The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages, or Medieval Age (Medieval is Latin for middle ages), is the span of European history between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance, or rebirth. It can be divided as such:

500-1000 A.D. The Dark Ages

1000-1300 A.D. Economic recovery

1300-1450 A.D. Crisis in the civilization of the Middle Ages

I. The Dark Ages

The Dark Ages in European history refers to the time after the fall of the Roman Empire when civilization fell back into disorder. The classic writings of Greece and Rome were forgotten and most of the advancements of these civilizations were forgotten. Literacy declined. Constant battle between local warlords and from new foreign invaders, such as the Vikings, made this a time of violence and insecurity. The focus of civilization moved from Italy northward to the lands of central Europe occupied by the Germanic tribes that helped bring down the Roman Empire. This is because this land was rich in natural resources; forests, minerals, rivers and streams were abundant.

A. The Franks

1. Clovis

The most powerful and influential of the Germanic tribes was the Franks. An important event in European history was when Clovis, a Frankish king, accepted Christianity as his religion. This not only strengthened his power by giving him the backing of the pope, but also helped secure Christianity as the dominant religion in Europe until modern times.

2. Charles Martel

Another important Frankish ruler was Charles Martel. In 732, at the Battle of Tours, he stopped the advance of Muslim armies moving eastward from Spain. This battle was decisive because it determined that Christianity, and not Islam, would remain dominant in Europe. He was also important because of his grandson, Charles the Great, better known as Charlemagne.

3. Charlemagne was the greatest of all medieval kings. He is important because he attempted to revive learning and bring some light to the dark ages. Although he himself never learned to read, he started schools and hired the best scholars of his day to teach and copy works of math, geometry, music, logic and astronomy. He spent most of his time at war expanding his territory.

An important event happened in Charlemagne’s life in the year 800 A.D. After helping the pope subdue some rebellious nobles in Italy, the pope called Charlemagne to come to Rome. On Christmas day while attending mass, the pope crowned Charlemagne emperor of all the Romans. By placing the crown on his head personally, the pope began the idea the the king was established by God himself. The idea, know as the divine right of kings, would persist until the age of Napoleon.

Charlemagne’ empire of Frankish kingdoms fell apart after his death. When his grandsons decided to meet at Verdun in 843 they agreed to split the empire into three areas. These areas were the beginning of the nations of Germany, Italy and France.

B. Feudalism: A New Social Order

1. Old problems and new threats

After 476 A.D. when Rome lost its grip on Europe, the land fell into disorder as tribal warfare and conflicts emerged. Then, the brief period of security brought about by Charlemagne ended after this death. This opened Europe to invasions. The Vikings began to terrify Europeans by their persistent and bloody attacks from the sea. It was clear that for the people to survive a new system would have to be established to give them the security they used to have under Rome. That system is called feudalism.

2. The Solution

Feudalism began when wealthy land owners (some of which were descendants of Roman patricians) divided their lands up and gave them out to lords to manage. The lords then divided their land up yet again into manors and put faithful vassals in charge of them. These vassals, or landlords, ran the day to day affairs of the lord on the manors. Some of them were made into knights by the lord. Each manor was protected by the lord’s knights and the land was worked by many serfs. Each person pledged their loyalty to the person above them. The system looked like this:

The serfs worked the land and served as foot soldiers for the king. In return they received protection from the knights and lords against attacks. Everyone provided something for some else and received something in return.

C. The Roman Catholic Church

1. Growth

Christianity grew from a small group of devoted followers of Christ to a highly organized religion that outlasted the Roman Empire itself. At first, some Emperors persecuted Christians. Then Constantine converted to the religion and made it legal. Soon Christianity became the official religion of Rome. When the western empire fell in 476 the Christian church was well organized and continued.

2. Organization

The church was organized much like feudalism. At the top was the Bishop of Rome, or the pope as he came to be called. Under the pope were archbishops, then bishops and then priests. Its structure was very similar to the feudal pyramid above.

