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Chapter 6: The European Middle Ages
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In the 4 and 5 centuries, the Roman Empire staggered under the invasions of the Germanic nations and
the collapse of the central authority in the West which began that period in European History known as the
Middle Ages. Classical learning and culture gradually became a dim memory as Europe fragmented into
small states. The wealthier East survived these attacks and endured for a millennium, but in the West only
one institution, the Roman church survived. It would the Franks who in Gaul first organized a centralized
state in the late fifth century. Charlemagne’s coronation in 800 marked a short revival of imperial authority,
only to be followed by decline and new invasions by the Vikings, Muslims and Magyars. Out of this chaos,
new states in England, France and Germany – (and later in Spain, Sweden and others), although economically
and commercially backwards, slowly laid the foundations for political and cultural institutions that became
Modern Europe.
Part One: The Low Middle Ages: 500 to 1000 C.E.
Germanic Successor States
We met the Germanic tribes with their invasions (i.e. migrations) into the Roman Empire. It is important to
remember that the Germanic invasions of the Roman Empire were as much migrations as invasions. In the
late fourth century, the German tribes were driven by population pressure and by Asiatic nomads,
principally the Huns (perhaps related to the Xiongnu). We have already seen how the first group to enter the
Empire was the Visigoths (or West Goths) who, having been mistreated by the Romans rose up in rebellion
and in 378 killed the emperor Valens in the Battle of Adrianople and subsequently how, under their leader
Alaric had sacked Rome in 410. Alaric died soon afterwards and the Visigoths finally made their way to
Spain where they set up a kingdom in the 470s which lasted till early eighth century, when they were
overrun by the Berber Muslims from North Africa.
In 406 the Vandals crossed the Rhine when it froze in the winter, devastated Gaul, crossed into Spain and
finally set up a kingdom in North Africa with Carthage as their capital. In 455, shortly after Rome had been
spared being sacked by Attila the Hun, the Vandals were strong enough to sail across to Italy and plunder
Rome itself. Justinian’s general Belisarius would break their power in 533 and add the Vandal Kingdom to
the Byzantine Empire which would last until Islamic conquest in late seventh and early eighth centuries.
The East Goths (or Ostrogoths) invaded the empire in the 470s and attacked Constantinople. The Emperor
Zeno, who resented the overthrow of Romulus Augustulus by Odoacer in 476, actually encouraged the
Ostrogoths to retake the Western Empire for him. Under their leader Theodoric, the Goths killed Odoacer,
but set up their own kingdom in Italy which lasted until Belisarius conquered them in the 530s as part of
Justinian’s partially successful plan to recononquer the Western Empire.
Then in the 570s, the Lombards appeared from Northwestern Germany and set up a kingdom in central
Italy at the expense of the Byzantines. But they were harsh and so it was easier for the Byzantines to
recapture much of Italy, especially the area around Ravenna. Later, in the eighth century, Lombard power
would be finally broken by Charlemagne.
More German tribes, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes established kingdoms in England, pushing the
Romanized Celts to the fringes of the island (Cornwall, Wales and Scotland). Two other Germanic tribes
occupied Gaul: the Burgundians and the Franks. It is important to note that most Scandinavian (Germanic)
tribes, the ancestors of the Vikings, at first remained in Scandinavia, but in the ninth century, would conduct
continent-wide raids (and some settlement) which would have enormous consequences. Only Ireland
remained Celtic, until invaded by the Vikings in the eighth century.
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The Franks
The most important of the Germanic migrants were the Franks because they re-established a semblance of
centralized rule. Some Franks crossed the Rhine as early as the 250s and gradually expanded their presence
in Gaul. Some became allies of the Romans and joined the Roman legions but others became robbers and
pirates who had to be pacified. As Roman authority crumbled in the fifth century, the Franks ignored
Mediterranean affairs and built an agricultural state in Gaul. Their first important ruler was Clovis (481 to
511), who disposed of the last vestiges of Roman authority and transformed Frankish Gaul into the military
and political power in Western Europe.
Perhaps the strongest unifying factor in Frankish growth and self-awareness was Clovis’ conversion to
Roman Christianity. Tradition holds that his wife, Clotilda, a devout Christian, was the reason why. It is
important to understand that when he became Christian, he (just like we will see with Vladimir of Kiev)
expected all his people to convert as well. Some had been Celtic or Germanic pagans, some Arian
Christians, but under Clovis they were all united to the main branch of Western Christianity, which
looked to the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) as its spiritual leader.
When Clovis died, he divided his kingdom among his three sons. This led to a two hundred year period of
decentralization and feudalism. The Frankish state revived in the 720s however, under a remarkable man,
Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer). Charles was not the king, but as the Mayor of the Palace, he ran
the Frankish State from behind the throne and began to re-unify Frankish Gaul like a king. Charles Martel
secured his reputation in 732, when he defeated a Muslim army advancing into Europe from Spain at The
Battle of Tours in Southern Gaul. By the time of his death in 741, he had reestablished the Franks as the
rulers of Gaul. In 751, his son, Pepin the Short, took the royal title he never claimed, and in 768, his
grandson, Charles the Great or Charlemagne began a long reign that would take the Frankish kingdom to
the first “revived” Roman Empire in the West.
