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137-579: In the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period , an entremet marked the end of a course of the meal and could be a culinary preparation like frumenty (a type of wheat porridge ) that was brightly colored and flavored with exotic and expensive spices , or elaborate models of castles complete with wine fountains, musicians, and food modeled into allegorical scenes. By the end of the Middle Ages, entremets had also evolved into dinner entertainment in

274-579: A Paduan engineer in 1420, developed Bellicorum instrumentorum liber which includes a puppet of a camelid driven by a clothed primate twice the height of a human being and an automaton of Mary Magdalene. He also created mechanical devils and rocket-propelled animal automata. While functional, early clocks were also often designed as novelties and spectacles which integrated features of automata. Many big and complex clocks with automated figures were built as public spectacles in European town centres . One of

411-589: A knight in the form of a grilled capon equipped with a paper helmet and lance, sitting on the back of a roast piglet. Elaborate models of castles made from edible material were also popular. At a feast in 1343 dedicated to Pope Clement VI , one of the entremets was a castle with walls made from roast birds, populated with cooked and redressed deer, wild boar, goat, hare, and rabbit. In the 14th century, entremets began to involve not just eye-catching displays of high-status cuisine, but also more prominent and often highly symbolic forms of inedible entertainment. In 1306,

548-461: A linkage which makes a servant figure appear from behind a door under the peacock and offer soap. When more water is used, a second float at a higher level trips and causes the appearance of a second servant figure—with a towel!" Al-Jazari thus appears to have been the first inventor to display an interest in creating human-like machines for practical purposes such as manipulating the environment for human comfort. Lamia Balafrej has also pointed out

685-634: A mechanical computer and driven by wind power. Automaton clocks are clocks which feature automatons within or around the housing and typically activate around the beginning of each hour, at each half hour, or at each quarter hour. They were largely produced from the 1st century BC to the end of the Victorian times in Europe. Older clocks typically featured religious characters or other mythical characters such as Death or Father Time. As time progressed, however, automaton clocks began to feature influential characters at

822-586: A European soldier being mauled by a tiger. Catherine the Great of Russia was gifted a very large and elaborate Peacock Clock created by James Cox in 1781 now on display in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg . According to philosopher Michel Foucault , Frederick the Great , king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, was "obsessed" with automata. According to Manuel de Landa , "he put together his armies as

959-477: A celebration hosted by Ludovico Sforza at the court of Milan around 1495. The design of Leonardo's robot was not rediscovered until the 1950s. A functional replica was later built that could move its arms, twist its head, and sit up. Da Vinci is frequently credited with constructing a mechanical lion , which he presented to King Francois I in Lyon in 1515. Although no record of the device's original designs remain,

1096-421: A collection of menus at the end of the book, the meal is presented in four stages : the entree de table (entrance to the table), potaiges (foods boiled or simmered "in pots"), services de rost (meat or fowl "roasted" in dry heat), and issue de table (departure from the table). Between the mid-16th and mid-17th century, the stages of the meal underwent several significant changes. Notably, potage became

1233-414: A connection with Archimedes . According to Jewish legend , King Solomon used his wisdom to design a throne with mechanical animals which hailed him as king when he ascended it; upon sitting down an eagle would place a crown upon his head, and a dove would bring him a Torah scroll. It is also said that when King Solomon stepped upon the throne, a mechanism was set in motion. As soon as he stepped upon

1370-516: A culinary term, first appears in line 185 of Lanval , one of the 12th century Lais of Marie de France and subsequently in La Vengeance Raguidel (early 13th century), line 315. The word has no discernible specialized meaning in the texts, but in both, it appears in the context of a meal. The earliest text to include entremets as culinary preparations is Le Viandier (c. 1300), which includes fourteen recipes for entremets, placed under

1507-515: A cunning manner that at one moment it was down on the ground, while at another it rose higher and was to be seen up in the air." Similar automata in the throne room (singing birds, roaring and moving lions) were described by Luitprand's contemporary the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus , in his book De Ceremoniis (Perì tês Basileíou Tákseōs). In the mid-8th century, the first wind powered automata were built: "statues that turned with

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1644-469: A drawing titled How to make an angel keep pointing his finger toward the Sun with an angel that would perpetually turn to face the sun. He also drew an automaton of a bird with jointed wings, which led to their design implementation in clocks. At the end of the thirteenth century, Robert II, Count of Artois , built a pleasure garden at his castle at Hesdin that incorporated several automata as entertainment in

1781-483: A game of chess when Franklin was ambassador to France. The Turk was actually operated from inside by a hidden human director, and was not a true automaton. Other 18th century automaton makers include the prolific Swiss Pierre Jaquet-Droz (see Jaquet-Droz automata ) and his son Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz, and his contemporary Henri Maillardet . Maillardet, a Swiss mechanic, created an automaton capable of drawing four pictures and writing three poems. Maillardet's Automaton

1918-483: A giant castle model with four towers, carried in by four men. The castle contained, among other things, a roast piglet, a swan cooked and redressed in its own plumage, a roast boar 's head and a pike cooked and sauced in three different ways without having been cut into pieces, all of them breathing fire. The battlements of the castle were adorned with the banners of the Duke and his guests, manned by miniature archers, and inside

2055-508: A golden age during the Edo period (1603–1867). A new attitude towards automata is to be found in René Descartes when he suggested that the bodies of animals are nothing more than complex machines – the bones, muscles and organs could be replaced with cogs , pistons , and cams . Thus mechanism became the standard to which Nature and the organism was compared. France in the 17th century

2192-420: A live human being. The artificer touched its chin, and it began singing, perfectly in tune. He touched its hand, and it began posturing, keeping perfect time...As the performance was drawing to an end, the robot winked its eye and made advances to the ladies in attendance, whereupon the king became incensed and would have had Yen Shih [Yan Shi] executed on the spot had not the latter, in mortal fear, instantly taken

2329-628: A long time dominated the eastern Mediterranean in politics and culture. By the 14th century, however, it had almost entirely collapsed into a tributary state of the Ottoman Empire , centered on the city of Constantinople and a few enclaves in Greece . With the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Byzantine Empire was permanently extinguished. The Bulgarian Empire was in decline by the 14th century, and

