Later Middle Ages: A History of Western Europe 1254-1494
The Scottish historian, Robert Balmain Mowat writes, “When this period opens one of the finest epochs in German history had just closed, and a time of confusion begun.” With the death of the Emperor Frederick II, Germany’s many feudal territories became practically hereditary sovereignties, her Free Imperial Cities almost independent states. But within the walls of these city-states, as in their Italian counterparts, commercial life flourished. During this period the Great Schism divided Christendom and was with infinite difficulty resolved. This was the age of Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, of the Hundred Years’ War, of the rise of Spain, and of the Turkish conquest of Constantinople. (Summary by Pamela Nagami, M.D.)