Download Europe in the Middle Ages

Early Middle Ages – Europe - Notes
World History
Europe in the Middle Ages
Setting the Scene
• The period between 500 to 1450 is known as the Middle Ages because it came
between the fall of Rome and the start of the modern era
• The early Middle Ages was a period from 500-1000 when Europe stopped
advancing
• Trade slowed, towns emptied, leaning stopped
• Slowly a new civilization emerged called medieval or Latin for middle age.
• A blend of Greco-Roman, Germanic and Christian traditions
The Germanic Kingdoms & The Franks
• Between 400-700 the Franks emerged as the strongest of the many kingdoms
kingdom
• In 486, Clovis, king of the Franks, conquered Gaul and rule according to
Frankish traditions
• He converted to Christianity thus earning their support but also gained a
powerful ally in the
Europe and the Muslim World
• The religion of Islam appears in Arabia in 622 and a huge powerful empire
would be created
• Muslims or believers in Islam, created a large empire stunning European
Christians when Muslim armies overran up into North Africa and Spain
• When Muslims crossed into France Charles “The Hammer” Martel rallied
Frankish warriors and defeated the Muslims at the Battle of Tours
The Age of Charlemagne
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Around 800, W. Europe was united by the grandson of Charles Martel, Charlemagne or Charles The Great
He enjoyed battles
He united much of the old Roman Empire
His empire reached across France, Germany, and part of Italy and reunited much of the old Roman empire
In 800, Pope Leo III called on Charlemagne for help fighting rebellious nobles in Rome
The pope showed his gratitude by placing a crown on Charlemagne’s head and proclaiming him Emperor Of the Romans
The enormous significance of this ceremony was:
A Christian pope had crowned a German king successor to the Roman emperors
This revived the idea of a united Christian community
It laid the ground for power struggles between future Roman Catholic popes and German emperors
It outraged the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople who saw himself as the sole Roman ruler
Helped widen the split between the eastern and western Christian worlds
Charlemagne tried to exercise control of his lands and create a united Christian Europe
He worked closely with the church
Spread Christianity to the conquered peoples
He appointed powerful nobles to rule local regions
After Charlemagne died in 814 his empire
The Treaty of Verdun: divided Charlemagnes empire
After Charlemagne /Legacy
• After Charlemagne died in 814 his empire
• The Treaty of Verdun: divided Charlemagnes empire
• He extended Christian civilization into northern Europe
• He further blended the German, Roman, and Christian traditions
• He set up a strong efficient government
• He set an example to later medieval rulers on how to strengthen their own
kingdoms
Charlemagne Empire
The New Wave of Invasions
• Muslim forces still pose threat to
Europe as did the Magyars and
Vikings
• The Vikings were from Scandinavia
and looted and burned communities
along the coasts and rivers of Europe
• http://www.history.com/topics/explor
ation/vikings-history/videos/bet-youdidnt-know-vikings
The Emergence of Feudalism
• Ceremonies between nobles and lesser lords, exchanging vows of loyalty and
service are a common scene and were a part of a new political and social
system that governed medieval life
• In the face of invasions kings and emperor’s were too weak to maintain law and
order and people needed protection
• A new system evolved known as Feudalism
• Feudalism was a loosely organized system of rule in which powerful local lords
divided their landholdings among lesser lords in exchange for service and
loyalty to a greater lord
Mutual Obligations
• Peasants and their lords were tied together by mutual rights and obligations
• Peasants had to work the lords land
• Peasants paid the lord a fee when they married, inherited land, used the mill
and dues at Christmas and Easter
• Since they had no money they paid with products such as grain, honey, eggs, or
chickens
• In return for a life time of labor, peasants had the right to farm several acres
for themselves
• They were entitled to the lord’s protection from Viking raids or feudal warfare
• While serfs could not leave the manor they also could not be forced off
A Structured Society
• Everyone has a place in feudal society
• The Monarch
• Powerful lords ,dukes and counts and
each one had
• Vassals can hold fiefs from more
than one lord
• Knights: mounted warriors
• Serfs: peasants tied to the land
Achieving Knighthood
• For feudal nobles, warfare was a way of life battling each
other constantly for power, many nobles trained from
boyhood to become a knight or mounted warrior
• At the age of seven a boy became a page learning to ride,
fight, keep up armor and weapons
• Then he becomes a squire
• Kneeling before an older knight the squire is declared a
knight
• As battles decreased in the 1100’s tournaments or mock
battles came into fashion
• In latter Middle Ages knights adopted a code of conduct
called chivalry
• This required knights to be brave, loyal and true to their
work and fight fairly
• Chivalry also dictated how warriors treated captured
knights
• Chivalry placed women on a pedestal, calling for women
to be protected and cherished
Castles
• Powerful lords fortified their homes
to withstand attacks with a keeps or
wooden towers, fences and moats
• They became gradually became
larger and grander
• Wars often centered on seizing a
castle that commanded strategic
locations
Peasants and Manor Life
