Download Lecture 12—The Byzantine Empire and Western

Lecture 12—The Byzantine Empire and Western
Europe to 1000 AD
The Final Collapse of the Western Empire:
Honorius and the Visigoths: On the death of Theodosius the Great in 395 BC,
he was followed by a child-emperor, Honorius (born 384, ruled 395-423).
Honorius was weak and palace intrigues among his servants undermined the
defense of the borders. Barbarian tribes—Franks, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals,
and others, began to infiltrate the empire, taking over entire provinces. In 410
AD, the last roman legions abandoned Britain to try to shore up Gaul's defenses,
at the same time that the Visigoths sacked Rome.
Atilla the Hun: As the empire declined, pressure from the growing empire of the
Huns drove ever more tribes into the empire. Finally, in the 440s and 50s, Atilla
the Hun led his forces into the empire in a series of raids that turned into conquest
attempts. Despite Atilla's defeat at Chalons-sur-Marne in 454 AD by an alliance
of barbarians and Romans, the Western Empire had now collapsed to be little
more than bits of Africa and Gaul combined with Italy. Rome was now sacked in
455 by the Vandals, who now controlled Northern Africa.
The Last Emperor: What was left was dependent on aid from the Eastern
Empire. With the deposal of Romulus Augustus (himself a puppet figurehead for
his father, a military commander) in 476 AD and the fall of Italy to the Ostrogoths
under Theodoric the Great in the 490s AD, the western empire quietly faded
away.
The Byzantine Empire:
Arcadius (395-408 A.D.): When Theodosius the Great died in 395 AD, he left
the eastern half of the empire to his son Arcadius. He came to the throne at 18,
and tried to create an image of himself as a pious emperor. He spent his reign
largely a puppet in the hands of his ministers and later his wife. The failure of a
coup by Gainas, a Germanic officer, began the process of the decline in
importance of the Germanic military officers whose feuds hastened the collapse
of the western Empire.
The Rise of Byzantium: As the western empire collapsed, a new empire took
shape in the East. The east had more money and was less threatened by
barbarians on the move and thus survived fairly intact into the sixth century AD.
Instead of hiring Germanic mercenaries, the empire turned to the Isaurians
(possible ancestors of the modern Kurds), a fierce warrior nation from Anatolia
(modern Turkey). Leo I (457–474) became the first Emperor to be crowned by
the Patriarch of Constantinople. By 500 AD, the empire had stabilized in control
of the Balkans, modern Turkey, the eastern Mediterranean coast, and Egypt.
Justinian I (527-565 A.D.): Justinian's reign was the height of Byzantine power
and the last flowering of 'Classical' culture. He married Theodora, a woman of
great strength and intelligence, noteworthy for stiffening his will to resist an
attempted coup in 532 AD.
Imperial Restoration: Justinian's main project was the reconquest of the
Western Empire. He sent out forces first to invade 'Africa' (modern
Tunisia), where his men, led by General Belisarius, crushed the now
weakened Vandals. He then turned his attentions to Spain and Italy.
Southern Spain fell into his hands and his men conquered most of Italy.
Much of the second half of his reign was consumed with grinding,
inconclusive war with the Sassanids, however, to the East and fighting off
Slavic incursions into the Balkans. On paper, his conquests were
impressive. In practice, he bit off more than he could chew, as the
continuing Sassanid menace would threaten the empire into the next
century.
Cities: Justinian's empire had over 1500 cities. The largest was
Constantinople with 350,000. The provincial capitals were around 50,000
each. These cities were ruled by imperial governors, who replaced the
councils of local landowners which had governed Roman cities. Their
prosperity was key to the survival of the Eastern Empire.
Law: Justinian imposed a policy of "One Empire, One God, One
Religion". He set out to create legal and doctrinal conformity throughout
the empire, attacking the Monophysites of the East in the name of
Orthodoxy. He created the Corpus Juris Civilis--"Body of Civil Law". It
consists of the Codex Justinianus, the Digesta or Pandectae, the
Institutiones, and the Novellae.
