The
Middle Ages of European history (adjectivial form
medieval or
mediæval) is a period of European history covering roughly a
millenniumA millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years...
in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus. It is commonly dated from the
fall of the Western Roman EmpireThe decline of the Roman Empire refers to both the gradual disintegration of the economy of Rome and the barbarian invasions that were its final doom...
, and contrasted with a later
Early Modern PeriodIn history, the early modern era of modern history follows the late Middle Ages. Historians refer to the period beginning from approximately 1500 AD and lasting to around 1800 AD. The events include the first European colonies, the rise of strong centralized governments, and the beginnings of...
; the time during which the
ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
and the rise of
humanismHumanism is a perspective common to a wide range of ethical stances that attaches importance to human dignity, concerns, and capabilities, particularly rationality. Although the word has many senses, its meaning comes into focus when contrasted to the supernatural or to appeals to authority...
in the
Italian RenaissanceThe Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
unfolded are generally associated with the transition out of the Middle Ages, with European overseas expansion as a succeeding process, but such dates are approximate and based upon nuanced arguments. "periodization issues" are discussed in later section of this article.
The Middle Ages included the first sustained
urbanizationUrbanization is the physical growth of urban areas from rural areas as a result of population immigration to an existing urban area. Effects include change in density and administration services. While the exact definition and population size of urbanized areas varies amongdifferent countries,...
of northern and western
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
. Many modern European countries owe their origins to events and trends in the Middle Ages; present European political boundaries are, in many regards, the result of the military and dynastic outcomes during this period.
Terminology
Until the Renaissance (and for some time after that), the standard scheme of history was to divide history into
six agesThe Six Ages of the World is a Christian historical periodization outline first written about by Saint Augustine circa 400 AD. It is based along Christian religious events, from the birth of Adam to the events of Revelation...
, inspired by the biblical
six days of creationCreation according to Genesis is the account of the creation of the world and of the first man and woman as found in the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible....
, or
four monarchiesThe fifth monarchy is a millennarian idea, based on Biblical sources. The Book of Daniel refers to four monarchies or 'world empires', namely : the Assyrian Empire; the Persian Empire; the Macedonian Empire; and the Roman Empire...
based on Daniel 2:40. The early
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
historians, in their glorification of all things classical, declared two periods in history, that of
Ancient timesAncient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history in the Old World until the Early Middle Ages in Europe and the Qin Dynasty in China....
and that of the period referred to as the "Dark Age".
Filippo VillaniFilippo Villani was a chronicler of Florence. Son of the chronicler Matteo Villani, he extended the original Nuova Cronica of his uncle Giovanni Villani down to 1382.-Career:...
first mentioned a "middle period" between Antiquity and his present when he observed in a treatise of 1382 that the islands in the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
were called by different names in
priscis mediis modernisque temporibus ("primitive, middle, and modern times"). In the early 15th century, it was believed history had evolved from the Dark Age to a new period with its revival of things classical, so some scholars, such as
Flavio BiondoFlavio Biondo was an Italian Renaissance humanist historian. He was the historian who coined the term Middle Ages and is known as one of the first archaeologists....
, began to write about a middle period between the Ancient and Modern, which became known as the Middle Age. It was not until the late 17th century when German scholar
Christoph CellariusChristoph Cellarius was a German classical scholar from Schmalkalden who held positions in Weimar and Halle...
' published
Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, and New Period that the
tripartiteTripartite means composed of or split into three parts, or refers to three parties. Specifically, it may also refer to any of the following:* 3 * Tripartite body, soul and spirit* Tripartite language* Tripartite motto...
periodization scheme began to be used more systemically.
The plural form of the term, Middle
Ages, is used in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
,
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
"1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...
,
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
,
BulgarianBulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian demonstrates several linguistic innovations that set it apart from all other Slavic languages except the Macedonian language, such as the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite...
, and
IcelandicIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. Its closest relatives are Faroese and certain Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognamål....
while other European languages use the singular form (
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
medioevo,
SerbianSerbian is a South Slavic language, spoken chiefly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and in the Serbian diaspora...
:
Sredni vijek,
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
le moyen âge,
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
das Mittelalter,
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
edad media,
RomanianRomanian or Daco-Romanian is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova. It has official status in Romania, Republic of Moldova, and the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia...
ev mediu,
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
Средние века). This difference originates in different
Neo-LatinThe term New Latin, or Neo-Latin, is used to describe a form of the Latin language used for scholarly and scientific publications and for the formation of scientific terminology, such as botanical terms and taxonomic classification, after the end of the Renaissance period...
terms used for the Middle Ages before
media aetas became the standard term. Some were singular (
media aetas,
media antiquitas,
medium saeculum, and
media tempestas), others plural (
media saecula and
media tempora). There seems to be no simple reason why a particular language ended up with the singular or the plural form. The term "medieval" (sometimes spelled "mediaeval") was first contracted from the Latin
medium ævum, or "middle epoch", by Enlightenment thinkers as a pejorative descriptor of the Middle Ages.
The common subdivision into
EarlyThe Early Middle Ages, or Dark Ages, is a period in the history of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It lasted from about AD 500 to 1000. The period featured raiding, migration, and conquest by Huns, Germanic peoples, Arabs, Vikings, Hungarians and others. There was frequent...
,
HighThe High Middle Ages was the period of European history in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
, and
Late Middle AgesThe Late Middle Ages is a term used by historians to describe European history in the period of the 14th and 15th centuries . The Late Middle Ages were preceded by the High Middle Ages, and followed by the Early Modern era ....
came into use after World War I. It was caused by the works of
Henri PirenneHenri Pirenne was a leading Belgian historian. He also became prominent in the non-violent resistance to the Germans who occupied Belgium in World War I....
(in particular the article "Les périodes de l'historie du capitalisme" in
Académie Royale de Belgique. Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres, 1914) and
Johan HuizingaJohan Huizinga , was a Dutch historian and one of the founders of modern cultural history.-Life:Born in Groningen as the son of Dirk Huizinga, a professor of physiology, and Jacoba Tonkens, who died two years after his birth, he started out as a student of Indo-Germanic languages, earning his...
(
The Autumn of the Middle AgesThe Autumn of the Middle Ages, or The Waning of the Middle Ages, is the best-known work by the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga....
, 1919).
Dorothy Sayers, a noted scholar in medieval literature as well as a famous writer of detective books, strongly objected to the term. In the
forewordA foreword is a piece of writing often found at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature, before the introduction, and written by someone other than the author of the book. A preface, by contrast, is written by the author of the book, although sometimes the two terms are used...
to her translation of
The Song of RolandThe Song of Roland is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. It exists in various different manuscript versions, which testify to its enormous and enduring popularity in the 12th to 14th centuries...
, she writes "That new-washed world of clear sun and glittering colour, which we call the Middle Age (as though it were middle-aged), has perhaps a better right than the blown summer of the Renaissance to be called the Age of Re-Birth."
Periodization issues
The Middle Ages form the middle period in a traditional
schematicright|thumb|300px|A schematic of the [[Washington Metro]]. The schematic is not drawn to scale; distances between stations are fixed and lines are drawn at 45 and 90-degree angles....
divisionPeriodization is the attempt to categorize or divide time into named blocks. The result is a descriptive abstraction that provides a useful handle on periods of time with relatively stable characteristics...
of European history into three "ages": the
classical civilizationClassical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the modern period. The idea of such a periodization is attributed to
Flavio BiondoFlavio Biondo was an Italian Renaissance humanist historian. He was the historian who coined the term Middle Ages and is known as one of the first archaeologists....
, an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
humanist historian.
Commonly seen periodizations specify a beginning between ca. 400 BCE and 476 (
the sackings of RomeThe Sack of Rome occurred on August 24, 410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths, led by Alaric I. The Roman capital had been moved to the Italian city of Ravenna by the young emperor Honorius, after the Visigoths entered Italy....
by the Visigoths to the deposing of
Romulus AugustusRomulus Augustus , more known by his nickname Romulus Augustulus , was the last Western Roman Emperor reigning from the 31 October 475 until his deposition on the 4 September 476...
). An end is even less clear; in fact, scholars assign different dates in different parts of Europe. End dates range between ca. 1453 and 1517 (the
Fall of ConstantinopleThe Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire which occurred after a siege laid by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Sultan Mehmed II. The siege lasted from Thursday, 5 April, 1453 until Tuesday, 29 May, 1453 , when the city fell to the Ottomans...
to the
Protestant ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
begun with
Martin LutherMartin Luther changed the course of Western civilization by initiating the Protestant Reformation. As a priest and theology professor, he confronted indulgence salesmen with his The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. Luther strongly disputed their claim that freedom from God's punishment of sin could...
's
Ninety-Five Theses).
Most scholars who work in 15th century
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
history, for instance, consider themselves
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
specialists, while anyone working elsewhere in Europe during the early 15th century is considered a medievalist. Others choose specific events, such as the
Turkish capture of ConstantinopleThe Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire which occurred after a siege laid by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Sultan Mehmed II. The siege lasted from Thursday, 5 April, 1453 until Tuesday, 29 May, 1453 , when the city fell to the Ottomans...
or the end of the Anglo-French
Hundred Years' WarThe Hundred Years' War was a prolonged conflict lasting from 1337 to 1453 between two royal houses for the French throne, which was vacant with the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings. The two primary contenders were the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known...
(both 1453), the invention of the moveable type printing press in Europe by Johann Gutenberg (around 1455, independently of Asian innovations in the field centuries earlier), the
fall ofThe Granada War was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1492 during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella by Castile and Aragon against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada...
Muslim Spain or
Christopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere...