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At the heart of medieval economy was the manor or lord’s estate
Most manors included villages and surrounding areas
Peasants made up the majority of the population
Most peasants on the manor were serf who were bound to the land, they were not
slaves who could be bought and sold but they also could not leave the manor
without the lord’s permission
Peasants and their lords were tied together by mutual rights and obligations
Peasants had to work the lords land
Peasants paid the lord a fee when they married, inherited land, used the mill and
dues at Christmas and Easter
Since they had no money they paid with products such as grain, honey, eggs, or
chickens
In return for a life time of labor, peasants had the right to farm several acres for
themselves
They were entitled to the lord’s protection from Viking raids or feudal warfare
While serfs could not leave the manor they also could not be forced off
A Self-Sufficient World
• The manor was generally self-sufficient, meaning the peasants produced
almost everything
• They had no schooling, no knowledge of the world outside
• The typical manor included a few dozen one room huts clustered close
together in a village,
• Nearby, would be a water mill to grind grain
• A tiny church and the manor house
• The fields surrounding the village were divided into narrow strips, each family
had strips of land so that they could share good and bad land
The Church &Medieval Life
• The Medieval Christian Church emerges as the most powerful force in Europe
• The Church’s teachings and practices shaped the lives of Christian Europeans
• During the Middle Ages the church’s most important achievement was to
Christianize the diverse peoples of western Europe
• In the manor villages the priest of the parish or local region was usually the
only contact people had with the Church
• Everyday life: they married peasants and nobles, members and baptized
children and buried the dead in sacred ground
Village Church
• The church was a social center as well as a place of worship
• To support itself and its parishes, the Church required Christians to pay a
tithe or tax equal to a tenth of their income
• Later Medieval Churches
• Daily life revolved around the Church
Convents and Monasteries
• Both women and men withdrew from their worldly life to behind monasteries
and convents walls devoting themselves to spiritual goals
• Monasteries & convents provided basic services for people such as hospitals
and schools
• They gave food and lodging to travelers, especially to Christian pilgrims
• Monasteries and convents also performed a vital role in preserving the
writings of the ancient world, often copying ancient works as a form of labor
• Although women could not become priest they could enter convents
• It was a place where strong minded women could escape the limits of society.
But as time goes by the Church will put more restrictions on nuns, many could
needlework, make banners and teach
The Church &Medieval Life
• The Medieval Christian Church emerges as the most powerful force in Europe
• The pope was the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church
• As a representative of Christ on earth the pope claimed papal supremacy or
authority over all secular rulers
• Bishops and archbishops were usually nobles
• Church officials were closely linked to secular rulers be
• The Church developed it’s own body of laws know as Cannon Law
• Canon laws applied to religious teachings, the clergy, marriages and morals
• Anyone disobeying canon law could be Heretic
• This meant you could not receive the sacraments cause churchmen were often the
only educated people,
• A powerful noble who opposed the church could face and interdict or
excommunication
Reform in the Church
• The very success of the medieval Church brought problems, As the Church’s wealth and
power grew more corrupt
• Some monks and nuns ignored their vows
• Some clergy lived in luxury
• Throughout the Middle Ages there were calls for reforms in the church
• In the early 900’s Abbot Berno of Cluny monastery set out to end abuses and revived
Benedictine Rule
• These reforms swept across Western Europe
• He declared that he would no longer allow nobles to interfere in monastery affairs
• In 1073, Pope Gregory VII extended the Cluniac reforms to the entire church to the entire
church
• Over the centuries other reform movements battled corruption and worldliness
• 1200’s Francis of Assisi set up an order of Friars who did not live in isolated monasteries but
traveled around Europe’s preaching to the poor
• The Franciscan order he set up preached poverty. Humility and love of God
• Dominic, a Spanish priest set up the Dominican order whose chief goal was to combat
heresy by teaching official Roman Catholic beliefs
Jews in Europe
• Jewish communities existed across Europe and in Spain
• The Muslims who conquered Spain in 711 were tolerant of both Jews and Christians
• Muslim Spain became the center of Jewish culture and scholarship
• For centuries Christians and Jews lived side by side in relative peace
• As the church grew more powerful it issued orders forbidding Jews to own land or practice most occupations yet turned to
them as financial advisors and physicians
• Anti-Semitism or prejudice against Jews worsened, with many Christians blaming Jews for disasters or illness they could not
understand
• Jews were barred from other professions so rulers turned to them as financial advisers and physicians
• In response to growing persecution, many Jews migrated to Eastern Europe
• There the rulers welcomed their skills and knowledge and Jewish communities would thrived in Eastern Europe until
