Transcript Unit 6 Middle Ages

The New Germanic Kingdoms
 By 500 A.D., the Western Roman Empire had been
replaced by Germanic kingdoms that eventually
excluded Romans from holding power.
 Clovis established the kingdom of the Franks.
 He was the first Germanic ruler to convert to
Christianity and become allied with the Roman Catholic
Church.
 As Germans and Romans intermarried, they created a
new society.
 The family was the key social bond of the society and
impacted the Germanic legal system.
 The Germans devised a legal system based on a fine
called a wergild paid by the wrongdoer to the victim’s
family.
 The value of the fine varied according to social status, so
it cost more to commit an offense against a noble than a
slave.
 The ordeal was a system to establish guilt or innocence
through a physical trial.
 It was based on the belief in divine intervention.
The Role of the Church
 By the end of the fourth century, Christianity had
become the dominant religion of the Roman Empire,
and the Church developed a system of organization.
 Priests led parishes; groups of parishes became known
as bishoprics that were led by bishops.
 Bishoprics were under the authority of an archbishop.
 The head of the Catholic Church became known as the
pope.
 Gregory I, pope from 590 to 604, strengthened the
power of the papacy.
 He converted non-Christians and increased his spiritual
authority over the Church.
 The practice of living the life of a monk is known as
monasticism.
 Saint Benedict wrote a series of rules that became the
model for monasticism.
 Monks became Christian heroes in the new European
civilization, providing religious and moral leadership.
 Monks became the missionaries that converted Western
Europe to Catholicism.
 By 1050, most of Western Europe was Catholic.
 Women could become nuns and live in convents,
which were headed by abbesses.
The Carolingian Empire
 Pépin was a chief officer of the Frankish kingdom who
assumed the kingship for himself and his family.
 His son was Charles the Great.
 Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, was an intelligent
leader and fierce warrior who expanded the Frankish
kingdom, creating the Carolingian Empire.
 The Carolingian Empire was the largest European
empire in history at the time.
 Charlemagne sent out messengers called the missi dominici
to ensure that his wishes were enacted.
 In 800, Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the
Roman Empire by the pope.
 This event symbolized the joining of Roman, Germanic, and
Christian elements.
 Charlemagne’s strong desire to promote learning and
education is often referred to as the Carolingian
Renaissance.
The End of the Carolingian Empire
 After Charlemagne’s death in 814, Europe was invaded
by foreign powers.
 Muslims attacked Southern Europe and France in the
ninth and tenth centuries.
 At the end of the ninth century, Magyars settled in the
plains of Hungary and attacked central Europe.
 The most devastating attacks came from the Vikings.
 The Scandinavian warriors used longboats that enabled
them to attack towns and villages far from the coast.
 Frankish rulers gave the Vikings land in Normandy and
converted the Norsemen to Christianity.
 The Vikings were made a part of European civilization.
The Development of Feudalism
 As a result of invasions, the people of Western Europe
turned to local lords for protection.
 This led to a social and political system known as
feudalism.
 Vassals were men who served a lord in a military
capacity.
 Knights came to dominate European warfare for nearly
500 years.
 Knights had a high degree of social prestige and
formed the backbone of European aristocracy.
 Vassals swore allegiance to a lord. In turn, the vassal
was given a fief and political control of it.
 The lord and vassal relationship came to be
characterized by a set of unwritten rules known as the
feudal contract.
 Vassals had to perform military service and the lord
had to provide land and protection.
Feudal Society
 In Europe during the Middle Ages, society was
dominated by men whose main concern was warfare.
 Nobles and knights attended tournaments, where the
knights would demonstrate their fighting skills.
 Influenced by the Catholic Church, nobles and
knights began to follow an idealized code of ethics
called chivalry.
 Lower-class women had few rights, but aristocratic
women had opportunities to play important roles.
 The lady of the castle supervised affairs for her
husband’s absence travel or war.
 Eleanor of Aquitaine was an influential woman who was
married to the king of France, and later to the king of
England.
 England in the High Middle Ages
 In 1066 William of Normandy defeated King Harold at
the Battle of Hastings.
 William was crowned king of England, leading to a new
English culture.
 Henry II, who ruled from 1154 to 1189, expanded the
power of the king.
 Common law began to replace the varying codes of the
kingdom.
