The book The Last Knight by Norman Cantor depicts the life of John of Gaunt. The author presents a good analysis of the medieval European civilization by looking into the moral, political, and ethical perspective. Cantor provides the idea that the landed aristocracy was similar to modern billionaires. He asserts that the similarities do not end with their massive wealth, but also that they were not interested in really bringing change to their world. I concur with Cantor on this point. This paper will seek to provide evidence to show that modern billionaires are similar to the medieval times aristocracy. Similar to modern billionaires, John of Gaunt was the richest man – aside from crowned aristocrats. The author says that John had acquired …show more content…
He had 300 lords and thousands of peasants. The author creates the image of John as a complicated persona. For example, through the narrations we see an extravagant, violent, military-oriented man with little compassion for the poor. It is around these aristocratic families that a culture of chivalry, extravagant consumption, a class stratification, arrogance and inconsideration for the poor. Furthermore, these families such as John’s dominated every aspect of society, state, and church. The author says that at one time when John of Gaunt led the English army in France, he ran it in circles for months and eventually accomplishing nothing besides wasting the resources provided by Parliament through heavy taxation of the peasants (Cantor, 2004). Similarly, modern billionaires exploit the peasants and waste their wealth on extravagant expenditure. Many of them own the largest companies in the world where they employ thousands of people. However, they provide low wages and have tax cuts on their huge profits. Shockingly, the companies have an adverse effect on the environment leading to health complications for the workers. Furthermore, most of their wealth goes to their lavish lifestyles instead of investing it in alleviating poverty and research into cures for deadly diseases. Therefore, Cantor proves that the mediaeval aristocracies are similar to modern
Clovis the King of the Franks was a king from the 9th century who laid the foundation of England; a 12th century Southampton merchant who sold agricultural products, wine from France, wool and a variety of goods sought by the wealthy; the serf, a mere peasant bound to work and serve the manor ruled by the lord. These three different individuals when compared to each other so different being from different levels of this middle-age social and economic ladder yet “are related to their communities and the larger society”. (Blair Nelson from the syllabus for assignment Essay Exam 1).
Maintaining feudal conditions through violence and intimidation, the army holds the populace in a constant state of fear. Guaranteeing that the peasants stay ill and in need furthers the necessity that they work to stay alive, but prevents them from doing so. This is the paradox of the poor worker, but one the army does not see. The army blindly kills anyone who tries to help the peasants, murdering all the doctors and priests that enter the villages. They do so to keep the peasants in need and in ignorance, to prevent them from learning another way of life. Lacking knowledge of the outside world ensures that the peasants will remain in the plantations, because fear of the unknown is stronger than fear of the known. Acting as feudal knights, the army forces people into the feudal plantation relationship using fear and intimidation.
In life we have many choices. Some choices may be more difficult than others. At times as human beings we make the wrong choice, but also there’s times when our choice is the correct or the better one. Talking about choices the choices we make can affect our entire life overall or can just affect a small aspect of our life. Of course, with choices there are also consequences behind the choice if the wrong decision is made. This can sometimes re-shape our entire life and flip it upside down. Sometimes these consequences can be harsh punishments such as serving jail time for example. Through these consequences no matter how difficult they may be to overcome a lesson can almost always be taught. In The Wife of Bath’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer a Knight who has raped a woman and now will suffer consequences such as death. He escapes these consequences with the order of the queen to find out what most women want in life of course, The Knight thinks he’s off the hook yet some may argue that his punishment has just begun. The Knight committed a terrible crime by raping a woman and he did not receive punishment he deserved by what happened in the end of the story, the choice he had was very interesting and the Knight understands the nature of women.
In the novel wealth plays vital impact on the lives of the characters, money defines social stature, in my perspective middle class was practically nonexistent, established wealthy individuals
Through the Middle Ages, society was divided into three social classes: the clergy, the nobles, and the peasants. However, as people entered into the Renaissance, these classes changed. The nobles during these times started to lose a lot of income, however, the members of the older nobility kept their lands and titles. On into the Renaissance, the nobles came back to dominate society and w...
In Political Testament, Cardinal Richelieu explains that the nobility is something to be used as a tool, a perpetual game of appeasement and request of services. He understood that the nobility could be a nuisance and a body of dissent against the King, but that they were necessary to the crown to provide military aid and money. Richelieu explains that one must know how to manage and manipulate them: “To take away the lives of these persons, who expose their lives every day for a pure fancy of honor, is much less than taking away their honor and leaving them a life which would be a perpetual anguish for them. All means must be used to maintain the nobility in the true virtue of their fathers, and one must also omit nothing to preserve the advantages they inherited.” ...