Early in his reign, Justinian appointed the quaestor Tribonian to oversee
this task. The first draft of the Codex Justinianus, a codification of
imperial constitutions from the 2nd century onward, was issued on April
7, 529. (The final version appeared in 534.) It was followed by the Digesta
(or Pandectae), a compilation of older legal texts, in 533, and by the
Institutiones, a textbook explaining the principles of law. The Novellae, a
collection of new laws issued during Justinian's reign, supplements the
Corpus. As opposed to the rest of the corpus, the Novellae appeared in
Greek, the common language of the Eastern Empire; Latin, the traditional
language of the Roman Empire, was only poorly understood by most
citizens of the Eastern Empire. Justinian's code shaped not only the future
of his empire, but provided the model for many later European law codes
up to the nineteenth century.
Imperial Control of Religion: As with his secular administration,
despotism appeared also in the emperor's ecclesiastical policy. He
regulated everything, both in religion and in law.
At the very beginning of his reign, he deemed it proper to promulgate by
law the Church's belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation; and to threaten
all heretics with the appropriate penalties; whereas he subsequently
declared that he intended to deprive all disturbers of orthodoxy of the
opportunity for such offense by due process of law. He made the
Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan creed the sole symbol of the Church, and
accorded legal force to the canons of the four ecumenical councils.The
bishops in attendance at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553
recognized that nothing could be done in the Church contrary to the
emperor's will and command; while, on his side, the emperor, in the case
of the Patriarch Anthimus, reinforced the ban of the Church with temporal
proscription. Justinian protected the purity of the church by suppressing
heretics. He neglected no opportunity for securing the rights of the Church
and clergy, for protecting and extending monasticism. He granted the
monks the right to inherit property from private citizens and the right to
receive solemnia or annual gifts from the imperial treasury or from the
taxes of certain provinces and he prohibited lay confiscation on monastic
estates.
The Monophysite Heresy: The religious movement that Justinian was
fighting against by his imposition of Orthodoxy is known as
Monophysitism. It was popular in much of the Eastern Empire, and stated
that Jesus was not both man and divine, but rather a divinity who had only
looked like a man—which is to say, he had no human nature, only a divine
one. (The Orthodox held and still hold that Jesus was both man and divine
and that this was critical to his mission of salvation.) The Modern Coptic,
Syrian and Armenian churches endorse this belief.
The Plague: Between 541 and 543, plague ravaged the empire, wrecking
the economy. The empire never fully recovered.
Avars, Slavs, and Bulgars: In the sixth to seventh century, waves of Avars, Slavs, and
Bulgars, nomadic barbarians from the southern steppes of modern Russia, periodically
invaded the Balkans. After the seventh century, the Avars abandoned their attacks and
were crushed by Charlemagne in the eighth-ninth century AD. The Bulgars came to
terms with the Byzantines in 680 AD, though they would continue to fight the Byzantines
off and on for centuries. The Slavs would eventually come to dominate the Balkans,
sometimes under Byzantine rule, sometimes forming independent states such as Serbia or
Croatia. Saints Cyril and Methodius, Byzantine missionaries, brought about the
conversion of the Slavs to the Eastern Orthodox faith in the ninth century AD, even
creating a special Greek-based alphabet for writing the Slavic languages.
