VIDEO Medieval Resources - prep research

[Kathy in FL]

Here some other video resources, again for a worst case scenario of a black swan event sending our lifestyle back to what it was over a century ago. That doesn't mean I believe we will absolutely go back to the middle ages for every "what if" black swan event; however, I am a firm believer in "knowing they enemy" and "preparing for the worst prepares you for everything else".

This first video is "Children of the Middle Ages". It is a fully uploaded documentary.

Medievalist Dr Stephen Baxter takes a fresh look at the Middle Ages through the eyes of children. At a time when half the population was under 18, he argues that although they had to grow up quickly and take on adult responsibility early, the experience of childhood could also be richly rewarding. Focusing on the three pillars of medieval society - religion, war and work - Baxter reveals how children played a vital role in creating the medieval world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaK8RXllHNs

 

[Kathy in FL]

These next videos are a series of three episodes on Medieval era lives through very basic events: birth, marriage, and death.

For a medieval women approaching the moment of labour and birth, there were no antiseptics to ward off infection or anaesthetics to deal with pain. Historian Helen Castor reveals how this was one of the most dangerous moments a medieval woman would ever encounter, with some aristocratic and royal women giving birth as young as 13. Birth took place in an all-female environment and the male world of medicine was little help to a woman in confinement. It was believed that the pains of labour were the penalty for the original sin of humankind - so, to get through them, a pregnant woman needed the help of the saints and the blessing of God himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvQp_hCPKjI

Unlike birth and death, which are inescapable facts of life, marriage is rite of passage made by choice and in the Middle Ages it wasn't just a choice made by bride and groom - they were often the last pieces in a puzzle, put together by their parents, with help from their family and friends, according to rules laid down by the Church.

Helen Castor reveals how in the Middle Ages marriage was actually much easier to get into than today - you could get married in a pub or even a hedgerow simply by exchanging words of consent - but from the 12th century onwards the Catholic Church tried to control this conjugal free-for-all. For the Church marriage was a way to contain the troubling issue of sex, but, as the film reveals, it was not easy to impose rules on the most unpredictable human emotions of love and lust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WTVRhWvicw

Most of the time we try not to think about death, but the people of the Middle Ages didn't have that luxury. Death was always close at hand, for young and old, rich and poor - even before the horrors of the Black Death, which killed millions in a few short months.

However, for the people of the Middle Ages death wasn't an end but a doorway to everlasting life. The Church taught that an eternity spent in heaven or hell was much more important than this life's fleeting achievements and there was much you could do to prepare for the next life in this one.

As historian Helen Castor reveals, how to be remembered - and remembering your loved ones - shaped not only the worship of the people of the Middle Ages but the very buildings and funding of the medieval Church itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmcEHzcEEI4

 

[Marthanoir]

Speak to Melodi, she has a huge working knowledge of the Middle Ages

 

[Deena in GA]

Thanks for posting these, Kathy! I'm going to not only watch them myself, but also incorporate them into our homeschooling.

 

[Melodi]

I haven't seen this particular documentaries (I didn't have a TV for over a decade and I'm catching up) but I can say right now that children in the Middle Ages were expected to grow up very fast; but on the other hand not that much faster than they USED to do so in the modern West. We are only about three generations from children routinely working (either officially in a factory or unofficially on the family farm) and my Mother just passed away at age 80, and she had several (not just one) friends who married at 13 or 14.

In the Middle Ages, the church considered 7 years old to be the age of responsibility and from seven onward children could (and were) tried and executed for crimes, allowed to sign agreements to learn trades, become betrothed (almost as iron clad as marriage, especially for the non-nobility), become members of the Church, etc; etc.

In reality while many young people started to learn trades between the ages of 7 and 10 (anything from peasant farmer, to become a Page which was the first step towards knighthood); real adult roles usually started around age 12 to 14 (especially for young women destined for marriage) or by 16 if a career required longer training (merchant, craftsmen, soldier, knight, Priest). Children were often set away around age seven to live with another family too; this practice called "fostering" was extremely common on most levels of society. A serf might not send his child off of his lord's land, but he might pack extra mouths off to other peasants, the castle kitchens or even to learn a trade with the lord's permission. Nobles believed the practice was crucial to keeping upper-level society together, it allowed young people to make friends with other families, helped arranged marriages and created a second tier of "kinship" that could be relied upon during times of war or difficulty.

It may not be true that people outside the nobility usually married at extremely young ages, the jury is still out on that one; a ground breaking study of the 18th century in the UK (which had excellent Church records of entire village) gave the surprise result of showing that many young people didn't marry until their mid-twenties and men sometimes even older. This is because Peasants or craftsmen had to have place for the family to live and for that you had to usually wait for someone to die first (often the parents). I've written before that there was a way around this, the oldest son could often enter a "contract" (legal and binding) to take over the farm but provide for the parents in their semi-retirement. These are often very detailed down to the last loaf of bread, suggesting that sometimes the old folks felt the needed extra legal protections (which they probably did).

