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Europe FALL OF ROME Teacher's THE DARK AGES: Europe After the Fall of Rome (410-1066 A.D.) Video Produced By Chariot Productions Published & Distributed by... The leading distributor of educational media AGC/UNITED LEARNING 1560 Sherman Ave., Suite 100 Evanston, IL 60201 1-800-323-9084 24-Hour Fax No. 847-328-6706 This video is the exclusive property of the copyright holder. Copying, transmitting, or reproducing in any form, or by any means, without prior written permission from the copyright holder is prohibited (Title 17, U.S. Code Sections 501 and 506). © 1995 Chariot Productions Contents Program Summary..............................! Student Objectives ..............................2 Teacher Preparation ...........................2 Introducing The Program ...................3 Blackline Master/Answer Key ............4 Follow-Up Activities ............................5 Discussion........................................ 5 Projects ............................................5 Script of Video Narration....................6 The purchase of this video program entitles the user to the right to reproduce or duplicate in whole or in part this teacher's guide for the purpose of teaching in conjunction with the video program THE DARK AGES: Europe After the Fall of Rome (410-1066 A.D.). This right is restricted only for use with this video program. Any reproduction or duplication in whole or in part of this guide for any purpose other than for use with this video program is prohibited. THE DARK AGES: Europe After The Fall of Rome (410-1066 A.D.) Viewing Time: 29:13 PROGRAM SUMMARY This two-part program, filmed entirely on location in Europe, combines live-action reenactments with imagery from famous Dark Ages sites. By viewing this program, 6th through 10th grade students are provided with a glimpse of life in Britain and Normandy during this very interesting period of Western European history. In Part One of the program, students will learn how Britain was changed when it became a province of Rome. They will then discover what happened when the AngloSaxons destroyed Roman civilization in Britain, and Rome's unified government was replaced by many small warlike kingdoms. Students will also take a visual tour of a fifth-century Anglo-Saxon village. In Part Two, students will learn about the reintroduction of Christianity into Britain and discover the roles played by two important seventh-century saints in bringing this about. Students will learn about the Viking invasions that ravaged England and that led to the creation of Normandy. Students will visually tour a tenthcentury Norman village and discover the relationship between this type of village and the feudal institution called a manor. Students will discover how the way manors were distributed formed the basis of the feudal economic system. The program concludes with the conquest of England by the Normans and the birth of the High Middle Ages. STUDENT OBJECTIVES After viewing the video and participating in the lesson activities, students should be able to... • Contrast life in Britain under Roman rule and under Anglo-Saxon rule. • Explain the meaning of the historical term "Middle Ages." • Explain why the first 600 years of the Middle Ages are called the Dark Ages. • Summarize the role of the manor in the feudal system. • Describe the barbarian invasions of Britain. • Describe the Norman conquest of England. TEACHER PREPARATION Before presenting this lesson to your students, we suggest that you preview the video and review this guide and the accompanying blackline masters in order to familiarize yourself with their content. Duplicate the blackline masters you intend to use. See page 3 for a description of the blackline masters. The answer key is also provided there. As you review the instructional program outlined in this guide and the blackline masters that accompany it, you may find it necessary to make some changes, additions or deletions to meet the specific needs of your class. We encourage you to do so, for only by tailoring this program to your students will they obtain the maximum instructional benefit afforded by the material. Owing to its length and the amount of information presented, this video lesson has been divided into two parts. 2 After reviewing the video, you may decide to present the program in its entirety on one day or divide the viewing between two separate days. INTRODUCING THE PROGRAM Introduce the program by stating that it consists of two parts. Part One focuses on Roman Britain and the coming of the barbarians around 420 A.D. Part Two looks at Dark Ages events affecting Britain after about 600 A.D. all the way to the Norman conquest in 1066. Distribute Blackline Masters 1-6. Define the term "Dark Ages" as approximately the first 600 years of a larger historical era called the Middle Ages, which extended from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance in about 1350. Inform the students that the term "Dark Ages" refers to the collapse of a long established civilized Roman way of life followed by the large scale adoption of Christianity by the barbarians. Review the state of the Roman Empire between 350 to 476 A.D. Contrast the lifestyles of the Romans and the barbarians (a