Charlemagne continued to consolidate and expand the work of his father and grandfather. He was said to
have been an impressive man: tall, stately, and fair-haired, with a disproportionately thick neck. Although
he was unable to write, he was a shrewd diplomat, who spoke German and understood Latin; and
corresponded with the Byzantine and Abbasid courts. He inherited what are now France, Belgium, the
Netherlands and southwestern Germany. By the time of his death in 814, he had added northeastern Spain,
Bavaria and Italy as far south as Rome to his Empire. His greatest headache (and his greatest conquest) was
that of the Saxons of Northwest Germany (of Teutoburg Forest reputation), whom he broke after 32 years of
bitter fighting. Even the states of Southern Italy and Eastern Europe paid him tribute as their imperial
overlord.
Charlemagne built a magnificent court at Aachen and, like King Harsha of India (whom we shall meet in
the next chapter), he spent much of his reign traveling and networking to maintain his authority. Like
Harsha, he was never able to build as a strong administration or bureaucracy as the Romans of old or
the Byzantines. Nevertheless, in an effort to bring the nobles under tighter control, he created imperial
officials known as missi dominici, who traveled extensively to check up on and review the accounts of local
officials and administrators.
On Christmas Day, 800 C.E., Charlemagne was crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III. The
Byzantines bitterly resented it, but Charlemagne soothed their suspicions and bruised egos. He put forth the
theory that the Empire (in the west) had only been suspended in 476 and he was resuming the emperorship –
only in the West. Today Charlemagne is often regarded as the founding father of both France and Germany
- sometimes even as the Father of Europe, as he was the first ruler of a united Western Europe since the fall
of the Roman Empire.
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New Invasions
Charlemagne was succeeded by his son, Louis the Pious (814-840) who managed (on the surface) to keep
the Empire intact, but in actuality began to lose control of the nobles. At his death his three sons divided the
Empire into three parts, and soon, all central authority was lost. Moreover, new external disrupting
influences or the Invasions of the Ninth Century were about to strike:
1. Muslim pirates raided all along the Mediterranean coastline and seized Sicily, parts of Southern
Italy, and even parts of Southern France.
2. Magyars (a semi nomadic people from Central Asia) invaded Eastern Europe and eventually settled
in Hungary, but raided Germany, Italy and even Southern France.
3. The Vikings or the Northmen were the most feared of all the invaders. From their Scandinavian
homeland they raided Russia, Germany, the British Isles, France, Spain, and Italy. They ended the
Irish Renaissance. Following the Russian river system, they raided as far south as Constantinople.
Some Vikings even went to work for the Byzantine emperors and became the famous Varangian
Guard. Vikings also sailed the Atlantic and established colonies in Greenland and Vineland
(modern day Newfoundland).
With these new invasions and the loss of centralized authority, Europe went into another period of chaos,
less destructive but more violent. Eventually, three areas of national authority arose:
1. In what is today modern England, King Alfred (871-899) built a navy and constructed fortresses to
challenge the Vikings and laid the basis for the Modern English State.
2. In Germany, Otto I (936-973) of Saxony defeated the Magyars in 955 at Lechfeld on the Rhine River
and ended their threat to Europe. He imposed his authority on most of Germany and he twice invaded
Italy, destroying Lombard power. The Pope, John XII, crowned him Holy Roman Emperor in 962. It
is very important to understand that, although he laid the basis for the modern German State, he
was more interested in imperial power as Holy Roman Emperor and dreamed of a Christian
Roman Empire, not a German state. (He was king of Germany, but the title of Holy Roman
Emperor was more important.)
3. In France, the end of Carolingian rule led to a proliferation of local states and the Viking raids led to the
establishment of even more settlements, especially in Normandy, which were vassals of the king, but
independent. The king remained, but France was not his to rule.
Feudal Society
The Feudal System or Feudalism refers to both a political and social order, which decentralized public
authority into an elaborate society in which local rulers used their military powers to gain political power.
Like we will see in Japan, the European Feudal System revolved around political and military relationships.
The most important relationship was between a lord and his vassal. The lord provided the vassal with a
Benefice (or grant) by which the vassal supported himself and his family. Benefices were usually grants of
land, often called Fiefs, but sometimes benefices were rights to income (such as from a toll bridge or mill),
or rights to money from a town or village, or even outright grants of money. In exchange for the benefice,
the vassal owed his lord obedience, loyalty, counsel and service, especially military service.
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This complex system actually began to germinate with the Crisis of the Third Century which itself
characterized the decline of the Roman Empire; by the 9th century, it had become widespread and
institutionalized across most of Western Europe. The agricultural relationships of Feudalism were found in
the Manoral System, which developed when free peasants needed protection from invaders or bandits.
These peasants - over time - became neither free nor slave and were called serfs.
At first, free peasants often turned themselves and their lands over to the local warlords for protection. This
lord was usually a tribal chief or military leader, but might be a political leader or even a religious leader. As
time went by, the peasants became formally bound to the land. Occasionally they could move, but only with
the lord’s permission. It is important to remember that Serfs had certain rights: to farm or work
certain lands and to pass those lands on to their heirs. In return, serfs had to follow the rules of the lord
and pay obligations of labor or rent, usually a portion of the harvest. The serfs worked on large estates
called manors, which – over time -became the property of the lord. So that which once belonged to the
peasants eventually became the lord’s. The lord and his deputies kept order, resolved conflicts and protected
the manor. Manors were almost always self-sufficient units having mills, bakeries, and shops for
toolmakers, blacksmiths, leather smiths, weavers, etc.