But noble girls were often contracted at seven (often an "understanding" was made at birth), going to live with their future husband's family at that age and being raised there. Consummation of early marriages usually happened around age 12 for noblewomen including Queens. King John (as in Robinhood) married his second wife when she was 12 and she was a mother at 13; from all accounts it was a happy marriage, unusual for the time period.

The other thing about childhood in the Middle Ages is that kids were EVERYWHERE, when you had to have six children in hopes that one would live to adulthood, you are going to have little people running around everywhere. Sadly this also resulted in a lot of little ghosts to haunt both parents and living siblings and this must have had an effect on children as well as adults. I simply don't believe some historians (mostly men) who believe somehow that parents in the Middle Ages just didn't become as attached to their children as we do (I think that is Hogwash) but rather they were much more aware of the fragility of life and what a precious gift a child was; one you might have for three days or thirty years; you just never knew and so were much more aware of death and had that awareness almost from the cradle (in most families).

Finally, I think it is Barbara Touchman in the book: A Distant Mirror that suggests one reason so many kings, queens, nobles and ladies of the Middle Ages seem to act so immature to us, more like teenagers than adults is because so many famous people from the time period were TEENAGERS. Kings often achieved "Majority" at 14 or so and while they did have advisers they could now rule without a regent to steady their hand, Queens often were crowed between 12 and 16; and the high death rate (and levels of violence both in war and "play") for the noble classes meant you always had a high percentage of what we would consider "children" inheriting titles and power when Dad (or sometimes Mom) died young.

But like life on the American frontier (or a Scottish Weaving Village in the 18th century) children were just expected to start working by age two (at age appropriate tasks like feeding the chickens) and by age seven to be ready to mostly leave the world of "play" behind and get serious about whatever their future roles were going to be. "College" students were usually around age 12 to 15; which explains a lot of about "Town and Gown" riots of the period and also simply reflects that life was hard for most people.

I have myself observed that children are expected to do less and less (and more to the point make almost no personal decisions about their lives) as I have gotten older and I am 58, so hardly ancient (but old enough to notice trends). As a teenager I remember being surprised at just how helpful a four year old can actually be in the kitchen or helping to feed a baby (carefully watched of course); now many would consider letting a young child stand on a chair to cook to be child endangerment and letting a four year old feed an infant an invitation for a social services call.

No one wants to go back to little children working 12 hours a day under the industrial looms, but there is a happy medium between letting a child's only decisions be between the green or the blue I-Pod and allowing them to be executed for crimes at age seven for stealing a loaf of bread.

Anyway, that's kind of an off the top of my head introduction but remember The Middle Ages lasted between 500 and 1,000 years depending on how you date them and covered a lot of places; a Norse child in Iceland would have a very different life from one in a Southern German village of the same time period.

 

[kittyknits]

I am getting four copyright infringement notices, one beneath each youtube link in posts 1 & 2. I did not click on the links, either, just on the thread. What's up?

They are from our cable company.

Not getting them anywhere else.

Never saw this before anywhere.

 

[Kathy in FL]

I am getting four copyright infringement notices, one beneath each youtube link in posts 1 & 2. I did not click on the links, either, just on the thread. What's up?

They are from our cable company.

Not getting them anywhere else.

Never saw this before anywhere.

Have no idea. Never seen it before. These are uploaded by others to youtube and have been there months, if not years. Obviously your cable provider is scanning every place you go and their logarithms are making assumptions.

 

[kittyknits]

Have no idea. Never seen it before. These are uploaded by others to youtube and have been there months, if not years. Obviously your cable provider is scanning every place you go and their logarithms are making assumptions.

That was my conclusion also--following me every place I go and probably reading every post I type.

 

[RCSAR]

who is your provider?

 

[kittyknits]

deleted

 

[Melodi]

OK I am reviving this thread because I think it is a better venue for looking at this information than the one of putting down of domestic animals but shelters - while this thread isn't just about the Black Death - how people reacted to this ultimate of "Black Swan" events is certainly a part of of the lessons that can be learned from the Middle Ages for Prepping.

This first article I posted on another thread (and I think a version of it had its own thread a few weeks back) but this time I am posting it in the context of the Black Death to show that recent discoveries have proved that it was in fact, Bubonic (or Numonic) Plague as was the Plague of Justinian in the 6th century (so we now know both that this disease was around longer than thought and that it can change symptoms in humans enough to cause even modern health professionals to believe they had to be different diseases until the DNA tests proved otherwise).

