2.A period of Wars, Poets and Legends

2 – WARS WARS,, POETS AND LEGENDS

The Magna Charta (1215)

Signed by King John “Lackland� in front of 24 Barons at Runnimede, it limited the power of monarchy in England.

John Lackland (Plantagenets, 1167 –1216) Regent on the throne while Richard I was absent (Third Crusade, 1190 – 1194), he became king when Richard died without heirs.

He was called: Lackland he did not inherit his father’s properties as he was the youngest son.

Softsword his lack of skill in battle.

He was the legendary enemy of Robin Hood.

The Hundred Years’ War (1337 – 1453)

Series of separate wars between House of Valois (France) and the House of Plantagenet (England) for the French throne.

They ended in the expulsion of the Plantagenets from France.

The Wars of the Roses (1455 -1485)

The War of the Roses

Dynastic civil wars between the Lancasters (red rose) and the Yorks (white rose), both supporters of the House of Plantagenet.

A Lancastrian, Henry Tudor (Henry VII) got the throne: he married Elizabeth of York, and founded the House of Tudor (reigned 117 years).

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343(1343-1400)

“The Canterbury Tales” Tales”: collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket. Chaucer writes in Modern English ( Boccaccio)

In Italy: Dante’s Divina Commedia Petrarca and Boccaccio Marco Polo’s Il Milione Giotto’s paintings

The Last Sleep of Arthur (1881) Edward Burne-Jones

Le Morte d'Arthur (1485) Sir Thomas Malory

Pre-Raphaelites Brotherhood

It is a collection of French and English stories about the legendary King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

The Death of King Arthur James Archer (1859)