Download 300 - 1500

Medieval Europe
300 - 1500
•1. Kingdoms and Christianity – 300 – 1250
•2. The Early Middle Ages – 800 – 1215
•3. The High Middle Ages – 1000 – 1500
Mr. Schenk
The Early Middle Ages
•800 - 1215
•1. Charlemagne’s Empire
•2. New Invaders
•3. The Feudal and Manorial Systems
•4. The Growth of Monarchies
•5. Power of the Church
•At the outset of the early Middle Ages, western Europe was a land without an empire
•New forms of community took hold
•Christianity spread throughout western Europe
•Strong, new political systems also arose, uniting much of Europe
300 - 1500
1. Charlemagne’s Empire
300 - 1500
•With the
, Europe had entered into a period of political, social, and economic decline.
•Small kingdoms competed to control the lands once under Rome’s central authority
•Among these kingdoms, were the Franks
Building an Empire
•By the 800’s, the Franks ruled much of western and
central Europe
•Leaders most influential in the successes of the
Franks belonged to one family – the Carolingians
•The family of
•Grandfather – Charles Martel – served as a political
advisor to the king
•His son – Pippin III – the first king of the
Carolingians
•He passed to his son Charles
300 - 1500
Charlemagne’s Rise to Power
300 - 1500
•Pope Leo III, in 774, called
on him to defend his Papal
States against a group
known as the Lombards
•Charlemagne and the
Franks swept into Italy and
defeated the raiders
•Charles the Great became
king of the Romans
•This medieval manuscript shows Pope Leo III crowning Charlemagne
Emperor of the Romans
Charlemagne’s Rule
300 - 1500
•Charlemagne had tremendous power as emperor
(however to large to rule)
•Permanent capital at Aachen (now Germany) Charlemagne’s home palace
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– officials who ruled under him in exchange for large tracts of land- oversaw his empire
A New Society
300 - 1500
•The Carolingian Renaissance
•Politics – unified Europe for the first time
since the fall of Rome
•Education – built schools and preserved
ancient writings
•Religion – spread Christianity among
conquered people
•Law – developed a written legal code
Charlemagne’s Empire Collapses:
Treaty of Verdun, 843
•With Charlemagne’s death in 814, the
empire lost its center
•Once again disunity spread throughout
Europe
•His grandsons divide the empire into
three parts, a western, a middle, and a
eastern kingdom
•to make matters worse – invaders –
Vikings!
300 - 1500
2. New Invaders
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300 - 1500
The death of Charlemagne marked the ending of
peace in Western Europe
The Vikings, Magyars, and the Muslims all focused
on their conquests of Europe
Perhaps the most fierce were the warriors from
Denmark known as the Vikings
•“The number of ships grow: the endless stream of Vikings
never cease to increase. Everywhere the Christians are victims of
massacres, burnings, plunderings; the Vikings conquer all in
their path, and no one resists them.”
•A Monk of Noirmoutier
•The Viking World
•The first attack of the Lindisfarne Monastery marked the
beginning of a 200 year period of raids in northern Europe, a
period known as the age of the Vikings
Who are the Vikings?
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300 - 1500
The people of Scandinavia, also called
Northman, Norsemen (Northern Europe)
In Viking homelands, society was based on
agriculture and the sea
As Scandinavians population grew, resources
became limited so the Vikings decided to take
what they needed from other people
Thus started the Viking raids
•Erik the Red – conquered Greenland and Iceland
982
•Leif Eriksson – explored North America, but did they
reach Minnesota? (1100)
Viking Conquests and Settlements
300 - 1500
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Erik the Red
Leif Eriksson
Viking long boat
First raids were England and northern Franc
As time passed they reached Kiev and
Constantinople
Not all were raiders, many were explorers
(Iceland, Greenland, Canada) Vikings were
superb ship builders and sailors (excellent
navigators)
Ships could withstand heavy ocean winds
and carried as many as 100 warriors
The Magyars
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As Vikings terrorized northern and western Europe, the Magyars invaded from the east
Magyars- nomads (horsemen) who settled in what is now Hungary
Military tactic invaded small settlements
In mid 900’s, King Otto the Great crushed the Magyar raids
300 - 1500
Moors, African Muslims in Spain
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•Legend has it that King Rodrigo of Spain married the daughter of one of his
noblemen, Count Julian against the wishes of her father. To avenge what
Julian perceived as his violated honor, he opened secret parleys with the
enemy and invited with the Emir (Governor) Musa ibn Nusayr, the Muslim
ruler of North Africa, who was based in Tunisia to invade Spain.
•The Caliph al-Walid authorized the invasion of Spain (710-711 AD), on
condition that Count Julian recited the Shahada and embraced Islam.
300 - 1500
In 711, a Muslim Army from northern Africa
crossed the straits of Gibraltar and made conquest
of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain/Portugal)
Ruled the peninsula for more than 700 years
Cordoba – one of the wealthiest and most
culturally advanced cities of the medieval world
In 800’s and 900’s, Muslim raids in southern
France, Rome Italy, and Constantinople, the
Byzantine Empire, led to a shift in power from
Christianity to Islam
Feudalism in Europe develops in response of the
invasions of the Vikings, Magyars, and Muslims
300 - 1500
3.
The Greatest Knight?
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•William Marshall
•Served the first four English kings
In Europe, during the Middle Ages, the
feudal and manorial systems governed
life and required people to perform
certain duties and obligations
As the Middle Ages progressed, knights
began to emerge as key figures in
Europe
What was responsible for this change?
