85. The Renaissance

Intellectual horizons slowly widened.
Humans became important with rediscoveries of the old Greek writings.
Information exploded with the printing press.
Books became more available.
Dante wrote his great work.
Shakespeare wrote his plays.
The Globe was founded.
The structure of the universe was changed and challenged.
Copernicus developed the sun-centered solar system.
Galileo agreed
Was sentenced to house arrest.
Artists learned new tricks.
Realistic images with color and brush were made.
Perspective expanded.
No longer were pictures flat and lifeless.
No longer were statues trapped in their dais.
They were free to walk about
They were free to be experienced.
New nobles emerged.
To make their way in the world of trade and banking.
The Medici became rich.
They commissioned paintings.
Lived like royalty.
Italy broke into republics.
Burgundy expanded.
Civil war broke out in England.
Isabella and Ferdinand ended division in Spain.
France was not well after the war of a hundred years
But managed to slowly dress their wounds.
The horizons of the known world started to expand.

84. Rebirth

More uprisings ripped through Europe.
More plagues.
Europe went through growing pains.
New states were formed.
Spain grew into Iberia.
A second schism
There were two popes.
The pope of Rome and the pope of Avignon
Causing conflict in the church.
A sainted woman made her problems known.
They tried to piece together the church
But couldn’t.
A council was called.
A third pope
Then a fourth antipope
Who found the stake to be too hot.
He’s a pope,
You’re a pope,
I’m a pope,
Everyone’s a pope.
All popes were deposed and a final one was chosen.
The systems of Europe broke down
Then rebuilt into new ones.
Religion continued in its authority.
Plagues came and went.
Wars were fought and new things began to form.
The Dark Ages of the Medieval period drew to a close.
Chaos slowly settled to order.

83. The Black Death

After the War of a Hundred Years

Things went well for Europe.

They started to emerge from the darkness.

Then the world changed.

Trade with China made people rich

But a problem soon arose.

The merchants with goods and wares

Brought rats with fleas and disease.

A plague swept through Europe from the east.

Not a single place was safe.

No one could escape

Death’s horrible black cloak

Or his sharpened shining scythe.

The bravest act a man saw

Was a woman sewing herself into her own shroud.

Death and destruction ran rampant through the streets.

Peasants rioted and revolted.

“It’s the end of the world!”

An Italian would say.

Nothing could be done.

Passion plays were performed.

Self-abuse inflicted.

People blamed others.

They blamed Jews.

Placing them with heretics and witches.

People went on pilgrimages

As Chaucer’s Tales

Kept them entertained

With stories long ago.

The plague continued to wreak havoc

In the countries

Demolishing old ways.

82. Joan of Arc

All felt lost

In this tragic war.

France needed a hero.

A noble knight to save France from England’s tyranny.

A young lady

Waiting to be married,

In her thirteenth year,

Received a call from God.

“Go,” he said,

“England is not meant to have French land.”

The maiden of Orleans

Was terrified at first

But came around eventually.

She went to the Dolphin court

Presenting her plan to save France.

The Dolphin was impressed

She was dressed

In armor and given a horse.

At the battle of Orleans

She proved her mettle

With the long fought victory.

She persuaded her Dolphin

To march to their enemy Burgandy

Receiving the crown of the seventh Charles.

She promised to capture Paris

But Burgandy’s and England’s forces

Were way too strong.

They captured her

Accused her of witchcraft

Burning her at the stake.

Her passion lived on

As symbol for France

Driving them to win the war

Ridding England from the continent.

81. Agincourt

The fifth Henry came along

To continue the war.

Under failure of relations and peace.

Through his grandfather

He made a claim to France.

He demanded tribute for John

Along with lost continental lands.

France refused

Offering the hand of his daughter and a dowry.

The fifth Henry was insulted

Breaking the second peace.

He spread the word to his people

Promising glory.

Promising victories and plunder.

Messages sent all over the island

Brought people poor and rich alike

Across the English Channel.

Harfleur resisted

But was defeated in the end.

Henry’s army weakened

They bade him go back

As the snows of winter came in.

“We will push on my brethren!”

He said,

“I have a claim here!”

“Its not just on paper!”

“Disease,”

“Cold,”

“Bloody fighting”

“Has killed many of my men”

“But I must push onward.”

He moved eastward to Calais

But found his supplies running low.

At Agincourt he made his stand

With the Dolphin constable.

The French tried to stall

They pleaded with him

The fifth Henry didn’t listen.

“Your words mean nothing to me!”

He said,

“My paper claim to your continent”

“Will be honored.”

Henry and the Dolphin met in the gorge

But for three hours there was no fight.

France thought they’d run away.

They held their ground.

To march would be suicide.

Henry forced himself to step forward

Though weak from hunger.