2466-559: A major regional power, and the annexation of the vast Republic of Novgorod in 1478 laid the foundations for a Russian national state. After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Russian princes started to see themselves as the heirs of the Byzantine Empire . They eventually took on the imperial title of Tzar , and Moscow was described as the Third Rome . The Byzantine Empire had for

2603-597: A modern type of automata with electronics , often used for the portrayal of characters or creatures in films and in theme park attractions. The word automaton is the latinization of the Ancient Greek automaton ( αὐτόματον ), which means "acting of one's own will". It was first used by Homer to describe an automatic door opening, or automatic movement of wheeled tripods. It is more often used to describe non-electronic moving machines, especially those that have been made to resemble human or animal actions, such as

2740-459: A peacock that walked and ate. Athanasius Kircher produced many automata to create Jesuit shows, including a statue which spoke and listened via a speaking tube . The world's first successfully-built biomechanical automaton is considered to be The Flute Player , which could play twelve songs, created by the French engineer Jacques de Vaucanson in 1737. He also constructed The Tambourine Player and

2877-403: A pie", in the nursery rhyme " Sing a Song of Sixpence ", has its genesis in an entremet presented to amuse banquet guests in the 14th century. This extravaganza of hospitality was related by an Italian cook of the era. “Live birds were slipped into a baked pie shell through a hole cut in its bottom.” The unwary guest would release the flapping birds once the upper crust was cut into. At the end of

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3014-404: A programmable drum machine with pegs ( cams ) that bump into little levers that operate the percussion . The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and drum patterns if the pegs were moved around. Al-Jazari constructed a hand washing automaton first employing the flush mechanism now used in modern toilets . It features a female automaton standing by a basin filled with water. When

3151-557: A recreation of this piece is housed at the Château du Clos Lucé . The Smithsonian Institution has in its collection a clockwork monk, about 15 in (380 mm) high, possibly dating as early as 1560. The monk is driven by a key-wound spring and walks the path of a square, striking his chest with his right arm, while raising and lowering a small wooden cross and rosary in his left hand, turning and nodding his head, rolling his eyes, and mouthing silent obsequies. From time to time, he brings

3288-441: A sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions. Some automata, such as bellstrikers in mechanical clocks, are designed to give the illusion to the casual observer that they are operating under their own power or will, like a mechanical robot . The term has long been commonly associated with automated puppets that resemble moving humans or animals, built to impress and/or to entertain people. Animatronics are

3425-505: A silver and golden tree in his palace in Baghdad , which had the features of an automatic machine. There were metal birds that sang automatically on the swinging branches of this tree built by Muslim inventors and engineers . The Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir also had a silver and golden tree in his palace in Baghdad in 917, with birds on it flapping their wings and singing. In the 9th century,

3562-454: A so-called "depression of the Renaissance". In spite of convincing arguments for the case, the statistical evidence is simply too incomplete for a definite conclusion to be made. Automaton An automaton ( / ɔː ˈ t ɒ m ə t ən / ; pl. : automata or automatons ) is a relatively self-operating machine , or control mechanism designed to automatically follow

3699-456: A spiritual individual and recognized himself as such." This proposition was later challenged, and it was argued that the 12th century was a period of greater cultural achievement. As economic and demographic methods were applied to the study of history, the trend was increasingly to see the late Middle Ages as a period of recession and crisis. Belgian historian Henri Pirenne continued the subdivision of Early , High , and late Middle Ages in

3836-443: A type of finite automaton . Automaton clocks being finite essentially means that automaton clocks have a certain number of states in which they can exist. The exact number is the number of combinations possible on a clock with the hour, minute, and second hand: 43,200. The title of timed automaton declares that the automaton changes states at a set rate, which for clocks is 1 state change every second. Clock automata only takes as input

3973-641: A well-oiled clockwork mechanism whose components were robot-like warriors". In 1801, Joseph Jacquard built his loom automaton that was controlled autonomously with punched cards. Automata, particularly watches and clocks, were popular in China during the 18th and 19th centuries, and items were produced for the Chinese market. Strong interest by Chinese collectors in the 21st century brought many interesting items to market where they have had dramatic realizations. The famous magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805–1871)

4110-425: Is a description of a much earlier encounter between King Mu of Zhou (1023–957 BCE) and a mechanical engineer known as Yan Shi, an 'artificer'. The latter proudly presented the king with a very realistic and detailed life-size, human-shaped figure of his mechanical handiwork: The king stared at the figure in astonishment. It walked with rapid strides, moving its head up and down, so that anyone would have taken it for

4247-608: Is now part of the collections at the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia . Belgian-born John Joseph Merlin created the mechanism of the Silver Swan automaton, now at Bowes Museum . A musical elephant made by the French clockmaker Hubert Martinet in 1774 is one of the highlights of Waddesdon Manor . Tipu's Tiger is another late-18th century example of automata, made for Tipu Sultan , featuring

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4384-542: Is the Antikythera mechanism , the earliest known analog computer . The clockwork is thought to have come originally from Rhodes , where there was apparently a tradition of mechanical engineering; the island was renowned for its automata; to quote Pindar 's seventh Olympic Ode : However, the information gleaned from recent scans of the fragments indicate that it may have come from the colonies of Corinth in Sicily and implies

4521-630: Is the first documented description of how a mechanical cuckoo works, a mechanical organ with several automated figures is described. In 18th-century Germany, clockmakers began making cuckoo clocks for sale. Clock shops selling cuckoo clocks became commonplace in the Black Forest region by the middle of the 18th century. Japan adopted clockwork automata in the early 17th century as " karakuri " puppets. In 1662, Takeda Omi completed his first butai karakuri and then built several of these large puppets for theatrical exhibitions. Karakuri puppets went through

4658-732: The Han Fei Zi and other texts. The manufacturing tradition of automata continued in the Greek world well into the Middle Ages. On his visit to Constantinople in 949 ambassador Liutprand of Cremona described automata in the emperor Theophilos ' palace, including "lions, made either of bronze or wood covered with gold, which struck the ground with their tails and roared with open mouth and quivering tongue," "a tree of gilded bronze, its branches filled with birds, likewise made of bronze gilded over, and these emitted cries appropriate to their species" and "the emperor's throne" itself, which "was made in such

