Overview

The module provides an overview of a number of key topics, building up a picture of developments in Latin Europe as a whole across the period studied. Lectures and seminars will focus on: 1. Economy and society in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; 2. The reform papacy and the investiture contest; 3. Monasticism and the new religious orders; 4. Popular religion and heresy; 5. Capetian France; 6. Germany and the Empire; 7. Intellectual life and learning; 8. The expansion of Latin Europe; 9. The crusades; 10. The Spanish Reconquista. Students taking the course will study these topics using both translated primary sources (such as The Deeds of Louis the Fat, Gesta Francorum, and Peter Abelard's History of my Calamities) and the modern historiography on each of these subjects.

Learning Outcomes

• Communicate ideas clearly and lucidly.

• Demonstrate a wide-ranging knowledge of the history of Europe during the high middle ages.

• Demonstrate a wide-ranging knowledge of the history of Europe during the high middle ages.

• Demonstrate an ability to deploy references and citations in accordance with academic practice

• Demonstrate an awareness of the various types of historical evidence that medieval historians use and of the possible problems with that evidence.

• Illustrate a detailed knowledge of specific aspects of the period and subject

• Present detailed historical arguments about specific aspects of the period and subject

• Synthesize historical arguments about long-term developments during the period.