principalities.<ref>Cantor, p. 507; Hollister, p. 362.</ref> In addition, financial institutions, such as the [[Hanseatic League]] and the [[Fugger]] family, held great power, on both economic and political levels.<ref>Allmand (1998), pp. 152–153; Cantor, p. 508; Koenigsberger, p. 345.</ref>

The [[Kingdom of Hungary (1301–1526)|Kingdom of Hungary]] experienced a golden age during the 14th century.<ref>Wandycz, p. 38.</ref> In particular the reigns of the [[Capetian House of Anjou|Angevin]] kings [[Charles I of Hungary|Charles Robert]] (1308–42) and his son [[Louis the Great]] (1342–82) were marked by success.<ref>Wandycz, p. 40.</ref> The country grew wealthy as the main European supplier of gold and silver.<ref>Jones, p. 737.</ref> Louis the Great led successful campaigns from Lithuania to Southern Italy, and from Poland to Northern Greece.

He had the greatest military potential of the 14th century with his enormous armies (often over 100,000 men). Meanwhile, [[Kingdom of Poland (1025–1385)|Poland]]'s attention was turned eastwards, as the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Commonwealth]] with [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuania]] created an enormous entity in the region.<ref>Koenigsberger, p. 318; Wandycz, p. 41.</ref> The union, and the conversion of Lithuania, also marked the end of [[paganism]] in Europe.<ref>Jones, p. 7.</ref>

[[File:Beckov Horne nadvorie 01.jpg|thumb|[[Ruins]] of [[Beckov Castle]] in [[Slovakia]]]]

Louis did not leave a son as heir after his death in 1382. Instead, he named as his heir the young prince [[Sigismund of Luxemburg]]. The Hungarian nobility did not accept his claim, and the result was an internal war. Sigismund eventually achieved total control of Hungary and established his court in Buda and Visegrád. Both palaces were rebuilt and improved, and were considered the richest of the time in Europe. Inheriting the throne of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire, Sigismund continued conducting his politics from Hungary, but he was kept busy fighting the [[Hussites]] and the [[Ottoman Empire]], which was becoming a menace to Europe in the beginning of the 15th century.

King [[Matthias Corvinus]] of Hungary led the largest army of mercenaries of the time, the [[Black Army of Hungary]], which he used to conquer [[Moravia]] and [[Austria]] and to fight the [[Ottoman Empire]]. After Italy, Hungary was the first European country where the [[Renaissance]] appeared.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Louis A.|last1=Waldman|first2=Péter|last2=Farbaky|title=Italy & Hungary: Humanism and Art in the Early Renaissance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-OKuQAACAAJ|year=2011|publisher=Villa I Tatti|isbn=978-0-674-06346-4|access-date=2021-02-10|archive-date=2024-06-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610000505/https://books.google.com/books?id=l-OKuQAACAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> However, the glory of the Kingdom ended in the early 16th century, when the King [[Louis II of Hungary]] was killed in the [[Battle of Mohács]] in 1526 against the [[Ottoman Empire]]. Hungary then fell into a serious crisis and was invaded, ending its significance in central Europe during the medieval era.

===Eastern Europe===
{{Main|Grand Duchy of Moscow}}
[[File:Europe in 1470.PNG|thumb|Medieval [[List of tribes and states in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine|Russian states]] {{Circa|1470|lk=no}}, including [[Novgorod Republic|Novgorod]], [[Principality of Tver|Tver]], [[Pskov Republic|Pskov]], [[Principality of Ryazan|Ryazan]], [[Rostov, Yaroslavl Oblast|Rostov]] and [[Grand Duchy of Moscow|Moscow]]]]

The state of [[Kievan Rus']] fell during the 13th century in the [[Mongol invasion of Rus|Mongol invasion]].<ref>Martin, pp. 100–101.</ref> The [[Grand Duchy of Moscow]] rose in power thereafter, winning a great victory against the [[Golden Horde]] at the [[Battle of Kulikovo]] in 1380.<ref>Koenigsberger, p. 322; Jones, p. 793; Martin, pp. 236–237.</ref> The victory did not end Tartar rule in the region, however, and its immediate beneficiary was the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]], which extended its influence eastwards.<ref>Martin, p. 239.</ref>

Under the reign of [[Ivan III of Russia|Ivan the Great]] (1462–1505), Moscow became a major regional power, and the annexation of the vast [[Republic of Novgorod]] in 1478 laid the foundations for a Russian national state.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 754; Koenigsberger, p. 323.</ref> After the [[Fall of Constantinople]] in 1453, the Russian princes started to see themselves as the heirs of the [[Byzantine Empire]]. They eventually took on the imperial title of [[Tsar|Tzar]], and Moscow was described as the [[Third Rome]].<ref>Allmand, p. 769; Hollister, p. 368.</ref>

===Southeast Europe===
{{Main|Byzantine Empire|Second Bulgarian Empire|Serbian Empire|Albanian principalities|Ottoman Empire}}
[[File:Siegebelgrade.jpg|thumb|Ottoman miniature of the [[Siege of Belgrade (1456)|siege of Belgrade]] in 1456]]

The Byzantine Empire had for a long time dominated the [[eastern Mediterranean]] in politics and culture.<ref>Hollister, p. 49.</ref> By the 14th century, however, it had almost entirely collapsed into a [[Vassal and tributary states of the Ottoman Empire|tributary state of the Ottoman Empire]], centered on the city of Constantinople and a few enclaves in [[Greece]].<ref>Allmand (1998), pp. 771–774; Mango, p. 248.</ref> With the [[Fall of Constantinople]] in 1453, the Byzantine Empire was permanently extinguished.<ref>Hollister, p. 99; Koenigsberger, p. 340.</ref>

The [[Second Bulgarian Empire|Bulgarian Empire]] was in decline by the 14th century, and the ascendancy of [[Serbia]] was marked by the Serbian victory over the Bulgarians in the [[Battle of Velbazhd]] in 1330.<ref>Jones, pp. 796–797.</ref> By 1346, the Serbian king [[Stefan Dušan]] had been proclaimed emperor.<ref>Jones, p. 875.</ref> Yet Serbian dominance was short-lived; the Serbian army led by the [[Lazar Hrebeljanovic]] was defeated by the [[Military of the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Army]] at the [[Battle of Kosovo]] in 1389, where most of the [[Serbian nobility]] was killed and the south of the country came under [[Ottoman Serbia|Ottoman occupation]], as much of [[southern Bulgaria]] had become Ottoman territory in the [[Battle of Maritsa]] 1371.<ref name="Hollister, p p. 339">Hollister, p. 360; Koenigsberger, p. 339.</ref> Northern remnants of Bulgaria were finally conquered by 1396, Serbia fell in 1459, Bosnia in 1463, and Albania was finally subordinated in 1479 only a few years after the death of [[Skanderbeg]]. [[Belgrade]], a Hungarian domain at the time, was the last large Balkan city to fall under Ottoman rule, in the [[Siege of Belgrade (1521)|siege of Belgrade]] of 1521. By the end of the medieval period, the entire [[Balkans|Balkan]] peninsula was annexed by, or became [[vassal]] to, the Ottomans.<ref name="Hollister, p p. 339"/>

===Southwest Europe===
{{Main|Italy in the Middle Ages|Spain in the Middle Ages|Portugal in the Middle Ages}}
[[File:Batalha de Aljubarrota 02.jpg|thumb|[[Battle of Aljubarrota]] between Portugal and Castile, 1385]]

[[Avignon]] was the seat of the [[Pope|papacy]] from 1309 to 1376.<ref>Hollister, p. 338.</ref> With the return of the Pope to [[Rome]] in 1378, the [[Papal State]] developed into a major secular power, culminating in the morally corrupt papacy of [[Pope Alexander VI|Alexander VI]].<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 586; Hollister, p. 339; Holmes, p. 260.</ref> [[Florence]] grew to prominence amongst the Italian city-states through financial business, and the dominant [[Medici]] family became important promoters of the [[Renaissance]] through their patronage of the arts.<ref>Allmand, pp. 150, 155; Cantor, p. 544; Hollister, p. 326.</ref> Other city-states in [[northern Italy]] also expanded their territories and consolidated their power, primarily [[Milan]], [[Venice]], and [[Genoa]].<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 547; Hollister, p. 363; Holmes, p. 258.</ref> The [[War of the Sicilian Vespers]] had by the early 14th century divided [[southern Italy]] into an [[House of Trastámara|Aragon]] [[Kingdom of Sicily]] and an [[House of Valois-Anjou|Anjou]] [[Kingdom of Naples]].<ref>Cantor, p. 511; Hollister, p. 264; Koenigsberger, p. 255.</ref> In 1442, the two kingdoms were effectively united under Aragonese control.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 577.</ref>