4795-583: The Digesting Duck , a mechanical duck that – apart from quacking and flapping its wings – gave the false illusion of eating and defecating, seeming to endorse Cartesian ideas that animals are no more than machines of flesh. In 1769, a chess-playing machine called the Turk , created by Wolfgang von Kempelen , made the rounds of the courts of Europe purporting to be an automaton. The Turk beat Benjamin Franklin in

4932-685: The Atlantic Ocean to America . As Genoese and Venetian merchants opened up direct sea routes with Flanders , the Champagne fairs lost much of their importance. At the same time, English wool export shifted from raw wool to processed cloth, resulting in losses for the cloth manufacturers of the Low Countries. In the Baltic and North Sea , the Hanseatic League reached the peak of their power in

5069-568: The Banū Mūsā brothers invented a programmable automatic flute player and which they described in their Book of Ingenious Devices . Al-Jazari described complex programmable humanoid automata amongst other machines he designed and constructed in the Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices in 1206. His automaton was a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. His mechanism had

5206-599: The Battle of Agincourt in 1415 briefly paved the way for a unification of the two kingdoms, but his son Henry VI soon squandered all previous gains. The loss of France led to discontent at home. Soon after the end of the war in 1453, the dynastic struggles of the Wars of the Roses (c. 1455–1485) began, involving the rival dynasties of the House of Lancaster and House of York . The war ended in

5343-670: The Czechs , but both the Catholic Church and the German element within the country were weakened. Martin Luther , a German monk, started the German Reformation by posting 95 theses on the castle church of Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. The immediate provocation spurring this act was Pope Leo X 's renewal of the indulgence for the building of the new St. Peter's Basilica in 1514. Luther

5480-660: The English aristocracy, such as John of Gaunt , the movement was not allowed to survive. Though Wycliffe himself was left unmolested, his supporters, the Lollards , were eventually suppressed in England. The marriage of Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia established contacts between the two nations and brought Lollard ideas to her homeland. The teachings of the Czech priest Jan Hus were based on those of John Wycliffe, yet his followers,

5617-619: The Golden Bull of 1356 made the king of Bohemia first among the imperial electors , but the Hussite revolution threw the country into crisis. The Holy Roman Empire passed to the House of Habsburg in 1438, where it remained until its dissolution in 1806. Yet in spite of the extensive territories held by the Habsburgs , the Empire itself remained fragmented, and much real power and influence lay with

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5754-508: The Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria (sometimes known as Heron), whose writings on hydraulics , pneumatics , and mechanics described siphons , a fire engine , a water organ , the aeolipile , and a programmable cart. Philo of Byzantium was famous for his inventions. Complex mechanical devices are known to have existed in Hellenistic Greece , though the only surviving example

5891-625: The Hellenistic world were intended as tools, toys, religious spectacles, or prototypes for demonstrating basic scientific principles. Numerous water-powered automata were built by Ktesibios , a Greek inventor and the first head of the Great Library of Alexandria ; for example, he "used water to sound a whistle and make a model owl move. He had invented the world's first 'cuckoo clock ' " . This tradition continued in Alexandria with inventors such as

6028-642: The House of Capet in 1328, was at its outset marginalized in its own country, first by the English invading forces of the Hundred Years' War and later by the powerful Duchy of Burgundy . The emergence of Joan of Arc as a military leader changed the course of war in favour of the French, and the initiative was carried further by King Louis XI . Meanwhile, Charles the Bold , Duke of Burgundy , met resistance in his attempts to consolidate his possessions, particularly from

6165-679: The Hussites , were to have a much greater political impact than the Lollards. Hus gained a great following in Bohemia , and in 1414, he was requested to appear at the Council of Constance to defend his cause. When he was burned as a heretic in 1415, it caused a popular uprising in the Czech lands. The subsequent Hussite Wars fell apart due to internal quarrels and did not result in religious or national independence for

6302-734: The Jacquerie and the Peasants' Revolt , as well as over a century of intermittent conflict, the Hundred Years' War . To add to the many problems of the period, the unity of the Catholic Church was temporarily shattered by the Western Schism . Collectively, those events are sometimes called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages . Despite the crises, the 14th century was also a time of great progress in

6439-551: The Ming dynasty founder Hongwu (r. 1368–1398) was destroying the palaces of Khanbaliq belonging to the previous Yuan dynasty , there were—among many other mechanical devices—automata found that were in the shape of tigers. The Renaissance witnessed a considerable revival of interest in automata. Hero's treatises were edited and translated into Latin and Italian. Hydraulic and pneumatic automata, similar to those described by Hero, were created for garden grottoes . Giovanni Fontana ,

6576-666: The Ottoman Empire . After Italy, Hungary was the first European country where the Renaissance appeared. However, the glory of the Kingdom ended in the early 16th century, when the King Louis II of Hungary was killed in the Battle of Mohács in 1526 against the Ottoman Empire . Hungary then fell into a serious crisis and was invaded, ending its significance in central Europe during the medieval era. The state of Kievan Rus' fell during

6713-682: The Swiss Confederation formed in 1291. When Charles was killed in the Burgundian Wars at the Battle of Nancy in 1477, the Duchy of Burgundy was reclaimed by France. At the same time, the County of Burgundy and the wealthy Burgundian Netherlands came into the Holy Roman Empire under Habsburg control, setting up conflict for centuries to come. Bohemia prospered in the 14th century, and

6850-403: The bill of exchange and other forms of credit that circumvented the canonical laws for gentiles against usury and eliminated the dangers of carrying bullion ; and new forms of accounting , in particular double-entry bookkeeping , which allowed for better oversight and accuracy. With the financial expansion, trading rights became more jealously guarded by the commercial elite. Towns saw

6987-614: The condottieri of the Italian city-states. All over Europe, Swiss mercenaries were in particularly high demand. At the same time, the period also saw the emergence of the first permanent armies. It was in Valois France, under the heavy demands of the Hundred Years' War, that the armed forces gradually assumed a permanent nature. Parallel to the military developments emerged also a constantly more elaborate chivalric code of conduct for

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7124-450: The population of Europe to perhaps no more than a third of what it was a century earlier. The effects of natural disasters were exacerbated by armed conflicts; this was particularly the case in France during the Hundred Years' War . It took 150 years for the European population to regain similar levels of 1300. As the European population was severely reduced, land became more plentiful for