All during the Early Middle ages more and more land came under cultivation, as more forests were cut
down and improved agricultural technologies appeared, such as the iron plow (called the moldboard).
Before the 9th century, farmers left half of their fields fallow, but in the 9th century the three field system
which left only one third of the land fallow. Slowly new food crops were introduced from the Muslim
world: Durham wheat, rice, spinach, artichokes, eggplant, lemons, limes, oranges and melons. These factors
caused improved agricultural output and Europe’s population began to increase.
600 C E
36 million
people
31 million
people
26 million
people
800 C E
29 million
people
900 C E
32 million
people
1000 C E
36 million
people
1200 CE
58 million
people
200 C E
400 C E
Roman Empire begins to fall apart
Population begins to fall from invasions and disease
Barbarian Invasions and epidemics reduce population and the decrease
will sharpen for next 200 years
Low point of population; self sufficiency is the norm and manors begin
to dominate rural regions
Food output begins to increase. Carolingian revival peaks in 815
followed by decline of central authority. Viking, Muslim and Magyar
invasions delay recovery
Invasions over; political stability, increased trade and agricultural
innovation increase agricultural output and sustained population growth
European population again is up to 200 CE levels; the Economy grows
and Europe is poised for sustained growth and demographic expansion
which will last until the 20th century.
Population mushrooms by 22 million in just two hundred years as
Europe enters the Early Modern Era.
A point of perspective: Think of the Early Middle Ages as having four parts. First was the collapse of the
Roman world under waves of Barbarian migration. Then came a period of mixing, which slowly brought
order out of chaos and culminated in the Carolingian revival. Then came decline and new invasions, which
caused less destruction but were more violent. Finally, even before these raiding invasions were over,
Europe rallied, grew economically, and opened a door to the High Middle Ages.
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It is very important to note that the early medieval European Economy was much slower than those
of China, India or Southwest Asia. When there were few towns and much disruption from nomadic
incursions, there was almost no commerce, but by the 10th century the invasions were - for the most
part - over and commerce and trade began to grow.
More towns began to appear and Europeans once again began to demand spices and silk. Europe had its
own products to offer: timber, fish and furs from Scandinavia, honey from Poland, wheat from England,
wine from France, beer from the Low Countries and swords from Germany. As the Low Middle Ages
ended, European merchants were beginning to compete with their Byzantine, Muslim, Indian and Chinese
counterparts and trading zones were growing in the Mediterranean, Baltic, North and Black seas. Viking
merchants in particular linked Northern Europe from Ireland to Russia with Byzantium and Abbasid
Caliphate.
Christian Europe
It is very important to remember that when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, the only surviving
continent-wide institution was the Roman Catholic Church. Until the conversion of Clovis, very few
converts were made north of the Alps. But in the period between Clovis (500) and Charlemagne (800) the
church grew dramatically. Both kings made a deep commitment to the Christian Religion and the Pope,
viewing themselves as protectors of the Church. They gave the popes political and military support and in
return, the popes gave them legitimacy. Charlemagne in particular sought to convert northern Europe,
especially the Saxons of Northwest Germany, whom he subdued with great difficulty. It is important to
understand that paganism, led by the druid priesthood, did not die quickly. Areas of paganism remained
until 1,000 C.E., especially in rural areas.
The Papacy changed during the Early Middle Ages. Before 6th century, the Popes worked closely with
Byzantine authorities, but during the 6th century Rome began to act more independently, as Byzantine
authority weakened and the Western Church began to follow a different cultural path than the Eastern
Church. In the East, under Caesaropapist emperors, the church was mostly docile, but in the west the popes
(sometimes the only functioning organization left) became more assertive and the Bishops of Rome began
to claim more authority for themselves.
The most important person in this evolving Roman Catholic Church was Pope Gregory I (Gregory the
Great, 590-604). He combined several roles and achieved several goals during his powerful reign. First, he
was a temporal politician. He administered the civil government of Rome and organized its defenses
against the Lombards. Second, he was a church politician and asserted papal primacy (or control) over
other bishops. The idea was that the popes took their authority from the apostle Peter, whom, as the popes
still claim, was commissioned by Jesus himself to head the church. Lastly, Gregory was a theologian and
many of his writings (especially his sermons) have come down to us. His aim was to emphasize the
authority of the Church over its members, especially in the sacrament of Penance, which required people to
confess their sins to God through the ministry of a priest.
Anticipating Charlemagne, Gregory tried to convert as much of Europe as possible and repeatedly sent
missionaries north of the Alps. He spent much effort on the conversion of England and he chose St.
Augustine (not St. Augustine of Hippo) to lead his effort in England. (The story goes that as a young priest,
Gregory wandered the streets of Rome. One day he saw a slave market with a slave dealer selling some tall,
handsome, fair-skinned young men. He asked the auctioneer who they were. The auctioneer replied that
they were Angles. Gregory uttered that they were not Angles, but Angels.)
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Augustine had an additional problem. Much of England was already Christian, Celtic Christian from St.
Patrick’s efforts. So Augustine’s task was both to convert the pagans and convince the Celtic Church to
accept Roman authority. He and successors were successful and, by 800, the Church in England was
securely under Roman jurisdiction.
Monasticism: Like the Sufis in Islam, monks became the most effective agents of promoting Christianity in
pagan Europe. Monasticism originated in Egypt where anchorite monks (monks who lived along except for
common worship) in 2nd and 3rd centuries lived in loose isolation. As Christianity grew, men and women –
some as anchorite hermits and some in groups – led ascetic lives in order to grow closer to God. We have
seen that St. Basil organized Byzantine Monasticism. In the west, it would be St. Benedict of Nursia, who
would organize Western Monasticism.