The 1469 marriage of [[Isabella I of Castile]] and [[Ferdinand II of Aragon]] and the 1479 death of [[John II of Aragon]] led to the creation of modern-day [[Spain]].<ref>Hollister, p. 356; Koenigsberger, p. 314</ref> In 1492, [[Granada]] was captured from the [[Moors]], thereby completing the [[Reconquista]].<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 162; Hollister, p. 99; Holmes, p. 265.</ref> [[Portugal]] had during the 15th century&nbsp;– particularly under [[Henry the Navigator]]&nbsp;– gradually explored the coast of [[Africa]], and in 1498, [[Vasco da Gama]] found the sea route to [[India]].<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 192; Cantor, 513.</ref> The Spanish monarchs met the Portuguese challenge by financing the expedition of [[Christopher Columbus]] to find a western sea route to India, leading to the discovery of the [[Americas]] in 1492.<ref>Cantor, 513; Holmes, pp. 266–267.</ref>

==Late medieval European society==
{{See also|Crisis of the Late Middle Ages|Black Death|Little Ice Age}}
[[File:Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry octobre detail.jpg|thumb|Peasants preparing the fields for the winter with a [[Harrow (tool)|harrow]] and sowing for the winter grain. The background shows the [[Louvre castle]] in Paris, {{Circa|1410|lk=no}}; October as depicted in the [[Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry]].]]

Around 1300–1350, the [[Medieval Warm Period]] gave way to the [[Little Ice Age]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Jean M.|last=Grove|title=The Little Ice Age|publisher=Routledge|location=London|year=2003|isbn=0-415-01449-2}}</ref> The colder climate resulted in agricultural crises, the first of which is known as the [[Great Famine of 1315–1317]].<ref>Jones, p. 88.</ref> The demographic consequences of this [[famine]], however, were not as severe as the [[pandemic|plagues]] that occurred later in the century, particularly the [[Black Death]].<ref>{{Cite book|first=Barbara F.|last=Harvey|editor-last=Campbell|editor-first=B.M.S.|contribution=Introduction: The 'Crisis' of the Early Fourteenth Century|title=Before the Black Death: Studies in The 'Crisis' of the Early Fourteenth Century|year=1991|pages=1–24|place=Manchester|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=0-7190-3208-3}}</ref> Estimates of the death rate caused by this epidemic range from one third to as much as sixty percent.<ref>Jones, pp. 136–8;Cantor, p. 482.</ref> By around 1420, the accumulated effect of recurring plagues and famines had reduced the [[population of Europe]] to perhaps no more than a third of what it was a century earlier.<ref>Herlihy (1997), p. 17; Jones, p. 9.</ref> The effects of natural disasters were exacerbated by armed conflicts; this was particularly the case in France during the [[Hundred Years' War]].<ref>Hollister, p. 347.</ref> It took 150 years for the European population to regain similar levels to 1300.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do;jsessionid=649DA1AEFC71F2AB21FD38D0A9C3E1FD.omni_as07?p=WHIC&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CCX3426200028&asid=1537416000000~a9206f91|title=World History in Context - Document - The Late Middle Ages|access-date=19 September 2018|archive-date=10 June 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610000509/https://galeapps.gale.com/apps/auth?userGroupName=&origURL=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.gale.com%2Fps%2Fi.do%3Bjsessionid%3D649DA1AEFC71F2AB21FD38D0A9C3E1FD.omni_as07%3Fp%3DWHIC%26v%3D2.1%26it%3Dr%26id%3DGALE%257CCX3426200028%26asid%3D1537416000000%7Ea9206f91&prodId=WHIC|url-status=live}}</ref>

As the European population was severely reduced, land became more plentiful for the survivors, and labour was consequently more expensive.<ref>Duby, p. 270; Koenigsberger, p. 284; McKisack, p. 334.</ref> Attempts by landowners to forcibly reduce wages, such as the English 1351 [[Statute of Laborers]], were doomed to fail.<ref>Koenigsberger, p. 285.</ref> These efforts resulted in nothing more than fostering resentment among the peasantry, leading to rebellions such as the French [[Jacquerie]] in 1358 and the English [[English peasants' revolt of 1381|Peasants' Revolt]] in 1381.<ref>Cantor, p. 484; Hollister, p. 332; Holmes, p. 303.</ref> The long-term effect was the virtual end of [[serfdom]] in Western Europe.<ref>Cantor, p. 564; Hollister, pp. 332–333; Koenigsberger, p. 285.</ref> In Eastern Europe, on the other hand, landowners were able to exploit the situation to force the peasantry into even more repressive bondage.<ref>Hollister, pp. 332–333; Jones, p. 15.</ref>

The upheavals caused by the Black Death left certain minority groups particularly vulnerable, especially the [[Jew]]s,<ref>Chazan, p. 194.</ref> who were often blamed for the calamities. [[Antisemitism|Anti-Jewish]] [[pogrom]]s were carried out all over Europe; in February 1349, two thousand Jews were murdered in [[Strasbourg]].<ref>Hollister, p. 330; Holmes, p. 255.</ref> States were also guilty of discrimination against the Jews. Monarchs gave in to the demands of the people, and the Jews were expelled from England in 1290, from France in 1306, from Spain in 1492, and from Portugal in 1497.<ref>Brady et al., pp. 266–267; Chazan, pp. 166, 232; Koenigsberger, p. 251.</ref>

While the Jews were suffering persecution, one group that probably experienced increased empowerment in the late Middle Ages was women. The great social changes of the period opened up new possibilities for women in the fields of commerce, learning, and religion.<ref name="Klapisch-Zuber268">Klapisch-Zuber, p. 268.</ref> Yet at the same time, women were also vulnerable to incrimination and persecution, as belief in [[witchcraft]] increased.<ref name="Klapisch-Zuber268"/>

The accumulation of social, environmental, and health-related problems also led to an increase in interpersonal violence in most parts of Europe. Population increase, religious intolerance, famine, and disease led to an increase in violent acts in vast parts of medieval society. One exception to this was North-Eastern Europe, whose population managed to maintain low levels of violence due to a more organized society resulting from extensive and successful trade.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Baten |first1=Joerg |last2=Steckel |first2=Richard H. |date=2019 |title=The History of Violence in Europe: Evidence from Cranial and Postcranial Bone Traumata |journal=The Backbone of Europe: Health, Diet, Work and Violence over Two Millennia |pages=300–324}}</ref>

Up until the mid-14th century, Europe had experienced steadily increasing [[urbanization]].<ref>Hollister, p. 323; Holmes, p. 304.</ref> Cities were also decimated by the Black Death, but the role of urban areas as centres of learning, commerce, and government ensured continued growth.<ref>Jones, p. 164; Koenigsberger, p. 343.</ref> By 1500, Venice, Milan, Naples, Paris, and [[Constantinople]] each probably had more than 100,000 inhabitants.<ref name="Allmand125">Allmand (1998), p. 125</ref> Twenty-two other cities were larger than 40,000; most of these were in Italy and the Iberian peninsula, but there were also some in France, the Empire, and the Low Countries, as well as London in England.<ref name="Allmand125"/>

==Military history==
{{Main|Medieval warfare}}

{|  style="float:right; width:222px; margin:0 0 1em 1em;"
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[[File:Battle of crecy froissart.jpg|thumb|center|
Miniature of the [[Battle of Crécy]] (1346)<br />
Manuscript of [[Jean Froissart]]'s ''[[Froissart's Chronicles|Chronicles]]''.<br />
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The [[Hundred Years' War]] saw many military innovations.
]]
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Through battles such as [[Battle of the Golden Spurs|Courtrai]] (1302), [[Battle of Bannockburn|Bannockburn]] (1314), and [[Battle of Morgarten|Morgarten]] (1315), it became clear to the great territorial princes of Europe that the military advantage of the feudal [[cavalry]] was lost and that a well equipped [[Infantry in the Middle Ages|infantry]] was preferable.<ref>Jones, p. 350; McKisack, p. 39; Verbruggen, p. 111.</ref> Through the [[Wales in the Late Middle Ages|Welsh Wars]], the English became acquainted with, and adopted, the highly efficient [[English longbow|longbow]].<ref>Allmand (1988), p. 59; Cantor, p. 467.</ref> Once properly managed, this weapon gave them a great advantage over the French in the Hundred Years' War.<ref>McKisack, p. 240, Verbruggen, pp. 171–2</ref>