 Thomas á Becket was the
archbishop of Canterbury
who challenged Henry by
claiming that only the
Roman Catholic Church
could try clerics.
 He was killed by knights
who were loyal to Henry II.
 English nobles resented the growing power of the king
and defeated the forces of King John at Runnymede.
 In 1215 the king was forced to put his seal on the
document known as the Magna Carta.
 This document outlined the rights of the people and the king.
 During the thirteenth century, the English Parliament
was created.
 This representative assembly dealt with taxes, politics,
and law.
France in the Middle Ages
 Following the fall of the Carolingian Empire, France
was ruled by the Capetians in the Ile-de-France region
around Paris.
 The reign of Philip II Augustus was a turning point for
the French monarchy.
 He added land and expanded the power and income of
the monarchy.
 Louis IX ruled for much of the thirteenth century and
tried to bring justice to his people.
 He was later made a saint.
 Philip IV created a
French parliament by
meeting with the
three estates of the
kingdom:
 Clergy (first estate)
 Nobles (second
estate)
 Townspeople and
peasants (everyone
else)(third estate)
The Holy Roman Empire
 Otto I was a Saxon king in Germany who was crowned
emperor of the Romans in 962.
 The kingdom of Germanic and Italian states was
known as the Holy Roman Empire.
 The German kings struggled to control Italy during
this period.
 This struggle led to a decentralized government, and
political power was held by the dukes and princes.
 Germany and Italy consisted of many independent
states.
 Unlike England and France, Germany and Italy would
not create a national monarchy.
Central and Eastern Europe
 The Slavic peoples were from central Europe.
 They eventually split into three groups:
 Western Slavs eventually formed the Polish and
Bohemian kingdoms.
 These two groups were converted to Christianity and became
part of the Roman Catholic Church.
 Eastern Slavs were converted to Orthodox Christianity
by Byzantine missionaries.
 Southern Slavs included the Croats, Serbs, and
Bulgarians.
 They were converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, except for the
Croats, who accepted the Catholic Church.
 Eastern Slavic people also settled in present-day
Ukraine and Russia.
 The Mongols conquered Russia in the thirteenth
century.
 In 1242 the Mongols rewarded the Russian prince
Alexander Nevsky with the title of Grand Prince.
 Nevsky’s descendants became the rulers of Russia.
From Eastern Roman Empire to Byzantine Empire
 Despite the fall of Rome, the Eastern Roman Empire
continued to exist.
 Its political and cultural center was the city of
Constantinople.
 Justinian became emperor of the Eastern Roman
Empire in 527.
 Justinian expanded the empire to include Italy, part of
Spain, North Africa, Asia Minor, Palestine, and Syria.
 Justinian’s most important contribution was The Body of
Civil Law, a codification of legal material in the empire.
 The Eastern Roman Empire soon lost much territory
because of overspending on foreign conquest, Islamic
invasions, and the success of the Bulgars in the Balkans.
 The new, smaller empire was called the Byzantine Empire.
 The emperor appointed the head of the Eastern
Orthodox Church, known as the patriarch, which gave
him political and religious power in the empire.
 Justinian built the capital of Constantinople into a
beautiful city that became a trading center between the
Middle East and Europe.
 Justinian’s greatest achievement—other than The Body
of Civil Law—was the creation of the Hagia Sophia, a
church with an enormous dome.
Justinian
New Heights and New Problems
 Macedonian rulers expanded the Byzantine empire to
include Bulgaria, Crete, Cyprus, and Syria.
 Relations between the Eastern Orthodox Church and
the Catholic Church worsened during this period.
 A schism developed between the two main branches of
Christianity.
 The Byzantine empire was threatened by the Turks
and turned to Europe for help.
The Crusades
 From the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries,
European Christians carried out a series of Crusades to
regain the Holy Land from the Muslims.
 Pope Urban II saw the Crusades as an opportunity to
free Jerusalem and Palestine from the infidels.
 The First Crusade was made up of mostly French
warriors who retook Jerusalem in 1099.
 A horrible massacre of the inhabitants ensued.
 The Crusaders set up Christian kingdoms on the coast.
 By 1140, the Muslims began to strike back, and St.
Bernard of Clairvaux called for a Second Crusade.