In the early days of Western Monasticism, monks and nuns made their own rules or had none. Then, in 529,
Benedict organized a monastery community at Monte Casino just south of Rome. His monastery became a
close-knit community, held together by a set of regulations called The Rule. His ideal was expressed in the
Latin motto: Orare et Laborare (work and pray). This ideal rejected extreme asceticism preferring a life of
prayer and simple labor. Like Byzantine monks, Western monks took three vows: poverty, chastity and
obedience. Gregory’s sister, St. Scholastica, (482-543) adapted The Rule for women and opened
monasteries for women, thus providing women the same opportunity.
Monasteries became very popular and numerous and they quickly became the dominant feature in the social
and cultural life of Europe. Like Buddhist monasteries and Islamic foundations of charity, they provided
inns and shelters for travelers, orphanages, medical centers, schools, libraries and scriptoria (places where
books were copied. In this way they helped preserved much of ancient culture.)
It is very important to understand that monks and nuns did immense, incalculable good by serving
the needs of the poor and rural populations. More than any other Christian institution, they handed down
Christian values to countless generations of peasants. The monasteries also organized much of the rural
labor force for agricultural production and led the effort to turn forests and swampland into productive
farmland.
On the other hand, like Buddhist monasteries, they often accumulated large landholdings and over time
became quite wealthy. They soon learned that luxury corrupts the simple religious life and the monks often
became corrupt, lazy and worldly. Often, there would be cries (both in and out of the church) for reform.
Sometimes the reform was internally accomplished and monasteries “cleaned up their acts”, but more often,
new monastic groups - looking back to Benedict’s original vision of simple work and prayer - were founded.
Part Two: The European High Middle Ages: 1000 to 1300
Germany and the Holy Roman Empire
Otto of Saxony (912 – 973) spent his lifetime creating a powerful state in Central Europe in order to break
the power of the feudal nobility and to re-create the Roman Empire. He succeeded his father as King of
Germany in 936 and in 951 became king of the Lombards, adding Northern Italy to his German holdings
and linking the destinies of Germany and Italy. In 955, he defeated the Magyars at Letchfeld and in 962
Pope John XII crowned him Holy Roman Emperor. Otto forced Bohemia, Burgundy and Denmark to
accept his authority. He gained Byzantine recognition of his status as Emperor and even brokered a
marriage between his son and a Byzantine princess. When he died, he left an empire in Central Europe that
stretched from Rome to Denmark. Otto was not only the founder of the Holy Roman Empire (or the First
Reich) but the ruler who began the association between the title of Holy Roman Emperor and German
kingship. (Remember, he valued the imperial title far more important than being king of Germany)
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The Investiture Controversy: Psychology teaches us that rarely can there be two leaders; so it was
inevitable that friction arise when both the popes and the Holy Roman Emperors wanted to dominate the
empire. The first clash for power would come over the appointment of church officials (bishops,
archbishops and abbots) by the emperors. From the earliest days of the empire, imperial authorities had
named these church officials to their positions, since the higher clergy had political as well as spiritual
functions. This practice was called Lay Investiture and was opposed by the papacy.
It is very important to understand that the popes never questioned a king’ right to grant a bishop or
abbot a fief and have him become a vassal, but the church did object to kings and nobles naming
bishops or abbots.
Round One in the power struggle came in 1075 when Pope Gregory VII, known as Hildebrand, (1073 to
1085) ordered an end to lay investiture. When the Emperor Henry IV (1056 –1106) defied the Gregory,
Gregory excommunicated him and released his subjects from their duty to obey him. His subordinate
princes rebelled and Henry acted fast. In January 1077, he went to the pope at Canossa, a town in Northern
Italy, and for three days stood barefoot in the snow, beseeching the pope’s mercy. The pope lifted the
excommunication and Henry managed to subdue the princes, but imperial authority was permanently
weakened, as the German princes won semi-independence from the emperor, comparable to the warlords of
Asia.
Round Two: came over not over Lay Investiture but political interests in Italy. Among the most vigorous of
the Holy Roman Emperors in the 12th century was Frederick Barbarossa, ”the red beard,” who reigned
from 1152 to 1190. Working from his ancestral lands in southern Germany, Frederick sought to absorb the
wealthy and increasingly urban region of Lombardy, which is today Northern Italy. Frederick hoped this
would help him to recreate the old dream of a revived Roman Empire. The popes opposed him by working
with other Christian states and Frederick was forced to give up Lombardy. Again, the bottom line was that
the popes gained temporal power and the vision of empire was once again frustrated. However, in
most other respects Frederick strengthened the Empire. (Frederick would later join the third crusade and die
in a drowning accident in Cilicia.)
Voltaire, the 18th century French writer and philosopher, once quipped that the Holy Roman Empire was
neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. What he meant was that in reality it was a feudal, mostly German
and regional state. Although some of its Emperors had much influence, it was in no way a rebirth of the
Roman Empire. But the idea did not die; nor kings nor emperors stop trying!
France
After the death of the Louis the Pious in 843, the Frankish Empire broke up into three kingdoms. Modern
France descends from the western kingdom, which was ruled by Louis’ descendents until 987. A new factor
was added in the late 800s, when Viking Normans (under their king, Rollo) carved out a state in Western
France on the Normandy Peninsula. The Normans created a unique culture when they quickly adopted
Christianity and melded with their conquered subjects. And so, ironically, although they were vassals of the
French king, they were – in reality - an independent kingdom.