7261-566: The siege of Belgrade of 1521. By the end of the medieval period, the entire Balkan peninsula was annexed by, or became vassal to, the Ottomans. Avignon was the seat of the papacy from 1309 to 1376. With the return of the Pope to Rome in 1378, the Papal State developed into a major secular power, culminating in the morally corrupt papacy of Alexander VI . Florence grew to prominence amongst

7398-418: The 13th century in the Mongol invasion . The Grand Duchy of Moscow rose in power thereafter, winning a great victory against the Golden Horde at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. The victory did not end Tartar rule in the region, however, and its immediate beneficiary was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , which extended its influence eastwards. Under the reign of Ivan the Great (1462–1505), Moscow became

7535-422: The 14th century but started going into decline in the fifteenth. In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, a process took place – primarily in Italy but partly also in the Empire – that historians have termed a "commercial revolution". Among the innovations of the period were new forms of partnership and the issuing of insurance , both of which contributed to reducing the risk of commercial ventures;

7672-465: The 20th century, entremets had come to refer only to sweet dishes served near the end of the meal. The word "entremets" may also refer more narrowly to a multi-layer dessert composed of various elements. The dessert typically comprises a sponge cake base, mousse filling and layers of inserted set elements such as creams, jellies and compotes. Each element is created in individual rings or molds before being assembled into layers in another mold to build

7809-407: The English became acquainted with, and adopted, the highly efficient longbow . Once properly managed, this weapon gave them a great advantage over the French in the Hundred Years' War. The introduction of gunpowder affected the conduct of war significantly. Though employed by the English as early as the Battle of Crécy in 1346, firearms initially had little effect in the field of battle. It

7946-424: The German historian Christoph Cellarius published Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, and New Period (1683). For 18th-century historians studying the 14th and 15th centuries, the central theme was the Renaissance , with its rediscovery of ancient learning and the emergence of an individual spirit. The heart of this rediscovery lies in Italy, where, in the words of Jacob Burckhardt , "Man became

8083-407: The Great Schism had done irreparable damage. The internal struggles within the Church had impaired her claim to universal rule and promoted anti-clericalism among the people and their rulers, paving the way for reform movements. Though many of the events were outside the traditional time period of the Middle Ages, the end of the unity of the Western Church (the Protestant Reformation ) was one of

8220-414: The Iberian peninsula, but there were also some in France, the Empire, and the Low Countries, as well as London in England. Through battles such as Courtrai (1302), Bannockburn (1314), and Morgarten (1315), it became clear to the great territorial princes of Europe that the military advantage of the feudal cavalry was lost and that a well equipped infantry was preferable. Through the Welsh Wars ,

8357-485: The Italian city-states through financial business, and the dominant Medici family became important promoters of the Renaissance through their patronage of the arts. Other city-states in northern Italy also expanded their territories and consolidated their power, primarily Milan , Venice , and Genoa . The War of the Sicilian Vespers had by the early 14th century divided southern Italy into an Aragon Kingdom of Sicily and an Anjou Kingdom of Naples . In 1442,

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8494-448: The Jews. Monarchs gave in to the demands of the people, and the Jews were expelled from England in 1290, from France in 1306, from Spain in 1492, and from Portugal in 1497. While the Jews were suffering persecution, one group that probably experienced increased empowerment in the late Middle Ages was women. The great social changes of the period opened up new possibilities for women in the fields of commerce, learning, and religion. Yet at

8631-425: The Middle Ages, the level of refinement among the noble and royal courts of Europe had increased considerably, and the demands of powerful hosts and their rich dinner guests resulted in ever more complicated and elaborate creations. Chiquart , cook to Amadeus VIII , Duke of Savoy , described an entremet entitled Castle of Love in his 15th-century culinary treatise Du fait de cuisine ("On cookery"). It consisted of

8768-450: The Pheasant , which was intended to influence the Duke's peers to participate in a crusade against the Ottomans but ended up being a grand display of automata, giants, and dwarves. A banquet in Camilla of Aragon's honor in Italy, 1475, featured a lifelike automated camel. The spectacle was a part of a larger parade which continued over days. Leonardo da Vinci sketched a complex mechanical knight, which he may have built and exhibited at

8905-411: The Spanish expedition under Christopher Columbus to the Americas in 1492 and Vasco da Gama 's voyage to Africa and India in 1498. Their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations. The changes brought about by these developments have led many scholars to view this period as the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern history and of early modern Europe . However,

9042-430: The Spanish kingdoms supported the Avignon Papacy, France's enemy England stood behind the pope in Rome, together with Portugal, Scandinavia, and most of the German princes. At the Council of Constance (1414–1418), the Papacy was once more united in Rome. Even though the unity of the Western Church was to last for another hundred years, and though the Papacy was to experience greater material prosperity than ever before,

9179-449: The West, particularly Italy. Combined with this influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing, which facilitated the dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning. Those two things would later lead to the Reformation . Toward the end of the period, the Age of Discovery began. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire cut off trading possibilities with the East. Europeans were forced to seek new trading routes, leading to

9316-443: The accession of Henry VII of the House of Tudor , who continued the work started by the Yorkist kings of building a strong, centralized monarchy. While England's attention was thus directed elsewhere, the Hiberno-Norman lords in Ireland were becoming gradually more assimilated into Irish society, and the island was allowed to develop virtual independence under English overlordship. The French House of Valois , which followed

9453-467: The arts and sciences. Following a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts that took root in the High Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance began. The absorption of Latin texts had started before the Renaissance of the 12th century through contact with Arabs during the Crusades , but the availability of important Greek texts accelerated with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks , when many Byzantine scholars had to seek refuge in

9590-400: The ascendancy of Serbia was marked by the Serbian victory over the Bulgarians in the Battle of Velbazhd in 1330. By 1346, the Serbian king Stefan Dušan had been proclaimed emperor. Yet Serbian dominance was short-lived; the Serbian army led by the Lazar Hrebeljanovic was defeated by the Ottoman Army at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, where most of the Serbian nobility was killed and

