ly
| or French period
|
1373. Winchester College, first |
great public school | 1370-1385. Chaucer's Middle or
| Italian period
1377. Richard II. Wyclif and the |
Lollards begin Reformation | 1362-1395. Piers Plowman
in England |
|
1381. Peasant Rebellion. Wat Tyler | 1385-1400. Canterbury Tales
|
| 1382. First complete Bible in
| English
|
1399. Deposition of Richard II. | 1400. Death of Chaucer
Henry IV chosen by Parliament| (Dante's Divina Commedia,
| _c_. 1310; Petrarch's
| sonnets and poems, 1325-1374;
| Boccaccio's tales, _c_.
| 1350.)
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* * * * *

CHAPTER V

THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING (1400-1550)

I. HISTORY OF THE PERIOD

POLITICAL CHANGES. The century and a half following the death of Chaucer
(1400-1550) is the most volcanic period of English history. The land is
swept by vast changes, inseparable from the rapid accumulation of national
power; but since power is the most dangerous of gifts until men have
learned to control it, these changes seem at first to have no specific aim
or direction. Henry V--whose erratic yet vigorous life, as depicted by
Shakespeare, was typical of the life of his times--first let Europe feel
the might of the new national spirit. To divert that growing and unruly
spirit from rebellion at home, Henry led his army abroad, in the apparently
impossible attempt to gain for himself three things: a French wife, a
French revenue, and the French crown itself. The battle of Agincourt was
fought in 1415, and five years later, by the Treaty of Troyes, France
acknowledged his right to all his outrageous demands.

The uselessness of the terrific struggle on French soil is shown by the
rapidity with which all its results were swept away. When Henry died in
1422, leaving his son heir to the crowns of France and England, a
magnificent recumbent statue with head of pure silver was