's voyage to America (both 1492), the
Protestant ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
starting 1517, or the
Battle of Lepanto (1571)The Battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571 when a galley fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Spain , the Republic of Venice, the Papacy The Battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571 when a galley fleet of the Holy League,...
to mark the period's end. In England, the change of monarchs which occurred on 22 August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth is often considered to mark the end of the period,
Richard IIIRichard III was King of England from 1483 until his death. He was the last king of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field was the decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, and is sometimes regarded as the end of the Middle Ages in England...
representing the old medieval world, and the
TudorsThe House of Tudor was a prominent European royal house that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch Henry Tudor, descended paternally from the rulers of the Welsh principality of Deheubarth, and maternally from a legitimised branch of the English royal...
a new royal house and a new historical period. The
Catholic MonarchsThe Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. The title of "Catholic King and Queen" was bestowed on them by the Pope Alexander VI. They married on October 19,1469, in the city of Valladolid; Isabella was eighteen...
are generally deemed the last medieval rulers of
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
.
Similar differences are now emerging in connection with the start of the period. Traditionally, the Middle Ages are said to have begun when the West Roman Empire formally ceased to exist in 476. However, that date is not important in itself, since the West Roman Empire had been very weak for some time, while Roman culture was to survive at least in Italy for yet a few decades or more. Today, some date the beginning of the Middle Ages to the division and
ChristianizationThe historical phenomenon of Christianization, the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once, also includes the practice of converting native pagan practices and culture, pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses, due...
of the Roman Empire (4th century); others, like
Henri PirenneHenri Pirenne was a leading Belgian historian. He also became prominent in the non-violent resistance to the Germans who occupied Belgium in World War I....
, see the period to the rise of Islam (7th century) as "late Classical". Another argument for a late beginning to the Middle Ages was presented by
Peter Brown-Life:He was born in Dublin, Ireland to a Protestant family, and was educated at Shrewsbury School and New College, Oxford. He was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford where he pursued his graduate studies under the direction of Arnaldo Momigliano....
. Brown championed the idea of
Late AntiquityLate Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown...
, a period that was culturally distinct from both the preceding Empire and from the rest of the Middle Ages. Brown’s argument rests less on the economic changes within the Mediterranean than on social and religious change within the Empire between 300 and 750. To Brown, the slow collapse of the Empire allowed a period of great creativity and expressiveness in which Christianity flourished and became institutionalized.
The Middle Ages in
Western EuropeWestern Europe is the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a cultural entity—the region lying west of Central Europe...
are often subdivided into three intervals. This includes an early period (sometimes called the "
Dark AgesThe Dark Ages is a term in historiography referring to a perceived period of cultural decline or societal collapse that took place in Western Europe between the fall of Rome and the eventual recovery of learning. Increased understanding of the accomplishments of the Middle Ages in the 19th century...
", at least from the fifth to eighth centuries) of shifting polities, a relatively low level of economic activity, and successful incursions by non-Christian peoples (Slavs, Arabs,
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
ns,
AvarsThe Eurasian Avars, sometimes referred to as the European Avars, or Ancient Avars, were a highly organized and powerful confederation of a mixed ethnic background, thought to be closely related to the Mongols, Bulgars, Khazars and other Oghur Turkic peoples of the time...
). The middle period (the
High Middle AgesThe High Middle Ages was the period of European history in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
) follows, a time of developed institutions of lordship and
vassalA vassal in the terminology that both preceded and accompanied the feudalism of medieval Europe, is one who enters into mutual obligations with a monarch, usually of military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain guarantees, which came to include the terrain held as a fief. By...
age,
castleA castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress, in that it describes a residence of a monarch or...
-building and
mounted warfareThe first use of horses in warfare occurred over 5000 years ago. The earliest evidence of horses ridden in warfare dates from Eurasia between 4000 and 3000 BC. A Sumerian illustration of warfare from 2500 BC depicts some type of equine pulling wagons...
, and reviving urban and commercial life. The last span is a later period of growing royal power, the rise of commercial interests, and weakening customary ties of dependence, especially after the 14th century
plagueThe Black Death was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, but this view has recently been challenged...
.
In the
history of ScandinaviaThe history of Scandinavia is the history of the Nordic countries — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.- Pre-historic age :Little evidence remains of the Scandinavia of the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, or the Iron Age except limited numbers of tools created from stone, bronze, and iron,...
, the Middle Ages followed
prehistoryPrehistory is a term used to describe the period before recorded history. Paul Tournal originally coined the term Pré-historique in describing the finds he had made in the caves of southern France...
during the 11th century, as the rulers converted to Christianity, and substantial written records appeared. A similar shift from prehistory to the Middle Ages occurred in Estonia and Latvia during the 13th century.
Geographic issues
While the term "medieval period", often used synonymously with "Middle Ages", is usually used to describe a period of European history, some 20th century historians have described non-European countries as "medieval" when those countries show characteristics of "feudal" organization. The pre-Westernization period in the
history of JapanThe written history of Japan begins with brief information of Twenty-Four Histories, a collection of Chinese historical texts, in the 1st century AD. However, there is evidence that suggests people were living on the islands of Japan since the upper paleolithic period...
, and the pre-colonial period in developed parts of
sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa is a geographical term used to describe the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara, or those African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
, are also sometimes termed "medieval." These terms have fallen out of favor, as modern historians are reluctant to try to fit the history of other regions to the European model.
Origins: The later Roman Empire
The Roman empire reached its greatest territorial extent during the 2nd century. The following two centuries witnessed the slow decline of Roman control over its outlying territories. The Emperor
DiocletianGaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from 20 November 284 to 1 May 305. Born to a Dalmatian family of low status, he rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the emperor Carus...
split the empire into separately administered eastern and western halves in 285. The division between east and west was encouraged by Constantine, who refounded the city of
ByzantiumByzantium was an ancient Greek city, which was founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas . The name "Byzantium" is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
as the new capital,
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
, in 330.
Military expenses increased steadily during the 4th century, even as Rome’s neighbours became restless and increasingly powerful. Tribes who previously had contact with the Romans as trading partners, rivals, or mercenaries had sought entrance to the empire and access to its wealth throughout the 4th century. Diocletian’s reforms had created a strong governmental bureaucracy, reformed taxation, and strengthened the army. These reforms bought the Empire time, but they demanded money. Roman power had been maintained by its well-trained and equipped armies. These armies, however, were a constant drain on the Empire's finances. As warfare became more dependent on
heavy cavalryHeavy cavalry is a class of cavalry whose primary role was to engage in direct combat with enemy forces . Although their equipment differed greatly depending on the region and historical period, they were generally mounted on large powerful horses, and were often equipped with some form of scale,...
, the infantry-based Roman military started to lose its advantage against its rivals. The defeat in 378 at the
Battle of AdrianopleThe Battle of Adrianople , sometimes known as the Battle of Hadrianopolis, was fought between a Roman army led by the Roman Emperor Valens and Gothic rebels led by Fritigern...
, at the hands of mounted Gothic lancers, destroyed much of the Roman army and left the
western empireThe Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire, from its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, today widely known as the Byzantine Empire....
undefended. Without a strong army, the empire was forced to accommodate the large numbers of
Germanic tribesThe Germanic peoples are a historical ethno-linguistic group, originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age...
who sought refuge within its frontiers.
Known in traditional historiography collectively as the “barbarian invasions”, the
Migration PeriodThe Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions or Völkerwanderung , was a period of human migration that occurred roughly between the years 300 to 700 CE in Europe, marking the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
, or the
Völkerwanderung ("wandering of the peoples"), this migration was a complicated and gradual process. Some of these "barbarian" tribes rejected the
classical culture of RomeAncient Roman culture evolved throughout the almost 1200-year history of that civilization. The term refers to the culture of the Roman Republic, later the Roman Empire, which, at peak, covered an area from Cumbria and Morocco to the Euphrates....
, while others admired and aspired to it. In return for land to farm and, in some regions, the right to collect
tax revenueTax revenue are the income that is gained by governments because of taxation of the people.Just as there are different types of tax, the form in which tax revenue is collected also differs; furthermore, the agency that collects the tax may not be part of central government, but may be an...
s for the state,
federated tribesFoederatus is a Latin term whose definition and usage drifted in the time between the early Roman Republic and the end of the Western Roman Empire...
provided military support to the empire. Other incursions were small-scale military invasions of tribal groups assembled to gather plunder. The
HunsThe Huns were a group of nomadic pastoral people who, appearing from beyond the Volga, migrated into Europe c.AD 370 and built up an enormous empire in Europe. They were possibly the descendants of the Xiongnu who had been northern neighbours of China three hundred years before and may be the first...
,
BulgarsThe Bulgars were originally semi-nomadic people, probably of Turkic descent, originating in Central Asia, who from the 2nd century onwards conquered different parts of Europe...
,
AvarsThe Eurasian Avars, sometimes referred to as the European Avars, or Ancient Avars, were a highly organized and powerful confederation of a mixed ethnic background, thought to be closely related to the Mongols, Bulgars, Khazars and other Oghur Turkic peoples of the time...
, and Magyars all raided the Empire's territories and terrorised its inhabitants. Later, Slavic and Germanic peoples would settle the lands previously taken by these tribes. The most famous invasion culminated in the
sack of RomeThe Sack of Rome occurred on August 24, 410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths, led by Alaric I. The Roman capital had been moved to the Italian city of Ravenna by the young emperor Honorius, after the Visigoths entered Italy....
by the Visigoths in 410, the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to an enemy.
By the end of the 5th century, Roman institutions were crumbling. Some early historians have given this period of
societal collapseSocietal collapse broadly includes both quite abrupt societal failures typified by the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, the Mayan Civilization collapse and others of the type, as well as more extended grinding declines of superpowers like the Roman empire in Western Europe and the Han Dynasty...
the epithet of "
Dark AgesThe Dark Ages is a term in historiography referring to a perceived period of cultural decline or societal collapse that took place in Western Europe between the fall of Rome and the eventual recovery of learning. Increased understanding of the accomplishments of the Middle Ages in the 19th century...