9727-673: The automaton's lips and fingers move on the flute according to a program recorded on a cylinder similar to those used in player pianos . The automaton was powered by clockwork and could perform 12 different arias. As part of the performance, it would rise from the chair, bow its head, and roll its eyes. The period between 1860 and 1910 is known as "The Golden Age of Automata". Mechanical coin-operated fortune tellers were introduced to boardwalks in Britain and America. In Paris during this period, many small family based companies of automata makers thrived. From their workshops they exported thousands of clockwork automata and mechanical singing birds around

9864-487: The banquet was the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, and included a vow by Philip and his guests to retake the city in a crusade , though this was never realized. There were several spectacular displays at the banquet referred to by contemporary witnesses as entremets. Guests were entertained by a wide range of extravagant displays of automatons in the form of fountains and pies containing musicians. At

10001-756: The beach. British sculptor Sam Smith (1908–1983) was a well-known maker of automata. In 2016, the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program studied a rover, the Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments , designed to survive for an extended time in Venus' environmental conditions. Unlike other modern automata, AREE is an automaton instead of a robot for practical reasons—Venus's harsh conditions, particularly its surface temperature of 462 °C (864 °F), make operating electronics there for any significant time impossible. It would be controlled by

10138-507: The castle there was a fountain that gushed rosewater and spiced wine. In the 17th century, the Duke of Buckingham presented a memorable banquet in honor of his royal guests, Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, which included a pie prepared to conceal a human being—the famous dwarf of the era, Jeffrey Hudson . In the Petit traicté and later editions of the book, including the Livre fort excellent , in

10275-634: The coast of Africa , and in 1498, Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India . The Spanish monarchs met the Portuguese challenge by financing the expedition of Christopher Columbus to find a western sea route to India, leading to the discovery of the Americas in 1492. Around 1300–1350, the Medieval Warm Period gave way to the Little Ice Age . The colder climate resulted in agricultural crises,

10412-534: The consolidation of central authority and the emergence of the nation state . The financial demands of war necessitated higher levels of taxation, resulting in the emergence of representative bodies – most notably the English Parliament . The growth of secular authority was further aided by the decline of the papacy with the Western Schism and the coming of the Protestant Reformation . After

10549-503: The conversion of Lithuania, also marked the end of paganism in Europe. Louis did not leave a son as heir after his death in 1382. Instead, he named as his heir the young prince Sigismund of Luxemburg . The Hungarian nobility did not accept his claim, and the result was an internal war. Sigismund eventually achieved total control of Hungary and established his court in Buda and Visegrád. Both palaces were rebuilt and improved, and were considered

10686-527: The country into a succession crisis , and the English king, Edward I , was brought in to arbitrate. Edward claimed overlordship over Scotland, leading to the Wars of Scottish Independence . The English were eventually defeated, and the Scots were able to develop a stronger state under the Stewarts . From 1337, England's attention was largely directed towards France in the Hundred Years' War . Henry V's victory at

10823-482: The course of the 19th century, vegetable entremets were increasingly served along with the roast rather than as a separate course. By the end of the century, the vegetable entremets listed on menus were generally intended as side dishes or garnishes for the roast or relevé. A distinct course of vegetable entremets after the roast did survive into the 20th century in the form of salads or certain vegetables like asparagus, but such dishes were no longer called entremets. By

10960-676: The cross to his lips and kisses it. It is believed that the monk was manufactured by Juanelo Turriano , mechanician to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V . The first description of a modern cuckoo clock was by the Augsburg nobleman Philipp Hainhofer in 1629. The clock belonged to Prince Elector August von Sachsen . By 1650, the workings of mechanical cuckoos were understood and were widely disseminated in Athanasius Kircher 's handbook on music, Musurgia Universalis . In what

11097-400: The defining feature of an entire European historical epoch. The period from the early 14th century up until – and sometimes including – the 16th century is rather seen as characterized by other trends: demographic and economic decline followed by recovery, the end of Western religious unity and the subsequent emergence of the nation-state , and the expansion of European influence onto

11234-543: The distinguishing characteristics of the medieval period. The Catholic Church had long fought against heretic movements, but during the late Middle Ages, it started to experience demands for reform from within. The first of these came from Oxford professor John Wycliffe in England. Wycliffe held that the Bible should be the only authority in religious questions, and he spoke out against transubstantiation , celibacy , and indulgences . In spite of influential supporters among

11371-462: The division is somewhat artificial, since ancient learning was never entirely absent from European society. As a result, there was developmental continuity between the ancient age (via classical antiquity ) and the modern age . Some historians, particularly in Italy, prefer not to speak of the late Middle Ages at all but rather see the high period of the Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance and

11508-519: The earliest of these large clocks was the Strasbourg astronomical clock , built in the 14th century which takes up the entire side of a cathedral wall. It contained an astronomical calendar, automata depicting animals, saints and the life of Christ. The mechanical rooster of Strasbourg clock was active from 1352 to 1789. The clock still functions to this day, but has undergone several restorations since its initial construction. The Prague astronomical clock

11645-556: The effect of taking away the heart, and found that the mouth could no longer speak; he took away the liver and the eyes could no longer see; he took away the kidneys and the legs lost their power of locomotion. The king was delighted. Other notable examples of automata include Archytas ' dove, mentioned by Aulus Gellius . Similar Chinese accounts of flying automata are written of the 5th century BC Mohist philosopher Mozi and his contemporary Lu Ban , who made artificial wooden birds ( ma yuan ) that could successfully fly according to

11782-550: The end of the banquet, an actor representing the Holy Church rode in on an elephant and read a poem about the plight of Eastern Christianity under Ottoman rule. From the late 14th century on in England, entremets are referred to as subtleties . This English term was derived from an older meaning of "subtle" as "clever" or "surprising". The meaning of "subtlety" did not include entertainment involving actors; those were referred to as pageants . The "four and twenty blackbirds baked in

11919-467: The entremet; a mousse is added to surround these layers and form the body of the dessert. After setting in the freezer, a mirror glaze or coating is usually added to the exterior of the entremet. Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded

12056-572: The entremets stage of the meal. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, entremets on meat days included butchers' meats, suckling pig, fowl, furred and feathered game, and offal, all of which were also used for entrées. Entremets additionally included ham, eggs, cheese, vegetables, fruits, and sugar, ingredients that were used sparingly or not at all for entrées. Entremets in “Classical Service” were widely varied preparations of primarily three types: chilled meats, hot vegetables, and hot and chilled sweet dishes. Entremets of meat, fowl, and game were, for