The introduction of [[Black powder|gunpowder]] affected the conduct of war significantly.<ref>Contamine, pp. 139–40; Jones, pp. 11–2.</ref> Though employed by the English as early as the [[Battle of Crécy]] in 1346, [[firearms]] initially had little effect in the field of battle.<ref>Contamine, pp. 198–200.</ref> It was through the use of [[cannon]]s as [[Siege engine|siege weapons]] that major change was brought about; the new methods would eventually change the architectural structure of [[fortification]]s.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 169; Contamine, pp. 200–7.</ref>

Changes also took place within the recruitment and composition of armies. The use of the [[Conscription|national]] or [[feudal levy]] was gradually replaced by paid troops of domestic [[retinue]]s or foreign [[Mercenary|mercenaries]].<ref>Cantor, p. 515.</ref> The practice was associated with [[Edward III of England]] and the [[condottieri]] of the Italian city-states.<ref>Contamine, pp. 150–65; Holmes, p. 261; McKisack, p. 234.</ref> All over Europe, [[Swiss mercenaries]] were in particularly high demand.<ref>Contamine, pp. 124, 135.</ref> At the same time, the period also saw the emergence of the first permanent armies. It was in [[House of Valois|Valois]] France, under the heavy demands of the Hundred Years' War, that the armed forces gradually assumed a permanent nature.<ref>Contamine, pp. 165–72; Holmes, p. 300.</ref>

Parallel to the military developments emerged also a constantly more elaborate [[Chivalry|chivalric]] code of conduct for the warrior class.<ref>Cantor, p. 349; Holmes, pp. 319–20.</ref> This newfound ethos can be seen as a response to the diminishing military role of the aristocracy, and it gradually became almost entirely detached from its military origin.<ref>Hollister, p. 336.</ref> The spirit of chivalry was given expression through the new ([[secular]])<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03691a.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Chivalry|access-date=2010-01-26|archive-date=2018-01-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109062419/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03691a.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> type of [[chivalric order]]s; the first of these was the [[Order of Saint George (Kingdom of Hungary)|Order of St. George]], founded by [[Charles I of Hungary]] in 1325, while the best known was probably the English [[Order of the Garter]], founded by Edward III in 1348.<ref>Cantor, p. 537; Jones, p. 209; McKisack, p. 251.</ref>

==Christian conflict and reform==

===The Papal Schism===
{{Main|Western Schism}}

The French crown's increasing dominance over the [[Papacy]] culminated in the transference of the [[Holy See]] to [[Avignon]] in 1309.<ref>Cantor, p. 496.</ref> When the Pope returned to [[Rome]] in 1377, this led to the election of different popes in Avignon and Rome, resulting in the [[Western Schism]] (1378–1417).<ref>Cantor, p. 497; Hollister, p. 338; Holmes, p. 309.</ref> The Schism divided Europe along political lines; while France, her ally Scotland, and the Spanish kingdoms supported the Avignon Papacy, France's enemy England stood behind the pope in Rome, together with Portugal, Scandinavia, and most of the German princes.<ref>Hollister, p. 338; Koenigsberger, p. 326; Ozment, p. 158.</ref>

At the [[Council of Constance]] (1414–1418), the Papacy was once more united in Rome.<ref>Cantor, p. 498; Ozment, p. 164.</ref> Even though the unity of the Western Church was to last for another hundred years, and though the Papacy was to experience greater material prosperity than ever before, the Great Schism had done irreparable damage.<ref>Koenigsberger, pp. 327–8; MacCulloch, p. 34.</ref> The internal struggles within the Church had impaired her claim to universal rule and promoted [[anti-clericalism]] among the people and their rulers, paving the way for reform movements.<ref>Hollister, p. 339; Holmes, p. 260; Koenigsberger, pp. 327–8.</ref>

===Protestant Reformation===
{{Main|Reformation|Hussites|Lollardy}}
[[File:Jan Hus at the Stake.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Jan Hus]] burnt at the stake]]
[[File:Lutherstadt_Wittenberg_09-2016_photo06.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|[[All Saints' Church, Wittenberg|All Saints' Church]] in [[Wittenberg]], where [[Martin Luther]] posted his ''[[Ninety-five Theses]]'', giving rise to [[Protestantism]]]]

Though many of the events were outside the traditional time period of the Middle Ages, the end of the unity of the Western Church (the [[Protestant Reformation]]) was one of the distinguishing characteristics of the medieval period.<ref name="Bradyxvii"/> The [[Catholic Church]] had long fought against heretic movements, but during the late Middle Ages, it started to experience demands for reform from within.<ref>A famous account of the nature and suppression of a heretic movement is [[Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie]]'s {{cite book|title=Montaillou: Cathars and Catholics in a French Village, 1294–1324|publisher=Scolar Press|location=London|year=1978|isbn=0-85967-403-7|author=Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie.}}</ref> The first of these came from [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] professor [[John Wycliffe]] in England.<ref>MacCulloch, p. 34–5.</ref> Wycliffe held that the [[Bible]] should be the only authority in religious questions, and he spoke out against [[transubstantiation]], [[celibacy]], and [[indulgence]]s.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 15; Cantor, pp. 499–500; Koenigsberger, p. 331.</ref> In spite of influential supporters among the [[English language|English]] aristocracy, such as [[John of Gaunt]], the movement was not allowed to survive. Though Wycliffe himself was left unmolested, his supporters, the [[Lollards]], were eventually suppressed in England.<ref>Allmand (1998), pp. 15–6; MacCulloch, p. 35.</ref>

The marriage of [[Richard II of England]] to [[Anne of Bohemia]] established contacts between the two nations and brought Lollard ideas to her homeland.<ref>Holmes, p. 312; MacCulloch, pp. 35–6; Ozment, p. 165.</ref> The teachings of the [[Czech lands|Czech]] priest [[Jan Hus]] were based on those of John Wycliffe, yet his followers, the [[Hussites]], were to have a much greater political impact than the Lollards.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 16; Cantor, p. 500.</ref> Hus gained a great following in [[Bohemia]], and in 1414, he was requested to appear at the Council of Constance to defend his cause.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 377; Koenigsberger, p. 332.</ref> When he was burned as a heretic in 1415, it caused a popular uprising in the Czech lands.<ref>Koenigsberger, p. 332; MacCulloch, p. 36.</ref> The subsequent [[Hussite Wars]] fell apart due to internal quarrels and did not result in religious or national independence for the [[Czechs]], but both the Catholic Church and the German element within the country were weakened.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 353; Hollister, p. 344; Koenigsberger, p. 332–3.</ref>

[[Martin Luther]], a German monk, started the [[German Reformation]] by posting [[95 theses]] on the castle church of [[Wittenberg]] on October 31, 1517.<ref>MacCulloch, p. 115.</ref> The immediate provocation spurring this act was [[Pope Leo X]]'s renewal of the indulgence for the building of the new [[St. Peter's Basilica]] in 1514.<ref>MacCulloch, pp. 70, 117.</ref> Luther was challenged to recant his heresy at the [[Diet of Worms]] in 1521.<ref>MacCulloch, p. 127; Ozment, p. 245.</ref> When he refused, he was placed under the ban of the Empire by [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]].<ref>MacCulloch, p. 128.</ref> Receiving the protection of [[Frederick III, Elector of Saxony|Frederick the Wise]], he was then able to translate the Bible into [[German language|German]].<ref>Ozment, p. 246.</ref>

To many secular rulers, the Protestant Reformation was a welcome opportunity to expand their wealth and influence.<ref>Allmand (1998), pp. 16–7; Cantor, pp. 500–1.</ref> The Catholic Church met the challenges of the reforming movements with what has been called the Catholic Reformation, or [[Counter-Reformation]].<ref>MacCulloch, p. 107; Ozment, p. 397.</ref> Europe became split into northern [[Protestant]] and southern Catholic parts, resulting in the Religious Wars of the 16th and 17th centuries.<ref>MacCulloch, p. 266; Ozment, pp. 259–60.</ref>

==Trade and commerce==
{|  style="float:right; width:222px; margin:0 0 1em 1em;"
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!  style="color:#black; background:#f8eaba; font-size:100%; text-align:center;"|Medieval merchant routes
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[[File:Late Medieval Trade Routes.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|center|
Main trade routes of late medieval Europe<br />
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{{color box|Black|border=silver}} [[Hanseatic League|Hansa]]<br />
{{color box|Blue|border=silver}} [[Venice|Venetian]]<br />
{{color box|Red|border=silver}} [[Genoa|Genoese]]<br />
{{color box|Purple|border=silver}} Venetian and Genoese<br />
{{color box|#6a6a6a|border=silver}} (''stippled'') Overland and river routes
]]
|}

