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Trials and Tribulations

Dreamers & Martyrs in a Turbulent Age (Paperback - 25 Mar 2011)

 

Robert D. Morritt

 

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          Trials and Tribulations is an examination of periods of turbulence, medieval warfare, victors and the vanquished and ever changing monarchies.

 

          The creation of the Knights Templars. The famous Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, founded in 1118 by a small band of nine French knights, sworn to protect Christian pilgrims and how power corrupts in a turbulent age.

 

          A sea fight at Sluys in June 1340 that began the Hundred Years' War between   England and France. It was England's first great naval victory resulting in the destruction of most of France's fleet, which made a French invasion of England impossible.

 

          We visit , the battle of Crécy ,  in which an Anglo Welsh army of 9000 to 10,000 , commanded by Edward III of England  heavily outnumbered by Philip VI of France’s force of 35,000 to 100,000 , was victorious as a result of superior weaponry and tactics, demonstrating the importance in battle of fire power.

 

          An overview of Petrarch,  Italian scholar, poet,   known as  the "Father of Humanism".  His sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry. He also  devoted his life to a woman he had viewed  from a distance, a relationship that would never occur.

 

          The appearance of Cola di Rienzo, born of humble origins. He  rose from obscurity to run a government and  later offended the Pope by his arrogance which led him down the path to oblivion when he  proposed to set up his own  ‘Roman Empire’.

 

          An overview of the Renaissance is covered and the tragedy of the Black Death , a severe bubonic plague that decimated most of Europe and Britain

 

          A viewpoint of  Boccaccio shows his  conception of human existence , he felt it was  a joy to be accepted.  He saw only the beauty in his world, the goodliness of youth, strength and love and life.

 

          John Wycliffe is included the translator of the bible into English and of his fate in transgressing by producing his bible.

 

          These are reflections of people who sensed that a new era would one day arise from out of their state of darkness. The book concludes on a more positive theme as read of the life of Copernicus, of his astronomical discoveries as the world perched on the edge of a new age of enlightenment and discovery.