Housecarl, on the other thread also mentioned sweating sickness, which is an important reminder that even DURING the Black Death, not everyone died from that; people died from lots of other disease or problems that came about when society essentially fell apart. Streets were not cleaned (to the limited extent they had been), farming ground to a halt, law courts shut down (as the nobility fled to the countryside) and even the Church took the unheard of step of telling regular people to "confess their sins to one another" as they were dying as no Priests could be found for them. It is hard for the modern Western mind to get around what an huge (and scary) change that was for most people at the time; the one thing they could be fairly certain of was that even common folk experience death would be assured that during or soon after the dying process a Priest (specialist in such matters) would say the proper prayers and incantations to insure they went to heaven (or at least spent a limited time in purgatory). Now the world had totally fallen to pieces and not only were people going to bed alive and never waking up all around them; but they were being denied this specialized intervention when they faced the scary world of death. Remember the average person educated or not, did not have 500 years of Protestant influence (that affects even modern Catholics) to tell people that Priests and Ministers may be useful but the individual can connect themselves to God; in the High Middle Ages, before the Black Death the average person had about 500 years of being told that this was a difficult and dangerous choice and that the average person would fail.

Again, I bring this up only to show that long-head beliefs and customs, some of them very fundamental to the way people are used to coping with the world often go by the wayside during Black Swan events; this isn't just a case of "Yankee inventiveness in the face of adversity" this is game changing (and not always positive) totally flipping of how many people see the world.

The most common thread I can think of here is that MOST people in the industrial West (even the very poor) have a basic "security" in terms of how they think they know the world works; this is very similar to the mind of the Middle Ages (before The Plague). It is a different security to believe (or accept) on a deep level that water will come out of taps, lights will work when switched on, food will get to the table somehow and roads will be there in the morning. Short term disruptions can upset personal apple carts for a few days but normally these things are fixed within hours or days and when they can not people are moved into shelters, FEMA trailers or other temporary solutions; the main culture stays the same even in Japan. Electricity or water may be restricted but most people have not suddenly had to walk two miles to the well and back each day either.

The High Middle Ages had a similar set of expectations: yes life was short but if you did the right things heaven awaited you eventually; life was an ordered (if not always fair) process where everyone knew their role and place - peasant, craftsmen, small business owner, Priest, Knight, Prostitute or King; each person pretty much knew what was expected of them. This gave most people (I think) a similar sense of security to the one we get from turning on a water tap today; it isn't exactly the same but the songs, poetry, art, observations and writings that come down to us from the early 14th century suggest a pretty static world, where the outlook for most people was not a total bowel of sunshine but one people did take for granted as having both periods of sorrow and joy but overall didn't change much from century to century.

Just 70 years later, the world is upside down; God is no longer a gentle Jesus in a wood rocker with Mary his helpful Mother knitting beside him but the stern Judge of the Wicked and Mary becomes the Distant Queen of Heaven. Nothing is certain anymore, religious art goes from rather delightful (even the bad stuff is drawn in a sort of child's Bible coloring book way) to imposing but scary awe of that which no one really understands (or is certain of anymore).

I don't want to go on with this too long, those TV documentaries show some of this very well and I suggest watching them for a good introduction while we chat about them. One thing to remember, while the Earlier Middle Ages were certainly not democratic (feudal societies don't work that way, though you had pockets of it like Iceland); Kings and everyone else were all responsible to someone; the great age of totally autocratic "Divine Right of Kings" did not come about until AFTER the Black Death, when life had become so uncertain that people sought a strong hand to keep away the uncertain darkness. This driving need for security ends up affecting nearly everything in society, not just religion and politics but we neglect looking at this problem in terms of post-Black Swan modern society at our own risk.

Black Death Mystery Solved? Medieval Plague Victims’ DNA Reveals Secrets Of 660-Year-Old Pandemic

By Philip Ross@ThisIsPRo
on March 30 2014 4:25 PM
http://www.ibtimes.com/black-death-m...ndemic-1564892
plague

Archaeologists work on unearthed skeletons in the Farringdon area of London. Archaeologists say the graveyard might hold the remains of some 50,000 people killed by the "Black Death" plague more than 650 years ago. Reuters
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Scientists studying the remains of 25 skeletons from medieval London say they’ve helped fill in some of the gaps surrounding Europe’s Black Death plague, one of the worst pandemics in human history. DNA evidence extracted from the 660-year-old skeletons suggests that the disease, commonly thought to have been spread by fleas living on rats, was actually an airborne infection spread from person to person by coughing and sneezing, the Guardian reports.

The skeletons were unearthed last year during construction of London’s new Crossrail, a 118-kilometer, or 73-mile, railway connecting east and west London. Archaeologists discovered 13 skeletons wrapped in shrouds and arranged in neat rows underneath Charterhouse Square in Farringdon. Later, 12 more skeletons were uncovered, bringing the total to 25.

Researchers immediately speculated that the remains probably belonged to victims of the Black Death, which swept through Europe during the mid-14th century and killed an estimated one-third of England’s population. Records indicated that as many as 50,000 victims of the plague were buried in the cemetery in London’s Farringdon district. The bodies found in Farringdon were believed to have been buried between 1348 and 1349.

Now, DNA analysis of the skeletons has shown that the bones were indeed victims of the Black Death. Researchers found that the skeletons’ teeth contained genetic material from the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis. The research has helped scientists piece together what happened during the infamous plague’s darkest days.

