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The 15th century in many ways is when Europe began to make the transition from the Medieval to the modern world. The Renaissance was more pronounced and established outside of Italy by the 15th century. The Renaissance had a profound affect on Europe. It affected philosophy, science and art, but even more it affected the way man thought and his outlook on life. Individuals other tha royals and Churhmen begin to play promient roles. Filippo Brunelleschi invents one-point perspective, leading to major innovations in Italian art and architecture. Leonardo da Vinci's inventive mind and spectacular art fuels the Rennaisance. The vernacular languages become increasingly important and the modern forms of European languages begin to appear. Perhaps most important, modern English appears out of Middle English. This trend is so pronounced that by the 16th century we can read English authors with considerable ease. The Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Church becomes permanent in 1417. In part because of the twin impacts of the Schism with the Eastern Church and the Renaissance, there is increased Church concern with heresy. The Church supresses Lollardy in England. John Badby becomes the first individual burnt at the stake for heresy in England. John Huss is burned at the stake in Germany. Henry V decimates the French nobility at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. A peasant girl, Jeanne d'Arc appears in France and in 1429 leads French forces to a victory against the English. She is burned at the stake, but she sets in motion th expulsion of the English from France and a French victory in the he Hundred Years' War. The modern states of France and England develop. Henry VII in England founds the Tudor dynasty. The Byzatine Empire had been reduced to Constantinople which fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The Ottomans begin to turn their attention west to Europe. At the same time, it was in the 15th century that Europe exploded outward accross the globe. First it was the Portuguese voyages of discovery around Africa and on to Asia. The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reaches India in 1498. Then Columbus in 1492 discovered the Americas in his efforts to reach the East. While it is the European voyages that are most heavily reported during the 15th century, a much larger operation at the time was Chinese eunuch Admiral Zheng He's voyage with an emense fleet to South-East Asia, India, and East Africa. Also in 1492 Granada fell and the Moors were finally expelled from the Iberian Peninsula. Isabela and Ferdinand in an effort to "purify" Spain even futher also in 1492 expell the Jews, who had been tolerated by the Moors. To accomplish this the Spanish Inquisition begins its work. In many ways it will succeed, but one impact of the Inquisition is to initiate a decline in the Spanish economy and culture that even the flow of riches from the Americas will be unable to reverse. Just as the Renaissance sets mens' minds on radical new intellectal quests, a German Johann Gutenberg invents movable print making possible printing and bringing books into the reach of vastly more people in Europe. One of the most important books of the century is Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince. Douublet and hose were worn by men during the Renaissance. Boys after breeching would generally wear the styles worn by their fathers. A doublet was close-fitting jacket, both sleeved and sleeveless, sometimes with a short attached skirt. One report indicates that doublet and hose were initially undergarments and only the well to do could afford them. As a result, they became a status symbol and people began wearing them as outer garments. Belts in the 15th century become a symbol of manhood. Boys often did not wear them and they became seen as a transition to adult manhood. It became disgrace for a man to have his belt taken from him. Both men and women began wearing formal high-necked gowns called houppelande. These gowns might have trailing sleeves. Many great universities were founded are became established in the 15th century. The influence of 15th century garments can be seen in the academic gowns that teachers at English public (exclusive private) schools still wore in the early 20th century and are still worn by university dons for ceremonial purposes. People in the 15th century also wore gowns with a more casual low-necked cotehardie. Women and girls wore their hair in padded head-rolls (chaplets). [Crush]
The 15th century in many ways is when Europe began to make the transition from the Medieval to the modern world.
The Renaissance was more pronounced and established outside of Italy by the 15th century. The Renaissance had a profound affect on Europe. It affected philosophy, science and art, but even more it affected the way man thought and his outlook on life. Individuals other tha royals and Churhmen begin to play promient roles. Filippo Brunelleschi invents one-point perspective, leading to major innovations in Italian art and architecture. Leonardo da Vinci's inventive mind and spectacular art fuels the Rennaisance.
The vernacular languages become increasingly important and the modern forms of European languages begin to appear. Perhaps most important, modern English appears out of Middle English. This trend is so pronounced that by the 16th century we can read English authors with considerable ease.
The Schism between the Eastern and Western Church becomes permanent in 1417. In part because of the twin impacts of the Schism with the Eastern Church and the Renaissance, there is increased Church concern with heresy. The Church supresses Lollardy in England. John Badby becomes the first individual burnt at the stake for heresy in England. John Huss is burned at the stake in Germany. The power of the Roman Catholic church declined as Europeans increasingly came to identified with their nations and the new humanistic ideas of the Renaissance eroded religious faith and Chuch authority.
