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Warfare, plague, and conflicts within the Catholic Church made the late Middle Ages a difficult period for nearly everyone. The long and exhausting Hundred Years’ War between England and France had dramatic consequences in both countries. In this last era before the age of gunpowder, the longbow became an effective infantry weapon, forever changing the relationship between feudal knights and their once subservient peasantry. Joan of Arc, a 19-year-old at the time of her execution in 1431, became a heroine to the French. All Europeans had to contend with another scourge, the effects of which went a long way toward ending the Middle Ages: the so-called "Black Death" started in the mid-fourteenth century and engulfed most of the cities of Europe. The social and economic effects of the bubonic plague were felt well into the sixteenth century. The power of the Roman Catholic Church declined from the height achieved under Pope Innocent III. The struggles over the power of the papacy, particularly between Boniface VIII and King Philip "the Fair" of France, remain a classic case of the clash between spiritual and secular authority. The papacy itself was directly challenged by the establishment of "anti-Popes" at Avignon (France) and Pisa (Italy). The ensuing struggle between schismatic Popes gave rise to "conciliarism" as a possible alternative to leadership by a single man. Popes and Church councils struggled for supremacy well into the fifteenth century. Throughout these upheavals, royal authority was generally strengthened in western Europe. Further to the east, in Russia, the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were a period of conquest by the Mongols from Asia. The establishment of the Kievan and then the Muscovite states mark the beginning of a political and religious identity for the Russian people. After reading this chapter you should understand:
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