“Analysis of the Crossrail find has revealed an extraordinary amount of information, allowing us to solve a 660-year mystery,” Jay Carver, Crossrail’s lead archaeologist, told Reuters. “This discovery is a hugely important step forward in documenting and understanding Europe’s most devastating pandemic.”

Among researchers’ findings were that many of the skeletons showed signs of malnutrition and spinal damage, suggesting that the people were manual laborers. Some of the skeletons showed high rates of upper-body injury, indicating involvement in violent confrontations.

Thirteen of the skeletons were male, three were female and two were children. The genders of the other skeletons couldn’t be determined.

Scientists say the skeletons provide historians with a rare window into the daily lives of medieval Londoners.

"We can start to answer questions like: where did they come from and what were their lives like?” osteologist Don Walker, of the Museum of London Archaeology, told the BBC. "I'm amazed how much you can learn about a person who died more than 600 years ago."

Perhaps most intriguing was the finding that the strain of plague bacterium found in the skeletons’ teeth was nearly identical to one that recently killed 60 people in Madagascar. The Black Death killed between 75 million and 200 million people in medieval Europe in just a few years’ time. For a plague to have spread so quickly, researchers argue, it would have had to have been airborne. This suggests the Black Death was a pneumonic rather than bubonic plague, with infections having spread from one human to another rather than from fleas to humans.

"As an explanation [rat fleas] for the Black Death in its own right, it simply isn't good enough. It cannot spread fast enough from one household to the next to cause the huge number of cases that we saw during the Black Death epidemics," Tim Brooks, a scientist from Porton Down, told the Guardian. Brooks’s theory will appear in an upcoming Channel 4 documentary, "Secret History: The Return of the Black Death."

"What's really exciting is the bringing together of many different lines of evidence to create a picture of such a devastating world event as the Black Death," Carver told Reuters. "Historians, archaeologists, microbiologists, and physicists are all working together to chart the origins and development of one of the world's worst endemic diseases and help today's researchers in ancient and modern diseases better understand the evolution of these bacteria."

 

[night driver]

SERIOUSLY look into your local SCA group (Society for Creative Anachronism) as they make a practice of teaching the "Period Ways" and you have to USE those "Ways" at gatherings so you KNOW how it WORKS.

 

[Melodi]

SERIOUSLY look into your local SCA group (Society for Creative Anachronism) as they make a practice of teaching the "Period Ways" and you have to USE those "Ways" at gatherings so you KNOW how it WORKS.

Vi-Countess Sagadis Ducansdottor approves of this message! (aka me)...just remember we Creative the Middle Ages as they should have been, with flush toilets...But seriously you will run into a lot of fellow prepping types there and you will also discover they run the political spectrum from extreme Berkeley Liberals to a high percentage of Libertarians. Of course, none of that is part of the official SCA (after all we are pretending to be monarchists on the weekends) but private conversations with folks on the sidelines or after events; are likely to open your eyes on just how diverse the idea of planning for a possible collapse of civilization is.

I am reminded of a camping event in Sweden, where for a moment it looked like there was something strange on the horizon and someone else said "oh thank goodness is rain, I thought for a moment it was a mushroom cloud."

At which point the wife of one of the Swedes said simply "if it was, we would simply gather everyone together, grab out tents and our kit with as much food and water as we could carry and move into the forest for a few weeks."

She was pretty matter of fact about it, of course the Swedes have Russia for a neighbor so despite their liberal reputation they do prepare for these things in the "mundane" (regular) as well as the SCA world, but I thought it was a fascinating reaction given how you might expect the average group of even campers to respond.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Thanks Melodi, those are the exact kinds of learning opportunities that I've always found in studying history. Too many people consider history "educational but not applicable" which drives me crazy. Those who do not know the past are doomed to repeat it.

 

[lectrickitty]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]... Mary becomes the Distant Queen of Heaven... [/FONT]

Mary queen of heaven? Is that in some history book? I've never heard that one before.

 

[Melodi]

Mary queen of heaven? Is that in some history book? I've never heard that one before.

It was one of her most common Titles after the Black Death in the High Middle Ages...The concept was in the Church for a long time but it really comes out in its "Imperial" form at the end of the 14th century.

Created: between circa 1434 and circa 1435 or early 15th century

Queen of Heaven
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Catholic title of the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven. For Queen of Heaven in antiquity, see Queen of heaven (antiquity).
"Mary Queen of Heaven" redirects here. For the Catholic parish church, see Mary Queen of Heaven (Erlanger, Kentucky).
The Crowning of the Virgin by the Trinity. Velázquez, 1645
Emblem of the Holy See usual.svg
A series of articles on
Roman Catholic
Mariology

Queen of Heaven is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary by Christians mainly of the Roman Catholic Church, and also, to some extent, in Anglicanism and Eastern Orthodoxy, to whom the title is a consequence of the First Council of Ephesus in the fifth century, in which the Virgin Mary was proclaimed "theotokos", a title rendered in Latin as Mater Dei, in English as "Mother of God".

