4.27 Europe: a.d. 1301 to 1400  (Page 9/12)

In spite of the intermittent warfare

But England also had its troubles in this century. Early on, heavy rains wrecked harvests and destroyed the vineyards. Then the Black Death (bubonic plague) rolled into England in 1347 and returned again in 1361 and 1368, killing from 1/4 to 112 of the entire population. Because of the decimation of the laboring class, labor trouble subsequently developed. Some ref used to work because of low wages and became bandits. One great revolt of the workers, the Wat Tyler rebellion, was finally put down in 1381 by young King Richard II, after some concessions were made. In 1399 Henry Bolingbroke of Lancaster, son of John of Gaunt, beat Richard in battle, imprisoned him and took over the realm as Henry IV, ending the Plantagenet Dynasty. It should be mentioned that war with the Scots was another ever present threat to England throughout this century and frequently a reality. (Ref. 49 , 8 , 222 )

Of some interest is the further development of the English language at this time. In 1362 Edward III ruled that English, rather than French, should be used for public trials and that was the first decisive defeat for the French language on the islands. Then English replaced Norman French in the schools and became the accepted language of the nation. Richard Rolle, who died of the plague in 1349, was the father of English prose, as he amalgamated Old English, Norman, French and Latin in a written language that had previously only been spoken. Geoffrey Chaucer lived and wrote in this type of English between 1340 and 1400. John Wycliff was partly responsible for the first complete, vernacular English Bible and this at a time when the established church felt that Bible reading by the masses was heresy. The poor priests who followed Wycliff (also Wyclif and Wiclif) were called Lollards and soon it was said that every fourth man in England was a Lollard, in that they adhered to his doctrines, which emphasized the purely spiritual function of the church, with direct access of the individual to God. Advocating a property-less church, Wycliff was opposed to the auricular confession and was in favor of the reduction of the importance of the sacraments. (Ref. 49 , 229 )

Scotland

As the century opened Scotland remained without a king and suffered continual internal strife and external warfare with England. In early 1306, after a bloody confrontation with John Comyn the Red, Robert Bruce, a descendant of de Brus, was crowned King of Scotland. Immediately King Edward I of England started mobilization of forces to send north against him. Not ready for war, Robert I promptly disappeared into the western islands where, over the next many months, he gathered bands of Islemen, Irish and Gaels to initiate guerrilla warfare. Edward died in 1307 but the battles went on, with Robert making surprisingly successful raids on English strongholds, taking advantage of the weakness of Edward II. A great battle was finally fought at Bannock-burn, just south of Stirling, in 1314, with Robert I and 30,000 Scots defeating 100,000 English. An independent Scottish kingdom resulted with Robert I Bruce the unchallenged monarch. Bruce's daughter, Margaret, married Walter "the steward" and became the founder of the house of Stuart. (Ref. 8 , 38 , 91 , 119 )