The increasingly dominant position of the [[Ottoman Empire]] in the eastern [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] presented an impediment to trade for the Christian nations of the west, who in turn started looking for alternatives.<ref>Allmand (1998), pp. 159–60; Pounds, pp. 467–8.</ref> Portuguese and Spanish explorers found new trade routes&nbsp;– south of [[Africa]] to [[India]], as well as across the [[Atlantic Ocean]] to [[Americas|America]].<ref>Hollister, pp. 334–5.</ref> As [[Genoa|Genoese]] and [[Venice|Venetian]] merchants opened up direct sea routes with [[Flanders]], the [[Champagne fairs]] lost much of their importance.<ref>Cipolla (1976), p. 275; Koenigsberger, p. 295; Pounds, p. 361.</ref>

At the same time, English wool export shifted from raw wool to processed cloth, resulting in losses for the cloth manufacturers of the Low Countries.<ref>Cipolla (1976), p. 283; Koenigsberger, p. 297; Pounds, pp. 378–81.</ref> In the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] and [[North Sea]], the [[Hanseatic League]] reached the peak of their power in the 14th century but started going into decline in the fifteenth.<ref>Cipolla (1976), p. 275; Cipolla (1994), p. 203, 234; Pounds, pp. 387–8.</ref>

In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, a process took place&nbsp;– primarily in Italy but partly also in the Empire&nbsp;– that historians have termed a "commercial revolution".<ref>Koenigsberger, p. 226; Pounds, p. 407.</ref> Among the innovations of the period were new forms of [[Corporation|partnership]] and the issuing of [[insurance]], both of which contributed to reducing the risk of commercial ventures; the [[Negotiable instrument#Bill of exchange|bill of exchange]] and other forms of credit that circumvented the [[Canon law|canonical laws]] for [[gentile]]s against [[usury]] and eliminated the dangers of carrying [[Precious metal|bullion]]; and new forms of [[accounting]], in particular [[Double-entry bookkeeping system|double-entry bookkeeping]], which allowed for better oversight and accuracy.<ref>Cipolla (1976), pp. 318–29; Cipolla (1994), pp. 160–4; Holmes, p. 235; Jones, pp. 176–81; Koenigsberger, p. 226; Pounds, pp. 407–27.</ref>

With the financial expansion, trading rights became more jealously guarded by the commercial elite. Towns saw the growing power of [[guild]]s, while on a national level, special companies would be granted monopolies on particular trades, like the English wool [[The staple|Staple]].<ref>Jones, p. 121; Pearl, pp. 299–300; Koenigsberger, pp. 286, 291.</ref> The beneficiaries of these developments would accumulate immense wealth. Families like the [[Fugger family|Fuggers]] in Germany, the [[House of Medici|Medicis]] in Italy, and the [[Duke of Suffolk|de la Poles]] in England and individuals like [[Jacques Cœur]] in France would help finance the wars of kings, achieving great political influence in the process.<ref>Allmand (1998), pp. 150–3; Holmes, p. 304; Koenigsberger, p. 299; McKisack, p. 160.</ref>

Though there is no doubt that the demographic crisis of the 14th century caused a dramatic fall in production and commerce in ''absolute'' terms, there has been a vigorous historical debate over whether the decline was greater than the fall in population.<ref>Pounds, p. 483.</ref> While the older orthodoxy held that the artistic output of the Renaissance was a result of greater opulence, more recent studies have suggested that there might have been a so-called "depression of the Renaissance".<ref>{{cite journal|first=C.M.|last=Cipolla|author-link=Carlo Maria Cipolla|year=1964|title=Economic depression of the Renaissance?|journal=[[The Economic History Society|Economic History Review]]|volume=xvi|issue=3|pages=519–24|doi=10.2307/2592852|jstor=2592852}}</ref> In spite of convincing arguments for the case, the statistical evidence is simply too incomplete for a definite conclusion to be made.<ref>Pounds, pp. 484–5.</ref>

==Arts and sciences==
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[[File:Giotto - Scrovegni - -36- - Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ).jpg|thumb|center|
[[Giotto]]'s ''Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ)'', [[Scrovegni Chapel]].
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Giotto's three-dimensional and psychologically convincing characters were a precursor to the [[Renaissance]].
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In the 14th century, the predominant academic trend of [[scholasticism]] was challenged by the [[Renaissance humanism|humanist]] movement. Though primarily an attempt to revitalise the [[classical language]]s, the movement also led to innovations within the fields of science, art, and literature, helped by impulses from [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] scholars who had to seek refuge in the West after the [[Fall of Constantinople]] in 1453.<ref>Allmand (1998), pp. 243–54; Cantor, p. 594; Nicholas, p. 156.</ref>

In science, classical authorities like [[Aristotle]] were challenged for the first time since antiquity. Within the arts, humanism took the form of the [[Renaissance]]. Though the 15th-century Renaissance was a highly localised phenomenon&nbsp;– limited mostly to the city-states of northern Italy&nbsp;– artistic developments were taking place also further north, particularly in the Netherlands.{{efn|name="For references, see below"}}

===Philosophy, science and technology===
{{Main|Medieval philosophy|History of science in the Middle Ages|Medieval technology}}
[[File:European Output of Manuscripts 500–1500.png|thumb|European output of manuscripts (500–1500). The rising trend in medieval book production saw its continuation in the period.<ref>Buringh, Eltjo; van Zanden, Jan Luiten: "Charting the “Rise of the West”: Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries", ''The Journal of Economic History'', Vol. 69, No. 2 (2009), pp.&nbsp;409–445 (416, table 1)</ref>]]
[[File:Printing towns incunabula.svg|thumb|300px|[[Global spread of the printing press|Spread of printing]] by [[Johannes Gutenberg]] from [[Mainz]] in Europe in the 15th century]]

The predominant school of thought in the 13th century was the [[Thomism|Thomistic]] reconciliation of the teachings of [[Aristotle]] with [[Christian theology]].<ref>Jones, p. 42; Koenigsberger, p. 242.</ref> The [[Condemnations (University of Paris)#Condemnation of 1277|Condemnation of 1277]], enacted at the [[University of Paris]], placed restrictions on ideas that could be interpreted as heretical, restrictions that had implication for [[Aristotelianism|Aristotelian]] thought.<ref name="SEP 1277">{{cite web|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/condemnation/|title=Condemnation of 1277|publisher=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]|author=Hans Thijssen|year=2003|access-date=2008-04-21|archive-date=2017-03-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170311030803/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/condemnation/|url-status=live}}</ref> An alternative was presented by [[William of Ockham]], following the manner of the earlier Franciscan [[John Duns Scotus]], who insisted that the world of reason and the world of faith had to be kept apart. Ockham introduced the principle of parsimony&nbsp;– or [[Occam's razor]]&nbsp;– whereby a simple theory is preferred to a more complex one and speculation on unobservable phenomena is avoided.<ref>Grant, p. 142; Nicholas, p. 134.</ref> This maxim is, however, often misquoted. Occam was referring to his nominalism in this quotation. Essentially saying the theory of absolutes, or metaphysical realism, was unnecessary to make sense of the world.

This new approach liberated scientific speculation from the dogmatic restraints of Aristotelian science and paved the way for new approaches. Particularly within the field of theories of [[Motion (physics)|motion]], great advances were made, when such scholars as [[Jean Buridan]], [[Nicole Oresme]], and the [[Oxford Calculators]] challenged the work of Aristotle.<ref>Grant, pp. 100–3, 149, 164–5.</ref> Buridan developed the theory of ''impetus'' as the cause of the motion of projectiles, which was an important step towards the modern concept of [[inertia]].<ref>Grant, pp. 95–7.</ref> The works of these scholars anticipated the [[Heliocentrism|heliocentric]] worldview of [[Nicolaus Copernicus]].<ref>Grant, pp. 112–3.</ref>

Certain technological inventions of the period&nbsp;– whether of [[Arab]] or [[China|Chinese]] origin or unique European innovations&nbsp;– were to have great influence on political and social developments, in particular [[gunpowder]], the [[printing press]], and the [[compass]]. The introduction of gunpowder to the field of battle not only affected military organisation but also helped advance the nation-state. [[Johann Gutenberg|Gutenberg]]'s [[movable type]] [[printing press]] made possible not only the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] but also a dissemination of knowledge that would lead to a gradually more egalitarian society. The [[compass]], along with other innovations such as the [[cross-staff]], the [[mariner's astrolabe]], and advances in shipbuilding, enabled the navigation of the [[World Ocean]]s and the early phases of [[colonialism]].<ref>Jones, pp. 11–2; Koenigsberger, pp. 297–8; Nicholas, p. 165.</ref> Other inventions had a greater impact on everyday life, such as [[Glasses|eyeglasses]] and the weight-driven [[clock]].<ref>Grant, p. 160; Koenigsberger, p. 297.</ref>