The Catholic teaching on this subject is expressed in the papal encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam,[1] issued by Pope Pius XII. It states that Mary is called Queen of Heaven because her son, Jesus Christ, is the king of Israel and heavenly king of the universe; indeed, the Davidic tradition of Israel recognized the mother of the king as the Queen Mother of Israel. The Eastern Orthodox Churches do not share the Catholic dogma, but themselves have a rich liturgical history in honor of Mary.

The title Queen of Heaven has long been a Catholic tradition, included in prayers and devotional literature, and seen in Western art in the subject of the Coronation of the Virgin, from the High Middle Ages, long before it was given a formal definition status by the Church.

Contents

1 Theological basis
2 Biblical basis
3 Historical practice
4 Litany of Loreto
4.1 Other titles
5 Liturgy of the Hours
5.1 Salve Regina
5.2 Ave Regina Caelorum
5.3 Alma Redemptoris Mater
5.4 Regina Coeli
6 Veneration
6.1 Feast of Queenship of Mary
7 Art
8 Gallery of art
8.1 Paintings
8.2 Statues
8.3 Frescoes
8.4 Altars
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

Theological basis
See also: Ad Caeli Reginam

Queen of Heaven (Latin Regina Caeli) is one of many Queen titles used of the Virgin Mary. The title derived in part from the ancient Catholic teaching that Mary, at the end of her earthly life, was bodily and spiritually assumed into heaven, and that she is there honored as Queen.[2]

Pius XII explained on the theological reasons for her title of Queen in a radio message to Fatima of May 13, 1946, Bendito seja:[3]

He, the Son of God, reflects on His heavenly Mother the glory, the majesty and the dominion of His kingship, for, having been associated to the King of Martyrs in the ... work of human Redemption as Mother and cooperator, she remains forever associated to Him, with a practically unlimited power, in the distribution of the graces which flow from the Redemption. Jesus is King throughout all eternity by nature and by right of conquest: through Him, with Him, and subordinate to Him, Mary is Queen by grace, by divine relationship, by right of conquest, and by singular choice [of the Father].[4]

According to Catholic doctrine, Mary was assumed into heaven and is with Jesus Christ, her divine Son and is represented in the Book of Revelation (chapter 11:19–12:6) as the woman clothed with the sun who gives birth to Christ.[5]

In his 1954 encyclical Ad caeli reginam ("To the Queen of Heaven"), Pius XII points out that Mary deserves the title because she is Mother of God, because she is closely associated as the New Eve with Jesus’ redemptive work, because of her preeminent perfection and because of her intercessory power.[6] Ad caeli reginam states that the main principle on which the royal dignity of Mary rests is her Divine Motherhood. ... So with complete justice St. John Damascene could write: "When she became Mother of the Creator, she truly became Queen of every creature.".[7]
Biblical basis

In the Old Testament, under some Davidic kings, the gebirah, the "Great Lady", usually the Mother of the King, held great power as advocate with the king. In 1 Kings 2:20, Solomon said to his Mother Bathsheba, seated on a throne at his right, "Make your request, Mother, for I will not refuse you." Fr. William G. Most sees here a sort of type of Mary.[4]
A statue of the Assumption of Mary typically crowned with 12 stars. A reflection of the biblical image in Revelation 12. Statue by Attard, Malta.

In the New Testament, the title has several biblical sources. At the Annunciation, the archangel Gabriel announces that [Jesus] "... will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his reign will be without end."(Luke 1:32) The biblical precedent in ancient Israel is that the mother of the king becomes the queen mother.[8] Mary's queenship is a share in Jesus’ kingship.[6]

The Roman Catholic Church views Mary as the woman clothed with the sun in the Book of Revelation 12:1–3:[5] "1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads." The Church accepts Revelation 12 as a reference to Mary, Israel, and the Church as a three-fold symbolism through the Book of Isaiah and affirms Mary as the mother of Jesus as the prophetic fulfilment described in Revelation 12 (cf. Isaiah 7:14, 26:17, 54:1, 66:7).[5]

In the Old Testament the term "queen of heaven" appears in a context unrelated to Mary. The prophet Jeremiah writing circa 628 BC refers to a "queen of heaven" in chapters 7 and 44 of the Book of Jeremiah when he scolds the people for having "sinned against the Lord" due to their idolatrous practices of burning incense, making cakes and pouring out drink offerings to her. This title was probably given to Asherah, a Caananite idol and goddess worshipped in ancient Israel and Judah.[9] For a discussion of "queen of heaven" in the Old Testament, see Queen of heaven (Antiquity).
Historical practice
Fra Angelico

In the fourth century St. Ephrem called Mary “Lady” and “Queen.” Later Church fathers and doctors continued to use the title. A text probably coming from Origen (died c. 254) gives her the title domina, the feminine form of Latin dominus, Lord. That same title also appears in many other early writers, e.g., Jerome, and Peter Chrysologus. The first Mariological definition and basis for the title of Mary Queen of Heaven developed at the Council of Ephesus, where Mary was defined to be the Mother of God. The Council fathers specifically approved this version against the opinion, that Mary is "only" the mother of Jesus. Nobody had participated in the life of her son more, than Mary, who gave birth to the Son of God.[10]