Wealth and power, two of the most influential means to govern over those who have none. In the novel, A Tale of Two Cities, A man that goes by the honorary title, Monseigneur, is depicted in such a manner that it would be a great shame to his family to employ less than three servants to prepare his morning hot chocolate. That is one of many examples of how the wealthy live while thousands of mothers and children are dying from starvation on the streets, and men serve severe prison sentences because they commit a petty crimes such as stealing a loaf of bread to feed their starving family while a wealthy man finds it necessary to employ four men to make hot chocolate. The difference in life between those who had money and those who didn’t were drastically different; the rich thought everything in life was paid for, and this is what leads to the revolution. Go backwards in time to a moment that caused a depression in the history of France that future societies will look back on as to not allow fathom and poverty of this caliber to strike again.
A revealing comparison can be made in the matter of money between the Parson and the Friar as to the monetary motivations of the clergy. The Parson was a poor man. He took out of the tithes given to him by parishoners and his salary to give back to them, as “rather wolde he yeven […] / unto his povre parisshens about/ of his offering, and eek of his substaunce.” (487-489) The Friar on the other hand was wealthy, and would rather take from the poor to increase his income than to give, “for thogh a widwe hadde noght a sho/ […] yet wolde he have a ferthing, er he wente.” (253-255) The actions of the Parson make those of the Friar look even worse. The Parson cares little for his own wealth, but is a great deal concerned about the poverty of his parishoners. The Friar cares very little about poverty, but is terribly concerned about his own income. On the subject of personal wealth, these two men may be seen as complete opposites, one showing the horror and inappropriate actions of the other, and th...
18 Nov. 2011. Hudson, Toren J.F. & Co. "Medieval Europe, Part 3: Nobles and Mercenaries." Hudson's American History. The. Toren J.F. -.. Hudson, a.k.a. The New York Web.
The lower status contradicts, the slaves to the wealthy and royalty, all delineate the role of the people present in the society and their everyday life. In the images, the poor and the slaves are depicted with little to no possessions, looking tired and over-worked. Through their everyday labor, they must survive as a less fortunate person. In contrast to the images of the poor, the wealthy display their prosperity and possessions, which they own which ranges from animals such as horses, to ornaments of precious treasures of gold, jewels, and even exquisite dresses, garments, robes and gowns.... ...
Dating back all the way to the Industrial Revolution, America has been filled with “robber barons” such as Andrew Carnegie. “Robber barons” refer to industrialists that become wealthy through the hard work of their workers. Carnegie forced his workers into working long hours in terrible conditions just so he can get the most profit from his steel factory. For this reason, Carnegie’s workers decided to perform a strike which turned into the Homestead Massacre. The Homestead Massacre’s aftermath turned out to be forty workers wounded and nine workers killed. This event relates to our modern world because we still have major corporations acting in a similar way of these robber barons from the 1800’s. We have the Apple Company founded by Steve Jobs that revolutionized cell phone use in the world. Apple still uses a mechanism that can be described as “slave-like” in which workers are forced to work long hours with little income. Even though this Apple factory is in Shanghai, it is still a case of an American corporation taking advantage of the needs of the poor by making them work long hours for the benefit of the wealthy. We will not be able to avoid the consequences that James Baldwin predicted if the rich keeps on exploiting the poor for their own
This fairy-tale like story not only entertains the readers, it also educates them about the distinctions of the social class system in this era. The author of this poem successfully introduces his audience to a royal king and queen, a prestigious bishop, and a brave and honorable knight. Furthermore, the writer cleverly uses these characters to enlighten his readers to the inner workings of this “pyramid of power” and demonstrates how this social class system effects social interactions in the fourteenth century. While the author of this poem is unknown, there is no questioning the quality of this wonderful work of literature and the value it possess in regard to understanding the social class distinctions of the fourteenth century.
The mandate of History can be described as studying our ancestor’s actions, successes and failures with the intent of students attaining the ability to understand parallels between modern times and our ancestral past. This study is conducted in hopes of enlightening the learner’s mind, in order to avert repeating the mistakes made in the past. Norman Cantor was a Professor at New York University where he taught History, Sociology, and Comparative Literature. After he retired from teaching, he wrote a series of books illuminating his life’s work. One of his last published literary works was, “The Last Knight, The Twilight of the Middle Ages and the Birth of the Modern Era”. In this profound and deeply enlightening novel he discussed the life of John of Gaunt and his family, as well as the wealth and privileges that were awarded to them for simply being born into nobility. To an educated mind, he successfully drew parallels between the elites of high society today and that of this landed aristocracy of the middle ages, not just in a comparative analysis of their wealth but in the desire to maintain the status quo in regards to the division of the social classes.
With the king and queen being royalty to their subjects in the kingdom their wealth had given them everything
During the Middle Ages, there were many kings ruling Europe. Some of them were good, and some of them were not. The kings and people who had power constantly used their influence in order to become richer or more powerful, and many times took advantage of all that to exploit the poor. But, not only the poor were affected by the way some kings ruled, the noblemen whom were also rich and powerful, that was the case of King John I. The way he ruled in England was disapproved by a lot of people, especially