===Visual arts and architecture===
{{Main|Medieval art|Medieval architecture}}
[[File:MZK 003 Nr 01 Fig 27 - Holzwohnhaus Halberstadt Aufbau.jpg|thumb|upright|Urban dwelling house, late 15th century, [[Halberstadt]], Germany]]

A precursor to [[Renaissance]] art can be seen already in the early 14th-century works of [[Giotto di Bondone|Giotto]]. Giotto was the first painter since antiquity to attempt the representation of three-dimensional reality and endow his characters with true human emotions.<ref>Cantor, p. 433; Koenigsberger, p. 363.</ref> The most important developments, however, came in 15th-century Florence. The affluence of the merchant class allowed extensive patronage of the arts, and foremost among the patrons were the Medici.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 155; Brotton, p. 27.</ref>

The period saw several important technical innovations, like the principle of [[Perspective (graphical)|linear perspective]] found in the work of [[Masaccio]] and later described by [[Filippo Brunelleschi|Brunelleschi]].<ref>Burke, p. 24; Koenigsberger, p. 363; Nicholas, p. 161.</ref> Greater realism was also achieved through the scientific study of anatomy, championed by artists like [[Donatello]].<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 253; Cantor, p. 556.</ref> This can be seen particularly well in his sculptures, inspired by the study of classical models.<ref>Cantor, p. 554; Nichols, pp. 159–60.</ref> As the centre of the movement shifted to Rome, the period culminated in the [[High Renaissance]] masters [[Leonardo da Vinci|da Vinci]], [[Michelangelo]], and [[Raphael]].<ref>Brotton, p. 67; Burke, p. 69.</ref>

The ideas of the [[Italian Renaissance]] were slow to cross the Alps into northern Europe, but important artistic innovations were made also in the Low Countries.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 269; Koenigsberger, p. 376.</ref> Though not&nbsp;– as previously believed&nbsp;– the inventor of oil painting, [[Jan van Eyck]] was a champion of the new medium and used it to create works of great realism and minute detail.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 302; Cantor, p. 539.</ref> The two cultures influenced each other and learned from each other, but painting in the Netherlands remained more focused on textures and surfaces than the idealized compositions of Italy.<ref>Burke, p. 250; Nicholas, p. 161.</ref>

In northern European countries, [[Gothic architecture]] remained the norm, and the Gothic cathedral was further elaborated.<ref>Allmand (1998), pp. 300–1, Hollister, p. 375.</ref> In Italy, on the other hand, architecture took a different direction, also here inspired by classical ideals. The crowning work of the period was the [[Santa Maria del Fiore]] in [[Florence]], with Giotto's clock tower, [[Lorenzo Ghiberti|Ghiberti]]'s baptistery gates, and [[Filippo Brunelleschi|Brunelleschi]]'s cathedral [[dome]] of unprecedented proportions.<ref>Allmand (1998), p. 305; Cantor, p. 371.</ref>

===Literature===
{{Further|Medieval literature}}
[[File:Dante Domenico di Michelino.jpg|left|thumb|[[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] as portrayed by [[Domenico di Michelino]], from a fresco painted in 1465]]

The most important development of late medieval literature was the ascendancy of the [[vernacular]] languages.<ref>Jones, p. 8.</ref> The vernacular had been in use in England since the 8th century and France since the 11th century, where the most popular genres had been the [[chanson de geste]], [[Troubadour|troubadour lyrics]], and romantic epics, or the [[Romance (heroic literature)|romance]].<ref>Cantor, p. 346.</ref> Though Italy was later in evolving a native literature in the vernacular language, it was here that the most important developments of the period were to come.<ref>Curtius, p. 387; Koenigsberger, p. 368.</ref>

[[Dante Alighieri]]'s ''[[The Divine Comedy|Divine Comedy]]'', written in the early 14th century, merged a medieval worldview with classical ideals.<ref>Cantor, p. 546; Curtius, pp. 351, 378.</ref> Another promoter of the [[Italian language]] was [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]] with his ''[[The Decameron|Decameron]]''.<ref>Curtius, p. 396; Koenigsberger, p. 368; Jones, p. 258.</ref> The application of the vernacular did not entail a rejection of [[Latin]], and both Dante and Boccaccio wrote prolifically in Latin as well as Italian, as would [[Petrarch]] later (whose ''[[Il Canzoniere|Canzoniere]]'' also promoted the vernacular and whose contents are considered the first modern [[lyric poem]]s).<ref>Curtius, p. 26; Jones, p. 258; Koenigsberger, p. 368.</ref> Together, the three poets established the [[Tuscan dialect]] as the norm for the modern [[Italian language]].<ref>Koenigsberger, p. 369.</ref>

The new literary style spread rapidly and in France, influenced such writers as [[Eustache Deschamps]] and [[Guillaume de Machaut]].<ref>Jones, p. 264.</ref> In England, [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] helped establish [[Middle English]] as a literary language with his ''[[The Canterbury Tales|Canterbury Tales]]'', which contained a wide variety of narrators and stories (including some translated from Boccaccio).<ref>Curtius, p. 35; Jones. p. 264.</ref> The spread of vernacular literature eventually reached as far as Bohemia and the Baltic, Slavic, and Byzantine worlds.<ref>Jones, p. 9.</ref>

===Music===
{{Main|Medieval music}}
[[File:Vielle.jpg|right|thumb|A musician plays the [[vielle]] in a 14th-century [[Medieval]] [[manuscript]].]]

Music was an important part of both secular and spiritual culture, and in the universities, it made up part of the ''[[quadrivium]]'' of the liberal arts.<ref>Allmand, p. 319; Grant, p. 14; Koenigsberger, p. 382.</ref> From the early 13th century, the dominant sacred musical form had been the [[motet]], a composition with text in several parts.<ref>Allmand, p. 322; Wilson, p. 229.</ref> From the 1330s and onwards emerged the [[Polyphony|polyphonic]] style, which was a more complex fusion of independent voices.<ref>Wilson, pp. 229, 289–90, 327.</ref> Polyphony had been common in the secular music of the [[Provence|Provençal]] [[troubadour]]s. Many of these had fallen victim to the 13th-century [[Albigensian Crusade]], but their influence reached the papal court at Avignon.<ref>Koenigsberger, p. 381; Wilson, p. 329.</ref>

The main representatives of the new style, often referred to as ''[[ars nova]]'' as opposed to ''[[ars antiqua]]'', were the composers [[Philippe de Vitry]] and [[Guillaume de Machaut]].<ref>Koenigsberger, p. 383; Wilson, p. 329.</ref> In Italy, where the Provençal troubadours had also found refuge, the corresponding period goes under the name of [[Music of the Trecento|trecento]], and the leading composers were [[Giovanni da Cascia]], [[Jacopo da Bologna]], and [[Francesco Landini]].<ref>Wilson, pp. 357–8, 361–2.</ref> A prominent reformer of [[Eastern Orthodox music|Orthodox Church music]] from the first half of the 14th century was [[John Kukuzelis]]; he also introduced a system of notation widely used in the [[Balkans]] in the following centuries.

===Theatre===
{{Main|Medieval theatre}}

In the [[British Isles]], plays were produced in some 127 different towns during the Middle Ages. These vernacular [[Mystery plays]] were written in cycles of a large number of plays: [[York Mystery Plays|York]] (48 plays), [[Chester Mystery Plays|Chester]] (24), [[Wakefield Mystery Plays|Wakefield]] (32), and [[N-Town Plays|Unknown]] (42). A larger number of plays survive from [[France]] and [[Germany]] in this period, and some type of religious drama was performed in nearly every European country in the late Middle Ages. Many of these plays contained [[comedy]], [[devil]]s, [[villain]]s, and [[clown]]s.<ref>Brockett and Hildy (2003, 86)</ref>

[[Morality plays]] emerged as a distinct dramatic form around 1400 and flourished until 1550, an example being ''[[The Castle of Perseverance]]'', which depicts [[Human|mankind]]'s progress from birth to death. Another famous morality play is ''[[Everyman (15th-century play)|Everyman]]''. Everyman receives [[Death]]'s summons, struggles to escape, and finally resigns himself to necessity. Along the way, he is deserted by [[Kinship|Kindred]], [[Good (economics)|Goods]], and Fellowship – only [[Good works|Good Deeds]] goes with him to the grave.