Origins of feudalism
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•For protection nobles built castles to defend their lands
300 - 1500
Carcassonne: A Medieval Castle –
•Castles were built on hills because
hilltop locations were easier to
defend
•Most early castles were made of
wood and stone
•Castles were defended by nobles
soldiers, known as knights
300 - 1500
Knights and Lords
300 - 1500
•Main room of the castle called the hall – dining and entertaining
•Bedrooms separated by sheets and near latrines (bathrooms) Hay
for toilet paper!!!
Parts of a Medieval Castle
•Being a knight was expensive, therefore nobles gave knights land for payment of service
•This land was called a
•Anyone who accepted the land from the lord was called a vassal
•This is known as the
Feudal Obligations
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– oath or loyalty between knight and his king
300 - 1500
Feudalism build upon
relationship and service
A knights duty to his lord
– Provide
– Remain
– Give
A Lord’s duty to his Knights
– Give
– Protect
– Resolve
Chivalry: A Code of Honor and Behavior
•Generic term
•First appeared with military actions against
non-Christian states
•Protectors of their religious faith Christianity
•Chivalry also directed that men should honor,
serve, and do nothing to displease women and
maidens
300 - 1500
▪
•Feudal system built around large estates
called manors
•Owned by wealthy lords or knights
•Serfs – peasant workers who were legally
tied to the manor on which they worked
•Manors land occupied by fields for crops
and pastures for animals
•Three crop rotating system
300 - 1500
Life on the Medieval Manor
300 - 1500
Serfs at work
Legally tied to the manor
Serfdom was hereditary
Lived in small one to two room cottages –floor was
packed dirt/roof was straw (cooking by fire!!!)
4. The Growth of Monarchs
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•A Sign from Heaven
•William the Conqueror: Battle of Hastings, 1066 (Bayeaux
Tapestry)
300 - 1500
The power of the kings grew and the
nature of monarchy changed across
Europe in the early middle ages
1066 – King Harold saw what we think
was Haley’s comet, appear in the sky
He thought it was a sign that change
was coming to England
Within a year,
and
took the throne
The English Monarchy
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300 - 1500
England was one of the first
countries in Europe to develop a
strong central monarchy
Anglo Saxon Rule –
drove
out the Vikings
In 1066, William, Duke of
Normandy of France, in the battle
of Hastings took the English
throne
Domesday Book – a book that
William used to create a new
central tax system for England
The English in France
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300 - 1500
One of William’s descendants, King
Henry, married a powerful French
duchess,
Together, they
ruled all of England and most of
France
The kings of England become more
powerful than French counterparts
England’s Political System
300 - 1500
 Henry I, King William’s son, set up a court system and a department
of royal finances, under an Exchequer who collected taxes
Henry II, established the principle of common law throughout the
kingdom
Under his court, he established a grand jury and trial by jury.
1200 – the power of the English kings started to worry a group of
nobles
Noble Revolution under King John, who tried to raise money with a
new tax to help him regain France – led to a
Magna Carta, 1215
300 - 1500
The Magna Carta was a
King
must obtain consent from the nobles if he
wished to raise taxes
Also ended king’s ability to arrest and
punish people without cause or to take
property without legal procedures
King is not above the law
One of the more Important documents in
the formation of modern democracies
300 - 1500
The Beginnings of the British Parliament
 Great Council:
 middle class merchants, townspeople [burgesses in Eng., bourgeoisie in Fr., burghers in Ger.]
were added at the end of the 13c.
 eventually called
– governing body of England today
 by 1400, two chambers evolved: House of Lords  nobles & clergy and the House of Commons
 knights and burgesses.
The French Monarchy
300 - 1500
•After the death of Charlemagne, England
controlled France for quite sometime
•Hugh Capet – Capetian family who managed
to expel the English nobles out of France
•1300 – controlled most of modern France
Holy Roman Empire
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300 - 1500
The eastern part of Charlemagne’s empire
became known as Germany
936 –
– duke of Saxony- gained
the throne and conquered parts of northern
Italy
Just like Charlemagne, Otto was crowned
Emperor of the Romans in 962.
Became known as the Holy Roman Empire
because king had God’s support
Spain and Portugal’s Monarchy
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300 - 1500
Spain and Portugal the growth of monarchies
was coupled with religious struggle between
Christians and Muslims
Moors of Cordoba controlled Spain for 700
years
The Reconquista – Christian effort to retake
the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims
Leader of the Reconquistas was the king of
Castile of Spain who eventually united with
the queen of Aragon of Portugal
In 1492, once they rid the Moors from Spain,
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella ruled one
of the strongest countries in all of Europe
5. The Power of the Church
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300 - 1500
Who would have the power to make an
emperor wait in the snow, begging for an
audience?
Emperor Henry IV of the Holy Roman
Empire waited three days to meet with Pope
Gregory VII and the Countess Matilda
Emperor Henry IV wanted to ask the
countess to intervene in his conflict with the
pope
300 - 1500
Religion in the Middle Ages
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are head of the Roman Catholic
Church and throughout the Middle
Ages, they became powerful political
figures
Great level of Piety – person’s level of
devotion to his or her religion
Europeans placed a great importance on
faith and their devotions to Christianity
Growth of the Papal Power
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Pope Gregory VII
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•Henry IV
300 - 1500
In 1049, the first series of clever and capable
popes dedicated to reforming the papacy came to
power
Leo IX – reformer who became more active in
governing the church than any other pope had
been for centuries
Pontification – papal term in office – under Pope
Gregory VII
Emperor Henry wrote a letter to Pope Gregory
claiming that he had no authority over him or any
other ruler
Gregory excommunicated Henry IV
Henry begged for forgiveness
Changes in Monasticism
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300 - 1500
Early 900’s, a small group of monks,
sought to return monasticism to its
original Benedictine Rule
was dedicated to leading simple lives.
Monks spent part of each day in prayer
and part at work
Lived like hermits and had no contract
with other people