When the last Carolingian died, the feudal lords elected a minor noble, Hugh Capet, to be king. Capet held
only a small territory around Paris (the Île de France) and was far weaker than most of his vassals. But
during the next three centuries, his descendants slowly expanded their holdings and political influence. They
absorbed territories of vassals who died without heirs and forced the nobles to recognize Royal Law. By the
1300s, the Capetian kings controlled most of modern France.
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Perhaps the two most important of these early kings were Philip II often called Philip Augustus (1180 to
1223) who more than doubled the size of his domain by marriage alliances and skirmishes with the English;
and his grandson Louis IX (1226-1270), who participated in two disastrous crusades but who, nevertheless,
expanded royal authority by forcing the nobility to stop minting their own coinage and to use only money
minted by the king.
England
In 899, Alfred the Great was succeeded by his son Edward who continued his father’s resistance to Danish
Viking attacks. But the 10th century witnessed fresh Viking invasions and the establishment of a Danish
kingdom, which gradually merged with the Saxon kingdom. The two famous kings of this era were Canute
the Dane (1016 – 1035) who was famous for both his conversion to Christianity and his just reign; and
Edward the Confessor (1042 – 1066), who was a sincere, pious ruler famous for giving money to the poor,
but failing to curb the growing power of the nobility. One interesting way we see the Saxon-Danish melding
is in our words shirt and skirt. They both describe the same tunic like garment, but one is Saxon; one is
Danish. Today, however the long tunic is cut in half: shirt above and skirt below.
After Edward’s death, William of Normandy claimed the English throne and defeated Edward’s, successor,
King Harold, in late 1066 at the Battle of Hastings. William remained Duke of Normandy, but became
king of England, known as William the Conqueror. He introduced Norman culture and feudalism into
England. He seized the lands of Saxon nobles and divided them among his Norman nobles. England now
mixed French with Saxon and Danish cultures, and this effect on the language would within 100 years
produce Middle English
William’s successors created the most tightly centralized (least feudalized) European state in the High
Middle Ages. During his long reign from 1154 to 1189, Henry II used the law to increase his authority. He
set up a central royal court in London and Circuit judges who took the king’s law to all parts of the land.
This created what we call Common Law (meaning law that was the same for everyone), helping to untie
the country. Henry also used the grand jury system or group of people who present to judges names of
people suspected of crimes, out of which grew the English idea of trial by jury. (12 people decide guilt or
innocence). Henry also attempted to dominate the Church had his humiliating “Canossa” with his
archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas à Becket.
In 1215, Henry’s son, King John, was forced to accept the Magna Carta, which guaranteed both the rights
of the nobility and the king’s obligation to follow the law. Eight years later, John’s son, Edward I called for
a meeting of representatives to advise and to help make the laws. This body was called parliament and
represented the English nobility’s legal participation in government, which over time assumed more and
more governmental power at the king’s expense. (Later Parliament would divide into two houses: the
bishops and nobility formed the House of Lords, while knights and townspeople met as the House of
Commons.
By 1308, Edward I conquered Wales and Scotland. Under his grandson, Edward III (reigned 1327 to
1377), England and France became involved in the Hundred Years’ War, which was a result of political
entanglements between the intermarried French and English monarchs, France’s attempt to regain English
(formally Norman) territories in France and economic competition for the wool trade. The English won
many early victories, but by the 1420s the future Charles VII (aided by the short lived Joan of Arc)
managed to rally the French and drive the English out of France, with the exception of a few port cities,
most notably Calais.
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Italy and Iberia
In Italy, no single state emerged to dominate. When Otto I intervened in Italy, he set a precedent in that his
heirs saw Italy as a critical component of a revived Roman Empire. Therefore, like Germany, competing
factions, internal and external, kept Italy politically fragmented. Nevertheless, three distinct areas appeared.
First, the Popes established a territory in central Italy known as the Papal States. Although the papacy was
a primarily a religious institution, its secular control of the Papal States would last until 1870. Second,
Northern Italy saw the rise of small city-states, which grew up around major cities including Florence,
Genoa, Bologna, Milan and Venice. Third (as we have seen), the Normans under Roger Guiscard
invaded Sicily and Southern Italy and displaced the remaining vestiges of Byzantine authority. The
Normans then built a powerful regional kingdom, alternately called the Kingdom of Naples or the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. And perhaps more importantly, they brought Southern Italy into the sphere
of the Roman Catholic Church.
On the Iberian Peninsula, the Muslims remained in control of most of the peninsula until the 11th century
when small Christian states, which had survived the Muslim invasions, began the Reconquista (reconquest)
of the peninsula. By the late 13th century, the Christian kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Portugal
controlled most of the Iberian Peninsula, leaving only the small Muslim state of Granada on the southern
tip of the peninsula. Because Spanish territory was liberated gradually, region by region, centralization was
slower in coming to Spain, but her day would come.
Growth of the Agriculture and Economy
As in the Low Middle Ages, serfs and monks continued to cut down forests, drain swamps and increase
arable (farmable) land and. Lords encouraged this to increase tax revenues and thus brought about the
origin of surnames. Yes, the sad news is that surnames were invented for taxing purposes.
