CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE• The Roman Empire began to fall apart soon after

Charlemagne’s death in 814.• By 844, the empire had been divided into three

kingdoms by Charlemagne’s grandsons.• Invasions also added to the disintegration.

Romans could not defend their borders.• The beginning of the DARK AGES:• --Little formal education for the masses.• The fall of Rome leads to FEUDALISM.

INVASION• Muslims invaded southern France, and the

Magyars from western Asia settled on the plains of Hungary and invaded western Europe.

• The Vikings, a Scandinavian peoples, invaded Europe, sacking towns, destroying churches, raping and stealing women, and defeating armies.

THE VIKINGS• The Vikings were superb warriors, sailors, and

shipbuilders.• Their famous dragon ships were long and narrow

with carved, arched prows that carried about 50 men.

• These dragon ships allowed sailing up shallow rivers to attack inland.

VIKING SETTLEMENTS• By the mid-9th century Franks eventually settled

and Christianized the Vikings.• In 911, a Frankish ruler gave a band of Vikings

the land that became known as Normandy.

FEUDALISM• Invaders posed a threat to the safety of the

people, especially in the absence of a strong central government.

• People began to turn to local landed aristocrats or nobles to protect them.

• This change led to the new political, social system called feudalism.

VASSELAGE• Feudalism arose between 800 and 900 and

thrived for 400 years.• At the heart of this system was the idea of

vassalage.• It came from Germanic society, where warriors

swore an oath to their leader.• By the 8th century, a man who served a lord

militarily was known as a vassal.

KNIGHTS• For the next 500 years, heavily armored cavalry

called knights dominated warfare.• They had great prestige and formed the

backbone of the European aristocracy.

SOCIAL HIERARCHY• In the Early Middle-Ages (500-1000), wealth was

based on owning land.• There was little trade.• When nobles wanted men to fight for them, they

granted the vassal a piece of land that supported the vassal and his family.

LOYALTY & LAND• The relationship between lord and vassal was

made official by a public act of homage of vassal to the lord.

• Loyalty to one’s lord was feudalism’s chief virtue.

FIEF• By the 9th century the land the lord granted to a

vassal was known as a fief.• Vassals had political authority in their fiefs.• The number of separate powerful lords and

vassals increased; many different people were now responsible for keeping order.

FEUDAL CONTRACT• Feudalism became complicated.• Kings had vassals who themselves had vassals.• Feudalism came to be characterized by a set of

unwritten rules known as the feudal contract.• These rules determined the relationship between

lord and vassal.• The major obligation of a vassal was military

service, about 40 days a year.

CASTLES• The growing number of castles made visible the

growth of the nobility in the High Middle Ages (1000-1300).

• Castles were the permanent residences and fortresses.

• Castles had two parts;– The Motte- a natural or artificially created hill– The Bailey- an open space.

THE KEEP• The castle’s central building, the keep, was built

on the motte.• All were encircled by large, stone walls.• The keep included a great hall where the lord

held court and received visitors, and people ate and even slept.

• As lords got wealthier, the castles became more complex and ornate.

WILLIAM OF NORMANDY• Since King Alfred the Great had united various

Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the late 9th century, Anglo-Saxon kings had ruled England.

• In 1066, an army commanded by William of Normandy defeated King Harold of England at the Battle of Hastings.

• William was crowned King of England.

DOMESDAY BOOK• The French speaking Normans and the Anglo-

Saxon nobility gradually merged into a new English culture.

• William took the first census in western Europe since Roman times, known as the Domesday Book.

• He also developed the system of taxation and royal courts earlier Anglo-Saxon kings had begun.

HENRY II• Henry II, ruled from 1154-1189 and enlarged the

power of the English monarchy.• He expanded the royal courts’ powers to cover

more criminal and property cases. • Because royal courts were all over the land, a

body of common law, law common to the whole kingdom, began to replace local codes.

THOMAS BECKET• Henry claimed he had the right to punish the

clergy in royal courts.• Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury,

disagreed.• The angry king expressed his desire to be rid of

Becket.• 4 knights took the challenge and killed the

archbishop in the cathedral.• An outraged public caused Henry to back off his

struggle with the Church.

MAGNA CARTA• Resenting the monarchy’s expanding power,

many nobles rebelled against King John.• In 1215 at Runnymede, John was forced to agree

to a document of rights called the Magna Carta, or Great Charter.

• The Magna Carta limited the power of the King and granted citizens more rights.

EDWARD I• In the 13th century, during the reign of Edward I,

the English Parliament emerged.• Parliament was an important step in developing

a representative government.• Under Edward I, it granted taxes and passed

laws.

EMPEROR JUSTINIAN• Justinian became emperor of the Eastern Roman

Empire in 527.• He wanted to restore the full Roman Empire.• By 527 he almost had, but only 3 years later he

died and the Lombards conquered Italy. • Shortly after other areas were lost.

THE BODY OF CIVIL LAW• Justinian’s most important contribution was his

codification of Roman law in the Body of Civil Law.

• It was the basis of imperial law until the Eastern Roman Empire ended in 1453.

• It also became the basis for the legal system in most of Europe.

