Address both the following questions. (25 points each)
1) During the High Medieval period, some European kings began to claim new powers over their realms. In so doing, they relied nearly as much upon political innovation as brute force, the pen as much as the sword, and the new monarchies they established were very different from those of the old Germanic warrior-kings. Write an essay that traces this process in England and France, taking the story up through the end of the 100 Years War (but no further!). You should consider differences as well as similarities in English and French developments over this time.
2) What social, cultural and political developments in the Italian peninsula made possible the extraordinary achievements associated with the Renaissance? What was new about this Renaissance culture, and how did its artists and thinkers differ from scholastic figures such as Saint Thomas Aquinas? [Note: you will want to review the Renaissance selections in your Documentary Reader – e.g. Petrarch, Bruni, Pico della Mirandola, Machiavelli – to answer this second question, as well as of course the relevant writings from Aquinas and other scholastics.]