Agricultural techniques continued to improve the 3-field system of crop rotation. Enriching the soil became
common place; watermills and heavier plows along with the horseshoe and the horse collar (which enabled
the horse to carry more burdens without blocking its windpipe) came into use. Introduction of new crops,
especially the cultivation of beans and peas, which not only added protein to the early medieval diet (high in
starchy grains) but also added nitrogen to the soil. Books and treatises on farming also began to appear,
especially on using new tools and domesticating animals.
Thus, the year 1000 is a transitional date; before 1000 the European diet was almost all grain, after 1,000,
grains were varied with meat, dairy, fish, vegetables and legumes. As we have seen the population soared
from 29 million in 800 to 58 million in 1200. Remember the axiom: As in China, India and the Islamic
world more efficient agriculture meant more people, and more people meant increasing urbanization
and increasing urbanization meant specialization of labor and specialization of labor means increased
trade and the beginning of business economy.
Urbanization accelerated: cities founded during Roman times such as Paris, London and Toledo became
thriving centers of government and business - and new cities began to appear such as Venice in Northern
Italy and Bergen in Norway. Urbanization and increased specialization of Labor led to the development of
industry. A good example was the woolen industry which appeared almost everywhere, but most especially
in the cities of Italy and Flanders, which became lively centers for the spinning, weaving and dying of wool.
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The revival of cities was most apparent in Italy and was hastened (hurried along) by increasing trade with
Byzantium and Muslim nations in the Middle East. Italian merchants (eager to gain access to the Silk
Roads) established colonies in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Seas in order to export salt, olive oil,
wine, wool fabrics, leather products and glass in exchange for gems, spices, silk, and other goods. In the
process, the Byzantines and Muslims were cut off and cities like Florence, Pisa, and Naples grew in wealth
with Venice and Genoa becoming the most powerful of these city states.
Trade also grew in Northern Europe. The Baltic and North Seas witnessed a well-developed trade network
known as the Hanseatic League, which was an association of trading cities stretching from Novgorod to
London and embracing all the significant commercial centers of Poland, Northern Germany and
Scandinavia. They exported grain, fish, furs, timber and amber for luxury goods.
As in Post-Classical China and the Islamic world, increasing trade stimulated the development of credit,
banking and business organization. Letters of credit freed traders from carrying money. Partnerships and the
beginnings of corporations also took root, and, due to the limited liability of partnerships and corporations,
stimulated new growth.
Social Changes
During the High Middle Ages, Medieval thinkers frequently held that society consisted of three classes or
the Three Estates: “Those who pray; those who fight, and those who work.”
First Estate:
Second Estate:
Third Estate:
The Clergy of the Roman Catholic Church - from simple priest or Archbishops
The fighters came from the ranks of the feudal nobility
The majority of the population; peasants and the small, growing middle class
VITU: those who prayed and fought enjoyed more rights and honors than the workers.
Perhaps the greatest social change in the High Middle Ages was the growth of specialized workers who
filled the growing cities and become the expanding middle class: merchants, artisans, butchers, bakers,
fishmongers, jewelers, pharmacists, physicians and lawyers. As the economic climate boomed and the
towns grew into cities, the middle class was more and more able to manage its affairs independent of the
Feudal nobility; and over time they were able to secure charters from the lords, which gave them de facto
independence and freedom from taxation.
Within the cities workers organized guilds which regulated the production and sale of goods and services.
These guilds set standards of quality, trained new members (apprentices, journeymen and masters),
set quotas to maintain a balance between supply and demand, and determined prices and wages.
Guilds had a social dimension as well such as comradeship and mutual support. They built halls for social
events and providing financial support for those who fell ill. They even organized funerals and assisted
widows.
The High Middle Ages also provided increasing opportunities for women. Such opportunities were rare in
the countryside where women still continued to perform traditional farming chores, but cities gradually
allowed women an entrance into the working class. Slowly they began to work beside their husbands in
traditional trades like shopkeeping, brewing or baking, and they came to dominate other trades like
midwifery, the decorative arts and textile manufacturing. Most guilds admitted women and a few were
exclusively for women.
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These advances however, did not mean that women had gained parity (equality) with men. On the other
hand, aristocratic women could and often did exert a great deal of political and cultural influence. Christine
de Pizan (1364–1430) was a Venetian, medieval writer, rhetorician, and critic, who strongly challenged
misogyny (hatred for women) in the male-dominated realm of the arts. Her forty one treatises - most of
which defended the contributions of women - established her as Europe’s first professional woman writer.
Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 -1204) was probably the most celebrated woman of her day. Her father saw to
it that she had the best education possible: she could read and speak Latin, and was well-versed in music and
literature. She also enjoyed riding, hawking, and hunting. She was married to Louis VII of France, but later
to Henry II of England. Thus she was the queen of France and queen of England and the mother of two
kings: Richard the Lionhearted and John. But she was far more famous for her own court in Poitiers, where
she supported troubadours, promoted good manners, refinement and romantic love. She clearly represented
the generally higher status of women in European culture, paralleling the status of women in only two other
areas: Vietnam and Muslim East Africa
Chivalry was in informal but widely recognized code of ethics and refined manners that encouraged
Christian conduct in all affairs, and which was fostered by church officials. Troubadours were a class of
traveling poets, minstrels and entertainers patronized by aristocratic women. Their entertainment often
focused on chivalry, but also on refined behavior, social politeness and love. Troubadours were most
common in Southern France and Northern Italy, but took much of their inspiration from the love poetry of
Muslim Spain.