" because of the contrast to earlier times. The last emperor of the west, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the barbarian king
OdoacerOdoacer , also known as Odovacer, was a Germanic foederati general and the first non-Roman ruler of Italy after AD 476. He deposed the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus on 4 September of that year, but continued to rule first as a nominal client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos' death in...
in 476. The Eastern Roman Empire (conventionally referred to as the "
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
" after the fall of its western counterpart) had little ability to assert control over the lost western territories. Even though
Byzantine emperors maintained a claim over the territory, and no "barbarian" king dared to elevate himself to the position of Emperor of the west, Byzantine control of most of the West could not be sustained; the
renovatio imperii ("imperial restoration", entailing reconquest of the
Italian peninsulaThe Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale...
and Mediterranean periphery) by
JustinianFlavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus ; AD 483 – 13 or 14 November 565, known in English as Justinian I or Justinian the Great, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and Eastern Roman Emperor from 527 until his death...
was the sole, and temporary, exception. As Roman authority disappeared in the west, cities, literacy, trading networks and urban infrastructure declined. Where civic functions and infrastructure were maintained, it was mainly by the Christian Church.
Augustine of HippoAugustine of Hippo , Bishop of Hippo Regius, also known as St. Augustine or St. Austin, was an Algerian Berber philosopher and theologian....
is an example of one
bishopA bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
who became a capable civic administrator.
Breakdown of Roman society
The breakdown of Roman society was dramatic. The patchwork of petty rulers was incapable of supporting the depth of civic infrastructure required to maintain libraries, public baths, arenas, and major educational institutions. Any new building was on a far smaller scale than before. The social effects of the fracture of the Roman state were manifold. Cities and merchants lost the economic benefits of safe conditions for trade and manufacture, and intellectual development suffered from the loss of a unified cultural and educational milieu of far-ranging connections. As it became unsafe to travel or carry goods over any distance, there was a collapse in trade and manufacture for export. The major industries that depended on long-distance trade, such as large-scale pottery manufacture, vanished almost overnight in places like Britain. Whereas sites like
TintagelTintagel Tintagel ( with the stress on the second syllable; ) Tintagel ( with the stress on the second syllable; ) (originally Trevena is a village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. The population of the parish is 1,820 people, and the area of the parish is 4,885 acres....
in
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
(the extreme southwest of modern day England) had managed to obtain supplies of Mediterranean
luxury goodIn economics, a luxury good is a good for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises, in contrast to a "necessity good", for which demand is not related to income....
s well into the 6th century, this connection was now lost.
Between the 5th and 8th centuries, new peoples and powerful individuals filled the political void left by Roman centralized government. Germanic tribes established regional hegemonies within the former boundaries of the Empire, creating divided, decentralized kingdoms like those of the Ostrogoths in Italy, the Visigoths in
HispaniaHispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula . When Rome was a republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior...
, the
FranksThe Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul...
and
BurgundiansThe Burgundians were an East Germanic tribe which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr , and from there to mainland Europe. In Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar, Veseti settled in an island or holm, which was called...
in
GaulGaul is a historical name used in the context of the Roman Empire in references to the region of Western Europe approximating present day France and Belgium, but also sometimes including the Po Valley, western Switzerland, and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River...
and western
GermanyGermania was the Latin exonym for a geographical area of land on the east bank of the River Rhine , which included regions of Sarmatia as well as an area under Roman control on the west bank of the Rhine...
, the
AnglesThe Angles is a modern English word for a Germanic-speaking people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
and the
SaxonsThe Saxons were a confederation of Old Germanic tribes. Their modern-day descendants in Lower Saxony and Westphalia and other German states are considered ethnic Germans ; those in the eastern Netherlands are considered to be ethnic Dutch; those in north...
in
BritainRoman Britain was those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and about 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia...
, and the Vandals in
North AfricaThe Diocese of Africa was a diocese of the later Roman Empire, incorporating the provinces of North Africa, except Mauretania Tingitana. Its seat was at Carthage, and it was subordinate to the Praetorian prefecture of Italy....
.
Roman landholders beyond the confines of
city wallsA defensive wall is a fortification used to defend a city or settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements...
were also vulnerable to extreme changes, and they could not simply pack up their land and move elsewhere. Some were dispossessed and fled to Byzantine regions; others quickly pledged their allegiances to their new rulers. In areas like Spain and Italy, this often meant little more than acknowledging a new overlord, while Roman forms of law and religion could be maintained. In other areas, where there was a greater weight of population movement, it might be necessary to adopt new modes of dress, language, and custom.
The
Muslim conquestsMuslim conquests , also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, began after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad...
of the 7th and 8th centuries of the
Persian EmpireThe Muslim conquest of Persia led to the end of the Sassanid Empire in 644, of the Sassanid dynasty in 651 and the eventual extirpation of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia. The Sassanid Empire was first invaded by Muslims in present day Iraq in 633 under general Khalid ibn Walid, which resulted...
,
Roman SyriaThe Muslim conquest of Syria occurred in the first half of the 7th century, and refers to the region known as the Bilad al-Sham, the Levant, or Greater Syria...
,
Roman EgyptAt the commencement of the Muslim conquest of Egypt, Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire with its capital in Constantinople. However, it had been occupied just a decade before by the Persian Empire under Khosrau II...
,
Roman North AfricaThe Umayyad conquest of North Africa continued the century of rapid Arab Muslim expansion following the death of Muhammad in 632 CE. By 640 the Arabs controlled Mesopotamia, had invaded Armenia, and were concluding their conquest of Byzantine Syria. Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad caliphate....
,
Visigothic Spain and PortugalThe Umayyad conquest of Hispania began as an army of the Umayyad Caliphate consisting largely of Berbers, inhabitants of Northwest Africa recently converted to Islam, invaded the Christian Visigothic Kingdom located on the Iberian peninsula...
,
Sicily and southern ItalyThe Islamic conquest and rule of Sicily, Malta, and parts of southern Italy was a process whose origin can be traced back through the general expansion of Islam from the 7th century onwards...
eroded the area of the Roman Empire and controlled strategic areas of the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
. By the end of the 8th century, the former Western Roman Empire was decentralized and overwhelmingly rural.
Church and monasticism
The
Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
was the major unifying cultural influence, preserving its selection from Latin learning, maintaining the art of writing, and a centralized administration through its network of
bishopA bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s. Some regions that were populated by Catholics were conquered by
ArianArianism is the theological teaching of Arius , a Christian priest, who was first ruled a heretic at the First Council of Nicea of 325, later exonerated in 335 at the First Synod of Tyre, and then pronounced a heretic again after his death at the First Council of Constantinople of 381...
rulers, which provoked much tension between Arian kings and the Catholic hierarchy.
Clovis IClovis was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one king. He also introduced Christianity. He was the son of Childeric I and Basina. At age 16, he succeeded his father, in the year 481...
of the Franks is a well-known example of a barbarian king who chose Catholic orthodoxy over Arianism. His conversion marked a turning point for the Frankish tribes of Gaul. Bishops were central to Middle Age society due to the literacy they possessed. As a result, they often played a significant role in governance. However, beyond the core areas of Western Europe, there remained many peoples with little or no contact with Christianity or with classical Roman culture. Martial societies such as the
AvarsThe Eurasian Avars, sometimes referred to as the European Avars, or Ancient Avars, were a highly organized and powerful confederation of a mixed ethnic background, thought to be closely related to the Mongols, Bulgars, Khazars and other Oghur Turkic peoples of the time...
and the Vikings were still capable of causing major disruption to the newly emerging societies of Western Europe.
The Early Middle Ages witnessed the rise of
monasticismMonasticism is the religious practice in which one renounces worldly pursuits in order to fully devote one's life to spiritual work...
within the west. Although the impulse to withdraw from society to focus upon a spiritual life is experienced by people of all cultures, the shape of European monasticism was determined by traditions and ideas that originated in the deserts of Egypt and Syria. The style of monasticism that focuses on community experience of the spiritual life, called
cenobitismCenobitic monasticism is a monastic tradition that stresses community life. Often in the West, the community belongs to a religious order and the life of the cenobitic monk is regulated by a religious rule, a collection of precepts...
, was pioneered by the saint
PachomiusSaint Pakhom , also known as Pachome and Pakhomius, is generally recognized as the founder of Christian cenobitic monasticism. His saint day is celebrated on 9 May.-Biography:...
in the 4th century. Monastic ideals spread from Egypt to western Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries through
hagiographical literatureHagiography is the study of saints. A hagiography, from the Greek and , refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of ecclesiastical and secular leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though...
such as the Life of
Saint AnthonyAnthony the Great , , also known as Saint Anthony, Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of Egypt, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, Abba Antonius , and Father of All Monks, was a Christian saint from Egypt, a prominent leader among the Desert Fathers...
. Saint Benedict wrote the definitive Rule for western monasticism during the 6th century, detailing the administrative and spiritual responsibilities of a community of monks led by an
abbotThe word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
. The style of monasticism based upon the Benedictine Rule spread widely rapidly across Europe, replacing small clusters of cenobites. Monks and monasteries had a deep effect upon the religious and political life of the Early Middle Ages, in various cases acting as land trusts for powerful families, centres of propaganda and royal support in newly conquered regions, bases for mission, and proselytization. They were the main outposts of education and literacy.
Carolingians
A nucleus of power developed in a region of northern
GaulGaul is a historical name used in the context of the Roman Empire in references to the region of Western Europe approximating present day France and Belgium, but also sometimes including the Po Valley, western Switzerland, and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River...
and developed into kingdoms called
AustrasiaAustrasia formed the north-eastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Metz served as its capital, although some Austrasian kings ruled from Rheims, Trier, and...
and
NeustriaThe territory of Neustria or Neustrasia, meaning "new [western] land", originated in 511, made up of the regions from Aquitaine to the English Channel, approximating most of the north of present-day France, with Paris and Soissons as its main cities...
. These kingdoms were ruled for three centuries by a dynasty of kings called the Merovingians, after their mythical founder
MerovechMerovech is the legendary founder of the Merovingian dynasty of the Salian Franks, which later became the dominant Frankish tribe. He allegedly lived in the first half of the fifth century. His name is a Latinization of a form close to the Old High German given name Marwig, lit. "famed fight"...
. The history of the Merovingian kingdoms is one of family politics that frequently erupted into civil warfare between the branches of the family. The legitimacy of the Merovingian throne was granted by a reverence for the bloodline, and, even after powerful members of the Austrasian court, the
mayors of the palaceMayor of the Palace was an early medieval title and office, also called majordomo, from the Latin title maior domus , used most notably in the Frankish kingdoms in the 7th and 8th centuries....