12193-665: The failed union of Sweden and Norway of 1319–1365, the pan-Scandinavian Kalmar Union was instituted in 1397. The Swedes were reluctant members of the Danish -dominated union from the start. In an attempt to subdue the Swedes, King Christian II of Denmark had large numbers of the Swedish aristocracy killed in the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520. Yet this measure only led to further hostilities, and Sweden broke away for good in 1523. Norway, on

12330-519: The first of which is known as the Great Famine of 1315–1317 . The demographic consequences of this famine , however, were not as severe as the plagues that occurred later in the century, particularly the Black Death . Estimates of the death rate caused by this epidemic range from one third to as much as sixty percent. By around 1420, the accumulated effect of recurring plagues and famines had reduced

12467-418: The first stage of the meal, the entrée became the second stage, and dishes of entremets came to be served in their own distinct stage. By 1650, the term "entremets" had come to refer not just to the dishes, but also to the stage of the meal where they were served, after the potage , entrée , and roast , and before the dessert . While cookbooks and dictionaries of the 17th and 18th centuries rarely discuss

12604-499: The first step, a golden ox and a golden lion each stretched out one foot to support him and help him rise to the next step. On each side, the animals helped the King up until he was comfortably seated upon the throne. In ancient China , a curious account of automata is found in the Lie Zi text, believed to have originated around 400 BCE and compiled around the fourth century CE. Within it there

12741-424: The form of inedible ornaments or acted performances, often full of the symbolism of power and regality. In English, such displays were more commonly known as a subtlety (also sotelty or soteltie ); they did not typically include acted entertainment, but did include culinary jokes like live blackbirds flying out of a pie , a scene immortalized in the folk song " Sing a Song of Sixpence ". The word entremets , as

12878-599: The growing power of guilds , while on a national level, special companies would be granted monopolies on particular trades, like the English wool Staple . The beneficiaries of these developments would accumulate immense wealth. Families like the Fuggers in Germany, the Medicis in Italy, and the de la Poles in England and individuals like Jacques Cœur in France would help finance the wars of kings, achieving great political influence in

13015-494: The heading "entremés" in some manuscripts. Entremets also appear in Le Ménagier de Paris (1393), Du fait de cuisine (1420), and the Petit traicté auquel verrez la maniere de faire cuisine (c. 1536), more widely known from a later edition titled Livre fort excellent de cuisine (1542). In Du fait de cuisine , entremets are served at dinner at the end of each stage of the meal, or mets (a serving of several dishes laid on

13152-636: The imaginary of automation. In 1066, the Chinese inventor Su Song built a water clock in the form of a tower which featured mechanical figurines which chimed the hours. Samarangana Sutradhara , a Sanskrit treatise by Bhoja (11th century), includes a chapter about the construction of mechanical contrivances (automata), including mechanical bees and birds, fountains shaped like humans and animals, and male and female dolls that refilled oil lamps, danced, played instruments, and re-enacted scenes from Hindu mythology. Villard de Honnecourt , in his 1230s sketchbook, depicted an early escapement mechanism in

13289-525: The individual principalities. In addition, financial institutions, such as the Hanseatic League and the Fugger family, held great power, on both economic and political levels. The Kingdom of Hungary experienced a golden age during the 14th century. In particular the reigns of the Angevin kings Charles Robert (1308–42) and his son Louis the Great (1342–82) were marked by success. The country grew wealthy as

13426-595: The jacks on old public striking clocks , or the cuckoo and any other animated figures on a cuckoo clock . There are many examples of automata in Greek mythology : Hephaestus created automata for his workshop; Talos was an artificial man of bronze; King Alkinous of the Phaiakians employed gold and silver watchdogs. According to Aristotle , Daedalus used quicksilver to make his wooden statue of Aphrodite move. In other Greek legends he used quicksilver to install voice in his moving statues. The automata in

13563-399: The knighting of the son of Edward I included performances of chansons de geste in what has been assumed to be part of the entremet. Entremets would often take on the character of theatrical displays, complete with props, actors, singers, mummers , and dancers. At a banquet held in 1378 by Charles V of France in honor of Emperor Charles IV , a huge wooden model of the city of Jerusalem

13700-475: The main European supplier of gold and silver. Louis the Great led successful campaigns from Lithuania to Southern Italy, and from Poland to Northern Greece. He had the greatest military potential of the 14th century with his enormous armies (often over 100,000 men). Meanwhile, Poland 's attention was turned eastwards, as the Commonwealth with Lithuania created an enormous entity in the region. The union, and

13837-786: The modern era. The term "late Middle Ages" refers to one of the three periods of the Middle Ages , along with the early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages. Leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodization in his History of the Florentine People (1442). Flavio Biondo used a similar framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire (1439–1453). Tripartite periodization became standard after

13974-464: The most part, chilled dishes. Many entremets were dishes that would have been entrées if served hot, but were entremets when served chilled, including sautés, ragoûts, fricassées, pâtés, and pies. Other chilled entremets included salads, aspics, custards, and forcemeat on toast. A few meats were served either hot or cold as entremets. Ham, rare as an entrée, was almost exclusively served as an entremets, hot or cold. Offal, sometimes served as an entrée,

14111-479: The onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renaissance ). Around 1350, centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe came to a halt. A series of famines and plagues , including the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death , reduced the population to around half of what it had been before the calamities. Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare . France and England experienced serious peasant uprisings, such as

14248-567: The other hand, became an inferior party of the union and remained united with Denmark until 1814. Iceland benefited from its relative isolation and was the last Scandinavian country to be struck by the Black Death . Meanwhile, the Norse colony in Greenland died out, probably under extreme weather conditions in the 15th century. These conditions might have been the effect of the Little Ice Age . The death of Alexander III of Scotland in 1286 threw

14385-602: The other hand, landowners were able to exploit the situation to force the peasantry into even more repressive bondage. The upheavals caused by the Black Death left certain minority groups particularly vulnerable, especially the Jews , who were often blamed for the calamities. Anti-Jewish pogroms were carried out all over Europe; in February 1349, 2,000 Jews were murdered in Strasbourg . States were also guilty of discrimination against