The Feudal System by the 15th century had diven way to the increasingly assertive power of absolute monarchy. Here the appearance of gun gunpowder changed the power ballance in Europe. Nobels could no longer could no longer resist royal armies behind castle walls. European monarchs increasingly surrounded themselves with a new class of more sophisticated advisors. The national monarchies were also emerging victorious in struggles with the Papacy. Education gained in stature as middle classes benefitting from the expanding economies expanded their influence.
Henry V decimates the French nobility at the Battle of Agincourt (1415). A peasant girl, Jeanne d'Arc appears in France and leads French forces to a victory against the English (1429). She is burned at the stake, but she sets in motion th expulsion of the English from France and a French victory in the he Hundred Years' War. Burgundy was annexed by Louis XI after Battle of Nancy and the death of Duke Charles the Bold (1477). The modern states of France and England develop. Henry VII in England founded the Tudor dynasty.
Constantine Palaeologus, the last Byzantine emperor as Constantinre XI was born (1404). Constantinople had declined by the 15th century to a shadow of its former imperial glory. The city was a tempting target, but the city's massive walls held the Turks at bay. Emperor John VIII dies and the sucessioin is disputed between his brothers Demetrius and Constantine (1448). The arrival of gunpowder from China, as in Western Europe, changed the military calculations of beseiging Medieval fortifications. Cannons devestated the walls that had protected the city for 1000 years. Mahammed II became Sultan on the death of his father (1441). Mehmed II conducts a 2 year siege. Finnaly Turkish cannons achieve a break in the wall and Turkish soldiers pour through. Byzantium was finally overwealmed by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet???? II (1453). The few remaining cities, such as Trebizond and Mistra, also fell to the Turks before the end of the century. The fall of Constantinople was a shock to Western Christendom. It was a great victory to the Ottomons who benefitted in many ways from possession of the great city. The city's fall also fueled the already increasing interest in Greek and classical studies, especially in Italy. This was a major factor in the appearance of the European Renaissance.
It was in the 15th century that Europe exploded outward accross the globe. The great European voyages of discovery of the 15th and 16th centuries were fundamentally economic enterprises. They were conducted by the European countries of the Atlantic coasts to establish direct trade contacts with China and the Spice Islands (Indonesia) that was being blocked by Byzantium/Venice and the Arabs. At the time, trade in silk, porcelin, and spices from the East carried over the Silk Road had to pass through Turkish, Arab, Byzantine, and Italian middleman, making them enormously expensive. The crusaders failed to break the Islamic wall separating still primitive Europe from the riches of the East. Circumventing the land Silk Road and the sea Spice Route would have profound economic consequences for Europe and the world. The ballance of power would shift from Eastern to Western Europe and eventualkly to northern Europe. Two nations led the early explorarions in the 15th century--Spain and Portugal.
First it was the Portuguese voyages of discovery around Africa and on to Asia. The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reaches India in 1498. Then Columbus in 1492 discovered the Americas in his efforts to reach the East. These two countries pioneered the sea routes that would lead Europeans to Asia and the Americas, but the Dutch, English, and French were to follow in the 16th century. While it is the European voyages that are most heavily reported during the 15th century, a much larger operation at the time was Chinese eunuch Admiral Zheng He's voyage with an emense fleet to South-East Asia, India, and East Africa. While it is not well understood why China did not follow up on this these great voyages, but it is oibanlyv related to why it would be the West and not China that would define modernity.
Also in 1492 Granada fell and the Moors were finally expelled from the Iberian Peninsula. Isabela and Ferdinand in an effort to "purify" Spain even futher also in 1492 expell the Jews, who had been tolerated by the Moors. To accomplish this the Spanish Inquisition begins its work. In many ways it will succeed, but one impact of the Inquisition is to initiate a decline in the Spanish economy and culture that even the flow of riches from the Americas will be unable to reverse.