At the end of the late Middle Ages, professional actors began to appear in [[England]] and [[Europe]]. [[Richard III of England|Richard III]] and [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]] both maintained small companies of professional actors. Their plays were performed in the [[Great Hall]] of a nobleman's residence, often with a raised platform at one end for the audience and a "screen" at the other for the actors. Also important were [[Mummers Play|Mummers' plays]], performed during the [[Christmas]] season, and court [[masque]]s. These masques were especially popular during the reign of [[Henry VIII]] who had a House of Revels built and an [[Master of the Revels|Office of Revels]] established in 1545.<ref name="BH101">Brockett and Hildy (2003, 101-103)</ref>

The end of medieval drama came about due to a number of factors, including the weakening power of the [[Catholic Church]], the [[Protestant Reformation]], and the banning of religious plays in many countries. [[Elizabeth I]] forbid all religious plays in 1558, and the great cycle plays had been silenced by the 1580s. Similarly, religious plays were banned in the [[Netherlands]] in 1539, the [[Papal States]] in 1547, and [[Paris]] in 1548. The abandonment of these plays destroyed the international theatre that had thereto existed and forced each country to develop its own form of drama. It also allowed dramatists to turn to secular subjects and the reviving interest in [[ancient Greece|Greek]] and [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] theatre provided them with the perfect opportunity.<ref name="BH101"/>

===After the Middle Ages===
{{Main|Early modern period}}

After the end of the late Middle Ages period, the [[Renaissance]] spread unevenly over continental Europe from the southern European region. The intellectual transformation of the Renaissance is viewed as a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Modern era. Europeans would later begin an [[Age of Discovery|era of world discovery]]. Combined with the influx of classical ideas was the invention of [[printing]] which facilitated dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning. These two things would lead to the [[Protestant Reformation]]. Europeans also discovered new trading routes, as was the case with [[Christopher Columbus|Columbus]]' travel to the [[Americas]] in 1492, and [[Vasco da Gama]]'s circumnavigation of [[Africa]] and [[Indian subcontinent|India]] in 1498. Their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations.

==Ottomans and Europe==
{{Main|Ottoman wars in Europe}}
{|  style="float:right; margin:0 0 1em 1em;"
|-
!  style="color:#black; background:#f8eaba; font-size:100%; text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Ottomans and Europe
|-
|
[[File:Battle of Nandorfehervar.jpg|thumb|center|
Saint [[John of Capistrano]] and the Hungarian armies fighting the [[Ottoman Empire]] at the [[Siege of Belgrade (1456)|siege of Belgrade]] in 1456
]]
|-
|[[File:The wars of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1458-1490).png|thumb|center|
King [[Matthias Corvinus]]'s Black Army campaigns
]]
|}

By the end of the 15th century, the [[Ottoman Empire]] had advanced all over [[Southeast Europe]], eventually conquering the [[Byzantine Empire]] and extending control over the Balkan states. Hungary was the last bastion of the Latin Christian world in the East, and fought to keep its rule over a period of two centuries. After the death of the young king [[Vladislaus I of Hungary]] during the [[Battle of Varna]] in 1444 against the Ottomans, the Kingdom was placed in the hands of Count [[John Hunyadi]], who became Hungary's regent-governor (1446–1453). Hunyadi was considered one of the most relevant military figures of the 15th century: Pope [[Pius II]] awarded him the title of ''[[Athleta Christi]]'', or Champion of Christ, for being the only hope of resisting the Ottomans from advancing to Central and Western Europe.

Hunyadi succeeded during the [[Siege of Belgrade (1456)|siege of Belgrade]] in 1456 against the Ottomans, the biggest victory against that empire in decades. This battle became a real crusade against the Muslims, as the peasants were motivated by the [[Franciscans|Franciscan]] friar Saint [[John of Capistrano]], who came from Italy predicating him holy war. The effect that it created in that time was one of the main factors that helped in achieving the victory. However the premature death of the Hungarian lord left [[Pannonia]] defenseless and in chaos. In an extremely unusual event for the Middle Ages, Hunyadi's son, Matthias, was elected as [[king of Hungary]] by the [[Hungarian nobility]]. For the first time, a member of an aristocratic family (and not from a royal family) was crowned.

King [[Matthias Corvinus]] of [[Hungary]] (1458–1490) was one of the most prominent figures of the period, directing campaigns to the West, conquering Bohemia in answer to the pope's call for help against the Hussite Protestants. Also, in resolving political hostilities with the German emperor [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick III of Habsburg]], he invaded his western domains. Matthew organized the [[Black Army of Hungary|Black Army]] of mercenary soldiers; it was considered as the biggest army of its time. Using this powerful tool, the Hungarian king led wars against the Turkish armies and stopped the Ottomans during his reign. After the death of Matthew, and with end of the Black Army, the Ottoman Empire grew in strength and Central Europe was defenseless. At the [[Battle of Mohács]], the forces of the Ottoman Empire annihilated the Hungarian army and [[Louis II of Hungary]] drowned in the Csele Creek while trying to escape. The leader of the Hungarian army, Pál Tomori, also died in the battle. This is considered to be one of the final battles of medieval times.

==Timeline==
{{Main|Timeline of the Middle Ages}}
<timeline>
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PlotArea = width:720 height:275 left:65 bottom:20
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Colors =
    id:time value:rgb(0.7,0.7,1) #
    id:period value:rgb(1,0.7,0.5) #
    id:age value:rgb(0.95,0.85,0.5) #
    id:era value:rgb(1,0.85,0.5) #
    id:eon value:rgb(1,0.85,0.7) #
    id:filler value:gray(0.8) # background bar
    id:black value:black

Period     = from:1300 till:1500
TimeAxis   = orientation:horizontal
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PlotData =
  align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line,black) width:10 shift:(0, -3)

  bar:General color:era
  from: 1300 till: 1350 text:[[Crisis of the Late Middle Ages|Middle Ages Crisis]]
  from: 1350 till: 1450 text:Late Middle Ages
  bar:General color:filler
  from: 1450 till: 1500 shift:(2,4) text:[[Modern]]
  from: 1450 till: 1500 shift:(2,-7) text:[[Early modern|(Early period)]]
  bar:N.Europe color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1400 text:[[Christianization of Scandinavia|Christianization]]
  from: 1400 till: 1500 text:[[Kalmar Union]]
  bar:British.Isles color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1500 text:[[Kingdom of England]]
  bar:Iberia color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1492 text:[[Reconquista]]
  bar:Iberia color:filler
  from: 1492 till: 1500 text:[[Renaissance]]
  bar:E.Europe color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1400 text:[[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuania]]
  from: 1400 till: 1487 text:[[Grand Duchy of Moscow|Moscow]]
  bar:E.Europe color:filler
  from: 1487 till: 1500 text:[[Renaissance]]
  bar:C.Europe color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1494 text:[[Holy Roman Empire]]
  bar:C.Europe color:filler
  from: 1494 till: 1500 text:[[German Renaissance]]
  bar:Apennines color:age
  from: 1300 shift:(0,-7) till: 1500 text:([[Italian Renaissance]])
  from: 1300 shift:(0,4) till: 1500 text:[[Renaissance]]
  bar:Balkans color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1345 text:[[Second Bulgarian Empire|2nd Bulgarian Empire]]
  from: 1345 till: 1389 text:[[Serbian Empire]]
  from: 1389 till: 1500 text:[[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]]
  bar:Caucasus color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1490 text:[[Kingdom of Georgia]]
  bar:M.East color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1500 text:[[Mamluk Sultanate|Mamluks]]
  bar:C.Asia color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1500 shift:(-120,-7) text:[[Chagatai Khanate]]
  from: 1300 till: 1500 shift:(-120,4) text:[[Golden Horde]]
  bar:China color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1368 text:[[Yuan Dynasty|Yuan]]
  from: 1368 till: 1500 text:[[Ming Dynasty|Ming]]
  bar:Japan color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1333 text:[[Kamakura period|Kamakura]]
  from: 1333 till: 1336 text:[[Kenmu restoration|Kenmu]]
  from: 1336 till: 1500 text:[[Muromachi period|Muromachi]]
  bar:Korea color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1392 text:[[Goryeo]]
  from: 1392 till: 1500 text:[[Joseon Dynasty|Joseon]]
  bar:India color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1500 text:[[Islamic empires in India|Islamic empires]]
  bar:N.Americas color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1500 shift:(0,-4) text:[[Mississippian culture]]
  bar:C.Americas color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1500 shift:(0,-4) text:Late Postclassic
  bar:S.Americas color:age
  from: 1300 till: 1500 text:Classic

</timeline>
''Dates are approximate, consult particular articles for details''
{{color box|#ffd880|border=silver}}{{color box|#f2d97f|border=silver}} Middle Ages themes {{color box|#cccccc|border=silver}} Other themes