The word "Queen" appears about the sixth century, and is common thereafter.[4] Hymns of the 11th to 13th centuries address Mary as queen: “Hail, Holy Queen,” “Hail, Queen of Heaven,” “Queen of Heaven.” The Dominican rosary and the Franciscan crown as well as numerous invocations in Mary’s litany celebrate her queenship.[6] For centuries she has been invoked as the Queen of heaven.[11]
Litany of Loreto
Rubens, 1609

She is invoked in the Litany of Loreto as:

Queen of the Angels,
Queen of Patriarchs,
Queen of Prophets,
Queen of Apostles,
Queen of Martyrs,
Queen of Confessors,
Queen of Virgins,
Queen of all Saints
Queen of Families.[11]
Queen conceived without original sin
Queen assumed into Heaven
Queen of the Most Holy Rosary
Queen of Peace[12]

Other titles

Other titles have been added to reflect modern scientific understanding. The Second Vatican Council in 1964 referred to Mary as Queen of the Universe. Section 59 of Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church from Vatican II, stated: "Finally, the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all guilt of original sin, on the completion of her earthly sojourn, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen of the universe, that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and the conqueror of sin and death." This reference came at a time during which space exploration was beginning.[13]
Liturgy of the Hours
Crowned statue of Our Lady of Sorrows, Warfhuizen, Holland.

The four ancient Marian antiphons of the Liturgy of the Hours express the Queenship of the Virgin Mary: the Salve Regina, the Ave Regina Caelorum, the Alma Redemptoris Mater, and the Regina Caeli. These are prayed at different times of the year, at the end of Compline.
Salve Regina
Main article: Salve Regina

Mary as Queen of Heaven is praised in the Salve Regina "(Hail Queen)", which is sung in the time from Trinity Sunday until the Saturday before the first Sunday of Advent. In the vernacular, as a prayer to the Virgin Mary, the Hail Holy Queen is the final prayer of the Rosary. A German Benedictine monk, Hermann of Reichenau (1013–1054), allegedly composed it and it originally appeared in Latin, the prevalent language of the Catholic Church until Vatican II. Traditionally it has been sung in Latin, though many translations exist. In the Middle Ages, Salve Regina offices were held every Saturday.[14] In the 13th century, the custom developed to greet the Queen of Heaven with the Salve Regina, which is considered the oldest of the four Marian antiphons. As a part of the Catholic Reformation, the Salve Regina was prayed every Saturday by members of the Sodality of Our Lady, a Jesuit Marian congregation. The Hail Holy Queen is also the final prayer of the Rosary.
Ave Regina Caelorum
Main article: Ave Regina Caelorum

The Ave Regina Caelorum (Hail, Queen of Heaven) is an early Marian antiphon, praising Mary, the Queen of Heaven. It is traditionally said or sung after each of the canonical hours of the Liturgy of the Hours. The prayer is used especially after Compline, the final canonical hour of prayer before going to sleep. It is prayed from the Feast of the Presentation (February 2) through the Wednesday of Holy Week. It used to be sung on the feast of the Assumption of Mary. The Ave Regina Caelorum dates back in a different musical intonation to the 12th century.[15] Today's version is slightly different from a 12th-century intonation. The Ave Regina Caelorum has four parts: Ave, Salve, Gaude and Vale (in English: hail, rejoice, farewell). It was used for processions in honour of the Queen of Heaven. The Ave Regina Caelorum received numerous musical versions, a famous one of which was composed in 1773 by Joseph Haydn.[16]
Alma Redemptoris Mater
Main article: Alma Redemptoris Mater
The coronation of the Virgin Mary by Rubens, c. 1625

The Alma Redemptoris Mater (Loving Mother of our Savior) is recited in the Catholic Church at Compline only from the first Sunday in Advent until the Feast of the Purification (February 2). Continuing theological discussions exist as to the origin and exact timing of this Marian antiphon. It has two equal parts. The Virgin Mary is the loving Mother of the Savior, the ever-virgin with a very high position in heaven. May she listen to her people with mercy in their need for her help.[17]
Regina Coeli
Main article: Regina Coeli

The Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven) is an anthem of the Roman Catholic Church which replaces the Angelus at Eastertide (from Holy Saturday until the Saturday after Pentecost). It is named for its opening words in Latin. The Regina Coeli was the subject of numerous intonations throughout the centuries by known and unknown composers. Not all attributions are correct however, as an often quoted Regina Coeli by Joseph Haydn had other authors.[16] Of unknown authorship, the anthem was in Franciscan use in the first half of the 13th century. Together with three other Marian anthems, it was incorporated in the Minorite Roman Curia Office, which the Franciscans soon popularized everywhere, and which by order of Pope Nicholas III (1277–1280) replaced all the older breviaries in the churches of Rome.[18]
Veneration

