History Main / TheHighMiddleAges

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* ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'': As quoted by Prince Philip: "After all, this ''is'' the fourteenth century."

* Dante's ''Literature/TheDivineComedy,'' sort of (Hell, Purgatory and Heaven are effectively other dimensions, but most of the characters Dante meets are his close contemporaries).

Stretching roughly from about the Norman conquest of England (''[[Literature/TenSixtySixAndAllThat 1066 and All That]]'') to the early 1300s, but most often imagined as about the 12th or 13th century, this is the era of UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, RobinHood, and fat, lecherous, [[ChurchMilitant irascible]], but good-hearted [[ChristianityIsCatholic friars]]. Also home to [[KnightInShiningArmor knights]], beautiful [[PrincessClassic princesses]] with [[TheLateMiddleAges anachronistic]] hennins, and tall, spire-tipped Gothic architecture (note that most versions of Myth/ArthurianLegend are depicted as if they were set in this era, though strictly speaking he belongs to [[DarkAgeEurope Late Antiquity]]). Expect to see a {{corrupt church}}man or two wandering the landscape [[BurnTheWitch burning witches]], heretics, and pretty much ''anyone'' who doesn’t agree with [[MedievalMorons him]].

Perhaps remarkably, this son, [[UsefulNotes/HenryTheSecond Henry II]], succeeded Stephen more or less without incident. With that, things finally settled down and the modern, still existing kingdom of England we know today started to take shape. However, the Normans instituted their own famous rule of law that is well renowned throughout history. For example, the Domesday Book was a preparatory census taking stock of the demographics of England to help the new-found Norman rulers understand the kingdom they had just inherited better. The hybrid of Anglo-Saxon and Norman law that obtained during the reign of Henry II became the foundation for one of the world's two great legal traditions, UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw.\\

The Normans would, for some time, find it hard to hold on to their new conquests, as they suffered internal strife for nearly 100 years, culminating in the Anarchy, a civil war running 1138-1153. This arose after Henry I died without male issue, ending the male line of the UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy. Henry's nephew claimed the throne as King Stephen, but his rule was problematic enough that many magnates and others came to support the rival claim of Henry's daughter Matilda, widow of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. The civil war was chaotic but mostly inconclusive; the sides eventually agreed to a settlement whereby Stephen would be allowed to remain king but name Matilda's son, the future UsefulNotes/HenryTheSecond, as his heir.\\

Perhaps remarkably, Henry II succeeded Stephen more or less without incident. With that, things finally settled down and the modern, still existing kingdom of England we know today started to take shape. However, the Normans instituted their own famous rule of law that is well renowned throughout history. For example, the Domesday Book was a preparatory census taking stock of the demographics of England to help the new-found Norman rulers understand the kingdom they had just inherited better. The hybrid of Anglo-Saxon and Norman law that obtained during the reign of Henry II became the foundation for one of the world's two great legal traditions, UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw.\\

The Normans would, for some time, find it hard to hold on to their new conquests, as they suffered internal strife for nearly 100 years before things finally settled down and the modern, still existing kingdom of England we know today started to take shape. However, the Normans instituted their own famous rule of law that is well renowned throughout history. For example, the Domesday Book was a preparatory census taking stock of the demographics of England to help the new-found Norman rulers understand the kingdom they had just inherited better. The hybrid of Anglo-Saxon and Norman law that obtained during the reign of Henry II became the foundation for one of the world's two great legal traditions, UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw.\\

* ''Literature/ThePillarsOfTheEarth'' is set during 'The Anarchy', the 12th-century English civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda.