word which means "foreigner" in Latin). To peak the curiosity of the students, inform them that the Anglo-Saxons gave their own names to these three days of the week: • Wednesday - named for Wodans-day, the king of the Norse gods. • Thursday - Thors-day - the Norse god of thunder and war. • Friday - Friggas-day - the Norse goddess of love, wife of Wodin. Present the video. Viewing time is 29:13 minutes-Part 1- 14:31, Part 2 -14:42. BLACKLINE MASTERS/ANSWER KEY Blackline Master 1, Anglo-Saxon Invasions of Britain, is a map depicting the areas invaded by the Germanic tribes beginning around 420 A.D. Blackline Master 2, The Seven Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Britain, is an information map. Blackline Master 3, Dark Ages Timeline, is an information sheet the students can use as reference. Blackline Masters 4, 5, and 6, Vocabulary List, will help students become familiar with some of the terms referred to in the video presentation. Blackline Master 7, Crossword, can be used as an inclass activity or as a take-home assignment. Answers are below. a Blackline Master 8, is the Quiz, for the video presentation. The answer key is provided below. 1. True 2. barbaricus or barbarians 3. Celtic 4. Angles, Saxons, Jutes (Frisians is also acceptable) 5. False-They had their own religion and tended to dislike anything that reminded them of the Romans. 6. False-The area was Moslem. 7. False-The tribes neglected all Roman improvements. 8. citizen of the Roman Empire 9. fiefs 10. serfs or villeins FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES Discussion: Conduct a class discussion after the video presentation using the following suggested topics: • The development of the feudal hierarchy from king to serf. • Contrast the way of life under Roman rule to the manorial system. • The various ways that the adoption of Christianity by the barbarians changed the way they lived their lives... and in what ways were their lives unchanged? • In the Dark Ages, thousands of saints were canonized. In the past two centuries, this number has dropped to a small handful. Why might this be? How does canonization work? • Today we are witnessing increasing violence, vandalism, and a more marked division of society among the have and the have-nots. Could it be that we are putting civilized ways behind us as we enter a new, high-tech Dark Age? Projects: • Museum visit: If your community is fortunate enough to have an art or historical museum, it is a rewarding experience to take a class field trip and actually see the arts and crafts of different historical eras: in this case, observe differences and similarities between Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Frankish, Celtic, and High Middle Ages arts and crafts. Research Paper: Students could be assigned library research projects on the lives of important people of the Dark Ages. Possible people might include: •King Alfred the Great • King Arthur • Charlemagne • King Offa • William the Conquerer • St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert • St. Augustine • St. Patrick • St. Bede Script of Recorded Narration THE DARK AGES: Europe After The Fall Of Rome (410-1066 A.D.) THE DARK AGES The collapse of the Roman Empire in the year 476 A.D., brought about by the relentless invasions of barbarian tribes, ended a magnificent civilization that had dominated Europe for almost ten centuries. And with this collapse a new chapter of European history, called the Dark Ages, began that was to last almost 600 years. They were called the Dark Ages because during this era the previous advances of civilization were reversed— the single unified European government was replaced by scores of small warring kingdoms. Roman cities and roads fell into ruin and disrepair and the skills that had brought about Rome's great achievements in learning and art were lost. Now, let us discover what happened in one small corner of the Roman Empire with the coming of the Dark Ages. 6 ROMAN BRITAIN Much of the modern country of Great Britain was once ruled from Rome where it was known as the province of Britannia. When the Roman troops first arrived in Britain in the middle of the first century A.D., it was a sparsely populated land inhabited by Celtic-speaking tribes called the Britons. Few traces remain of the ancient culture of the Britons, but mysterious stone circles, like the one seen here, are believed to have once been used by them as places of religious worship. As they had done elsewhere in Europe, the Romans brought civilization and rule by law to the native people of their new province. They introduced the Britons to the Roman religion with its bewildering array of gods and goddesses, and quite soon the Romans began to construct towns whose new buildings mimicked the magnificent structures of their great capital city of Rome. Each new town had large public baths and markets and was provided with paved streets, clean running water, and excellent systems for drainage and public sanitation. And so it was that the Romans introduced a highly advanced culture to Britain which became the northernmost outpost of Rome's vast empire. However, as time went by, the Roman Empire was increasingly subjected to attacks by outsiders whom the Romans called "barbarians"—a word which in Latin