The Catholic faith states, as a dogma, that Mary is assumed into heaven and is with Jesus Christ, her divine son. Mary should be called Queen, not only because of her Divine Motherhood of Jesus Christ, but also because God has willed her to have an exceptional role in the work of eternal salvation. Roman Catholicism employs the liturgical Latin phrase Ora Pro Nobis, meaning pray for us, and does not teach adherents to pray to saints or worship saints, but rather asks those saints to pray for them. The encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam maintains that Christ as redeemer is Lord and King. The Blessed Virgin is Queen, because of the unique manner in which she assisted in our redemption, by giving of her own substance, by freely offering Him for us, by her singular desire and petition for, and active interest.[19] Mary was chosen Mother of Christ so she might help fulfill God's plan in the redemption of humankind; The Catholic Church from the earliest times venerated the Queen of Heaven, according to Pius XII:

From the earliest ages of the Catholic Church a Christian people, whether in time of triumph or more especially in time of crisis, has addressed prayers of petition and hymns of praise and veneration to the Queen of Heaven and never has that hope wavered which they placed in the Mother of the Divine King, Jesus Christ; nor has that faith ever failed by which we are taught that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother's solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen.[20]

The Queenship of Mary is commemorated in the last of the Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary — the Coronation of the Virgin as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

Parishes and private groups often process and crown an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary with flowers. This often is referred to as a “May Crowning.” This rite may be done on solemnities and feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or other festive days, and offers the Church a chance to reflect on Mary’s role in the history of salvation.[21]

The Virgin has been called “Queen of France” since 1638 when, partly in thanksgiving for a victory over the Huguenots and also in hope of the birth of an heir after years of childless marriage, Louis XIII officially gave her that title. Siena, Tuscany, hails the Virgin as Queen of Siena, and annually observes the race and pageant called the “palio” in her honor.[22]
Feast of Queenship of Mary
The coronation of the Salus Populi Romani icon by Pope Pius XII in 1954.

Queenship of Mary is a Marian feast day in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church, created by Pope Pius XII. On 11 October 1954, the Pontiff pronounced the new feast in his encyclical Ad caeli reginam. The feast was celebrated on May 31, the last day of the Marian month. The feast is a logical follow-up to the Assumption and is now celebrated on the octave day of that feast.[6] In 1969, Pope Paul VI moved the feast day to August 22.

It has been placed eight days after the Solemnity of the Assumption, in order to emphasize the close bond between Mary's queenship and her glorification in body and soul next to her Son. The Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Church states that "Mary was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen of the universe, that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son" (Lumen Gentium, 59).[11]

The movement to officially recognise the Queenship of Mary was initially promoted by several Catholic Mariological congresses in Lyon, France; Freiburg, Germany; and Einsiedeln, Switzerland. Gabriel Roschini founded in Rome, Italy, an international society to promote the Queenship of Mary, Pro Regalitate Mariae.[23] Several popes had described Mary as Queen and Queen of Heaven, which was documented by Gabriel Roschini. Pope Pius XII repeated the title in numerous encyclicals and apostolic letters, especially during World War II[24][25][26][27][28][29]
Art
Giacomo di Mino, 1340–1350
Main articles: Coronation of the Virgin and Roman Catholic Marian art
Earliest known (6th century) Roman depiction of Santa Maria Regina (Saint Mary the Queen), Santa Maria Antiqua church, Rome.

Early Christian art shows Mary in an elevated position. She carries her divine son in her hands, or holds him. After he ascended into heaven, he reigns in divine glory. Mary, his mother, assumed into heaven by her son, participates in his heavenly glory.

The earliest known Roman depiction of Santa Maria Regina depicting the Virgin Mary as a queen dates to the 6th century and is found in the modest church of Santa Maria Antiqua (i.e., ancient St. Mary) built in the 5th century in the Forum Romanum. Here the Virgin Mary is unequivocally depicted as an empress.[30][31][32] As one of the earliest Roman Catholic Marian churches, this church was used by Pope John VII in the early 8th century as the see of the bishop of Rome. Also in the 8th century, the Second Council of Nicaea decreed that such pictures of Mary should be venerated.[33]

In the early 16th century, Protestant reformers began to discourage Marian art, and some like John Calvin or Zwingli even encouraged its destruction. But after the Council of Trent in the mid-16th century confirmed the veneration of Marian paintings for Catholics, Mary was often painted as a Madonna with crown, surrounded by stars, standing on top of the world or the partly visible moon. After the victory against the Turks at Lepanto, Mary is depicted as the Queen of Victory, sometimes wearing the crown of the Habsburg empire.[34] National interpretations existed in France as well, where Jean Fouquet painted the Queen of Heaven in 1450 with the face of the mistress of King Charles VII[35] Statues and pictures of Mary were crowned by kings in Poland, France, Bavaria, Hungary and Austria,[35] sometimes apparently using crowns previously worn by earthly monarchs. A surviving small crown presented by Margaret of York seems to have been that worn by her at her wedding to Charles the Bold in 1463. A recent coronation was that of the picture of the Salus Populi Romani in 1954 by Pius XII. The veneration of Mary as queen continues into the 21st Century, but artistic expressions do not have the leading role as in previous times[35]