3. Its Involvement in Daily Life

For the people of the Middle Ages, religion was extremely important. People did not think about religion; they thought religiously about everything. Religion was not confined to certain holidays or Sunday; daily life was inseparable from it. Seven ceremonies, or sacraments, emerged that encompassed the entire life of Medieval people from birth to death.

The Seven Sacraments

1. Baptism This was done at birth to remove the sin with which all people are born.

2. Confirmation This is to confirm that a young person has decided the continue in the religion

3. Penance This is some good work done to earn forgiveness of sin

4. Marriage A man and a woman are joined together by the Church

5. Holy Orders A person dedicates himself or herself to a life of service to the Church

6. Eucharist A eating the wine and bread that become the blood and body of Christ

7. Last Rights A person’s sins are forgiven on their death bed.

D. The Norman Conquest of England

1. The Conquest

The Normans were descendants of Viking raiders who settled in the north of France. (Today this region is still called Normandy.) When the king of England died in January 1066, William, king of the Normans, claimed to be the legitimate heir to the English throne. Although William was a Norman, he and the other Normans had absorbed the language and culture of the French. An English king named Harold claimed that he was the real heir to the throne. When Harold was crowned king William was furious; he began to prepare for the famous invasion of England.

Later that year William sailed his ships across the English Channel and fought the army of Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Harold was killed and William became the king of England. This is one of the most famous events in English history.

2. The Results

a. Feudalism established

William modernized England by bringing in an elaborate feudal system. He brought French lords from Normandy and they became the lords. The English people he defeated became the serfs. Thus feudalism in England was divided culturally: the French were the upper class and the English were the lower class. This profoundly affected the development of the English language.

b. The English language was changed

In England the rich lords spoke French and the serfs spoke English. As a result, the English language borrowed a lot of words from French, but these words retain their upper class character. For example, the English called their homes by the old English word haus. This became house in modern English. The French lords, however, called their homes by the French word maison. This French word for house has made its way into the English language as the word mansion, the house of a rich person. Also, the French words for certain animals became the English words for the meat that comes from those animals. The French beouf became beef, and porc became pork. This is because the rich French lords could afford to eat meat, so those words made their way into English.

E. The Crusades

1. The Cause of the Crusades

Towards the end of the 11^th century Islam was well established among the Turkish tribes of Asia Minor. One group of Muslim Turks, the Seljuks, was making its way westward, approaching the city of Constantinople. Muslims had already taken the Holy Land (the place where Jesus was born) and had ruled it for about 400 years. This was upsetting to Christians, many of whom could not make pilgrimages to Jerusalem. So when the Byzantine emperor Alexius asked the pope for help against the advancing Muslims, this added to the crisis of Muslim expansion that Europeans were already worried about (remember Tours in 732). Thus one element of the Crusades was strongly religious: Christian in Europe felt terrified and threatened by the growth of Islam.

But there was a political element to the Crusades too. Recently, Popes had been losing power to secular authorities (kings). In fact, when Urban II became pope, the papacy was still in exile, having been driven from Rome by a German king. The Crusades must be understood in this context: the pope was trying strengthen the office of the pope in the face of secular political power.

Urban II solved both the religious and the political problems with one brilliant stroke. He combined the feudal duty of a knight with that of a religious pilgrim to create the Crusader. Any knight who took the Crusader vow was promised forgiveness from sins. More importantly, the Crusader vow committed the knight to the pope by an oath that superseded his feudal vow to the king. The pope’s power had increased dramatically.

There was an economic cause of the Crusades as well. Most all of the lucrative trade that went on in the Mediterranean Sea was performed by Muslim or Byzantine merchants. As cities in Italy began to take form and grow, wealthy leaders and merchants gave their support to the pope for the Crusades. They believed the Crusades would weaken Muslim and Byzantine trade and give them an opportunity to profit from these trade routes.

2. Results of the Crusades

a. Trade increased. Europeans learned of other lands and things. They now wanted those things. What bothered them, was that they had to buy most of these things from Muslim traders.

b. Rediscovery of Classical learning (ancient Greece and Rome.) Writings of Aristotle were recovered.

c. New advances in medicine. The science of the Muslims was discovered by Europeans

d. The success of large armies encouraged the rise of nations.