Persians and Moslems: During the reign of Heraclius (610-41), the Byzantine empire
decisively turned its attention eastwards. Heraclius was the first emperor to replace the
traditional Latin title for his office (Augustus) with the Greek Basileus. Greek replaced
Latin in official documents. Byzantium's western conquests were crumbling, and
Heraclius had to face the Persian menace and the rise of Islam. In the face of early major
Sassanid victories, Heraclius reorganized the Roman military. He developed the idea of
granting land to individuals in return for hereditary military service. The land so granted
was organised into themata, a Greek word to describe a division of troops within a large
district under military administration, each theme being placed under the command of a
strategos or military governor. This arrangement ensured the continuance of the Empire
for hundreds of years and enabled Heraclius to reconquer lands taken by the Persians,
ravaging Persia along the way. In 621 AD, he became the first Emperor to take to the
field since Theodosius the Great in the 4th century AD. Roman forces defeated the
Persians under Rhahzadh at the Battle of Nineveh in 627. Heraclius personally defeated
and killed Rhahzadh in the battle. When Chosroes still refused to make peace, Heraclius
continued his campaign; as he approached the Persian capital of Ctesiphon, the Persian
aristocracy deposed Chosroes. His successor Kavadh II made peace with Heraclius by
restoring all the empire's former territories. The Persian Sassanid dynasty never
recovered from this war; it took years for a strong king to emerge from a series of coups,
and soon the Muslim Arab Caliphate overwhelmed the sinking state. In 630, he reached
the height of his power, marching barefoot as a pious Christian pilgrim into Jerusalem
and restoring the True Cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
However, in 632 AD, on the death of Mohammed, Moslem forces poured out of Arabia,
attacking both the Sassanids and Byzantium. Heraclius fell ill soon after his triumph over
the Persians and never took the field again. When the Muslim Arabs attacked Syria and
Palestine 634, he was unable to oppose them personally, and his generals failed him. The
Battle of Yarmuk in 636 resulted in a crushing defeat for the larger Roman army and
within three years, Syria and Palestine were lost again. By the time of Heraclius' death,
most of Egypt had fallen as well.
Leo III (717-740 AD): Allying himself with the Bulgarians, Leo III broke the 718 Arab
siege of Constantinople and recovered the fortunes of the Empire, retaking parts of the
Balkans and Anatolia, as well as carrying out legal reforms. Leo undertook a set of civil
reforms including the abolition of the system of prepaying taxes which had weighed
heavily upon the wealthier proprietors, the elevation of the serfs into a class of free
tenants and the remodelling of family and of maritime law. These measures, which were
embodied in a new code (the Ecloga) published in 740, met with some opposition on the
part of the nobles and higher clergy. The theme system now settled down to become the
focus of Imperial adminstration. Under him, the Empire took on the shape it would hold
for centuries, a state centered at Constantinople and controlling the Balkans and Anatolia.
The Macedonian Dynasty (9th-11th centuries AD): The Byzantine Empire reached its
height under the Macedonian emperors of the late 9th, 10th, and early 11th centuries,
when it gained control over the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy, and all of the territory of the
tsar Samuel. The cities of the empire expanded, and affluence spread across the provinces
because of the new-found security. The population rose, and production increased,
stimulating new demand while also helping to encourage trade. Culturally, there was
considerable growth in education and learning. Ancient texts were preserved and
patiently re-copied. Byzantine art flourished, and brilliant mosaics graced the interiors of
the many new churches. Though the empire was significantly smaller than during the
reign of Justinian, it was also stronger, as the remaining territories were less
geographically dispersed and more politically and culturally integrated.
Basil "the Bulgar-Slayer" II (reigned 976–1025 AD): Basil began his reign by allying
himself to the rising state of Kievan Rus, marrying his sister to the King of Kiev (this
marriage would eventually lead rulers of Russia to style themselves as successors to the
throne of Rome. The title 'Tsar' comes from Caesar, the old roman title.) and using
Russian assistance (6,000 men) to put down a revolt by some of the major landowners in
the 980s. These men would form the Varangian Guard, an elite force used as bodyguards
and heavy infantry by the Byzantine emperors until the 1204 Sack of Constantinople.
Basil then reconqured Syria, but his main focus was a twenty year long war against the
Bulgars. Finally, on July 29, 1014, Basil II outmaneuvered the Bulgarian army in the
Battle of Kleidion, with Samuil separated from his force. Having crushed the Bulgarians,
Basil was said to have captured 15,000 prisoners and blinded 99 of every 100 men,
leaving 150 one-eyed men to lead them back to their ruler, who fainted at the sight and
died two days later suffering a stroke. Although this may be an exaggeration, this gave
Basil his nickname Boulgaroktonos, "the Bulgar-slayer" in later tradition. In 1018, the
remaining Bulgars surrendered and the Byzantines now controlled the Balkans south of
the Danube. This was the second and final peak of the Empire.
Manzikert (1071 AD): The decline of the Empire began again with the disaster of
Manzikert, where the Seljuq Turks defeated Emperor Romanos Diogenes. By 1081, the
Turks ruled almost all of Anatolia, which had been a major source of Imperial soldiers.
