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The Middle Ages
Europe tries to find its way in the
World
The Middle Ages
Aye.
Fight and you may die.
Run and you'll live, at least a while.
And, dying in your beds, many years from now, would
you be willing to trade all the days from this day to
that for one chance – just one chance – to come
back here and tell our enemies, that they may take
our lives,
but they'll never take our freedom!
The Middle Ages
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Braveheart
What were the Middle Ages?
– It is the period of history in Europe that lasted from
about 500 to 1500 C.E.
– It is generally acknowledged that the Middle Ages
started in 476 CE after the fall of Rome and ended
about 1500 with the Renaissance
– The Middle Ages are often broken up into three
periods
 Early Middle Ages 500-1000
 High Middle Ages 1000-1300
 Late Middle Ages 1300-1500
The Early Middle Ages

Characteristics
 Extreme political
decentralization
 Overall backwardness from
the culture of Rome
 Roman Catholic Church
began to control the lives
of the people
High Middle Ages 1000-1300
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Characteristics
 The development of strong nations and countries
 Stronger economies
 Growth of cultural and technology knowledge
 Europeans develop a sense of one interactive culture and
begin to become a single civilization
 The Roman Catholic Church unites all people of western
Europe (common cultural bond)
Late Middle Ages 1300-1500
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Characteristics
 Constant warfare both at home and aboard
 The Black Death kills off a large segment of the
population
– Causes some economic disruption
 Some groups begin to have issues with the Roman
Catholic Church
 The Renaissance begins which brings both intellectual and
cultural achievements to Europe
Why did it start?

The Fall of Rome
– As seen with the Byzantine
Empire in 300 CE the Roman
Empire split
– Overextension in the west
made it hard to
 Maintain military strength
 Maintain political control
 Maintain control over such a
diverse population
– The slave population in Rome
was 2 slaves to every 1 Roman
Why did it start

Multiple Invasions
– The Western Roman empire was besieged by Asiatic and Germanic tribes
 Saxons
 Angles
 Goths
 Huns
 Magyars
– In 410 CE the Goths attacked Rome
– Again in 476 CE the Goths took over Rome and remained in control of
Rome and what was left of the Empire
Why did it start

Role of the Barbarians
– Some groups settled permanently
in areas once occupied by Rome
– They set up fractioned
governments and kingdoms
– Most of these kingdoms were
unsophisticated and failed to
promote cultural achievements

However
– Most of these tribes became less
nomadic and more civilized and
began to make up the growing
population of Europe
The Early Middle Ages

Decentralized Government
– Because of the many different tribes who now
divided up the former Roman Empire there was no
one strong central leader of tribe who could control
the former empire
– Many of the rulers found that they lacked the
 Money, military, and power to effectively maintain control
– This decentralization lead to Feudalism
The Early Middle Ages
Monarchs divided
their territory
giving control to
trustworthy retainers
Enfeoff
Retainers divided the
land up into smaller
pieces of land
Subinfeudation
Retainers guarantee
to govern, dispense laws
and justice, crops would
be grown and the land
protected
Feudalism
Lords or Monarchs
would award land to loyal
followers
 The follower had to
agree to administer the
land, protect the land,
and ensure economic
productivity

Serfdom
The Manor
The basic landholding
unit
The lords manor or
Castle was the main
building
The land was small
enough for the lord to
watch
Surround the Manor were
the fields, village and
woodland
Labor the peasants ran the manor system
Serf was from the Latin servus or slave
Serfs were tied to the land and could not leave
Serfdom

Out of Feudalism came
serfdom
– It was a way of getting
peasants to conduct the
labor
– Ensured a steady food
supply
– Kept the lower classes
under control of the lord
Serfdom
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Most European feudal rulers
subjected peasants to
serfdom
The serf was tied to the land
Serfs could not change their
profession or leave the land
without permission of the
lord
It was form of unfree
agricultural labor similar to
slavery
Serfs
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Most of the fruits of a serfs work went to the lord
A percentage of the crops and livestock had to be
turned over to the lord
Serfs also had to spend time during the year building
roads, castles, clearing woodlands
Serfs had to pay to use the lords property like the mills,
ovens, presses
In times of war serfs also had to fight as foot soldiers
Class Question

If the life of a serf was so harsh what are some
reasons why they did not overthrow the lord?
Birth of the Noble Class

Soon large retainers of
lords began to establish
an elite or noble class
–
–
–
–

Dukes
Earls
Counts
Barons
This noble class
provided political
leadership and stability
Birth of the Noble Class
One of the main functions of the Nobles was to
provide military service
 Nobles were required to supply foot soldiers
recruited by the nobles
 Nobles were also required to supply an elite
fighting force of cavalrymen or knights

Birth of the Noble Class
Nobles formed this
knight fighting force
 It was expensive to train,
equip and maintain such
a force.
 Only nobles could afford
to be or maintain such a
fighting force

Knighthood/Chivalry
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Knights were to be virtuous
warriors
Gave their loyalty to the lord
Fought fairly
Champion of the lower class
Gentleman towards women
Inspired by Christian principles
Be in control of most violent
behavior

This was chivalry

Songs and legends like King Arthur
instructed knights on how to act.
Knighthood/Chivalry

In reality
– Knights often broke many of the codes of chivalry
 Knights would often plunder villages or areas conquered
 Knights would often rape women
 Knights would often conduct brutal and violent acts on
the battlefield
 Knights would often change their loyalty depending on
how much they could be paid
 Knights sometimes ran from the battlefield when things
went bad
– Chivalry was more often a myth then reality
Feudalism
Feudalism began to take hold in the 700’s in France and
western Germany
 By the 11th Century most European countries adopted
Feudalism
 Serfdom would outlast Feudalism. While many national
states would begin to grow after the Enlightenment
many of the lower classes would still live in a serfdom
state
 Serfdom also caused class tension between the upper
(rich) and lower (poor) classes that would last well into
the 19th Century

The Role of Christianity
After the fall of Rome Christianity was one of
the few things that bound the people of a
disorganized Europe together
 Large numbers of people in Europe and Africa
had converted to Christianity prior to the fall of
Rome
 The Roman Catholic Church played a key role in
the development of western Europe

The Role of the Church
From 500 to 1500
monasteries preserved
Latin and Greek texts
 These texts contained
knowledge of science,
philosophy, plays that
would have been lost

Role of the Church
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The church created a sense of identity
– While many countries were split by feudal states and
there was disunity in Europe (Lacked a sense of
nationalism)
– People also had different languages and customs
– However their faith in the Catholic Church linked
the people of Europe and gave Europe a sort of
cultural bond
The Pope
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The Pope or Bishop of
Rome
The church was formed to
serve the needs of the people
Only men could become
priest
Bishops controlled the priest
Cardinals oversaw matters of
the church in Rome and
advised the Pope
The Church
The catholic Church became very politically powerful
 In contrast to the Orthodox Church the Catholic Church did not
just see itself as a spiritual institution but also a political
institution
 The Church gained large amounts of land in Europe
 The Catholic Church bound Europe and kings and emperors
were influenced by the Pope
 Tithing and land grants made the church very wealthy
 Institutions of learning were connected to the Church and in
many cases only members of the Church could read and write
 Excommunication and trails were used by the church to keep
non conformist in line