European Christianity in the High Middle Ages
The Roman Catholic Church was the heart of Western Christendom. Its representatives guided European
thought on religious, moral and ethical matters and it administered the rituals associated with birth,
marriage, death, etc. Most interestingly, it was responsible for our modern educational systems. Bishops
and archbishops in France and northern Italy organized schools called Cathedral Schools. By the 12th
century these cathedral schools had established formal curricula or courses of study concentrating on the
liberal arts, especially literature and philosophy. The most important curriculum was theology, the queen of
the sciences. Students studied the Bible, the church Fathers, like St. Augustine and Gregory the Great
(whom we have discussed), as well as the major classical Latin authors and (in Latin translation) the works
of Plato and Aristotle.
As time passed student and faculty guilds sprang up and multiplied and the large Cathedral Schools became
universities, which gave high quality instruction and conferred academic degrees. The first universities were
those at Bologna, Paris and Salerno, but by 1400 major universities had also arisen in Rome, Naples,
Seville, Salamanca, Oxford and Cambridge.
With increased communication with Byzantium and the Muslim world, the universities soon rediscovered
the works of Aristotle. During the 13th century, this growing understanding of Aristotle and his ruthless
rules of logic brought about a new school of Christian thinking called Scholasticism. Scholastic theology
sought to synthesize (harmonize) the beliefs and values of Christianity with the logical rigor of Greek
Philosophy.
The most famous Scholastic Theologian was St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) who taught at the
University of Paris. While holding fervent Christian views, Aquinas saw no contradiction between Aristotle
and Christian revelation. In his Summa Theologica he created a manual in which he used Aristotelian logic
to explain such concepts as the existence of God, what conditions make a just war, an explanation of church
doctrines such as transubstantiation and questions of ethics and morality.
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VITU: Like the Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi (whom we shall meet) and the Islamic philosophy of Ibn
Rushd, scholastic theology sought to reinterpret inherited beliefs in the light of the most advanced
knowledge of the time.
The church also administered sacraments were holy rituals for bringing God’s grace to the people. There
were seven: Baptism, Penance, Confirmation, Communion, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders and
Matrimony. The most important was the Holy Communion or the Eucharist or Mass, which was a ritual
meal, remembering the Last Supper. The church taught that a person must receive this sacrament at least
once a year (at Easter) to be in good standing. Many people went to mass daily and devotion to the
Eucharist was widespread, but unfortunately, many superstitions grew up around the Mass, such as it being
able to protect people from danger or help them in worldly affairs.
Devotion to the saints was another way popular religion was expressed. People popularly prayed to the
Saints who were holy men and women who had died and gone to heaven. There they could help those still
on earth by their prayers. Many cults grew up around the Invocation of Saints (Prayer to the Saints for their
help or intercession) and the most popular cult was the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus of Nazareth, who
personified the Christian ideal of womanhood, love and sympathy.
But the cult of the Saints was also the root of many abuses.
Many superstitious people believed that such and such a saint could cure diseases or work miracles. People
went to shrines like St. Peter’s in Rome or Santiago de Compostela in Spain to pray to these saints. It is
not the place of this course to say whether or not miracles happened but there were many greedy priests
who often made much money off desperate and superstitious people and even sold the sacraments of the
Church for profit. These abuses would become a great battle cry of Martin Luther as he fired the first shots
of the Protestant Reformation.
Another area of great goodness and parallel abuses were the religious orders. There is an old axiom from the
Early Middle Ages, “Holiness begets discipline; discipline begets abundance; abundance begets laxity.”
Religious orders began with the idea of St. Benedict’s motto “orare et laborare (pray and work) but over
time the monasteries became wealthy and that led to laxity and materialism causing a loss of the original
purpose of finding God in a community. Secular clergy also struggled with the same abuses.
However, devout souls rose up both in the secular clergy and in religious orders. Religious orders seemed to
have had a way of constantly renewing themselves, sometimes from within, but more often by the
foundation of new religious orders.
The two most prominent of these new orders in the High Middle Ages were Dominicans founded by St.
Dominic (1170-1221) and the Franciscans founded by St Francis of Assisi (1182-1226). Both of these
orders were called mendicant (‘beggars”) because the monks (or friars as they came to be called) freely
agreed to renounce personal possessions and beg for their food. The Franciscans and Dominicans both
worked in urban areas where the secular clergy needed help and led the fight against heterodox movements
debating with and trying to get heretics to return to the Roman Catholic Church.
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, several popular movements arose to protest the growing wealth
of the church and the materialism in society at large. The Waldensians who were most active in Southern
France and Northern Italy despised the Roman Catholic Clergy as corrupt and immoral and they advocated
that people lead simpler (and thus holier) lives. They said that the laity were equally qualified to administer
the sacraments (whose validity they questioned) and to preach, both of which were reserved for clergy. The
Church declared the Waldensians heretical and they continued to attract followers. They gradually declined,
but a few have survived to our times.
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The Cathars or Albigensians went even further than the Waldensians. They were heavily influenced by
attitudes from parts of Eastern Europe, which were dualist and Manichean in origin. The Albigensians
rejected the sacraments, the doctrines of hell, purgatory and they resurrection of the body. They were ascetic
to the extreme condemning marriage, and the use of milk, eggs and animal meat, because they believed, like
the Manicheans that all matter is evil. They also rejected the Roman Catholic Church, which they
considered hopelessly corrupt. Under Pope Innocent III, an Albigensian Crusade ruthlessly crushed
Cathar communities in southern France. By the Fifteenth century, they had almost entirely disappeared.
