Download The Middle Ages

• Identify chronologically when the Middle
Ages began and what the periods primary
characteristics entailed.
• Analyze the nature of Western Europe
after the collapse of the Roman Empire
• Define a “power vacuum”
• Constituted by the years between Classical
Antiquity and the Modern Era
– End of antiquity = collapse of Roman Empire
– The Renaissance ushered in the Modern Era.
– Roughly 500 until 1500 AD
– Also known as the Medieval Times
• Also known as Dark Ages (500-1000 AD)
• Scholars named this as a time when the
forces of darkness (barbarians)
overwhelmed the forces of light (Romans)
• Rise of influence of barbarians when
Emperors had granted barbarian
mercenaries land with the Roman Empire
in return for military service and it was
these barbarians who eventually became
the new rulers
• In political science and political history, the
term power vacuum is an analogy
between a physical vacuum, to the political
condition "when someone has lost control
of something and no one has replaced
them.“
– No identifiable central power or authority
– Other forces will tend to "rush in" to fill the
vacuum—armed militia or insurgents, military
coup, warlord or dictator.
• When Rome fell, language—
both reading and writing—
art, law, technology, and
culture begin to disappear
• Barbarians continued to
invade towns and cut off
trade routes
• With no army the people were
left with no protection.
• Leads to a patchwork of
small kingdoms, each
individually governed by
their own warrior kings
and laws.
Me don’t
read good

• Historical Situation…
• Your Task: Today you will complete four
tasks in order to help you create a new
kingdom. As you finish each task, bring
them to me to get your next task…
• What did this activity simulate?
– Why did my grammar get progressively
worse?
– Why was the emphasis continually placed on
safety & security?
• Invading group from
the North.
• Claimed Gaul after
the collapse of the
western Roman
empire
– The origin present
day France, and also
the nation’s
namesake
• Who was the first true King of the Franks?
– Clovis
• What was the name of his “empire”
– Merovingian Empire
• Why were the “longhaired” kings called “do
nothings”?
– Allowed the nobles to take control of the lands
• What role did the Mayors of the Palace play?
– The real power behind the throne
The Hammer
First True King
• Who was he?
– King of the Franks
and eventual Emperor
of the Holy Roman
Empire
– He embarked on a
mission to unite all
Germanic peoples
into one kingdom, and
convert his subjects to
Christianity.
– Reigned 741 - 814 CE
• Born April 2, 742, in Northern
Europe
• “By the sword & the cross”
became master of Western
Europe.
– “Father of Europe”
• Through his enlightened
leadership, the roots of learning
and order were restored to
Europe
• 768, age 26, he and Carloman (brother)
inherit kingdom of the Franks
• 771 Carloman died, Charlemagne became
sole ruler of kingdom
– Franks falling back into barbarian ways,
neglect education & religion
• North: Saxons were still pagans
• South: Roman Catholic church fighting to recover
land confiscated by barbarian Lombard kingdom in
central Italy
– Europe in turmoil
• 772 he launched a 30-year military campaign to
reunite Europe and bring order
–
–
–
–
Defeated Lombards (in present-day northern Italy)
The Avars (in modern-day Austria and Hungary)
Conquered Bavaria and the Slavs (Germany)
782 (Massacre of Verden) Charlemagne slaughtered
some 4,500 Saxons
• Forced Saxons to convert to Christianity, declared that
anyone who didn’t get baptized or follow other Christian
traditions be put to death
• HARSH!
• 802 Charlemagne undisputed ruler of Western
Europe.
– Realm encompassed France, Switzerland, Belgium, &
Netherlands
– Included half of present-day Italy and Germany, &
parts of Austria, Spain.
• Established central government over Western
Europe, restoring unity of the old Roman
Empire
• Paved the way for the development of modern
Europe
• Charlemagne learned to read Latin and some
Greek; did not master writing.
• At meals, no jesters, listened to visiting scholars
read from learned works.
• Charlemagne believed that government should be
for the benefit of the governed.
• Tireless reformer; tried to improve people's lives.
• He set up money standards to encourage
commerce, urged better farming methods and
worked to spread education and Christianity.
• Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor
of the Romans on December 25, 800, at St.
Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
• His son Louis the Pious inherits the
throne
– Very ineffectual
– After his Louis’ death, three sons proceed
to vie for power, weakening the empire
• Charles the Bald
• Louis the German
• Lothair
Charles the Bald,
Louis the German,
Lothair
• A group from Scandinavia
in northern Europe.
• The land there is often
frozen over so very little
food was available.
• Eventually their
population got so big they
had to go south to find
food – and they did not go
peacefully!
• Invading Vikings demolish
the efforts of
• The strong were
fighting and taking what
they could get and
everyone else was
cowering in fear
– No laws or empire to
protect the common
man
Thomas Hobbes, described life
in Europe During the Middle
Ages this way:
The condition of man is
a condition of war of
everyone against
everyone else…The life
of man, solitary, poor,
nasty, brutish, and
short.”
• The Early or Low Middle Ages (Dark Age)
was a time of Germanic tribes sweeping
across Europe, of Viking invasions, of
small tribal kingdoms fighting war bands.
– Chaotic & lawless
– Typically the period from the fall of the Roman
Empire until after the Viking Invasions
throughout Europe
• Rapidly increasing population of Europe,
invigorates economy
• Charlemagne onward, Europe saw the last of the
barbarian invasions and became more socially and
politically organized
– First universities established in Bologna, Salerno,
Paris and Modena
– Vast forests and marshes of Europe were cleared and
cultivated
– Reintroduction of classical philosophers and writers
leads to “scholasticism”
– Gothic architectural projects completed
Lincolnshire
Cathedral,
England,
c. 1200
Choir at
Canterbury
Cathedral.