14522-455: The period has reached a consensus between the two extremes of innovation and crisis. It is now generally acknowledged that conditions were vastly different north and south of the Alps, and the term "late Middle Ages" is often avoided entirely within Italian historiography. The term "Renaissance" is still considered useful for describing certain intellectual, cultural, or artistic developments but not as

14659-462: The prevalence of the figure of the automated slave in al-Jazari's treatise. Automated slaves were a frequent motif in ancient and medieval literature but it was not so common to find them described in a technical book. Balafrej has also written about automated female slaves, which appeared in timekeepers and as liquid-serving devices in medieval Arabic sources, thus suggesting a link between feminized forms of labor like housekeeping, medieval slavery, and

14796-441: The process. Though there is no doubt that the demographic crisis of the 14th century caused a dramatic fall in production and commerce in absolute terms, there has been a vigorous historical debate over whether the decline was greater than the fall in population. While the older orthodoxy held that the artistic output of the Renaissance was a result of greater opulence, more recent studies have suggested that there might have been

14933-737: The reforming movements with what has been called the Catholic Reformation, or Counter-Reformation . Europe became split into northern Protestant and southern Catholic parts, resulting in the Religious Wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. The increasingly dominant position of the Ottoman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean presented an impediment to trade for the Christian nations of the west, who in turn started looking for alternatives. Portuguese and Spanish explorers found new trade routes – south of Africa to India , as well as across

15070-765: The rest of the world. The limits of Christian Europe were still being defined in the 14th and 15th centuries. While the Grand Duchy of Moscow was beginning to repel the Mongols , and the Iberian kingdoms completed the Reconquista of the peninsula and turned their attention outwards, the Balkans fell under the dominance of the Ottoman Empire . Meanwhile, the remaining nations of the continent were locked in almost constant international or internal conflict. The situation gradually led to

15207-589: The richest of the time in Europe. Inheriting the throne of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire, Sigismund continued conducting his politics from Hungary, but he was kept busy fighting the Hussites and the Ottoman Empire , which was becoming a menace to Europe in the beginning of the 15th century. King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary led the largest army of mercenaries of the time, the Black Army of Hungary , which he used to conquer Moravia and Austria and to fight

15344-456: The robot to pieces to let him see what it really was. And, indeed, it turned out to be only a construction of leather, wood, glue and lacquer, variously coloured white, black, red and blue. Examining it closely, the king found all the internal organs complete—liver, gall, heart, lungs, spleen, kidneys, stomach and intestines; and over these again, muscles, bones and limbs with their joints, skin, teeth and hair, all of them artificial...The king tried

15481-417: The same time, women were also vulnerable to incrimination and persecution, as belief in witchcraft increased. The accumulation of social, environmental, and health-related problems also led to an increase in interpersonal violence in most parts of Europe. Population increase, religious intolerance, famine, and disease led to an increase in violent acts in vast parts of medieval society. One exception to this

15618-825: The savory entremets, but the sweet entremets were consumed after the savory ones. Dried, preserved, and raw fruit were not served as entremets; they were served in the dessert stage of the meal. On lean days, fish replaced meat and fowl in every stage of the meal. Entremets on fish days were composed of crustaceans, frogs, turtles, anchovies, and fish organs including monkfish liver and carp roe. Other common entremets included chilled fish aspics, pies, and pâtés; eel cervelat ; and anchovy paste spread on toast. Other fish served as entremets were often fried or, more rarely, marinated, stewed, and served hot, including carp, monkfish, salmon, sole, trout, and turbot. Entremets that did not include meat were served on both meat and lean days, such as vegetables and, out of Lent, eggs and custards. Over

15755-451: The south of the country came under Ottoman occupation , as much of southern Bulgaria had become Ottoman territory in the Battle of Maritsa 1371. Northern remnants of Bulgaria were finally conquered by 1396, Serbia fell in 1459, Bosnia in 1463, and Albania was finally subordinated in 1479 only a few years after the death of Skanderbeg . Belgrade , a Hungarian domain at the time, was the last large Balkan city to fall under Ottoman rule, in

15892-641: The survivors, and labour was consequently more expensive. Attempts by landowners to forcibly reduce wages, such as the English 1351 Statute of Laborers , were doomed to fail. These efforts resulted in nothing more than fostering resentment among the peasantry, leading to rebellions such as the French Jacquerie in 1358 and the English Peasants' Revolt in 1381. The long-term effect was the virtual end of serfdom in Western Europe. In Eastern Europe, on

16029-457: The table together). In the menus of the Livre fort excellent , only one entremets is mentioned, and it is placed at the end of a "second service of roasts". Entremets were often brightly colored with plant dyes to provide a sort of visual entertainment. Over time, entremets became popular as illusion foods, such as peacocks or swans that were skinned, cooked, and redressed in their original plumage; or scenes depicting human activities, such as

16166-420: The time displayed by the previous state. The automata uses this input to produce the next state, a display of time 1 second later than the previous. Clock automata often also use the previous state's input to 'decide' whether or not the next state requires merely changing the hands on the clock, or if a special function is required, such as a mechanical bird popping out of a house like in cuckoo clocks. This choice

16303-455: The time of creation, such as kings, famous composers, or industrialists. Examples of automaton clocks include chariot clocks and cuckoo clocks . The Cuckooland Museum exhibits autonomous clocks. While automaton clocks are largely perceived to have been in use during medieval times in Europe, they are largely produced in Japan today. In Automata theory , clocks are regarded as timed automatons ,

16440-529: The two kingdoms were effectively united under Aragonese control. The 1469 marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon and the 1479 death of John II of Aragon led to the creation of modern-day Spain . In 1492, Granada was captured from the Moors , thereby completing the Reconquista . Portugal had during the 15th century – particularly under Henry the Navigator  – gradually explored

16577-437: The type of dishes appropriate to each stage of the meal with any specificity, entremets and the dishes of the other stages can be distinguished from each other by certain characteristics, such as their ingredients, cooking methods, and serving temperatures. The distinct characteristics of the entremets were at first loosely observed, but by the early 18th century, certain ingredients and cooking methods were increasingly confined to