means "foreigners." Most of these barbarians came from the northern regions of Europe. They were poor farmers organized into tribes headed by powerful warrior chieftains. The barbarians envied the wealth of Rome and the rich lands she possessed, and so they carried out violent attacks to destroy the powerful Roman army. In a very early attempt to keep the barbarians out of his empire, the emperor Hadrian ordered that this stone wall was to be constructed entirely across the northern frontier of Britain. And for quite some time, Hadrian's great wall seemed to serve its purpose for by the year 325 A.D., nearly two hundred years after the wall had been constructed, Roman Britain had experienced centuries of uninterrupted peace and prosperity and by then possessed four cities with populations exceeding 15,000. But right around this same time, big changes were taking place all across Europe. Christianity was adopted as Rome's official religion and seven decades later, in response to increasing assaults by the barbarians, the Roman Empire was permanently divided into Eastern and Western halves—each half being ruled by a separate emperor. As the ferocity of the barbarian attacks increased, Roman troops began to be withdrawn from Britain to help her defend her besieged provinces to the south. But, in the year 410 A.D., the great city of Rome itself was plundered by a tribe called the Visigoths. The capital lay in ruins and the desperate emperor sent word to the citizens of Britannia that he could no longer provide for their defense—so at that point, the Roman province of Britannia ceased to exist. THE ANGLO-SAXON INVASIONS OF BRITAIN After the year 410, without the presence of Roman troops, Britain became an easy target for the Germanic tribes from across the North Sea, and soon the barbarian invasions of Britain began in earnest. 8 Tribesmen called the Angles sailed out from the southern side of the Danish peninsula and occupied the northeastern part of Britain. Another tribe, the Saxons, set forth from their impoverished villages in Saxony on the coastal plain of the North Sea and occupied much of southern Britain. The Jutes began their raids from the part of the Danish peninsula called Jutland and occupied other areas of land in the south of Britain separate from the Saxons. Finally, one other tribe, the Frisians, sailed to Britain from their homeland in Friesia just to the south of Saxony and became dispersed as a distinct group in the years that followed. These four tribes—the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes, and the Frisians—have been lumped together by historians into a single group called the Anglo-Saxons. As the powerful Anglo-Saxon chieftains drove the native Britons toward the west, they set up separate kingdoms in a land that had known only unified Roman rule for almost 400 years. For the next few centuries, Anglo-Saxon settlers from across the North Sea built hundreds of new villages, many of them highly fortified, using the same materials and techniques they had used back in their homelands. And these new settlements made of wood bore little resemblance to the Roman towns they had destroyed. And so, by stages that can hardly be traced, the culturally advanced, well-ordered Roman world was completely transformed by the Anglo-Saxons. Now let us take a closer look at how these Anglo-Saxons lived. 9 STOWA: AN ANGLO-SAXON COMMUNITY Construction of this village, called Stowa, first began around 420 A.D., about ten years after the Romans pulled out of Britain. Stowa is located in central Britain, only about thirty miles from the North Sea, and by the time the AngloSaxons arrived here, this land had already been under cultivation by the Romans for several centuries. Stowa, like other Anglo-Saxon communities, was basically self-sufficient for most things from food, to clothing, to household goods. For in the earliest days of their occupation of Britain, the Anglo-Saxons did not engage in the high level of trade that had centered in Roman towns and markets, and the same held true of religion, for the Anglo-Saxons followed the old Norse gods and had little knowledge of either the pagan Roman religion or Christianity. Stowa was a typical fifth-century Anglo-Saxon community and was home to three or four different family groups which included not just parents and their children but could also include grandparents and great grandparents as well. Within the village boundaries, each family group occupied its own mini-village consisting of five or six buildings. These buildings were always roofed with a thatch of straw or reeds to keep out the rain. The walls were made either of wooden planks or woven branches and mud called daub and wattle. And this technique of weaving branches also was put into use in creating baskets for storing grains and wool. This building, called the hall, was the focal point of activity for the whole village, and here a fire was always kept burning, both for warmth and to cook food. The 10 hall tended to be a pretty smoky place for it had no chimney, so the smoke simply filtered up through the thatched roof into the outside air. Families gathered together here in the evenings or during bad weather to relax, share their evening meal and the day's gossip. The outbuildings served