Note how tall it
is!
First page of
the Nowell
Codex (the
Beowulf
manuscript)
Cotton
Vitellius A.xv,
produced circa
800 CE,
Goldilluminated
lettering for
Psalm1:1.
Created in the
court school of
Emperor
Charlemagne,
9th century.
Unicorn
Psalter, circa
1200 from
France. Note
the detail in
the initial and
the babuins or
grotesques in
the margins.
move from an age of AngloSaxon war chiefs and Viking
pirates . . .
The “Sutton Hoo” helmet
of an Anglo-Saxon cyning
or thegn, dating to early
600, found near Suffolk,
England.
Statuary over
Sarcophagus of King
Henry IV and his
wife, Joan of
Navarre, from
Canterbury
Cathedral’s crypt.
• A political and economic system based on landholding and protective alliances, emerges in
Europe.
• Feudalism Structures Society
– Approximately 850 to 950, feudalism
emerges—political system based on
land control
– Simply put: One guy owns the land,
another works on it.
– Each group of people had specific jobs
to complete.
The king was at
the top. He owned
all of the land, but
he needed support
to keep his power.
MONARCH
Nobles pledged
homage, agreed
to pay taxes and
send knights to
fight for the king.
MONARCH
NOBLES
In exchange they
received fiefs…or
land grants
MONARCH
NOBLES
VASSALS & KNIGHTS
The nobles then gave land to vassals, aka knights, who agreed
to fight for the noble (and by extension the king). A vassal is a
person who holds land (a fief) from a feudal superior in return
for homage and loyalty.
MONARCH
NOBLES
VASSALS & KNIGHTS
MERCHANTS, FARMERS,
CRAFTSMENT
MONARCH
NOBLES
VASSALS & KNIGHTS
MERCHANTS, FARMERS,
CRAFTSMEN
PEASANTS & SERFS
THE POPE & THE
CHURCH
MONARCH
NOBLES
VASSALS & KNIGHTS
MERCHANTS, FARMERS,
CRAFTSMENT
PEASANTS & SERFS
King
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Nobles
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Knights
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Peasants
labor (work)
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• No Roman Empire means no Roman
Army.
• No army means no protection.
• People willingly (usually…) gave up
their land to be protected.
• It was all about survival.
• People turned to feudalism for
protection.
• Landowners hired knights to protect
the peasants who agreed to work for
the landowners.
• This further divided Europe.
• Three social categories
– those who fight: nobles and
knights
– those who pray: monks, nuns,
leaders of the Church
– those who work: peasants
• Social class is usually inherited;
majority of people are peasants
– Most peasants are serfs—people
lawfully bound to place of birth
– Serfs aren’t slaves, but what they
produce belongs to their lord
• The noble’s (lord) estate,
a manor, has an
economic system (manor
system)
– Serfs and free peasants
maintain the lord’s estate,
given grain as payment
– The lord provides
housing, farmland,
protection from bandits
• The lord chose officials to run the manor
– The seneschal looked after the nobles fiefs
• Manager of the manor
– The bailiff oversaw the lands and buildings of
the manor, collected fines and rents and acted
as accountants
– Each manor had its own court of law
• Courts gave out fines and punishments and
discussed manor business
• Noble of the manor lived in a large wooden
house or a castle.
• A small villages of cottages would be
nearby.
• There was a church, a mill, a bread oven,
and a wine press in each village.
• Villages were surrounded by forests,
meadows, pastures, and fields.
• Cottages surrounded a
village green.
– Made of wood and dirt
– Thatched roofs made
with bundles of straw
– One or two rooms
– Slept on piles of straw on
dirt floor
– Stools and tables were
the only furniture
– At night, the animals also
stayed in the cottage
– Diseases and fleas
rampant
• Serfs and descendants owned by
the noble
• Could not move, own property, or
marry without permission
• Did not serve in army
• Could buy freedom
• If a serf ran away and was not
found in one year s/he was free
• Worked nobles land three days a
week; rest of time worked own
strips of land
• Gave part of their crop to the
noble
• Had to pay to use mill, bread
oven, & wine press.
• Life expectancy approx 35 years
Fashions of the Middle Ages
Food of the Middle Ages
• Guilds allowed people in the same
business to work together for common
goals.
• They helped support needy members,
train new members, and standardized
prices and the quality of goods.
• They set prices and prevented outsiders
from selling goods in town.
• Set standards for their trade/craft
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Apothecaries
Armourers & Brasiers
Bakers
Barbers
Basket makers
Blacksmiths
Bowyers (longbow makers)
Brewers
Broderers (embroiderers)
Butchers
Carpenters
Chandlers (candle makers)
Clothworkers
Cordwainers (workers leather)
• Curriers (dressers of tanned
leather)
• Cutlers
• Dyers
• Farriers (shoers of horses)
• Fishmongers
• Fletchers (arrow makers)
• Girdlers (girdles and belts as
clothing)
• Goldsmiths
• Loriners (stirrups and other
harness for horses)
• Masons
• Mercers (general merchants)
• Needlemakers
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Plumbers
Poulters
Saddlers
Salters
Skinners
Tallow chandlers (Candle makers)
Upholders (upholsterers)
Vintners
Wax Chandlers ( candle makers)
Weavers
Wheelwrights
Woolmen (winders and packers of
wool)
• Between 8 and 14, a boy who wanted to
learn a certain trade became an
apprentice.
• He lived and worked in the home of a
master of that trade for as long as 7 years.
• Then he became a journeyman in which
his work would be judged by guilded
officials to see if his work met the
standards.
– If it did then he would be let in the guild