{{see also|World history (field)}}

'''14th century'''
{{Main|14th century}}
{{plainlist}}
{{div col|colwidth=35em}}
* 1305: [[William Wallace]] was executed
* 1307: The [[Knights Templar]] were destroyed
* 1309: Beginning of [[Avignon papacy]]
* 1310: [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] began the ''[[Divine Comedy]]''
* 1314: [[Battle of Bannockburn]]
* 1315–1317 [[Great Famine of 1315–1317|Great Famine]]
* 1321–1328 [[Byzantine civil war of 1321–28|Byzantine civil war]]
* 1328: [[First War of Scottish Independence]] ends
* 1337: The [[Hundred Years' War]] begins
* 1346: [[Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia|Stephen Dušan]] established a short-lived [[Serbian Empire]]
* 1347: The [[Black Death]] begins
* 1347: [[Charles University in Prague|University of Prague]] was founded
* 1348: [[Giovanni Villani]] finishes work on ''[[Nuova Cronica]]''
* 1348–1349: [[Byzantine–Genoese War (1348–49)|Byzantine–Genoese War]]
* 1362: [[Battle of Blue Waters]]
Lithuania defeats Golden Horde. Principality of Kiev becomes part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
* 1364: [[Jagiellonian University]] was founded
* 1371: [[Battle of Maritsa]]—first substantial Ottoman victory in Europe; partition of [[Second Bulgarian Empire|Bulgaria]]
* 1376: [[Avignon Papacy]] ended
* 1380: [[Battle of Kulikovo]]
* 1380: The ''[[Canterbury Tales]]''
* 1381: [[Peasants' Revolt]] (England)
* 1381: [[John Wycliffe]] translated the Bible
* 1385: [[Union of Krewo]], initiation of the [[Polish–Lithuanian union]]
* 1385: [[Battle of Aljubarrota]]
* 1386: [[University of Heidelberg]] was founded
* 1389: [[Battle of Kosovo]]—Serbian and Bosnian forces defeated by the Ottomans
* 1342–1392: Partitioning of the [[Kingdom of Rus]] (Galicia) between Poland and Lithuania ([[Galicia–Volhynia Wars]])
* 1396: [[Battle of Nicopolis]] and first Ottoman conquest in Europe
* 1397: [[Kalmar Union]]
{{div col end}}
{{endplainlist}}

'''15th century'''
{{Main|15th century}}
{{plainlist}}
{{div col|colwidth=35em}}
* 1402: [[Battle of Ankara]]
* 1409: [[Venetian Dalmatia]]
* 1410: [[Battle of Grunwald]]
* 1415: [[Conquest of Ceuta]]
* 1415: [[Battle of Agincourt]]
* 1415: [[Jan Hus]] was burned at the stake
* 1417: The [[Council of Constance]]
* 1419–1434: [[Hussite Wars]] in [[Bohemia]]
* 1429: [[Siege of Orléans|Battle of Orléans]]
* 1431: [[Joan of Arc]] was burned at the stake
* 1434: The [[Medici family]] in [[Florence]]
* 1439: [[Johannes Gutenberg]] first used movable type printing in Europe
* 1444: [[Battle of Varna]]
* 1445: [[Battle of Suzdal]]
* 1453: [[Fall of Constantinople|Constantinople falls]] to Ottoman conquest
* 1455: [[Gutenberg Bible]] printed in Mainz
* 1456: [[Siege of Belgrade (1456)|Siege of Belgrade]]
* 1461: The [[Empire of Trebizond]] fell to the Turks
* 1469: [[Catholic Monarchs]]
* 1470: [[Battle of Lipnic]]
* 1474–1477: [[Burgundian Wars]]
* 1478: [[Grand Duchy of Moscow|Muscovy]] conquered [[Novgorod]]
* 1478: The [[Catholic Monarchs]] established the [[Spanish Inquisition]]
* 1479: [[Battle of Breadfield]]
* 1480: [[Great Stand on the Ugra River]]. The end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke over the Russian principalities.
* 1485: [[Thomas Malory]] (''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'')
* 1492: [[Alhambra Decree]]
* 1492: [[Reconquista]] ended with the [[Battle of Granada|fall of Granada]]
* 1492: [[Christopher Columbus]] reached the "[[New World]]"
* 1494: [[Treaty of Tordesillas]]
* 1497–1498: Portuguese explorer [[Vasco da Gama]]'s first voyage reached India after circumnavigating Africa
* 1499: [[Battle of Zonchio]]
{{div col end}}
{{endplainlist}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry juin.jpg|Peasants in fields<br />''[[Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry|Très Riches Heures]]''
File:Joan of Arc miniature graded.jpg|[[Joan of Arc]]<br />([[Hundred Years' War]])
File:Chronicon Pictum I Karoly Robert.jpg|[[Charles I of Hungary|Charles I]]<br />([[Kingdom of Hungary]])
File:Jan Hus at the Stake.jpg|[[Jan Hus]]<br />([[Bohemian Reformation]])
Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Martin Luther, 1528 (Veste Coburg).jpg|[[Martin Luther]]<br />([[Protestantism]])
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Portal bar|Middle Ages|History}}
* [[List of basic medieval history topics]]
* [[Timeline of the Middle Ages]]
* [[Church and state in medieval Europe]]
* [[Jews in the Middle Ages]]
* [[Gothic book illustration]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|24em}}

==Further reading==

===Surveys===
* {{New Cambridge Medieval History|volume=6}}
* {{New Cambridge Medieval History|volume=7}}
* {{cite book |title=Handbook of European History, 1400–1600: Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation |publisher=E.J. Brill |location=Leiden, New York |editor-last2=Tracy |editor-first2=James D. |editor-last3=Brady |editor-first3=Thomas A. |year=1994 |isbn=90-04-09762-7 |editor-last=Oberman |editor-first=Heiko Augustinus}}
* {{cite book|first=Norman|last=Cantor|author-link=Norman Cantor|title=The Civilization of the Middle Ages|publisher=Harper Perennial|location=New York|year=1994|isbn=0-06-017033-6|url=https://archive.org/details/civilizationofmi00cant}}
* Ferguson, Wallace K. ''Europe in transition, 1300-1520'' (1962) [https://archive.org/details/europeintransiti00ferg online].
* {{cite book|first=Denys|last=Hay|author-link=Denys Hay|title=Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries|edition=2nd|publisher=Longman|location=London|year=1988|isbn=0-582-49179-7}}
* {{cite book|first=C. Warren|last=Hollister|title=Medieval Europe: A Short History|edition=10th|publisher=McGraw-Hill Higher Education|year=2005|isbn=0-07-295515-5|url=http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072346574/}}
* {{cite book|editor-first=George|editor-last=Holmes|author-link=George Holmes (professor)|title=The Oxford History of Medieval Europe|edition=New|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2001|isbn=0-19-280133-3}}
* {{cite book|first=Maurice|last=Keen|author-link=Maurice Keen|title=The Penguin History of Medieval Europe|edition=New|publisher=Penguin Books|location=London|year=1991|isbn=0-14-013630-4}}
* Koenigsberger, H.G. ''Medieval Europe 400 - 1500'' (1987) [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0582494036/ref=rdr_ext_tmb excerpt]
* {{cite book|first=Jacques|last=Le Goff|author-link=Jacques Le Goff|title=The Birth of Europe: 400–1500|publisher=WileyBlackwell|year=2005|isbn=0-631-22888-8|url=https://archive.org/details/birthofeurope00lego}}
* {{cite book|first1=Daniel|last1=Waley|first2=Peter|last2=Denley|title=Later Medieval Europe: 1250–1520|edition=3rd|publisher=Longman|location=London|year=2001|isbn=0-582-25831-6}}

===Specific regions===
* {{cite book|first=David|last=Abulafia|author-link=David Abulafia|title=The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms: The Struggle for Dominion, 1200-1500|publisher=Longman|location=London|year=1997|isbn=0-582-07820-2|url=https://archive.org/details/westernmediterra0000abul|url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book|first=Georges|last=Duby|author-link=Georges Duby|title=France in the Middle Ages, 987–1460: From Hugh Capet to Joan of Arc|edition=New|publisher=WileyBlackwell|year=1993|isbn=0-631-18945-9|url=https://archive.org/details/franceinmiddleag00geor|url-access=registration}}
* {{The Late Medieval Balkans}}
* {{cite book|first=E.F.|last=Jacob|author-link=E. F. Jacob|title=The Fifteenth Century: 1399–1485|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=1961|isbn=0-19-821714-5}}
* {{cite book|first=May|last=McKisack|author-link=May McKisack|title=The Fourteenth Century: 1307–1399|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=1959|isbn=0-19-821712-9}}
* {{cite book|editor-first=Cyril|editor-last=Mango|author-link=Cyril Mango|title=The Oxford History of Byzantium|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2002|isbn=0-19-814098-3}}
* {{cite book|first=Janet|last=Martin|title=Medieval Russia, 980–1584|edition=2nd|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=2007|isbn=978-0-521-85916-5}}
* {{cite book|editor-first=John M.|editor-last=Najemy|title=Italy in the Age of the Renaissance: 1300–1550|edition=New|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2004|isbn=0-19-870040-7}}
* {{cite book|first=Piotr|last=Wandycz|title=The Price of Freedom: A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present|edition=2nd|publisher=Routledge|location=London|year=2001|isbn=0-415-25491-4}}