many functions. Some were used for sleeping, others served as workshops for various crafts, such as making shoes from leather, or making pots, jugs, cups, and other containers from clay. But the main activity of the village of Stowa was farming. Wheat, barley, and peas were raised, and these crops provided the vast majority of food for the village. Cows were also kept for the meat, milk, and leather they yielded. Sheep were also raised and transforming their raw wool into cloth was another very important village activity. Much of the year, cloth-making was an indoor activity, but during times of good weather, the cloth-making procedures moved outside. Women would prepare special plant materials for dyemaking, and once the wool had been dyed, the next step was to spin it into thread using a spindle. Spinning was a time-consuming activity but must have been a great relief from the back-breaking work of the fields. After the wool had been spun into thread, villagers often set up their looms on the outside wall of a house and thus could enjoy the fresh air and sunshine while weaving the thread into warm woolen cloth. Besides making items of cloth, leather, and clay for use in the village, objects of turned wood were also created 11 on these simple machines known as pole lathes. Foot power and the natural spring of a large wooden pole was all that was needed to turn the pieces of wood so they could be shaped into useful objects by a chisel. BARBARIAN CONQUESTS ON THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT By the year 600, about 180 years after the village of Stowa was founded, the Anglo-Saxons controlled not just a large part of Britain but one region of northern Europe as well, while, at the same time, other tribes of Barbarians had taken over huge areas of land. In the former Roman province of Gaul, another Germanic tribe called the Franks had seized control—the name of the modern country of France reflects this Frankish heritage. To the southwest, the Ostrogoths had taken over the Iberian Peninsula and the foundations of modern Spain were laid; and a large portion of Italy was in the hands of another tribe called the Lombards. However, most of the territory bordering the Mediterranean Sea was still part of the Eastern Roman Empire and was ruled from its capital of Constantinople, while Rome, the fallen capital of the Western Roman Empire, was beginning to exert its influence again, this time as the center of administration for the rapidly-growing Roman Catholic Church. During the Dark Ages, three elements were joined together to create an entirely new pattern for Western Civilization. These elements were first, the culture of Ancient Rome, second the Germanic peoples and their institutions, and third, and perhaps most important of all, the Christian religion. 12 THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY Christianity all but disappeared in Britain when the Anglo-Saxons destroyed her Roman civilization. Because the Anglo-Saxons had their own religion and because they tended to dislike anything that reminded them of the Romans, they did not readily accept the Christian religion. For this reason, Christianity was not successfully reintroduced into Britain until the end of the sixth century. At that time there were seven AngloSaxon kingdoms in Britain. First, the King of Kent converted to Christianity and then, one after the other, the kings of Wessex, East Anglia, Northumbria, Sussex, Mercia, and Essex all converted from the worship of the pagan Norse gods to the Christian religion. And as the barbarian tribes all across Europe began to embrace Christianity, the Dark Ages started to take on a new flavor, as a growing spiritual awareness began to accompany the need for constant bloody warfare. END OF PART ONE PART TWO THE COMING OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE KINGDOM OF NORTHUMBRIA Although the castle we see here was built about 600 years after the death of Oswald, the first Christian king of Northumbria, King Oswald once lived in his own castle here around the year 630. Following his own conversion, the king wanted his subjects to share his new religion and at King Oswalds beckoning, a monk named Aidan established what was to become a great center of Christianity on the island of Lindesfarne located in the sea just to the north of King 13 Oswald's castle where today the stone ruins of a 12th century monastery stand. The first church that Aidan built on Lindesfarne was not of stone at all but was a simple wooden building similar to the one seen here. Using a church like this as his headquarters, Aidan converted thousands of Northumbrians to Christianity. Some of these converts even chose to become monks or nuns themselves rather than to study the traditional Anglo-Saxon arts of war. In this era, monks and nuns often chose to purify their souls by following lives of penance and solitude and so to become worthy of entering the Kingdom of Heaven. The Anglo-Saxon monk named Cuthbert led just such a life. Not long after arriving at Lindesfarne, Cuthbert decided to establish a hermitage for himself on this tiny barren island in the bay just within view of the monastery, and here he lived for some time. But this hermitage was not isolated enough for him, so he moved to a