Monday, May 23, 2016

Through History with The New Monday Quiz: the 1310s


With all of the Mongol savagery and Crusade-related horror and fiasco, you probably thought the thirteenth century sounded kind of rough.  Well, turns out that an awful lot of people in the fourteenth century looked back to the robust prosperity of their grandparents and great-grandparents as a golden age that would probably never come again.  This week, we start to see some of the appalling horrors that made the 1300s a century to remember, in one's darkest nightmares!



1. In the period of 1250-1350, say the historians, trade in this stuff was “the backbone and driving force in the English medieval economy.” And at the beginning of the 1310s, its export – mostly to Flanders – was at its very peak. What was England’s great proto-industrial export commodity?

2. The Great Pyramid had been the tallest building in the world for thousands of years, but when this building was completed in 1311 it was the new world champion. It would hold the record for 238 years, when its central spire was destroyed by a storm in 1549.

Here’s what it looks like today, and a map to help you find it. Name that Building!




3. In the twelfth century, the settlement shown here grew with in-migration from nearby regions that had been struck by drought. But by the 1310s, it had itself been abandoned, also due to drought. Where is it?


4. Construction finished in or around the 1310s on King Haakon V’s Akershus Fortress. The presence of the fortress, and the long-term residency of the king, helped make __________ its country’s capital.



5. In 1312, a Genoese adventurer named Lancelotto Malocello found and lived for a couple of decades on an archipelago off the west coast of Africa. The Greeks, Romans, and Phonecians had all been there, but Malocello is usually said to have “rediscovered” them. Today they are part of Spain.  What are they called?



6. Celebration in Jade Pool, dated at 1314, is an example of the medieval art of what country?


7. In September 1315, Edward Bruce – brother of the King of Scotland – led an army to victory at the Battle of Moiry Pass near Armagh. Beyond being a way to hassle the English, it was also a good start to his ultimately doomed attempt to revive the High Kingship of ____________.

8. It was the first of a series of large-scale crises that struck Europe early in the fourteenth century. Most of Europe (extending east to Russia and south to Italy) was affected. It caused millions of deaths over an extended number of years and marked a clear end to the period of growth and prosperity from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries.  It was marked by extreme levels of crime, disease, mass death, and even cannibalism and infanticide.

And, it was not a plague. What manner of horribleness was the Great __________ of 1315-1317?

Like a lot of decades on either side of it, the 1310s saw a great deal of what can seem to modern eyes like very complicated conflict between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines.
 9. In what country were the Guelphs and the Ghibellines the major political factions?

10. In very simplistic terms, Guelphs supported one institution, and Ghibellines another. What were these opposing institutions?



Through History with The New Monday Quiz: the 1300s

1. Covering Lazio, Marche, Umbria, and Romangna from 1300 to 1871: The Papal States.
2. South is up on the Tabula Rogeriana, which you can pick out from various details.
3. Avoirdupois is the weight system of pounds and ounces, or at least one of them.
4. From "Tuareg" and "salt caravans" we can figure that Agadez must be in the Sahel of West Africa, but knowledge or a good guess would place it in modern Niger.
5. The Condottieri were mercenaries in medieval Italy.
6. Robert the Bruce was King of Scotland.
7. Piers Gaveston prospered for a while as King Edward's best buddy, but the nobles didn't much like the open favoritism and he got exiled a couple of times and then, eventually, killed.  Or, per pfly, it "worked out badly for him. In a Game of Thrones-y way." You can read all about it in Marlowe!
8. Philip IV's novel solution to a debt crisis is why you never see Knights Templar around anymore.
9. Clement V moved the Papacy to Avingnon.
10.The tallest building, for this one last decade, was The Great Pyramid.

It kind of feels like everybody tied at awesome.  You all do much better at these than I would.  Christine M and UnwiseOwl were probably the rightest, although the Owl loses .03 point for not anticipating that there was a reason that I asked about the tallest building in the decade that I did.

6 comments:

Christine M. said...

1. wool
2. York cathedral
3. Mesa Verde
4. Oslo ?
5. Canary Islands
6. China
7. Ulster?
8. famine
9. Italy
10. The Pope and...someone else?

Morgan said...

1. The thing that springs to mind is "wheat". I seem to remember some previous kings embargoing wheat trade to Flanders, so it must have been somewhat important.
2. I think I know very little about famous cathedrals.
3. That looks like Mesa Verde, CO
4. Akershus is where Oslo is.
5. The Canaries
6. China
7. ?????
8. Not Plague? Was it a famine?
9. ????
10. ??????????????

DrSchnell said...

1. wool
2.some famous cathedral. Canterbury? I realize that I have no idea where Canterbury is.
3. Mesa Verde, Colorado
4. ?
5. Canary Islands
6. China
7. Ireland
8. famine
9. Italy
10. Probably Pope-ishness and, um, we-hate-Popeishness

Anonymous said...

1 - Wool
2 - Lincoln Cathedral
3 - Mesa Verde A
4 - Oslo
5 - Cape Verde Islands
6 - China
7 - Ireland
8 - Famine
9 - Italy
10 - Papacy in Rome v. Avignon
Susan

pfly said...

1. I want to say tin, but I thought that was the driving force in other periods too. To Flanders, eh? Oh screw it, let's say tin.
2. Reims Cathedral, innit? Wait, what, in England? And up there? That's like Norfolk...well north of Norfolk. Which is, uh...not Yorkshire, south of that...Lincolnshire. Don't think I can even name a town there. So....Lincolnshire Cathedral?
3. Mesa Verde! Wait, you don't want the name but the location? No fair. New Mexico? Colorado? um....Colorado?
4. Akershus, I recognize that name from eu4! It's in southern Norway...around Oslo!
5. Them's the Canary Islands.
6. China, I assume.
7. "High Kingship" sounds like Ireland. So, ...that?
8. Killed millions but not a plague? Famine then?
9. There's a Guelph, Ontario. So...Canada? Or not. I dunno, the names look somewhat Italian.
10. Jeez, I don't know. If it is Italy....something to do with the Pope?

UnwiseOwl said...

Never provide enough information to get penalised that .03 points!
1. Could be anything. What did they have? Let's go...charcoal? Why did Flanders need it? Umm...they had no forests left?
2. Oh, right. Yeah. That's Lincoln Cathedral! The bishop is the Visitor of our college here, so there's a picture of it in our common room. I figured this was why, last week actually, but I couldn't work out what building it would have been. Lincoln makes sense.
3. This is one of those pictures you see all the time but honestly have no idea where it actually is. Maybe Petra? That was in a desert...
4. Oslo, went there last year :)
5. Either the Azores or the Canaries? I thought the Azores were Portugese, so...Canaries?
6. China?
7. Unless there was a High King of Ulster, which seems a bit silly, it'll be Ireland.
8. Blegh...famine? Would have said drought but we've already done that this week.
9. Ooh, oohh. Those are Italian factions...not sure if we're talking about the papal states or Sicily, but I'm thinking it's the Papal States.
10. Some of them supported the Pope and some the Emperor. I have no idea which was which. Let's go that the Guleph's were into the Emperor.