Artworks, including paintings, mosaics and carvings of the coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven, became increasingly popular from the 13th century onward. Works follow a set pattern, showing Mary kneeling in the heavenly court, and being crowned either by Jesus alone, or else by Jesus and God the Father together, with the Holy Spirit, usually in the form of a dove, completing the Trinity. The Coronation of Mary is almost entirely a theme of western art. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, although Mary is often shown wearing a crown, the coronation itself never became an accepted artistic subject.[36][37]

 

[Melodi]

Before the Black Death, "The Holy Family" and especially Mary was seen as a Deity you could approach, tell your troubles too; if you were a really bad sinner she would even talk to her Son for you etc..

There was a fad for early 14th (and late 13th) century merchants to commission paintings of the trio (Joseph, Mary and Jesus) as "people like us," from these paintings we have a wealth of information on daily life among the merchant classes but also you can see the difference in the "feelings" of the painting between the periods. Again, the world would not change in the same way if our civilization collapsed or even faced a grave Black Swan crises but it probably would change people's outlooks and even in terms of faith change what aspects people felt more intensely or perhaps paid attention too.

Note the last picture painting in 1345, the Black Death will hit Europe just one year later...

 

[Melodi]

Just a few years later:

around 1450

1435 (Jesus as the dread Judge rather than Baby playing with Mom or the Good Shepard).

 

[Melodi]

Also, remember it isn't that you never see Jesus judging the Nations or Mary as the Queen of Heaven before 1346, it is just that before the images tend to be friendlier over-all and afterwards (especially after round 2 of the Black Death when most of the children of the survivors die) the art becomes Distant and Majestic - Beings you respect, are in awe of but whom you can't possibly understand.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Melodi it is basically during good times everyone is "nicer and friendlier" but when tribulations come people realize that there are consequences and accountability and that death is a lot closer and judgment potentially harsher than they bothered thinking about during the good times when it was easy to ignore in favor of keeping the happy-happy rolling along.

 

[Melodi]

Melodi it is basically during good times everyone is "nicer and friendlier" but when tribulations come people realize that there are consequences and accountability and that death is a lot closer and judgment potentially harsher than they bothered thinking about during the good times when it was easy to ignore in favor of keeping the happy-happy rolling along.

Pretty much, except to emphasize it is more than just bad times vs. good times; things were so bad in early 14th century Europe due to famines and bad weather that there was some speculation that either the Great Judgement was coming or perhaps God had simply left the Earth because times were so hard and no one could imagine anything worse.

Just 25 years (apx) later, the Black Death swept aside as much as 90 percent of the population some areas (and almost everywhere by at least 1/3); that changed the world view from a few people wondering if maybe God had left the building, but the world still experiencing the usual cycles of wars-famines-good harvests-better times; to one where people were just so totally shaken and with nearly everything they believed about the future taken from them, that in some places people actively started worshiping Satan because if God couldn't stop something like the Black Death Swan perhaps he wasn't all that powerful after all?

Most people didn't go that far (though it was a not unpopular idea with some of the upper-merchants and lower nobility); but what did go on terrified a much reduced Church to the point that it was making almost anyone who was male, breathing and willing to take Holy Orders into a Priest for quite a number of years. You don't read a lot about the Satan stuff because to this day the church doesn't want this rather stressful bit of history to be widely known; but we used the historical accounts in our novels and I have run into a least one other well-researched novelist who did the same thing independently. She was writing about England and our novels were set in Germany, it was a rather large if underground movement that was quickly squashed by the Church, at least in public (makes great conspiracy novels even today).

People expect good times and bad times; that is part of our underlying understanding of how the world works, what the human mind can't fathom is a real Black Swan event that leads to pretty much everyone you know dying in great pain; and whats more you can't escape this if you travel from Africa to Sweden (or even Greenland). Pretty much "the whole world" (yours anyway) is deeply affected and basically the whole view of the universe was changed; with the people who actually lived through both passes of the Black Death writing almost nothing about it because it was simply so distressing the human mind simply refused to deal with it (similar results can be seen on a more limited scale with military people who have severe PTSD).

This is why the art becomes such an important part of telling the story because while people did keep sort of "end of the world journals" during the first wave of the Black Death - and even recorded afterwards how people were "eager to marry anyone to procreate" and go into details about the changes in social life with peasants demanding lower rents and workers higher wages etc (mostly in negative terms by people distressed by these changes but recorded none the less) to an almost total silence after the children die.

It seems that people can some-what cope with one world shattering event but it leaves them somewhat broken inside; break their hope (after all they had no idea if having more children would result in the same horrific losses) and they go quiet; they stop recording things "for whomever finds this, be they the last man on Earth" to just a dark despair and dread of the future...