, took de facto power during the 7th century, the Merovingians were kept as ceremonial figureheads. The Merovingians engaged in trade with northern Europe through
BalticThe Baltic region is an ambiguous term that refers to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea.- Etymology :...
trade routeA trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long distance arteries which may further be connected to several smaller networks of commercial...
s known to historians as the Northern Arc trade, and they are known to have minted small-denomination silver pennies called sceattae for circulation. Aspects of Merovingian culture could be described as "Romanized", such as the high value placed on
Roman coinageThe Roman currency during most of the Roman Republic and the western half of the Roman Empire consisted of coins including the aureus , the denarius , the sestertius , the dupondius , and the as...
as a symbol of rulership and the patronage of monasteries and
bishopricsIn some forms of Christianity, a diocese is an administrative territorial unit administered by a bishop. It is also referred to as a bishopric or Episcopal Area or episcopal see, though strictly the term episcopal see refers to the domain of ecclesiastical authority officially held by the bishop,...
. Some have hypothesized that the Merovingians were in contact with Byzantium. However, the Merovingians also buried the dead of their elite families in grave mounds and traced their lineage to a mythical sea beast called the
QuinotaurThe Quinotaur is a mythical sea creature mentioned in the 7th century Frankish Chronicle of Fredegar. Referred to as "bestea Neptuni Quinotauri similis", it was held to have fathered Meroveus by attacking the wife of the Frankish king Chlodio and thus to have sired the line of Merovingian...
.
The 7th century was a tumultuous period of civil wars between Austrasia and Neustria. Such warfare was exploited by the patriarch of a family line, Pippin of Herstal, who curried favour with the Merovingians and had himself installed in the office of Mayor of the Palace at the service of the King. From this position of great influence, Pippin accrued wealth and supporters. Later members of his family line inherited the office, acting as advisors and regents. The dynasty took a new direction in 732, when
Charles MartelCharles Martel , called Charles the Hammer, was a Frankish military and political leader, who served as Mayor of the Palace under the Merovingian kings and ruled de facto during an interregnum at the end of his life, using the title Duke and Prince of the Franks. In 739 he was offered the title...
won the
Battle of ToursThe Battle of Tours , also called the Battle of Poitiers and in Battle of Court of The Martyrs, was fought in an area between the cities of Poitiers and Tours, located in north-central France, near the village of Moussais-la-Bataille about north of Poitiers...
, halting the advance of Muslim armies across the
PyreneesThe Pyrenees are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain...
.
The
CarolingianThe Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with its origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
dynasty, as the successors to Charles Martel are known, officially took the reins of the kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria in a coup of 753 led by Pippin III. A contemporary chronicle claims that Pippin sought, and gained, authority for this coup from the Pope. Pippin's successful coup was reinforced with propaganda that portrayed the Merovingians as inept or cruel rulers and exalted the accomplishments of Charles Martel and circulated stories of the family's great piety. At the time of his death in 783, Pippin left his kingdoms in the hands of his two sons,
CharlesCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe...
and
CarlomanCarloman I was the king of the Franks from 768 until his death in 771. He was the second surviving son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon...
. When Carloman died of natural causes, Charles blocked the succession of Carloman's minor son and installed himself as the king of the united Austrasia and Neustria. This Charles, known to his contemporaries as Charles the Great or
CharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe...
, embarked in 774 upon a program of systematic expansion that would unify a large portion of Europe. In the wars that lasted just beyond 800, he rewarded loyal allies with war booty and command over parcels of land. Much of the nobility of the High Middle Ages was to claim its roots in the Carolingian nobility that was generated during this period of expansion.
The Imperial Coronation of Charlemagne on Christmas Day of 800 is frequently regarded as a turning-point in medieval history, because it filled a power vacancy that had existed since 476. It also marks a change in Charlemagne's leadership, which assumed a more imperial character and tackled difficult aspects of controlling a medieval empire. He established a system of diplomats who possessed imperial authority, the missi, who in theory provided access to imperial justice in the farthest corners of the empire. He also sought to reform the Church in his domains, pushing for uniformity in
liturgyA liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions. The word may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Catholic Mass, or a daily activity such as the Muslim salat and Jewish services...
and material culture.
Carolingian Renaissance
Charlemagne's court in
AachenAachen is a historic spa city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the medieval Kings of Germany...
was the centre of a cultural revival that is sometimes referred to as the "
Carolingian RenaissanceThe Carolingian Renaissance was a period of intellectual and cultural revival occurring in the late eighth and ninth centuries, with the peak of the activities occurring during the reigns of the Carolingian rulers Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. During this period there was an increase of...
". This period witnessed an increase of literacy, developments in the arts, architecture, and jurisprudence, as well as liturgical and scriptural studies. The English monk
AlcuinAlcuin of York or Ealhwine, nicknamed Albinus or Flaccus was a scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Ecgbert at York...
was invited to Aachen, and brought with him the precise
classical LatinClassical Latin in simplest terms is the sociolinguistic register of the Latin language regarded by the enfranchised and empowered populations of the late Roman republic and the Roman empire as good Latin. Most writers during this time made use of it...
education that was available in the monasteries of
NorthumbriaNorthumbria or Northhumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now north-east England and southern Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory: the Humber...
. The return of this Latin proficiency to the kingdom of the Franks is regarded as an important step in the development of
medieval LatinMedieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...
. Charlemagne's chancery made use of a type of script currently known as
Carolingian minusculeCarolingian or Caroline minuscule is a script developed as a writing standard in Europe so that the Roman alphabet could be easily recognized by the small literate class from one region to another. It was used in Charlemagne's empire between approximately 800 and 1200...
, providing a common writing style that allowed for communication across most of Europe. After the decline of the Carolingian dynasty, the rise of the Saxon Dynasty in Germany was accompanied by the
Ottonian RenaissanceThe Ottonian Renaissance was a limited renaissance that accompanied the reigns of the first three emperors of the Saxon Dynasty, all named Otto: Otto I , Otto II , and Otto III , and which in large part depended upon their patronage...
.
See also the careers of CharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe...
, Louis the PiousLouis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...
, and Otto I, Holy Roman EmperorOtto I the Great , son of Henry I the Fowler and Matilda of Ringelheim, was Duke of Saxony, King of Germany, King of Italy, and "the first of the Germans to be called the emperor of Italy" according to Arnulf of Milan...
.
Breakup of the Carolingian empire
While Charlemagne continued the Frankish tradition of dividing the
regnum (kingdom) between all his heirs (at least those of age), the assumption of the
imperium (imperial title) supplied a unifying force not available previously. Charlemagne was succeeded by his only legitimate son of adult age at his death,
Louis the PiousLouis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...
.
Louis's long reign of 26 years was marked by numerous divisions of the empire among his sons and, after 829, numerous civil wars between various alliances of father and sons against other sons in an effort to determine a just division by battle. The final division was made at
CrémieuxCrémieux may refer to:* Adolphe Crémieux, French lawyer and statesman* Hector-Jonathan Crémieux, French playwright and librettist* The residents of Crémieu, a town near Lyon, France, known as Crémieux....
in 838. The Emperor Louis recognized his eldest son
Lothair ILothair I , king of Italy and crowned Carolingian King of Italy, Emperor of the Romans and was Emperor of the Franks .Lothair was the eldest son of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious and his wife Ermengarde of Hesbaye, daughter of...
as emperor and confirmed him in the Regnum Italicum (Italy). He divided the rest of the empire between Lothair and
Charles the BaldCharles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.- Struggle against his brothers :He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
, his youngest son, giving Lothair the opportunity to choose his half. He chose East Francia, which comprised the empire on both banks of the Rhine and eastwards, leaving Charles West Francia, which comprised the empire to the west of the Rhineland and the Alps.
Louis the GermanLouis the German , was a grandson of Charlemagne and the third son of the succeeding Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye.Louis II was made the King of Bavaria from 817 following the Emperor Charlemagne's practice of...
, the middle child, who had been rebellious to the last, was allowed to keep his subregnum of Bavaria under the suzerainty of his elder brother. The division was not undisputed.
Pepin II of AquitainePepin II, called the Younger , was King of Aquitaine from 838 as the successor upon the death of his father, Pepin I. Pepin II was eldest son of Pepin I and Ingeltrude, daughter of the count of Madrie, Theodobert...
, the emperor's grandson, rebelled in a contest for Aquitaine, while Louis the German tried to annex all of East Francia. In two final campaigns, the emperor defeated both his rebellious descendants and vindicated the division of Crémieux before dying in 840.
A three-year civil war followed his death. At the end of the conflict, Louis the German was in control of East Francia and Lothair was confined to Italy. By the
Treaty of VerdunIn the Treaty of Verdun was a treaty by the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious, son and successor of Charlemagne, which divided the territories of the Frankish Empire into three kingdoms....
(843), a kingdom of
Middle FranciaMiddle Francia designates the short-lived realm created for Emperor Lothair I wedged between East Francia and West Francia, and encompassing territory including parts of modern Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, and the Low Countries...
was created for Lothair in
the Low CountriesThe Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers...
and Burgundy, and his imperial title was recognized. East Francia would eventually morph into the
Kingdom of GermanyThe Kingdom of Germany grew out of East Francia in the tenth century.The eastern partition of the Treaty of Verdun of 843 was never entirely Frankish and consisted also of large populations of Saxons, Bavarii, Thuringii, Alemanni and Frisii...
and West Francia into the
Kingdom of FranceFrance in the Middle Ages covers an area roughly corresponding to modern day France, from the death of Charlemagne in 814 to the middle of the 15th century...