 Muslim forces under Saladin recaptured Jerusalem in
1187.
 After Saladin’s death, Pope Innocent III initiated the
Fourth Crusade.
 The crusaders sacked Constantinople in a petty dispute
between Italian and Byzantine leaders.
 Effects of the Crusades:
 Wealth for the Italian port cities
 Increased attacks on Jews
 Breakdown of feudalism
 Development of nation-states
The New Agriculture
 The European population doubled in size between
1000 and 1300.
 The large population increase in Europe was due in
part to a more peaceful environment and changes in
technology.
 Food production was increased by using scythes, axes,
and hoes.
 A new plow called the carruca led to the growth of
farming villages.
 People had to work together to buy the iron needed to
make the plow and share the team of animals needed to
pull the plow.
 Europeans also started using three-field rotations,
harnessing wind and water, and using animal power to
save labor and produce more crops.
The Manorial System
 The manor was an agricultural estate run by a lord and
worked by serfs.
 Serfs provided labor services, paid rents, and were
subject to the control of the lord.
 The life of European peasants was very simple.
 They lived in wood framed cottages, generally
consisting of one or two rooms.
 The seasons of the year dictated peasant activities.
 Religious holidays provided peasants with time away
from work and brought them into contact with the
Church.
 Peasant women had to work in the field, raise children,
and manage the household.
 Grains were used for making bread, the daily food of
peasants, and ale.
 Vegetables, cheeses, and sometimes meat supplemented
the meals of peasants.
 Water was not easy to obtain, so wine was the drink of
the upper classes and ale was the drink of the poor.
The Revival of Trade
 Cities in strategic locations, such as Venice and
Flanders, grew in size and wealth.
 Trade fairs were initiated by cities to encourage more
trade.
 As trade increased, demand for gold and silver coins
increased.
 Eventually, a money economy replaced the barter
system.
 New trading companies and banking firms led to the
economic system of commercial capitalism.
The Growth of Cities
 The revival of trade led to a revival of cities.
 Merchants and artisans moved into these newly
revitalized cities and became known as bourgeoisie.
 The people in the cities and towns slowly gained their
independence from local lords.
 The cities created their own governments, and patricians
were elected legally or illegally.
 Medieval towns were surrounded by stone walls and
were cramped and dirty.
 Pollution and the threat of fire plagued the city
inhabitants.
 People began to organize themselves into business
associations.
 These guilds played a leading role in the economic life of
cities.
 A person who wanted to learn a trade went through a
series of steps.
 People started as unpaid apprentices, earned wages as a
journeyman, and could become a master by producing a
masterpiece.
The Papal Monarchy
 The popes of the Catholic Church had political and
religious power since they controlled the Papal States.
 Pope Gregory VII wanted to free the Church of
political interference from lords and kings and ended
the practice of lay investiture
 Gregory claimed that the pope had authority over the
entire Christian world including its rulers.
 If rulers did not accept this, they would be removed.
 Henry IV of Germany disagreed with the pope’s view
and a struggle known as the Investiture Controversy
ensued.
 Under the Concordat of Worms agreement in 1122, a
bishop in Germany was elected by the Church, and
then the bishop paid homage to the king.
 Papal power was strengthened under Pope Innocent
III who used the interdict to get his way.
 People feared not receiving sacraments, and pressured
rulers to listen to the pope.
New Religious Orders
 In 1098, a group of monks who were unhappy with the
lack of discipline at their monastery started the
Cistercian order.
 Women increasingly became involved in religious
orders. Intellectual women, such as Hildegard of
Bingen, found convents a haven for their activities.
 In the 1200s, the Franciscans were founded by St.
Francis of Assisi.
 Francis was a wealthy merchant from Assisi who
decided to give up his worldly possessions and preach to
the poor.
 The Franciscans became popular for their simplicity
and devotion to the poor.
 The Dominican order was founded by Dominic de
Guzmán.
 The Dominicans were dedicated to defending Church
teachings from heresy.
 To deal with heretics, the Church created the
Inquisition.
 This court had regular proceedings to find and try
heretics.
Religion in the High Middle Ages
 The Church in the High Middle Ages played a vital role
in the lives of Europeans.
 Some people, because of their holiness, were called
saints and were revered by the people.
 Relics were usually the bones of saints or objects
connected to saints.