different, more windswept, island seven miles to the south. Here Cuthbert lived a life of prayer, penance, and isolation for nine years, and during this time is said to have performed many miracles. Whenever the rains and fogs let up, the new king of Northumbria, named Edfrith, could just barely see Cuthbert's hermitage from the window of his castle, and so the king was constantly reminded of his powerful piety and devotion. Therefore, in the year 685, when it came time to appoint a new Bishop of Lendesfarne, the king appointed Cuthbert, and under his leadership many new churches 14 were built throughout the kingdom of Northumbria. And, although very few of those original churches still survive, the Anglo-Saxon church seen here was constructed during Cuthbert's lifetime and has served as a parish church in the tiny village of Escomb continuously for over 1300 years. Eleven years after Cuthbert's death, it was discovered that his body showed no signs of decay, and this was taken as a sign that he was a true saint. Not long after his death, a monk named Eadfrith honored the memory of St. Cuthbert when he created this ornately decorated book called "The Lindesfarne Gospels." Monks like Eadfrith were known as scribes, and the richly colored books they created, called illuminated manuscripts, are considered to be among the greatest art treasures of the Dark Ages. But they also serve as reminders that this was an era when only the monks and priests knew how to read and write and nearly all the rest of the population, including the kings themselves, were illiterate. THE VIKINGS AND THE NORMANS St. Cuthbert's body lay in a place of honor next to the altar in the monastery of Lindesfarne when, on the 7th of June in the year 793, this small religious community was plundered by a band of sea-roving Scandinavian warriors called Vikings. Just eight decades later, fear of Viking attacks finally forced the monks to abandon their monastery, but when they did, they took St. Cuthbert's body with them—finally burying him where this great building, called Durham Cathedral, now stands. 15 Eventually, so many Viking settlers poured into Britain that, by the year 878, nearly one-half of the Anglo-Saxon lands were called the Danelaw because they were subject to Viking laws. Just a short time later, in the year 911, the Vikings were given a huge area of land by the French to bring an end to the ceaseless attacks on their country. The conquerors named this land Normandy after themselves—the men from the North. A TENTH-CENTURY NORMAN COMMUNITY The Normans established many small fortified communities like the one seen here, for the Dark Ages was a time of constant warfare between rival kingdoms; and at this time, most Europeans sought the protection these types of communities offered. The lord, the man whose land supported this small community, was usually a mounted warrior called a knight. Because of their high status, the lord's family usually lived behind an extra defensive wall in a large fortified house that usually had a stone tower attached to it. And, within his private enclosure, the lord kept a garden of vegetables and herbs for the use of his family. Inside the lord's house was a hall where once a day a huge meal was served, and next to the dining hall was the armory where armor and weapons were kept under lock and key. Above the armory was the lord's bedroom where he could enjoy a good night's sleep knowing that he was fairly safe from attack. The village located next to the lord's compound was surrounded by just a single wall. But within the village enclosure everything existed in order to keep the serfs who lived there well supplied in case war broke out. 16 Here were the simple communal houses—that, like almost everything else in the village, belonged to the lord— that several families of serfs shared with their animals. And, just like the Anglo-Saxon halls that came before them, these Norman communal houses were dark, smoke-filled places. Within the village enclosure one would find a blacksmith who could make metal armor and weapons, as well as more useful items, like axe heads and horseshoes. Grain was ground into flour here by pushing the grinding wheel around and around on a stone slab. Nearby, bread was baked each day from that flour in the lord's oven that stood right next to the kitchen building where the lord's food was prepared. The bread, along with the wine and beer he produced in the brewhouse, helped to sustain the villagers. For extra food, the villagers raised all kinds of poultry—chickens, geese, and even peacocks. But only the lord was allowed to have a dovecote, where flocks of doves were raised for the eggs, meat, and fertilizer they yielded. The lord enjoyed dining on fish, so he raised carp for his table here in the village fishpond. Goats, and even fallow deer, roamed freely about the village and were also used for food. A protected source of water was very important during a siege so every fortified village had to have a good well. Near the well stood the gallows where criminals were executed for a wide variety of offenses that would seem trivial to us today, but usually the lord saw fit to leave the corpse hanging for several weeks to discourage po- 17 tential lawbreakers. Not far from the gallows could