History through literature

Great Britain through Literature TIMELINE

The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus.(1604)

The Faerie Queenie (1590)

Beowulf(VII c)

Canterbury Tales(1387)

William Shakespeare

Magna Carta - Feudalism

Knighthood

The Crusades

The Roman Catholic Church

The Black Death

Magna Carta - Feudalism

The Magna Carta 1215 (XIII) This treaty, signed by King John reinforced the Feudal system and gave rights and great power to the church. After the departure of the Romans from Britain´s territories in the V century, the locals rearranged their social and economical system into a system called Feudal system, it presented well-differentiated hierarchies of estates, being the Catholic Roman church members the most prestigious of all, the nobility followed in the hierarchy and lastly the peasants.

Knighthood

Through the Knight´s tale we can set the specif time in which Chaucer wrote this book, he describes the Knight as someone who ¨loved chivalry, Truth, honour, freedom and all courtesy (…). Honoured everywhere (…) .¨ Lines 45-50. It wasn´t until the late Middle Ages that Knighthood gained a social status worthy of praise.

This first quote displays who are the addresses of the church´s judgement, those with different beliefs.

01

The Crusades

Moreover, there´s a reference to the historical Crusades, in hands of the Knights Templar, loyal servers of the Catholic Roman Church who persecuted, punished and killed those with different beliefs... ¨failure to take the sacraments¨ ¨He was very worthy in his lord's war (...) As well in Christendom as in heathen lands.¨ (The Friar´s tales)

02

this second passage represents the expansion of the catholic church´s campaigns, in pagan´s lands.

01

The Roman Catholic Church

The church´s representants FIERCELY defended god´s law, especially those related to support and maintain the institution´s power.

In the Friar´s tales, Chaucer displays the role and the status of the church during the Medieval Ages (1303-1309), he describes an archdeacon (according to the encyclopedia Britannica it was an Ecclesiastical title given to the chief deacon during the Middle Ages) as someone who ¨boldly carried out the law¨ and a church with great economical power ¨And those who paid less than full tithes were severely punished.¨

02

the church collected a tax, separate from the kings' taxes, which was called a tithe. it was through this tax that the church gain its wealth.

The Black Death

Consequences

There was a lose of faith, and therefore religion lose its power because of the failure of prayer to prevent sickness and death.

The Bubonic plague (1347-1352) is referenced in the Pardoner´s tales as the ¨thief men¨, a devastating disease that killed one third of Europe´s population and livestock. It reshaped England´s social and economical structure. ¨There came a stealthy thief men call Death (...) He has slain a thousand (during) this pestilence¨ ¨Over a mile from here, within a great village(...) Both man and woman, child, and labourer, and servant boy.¨

The economy underwent abrupt and extreme inflation, since it became difficult to produce and obtain goods.

THE PRINTER MACHINE

PROTESTANT REFORMATION

Renaissance movement spread out thanks to the development of the printer machine in 1450.

The Faerie Queene was written around 1589-96 by Edmund Spenser, after a troublesome time with the Catholic church which led to the church´s Reformation, The Faerie Queenie takes this issue under the ¨battles¨ between Rome and England.

02

THE TUDORS

RENAISSAINCE

The Faerie Queene represents Queen Elizabeth, Henry VIII´s youngest daughter and the last heir of the Tudors dynasty.

These stories represent the virtues that men should have through the valorous Knights, virtues that the society started to value. A Humanistic perspective.

William Shakespeare

Sonnets

William Shakespeare was one of the most important writers of all times, he played many of his works before Queen Elizabeth I. He wrote sonnets and playwrights like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night´s Dream among others.

Are one-stanza, 14 lines poems written in iambic pentameter. all sonnets have a two-part thematic structure, containing a problem and solution, a question and answer or a proposition and reinterpretation within their 14 lines and a "volta," or turn, between the two parts.all sonnets have a two-part thematic structure, containing a problem and solution, a question and answer or a proposition and reinterpretation within their 14 lines and a "volta," or turn, between the two parts.

He also coined many new words for Modern English, like accessible, addiction, amazement, etc.

The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Dr. Faustus.

1588-1552

This literary work was written during the Reformation turmoil, Dr. Faustus expresses his faith through the protestant perspective. ¨See, see, where Christ's blood streams in the firmament! One drop would save my soul, half a drop: ah, my Christ!¨ The Catholic church believed in the justification of sins through the purchase of indulgences to the church.

Dr. Faustus represented the Humanistic perspective of the Renaissance, since he longed for his private ambitions, he lives a men-centered kind of life.