Literary Achievements
Intellectual achievements were not confined to the universities and perhaps the greatest work of the High
Middle Ages was the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). Dante was born in Florence and
spent a life active in politics, but he is best remembered for his literary contributions. As a youth he fell in
love with Beatrice whose early death affected him deeply and the resulting pathos (sadness) can be found in
all his works. The Divine Comedy was completed shortly before his death and written in Italian. It is an
allegorical story of Dante’s own journey through the nine circles of hell and the seven terraces of purgatory
before he finally enters into heaven or paradise. His guide through hell is the Roman poet Vergil and his
guide through purgatory is Beatrice. By writing in Italian and not Latin Dante hoped to reach more readers
and thus brought his ideas to a larger part of society. Dante’s themes of enduring love and the two-fold goals
of mankind (happiness on earth and eternal happiness in heaven) established him as one of the few poets
who belong to all times and all cultures.
The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) wrote in the vernacular. He was deeply influenced by
Dante. He served in the army during Edward III’s invasion of France and he held a number of political
offices in the London governmental bureaucracy. His Canterbury Tales are a lengthy, humorous story of a
group of pilgrims traveling to the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. Rather than concentrate on
religious teaching or morality plays, Chaucer wrote in the language of the people and strove to give a true
and fair presentation of ordinary people in the 14th century.
The Mediaeval Expansion of Europe
Scandinavian seafarers crossed the Atlantic. Eric the Red colonized Greenland and Lief Ericsson, the son
of Eric the Red, even arrived at Newfoundland around the turn of the millennium. He found superb fishing
ground and game, but from the wild grapes growing there, he called his colony Vineland. His and
subsequent Viking colonies failed, but archeological evidence has substantiated their presence.
By the 900s, the kings of Denmark and Norway had accepted Christianity. Their colonies in Iceland,
Sweden and Finland took Christianity to those lands as well. Zealous Christians formed military-religious
orders against the remaining pagans including Prussians, Slavs and Lithuanians. The most famous of these
were the Teutonic Knights who did much to bring Christianity to the Baltic States.
We have seen how Spain and Portugal fought a long war to expel the Muslims or Moors. By the 13th
century, they had possession the entire peninsula, except Granada, where the remnant Muslims, called
Moors, would hold out for 200 years. During this period, Spain remained divided into numerous small
kingdoms.
In the late 1400s, the ruler of Castile, Isabella, married the ruler of Aragon, Ferdinand. They joined their
kingdoms and unified Spain. They finally expelled the Moors in 1492, the same year Isabella financed an
Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus.
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It is important to understand that one result of the reconquista was intense religious intolerance. The
bitterness of the war caused Spanish Catholics to become intensely rigid in doctrine and religious
practice. Muslims and Jews were persecuted and finally forced to leave Spain by 1500. Such
intolerance would also help to explain future Spanish intolerance in her Colonial Empire.
We also saw the Seljuk Turks invade and conquer most of Southwest Asia, so that they not only controlled
the Abbasid Caliphate, but they also conquered Byzantine Syria and took control of the Christian holy
places in Fatamid Palestine, especially Jerusalem. In 1071, the Byzantine defeat at Manzikert shocked
Western Europe. So in 1095 in Clermont, France, Pope Urban II called for Christian knights to take up
arms to free the Holy Land from Muslim domination. First was Peter the Hermit who traveled in Europe
and organized a ragtag army, which met with terrible disaster.
Soon afterwards, French and Norman nobles organized the First Crusade in 1096 and by 1099 they had
captured Jerusalem. They established the kingdom of Jerusalem, which survived until 1187 when it fell to
the Muslims under a charismatic leader Salah al-Din or Saladin. The Second Crusade (1146-1149), forty
years earlier had been a complete disaster. Then a Third Crusade (1189-1192) was organized to win back
Jerusalem. It was led by three famous kings: Richard the Lionhearted of England, Philip Augustus and
Frederick Barbarossa. Although the crusade ended in a stalemate with Saladin’s forces still holding
Jerusalem, the crusade nevertheless won rights for Christian pilgrims to visit the holy land. The Fourth
Crusade (1202-1204) was both a disgrace and another disaster, and ended up sacking Constantinople and
gravely weakening the Byzantine Empire.
The effects of the crusades included a worsening of Christian-Muslim relations. Economically, however, the
Crusades dramatically encouraged trade between Europeans and Muslims and the demand in Europe for
silk, cotton and spices increased. The crusades also helped bring paper production, the use of Arabic
numerals and a drink called coffee to Europe. But perhaps, in the long run, the most important commodity
brought back to Europe by the crusaders was granulated sugar.
The Myth of the “Dark” Ages
For many years, the Middle Ages were considered a dark era, devoid of cultural or intellectual
achievements. Indeed, Europeans up to the time of Charlemagne had serious problems to confront, but they
also grew in spite of those problems and the new invasions of the Vikings, Magyars and Muslims. In the
High Middle Ages, they not only laid down the foundations of Modern Europe, they also made great strides
forward in the fields of art, technology, philosophy and literature. Indeed, for much of the so-called Dark
Ages, Europeans lagged behind their Muslim and Byzantine neighbors, but they also laid the foundations
for a culture that would eventually explore, exploit and control most of the world.
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