be found the simple building used by the potter for making most of the containers and plates needed in the village, and just across the green from the potter's shed was another small building where the Norman serfs wove wool into cloth for garments and blankets. Right next door to the weaving house was the church where the village community attended Mass and where many baptisms and funerals were performed, for during this era it must have seemed that death was almost always present and the average person rarely lived to the age of 35. Beyond the village walls were the fields where the crops were raised that formed the basis of the communities' wealth, and here the serfs labored long hours throughout much of the year. CASTLES, MANORS AND FEUDALISM If the Norman lord who ruled this community was successful and his descendants gained in wealth and power, it is possible that this fortified wooden village might have been slowly transformed over the centuries into a stone castle like this. But, even though rebuilding with stone was fairly common, it is much more likely that this Norman village would have remained pretty much as we have seen it— that is, a well-defended village with a church and the lord's larger house plus about 300 acres of farmland. That, taken as a whole, came to be known as a manor. Manors were the basic building blocks of the economy of the Dark Ages and of the High Middle Ages that were to follow them. The method by which manors were dis- 18 tributed was at the very heart of the social organization of the Dark Ages that was known as feudalism. For in this era, social status and wealth depended on the number of manors that one controlled. Let us see how the feudal system worked: THE FEUDAL SYSTEM At the very top of the Feudal System was the king who, in theory, owned every manor in the land. Because the king's power was based on the strength of his army, he found it necessary to grant the rights to huge areas of land that possessed many manors to his greatest allies. These were the high lords—the dukes and earls. Let us imagine that there are 700 manors in the entire kingdom and the king decides to keep 130 manors under his direct control and to distribute the remaining 570 manors among the dukes and earls. He decides to give each of his three dukes a dukedom containing 90 manors and each of his five earls, who are of slightly lower status that the dukes, an earldom that contains 60 manors. In return for the gift of his dukedom, each duke is required to provide the king with 42 mounted knights. Each duke then decides to keep 30 manors for himself and distribute the other 60 manors among six lesser lords so each will receive ten manors. In exchange, each is expected to provide the duke with seven knights. To accomplish this, each lesser lord will keep three manors for himself and distribute the other seven manors among seven individual knights. Thus, in exchange for his occasional military service, each of these seven knights will receive not only the manor's lands and its buildings, but also the five or six families of landless serfs that will work the fields in exchange for the lord's protection and a share to the crops they raise. 19 THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND In the year 1066, a truly momentous event took place for the unified Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Britain—now known as England—for a force, led by Duke William of Normandy, invaded England and destroyed the army of King Harold at the battle of Hastings. As a result, Duke William became the King of England—and so, with the raising of the Norman flag, a new chapter of English history began. For as King William dispensed vast areas of manor lands to his most loyal subjects, they, in turn, began to build magnificent stone fortress homes for themselves. And soon these Norman castles were sprouting up all across the English countryside and with them came thousands of fantastic new Norman churches and monasteries. It was clear to all that a great change had come. The era of the Dark Ages—when the Anglo-Saxons had dominated England—was past, and a new, much grander, era, called the High Middle Ages, was beginning to dawn—not only in England, but all across Europe as well. THE END 20 ©1995 Chariot Productions Distributed by United Learning, Inc. Name_________ THE BARRAGES: EUROPE AFTER THE FALL OF ROME (410-1066A.D.) The Seven Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Britain - 750 A.D. ©1995 Chariot Productions Distributed by United Learning, Inc. 3 Name_________________ THE DARK AGES: EUROPEAFTERTHEFALLOFROME(410-1066AD) Dark Ages Timeline 222 AD. - First major assaults by the Goths and other Germanic tribes against the Roman Empire. 370 AD. - Asian barbarians called the Huns invade Europe. 367 AD. - Barbarian tribes from Ireland, Scotland, and Germany attack Britain but are repelled. 410 AD. - Visigoths sack Rome; last Roman troops leave Britain. 420 AD. - Early Anglo-Saxon settlers found the community of Stowa. 449 AD. - Jutes invade Britain. 450 AD. - Angles and Saxons establish many settlements in Britain. 455 AD. - Vandals ravage Italy. 