The Byzantines would never recover it and the process began by which it would
eventually become Turkic in culture.
From Orthodoxy to Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Heresies: Between 400 and
1054 AD, a series of developments led Eastern Christianity in a variety of other
directions from the road taken by the Christians of Western Europe.
Nestorians: Nestorianism is the doctrine that Jesus exists as two persons, the man
Jesus and the divine Son of God, or Logos, rather than as a unified person. This
doctrine is identified with Nestorius (c. 386–c. 451), Patriarch of Constantinople.
This view of Christ was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and the
conflict over this view led to the Nestorian schism, separating the Assyrian
Church of the East from the Byzantine Church. Nestorianism originated in the
Church in the 5th century out of an attempt to rationally explain and understand
the incarnation of the divine Logos, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity as the
man Jesus Christ. Nestorianism taught that the human and divine essences of
Christ are separate and that there are two persons, the man Jesus Christ and the
divine Logos, which dwelt in the man. In consequence, Nestorians rejected such
terminology as "God suffered" or "God was crucified", because the humanity of
Jesus Christ which suffered is separate from his divinity. Likewise, they rejected
the term Theotokos (Giver of birth to God/Mother of God) as a title of the Virgin
Mary, suggesting instead the title Christotokos (Giver of birth to Christ/Mother of
Christ), because in their view Mary gave birth to only the human person of Jesus
and not the divine. Nestorianism remained a minority view, most popular in
modern Iraq, where the Assyrian Church of the East still holds to Nestorianism.
Monophysitism: As described earlier, the Monophysites held Christ was entirely
divine with no human nature. The defeat of the Byzantines by Islam in the 7th
century took them out of the empire, largely ending theological conflict.
Iconoclasm: In the 8th century, Emperor Leo III banned the use of religious
images, known as 'Icons'. This alienated western Christians, helping to lead to an
alliance between the Popes and the Frankish kings. But it also alienated many of
his own subjects. For a century, the struggle between iconoclasts (icon breakers)
and iconophiles (icon supporters) raged back and forth as iconoclast and
iconophile emperors came and went. Finally, the accession of Michael III (842867) in 842 ended the Iconoclasm controversy with a victory for the Iconophiles.
Those opposed to Icons pointed to the forbidding of graven images in the Ten
Commandments and argued that no image of Jesus could ever accurately depict
his divine nature. They feared the images were a sign of idolatry. Iconophiles
argued their value in religious devotions, that no depiction of a real person could
be an 'idol' and that Emperors should not impose doctrines on the church; this was
the role of proper church councils.
Theological differences of Orthodoxy from Papal Catholicism: The Byzantine
Church rejected the doctrine of Purgatory. It allowed divorce and marriage by
priests (not Bishops, though). It endorsed liturgies in local languages. And it
accepted Imperial power over the church.
The 1054 Schism: In 1054, the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Pope
excommunicated each other. This lasted until 1965, when Pope John XXIII met
with the Patriarch of Constantinople and they both revoked the
excommunications. The primary causes of the Schism were disputes over papal
authority—Pope Leo IX claimed he held authority over the four Eastern
patriarchs (Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, Jerusalem)—and over the
insertion of the filioque clause into the Nicene Creed by the Western Church.
Eastern Orthodox today claim that the primacy of the Patriarch of Rome was only
honorary, and that he has authority only over his own diocese and does not have
the authority to change the decisions of Ecumenical Councils. (In Christian
theology the filioque clause (filioque meaning "and [from] the son" in Latin) is a
heavily disputed clause added to the Nicene Creed, that forms a divisive
difference in particular between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern
Orthodox Church. In the place where the original Nicene Creed reads "We believe
in the Holy Spirit ... who proceeds from the Father", the amended version reads
"We believe in the Holy Spirit ... who proceeds from the Father and the Son". The
addition is accepted by Roman Catholic Christians but rejected by Eastern
Orthodox Christians. ) There were other, less significant catalysts for the Schism,
including variance over liturgical practices and conflicting claims of jurisdiction.
