Download Early Middle Ages

Tell me what you know about the Middle Ages
Periodization
Early Middle Ages: 500 – 1000
High Middle Ages: 1000 – 1250
Late Middle Ages: 1250 - 1500
The Early Middle Ages
Middle Ages, Medieval ages ,
Dark ages ?
• Middle as in time between the end
of the Roman Empire and ancient
civilization and the rebirth
(Renaissance) of progress/growth
in Europe
• Medieval is “middle” in Latin
• Early Middle Ages is called the
Dark Age because it was not a
great time in Europe:
 Fall of Rome left vacuum filled by
brutal warlords and “barbarians”
 Much knowledge lost
“Barbarians” of the Dark Ages
• Celts
• Huns
• Goths
 Visigoths
 Ostrogoths
•
•
•
•
Vandals
Burgundians
Britons and Picts
Anglo-Saxons
 Jutes
 Angles
 Saxons
• Franks
Fact to know and remember
Europe is the continent having a Dark Age
Everyone else is not
Celts
Huns
Britons
310 to 500 AD
Africa
• No artifacts found
• a half-forgotten Celtic
deity that devolved into a
personage ?
• a Roman-British leader
who fought against the
invading Saxons ?
• Castus, a Roman leader
who led a group of
Samatians near Hadrian’s
Wall?
• First appears in Welsh
literature In a surviving
early Welsh poem, The
Gododdin (ca. AD 594)
Who and when are
Arthur and Merlin?
400 to 500 AD?
Mosaic of
King
Arthur on
floor of
Otranto
Cathedral
in Italy
built in
500’s AD
Arthur ?
Merlin ?
Valle Crucis Abbey near the town of Llangollen in North
Wales. The present ruins date from around the year 1200, but a
monastic building has stood on this spot since the early Dark
Ages(300-400).
Glastonbury Abbey- Avalon?
• .
How about
Druids?
• priestly class in ancient Celtic Iron
Age societies
• Acted as priest, arbitrator, healer,
scholar, and magistrate.
• Polytheists and animists,
• All instruction was communicated
orally,
• Believed in reincarnation
• Worshiped in groves of oak trees
• Gone/no mention after 100 AD
• Samhain = Halloween
Base-relief
found at Atun
of two Druids
Mabinogian
• 1060 to 1200,
• Collection of
stories from
Medieval Welsh
• Rhiannon
• Merlin/Taliesin
• Evangeline Walton
• The Chronicles
of Prydain by
LLyod Alexander
• The Black
Cauldron by
Disney
The Rise of the Franks
• Franks originally from a Germanic tribe
that settled in Belgium and the
Netherlands
• Merovingian's (The Matrix)
Clovis
• CarolingiansCharles Martel
Pepin the Short
Charlemagne
Clovis
• Cruel, merciless
• United Franks by war
• Excellent military
leader
• France gets name
from the Franks
• Converted to
Christianity
• Ordered his people
• to do so also
• Sons divided the
Kingdom
Carolingians 714 to 843 AD
Charles Martel• His Calvary defeated
invading Moors near
Tours in France
• Halted the Islamic
advance into Europe
• Martel means Hammer in
English
Pepin the Short• Crowned by Pope
• The Pope wants to holds
authority over Kings
• Pepin wants Pope’s help
to defeat invading
Lombards from Germany
• Pope agrees to crown
Pepin
• Pepin gave Land gained
in Italy to Pope -Papal
states
Charlemagne- 768 AD
• Outstanding ruler with minimal formal
education
• Religious, practical, and intelligent
• Good military skills- controlled Western
Europe
• Good at PR-claimed descent from Mary and
Joseph
• Drove Moors back across the Pyrenees
• Goal-Renewal of the Roman Empire
• Pope crowned him due to increasing mixture
of secular and profane in government
• Capital at Aix-la-Chapelle in Germany
Frankish weapons
Charlemagne’s rule
• Government of checks
and balances
• No direct taxes because his
holdings supported the State
• Monastic schools for nobles and intelligent
lower classes
• Libraries
• Produced one standardized Bible
• Encouraged people to convert
Frankish costume
The Frankish Empire declines
Charlemagne’s son, Louis the Pious , was
no Charlemagne
Charlemagne’s descendents fought each other
Kingdom broke up and splintered
Four groups of invaders
Viking (Scandinavia)
Slav (eastern Russia)
Magyar (Hungarians)
Muslim (Arabia and North Africa)
Magyars
800’s AD
• Resembled Attila the Hun because they
were nomads and fierce so Franks called
them “the Hun”
• In WWII the Allies called Germany “the
Hun”
• Invaded the Frankish Empire from the
East
• Later settled down and eventually came
to be the Kingdom of Hungary
The Vikings
8th to 9th centuries
Viking Weapons
Viking Jewelry
Where did the
Vikings attack?
Thor
Odin
Ride of the Valkyries
The Varangian
Guard
Vikings made it as far
as Russia (Rus and
Rurik) and then to
Constantinople where
they became the
Emperor’s personal
bodyguards. Fought
Muslims for the
Emperor
Why did the Vikings go a-Viking and
why did they stop?