CONSTANTINOPLE• Justinian’s conquests left the Eastern Roman

Empire in serious trouble:– Too far from Constantinople to protect the

capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, – An empty treasury– A population decline due to plague– Threats along its frontier

ISLAM• The most serious challenge to the Eastern Roman Empire invasion by Islam which had created a powerful united Arab force.• First, the empire lost Syria and Palestine in 636.• In the north the Bulgars defeated the empire’s forces and created a kingdom in the lower Danube Valley.

BYZANTINE EMPIRE• By the beginning of the 8th century, the much

reduced Eastern Roman Empire consisted only of the eastern Balkans and Asia Minor.

• Historians call this the Byzantine Empire.• It was its own distinctive civilization and lasted

until 1453.

BYZANTINE CULTURE• The Byzantine Empire was both Christian and

Greek.• Greek became the empire’s official language, but

the empire was built on the Eastern Orthodox Church.

PATRIARCH• The emperor’s power was absolute because he

was seen as chosen by God and crowned in sacred ceremonies.

• He exercised political control over the Church because he appointed the leader, called the Patriarch.

• Byzantines believed that God had commanded their state to preserve the true Christian faith.

SCHISM• The Eastern Orthodox would not accept the pope

as the head of the Christian faith.• In 1084 Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael

Cerularius excommunicated each other.• This created a schism or separation between

these 2 branches of Christianity.• The schism has not completely healed even

today.

POPE LEO IX PATRIARCH M.CERRLARIUS

SELJUK TURKS• The empire’s greatest threat was by the Seljuk

Turks who moved into Asia Minor.• Asia Minor was the empire’s chief source of food

and workers.• In 1071 a Turkish army defeated Byzantine forces

at Manzikert.• Emperor Alexius I turned to Europe for help.

THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR• The most violent struggle during the Middle Ages

began when King Philip VI of France seized Gascony in 1337.

• He attempted to make the Dutch part of France.• King Edward III then declared war on Philip which

lasted until 1453.

JOAN OF ARC• Joan of Arc was a French peasant woman who

unexpectedly saved the timid king Charles of France.

• She was a very religious Catholic girl who believed that the saints communicated to her that it was her duty to save France.

PURPOSE OF THE CRUSADES• From the 11th to 13th centuries European

Christians went on a series of military campaigns to regain the Holy Land from the Muslims, regarded as infidels (nonbelievers).

COUNCIL OF CLERMONT• Pope Urban II agreed to help Alexius I.• Among other reasons the Pope wanted to provide

papal leadership for a great cause.• At the Council of Clermont in 1084, Pope Urban II

urged Christians to take up arms in a holy war.

CALL FOR WARRIORS• Warriors from western Europe, especially France,

joined up.• Some were moved by the cause; others were

moved by adventure, the prospect of fighting, and an opportunity to gain territory, riches or even a title.

THE FIRST CRUSADE• The 1st Crusade had an army of several thousand

cavalry and 10,000 infantry.• The crusaders went down the Palestinian coast

and reached Jerusalem in 1099.• They took the city and massacred thousands of

its inhabitants.

CRUSADER STATES• The victors formed 4 Latin crusader states which

were surrounded by Muslims.• These kingdoms depended on supplies from

Europe coming through Italian cities.• Genoa, Pisa, and especially Venice grew rich and

powerful.

THE SECOND CRUSADE• By the 1140s, the Muslims began to strike back.• When one of the Latin states fell, the monastic

leader St. Bernard of Clairvaux attained the help of King Louis VII of France and Emperor Conrad III of German in a 2nd Crusade.

• It failed entirely.

THIRD CRUSADE• In 1187, Jerusalem fell to the Muslims under

Saladin.• 3 Christian rulers agreed to lead a 3rd crusade.• Emperor Frederic Babarossa of Germany,

Richard, the Lionheart of England, and Philip II Augustus of France.

SALADIN• The 3rd Crusade was not successful.• Frederick drowned in a local river, Philip II went

home to France, and Richard negotiated an agreement with Saladin allowing Christian pilgrims access to Jerusalem.

Richard the Lionheart

negotiating with Saladin

Philip II leaving for

France

Frederick drowning with his

horse in the river

THE FOURTH CRUSADE• About 6 years after Saladin’s death in 1193, Pope

Innocent III started a 4th Crusade.• The Venetian leaders of the 4th crusade used this

situation to weaken their largest commercial competitor, the Byzantine Empire.

• The crusaders sacked Constantinople in 1214.

FIRST CHILDREN’S CRUSADES• There were 2 children’s crusades.• In 1212, a German youth named Nicholas of

Cologne brought thousands of children to the pope saying that God had inspired him to lead the children to the Holy Land.

• The pope sent them home.

SECOND CHILDREN’S CRUSADE• Another group of about 20,000 French children

sailed for the Holy Land.• 2 of the ships went down at sea, and the

remainder of the children were sold into slavery on reaching North Africa.

EFFECTS OF CRUSADE• The Crusades benefited some Italian cities

economically, especially the big banking houses in Florence, Milan and Venice.

• One unhappy effect was the 1st widespread European attacks on the Jews that began during the Crusades.

• The biggest impact of the Crusades was political because they helped break down feudalism, which led to strong nation-states.