The Impact of Islam on East and West
Moslem Conquest: The fall of Africa, Spain, and much of the Middle East to
Moslem conquest between 632 and 732 AD caused the center of European
Culture to shift west and north, though Byzantium lived on, steeped in Classical
traditions.
The Western Debt to Islam: A creative interchange developed between the
Christian West and Moslem East. Much of the heritage of Greece and Rome was
preserved first by the Moslems, then passed into Christian hands through the
survival of Greek and Roman literature, especially Greek. The Spanish city of
Cordoba in Spain was one of the biggest contact points of the two cultures. From
the Arabs, Westerners learned field irrigation, leather tanning, silk refining, the
'Arabic Numerals', and Greek traditions of mathematics, philosophy, medicine,
and astronomy.
The Developing Roman Church:
Church Replaces Empire: As the Western empire collapsed, Christianity
stepped into the breach to provide unity in the face of rising chaos. Bishops
administered cities, monasteries fostered learning, and the church assisted the new
Barbarian overlords in administering their conquests. Irish monks worked to
spread Christianity to the invaders (some of whom were already Arian
Christians). The Church was the best organized and educated institution in
Europe, offering hope for the future in the face of troubles.
Monastic Culture: Monasticism emerged out of the hermits of the 4th century
AD, who had tried to withdraw from society after the triumph of Christianity
ended the period of persecution. Monasticism appealed to those who wanted to
achieve something greater in religious aspiration than a normal pious life. Basil
the Great (321-379 AD) created a rule for monks (regulations for a monastery)
which became very popular in the East. He urged monks to serve the needs of
others by caring for orphans, widows, and the infirm.
Benedict of Nursia (ca. 480-547): He founded the Western Monastic
tradition with his Rule. The Benedictine Rule put an Abbot as the head of
the monastery, tasked to ensure the monks lived lives of simplicity but not
extreme asceticism. Further, each monk was tasked with manual labor in
addition to prayer and study, working to support himself. Benedictine
Monasteries were organized for survival and self-sufficiency. They were
well positioned to spread through Europe, aiding the conversion of the
barbarians.
Irish Monasticism: The first non-Roman area to adopt monasticism was
Ireland, which developed a unique form closely linked to traditional clan
relations, a system that later spread to other parts of Europe, especially
France. These monasteries, beginning in the 6th century AD, became the
religious centers for the tribes or kin groups which founded them. Abbots
were selected from the family of the tribe's leader. Bishops played a lesser
role than in Roman monasteries. The Irish monasteries studied and
preserved Latin texts and began sending out missionaries into Scotland,
Northern England, Gaul and even Italy, furthering the conversion of those
areas. Likewise, Christians from that area came to Irish monasteries to
study and learn. Later, there would be conflict between this tradition and
the rest of the Western church over organizational and theological issues.
Papal Primacy: In the West, there were no kings or emperors sufficiently potent
to dominate the church as the Byzantine Emperor did in the east. The result was
that the Bishop of Rome, one of the five Patriarchs of the Church, came to rule
most of the Western Church. Pope Damasus I (366-384) asserted Rome's
apostolic primacy because of Peter being the first Bishop of Rome. Thus,
through apostolic succession, they inherited his role as the Rock upon which the
Church was built. Pope Leo I (440-61) assumed the title Pontifex Maximus—
"Supreme Priest"—and laid claims to supremacy over all other Bishops
("plenitude of power"). Pope Gelasius I (492-6) stated that the authority of the
Clergy was more weighty than the power of even kings.
The Kingdom of the Franks
The Merovingians (481-751): Founded by Clovis (ca 466-511), who converted
to Orthodox Christianity in 495 AD. The Franks had begun their invasion of
modern France in the 400s AD. By 509, Clovis controlled most of modern
France. The Merovingians would come to control most of Modern France,
Belgium, the Netherlands and western Germany. The Merovingians used a
system of Comes (Counts), royally appointed governors, to control their
provinces, but these titles became hereditary and the Kings lost control of their
own empire. This problem was made worse by the Frankish tradition of dividing
your lands among your heirs. By the seventh century, the Frankish kings were
puppets of their majordomos, the Mayors of the Palace. The Carolingian dynasty
used this office to eventually take over France.