 Worshipping relics and pilgrimages to holy sites were
important to European Christians.
Architecture
 In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, churches were
built in the Romanesque style.
 The construction of the Romanesque churches was
similar to the basilicas of the Roman era, except that
instead of flat roofs, they had arched vaults.
 Romanesque churches required massive pillars to hold
up the stone roofs, and had little light due to the lack
of windows.
 A new style, called Gothic, utilized ribbed vaults and
flying buttresses to allow for higher ceilings and
thinner walls.
 Gothic cathedrals were spectacular churches with
stained-glass windows that symbolized the spirituality
of the people.
Universities
 The High Middle Ages saw the rise of universities.
 The first European university was established in
Bologna, Italy.
 Soon, universities were set up in Paris, France, and
Oxford in England.
 Students could earn a doctorate in law, medicine, or
theology.
 Theology, the most highly regarded subject, was
influenced by scholasticism.
 Scholasticism attempted to reconcile Christian
teachings with the works of the Greek philosophers such
as Aristotle, who reached conclusions by rational
thought, not by faith.
 In the 1200s, Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote his
masterpiece Summa Theologica which concluded that
reason could not conflict with truths arrived at
through faith.
Vernacular Literature
 Latin was the universal language used in the Church
and schools.
 New literature began to be written in vernacular, or
everyday speech.
 The most popular vernacular literature of the twelfth
century was troubadour poetry.
 Chanson de geste, or the heroic epic, was also popular.
The Black Death
 During the 1300s, the Black Death killed
approximately 1/3rd of the European population.
 The plague generally followed trade routes.
 It devastated urban centers, and villages in Germany
and England were wiped off the map.
 The Black Death’s most common form was the bubonic
plague, which was spread by fleas on rats.
 The disease was so lethal, that family members often had to
abandon one another.
 Effects of the Black Death:
 Approximately one-third to one-half of the population killed
 Rise in anti-Semitism
 Decline in trade, labor shortages, and decreased demand for
food
 Decline of serfdom and the influence of the Church
 Growth of cities and peasant revolts
Decline of Church Power
 In the 13th century, a struggle began between Pope
Boniface VIII and King Philip IV of France over the
king’s right to tax the clergy.
 The struggle ended when Boniface VIII died after fleeing
Philip’s forces.
 Philip then engineered the election of a French pope,
Clement V, in 1305.
 Clement V moved to Avignon in southern France.
 From 1305 to 1377 popes lived in Avignon.
 The election of the Italian Pope Urban VI was declared
invalid by French cardinals, who elected a French pope
which began the Great Schism.
 John Hus, a Czech reformer, was burned at the stake
for heresy for his attempts at reforming the Church.
 Both the papacy and the Church lost political and
religious power due to the crises of the fourteenth
century.
The Hundred Years’ War
 The Hundred Years’ War began in 1337 when the king
of France seized the English controlled duchy of
Gascony in France.
 At the Battle of Crécy in 1346, English archers using
longbows devastated the French knights.
 In 1415, the English king Henry V again defeated the
French at the Battle of Agincourt and the English
controlled northern France.
 A peasant named Joan of Arc believed that God had
chosen her to save France.
 The inspired French army seized Orléans.
 The French eventually won the war in 1453, aided by the
use of the cannon and gunpowder.
Political Recovery
 In the 1400s, a number of new rulers in Europe
attempted to centralize power and establish new
monarchies.
 The New Monarchies:
 France
 France became unified after the Hundred Years’ War.
 There was a permanent royal income due to increased taille.
 The monarchy relied on the lesser nobles and middle class for
royal power.
 Industry and commerce was promoted.
 England
 The Tudor dynasty was established when Henry Tudor ended
the Wars of the Roses.
 Henry VII abolished private armies.
 Henry VII became popular with his low taxes.
 Spain
 During the Middle Ages, Christian kingdoms regained land
from the Muslims.
 The Christian kingdoms were unified when Isabella of Castile
married Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469.
 Ferdinand and Isabella enforced strict conformity to
Catholicism.
 The Holy Roman Emperor was a position held by the
Hapsburg dynasty of Austria.
 Eastern Europe was unable to centralize due to
religious and political differences.
 In Russia, Ivan III overthrew the Mongols and
established a new Russian state by 1480.