476 AD). - The fall of Rome...Grermanic chief Odoacer deposes the last emperor of Rome. 570 AD). - The prophet Mohammed is born. 600 AD. - King Ethelbert of Kent becomes the first Anglo-Saxon king to convert to Christianity. Establishes a church at Canterbury that will become Canterbury Cathedral; later to become the headquarters of the Protestant Anglican Church. 622 AD. - North Africa, Persia, Arabian Peninsula, Turkey, Egypt and Palestine are Moslem regions. 632 AD. - Mohammed dies. 635 AD. - The church of Lindesfarne is established. 673 AD. - Monk and historian St. Bede is born. Much of our knowledge of life during the English Dark Ages comes from the writings of Bede. 685 AD. - St. Cuthbert is Bishop of Lindesfarne. 686 AD. - All the Anglo-Saxon Kings of England are now Christian. 700s AD. - England is divided into seven kingdoms. 768 AD). - Much of western Europe is a Frankish kingdom under Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great. 793 AD. - Vikings plunder Lindesfarne and much of the rest of Britain. 800 AD. - Charlemagne is crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III, thus establishing a link between the Catholic Church and the institution of the monarchy that would become of prime importance later in the Middle Ages. 878 AD. - After the peace of Wedmore, the "Danelaw" is established between King Alfred the Great of England and Viking leader Guthmm, whereby a huge area of England is governed by laws of the Viking invaders. 910 AD. - Vikings establish a homeland on French soil and call it Normandy (land of the Northmen or Norsemen). 1000 AD. - England is a unified nation and all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms are under one ruler. 1066 AD. - William, the Duke of Normandy, conquers England. As a result, England becomes Norman French and is greatly changed over the centuries of the High Middle Ages that follow. ©1995 Chariot Productions Distributed by United Learning, Inc. A Name___________________ THE DARK AGES: EUROPE AFTER THE FALL OF ROME (410-1066A.D.) Vocabulary List Aidan - A saint who brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria in the north of England. He founded a monastery on the island of Lindesfarne in 635. Alfred the Great - Anglo-Saxon ruler who unified all of the separate kingdoms of England during the time of the Viking invasions. Angles - A barbarian tribe from the southern side of the Danish peninsula. Anglo-Saxon - A general term applied to the four Germanic tribes-the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians that invaded Britain and settled there in the Fifth Century A.D. Barbarians - From the word "barbaricus" that means foreigner in Latin, the language of the Romans. This term came to be applied to the violent wandering tribes that were important in bringing about the collapse of the Roman Empire. Bede - A monk, saint and historian often referred to as "The father of English history," who lived from about 673 to 735 A.D. Celts -Ancient people of western Europe that were obliterated as a unified group, first by the conquests of the Romans and then by the Anglo-Saxons, Goths, Vandals, and other tribes. Celts still survive in isolated groups and Celtic languages are spoken today in parts of Ireland, Wales, Scotland and a region of France called Brittany. Constantine - The first Christian emperor of Rome. He lived 274 to 337 A.D. Charlemagne - "Charles the Great," 742-814. King of the Franks and first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. During his lifetime, his empire was made up of present-day France and Belgium, plus parts of Germany, Holland, Austria, Spain and Italy. Charlemagne was the most powerful ruler during the Dark Ages period. Civilization - A state of advanced culture, taken from the Roman word "civitas" meaning citizenship (of Rome). Later, the word "civitas" came to mean courteous. In the contrast, the term barbaricus or barbarian meant foreigner, one who was, by definition, not a Roman citizen and was therefore "uncivilized." Cuthbert - A great hermit, saint, and bishop who lived in the 600s in the north of England. Dark Ages - Refers to the period of western European history following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 A.D. up to approximately 1066 A.D. The name Dark Ages refers to the collapse of the learning, science, art, and all the other things that make up civilization. ©1995 Chariot Productions Distributed by United Learning, Inc. 5 ' Name_________________ THE DARK AGES: EUROPE AFTER THE FALL OF ROME (410-1066AD) Vocabulary List (continued) Danelaw - A code of Scandinavian laws established in England by the Norse invaders of the 9th and 10th centuries. Also the regions of the north and east of England where these laws were in effect. Druids - Religious priesthood of pre-Christian Celtic peoples. Duke - A powerful nobleman, second in rank to the king. Earl - In England, a powerful nobleman, third in rank beneath the king. England - Literally "Angle-Land"-the name given to the Roman province of Brittania following its conquest by the Anglo-Saxons. For a long time (449-828 A.D. ), England was divided into seven separate kingdoms: Wessex (west Saxons), Sussex (south Saxons), Essex (east Saxons), Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia. Feudalism - The way of life in the Middle Ages based on a hierarchy of authority in which military service and oaths of loyalty were exchanged