The Carolingians: In 639, Pepin I became Mayor of the Palace; his dynasty held
the office until 751, when they became Kings of France. Charles Martel (714-741
AD) effectively ruled as King; he defeated Moslem invaders at Tours in 732,
leading an army of cavalrymen he had created by bestowing fiefs on nobles in
return for their pledge of military service. He got this land from the Church by
seizing it. His successors, however, would ally with it.
The Frankish Church: The Frankish church and the Papacy both tied their
destinies to the rising Frankish star. In 751, Pope Zacharias sanctioned the
deposition of the last of the Merovingians and Pepin III (751-768 AD) became
King. When Pope Stephen II was driven from Rome by the Lombards in 753, he
allied himself with the Franks to retake his lands. In 755, the King of France
conquered the Lombards and awarded central Italy, the Papal States, to the Pope.
However, the Papacy now found itself under the thumb increasingly of the
Frankish Kings.
Charlemagne (Charles the Great, 768-814 AD): Charlemagne conquered
Saxony, Bavaria, northern Italy, and Carinthia, extending his empire over almost
all of central Europe. Futher, he forced the nations bordering his lands to the east
into submission from the fringes of Poland to Croatia in the south.
Emperor: Charlemagne now built a palace city at Aachen as part of his
aspirations to the Imperial title. On Christmas Day, 800 AD, Pope Leio III
crowned Charlemagne emperor, thus creating the Holy Roman Empire and
a tradition of the Church crowning European kings. The eastern Emperors
reluctantly accepted his Imperial status.
Personality: Charlemagne was a huge man and very imposing, but also
good humaored, hospitable, informal, and friendly, a man of vast energy
and effort. His capital became a bustling town and center of intellectual
activity. Charlemagne had many children by his five wives (sequential,
not simultaneous).
Problems of Government: Charlemagne was not able to break the power
of the Counts, who consolidated authority, land and forces in their
counties, though he got them to cooperate. Royal envoys, the missi
dominici, were supposed to oversee them, but they had little effect.
Charlemagne never found a way to create a loyal bureaucracy; he lacked
money reserves with which to create salaried servants, and payment with
land just made officials more independent. Even the church was led by
people from the noble class who held lands of the King and lived much
like their secular kin.
Alcuin and the Carolignian Renaissance: Charlemagne used some of
his wealth to promote the growth of literacy and learning. His patronage
brought noteworthy scholars such as Einhard (his biographer) and Alcuin
of York (director of his palace school) to Aachen. There, they built up a
system of learning and preservation of knowledge. His school also helped
to train imperial officials. They created a new system of handwriting—
Carolignian miniscule—and fostered the use of more accurate latin.
Carolingian minuscule was clear and uniform, with rounded shapes,
disciplined and above all, legible. Clear capital letters and spaces between
words — norms we take for granted — became standard in Carolingian
minuscule. There are over 7000 manuscripts written in Carolingian script
surviving from the 8th and 9th centuries alone. Though the Carolingian
minuscule was superseded by Gothic hands, it later seemed so thoroughly
'classic' to the humanists of the early Renaissance that they took these
Carolingian manuscripts to be true Roman ones and modelled their
Renaissance hand on the Carolingian one, and thus it passed to the 15th
century printers of books, like Aldus Manutius of Venice. In this way it is
the basis of our modern typefaces.
The Manor and Serfdom: The agrarian economy of the Middle Ages
centered around the manor—tracts of land with attached peasants formed
into one or more villages which combined the land of the lord (desmene,
1/3rd-1/4th, farmed for the lord by the peasants) and lands held in common
by the peasant inhabitants. Manors were used as a form of payment to the
military class—knights—for their military service. Peasants included both
freemen who might own some land of their own and the majority of serfs,
who were bound to the land and owed traditional labor and fees to the
lord; in return, they payed no taxes and were under his protection.
Three Field System: By the time of Charlemagne, moldboard plows
were combined with this system to increase productivity. The plows
created their own drainage system, while leaving one out of 3 fields fallow
each year helped the land recover faster from use.