===Society===
* {{cite book|first=Doris|last=Behrens-Abouseif|title=Cairo of the Mamluks: A History of Architecture and its Culture|edition=Reprint|publisher=University of Michigan Press|location=Ann Arbor|year=1994|isbn=0-472-08260-4}}
* {{cite book|first=Robert|last=Chazan|title=The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom: 1000–1500|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=2006|isbn=0-521-61664-6}}
* {{cite book|first=David|last=Herlihy|author-link=David Herlihy|title=Medieval Households|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London|year=1985|isbn=0-674-56375-1|url=https://archive.org/details/medievalhousehol00herl}}
* {{cite book|first=David|last=Herlihy|title=Medieval Culture and Society|publisher=Macmillan|location=London|year=1968|isbn=0-88133-747-1|url=https://archive.org/details/medievalcultures00herl_0}}
* {{cite book|first=William Chester|last=Jordan|author-link=William Chester Jordan|title=The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=New Jersey|year=1996|isbn=0-691-01134-6}}
* {{cite book|first=Christiane|last=Klapisch-Zuber|title=A history of women in the West|edition=New|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London|year=1994|isbn=0-674-40368-1}}

===The Black Death===
* {{cite book|first=Ole J.|last=Benedictow|author-link=Ole Jørgen Benedictow|title=The Black Death 1346–1353: The Complete History|publisher=Boydell Press|location=Woodbridge|year=2004|isbn=0-85115-943-5}}
* {{cite book|first=David|last=Herlihy|author-link=David Herlihy|title=The Black Death and the transformation of the West|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London|year=1997|isbn=0-7509-3202-3}}
* {{cite book|first=Rosemary|last=Horrox|title=The Black Death|publisher=Manchester University Press|location=Manchester|year=1994|isbn=0-7190-3497-3|url=https://archive.org/details/blackdeathmanche00rose}}
* {{cite book|first=Kevin|last=Shillington|title=Encyclopedia of African History, Volume 1|edition=1st|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Taylor & Francis, Inc.|year=2004|isbn=9781579582456|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ftz_gtO-pngC&q=Cambridge+History+of+Egypt+Mamluk&pg=PA766}}
* {{cite book|first=Philip|last=Ziegler|author-link=Philip Ziegler|title=The Black Death|edition=New|publisher=Sutton Publishing Ltd.|location=Sutton|year=2003|isbn=0-7509-3202-3}}

===Warfare===
* {{cite book|first=Christopher|last=Allmand|title=The Hundred Years War: England and France at War c. 1300–c. 1450|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=1988|isbn=0-521-31923-4}}
* {{cite book|first=Kenneth|last=Chase|title=Firearms: A Global History to 1700|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=2003|isbn=9780521822749|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=esnWJkYRCJ4C&pg=PA103}}
* {{cite book|first=Philippe|last=Contamine|title=War in the Middle Ages|publisher=Blackwell|location=Oxford|year=1984|isbn=0-631-13142-6}}
* {{cite book|first=Anne|last=Curry|author-link=Anne Curry|title=The Hundred Years War|publisher=Macmillan|location=Basingstoke|year=1993|isbn=0-333-53175-2}}
* {{cite book|first=Paul K.|last=Davis|title=100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to the Present|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2001|isbn=0195143663|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nv73QlQs9ocC&q=Ain+Jalut+Mamluks&pg=PA141}}
* {{cite book|first=Maurice|last=Keen|title=Chivalry|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|year=1984|isbn=0-300-03150-5|url=https://archive.org/details/chivalry00keen}}
* {{cite book|first=J. F.|last=Verbruggen|title=The Art of Warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages: From the Eighth Century to 1340|edition=2nd|publisher=Boydell Press|location=Woodbridge|year=1997|isbn=0-85115-630-4}}

===Economy===
* {{cite book|first=Carlo M.|last=Cipolla|author-link=Carlo Maria Cipolla|title=Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy 1000–1700|edition=3rd|publisher=Routledge|location=London|year=1993|isbn=0-415-09005-9}}
* {{cite book|editor-first=Carlo M. |editor-last=Cipolla|title=The Fontana Economic History of Europe, Volume 1: The Middle Ages|edition=2nd|publisher=Fontana Books|location=New York|year=1993|isbn=0-85527-159-0}}
* {{cite book|first=M.M.|last=Postan|author-link=Michael Postan|title=Mediaeval Trade and Finance|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=2002|isbn=0-521-52202-1}}
* {{cite book|first=N.J.P.|last=Pounds|title=An Economic History of Medieval Europe|edition=2nd|publisher=Longman|location=London and New York|year=1994|isbn=0-582-21599-4}}

===Religion===
* {{cite book|first=Anthony|last=Kenny|author-link=Anthony Kenny|title=Wyclif|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=1985|isbn=0-19-287647-3}}
* {{cite book|first=Diarmaid|last=MacCulloch|author-link=Diarmaid MacCulloch|title=The Reformation|publisher=Penguin|year=2005|isbn=0-14-303538-X|url=https://archive.org/details/reformation00diar_0}}
* {{cite book|first=Steven E.|last=Ozment|author-link=Steven Ozment|title=The Age of Reform, 1250–1550: An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven and London|year=1980|isbn=0-300-02477-0|url=https://archive.org/details/ageofreform125010000uozm}}
* {{cite book|first=John H.|last=Smith|title=The Great Schism, 1378|publisher=Hamilton|location=London|year=1970|isbn=0-241-01520-0}}
* {{cite book|first=R.W.|last=Southern|author-link=Richard Southern|title=Western society and the Church in the Middle Ages|publisher=Penguin Books|location=Harmondsworth|year=1970|isbn=0-14-020503-9|url=https://archive.org/details/westernsocietyc00sout}}

===Arts and sciences===
* {{cite book|first=Jerry|last=Brotton|author-link=Jerry Brotton|title=The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2006|isbn=0-19-280163-5}}
* {{cite book|first=Peter|last=Burke|author-link=Peter Burke (historian)|title=The European Renaissance: Centres and Peripheries|edition=2nd|publisher=Blackwell|location=Oxford|year=1998|isbn=0-631-19845-8}}
* {{cite book|first=Ernest Robert|last=Curtius|author-link=Ernst Robert Curtius|title=European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages|edition=New|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=New York|year=1991|isbn=0-691-01899-5}}
* {{cite book|first=Edward|last=Grant|author-link=Edward Grant|title=The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional, and Intellectual Contexts|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=1996|isbn=0-521-56762-9}}
* {{cite book|first=James|last=Snyder|title=Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575|edition=2nd|publisher=Prentice Hall|year=2004|isbn=0-13-189564-8}}
* {{cite book|first=Evelyn|last=Welch|title=Art in Renaissance Italy, 1350–1500|edition=reprint|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2000|isbn=0-19-284279-X|url=https://archive.org/details/artinrenaissance00evel}}
* {{cite book|first=David Fenwick|last=Wilson|title=Music of the Middle Ages|publisher=Schirmer Books|location=New York|year=1990|isbn=0-02-872951-X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/musicofmiddleage0000wils}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Late Middle Ages}}
* [http://mcllibrary.org/ The Medieval and Classical Literature Library: Original sources on the Late Middle Ages]
* [http://www.historyteacher.net/APEuroCourse/WebLinks/WebLinks-Late%20Middle%20Ages.htm Historyteacher.net: Collection of links on the Late Middle Ages in Europe]

{{Middle Ages}}
{{History of Europe}}
{{Western culture}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Late Middle Ages| ]]
[[Category:Middle Ages|.03]]
[[Category:14th century in Europe|.]]
[[Category:15th century in Europe|.]]
[[Category:16th century in Europe|.]]
[[Category:14th-century establishments in Europe|.]]
[[Category:1520 disestablishments in Europe|.]]
[[Category:Articles which contain graphical timelines]]