History of Europe, 1250-1450

"The period of which this volume treats differs fundamentally both from that which precedes and from that which follows it. In each of those periods we are able to fix our attention upon a certain well-defined set of institutions which completely control its activities. In the former, the strictly medieval, we see Europe wholly under the sway of two vast ideas, feudalism and the Roman church system. In the latter, the purely modern period, Europe has almost wholly lost those ideas and has come out into the familiar political structure of a family of independent national states and into the freer air of religious toleration, if not yet of religious liberty. Between these two lies the period which is the subject of our present study. It is a chapter in human history of which no brief general description can be given. It is impossible to point to any peculiar institutions that govern its life. As we try to unfold the tangled thread of its history we seem to find only confusion and disorder... There we are conscious of a mighty civilization passing away and of another just vaguely taking shape in rude barbaric forms which, however, contain the germs of a new and more vigorous life." - Ephraim Emerton

Contents: The Principle of the Modern State. Louis IX and the French State. The New Empire. The New Papacy (1300-1409). The Rise of a Middle Class. Popular Movements in the North. Switzerland. Germany. Flanders. France. The Italian Republics to 1300. The Hundred Years' War (1328-1453). The Age of the Councils. The Age of the Despots in Italy. Florence. Venice. Naples and Sicily. The Papal State. The Italian Expedition of Charles VIII. The Renaissance in Italy. The Northern Renaissance. The Renaissance in France.