HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



owed to ransom themselves so easily, murdered 

 :he Ayoubite sultan, and set their own commander, 

 Ibek, on the throne of Egypt (1250). 



Although the Crusades utterly failed in their 

 immediate object the recovery of the Holy Land 

 from the Mohammedans they yet produced im- 

 portant results, and reacted, in many respects 

 favourably, upon the intellectual condition of the 

 Western nations. By having to act in concert, 

 these nations were brought to know one another 

 better, to interchange chivalrous courtesies, to feel 

 mutual sympathies, and entertain more liberal 

 sentiments. The Crusaders also brought from the 

 East the knowledge of many products and pro- 

 cesses tending to promote the arts and manu- 

 factures ; and it was during these expeditions that 

 modern commerce was first developed. Another 

 effect was to diminish the strength of the feudal 

 aristocracy, by occasioning the breaking up and 



~.e of many feudal properties. At the outset, the 

 sades seemed to rivet and extend the power of 



ie popes, for they brought the best knights andwar- 

 iors of Europe directly under the banner of the 

 ~ urch ; but in the end, the effect was to weaken 



e influence of fanaticism and of the papacy. 



stead of the mere feeling of abhorrence with 

 which Mohammedans had at first been regarded, 

 many of them had inspired the Christian knights 

 with esteem and admiration ; the crusading spirit 

 flagged ; men began to ask the reasons, and to 

 count the costs ; and in the latter half of the thir- 

 teenth century, Peter the Hermit himself might 

 have preached a crusade in most parts of Europe, 

 and found but cold audiences. About this time, 

 in fact, as is proved by the institution of the In- 

 quisition in various countries, Europe began to be 

 full of sceptics, who questioned both the doctrines 

 of the Romish Church, and the methods by which 

 she acted upon society. 



III. NATIONAL MONARCHIES : 1300-1517 A.D. 



History of the West : Formation of Modern European 

 Governments. 



Spain and Portugal. During the fourteenth 

 and fifteenth centuries, the Spanish peninsula con- 

 tinued to be divided into four parts the three 

 Christian kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, and Portu- 

 gal, and the Moorish kingdom of Granada. At 

 last, by the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon with 

 Isabella of Castile, these two important kingdoms 

 were united under one government (1479) an 

 event of great importance in the history of Spain. 

 The Moorish kingdom of Granada had gradually 

 been reduced to narrow and narrower limits. A 

 final crusade against the Moors was now under- 

 taken by the united chivalry of Aragon and 

 Castile, and after a sanguinary war of ten years, 

 the city of Granada was taken, and Moorish 

 supremacy in Spain was at an end (1492). From 

 this time, the peninsula has continued to be 

 divided into the two kingdoms of Spain and 

 Portugal. The close of the fifteenth and the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century form the most 

 splendid era in the annals of these countries. 

 Under John II. (1481-1495), Portugal rose to 

 eminence in commerce and maritime discovery. 

 It was in the service of Ferdinand and Isabella 

 of Spain that Columbus discovered the New 

 World (1492); and before the death of Ferdi- 

 nand in 1516, the West India islands of Haiti, 



Cuba, and Jamaica had been added to the 

 Spanish crown. Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand 

 and Isabella, had been married to Philip, Arch- 

 duke of Austria, and her son, Charles, became, 

 on his father's death, sovereign of the Nether- 

 lands. To this Austrian grandson, then, already 

 Prince of the Netherlands and Tranche- Comt^, 

 Ferdinand bequeathed a real Spanish empire, con- 

 sisting of Spain Proper, together with the king- 

 dom of Naples and Sicily, Sardinia, and the West 

 Indies. 



France. The successors of St Louis (1270) in- 

 herited a kingdom compact, well arranged, and 

 accustomed to the rule of royalty, and such it 

 continued till the direct line of the Capetian kings 

 terminated in Charles IV. (1322-1328), when a 

 period of anarchy and disaster begins. Two com- 

 petitors appeared for the crown Edward III. of 

 England, whose mother, Isabella, was Charles's 

 sister ; and Philip of Valois, who was cousin- 

 german to Charles. The English king was un- 

 doubtedly the nearer in kin had not the Salic Law 

 interfered, which was held to debar female succes- 

 sion. Edward, while admitting that his mother 

 could not personally ascend the throne, maintained 

 that she could transmit the inheritance to her son ; 

 but the states decided in favour of Philip, who 

 took the crown as Philip VI. Edward, after 

 acquiescing for a time, revived the dispute in 

 1337, and commenced a series of campaigns, 

 which made the English at one time all but 

 masters of France. These wars were signalised 

 by three splendid victories that of Sluys (1340), 

 in which the whole French fleet of 200 ships was 

 taken by the English ; of Cressy (1346), where 

 30,000 English defeated 100,000 French ; and of 

 Poitiers (1356), in which 8000 English, led by the 

 Black Prince, defeated 60,000 French. This led 

 to a treaty of peace (1360), by which a large por- 

 tion of France was ceded in full sovereignty to 

 England. But under Charles V. (1364-1380), the 

 French rallied, and a series of reverses deprived 

 the English of all their conquests, except a few 

 important towns. Charles VI. (1380-1422) be- 

 coming insane, the kingdom was plunged into 

 the confusion of civil war by the factions of the 

 Dukes of Orleans and of Burgundy contending for 

 the regency. Henry V. of England seized the 

 opportunity of reviving his pretensions to the 

 crown of France, and the great victory of Agin- 

 court (1415) made him master of the north of 

 France. The Burgundian party, entering into 

 alliance with the English, it was agreed (1422) 

 that Henry should marry Catherine, the daughter 

 of Charles, and succeed to the kingdom, to the 

 exclusion of the dauphin. Henry, however, died 

 suddenly (1422), leaving an infant son by Cathe- 

 rine ; and Charles VI. dying soon after, the dauphin 

 was proclaimed king by his adherents as Charles 

 VII. The whole of the country north of the Loire 

 was in possession of his enemies the Burgundians 

 and of the English, and though the hero of Agin- 

 court was dead, the Duke of Bedford, as regent 

 for the young king Henry VI. was leading the 

 English to fresh victories. Orleans was about to 

 fall into the hands of the foreigners, and the for- 

 tunes of Charles seemed at the lowest ebb, when 

 j a deliverer appeared in the person of a simple 

 I peasant-girl, Joan of Arc, who believed herself 

 commissioned by Heaven to save her country. 

 She put herself at the head of the French soldiers, 



139 