16714-421: The user pulls the lever, the water drains and the automaton refills the basin. His "peacock fountain" was another more sophisticated hand washing device featuring humanoid automata as servants who offer soap and towels . Mark E. Rosheim describes it as follows: "Pulling a plug on the peacock's tail releases water out of the beak; as the dirty water from the basin fills the hollow base a float rises and actuates

16851-440: The walled park. The work was conducted by local workmen and overseen by the Italian knight Renaud Coignet. It included monkey marionettes, a sundial supported by lions and "wild men", mechanized birds, mechanized fountains and a bellows-operated organ. The park was famed for its automata well into the fifteenth century before it was destroyed by English soldiers in the sixteenth century. The Chinese author Xiao Xun wrote that when

16988-456: The warrior class. This newfound ethos can be seen as a response to the diminishing military role of the aristocracy, and it gradually became almost entirely detached from its military origin. The spirit of chivalry was given expression through the new ( secular ) type of chivalric orders ; the first of these was the Order of St. George , founded by Charles I of Hungary in 1325, while the best known

17125-642: The wind over the domes of the four gates and the palace complex of the Round City of Baghdad ". The "public spectacle of wind-powered statues had its private counterpart in the ' Abbasid palaces where automata of various types were predominantly displayed." Also in the 8th century, the Muslim alchemist , Jābir ibn Hayyān (Geber), included recipes for constructing artificial snakes , scorpions , and humans that would be subject to their creator's control in his coded Book of Stones . In 827, Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun had

17262-535: The works of Cabaret Mechanical Theatre in the United Kingdom , Thomas Kuntz , Arthur Ganson , Joe Jones and Le Défenseur du Temps by French artist Jacques Monestier . Since 1990 Dutch artist Theo Jansen has been building large automated PVC structures called strandbeest (beach animal) that can walk on wind power or compressed air. Jansen claims that he intends them to automatically evolve and develop artificial intelligence , with herds roaming freely over

17399-580: The world. Although now rare and expensive, these French automata attract collectors worldwide. The main French makers were Bontems , Lambert, Phalibois, Renou, Roullet & Decamps , Theroude and Vichy. Abstract automata theory started in mid-20th century with finite automata ; it is applied in branches of formal and natural science including computer science , physics , biology , as well as linguistics . Contemporary automata continue this tradition with an emphasis on art, rather than technological sophistication. Contemporary automata are represented by

17536-462: The years around World War I . Yet it was his Dutch colleague, Johan Huizinga , who was primarily responsible for popularising the pessimistic view of the late Middle Ages, with his book The Autumn of the Middle Ages (1919). To Huizinga, whose research focused on France and the Low Countries rather than Italy, despair and decline were the main themes, not rebirth. Modern historiography on

17673-600: Was North-Eastern Europe, whose population managed to maintain low levels of violence due to a more organized society resulting from extensive and successful trade. Up until the mid-14th century, Europe had experienced steadily increasing urbanization . Cities were also decimated by the Black Death, but the role of urban areas as centres of learning, commerce, and government ensured continued growth. By 1500, Venice, Milan, Naples, Paris, and Constantinople each probably had more than 100,000 inhabitants. Twenty-two other cities were larger than 40,000; most of these were in Italy and

17810-495: Was built in 1410, animated figures were added from the 17th century onwards. Numerous clockwork automata were manufactured in the 16th century, principally by the goldsmiths of the Free Imperial Cities of central Europe. These wondrous devices found a home in the cabinet of curiosities or Wunderkammern of the princely courts of Europe. In 1454, Duke Philip created an entertainment show named The extravagant Feast of

17947-616: Was challenged to recant his heresy at the Diet of Worms in 1521. When he refused, he was placed under the ban of the Empire by Charles V . Receiving the protection of Frederick the Wise , he was then able to translate the Bible into German . To many secular rulers, the Protestant Reformation was a welcome opportunity to expand their wealth and influence. The Catholic Church met the challenges of

18084-400: Was known for creating automata for his stage shows. Automata that acted according to a set of preset instructions were popular with magicians during this time. In 1840, Italian inventor Innocenzo Manzetti constructed a flute -playing automaton, in the shape of a man, life-size, seated on a chair. Hidden inside the chair were levers, connecting rods and compressed air tubes, which made

18221-679: Was more commonly served as an entremets, hot or cold. Eggs, commonly served as entrées on lean days out of Lent, were sometimes served as hot entremets on meat days. Separate dishes of vegetables were served exclusively as hot entremets, never as entrées. Vegetables might make up part of a sauce or garnish for an entrée, but vegetables were served by themselves only as entremets. Fritters and other fried dishes of vegetables, fruits, cheese, or offal were also served hot as entremets. Fritters and fried dishes of meat and fowl, though, were served as entrées. Finally, various sweet dishes were also served as entremets. They were generally presented alongside

18358-705: Was probably the English Order of the Garter , founded by Edward III in 1348. The French crown's increasing dominance over the Papacy culminated in the transference of the Holy See to Avignon in 1309. When the Pope returned to Rome in 1377, this led to the election of different popes in Avignon and Rome, resulting in the Western Schism (1378–1417). The Schism divided Europe along political lines; while France, her ally Scotland, and

18495-498: Was rolled in before the high table. Actors portraying the crusader Godfrey of Bouillon and his knights then sailed into the hall on a miniature ship and reenacted the capture of Jerusalem in 1099. Entremets made an effective tool for political displays. One of the most famous examples is the so-called Feast of the Pheasant , arranged by Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1454. The theme of

18632-546: Was the birthplace of those ingenious mechanical toys that were to become prototypes for the engines of the Industrial Revolution . Thus, in 1649, when Louis XIV was still a child, François-Joseph de Camus designed for him a miniature coach, complete with horses and footmen, a page, and a lady within the coach; all these figures exhibited a perfect movement. According to Labat , General de Gennes constructed, in 1688, in addition to machines for gunnery and navigation,

18769-446: Was through the use of cannons as siege weapons that major change was brought about; the new methods would eventually change the architectural structure of fortifications . Changes also took place within the recruitment and composition of armies. The use of the national or feudal levy was gradually replaced by paid troops of domestic retinues or foreign mercenaries . The practice was associated with Edward III of England and

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