Social Roles During The Renaissance And Middle Ages

I. The Renaissance is typically thought of as the literal rebirth of Europe, almost as if it were a break in history. Preceded by the Middle Ages, a time considered to be miserable for many, the Renaissance seemed as if it was the beginning of a new era. But was the difference between these two time periods really so distinct? The short answer is no. In reality, the changes that occurred during the Renaissance (social, political, and economic) were more of a gradual progression from medieval times, rather than a sudden transformation.
II. Social Aspects of the Renaissance and Middle Ages
A. The Renaissance boasted many scholarly achievements. There seemed to be a slowly increasing amount of intellectual activity, throughout the centuries, …show more content…
The Renaissance produced huge amounts of religious art that, although similar to medieval art, had a few key differences. When a donor paid for a work they were also represented in the artwork, but in a humble pose. However, painters started depicting these civilians as being more aware of their worth, drawing your eyes to them as you looked at the piece (Harris 25). This new art form was certainly different, but showed how artists were mixing up older and newer values in their work.
C. Social Roles during the Renaissance and Middle Ages
1. During the Middle Ages, there was little to no social mobility. However, as feudalism declined, the different social classes slowly lost their meaning. Over the course of the 15th century English knights slowly lost their status, vassals lost their power, and the typical nobleman’s wealth declined (Baron 52). This paved the way for more opportunities for peasants and merchants to, not only expand their wealth, but also to start having somewhat of a voice in government.
a. Knights even started to intermarry and intermingle with the bourgeoisie (53). There was still unequal representation for the lower class in places like Parliament, which would remain the case for a long time. To reiterate, there wasn’t a sudden, drastic change, but a slowly moving development over many …show more content…
Political Aspects of the Renaissance and Middle Ages
A. The major political system during the Middle Ages was feudalism. It was a series of relationships among the landowning and fighting class-individual lords gave land to lesser rulers in exchange for military service and loyalty. Because of the fact there was no real centralized government, individuals exercised political power locally (Thorndike 249). Feudalism gave little to no opportunity for social advancement. The Church also had a large central authority.
1. The Renaissance saw an increase in the power of the King, and a decline in feudalism, which was due to several events that took place during the medieval era. It was a chain of events-long distance trading began to develop, so merchants moved to these cities from the country and took up residence. Craftsmen followed, which started a local trade as lords and serfs needed the goods the towns produced. (Palmer et al. 30) These towns wanted their own political rights, so they fought until they were granted certain liberties; personal freedom being one of them, meaning no town resident could be a serf, or serfs living in a town for one year were legally free (32). There started a chain reaction that led to the decline of serfdom-more towns meant a larger population, meaning people needed more land. Lords cleared more land for peasants to farm on, but it was harder to convince someone to become a serf, now that they could walk to the next town over and be