France’s cavalry charged unsuccessfully

Then the army of five thousand men

Walking through an arrow hail.

Henry was pushed back for a time

But the Dolphin constable

Was no match for Henry’s men.

80. The Hundred Years War

Through politics and marriage,

France came to serve England

As vassal to the king.

France reorganized

Centralized.

They had enough of the English

Lording over them

So they took Aquitaine away.

The third Edward,

Wanting that land back,

Claimed the seat where France sat.

Propaganda

Promising plunder and victories

Flowed through the English countryside.

The people mobilized

Crossing the Channel

To start the War of a Hundred Years.

For a time England triumphed

Gaining ground in the continent.

A victory by England’s king

In the land of Crecy

Then at Poitiers

Where the old king was captured.

They crowned the Dolphin man

To bring control to the continent.

Mad kings of France and England

Held the fighting at bay.

In the short lived first peace,

Small raids were made

While France and others

Fought their Levantine crusades.

79. Marco Polo

Europe worried about the Golden Horde.
To her the enemy was at the gates
Waiting to come in.
Eyeing his prey
As they moved and carried on with business.
They needed emissaries.
The Polo family
Famous for their merchant voyages
Took young Marco eastward.
China told them they were interested.
“Go back to your land,”
The emperor said,
“Bring your religion, science and arts to me.”
“I must see them.”
They went back
Hoping to see the emperor again.
With the pope’s blessing
A trek of three and a half years
Brought Marco to Xanadu
Where the Great Khan sat.
The Polos fashioned new weapons
As Marco became the ambassador.
He learned many things in Asia
As he traveled to distant lands.
He helped escort a princess.
He told of his adventures
On his way back home.
They were told under lock and key
As prisoner of war
Then written down
As a free man
Telling of his famous journey.
Countries got rich with what he learned
Inspiring future explorers to seek out new lands.
He brought back a wonderful drug
As his stories inspired generations
The Silk Road was opened.
Then Kublai Khan fell to the dust of time
The Mongol empire fell with him
Disappearing under its sandy dunes.

78. The Mongol Empire

Out of the steppes of Central Asia

Came violent nomads

When drought turned grass to dust.

Their animals starved in famine

Their way of life was threatened.

Thunderous hooves of horses

Flowed in all directions

Like a dust storm

They ripped through cities

Setting fire with abrasive sand

Trampling on poor helpless victims.

They crossed the wall in China,

Scaled the mountains in Tibet,

Cornered the people of Korea,

Fought the blistering heat and sands of Iran

Braved the winters of Russia.

All countries fell to the great Khans.

Then rose the great Golden Horde.

Planted in the center of Asia.

Their navies tried for Japan

But the divine winds weren’t with them.

For two days the typhoon blew

Decimating the Khan’s mighty fragile fleet.

The Mongols threatened Europe

Like hungry wolves at Europe’s doorstep

Waiting for their victim to come out

They threatened the people

Only nipping and biting at her heals.

They could go no further.

The death of a king

Quieted the thunderous wave

Of men and horses.

77. The Last Crusades

The pope and the people

Rallied for more crusades.

Rulers left their lands.

Frederick, the Emperor.

Leopold, the Austrian.

Richard, the Lion Heart.

An insult caused a rift

Between the Austrian and Lion Heart.

The Lion Heart was captured.

Held for ransom.

The lion’s heart broke

Mourning the loss of a friend turned enemy.

“I would sell London,”

He whispered in his shackles,

“If I could find a suitable purchaser.”

The Emperor drowned

Harassing the Roman son.

The cause that the urban on preached

Was lost.

Many people died.

Some at the hands of Christian men

Who did the unspeakable in the name of God.

God wasn’t directing those men.

Greed, pride and prejudice were their leaders.

No one was safe.

Jew and Turk alike were killed.

It was alright as long as they said their prayers and go to church

Anointing themselves in Christ’s waters.

The priests protested.

True believers of the cause tried to do right.

It was no use.

God was no longer on their side.

As knights stole relics from Constantine’s city

“Never,” they said,

“Was so great an enterprise.”

They came because God told them to.

They stayed to get rich.

They crossed themselves with one hand

Pocketing gold with the other

“So everything from common houses to the Church of God.”

“Were filled with men of the enemy.”

“This is an affront to God,”

The pope shouted.

Then he whispered behind his back,

“See if they can wrap it with a nice bow.”

Many still believed in the righteousness of the cause.

Remember the good people who believed in the cause.

Remember the ones who did it for God.

Not for greed.

Still fighting erupted in other places.

Spain reconquered Iberia.

Children tried for the Holy Land

But were captured by pirates.

Danes tried to cleanse their neighbors

Of “heathen” people.

God may not have given them the kingdom

But he did give them something else.

In the end the inner pilgrimage became important.

Remember the lessons learned here.

Otherwise old wounds be opened.