The wildly unpopular King John saw many of his Barons rise up in revolt. Much of this came over disputes concerning the church, the appointment of bishops, the authority of the King over said bishops, and of course, taxes. King John himself was subject to HistoricalVillainUpgrade because the Barons ultimately won and, of course, portrayed him incredibly negatively. The end of the war saw King John being forced to sign the Magna Carta, often hailed as the first document cementing modern Britain and reinvigorating democracy in Europe. However, the actual document was quite limited, with the most significant change being the appointment of 25 Barons (later to become the House of Lords) to levy taxes instead of giving the King that power, this forcing the King to go through Parliament to raise any new taxes. It was an incredibly small but crucial step in the formation of modern Britain. Events during the reigns of John's successors Henry III (the Second Barons' War/de Montfort's rebellion) and Edward I (his need for money to fund his various wars in France, Wales, and--most famously--Scotland)--led to firm establishment of Parliament as (1) the only body which could impose new taxes and (2) an essentially permanent institution made up of a combination of great magnates, senior churchmen, and elected representatives of the free men of the realm. By the middle reign of Edward III (a few years before the Black Death struck), the elected representatives were sitting as House of Commons separate from the magnates and churchmen sitting as the House of Lords, and setting themselves up as the true arbiters of taxation. As should become evident in both the English and French revolutions a few centuries later, who controls the purse-strings ultimately can wedge their way into enough power to have the king beheaded. So while no major power of the time--England included--could be said to be a democracy, the institutional origins of parliamentary constitutional monarchy in England--from which modern liberal democracy takes its cues--are firmly rooted in this era.\\

The wildly unpopular King John saw many of his Barons rise up in revolt. Much of this came over disputes concerning the church, the appointment of bishops, the authority of the King over said bishops, and of course, taxes. King John himself was subject to HistoricalVillainUpgrade because the Barons ultimately won and, of course, portrayed him incredibly negatively. The end of the war saw King John being forced to sign the Magna Carta, often hailed as the first document cementing modern Britain and reinvigorating democracy in Europe. However, the actual document was quite limited, with the most significant change being the appointment of 25 Barons (later to become the House of Lords) to levy taxes instead of giving the King that power, this forcing the King to go through Parliament to raise any new taxes. It was an incredibly small but crucial step in the formation of modern Britain. Events during the reigns of John's successors Henry III (the Second Barons' War/de Montfort's rebellion) and Edward I (his need for money to fund his various wars in France, Wales, and--most famously--Scotland)--led to firm establishment of Parliament as (1) the only body which could impose new taxes and (2) an essentially permanent institution made up of a combination of great magnates, senior churchmen, and elected representatives of the free men of the realm. By the middle reign of Edward III (a few years before the Black Death struck), the elected representatives were sitting as House of Commons separate from the magnates and churchmen sitting as the House of Lords, and setting themselves up as the true arbiters of taxation. As should become evident in both the English and French revolutions a few centuries later, who controls the purse-strings ultimately can wedge their way into enough power to have the king beheaded. So while no major power of the time could be said to be a democracy, the institutional origins of parliamentary constitutional monarchy in England--from which modern liberal democracy takes its cues--are firmly rooted in this era.\\

The wildly unpopular King John saw many of his Barons rise up in revolt. Much of this came over disputes concerning the church, the appointment of bishops, the authority of the King over said bishops, and of course, taxes. King John himself was subject to HistoricalVillainUpgrade because the Barons ultimately won and, of course, portrayed him incredibly negatively. The end of the war saw King John being forced to sign the Magna Carta, often hailed as the first document cementing modern Britain and reinvigorating democracy in Europe. However, the actual document was quite limited, with the most significant change being the appointment of 25 Barons (later to become the House of Lords) to levy taxes instead of giving the King that power, this forcing the King to go through Parliament to raise any new taxes. It was an incredibly small but crucial step in the formation of modern Britain. Events during the reigns of John's successors Henry III (the Second Barons' War/de Montfort's rebellion) and Edward I (his need for money to fund his various wars in France, Wales, and--most famously--Scotland)--led to firm establishment of Parliament as (1) the only body which could impose new taxes and (2) an essentially permanent institution made up of a combination of great magnates, senior churchmen, and elected representatives of the free men of the realm. By the middle reign of Edward III (a few years before the Black Death struck), the elected representatives were sitting as House of Commons separate from the magnates and churchmen sitting as the House of Lords, and setting themselves up as the true arbiters of taxation. As should become evident in both the English and French revolutions a few centuries later, who controls the purse-strings ultimately can wedge their way into enough power to have the king beheaded.\\

The wildly unpopular King John saw many of his Barons rise up in revolt. Much of this came over disputes concerning the church, the appointment of bishops, the authority of the King over said bishops, and of course, taxes. King John himself was subject to HistoricalVillainUpgrade because the Barons ultimately won and, of course, portrayed him incredibly negatively. The end of the war saw King John being forced to sign the Magna Carta, often hailed as the first document cementing modern Britain and reinvigorating democracy in Europe. However, the actual document was quite limited, with the most significant change being the appointment of 25 Barons (later to become the House of Lords) to levy taxes instead of giving the King that power, this forcing the King to go through Parliament to gain any new taxes. It was an incredibly small but crucial step in the formation of modern Britain. As should become evident in both the English and French revolutions half a millennium later, who controls the purse-strings ultimately can wedge their way into enough power to have the king beheaded.\\