, around both of which the history of Western Europe can largely be described as a contest for control of the middle kingdom. Charlemagne's grandsons and great-grandsons divided their kingdoms between their sons until all of the various
regna and the imperial title fell into the hands of
Charles the FatCharles the Fat was the King of Alemannia from 876, King of Italy from 879, Holy Roman Emperor from 881, King of East Francia from 882, and King of West Francia from 884. He was deposed in East Francia, Lotharingia, and possibly Italy, where the records are not clear, in 887...
by 884. He was deposed in 887 and died in 888, to be replaced in all his kingdoms but two (Lotharingia and East Francia) by non-Carolingian "petty kings". The Carolingian Empire was destroyed, though the imperial tradition would eventually give rise to the Holy Roman Empire in 962.
The breakup of the Carolingian Empire was accompanied by the invasions, migrations, and raids of external foes as not seen since the
Migration PeriodThe Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions or Völkerwanderung , was a period of human migration that occurred roughly between the years 300 to 700 CE in Europe, marking the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
. The Atlantic and northern shores were harassed by the Vikings, who forced Charles the Bald to issue the
Edict of PistresThe Edict of Pistres or Edictum Pistense was a capitulary promulgated, as its name suggests, at Pistres on 25 July 864...
against them and who
besieged Paris in 885–886The Siege of Paris of 885 to 886 was a Viking siege of Paris, then capital of the kingdom of the West Franks. It was, in hindsight, the most important event of the reign of the Emperor Charles the Fat and a turning point in the fortunes of the Carolingian dynasty and the history of France.The...
. The eastern frontiers, especially Germany and Italy, were under constant Magyar assault until their great defeat at the Battle of the Lechfeld in 955. The Saracens also managed to establish bases at Garigliano and Fraxinetum, to
sack Rome in 846One of many sacks of Rome, that of the year 846 was the only instance of Muslims sacking the city.-Background:During the 8th and 9th centuries, Muslim Arabs had begun to aggressively expand into Southern Italy...
and to conquer the islands of
CorsicaCorsica is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
,
SardiniaSardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . The area of Sardinia is . The nearest land masses to the island are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Tunisia, and the Spanish Balearic Islands...
, and
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
, and their pirates raided the Mediterranean coasts, as did the Vikings. The Christianization of the pagan Vikings provided an end to that threat.
Art and architecture
Few large stone buildings were attempted between the Constantinian basilicas of the 4th century, and the 8th century. At this time, the establishment of churches and monasteries, and a comparative political stability, brought about the development of a form of stone architecture loosely based upon Roman forms and hence later named
RomanesqueRomanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe, characterised by semi-circular arches, and evolving into the Gothic style, characterised by pointed arches, beginning in the 12th century...
. Where available, Roman brick and stone buildings were recycled for their materials. From the fairly tentative beginnings known as the
First RomanesqueOne of the first streams of Romanesque architecture in Europe from the 10th century and the beginning of 11th century is called First Romanesque or Lombard Romanesque. It took place in the Lombardy , in the regions of Girona, Lleida and Huesca , and in the south of France...
, the style flourished and spread across Europe in a remarkably homogeneous form. The features are massive stone walls, openings topped by semi-circular arches, small windows, and, particularly in France, arched stone vaults and arrows
In the decorative arts, Celtic and Germanic barbarian forms were absorbed into
Christian artChristian art is art produced in an attempt to illustrate, supplement and portray in tangible form the principles of Christianity. Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, although some have had strong objections to some forms of religious image, and there have been major periods...
, although the central impulse remained Roman and Byzantine. High quality jewellery and religious imagery were produced throughout Western Europe;
CharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe...
and other monarchs provided patronage for religious artworks such as reliquaries and books. Some of the principal artworks of the age were the fabulous Illuminated manuscripts produced by monks on
vellumVellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used...
, using gold, silver, and precious pigments to illustrate biblical narratives. Early examples include the
Book of KellsThe Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was transcribed by Celtic monks ca. 800...
and many Carolingian and Ottonian Frankish manuscripts.
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages were characterized by the urbanization of Europe, military expansion, and intellectual revival that historians identify between the 11th century and the end of the 13th century. This revival was aided by the conversion of the raiding
ScandinaviansScandinavians are a group of Germanic peoples, inhabiting Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway and Sweden, as well as Iceland and the Faroe Islands, as well as Finland Swedes in Finland, as well as descendants in many other countries, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States. The...
and Magyars to Christianity, as well as the assertion of power by
castellansEncastellation is the process whereby the feudal kingdoms of Europe became dotted with castles, from which local lords could dominate the countryside of their fiefs and their neighbours', and from which kings could command even the far-off corners of their realms...
to fill the power vacuum left by the Carolingian decline. The High Middle Ages saw an
explosion in populationMedieval demography is the study of human demography in Europe during the Middle Ages. It is an estimate of the number of people who were alive during the Medieval period, population trends and movements...
. This population flowed into towns, sought conquests abroad, or cleared land for cultivation. The cities of antiquity had been clustered around the Mediterranean. By 1200, the growing urban centres were in the centre of the continent, connected by roads or rivers. By the end of this period,
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
might have had as many as 200,000 inhabitants. In central and
northern ItalyNorthern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative worth, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian nation...
and in
FlandersFlanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands...
, the rise of towns that were self-governing to some degree within their territories stimulated the economy and created an environment for new types of religious and trade associations. Trading cities on the shores of the Baltic entered into agreements known as the
Hanseatic LeagueThe Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading cities and their guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period...
, and Italian city-states such as
VeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, a population of 271,367 . Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area . The city historically was an independent nation...
,
GenoaGenoa is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. The city has a population of about 610,000 and the urban area has a population of about 900,000...
, and
PisaPisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
expanded their trade throughout the Mediterranean. This period marks a formative one in the history of the western state as we know it, for kings in France, England, and Spain consolidated their power during this time period, setting up lasting institutions to help them govern. The
PapacyThe pope is the Bishop of Rome and, as such, is leader of the worldwide Catholic Church...
, which had long since created an ideology of independence from the secular kings, first asserted its claims to temporal authority over the entire Christian world. The entity that historians call the
Papal MonarchyThe temporal power of the Popes is the political and governmental activity of the Popes of the Roman Catholic Church, as distinguished from their spiritual and pastoral activity, which is also called eternal power, to contrast it with the Church's secular power.For centuries, its secular activities...
reached its apogee in the early 13th century under the pontificate of Innocent III.
Northern CrusadesThe Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were crusades undertaken by the Christian kings of Denmark and Sweden, the German Livonian and Teutonic military orders, and their allies against the pagan peoples of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea...
and the advance of Christian kingdoms and military orders into previously
paganPaganism is a word with several different meanings.In its broadest definition, pagan denotes all non-Abrahamic religions, that is to say it denotes all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.Other usages are:*Paganism may mean Polytheism: The group so defined includes most of the...
regions in the
BalticThe Baltic region is an ambiguous term that refers to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea.- Etymology :...
and
FinnicFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
northeast brought the
forced assimilationForced assimilation is a process of forced cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups, into an established and generally larger community...
of numerous native peoples to the European entity. With the brief exception of the Kipchak and
Mongol invasionsThe Mongol invasions progressed throughout the 13th century, resulting in the vast Mongol Empire covering much of Asia and Eastern Europe by 1300....
, major barbarian incursions ceased.
Crusades
The Crusades were armed pilgrimages intended to liberate
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
from Muslim control. Jerusalem was part of the Muslim possessions won during a rapid military expansion in the 7th century through the Near East, Northern Africa, and Anatolia (in modern Turkey). The first Crusade was preached by Pope Urban II at the
Council of ClermontThe Council of Clermont was a mixed synod of ecclesiastics and laymen of the Catholic Church, which was held from November 18 to November 28, 1095 at Clermont, France...
in 1095 in response to a request from the
ByzantineThe word Byzantine may refer to:Topics directly related to the Byzantine Empire* A citizen of The Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
emperor
Alexios I KomnenosAlexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus , was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and the founder of the Komnenian dynasty...
for aid against further advancement. Urban promised
indulgenceAn indulgence, in Catholic Theology, is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution. The belief is that indulgences draw on the storehouse of merit...
to any Christian who took the Crusader vow and set off for Jerusalem. The resulting fervour that swept through Europe mobilized tens of thousands of people from all levels of society, and resulted in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, as well as other regions. The movement found its primary support in the Franks; it is by no coincidence that the Arabs referred to Crusaders generically as "
Franj". Although they were minorities within this region, the Crusaders tried to consolidate their conquests as a number of
Crusader statesThe Crusader states were a number of mostly 12th- and 13th-century feudal states created by Western European crusaders in Asia Minor, Greece and the Holy Land . The Middle Eastern Islamic powers eventually conquered them...
– the
Kingdom of JerusalemThe Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Christian kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. It lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks....
, as well as the
County of EdessaThe County of Edessa was one of the Crusader states in the 12th century, based around Edessa, a city with an ancient history and an early tradition of Christianity....
, the
Principality of AntiochThe Principality of Antioch, including parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria, was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade.-Foundation:...
, and the
County of TripoliThe County of Tripoli was the last Crusader state founded in the Levant, located in what today is known as northern Lebanon, where exists the modern city of Tripoli. The Crusader state was captured and created by Christian forces in 1109, originally held by Bertrand of Toulouse as a vassal of...
(collectively
OutremerOutremer, French for "overseas", was the general name given to the Crusader states established after the First Crusade: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and especially the Kingdom of Jerusalem...
). During the 12th century and 13th century, there were a series of conflicts between these states and surrounding Islamic ones. Crusades were essentially resupply missions for these embattled kingdoms. Military orders such as the
Knights TemplarThe Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar or the Order of the Temple , were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
and the
Knights HospitallerThe Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta is a Roman Catholic order based in Rome, Italy...
were formed to play an integral role in this support.
By the end of the Middle Ages, the Christian Crusaders had captured all the Islamic territories in modern
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
, and Southern
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
. Meanwhile, Islamic counter-attacks had retaken all the Crusader possessions on the Asian mainland, leaving a de facto boundary between Islam and
western ChristianityWestern Christianity is a term used to include the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, the Churches of the Anglican Communion and Protestant Churches, which share common attributes that can be traced back to their medieval heritage. The term is used in contrast to Eastern Christianity...
that continued until modern times.
