Transcript The Dark Ages - Orem High School

The Dark Ages
Medieval, Romanesque, and Gothic
So What made the dark ages so
dark?
As the Goths, the Barbarians, descended upon
Rome, much of the technology, art, and literature of
the Classical age was lost.
Europe was swept up in turmoil. Constant war and
shifting politics.
The people are mostly ignorant. Little education.
Little chance to improve their lives.
Goth Migrations
Age of Faith:
The Rise of Catholicism
Catholic means “universal,” and at this time it truly
was the universal church, at least in Europe.
The Church was the most organized entity for much
of the early Dark Ages. However, as time progresses,
kings are able to establish political power. Still, the
church has TREMENDOUS power over the people.
The Church owned large amounts of land. The Pope
spoke for God, but he enforced “God’s will” with his
army. Very rich. Had ecclesiastical power over rulers.
Monastic Period
Monasteries flourish. Oftentimes, a
nobleman’s first sons inherited all of
the land, so the other sons would
often become “men of cloth.”
Would take vows of chastity,
poverty, and obedience.
The clergy and the aristocracy were
often the only ones that were literate.
No printing press yet. Books were
copied by hand. Most popular book:
the Bible, painstakingly copied by
monks.
Monastic Orders
Benedictine: Strict
Cistercians: Stricter
Franciscans: Aware of poverty. Out among the
people more giving service.
Dominicans: Also centered around people, service
Jesuits: Emerged later. They were the “bulldogs for
the Lord.” Very strict vows. Missionaries and
enforcers for the church.
Age of Crusades
Purpose of the Crusades was to
regain the Holy Land which had
been taken over by the Infidels,
the Muslims.
Commissioned by the Pope. If
you fought, it was an automatic
ticket into heaven (no matter
what else you did.)
Chance to loot and gain money.
Richard the Lionheart
Crusades
1st Crusade (1095)- pretty successful.
2nd/3rd Crusades- Led by Richard the Lionhearted.
Both failed.
4th Crusade- Ended in Constantinople. Lots of
looting. Bad feelings between Muslims and
Christians throughout the whole time. (Still there?)
Children’s
Crusade
Children’s Crusade- One of
worst disasters ever.
30,000 children ages 9-14.
Thought their faith would
prevail where others failed.
Thought sea would part and
allow them to cross on dry
ground. Didn’t. Many
drowned, starved, or
exposed.
Bubonic Plague
1348-1349
Awful problems. No sewage system. Polluted water.
Bad hospitals. Didn’t understand the whole “germs”
thing quite yet.
Started in Italy. Spread from rats. Soon spread
through all of Europe. Killed 1/2 to 1/3 of all of
European population. Probably worst European
disaster (per capita) in history.
“The Triumph of Death”
by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
FEUDALISM
At that time, money was scarce and land was plentiful.
To become more rich, you needed to take more land. So a
king would do so by assembling an army. They would then
attack for him and also defend him from other invaders.
In return for their military services, the king would give the
nobility land. The king also demanded a tax to be paid to
him from the land, but the nobility got to collect the taxes.
Most stayed with nobility with a nice chunk going up to the
king.
Feudalism contd.
The nobility would then also parcel out their land to
other men in return for the same services: military
and taxes.
So the land was controlled by a select few at the very
top. The land was worked by the masses of
peasants in the field.
There were also many tradesmen that worked in the
cities. This is the simplified version of feudalism. It
also differed from place to place.
Bubonic Plague and
feudalism
When the Bubonic Plague hits and wipes out such a
large population, it had some major social effects.
Simple economics: supply and demand. Now that
the supply of workers much smaller, the individual
workers have a lot stronger bargaining tool. They
can make more demands, and they do. And life
improves tremendously, in general.
A Brief Political History:
(Reader’s
Digest version)
The Barbarian tribes are going around conquering
everyone. Most of these are coming from Eastern
Europe and Germany.
Three groups emerge from Germany:
The Angles and Saxons combine (Anglo-Saxon) and
take over Great Britain. GB is defended by the halfmyth, half-real warrior-king named Arthur.
The Franks move into the Roman region called Gaul
(France) and consolidate their power.
Merovingians
Clovis, a Frank king is strong enough to bring all the
tribes together under him. He is strong enough to set
up a dynasty, and his sons rule under him for many
years.
Many years later a new family, the Carolingians,
establish their military power and take control
politically.
Carolingians
In 711, a Carolingian, Charles Martel (the Hammer),
drives back the invading Moors coming up through
Spain. If he wasn’t able to unite and stop them, we
all might very well speak Arabic and worship Allah.
His son, Pepin (the Short), decided to take power
from the Merovingians. He asks the Pope to make it
official, which he does in exchange for some land in
Italy (and so begins the Papal States).
Charlemagne
Pepin’s son was the most famous of all
Medieval Kings, Charlemagne (Carl the Great.)
He not only united the people, but succeeded
in expanding his borders from France into
Germany and Eastern Europe.
He was brilliant and highly educated. He
attracted scholars and artists at his court and
did much to help the stagnant culture.
He was also Catholicism’s greatest missionary.
He was very convincing, either become a
Christian or die. In this way, all of Germany
was converted. As a reward, in 800 A.D. the
Pople crowned Charlemagne first king of the
Holy Roman Empire.
Split empire
Charlemagne’s empire was split between three of his
sons, Charles, Lothar, and Louis. Most importantly,
Charles got France and Louis got Germany.
Things were going great until the VIKING invasions.
The Norsemen started invading England, Germany
and France, looking to colonize. And they were
successful. Finally, the French kings gave them
some land in Northern France if they would repel the
other Vikings. This is why it’s called Normandy
(North men.)
Otto I
The German states started to
separate, but they had to unite for
one major reason: the
Hungarians kept invading.
Otto I was able to rise to power
and unite the Germans to defeat
the Hungarians. This established
Germany as a power to be
reckoned with.
Once again, the Pope crowned
Otto the king of the Holy Roman
Empire. This period is often
called the Ottonian Period.
1066: Battle of Hastings
The King of England dies and has no apparent heir to the throne.
He leaves his highly competent friend, Harold as king.
However, he had a bastard son named William. He was Norman,
lived in France. William felt that he should have claim to the
throne because he was his son. He decides to mount an invasion
and take the throne from Harold.
Battle of Hastings
Meanwhile, unfortunately for Harold, a group of
Vikings decided to invade England the same time
Harold did. Harold had to rush out with his army to
stop the Viking invasion. They fought hard and beat
the Vikings. This was the last major Viking invasion.
Within days, William had landed and was advancing.
Harold rushed his tired army back to fight William.
They tried hard, but were unsuccessful. William was
the new king of England. This is how England has
French (Norman) roots- affects culture and language.
Bayeux Tapestry
Animated by David Newton