The period is also immensely important for theological development, as the newfound commercialization of Europe caused major crises within the Catholic faith. Reactions to the increase in wealth usually took the form of asceticism, but the Church as an organization would eventually cave and become a major active participant in this commercial economy. Some monastic orders still rejected this new economy, but most monasteries became important commercial centers in the period as they were centers of production and trade. This period also saw increasing contention between secular leadership and the Church, such as in the case of lay investiture, which is (in a very distilled and generalized explanation) an argument as to whether or not bishops should be appointed by secular rulers or by the Pope. The argument for the former was that Bishops effectively governed their bishophrics as nobility in and of themselves, collecting taxes and administering justice like a secular lord would. Because of this, secular rulers believed that they should have the right to appoint bishops, as the bishops held secular power. The Pope, however, argued that this would effectively put the bishops under the authority of secular leaders while ''de jure'' they were supposed to be under the Pope's authority. Thus, it would undermine the fragile balance between secular and religious leadership that had persisted throughout the Low Middle Ages and grant secular leaders power and authority over spiritual leaders, possibly leading to corruption. Lay investiture caused a rift between secular leaders and the Church that created a fertile breeding ground for the adoption of the Reformation in Main/TheLateMiddleAges, while the acceptance of commercialization within the Church led to corruption, as it accumulated wealth and opulence at an obscene rate, providing the impetus for critics like Martin Luther and John Calvin to advocate for reform.\\

* GorgeousPeriodDress: Though most people, even the nobility, were dressed in wool except on the most festive occasions, Hollywood noblemen and (especially) noblewomen are resplendent in silks, satins, and velvets (which weren’t invented until late in the period) all the time.

* Sir Creator/WalterScott’s ''Literature/{{Ivanhoe}}'' (and all its film versions) and ''The Talisman'' (and its film version, ''King Richard and the Crusaders'').
* ''Literature/KristinLavransdatter'', a Nobel Prize-winning three-volume epic by Sigrid Undset, set in medieval Norway, is one of ''the'' most realistic depictions of this time period in fiction, especially interesting for its examination of feminism and religion in medieval life.

Stretching roughly from about the Norman conquest of England (''[[Literature/TenSixtySixAndAllThat 1066 and All That]]'') to the early 1300s, but most often imagined as about the 12th or 13th century, this is the era of UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, RobinHood, and fat, lecherous, [[ChurchMilitant irascible]], but good-hearted [[ChristianityIsCatholic friars]]. Also home to [[KnightInShiningArmor knights]], beautiful [[PrincessClassic princesses]] with [[TheLateMiddleAges anachronistic]] hennins, and tall, spire-tipped Gothic architecture (note that most versions of the story of Myth/KingArthur are depicted as if they were set in this era, though strictly speaking he belongs to [[DarkAgeEurope Late Antiquity]]). Expect to see a {{corrupt church}}man or two wandering the landscape [[BurnTheWitch burning witches]], heretics, and pretty much ''anyone'' who doesn’t agree with [[MedievalMorons him]].

* ChivalricRomance: The era they were written in -- which helps explain the Myth/KingArthur stuff above.

Stretching roughly from about the Norman conquest of England (''[[Literature/TenSixtySixAndAllThat 1066 and All That]]'') to the early 1300s, but most often imagined as about the 12th or 13th century, this is the era of UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, RobinHood, and fat, lecherous, [[ChurchMilitant irascible]], but good-hearted [[ChristianityIsCatholic friars]]. Also home to [[KnightInShiningArmor knights]], beautiful [[PrincessClassic princesses]] with [[TheLateMiddleAges anachronistic]] [[NiceHat hennins]], and tall, spire-tipped Gothic architecture (note that most versions of the story of Myth/KingArthur are depicted as if they were set in this era, though strictly speaking he belongs to [[DarkAgeEurope Late Antiquity]]). Expect to see a {{corrupt church}}man or two wandering the landscape [[BurnTheWitch burning witches]], heretics, and pretty much ''anyone'' who doesn’t agree with [[MedievalMorons him]].

