People in Early European History

The couples in these three books represent different aspects of the social scene of the time. The story of the legendary law case surrounding the property and life of Martin Guerre is a story of French village life among the peasantry. The letters written by the husband and wife Balthasar and Magdalena takes the reader to the world of the merchant class in Germany. The central figure in the third book is Francisco Noguerol de Ulloa, an explorer who left Spain for Peru and achieved a successful life there before returning to Spain. These three works taken together show a shifting economic picture as the stratified societies of Europe offer a degree of mobility for the merchant, the explorer, the trader, while maintaining the wide separation among classes for most of society. Women in

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he outset that these people represent a different level in society: As they were not peasants and had means, I had no illusions that I had stumbled upon the silent voice of Europe's common man. On the other hand, these were also no aristocrats of any historical accomplishment (Ozment 12). Balthasar is a merchant who has been prepared for the role of merchant since childhood: His language, as his bearing, tends to be that of the professional businessman, clearer and more precise than Magdalena's and always, but never only, to the point (Ozment 13). Merchants such as Balthasar depended on the growth of the town, which itself paralleled the development of the state: With the sixteenth century, and more still during the following two centuries, large towns grew up in the West, assumed positions of prime importance and retained them brilliantly thereafter. . . This late growth would have been inconceivable without the steady advancement of the states: they had caught up with the forward gallop of the towns (Braudel 411). This is apparent in the world of Balthasar in the letters and in the analysis by Ozment, who notes that Balthasar had traveled outside the city of Nuremburg while Magdalena had not gone much beyond the c
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Magdalena Balthasar, Francisco Noguerol, Zemon Davis, Girls Artigat, Spain Peru, Merchants Balthasar, David Cook--will, Nuremburg Magdalena, Martin Guerre, Cook Cook, martin guerre, noguerol de, de ulloa, noguerol de ulloa, francisco noguerol de, sixteenth century, francisco noguerol, natalie zemon, magdalena balthasar, faith truthful ignorance, faith truthful, wife nor widow, economic structure, cook cook, natalie zemon davis,
Approximate Word count = 2044
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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