Religion and the Clergy: Many local priests were poorly educated serfs
who could barely stumble through the Mass, while the upper ranks of the
Church were full of nobles involved in Royal affairs. Ordinary people got
baptized, went to mass every so often, got married in the Church, tried to
learn the Lord's Prayer, and remained mostly ignorant of Christian
doctrine.
Collapse of the Carolignian Kingdom:
Centrifugal Forces: Local people tended to obey local lords over the
King, and Charles had only been able to control the lords by further
rewarding them; they got stronger and he got weaker. Unchecked, this
could lead to collapse.
Louis the Pious (814-840 AD): Louis had three sons—Lothar, Pepin, and
Louis by his first wife, and tried to stave off the division of his lands
according to tradition by making Lothar supreme with the others to be
given subordinate lands. However, his second wife bore him a fourth son,
Charles, and her meddling to get him land caused the whole system to
collapse into civil war. Pepin died before all was said and done, leaving
the other three to divide the empire after Louis died.
Treaty of Verdun (843 AD): Charles gained France and part of Spain
and Belgium, Louis gained the German lands, and Lothar ended up with a
strip in the middle from the Netherlands down to Italy. Lothar died and
most of his land was taken by his relatives, leaving kingdoms in Germany,
Italy, and France.
Vikings, Magyars, and Muslims: And now outside invasions began to
eat away at the Carolingian successor kingdoms. In the late 9th to early
11th century, waves of men poured out of Scandanavia into England,
France, Spain, Germany, Poland and Russia, the Vikings. They came first
as raiders, then as conquerors. The Magyars swept in from the eastern
steppes to threaten Germany, establishing themselves in modern Hungary.
They were very effective horse nomad warriors. Finally, African
Moslems pushed up to overrun the islands by Italy (Sicily, Sardinia,
Corsica) and to raid the central Mediterranean. This chaos made people
ever more dependent on local lords to protect them.
Feudal Society:
Feudal Society: This emerged under conditions of weak central authority and
widespread threats of famine and invasion, combined with the growing cost of
military equipment. The old tribal warbands no longer functioned because most
people could not afford the best military equipment; a professional military class
emerged which gained control of the land in return for protecting everyone else
from outside threats. Chains of loyalty emerged from king to major nobles to
minor nobles to knights to peasantry, in which each submitted to the authority of
the next level up in return for land and protection. Lands held by nobles became
miniature kingdoms, usurping many of the rights once held by kings: fielding
armies, making money, and administering justice. In feudal society, the peasantry
worked, the clergy prayed and the knights fought.
Origins: In the last years of Rome, the freemen of the countryside had given
their land over to major landowners to escape taxation and to get protection.
Now, as the majority of the invading tribesmen were unable to keep up with the
cost of military technology and the growing wealth of the emerging nobility, they
too pledged themselves to the rising noble class in return for protection and landuse rights. The vassal pledged his fealty and service to his lord in return for land
rights and protection. Knights gave military service in return for land granted by
their lord (a fief); peasants paid traditional fees and rents and did labor services
for their lord in return for access to common lands. This emerges in a context of
the collapse of central authority and the consolidation of rights and lands in the
hands of the upper nobility, who want as many vassals as power, for land and
vassals are wealth and power.
Vassalage and the Fief: Vassalage was a system of fealty to one's lord—land for
military service. The vassal owed a fixed number of days per year according to
how much land he had; he might alternately owe a certain number of knights for a
fixed period per year if he himself had many vassals. In 11th century France, 40
days was the standard period. Vassals could instead pay scutage, a tax that
allowed him to evade service; his lord would then use the money to hire
mercenaries. In return, the lord would protect his vassal from harm and act as his
advocate. Later in the middle ages, money fiefs instead of land grants became
more common; early on, it was always land granted. The highest vassals, those of
the king, subdivided their land among vassals; the result was a long irregular
pyramid of power which fragmented authority, especially when the higher level
vassals began losing power the same way the Kings had.
Church Lands: Church authorities paid fealty for their church lands as did
secular nobles; lay investiture of church authorities would eventually lead to
confrontation between Church and King.