Important technological advances occurred in the 15th century. They included advances in scatology, fire arms, metallurgy, navigation, optics, painting (perspective), printing, shipbuilding, and much mores. Printing was especially important because it helped to spread the technological advances. Just as the Renaissance sets mens' minds on radical new intellectual quests, a German Johann Gutenberg invented movable metal type making, This made possible a huge reduction in the cost of producing books. Printing brought books into the reach of vastly more people in Europe. Printing and books were not invented by Gutenberg. In fact a long list of related steps laid the foundation for Gutenberg and moveable metal type, a process that began in Sumeria, at about the same time that writing was invented (3,000 BC). The advances mostly occurred in the East, primarily in China and nations in the Chinese orbit. But it is the Christian West that the ideas and technology finally came together. It is not all together why this was, but a major factor was that in Europe, any book could be printed in European languages with only about about 26 characters. Chinese characters are logograms, words are essentially distinct and not made up of a few charters/letters. This hugely complicated printing. Arabic was different than European languages. They are joined together unlike European languages where they letters are separate, perfect for moveable type printing. In both Christian Europe and the Muslim Middle wast, the holy books played an important role in early printing. Printing could mimic the work of scribe copying books. It could not mimic Arabic perfectly enough to be found acceptable to Islamic scholars. That retarded the development of printing in Muslim countries fir several centuries, by which time in Europe, printing had long since advanced beyond religious tomes. The Bible was the first book to be printed in quantity. One of the most important secular books of the century is Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince. Western printing was a major factor in advancing the technology by which the west was able to dominate much of the world.
Robes were still common at the begunning if the Renaissabce , but were gradually replsced with douublet and hose. This transitioin was still in process diring the 15th cebntury. One artist left us an image of how noble boys in Italy dressed at different ages (1480s). Boys after breeching would generally wear the styles worn by their fathers. A doublet was close-fitting jacket, both sleeved and sleeveless, sometimes with a short attached skirt. One report indicates that doublet and hose were initially undergarments and only the well to do could afford them. As a result, they became a status symbol and people began wearing them as outer garments. Belts in the 15th century become a symbol of manhood. Boys often did not wear them and they became seen as a transition to adult manhood. It became disgrace for a man to have his belt taken from him. Both men and women were wearing formal high-necked gowns called houppelande in the early 1400s. These gowns might have trailing sleeves. Many great universities were founded are became established in the 15th century. The influence of 15th century garments can be seen in the academic gowns that teachers at English public (exclusive private) schools still wore in the early 20th century and are still worn by university dons for ceremonial purposes. People in the 15th century also wore gowns with a more casual low-necked cotehardie. [Crush] By the mid-1450s the gownspeople wore has lost their trailing sleeves. Gowns were commonly worn doubletsand hose. The doublet originated with the gipon of the 14th century. Casual hoods evolved into a kind of turban, called a chaperon, became widely worn and had no connotation with the non-Christian East. The liripipe began to be used as a scarf. Women's headdresses increased considerably in size, but girls more commonly wore just simple hoods. [Crush] By the 1480s France began to be seen as a center of fashion. High-waisted gowns with trailing skirts became popular with fashionable ladies. Women wore various fetching but often highly impractical headdresses. Often they would shave their foreheads to accomodate these headdresses. Younger men began wearing shorter jerkins, often pleated and trimmed with fur. Shoes grew extrodinarily long. Some were even chained to their knees. [Crush]
Some Italian Renaissance artists shows boys with long shoulder length hair (figure 1). Women and girls wore their hair in padded head-rolls (chaplets). [Crush]
We begin to learn more about toys in the 15th century. This is because they begin to appear in art. The art is very important because toys generally do not survive. Children are riugh on things. And the materials used for toys oftem deteroriare over time. This is why the toys we have from the ancient workd are mostly clay figures. Clay figurines unlike most other toys are hard to destoy. Clay is not biodegradeable and once baked is more or less permament. They can last not only for centuries, but millennia. Other toys not so much mwgichnis why art is sich an importamt source. Before the Renaissance, art was largely the province of the Church because the Church could aford it. Thus most paintings had religious themes. And toys has no place in religious portraits. With the Renaissance and its hunanist orientation, painters began not only to paint portraits of individuals and not just royals, but scenes depicting real life activities. And when children were involved we sometimes see their toys. Such images were not very common, in part because play and toys were not take very seriously. Most parents saw them as a waste of time. Some of the toys we see are tools of the trade. Aristocratic boys might have toy borses, lances, and toy swords. Girls might have dolls. Toys became more common as Europe emerged from the medievil era and economic conditions improved. As affluence spread over a larger social base, this meant that children had more time to play and mire parebts willing to indulge them..
Crush, Margaret. Piccolo Book of Costume (Pan Books: London, 1973). The book has vert nicely done illustrations by Faith Jaques.
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