It is probably because it ended so badly that this period is remembered so well, with the halycon days before the Black Death stalked the land, hence the idealised popular image of this time, which hasn't changed much in five centuries.

* ChristianityIsCatholic: This era provides rich opportunities to both play this straight and bend it because people in the past saw things differently from people today. In Western and Central Europe, this trope is almost tautologically true; barring some weird [[UsefulNotes/HeresiesAndHeretics heretical movements]] that never ''really'' got much traction, in these regions, Christianity really was synonymous with the Church headed by the Pope. As you moved into Eastern Europe, what we would now identify as Eastern Orthodox Christianity predominates--but up to the Great Schism of 1054 (in which, to simplify matters greatly, the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Pope excommunicated each other), neither "side" would have seen a difference. As far as they were concerned, there was still just one universal Church, and they merely had a dispute about whether the Pope in Rome was supposed to actually run the show or if he was merely first among equals. Even after 1054, "Catholics" and "Orthodox" didn't really see themselves as separate churches until after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. On the other other hand, however, both Catholics and Eastern Orthodox would have seen the ''Oriental'' Orthodox Christians prevalent in the Levant and Egypt as heretics for their Miaphysite Christology (contrary to the results of the Council of Chalcedon).

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Though it ''was'' throughout most of Central and Western Europe, in Eastern Europe and the Near East, Orthodoxy was more prevalent; yet is much less common in fictional works (and officially, the final split came as late as 1054).

* ''Film/TheWarLord'' is set after the 1066 Norman conquest of England.

The setting is likely to be a [[TheThemeParkVersion mythologized]] UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} or UsefulNotes/{{France}}, though there are examples from farther afield. [[UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} Jerusalem]], which had pretty much been ignored since BibleTimes, will now also be used as the stage for all sorts of spectacular battles involving scimitar-wielding [[ArabianNightsDays Saracens]] and sinisterly handsome [[UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar Knights Templar]].

Stretching roughly from about the Norman conquest of England (''[[Literature/TenSixtySixAndAllThat 1066 and All That]]'') to the early 1300s, but most often imagined as about the 12th or 13th century, this is the era of UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, RobinHood, and fat, lecherous, [[ChurchMilitant irascible]], but good-hearted [[ChristianityIsCatholic friars]]. Also home to [[KnightInShiningArmor knights]], beautiful [[PrincessClassic princesses]] with [[TheLateMiddleAges anachronistic]] [[NiceHat hennins]], and tall, spire-tipped Gothic architecture (note that most versions of the story of KingArthur are depicted as if they were set in this era, though strictly speaking he belongs to [[DarkAgeEurope Late Antiquity]]). Expect to see a {{corrupt church}}man or two wandering the landscape [[BurnTheWitch burning witches]], heretics, and pretty much ''anyone'' who doesn’t agree with [[MedievalMorons him]].

* ChivalricRomance: The era they were written in -- which helps explain the KingArthur stuff above.

Stretching roughly from about the Norman Conquest (''[[Literature/TenSixtySixAndAllThat 1066 and All That]]'') to the early 1300s, but most often imagined as about the 12th or 13th century, this is the era of UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, RobinHood, and fat, lecherous, [[ChurchMilitant irascible]], but good-hearted [[ChristianityIsCatholic friars]]. Also home to [[KnightInShiningArmor knights]], beautiful [[PrincessClassic princesses]] with [[TheLateMiddleAges anachronistic]] [[NiceHat hennins]], and tall, spire-tipped Gothic architecture (note that most versions of the story of KingArthur are depicted as if they were set in this era, though strictly speaking he belongs to [[DarkAgeEurope Late Antiquity]]). Expect to see a {{corrupt church}}man or two wandering the landscape [[BurnTheWitch burning witches]], heretics, and pretty much ''anyone'' who doesn’t agree with [[MedievalMorons him]].

* The ''Theatre/MedievalTimesDinnerAndTournament'' DinnerTheatre chain is based off of 11th century Spain.

* The ''Medieval Times'' DinnerTheatre chain is based off of 11th century Spain.

* LandOfOneCity/MerchantCity: This was when the merchants were arising to form a third class to compete with the warriors and priesthood for power, often founding states of their own independent or semi-independent of the aristocracy, and even beating them on the battlefield.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Europe1200}}'' and ''VideoGame/AnnoDomini1257'' {{Game Mod}}s for ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade''.