Substantial areas of northern Europe also remained outside Christian influence until the 11th century or later; these areas also became
crusading venuesThe Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were crusades undertaken by the Christian kings of Denmark and Sweden, the German Livonian and Teutonic military orders, and their allies against the pagan peoples of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea...
during the expansionist High Middle Ages. Throughout this period, the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
was in decline, having peaked in influence during the High Middle Ages. Beginning with the
Battle of ManzikertThe Battle of Manzikert, or Malazgirt, was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuq forces led by Alp Arslan on August 26, 1071 near Manzikert . It resulted in one of the most decisive defeats of the Byzantine Empire and the capture of the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes...
in 1071, the empire underwent a cycle of decline and renewal, including the sacking of Constantinople by the
Fourth CrusadeThe Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire...
in 1204. Despite another short upswing following the recapture of Constantinople in 1261, the empire continued to deteriorate.
Science and technology
During the early Middle Ages and the
Islamic Golden AgeThe Islamic Golden Age or the Islamic Renaissance, is traditionally dated from the 9th to 13th centuries for 400 years C.E., but has been extended to the 15th century by recent scholarship...
,
Islamic philosophyIslamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies, and is a longstanding attempt to create harmony between philosophy and the religious teachings of Islam .-Definition:...
,
scienceScience in medieval Islam, also known as Islamic science, is a term used in the history of science to refer to the science developed in the Islamic world between the 7th and 16th centuries, a period also known as the Islamic Golden Age. Scientists from the region were also known to develop many...
, and technology were more advanced than in Western Europe. Islamic scholars both preserved and built upon earlier
Ancient GreekAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
and
RomanAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
traditions and also added their own inventions and innovations. Islamic
al-AndalusAl-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Arab and North African Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
passed much of this on to Europe (see
Islamic contributions to Medieval EuropeIslamic contributions to Medieval Europe were numerous, affecting such varied areas as art, architecture, medicine, agriculture, music, language, education, law, and technology. From the 8th to the 13th century, Europe absorbed knowledge from the Islamic civilization...
). The replacement of
Roman numeralsRoman numerals are a numeral system of ancient Rome based on letters of the alphabet, which are combined to signify the sum of their values. The first ten Roman numerals are:...
with the
decimalThe decimal numeral system has ten as its base. It is the most widely used numeral base.- Decimal notation :...
positional number system and the invention of
algebraAlgebra is the branch of mathematics concerning the study of the rules of operations and the things which can be constructed from them, including terms, polynomials, equations and algebraic structures...
allowed more advanced mathematics. Another consequence was that the Latin-speaking world regained access to lost
classical literatureClassics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean World; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity...
and
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
. Latin translations of the 12th century fed a passion for
AristotelianAristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of...
philosophy and
Islamic scienceScience in medieval Islam, also known as Islamic science, is a term used in the history of science to refer to the science developed in the Islamic world between the 7th and 16th centuries, a period also known as the Islamic Golden Age. Scientists from the region were also known to develop many...
that is frequently referred to as the
Renaissance of the 12th centuryThe Renaissance of the 12th century was a period of many changes during the High Middle Ages. It included social, political and economic transformations, and an intellectual revitalization of Europe with strong philosophical and scientific roots...
. Meanwhile, trade grew throughout Europe as the dangers of travel were reduced, and steady
economic growthEconomic growth is a term used to indicate the increase of total GDP. It is often measured as the rate of change of gross domestic product . Economic growth refers only to the quantity of goods and services produced; it says nothing about the way in which they are produced...
resumed.
Cathedral schoolThe idea for widespread schools dates back to Charlemagne, a king of the Franks. He knew that the Frankish empire would be weak without an education. Because a Frankish King started it, it quickly spread throughout northern and central France. Over time, the schools were fused with the church and...
s and monasteries ceased to be the sole sources of education in the 11th century when
universitiesMedieval university is an institution of higher learning which was established during High Middle Ages period and is a corporation.The first European medieval institutions generally considered to be universities were established in Italy, France, and England in the late 11th and the 12th centuries...
were established in major European cities. Literacy became available to a wider class of people, and there were major advances in
artArt is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings...
,
sculptureSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
,
musicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, and
architectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....
. Large
cathedralA cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
s were built across
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, first in the
RomanesqueRomanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe, characterised by semi-circular arches, and evolving into the Gothic style, characterised by pointed arches, beginning in the 12th century...
, and later in the more decorative
GothicGothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
style.
During the 12th and 13th century in Europe, there was a radical change in the rate of new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional
means of productionMeans of production , are things used byhuman labourers to create products. They include two broad categories of objects: instruments of labour and subjects of labour...
, and economic growth. The period saw major
technologicalTechnology is a broad concept that deals with human as well as other animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt to its environment...
advances, including the invention of
cannonA cannon is any tubular piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellants to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
,
spectaclesGlasses are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes, normally for vision correction, eye protection, or for protection from UV rays....
, and
artesian wellsAn artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing groundwater that will flow upward through a well, called an artesian well, without the need for pumping...
, and the cross-cultural introduction of
gunpowderGunpowder, also called black powder, is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate. It burns rapidly, producing volumes of hot solids and gases which can be used as a propellant in firearms and as a pyrotechnic composition in fireworks. The term gunpowder also refers broadly to any...
,
silkSilk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
, the
compassA compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the Earth's magnetic poles. It consists of a magnetized pointer free to align itself with Earth's magnetic field. The compass greatly improved the safety and efficiency of travel, especially ocean travel...
, and the
astrolabeAn astrolabe is a historical astronomical instrument used by classical astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses include locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars; determining local time given local latitude and vice-versa; surveying; and...
from the east. There were also great improvements to
shipA ship is a large vessel that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and passenger capacity. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing, entertainment, public...
s and the
clockA clock is an instrument used to indicate, measure, keep, and co-ordinate time. The word clock is derived ultimately from the Celtic words clagan and clocca meaning "bell"...
. The latter advances made possible the dawn of the
Age of ExplorationThe Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration, was a period in history starting in the 15th century and continuing into the 17th century, during which Europeans and its descendants intensively explored and mapped the world...
. At the same time, huge numbers of Greek and Arabic works on medicine and the sciences were translated and distributed throughout Europe. Aristotle especially became very important, his rational and logical approach to knowledge influencing the scholars at the newly forming
universitiesA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
which were absorbing and disseminating the new knowledge during the 12th Century Renaissance.
Changes
Monastic reform became an important issue during the 11th century, when elites began to worry that monks were not adhering to their Rules with the discipline that was required for a good religious life. During this time, it was believed that monks were performing a very practical task by sending their prayers to God and inducing Him to make the world a better place for the virtuous. The time invested in this activity would be wasted, however, if the monks were not virtuous. The monastery of
ClunyCluny or Clugny is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France. It is 20 km north west of Mâcon.The town grew up around the Benedictine Cluny Abbey, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in A.D. 910...
, founded in the
MâconMâcon is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France.It is the capital of the department, although Chalon-sur-Saône is larger....
in 909, was founded as part of a larger movement of monastic reform in response to this fear. It was a reformed monastery that quickly established a reputation for austerity and rigour. Cluny sought to maintain the high quality of spiritual life by electing its own abbot from within the cloister, and maintained an economic and political independence from local lords by placing itself under the protection of the Pope. Cluny provided a popular solution to the problem of bad monastic codes, and in the 11th century its abbots were frequently called to participate in imperial politics as well as reform monasteries in France and Italy.
Monastic reform inspired change in the secular church, as well. The ideals that it was based upon were brought to the papacy by
Pope Leo IXPope Saint Leo IX , born Bruno of Eguisheim-Dagsburg , was Pope from February 12, 1049 to his death. He is regarded as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, with the feast day of April 19...
on his election in 1049, providing the ideology of clerical independence that fuelled the
Investiture ControversyThe Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest was the most significant conflict between Church and state in medieval Europe. In the 11th and 12th centuries, a series of popes challenged the authority of European monarchies over control of appointments, or investitures, of church officials such...
in the late 11th century. The Investiture Controversy involved
Pope Gregory VIIPope Saint Gregory VII , born Hildebrand of Sovana , was Pope from April 22, 1073, until his death...
and
Henry IV, Holy Roman EmperorHenry IV was King of Germany from 1056 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 until his forced abdication in 1105. He was the third emperor of the Salian dynasty and one of the most powerful and important figures of the 11th century...
, who initially clashed over a specific bishop's appointment and turned into a battle over the ideas of
investitureInvestiture, from the Latin is a rather general term for the formal installation of an incumbent in public office, especially by taking possession of its insignia...
,
clerical marriageClerical marriage is the practice of allowing clergy to marry. Clerical marriage is found in Protestantism, Judaism, Anglicanism, Independent Catholic Churches, and some sects of Buddhism.-Present-day practice:Protestant churches practise clerical marriage....
, and
simonySimony is the ecclesiastical crime of paying for holy offices or positions in the hierarchy of a church, named after Simon Magus, who appears in the Acts of the Apostles 8:18-24. Simon Magus offers the disciples of Jesus, Peter and John payment so that anyone he would place his hands on would...
. The Emperor, as a Christian ruler, saw the protection of the Church as one of his great rights and responsibilities. The Papacy, however, had begun insisting on its independence from secular lords. The open warfare ended with Henry IV's occupation of Rome in 1085 and the death of the Pope several months later, but the issues themselves remained unresolved even after the compromise of 1122 known as the
Concordat of WormsThe Concordat of Worms, sometimes called the Pactum Calixtinum by papal historians, was an agreement between Pope Calixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V on September 23, 1122 near the city of Worms...
. The conflict represents a significant stage in the creation of a papal monarchy separate from lay authorities. It also had the permanent consequence of empowering German princes at the expense of the German emperors.