• Medieval ages in
Scandinavia were warmer
than must of Europe
• Increased population and
resources
• Then the “Little Ice Age”
occurs in the 900’s
• Resources start to
dwindle, people begin to
starve
• Increased conversions to
Christianity
• Rest of Europe becomes
warmer, especially Britain
Society in
the Middle
Ages
Feudalism- system of loyalties and
protections during the Middle Ages.
• King “the Man”
• Lord-”the Boss Man”
• Vassal- nobles who get land for supporting a Lord or
a king
• One could be a Lord and vassal at the same time
• Fief or land grant-what the lord gives vassals in
exchange for military support
• Primogeniture- eldest son always inherits the Fief.
• Freeman and artisans –few in the Middle Ages
• The Church- could be a vassal
• Serfs-most of us (not “the man”)
The Manorial System
• As the Roman Empire crumbled, Emperors granted
land to nobles in exchange for their loyalty.
• These lands were called manors.
• A manor becomes the land owned by a noble and
everything on it.
• A typical manor consisted of a castle, small village,
forestland and farmland.
• Former landowners exchanged freedom for safety
and became serfs that were “owned” by the Lord
of the Manor
Serfs
o Serfs would often have to work three
or four days a week for the lord as
rent for the land they farmed
o They would spend the rest of their
week growing crops to feed their
families.
o Some serfs worked as sharecroppers.
A sharecropper would turn over most
of what he grew in order to be able to
live on the land
Manors
• An economic unit onto
itself
• Self sufficient
• A third to a half of all
produced goes to the
Lord and King. Rest
to the Manor's serfs
• Subsistence or Barely
sustainable life for
serfs
• Short, hard , sickly life
Duc de Berry
Book
of
Hours
Defense
• Castles are
Wood/Stone
• Built to resist attack
• Moats
• Drawbridge
• Keep
• Window slits
• Cold, dark, drafty,
damp
So how do
enemies
attack
castles?
KNIGHT
SQUIRE
PAGE
The Road to Knighthood
Soldiers
• Years of training as
page and squire
• Knighthood
ceremony
• Coat of arms
• Heavy armorhoisted on to horse
• Ideal- pious, fair,
brave, loyal, gallant,
respectful to
women of his class
• Tournaments/jousts
are war training
Knights
Chivalry: A Code of Honor and Behavior
The Church
• “You are Peter and
upon this rock I will build
my Church “Matt16:18-19
• Peter is allegedly the first
bishop of Rome
• The bishops of Rome
eventually become the
“father” of the Christian
church
• Continues so after the split
with Eastern Orthodoxy
• Early popes were trained in
Roman civil bureaucracy
and shaped the church that
way
The
Petrine
Succesion
Characteristics of the Medieval
Western or Roman Catholic Church
Hierarchy:
• Pope
• Curia or cabinet of
cardinalscounselors
• Archbishop
• Bishop-Cathedra
• Parish priest
• Monasteries/Nunner
ies/Hermits
Sacraments:
• Baptism
• Holy Eucharist
• Confirmation
• Penance
• Holy orders
• Matrimony
• Extreme unction
Social
mobility
• Rigid, hierarchal
society with rare
exceptions which
were in the
Church
• A slave became a
pope
• Allegedly a
woman became a
pope
•John Anglicus was a ninth century
Englishman. In 853 A.D., he was
unanimously elected pope.
•While riding one day gave birth to a
child.
•The first written reference to Joan
occurs in the thirteenth century
•During the Reformation in the
sixteenth century, the Catholic Church
began to deny the existence of Pope
Joan and the Gender checking chair.
•Modern scholars have been unable to
resolve the historicity of Pope Joan.
Monasticism
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lived by rules
Withdrawal from world
Prayer, fasting, self-denial and work
Saint Benedict and the Benedictine Rule
Religious communities with an abbot as head
Monasteries and convents preserved
learning, copied books, maintained schools,
encouraged art, reminded people that there
was more than warfare, preserved the
memory of Rome, were the only means of
social welfare or help
A Medieval Monk’s Day
Nuns Then and
Now
Monks then and
now
The role of the Church
• Missionaries: St Patrick, St Augustine
• Canterbury – priests established cities and centers
of learning
• Political and Social power
• Canon law
• Excommunication
• Interdict or “The Big Whammy”
• Tithe
• Power of life or Death eternally
• Economic power-trade, hospitals, agriculture.
• Grew in Wealth and therefore power
• Eventually able to dictate to Kings and Lords
Why did they have such power?
• Faith
• Belief
• Power to forgive or dam all that occurs on
Earth
• Lack of literacy. Minimal Bibles
• Offered best security available at the time,
eternity and sanctuary
• Short brutal lives look forward to eternity
and do not want to mess that up
Relics
Problems the Church faced
• Corruption- with power and money comes
temptation
• Lay Investiture
• Simony
• Heresy
• Luxury
• No one expects
the Inquisition
• Reform: St Francis
How do you think the problems the
Church faced hurt or helped…
• The Church?
• The King?
• A serf?
The Priests?
The End by Miz D