Emperor Charles IV decreed in 1356 that the nobles of the German Empire should learn tongues other than that of their native land. But the rise of the vernacular had begun to make inroads into the dominantly francophone courtly culture of the later Middle Ages by 1500. French-inspired themes and cultural forms continued to be admired and adopted, but they were increasingly expressed and absorbed by men and women for whom French was an acquired rather than an indigenous skill.

Later medieval civilization in northern Europe had its own distinctive character, to which criteria derived from earlier or later periods are inapplicable. A 'high and strong culture' ( Huizinga) expressing itself in artistic realism, vernacular literature, lay piety, and a chivalric heyday remained dominant. New things were certainly being born but they carried the unmistakable imprint of their medieval antecedents.

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