II. The High Middle Ages

A. The Birth of Towns and the Middle class

1. Increase in food production and population

By the year 1000, much of Europe was experiencing an economic revival that would help Europe recover from the Dark Ages. Production increased and the population grew. There were several reasons for this.

a. Changes in technology. By 800 A.D. peasants were using plows made from iron rather than from wood. This allowed them to plow deeper into the ground and to plow more land in less time. They also developed a new harness which allowed them to use horses for plowing rather than oxen. Horses were faster and could plow more land than oxen could. Windmills were invented and used to power mills for grinding grain into flour. They did not have to depend on the presence of fast moving streams to turn mills.

b. Changes in agriculture. People learned how to increase their farmland by draining swamps and clearing forests. The amount of land that could be used for agriculture increased. Peasants also developed the three-field system. In this system, the peasants divided their land into three equal parts. On two of these parts, they planted crops and the third part they left unplanted. They would rotate this pattern within the three parts, allowing on third every year to go unplanted and restore its nutrients. This brought greater productivity because in the old system they divided their land in half and left half of it unplanted.

These changes greatly increased the production of food in Europe. With an increase in food, an increase in population almost always follows. Between 1000 and 1300 A.D., the population of Europe doubled.

2. Changes in Feudal society

Because new technologies (iron plows, harnesses, windmills) increased production, not as many serfs were needed to farm the manor lands. There was a surplus of labor. Because of this, manor lords began to release some serfs from their feudal vows allowing them to make their own living. These people began to learn trades and skills; they also began to trade. They formed something Europe had never had before: a middle class.

Some effects of these changes were:

1) Members of this middle class began to form the first towns. They set up shops and stores and began to conduct business.

2) To get their independence from the feudal lords, they would purchase a charter that gave them rights and privileges.

3) They began to use money instead of the barter system.

4) Each town formed a bank to change money, make loans, and issue letters of credit (similar to our checks).

5) They set up guilds. A guild was a made up of people of a similar trade (weavers, bakers, brewers, goldsmiths, etc.) who formed a group to protect their occupation. They established uniform prices, created common standards and measurements, and blocked competition from foreigners and non-guild members.

B. The Middle Class and Noble class gain more rights

1. Magna Carta

In 1215 the land-owning nobles forced the English king to sign the Magna Carta. This limited the power of the king.

2. The Estates-General

In France the Estates-General was formed. This was a body of representatives from every class of people all over France. It gave them influence in the decisions of the king.

III. The Crises of the Middle Ages

A. Religious problems

1. Struggles between secular and religious authorities.

The conflict between secular and religious leaders became more intense. An extreme example of this was when under Henry, king of England, Thomas Becket was murdered in his Cathedral.

2. Divisions within the Church.

One pope moved the papacy to Avignon. The Church lived in such luxury and splendor that this became known as the Babylonian Captivity. Finally Roman bishops elected another pope in Rome. There were two, then three popes. This was finally settled at a church council. This made the church look bad and some people started to doubt the spiritual health of the Roman Catholic Church.

B. The Hundred Years War

The rivalry between the English and French culminated in the 100 years war. The English took back Norman lands and seemed set to conquer all of France, thanks in part to the English long bow. Then Joan of Arc, 17 years old, led the French to drive out the English.

After Joan’s death the French started to defeat the English. Their new cannons destroyed English castles and forts. The French expanded their power and the English gave up on the dream of an empire on the continent.

Results of war

1. Large armies of foot soldiers and cannon made knights and castles less important. Feudal society was changing

2. Strong kings, rather than feudal lords, were the only ones who could afford the new armies, so kings became more powerful than local lords. Nations were forming.

3. The population of Europe was dramatically lowered. The armies destroyed farms and spread disease. Many starved because of this, not to mention the ones killed in battle.

C. Black Death (Video)