The High Middle Ages was a period of great religious movements. The Crusades, which have already been mentioned, have an undeniable religious aspect. Monastic reform was similarly a religious movement effected by monks and elites. Other groups sought to participate in new forms of religious life. Landed elites financed the construction of new parish churches in the European countryside, which increased the Church's impact upon the daily lives of peasants. Cathedral
canonsA canon is a priest who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
adopted monastic rules, groups of peasants and laypeople abandoned their possessions to live like the Apostles, and people formulated ideas about their religion that were deemed heretical. Although the success of the 12th century papacy in fashioning a Church that progressively affected the daily lives of everyday people cannot be denied, there are still indicators that the tail could wag the dog. The new religious groups called the
WaldensiansWaldensians, Waldenses or Vaudois are names for a Christian spiritual movement of the later Middle Ages, descendants of which still exist in various regions. Over time, the denomination joined the Genevan or Reformed branch of Protestantism. About the earlier history of the Waldenses considerable...
and the
Humiliati-Origins:Its origin is obscure. According to some chroniclers, certain noblemen of Lombardy, taken prisoner by the Emperor Henry V following a rebellion, were taken as captives to Germany and after suffering the miseries of exile for some time, "humiliated" themselves before the emperor, assuming...
were condemned for their refusal to accept a life of cloistered monasticism. In many aspects, however, they were not very different from the Franciscans and the
DominicansThe Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic in the early 13th century in France...
, who were approved by the papacy in the early 13th century (the Franciscan and the Dominancan friars developed the
popular sermonThe Franciscan and Dominican friars are members of mendicant orders who, beginning in the thirteenth century, preached the popular sermon on Sundays, Feast Days, all of Lent, sometimes during the Advent season, at funerals, at church dedications, and at universities.- The Emergence of the Popular...
). The picture that modern historians of the religious life present is one of great religious zeal welling up from the peasantry during the High Middle Ages, with clerical elites striving, only sometimes successfully, to understand and channel this power into familiar paths.
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages were a period initiated by calamities and upheavals. During this time, agriculture was affected by a
climate changeClimate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average...
that has been documented by climate historians, and was felt by contemporaries in the form of periodic famines, including the Great Famine of 1315-1317. Medieval Britain was afflicted by 95 famines, and France suffered the effects of 75 or more in the same period. The
Black DeathThe Black Death was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, but this view has recently been challenged...
, a disease that spread among the populace like wildfire, killed as much as a third of the population in the mid-14th century. In some regions, the toll was higher than one half of the population. Towns were especially hard-hit because of the crowded conditions. Large areas of land were left sparsely inhabited, and in some places fields were left unworked. As a consequence of the sudden decline in available labourers, the price of wages rose as landlords sought to entice workers to their fields. Workers also felt that they had a right to greater earnings, and
popular uprisingsPopular revolts in late medieval Europe were uprisings and rebellions by peasants in the countryside, or the bourgeois in towns, against nobles, abbots and kings during the upheavals of the 14th through early 16th centuries, part of a larger "Crisis of the Late Middle Ages"...
broke out across Europe. This period of stress, paradoxically, witnessed creative social, economic, and technological responses that laid the groundwork for further great changes in the Early Modern Period. It was also a period when the Catholic Church was increasingly divided against itself. During the time of the
Western SchismThe Great Schism of Western Christianity or Papal Schism was a split within the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. By its end, three men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope. Driven by politics rather than any real theological disagreement, the schism was ended by the Council of...
, the Church was led by as many as three popes at one time. The divisiveness of the Church undermined papal authority, and allowed the formation of national churches. The final fall of The Roman Empire was the
Fall of ConstantinopleThe Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire which occurred after a siege laid by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Sultan Mehmed II. The siege lasted from Thursday, 5 April, 1453 until Tuesday, 29 May, 1453 , when the city fell to the Ottomans...
to the
Ottoman TurksThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
in 1453. It had a great effect upon the European economy and intellectual and religious life.
State resurgence
The Late Middle Ages also witnessed the rise of strong, royalty-based
nation-stateThe nation-state is a certain form of state that derives its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...
s, particularly the
Kingdom of EnglandThe Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state and island country to the northwest of continental Europe. At its zenith, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands—what is today the legal unit of...
, the
Kingdom of FranceFrance in the Middle Ages covers an area roughly corresponding to modern day France, from the death of Charlemagne in 814 to the middle of the 15th century...
, and the Christian kingdoms of the
Iberian PeninsulaThe Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas...
(
AragonThe Crown of Aragon was a permanent union of multiple titles and states in the hands of the King of Aragon.At the height of its power by the 14th and 15th centuries, the Crown of Aragon was a thalassocracy controlling a large portion of the present-day eastern Spain, Southwestern France, as well as...
,
CastileThe Crown of Castile, as a historic entity, is usually considered to have begun in 1230 with the third and almost definitive union of the monarchies of kingdoms Castile and Toledo in one hand, and the kingdoms of Leon and Galicia in other hand, and with the union of their parliaments a few decades...
,
NavarreThe Kingdom of Navarre , originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the Atlantic Ocean....
, and
PortugalThe Kingdom of Portugal was Portugal's general designation under the monarchy. The kingdom was located in the west of the Iberian Peninsula, Europe and existed from 1139 to 1910...
).
The long conflicts of this time, such as the
Hundred Years' WarThe Hundred Years' War was a prolonged conflict lasting from 1337 to 1453 between two royal houses for the French throne, which was vacant with the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings. The two primary contenders were the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known...
fought between England and France, actually strengthened royal control over the kingdoms, even though they were extremely hard on the peasantry. Kings profited from warfare by gaining land.
France shows clear signs of a growth in royal power during the 14th century, from the active persecution of heretics and lepers, expulsion of the Jews, and the dissolution of the
Knights TemplarThe Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar or the Order of the Temple , were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
. In all of these cases, undertaken by
Philip IVPhilip IV , called the Fair , son and successor of Philip III, reigned as King of France from 1285 until his death. He was the husband of Joan I of Navarre, by virtue of which he was King of Navarre and Count of Champagne from 1284 to 1305...
, the king confiscated land and wealth from these minority groups. The conflict between Philip and
Pope Boniface VIIIPope Boniface VIII , born Benedetto Caetani, was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1294 to 1303. Today, Boniface VIII is probably best remembered for his feuds with Dante, who placed him in a circle of Hell in his Commedia, and King Philip IV of France.- Biography :Caetani was born in 1235 in...
, a conflict which began over Philip's unauthorized taxation of clergy, ended with the violent death of Boniface and the installation of
Pope Clement VPope Clement V , born Raymond Bertrand de Got , was Pope from 1305 to his death...
, a weak, French-controlled pope, in
AvignonThe Avignon Papacy, also known as the "Babylonian Captivity", was the period from 1305 to 1378 during which seven Popes resided in Avignon . The period was one of conflict and controversy during which French Kings held considerable sway over the Papacy and rulers across Europe felt sidelined by the...
. This action enhanced French prestige, at the expense of the papacy.
England, too, began the 14th century with warfare and expansion.
Edward IEdward I , also known as Edward Longshanks, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English Barons. In 1259 he briefly sided with a baronial...
waged war against the
Principality of WalesThe Principality of Wales covered the lands ruled by the Prince of Wales directly, and was formally founded in 1216 at the Council of Aberdyfi, and later recognised by the 1218 Treaty of Worcester between Llywelyn the Great and the English Crown...
and the
Kingdom of ScotlandThe Kingdom of Scotland was a state in North-West Europe which existed from 843 until 1707...
, with mixed success, to assert what he considered his right to the entire island of
Great BritainGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
.
Both the
Kings of France and the Kings of England of this period presided over effective states administered by literate bureaucrats, and sought baronial consent for their decisions through early versions of
parliamentary systemA parliamentary system is a system of government where in the ministers of the executive branch are drawn from the legislature, and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined...
s, called the
Estates GeneralIn France under the Ancient Regime, the States-General or Estates-General , was a legislative assembly of the different classes of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the three estates, which were called and dismissed by the king...
in France and the
ParliamentThe Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. The English Parliament traces its origins to the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot. In 1066, William of Normandy brought a feudal system, by which he sought advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
in England. Towns and merchants allied with kings during the 15th century, allowing the kings to distance themselves further from the territorial lords. As a result of the power gained during the 14th and 15th centuries, late medieval kings built truly sovereign states, which were able to impose taxes, declare war, and create and enforce laws, all by the will of the king. Kings encouraged cohesion in their administration by appointing ministers with broad ambitions and a loyalty to the state. By the last half of the 15th century, kings like
Henry VII of EnglandHenry VII was the King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty.Henry was successful in restoring the power and stability of the English monarchy after the political upheavals of the Wars...
and
Louis XI of FranceLouis XI , called the Prudent and the Universal Spider or the Spider King, was the King of France from 1461 to 1483...
were able to rule without much baronial interference.
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a conflict between France and England lasting 116 years, from 1337 to 1453. It was fought primarily over claims by the English kings to the French throne and was punctuated by several brief and two lengthy periods of peace before it finally ended in the expulsion of the English from France, with the exception of the Calais Pale. Thus, the war was in fact a series of conflicts, and is commonly divided into three or four phases: the Edwardian War (1337–1360), the Caroline War (1369–1389), the Lancastrian War (1415–1429), and the slow decline of English fortunes after the appearance of
Joan of ArcSaint Joan of Arc is a national heroine of France and a Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, claiming divine guidance, and was indirectly responsible for the coronation of Charles VII...
(1429–1453). Though primarily a dynastic conflict, the war gave impetus to ideas of both French and English nationality. Militarily, it saw the introduction of new weapons and tactics, which eroded the older system of feudal armies dominated by heavy cavalry. The first
standing armiesA standing army is an army composed of full-time career soldiers who 'stand over', in other words, who do not disband during times of peace. They differ from army reserves who are activated only during such times as war or natural disasters. Standing armies tend to be better equipped, better...
in Western Europe since the time of the Western Roman Empire were introduced for the war, thus changing the role of the peasantry. For all this, as well as for its long duration, it is often viewed as one of the most significant conflicts in the history of medieval warfare.