modern times
Agricultural Revolution/New Technologies
• The appearance of new towns was a symbol of Europe’s economic recovery
• This revival, which lasted from about 1000 to 1300, is called the High Middle Ages
• In 1000 Europe’s economic recovery was underway
• It began in the countryside where peasants adapted new farming
technologies making fields more
• By the 800’s, peasants were using iron plows that could carve deeper
• New harnesses so they could use horses rather than oxen which would be faster
and produce more food
• Windmills were used where there were no fast moving streams and would be used
to grind the peasants grain into flour
• Peasants also adopted the three field system :where one field would be planted with
grain, the second with peas or beans and the third would be unplanted or fallow
• All these improvements let farmers produce more food and with more food available
• With the population increasing, more goods were needed and wanted
Trade Fairs
• With the population increasing, more goods were needed and wanted
• At first, traders and their customers did business at local trade fairs with took
place each year near navigable rivers or where busy trade routes met
• People from surrounding villages, towns and castled came to trade fairs
• Peasants traded farm goods and animals but not luxury items and enjoyed the
atmosphere
• The peasants had no money to buy the luxury goods that the nobles could
New Towns
• Traders formed merchant companies that traveled in armed caravans for
safety
• Trade fairs closed in autumn when weather began to turn bad merchants
settled would wait out winter months near a castle or town with a bishop’s
palace which in turn attracted artisans to sell to the merchants
• Slowly small centers of trade and crafts turned into cities
• Merchants who set up new towns would ask the local lord for a Charter or
written document setting out the rights and privileges of the town
• In return merchants paid the or a large sum of money or fees or both
• Although charters did vary they almost always granted towns people the right
to choose their own leaders and control their own affairs
A Commercial Revolution
• As trade revived and towns reappeared
• Merchants needed money so they borrowed money from money lenders
• In time their need for capital or money for investment
• To meet the changing economy, Europeans developed new ways of doing
business
• Partnerships: a group of merchants pooled their funds to finance a large scale
venture too costly for any individual
• Merchants also developed a system of insurance to reduce business risks for a
small fee an underwriter would insure the merchant’s shipment so if it was lost
or destroyed the underwriter paid the merchant most of its value. If the good
arrived safely the merchant lost only the insurance payment
• Bills of Exchange was when a merchant deposited money with a banker in his
home city and the banker issued a bill of exchange for cash in a distant city so
the merchant could travel without carrying gold coins which were easily stolen
Social Changes
• As the economy changed so did society
• Money undermined serfdom
• Lords needed money to buy fine goods, as a result many peasants began selling
farm products to towns people
• By 1300, most peasants in Western Europe were either tenant formers who paid
rent for their land or hired for labor
• In towns, the old social order of nobles, clergy and peasants had changed, by
1000 there was a new class called the middle class that was made up of
merchants, traders and artisans
• Nobles & clergy despised the new middle class because they were a disruptive
and beyond their control
Role of Guilds
• In medieval towns, merchants and artisans formed associations known as Guilds
• Merchant guilds dominated town life, passing laws and levying taxes, and how
town money would be spent
• In time artisan guilds resent the powerful merchants and they organized
• Guild members cooperated to protect their own economic interest
• To prevent competition they limited membership
• No one but guild members could work in any trade
• Guild members made rules to protect the quality of their goods, regulate hours
of labor and set prices.
• Guilds also provided social services like operating hospitals, schools and looked
after the needs of their members
Becoming a Guild Member
• To become a guild member meant many years of hard work
• At the age of seven or eight a child might become an apprentice or trainee to
a guild member was not paid but given bed and board
• Journeymen or salaried workers did not always become guild members and
were paid low wages
• Master Craftsman or full guild member
• Women worked in dozens of crafts
• A woman often engaged in the same trade as her father or husband
Town and City Life
• Medieval towns and cities were surrounded by high walls and as the city grew, space
within the walls filled to overflowing with many living outside the walls
• To keep up with the constant growth every few years the city might rebuild the walls
further and further out
• A typical medieval city was a jumble of narrow streets with tall houses and large
cathedrals
• Even rich towns had no garbage collection or sewer system. Waste was just flung into
the streets so they we
• Trade put new ideas as well as money into circulation
• New riches revised the social structure
• New forces were at work in politics
• Europeans would come into contact with civilizations much more advanced than
themselves
• From these lands came products, ideas and technologies that would transform
Europe re filthy smelly, noisy and crowded