for gifts of land. Fief or Fiefdom - An inheritable feudal landholding; land held by a lord in return for service. Frisians - A Germanic tribe that dwelt in the region of Holland known as Frisia. Franks - A confederation of Germanic tribes that settled in the valley of the Rhine. France is named for the Franks who emerged to rule the Roman province of Gaul after the fall of Rome. Goths - A barbarian tribe from the region that is today the eastern part of Germany and the southern part of Sweden (Gotaland). Early in the third century, they were divided into two distinct tribes-the east Goths or Ostrogoths and the west Goths, or Visigoths. Hadrian - One of the most powerful Roman emperors; declared to be a Roman god following his death. Hadrian helped maintain the Pax Romana, or Roman Peace. He ordered the construction of Hadrian's Wall that extends from one coast of England to the other. He lived from 76 to 138 AD). Homage - An oath of allegiance taken by a vassal to his lord. Honorius - Emperor of the Western Roman Empire at the time it was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 A.D. Investiture - The ceremony whereby a lord or knight was invested with the control of a fiefdom of land. ©1995 Chariot Productions Distributed by United Learning, Inc. 6 Name_________________ THE DARK AGES: EUROPE AFTER THE FALL OF ROME (410-1066A.D.) Vocabulary List (continued) Jutes - A Germanic tribe from the region of Denmark called Jutland that settled in the region of southern England known as Kent. Lombards - A Germanic tribe; after invading northern Italy in 568 A.D., the Lombards were greatly influenced by Roman civilization. Lord - The owner or head of a large feudal estate. In the language called Middle English, lord meant "the master of a household." Manor - The smallest unit of a feudal fiefdom-around 300 acres, usually consisting of a few farms, a village for the villeins or serfs, a manor house, a flour mill, a bakehouse, a fishpond, a church, and an orchard. Wealthy lords controlled many manors whereas common knights usually possessed only a single manor. Middle Ages - Historical period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. Norse Gods and Goddesses - Deities worshipped by both the ancient Germanic tribes and the Vikings; for example, Thor was the god of war and thunder and Odin was king of the Norse gods. Ostrogoths - The east Goths, a Germanic tribe that settled in what is today Spain. Serf - The villagers who did the farm work on the feudal manors for their lord. They owned no land but were allowed to work certain parts of the fields to raise their own crops. Serfs were thought of as manor property, but they had much higher status than slaves because they possessed certain legal rights. Vassal - In the Middle Ages, a person who had the exclusive rights to a certain fief of land and in return gave his service, often military service, to his lord. Vikings - Also known as Norsemen or Northmen because they came from the northernmost reaches of western Europe—from Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The Vikings were sea rovers and plunderers during the 8th to 10th centuries. Villeins - The village-dwelling serfs who worked the manor lands belonging to their lord. Villein and serf are interchangeable words. Visigoths - The west Goths, a powerful Germanic tribe that sacked Rome in 410 A.D. William the Conquerer - Duke of Normandy and descendant of Vikings. He conquered England in 1066 and became King William I of England. ©1995 Chariot Productions Distributed by United Learning, Inc. 8 Name__________________ THE DARK AGES: EUROPE AFTER THE FALL OF ROME (410-1066A.D.) Quiz Directions: Answer the following questions with the correct answers. 1. True or False: Cities were very important during the Roman Empire, but were much less important during the Dark Ages. ___________ 2. The Latin word _______ was used by Romans to describe the foreigners-non-Roman citizens-who formed tribes that conducted raids on the Roman Empire over many centuries. 3. When the Romans conquered Britain, it was inhabitied by the Britons. The Britons spoke the ______ language. Variations of this ancient tongue are still spoken in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and the region of France called Brittany. 4. The three major Germanic tribes that settled in Britain after the Romans pulled out were the ______, the ______, and the _________. 5. True or False: The tribes that invaded Britain in the fifth century had converted to Christianity during the fourth century as a result of their contact with the Romans. ____________ 6. True or False: By the mid 600s, most of Arabia, Palestine, Egypt and North Africa were devout Christian areas.._____________ 7. True or False: The new Germanic inhabitants of Britain during the early part of the Dark Ages made many improvements on the system of paved roads built by the Romans. ___________ 8. The English word civilization is derived from the Latin word "civitas" which means ___________? 9. Under the feudal system, inheritable lands called ______ could be made up of one or many manors. 10. On a feudal manor, the farm laborers, or ________, lived in villages whereas the lord lived in the manor house. ©1995 Chariot Productions Distributed by United Learning, Inc.