Controversy within the Church
The troubled 14th century saw both the
Avignon PapacyThe Avignon Papacy, also known as the "Babylonian Captivity", was the period from 1305 to 1378 during which seven Popes resided in Avignon . The period was one of conflict and controversy during which French Kings held considerable sway over the Papacy and rulers across Europe felt sidelined by the...
of 1305–1378, also called the
Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy (a reference to the
Babylonian CaptivityAlthough the term Babylonian captivity, or Babylonian exile typically refers to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BC, in fact the exile started with the first deportation in 597 BC...
of the Jews), and the so-called
Western SchismThe Great Schism of Western Christianity or Papal Schism was a split within the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. By its end, three men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope. Driven by politics rather than any real theological disagreement, the schism was ended by the Council of...
that lasted from 1378–1418. The practice of granting papal
indulgenceAn indulgence, in Catholic Theology, is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution. The belief is that indulgences draw on the storehouse of merit...
s, fairly commonplace since the 11th century, was reformulated and explicitly monetized in the 14th century. Indulgences came to be an important source of revenue for the Church, revenue that filtered through parish churches to bishops and then to the pope himself. This was viewed by many as a corruption of the Church. In the early years of the 15th century, after a century of turmoil, ecclesiastical officials convened in
ConstanceThe Council of Constance is the 16th ecumenical council recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, held from 1414 to 1418. The council ended the Western Schism, by deposing the remaining Papal claimants and electing Pope Martin V....
in 1417 to discuss a resolution to the Schism. Traditionally, councils needed to be called by the Pope, and none of the contenders were willing to call a council and risk being unseated. The act of convening a council without papal approval was justified by the argument that the Church was represented by the whole population of the faithful. The council deposed the warring popes and elected Martin V. The turmoil of the Church, and the perception that it was a corrupted institution, sapped the legitimacy of the papacy within Europe and fostered greater loyalty to regional or national churches.
Martin LutherMartin Luther changed the course of Western civilization by initiating the Protestant Reformation. As a priest and theology professor, he confronted indulgence salesmen with his The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. Luther strongly disputed their claim that freedom from God's punishment of sin could...
published objections to the Church. Although his disenchantment had long been forming, the denunciation of the Church was precipitated by the arrival of preachers raising money to rebuild the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome. Luther might have been silenced by the Church, but the death of the
Holy Roman EmperorThe Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a Middle Ages ruler, who as German King had in addition received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope of the Holy Roman Church, and after the 16th century, the elected monarch governing the Holy Roman Empire, a Central...
Maximilian IMaximilian I of Habsburg was King of the Romans from 1493 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death, but had ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of his father's reign, from circa 1483...
brought the imperial succession to the forefront of concern. Lutherans' split with the
ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
in 1517, and the subsequent division of
CatholicismCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole...
into
LutheranismLutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the 16th century German reformer Martin Luther. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
,
CalvinismCalvinism is a theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
, and Anabaptism, put a definitive end to the unified Church built during the Middle Ages.
Religion
- Church and state in medieval Europe
- The Crusades
- Pilgrimage
In religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey to a shrine of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. Members of many major religions participate in pilgrimages...
- Papacy
The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, as such, is leader of the worldwide Catholic Church...
- Medieval Inquisition
The Medieval Inquisition is a series of Inquisitions from around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisition and later the Papal Inquisition...
- Heresy
Heresy is the rejection of one or more established beliefs of a religious body, or adherence to "other beliefs." Christian heresy refers to unorthodox practices and beliefs that were deemed to be heretical by one or more of the Christian churches. The term "heresy" most commonly refers to those...
(for example, ArianArianism is the theological teaching of Arius , a Christian priest, who was first ruled a heretic at the First Council of Nicea of 325, later exonerated in 335 at the First Synod of Tyre, and then pronounced a heretic again after his death at the First Council of Constantinople of 381...
; CatharCatharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualistic and gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France and other parts of Europe in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries. Catharism had its roots in the Paulician movement in Armenia and...
; John Wyclif; Hussites)
- Monastic orders
Christian Monasticism is a practice that began to develop early in the history of the Church, modeled upon scriptural examples and ideals, including those in the Old Testament, but not mandated as an institution in the scriptures. It has come to be regulated by religious rules Christian Monasticism...
- Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
s
- Carthusian
The Carthusian Order, also called the Order of St. Bruno, is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed monastics. The order was founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns...
s
- Cistercians
The Order of Cistercians is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed monks. They are sometimes also called the White Monks, in reference to the colour of the habit, over which a black scapular or apron is sometimes worn...
- Mendicant friars
- Franciscan
The term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders, also known as the Orders of Friars Minor, that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St. Francis", or a member of one of these orders. As well as Roman Catholic there are also small Old Catholic and...
s
- Dominicans
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic in the early 13th century in France...
- Carmelites
- Augustinians
The Order of St. Augustine , generally called Augustinians are a Catholic religious order which, although more ancient, were formally constituted in the thirteenth century and combined of several previous Augustinian monastic societies...
- Judaism
The history of Jews in the Middle Ages can be divided into two categories. The history of the Jews in Muslim Arab lands covered in the Islam and Judaism and Golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula articles, and the history of Jews in Christian Europe, covered in this article.-...
- Islam
This article deals with the history and evolution of the Islamic religion in Europe.- Early history :Islam came to Europe in various ways, including through conquest, exploration and trade.-Eastern Europe:...
(Western Europe): Al-AndalusAl-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Arab and North African Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
; Emirate of SicilyThe Islamic conquest and rule of Sicily, Malta, and parts of southern Italy was a process whose origin can be traced back through the general expansion of Islam from the 7th century onwards...
- Islam
Islam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
(Eastern Europe): Golden HordeThe Ulus of Jochi or the Golden Horde is an East Slavic designation for the Mongol—later Turkicized—Muslim khanate established in the western part of the Mongol Empire after the Mongol invasion of Rus' in the 1240s: present-day Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and the Caucasus...
; Crimean KhanateThe Crimean Khanate or the Khanate of Crimea was a Crimean Tatar state from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was Crimean Yurt The Crimean Khanate or the Khanate of Crimea was a Crimean Tatar state from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was Crimean Yurt...
; Sultanate of RûmThe Sultanate of Rûm was the continuation of the Great Seljuq Empire in Anatolia, in direct lineage from 1077 to 1307, with capitals first at İznik and then at Konya. Since the court of the sultanate was highly mobile, cities like Kayseri and Sivas also functioned at times as capitals...
& Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
- Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims...
- Ottoman wars in Europe
The wars of the Ottoman Empire in Europe are also sometimes referred to as the Ottoman Wars or as Turkish Wars, particularly in older, European texts.- Rise :...
See also
- Barbarian invasions
- Crisis of the Late Middle Ages
Around the start of the 14th century a series of events began that brought centuries of European prosperity and growth to a halt. Three major crises would lead to radical changes in all areas of society - they were demographic collapse, political instabilities and lastly religious upheavals.A...
- List of basic medieval history topics
- Medieval art
The medieval art of the Western world covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art history in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa...
- Medieval architecture
Medieval architecture is a term used to represent various forms of architecture popular in Medieval Europe.-Secular and religious architecture:...
- Medieval warm period
The Medieval Warm Period or Medieval Climate Optimum was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region, lasting from about AD 800–1300. It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic termed the Little Ice Age. The MWP is often invoked in discussions of global warming...
- Medieval communes
- Medieval chronological timeline
Note: All dates are Common Era.
-6th century:-7th century:-8th century:-9th century:-10th century:-11th century:-12th century:-13th century:-14th century:-15th century:-See also:...
- Medieval cuisine
Medieval cuisine includes the foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various European cultures during the Middle Ages, a period roughly dating from the 5th to the 16th century...
- Medieval demography
Medieval demography is the study of human demography in Europe during the Middle Ages. It is an estimate of the number of people who were alive during the Medieval period, population trends and movements...
- List of famines
- Middle Ages in film
Medieval films imagine and portray the Middle Ages through the visual, audio and thematic forms of cinema.-Background:The 20th century is not the first to create images of life during medieval times. The Middle Ages ended over five centuries ago and each century has imagined, portrayed and depicted...
- Medieval gardening
Gardening during the medieval period had a primary purpose of providing food for households.For the purposes of this article, the European medieval era will be considered to span from 400 to 1400 CE, though appropriate references may be made to earlier and later times. Gardening is the deliberate...
- Medieval guilds
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade.The earliest guilds were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel and a secret society...
- Horses in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, horses differed in size, build and breed from the modern horse, and were, on average, smaller. They were also more central to society than their modern counterparts, being essential for war, agriculture, and transport....
- Medieval household
The medieval household was, like modern households, the centre of family life for all classes of European society. Yet in contrast to the household of today, it consisted of many more individuals than the nuclear family...
- Medieval hunting
Throughout Western Europe in the Middle Ages, men hunted wild animals. While game was at times an important source of food, it was rarely the principal source of nutrition. Hunting was engaged by all classes, but by the High Middle Ages, the necessity of hunting was transformed into a stylized...
- Islamic Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age or the Islamic Renaissance, is traditionally dated from the 9th to 13th centuries for 400 years C.E., but has been extended to the 15th century by recent scholarship...
- History of the Jews in the Middle Ages
The history of Jews in the Middle Ages can be divided into two categories. The history of the Jews in Muslim Arab lands covered in the Islam and Judaism and Golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula articles, and the history of Jews in Christian Europe, covered in this article.-...
- Medieval literature
Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe beyond and during the Middle Ages . The literature of this time was composed of religious writings as well as secular works...
- Medieval medicine
Medieval medicine in Western Europe was a mixture of existing ideas from antiquity, spiritual influences and what Claude Lévi-Strauss identifies as the "shamanistic complex" and "social consensus." In this era, there was no tradition of scientific medicine, and observations went hand-in-hand with...
- Plague of Justinian
The Plague of Justinian was a pandemic that afflicted the Eastern Roman Empire , including its capital Constantinople, in the years 541–542 AD. The most commonly accepted cause of the pandemic is bubonic plague, which later became infamous for either causing or contributing to the Black Death of...
- Black Death
The Black Death was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, but this view has recently been challenged...
- Medieval music
The term medieval music encompasses European music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends in approximately the middle of the fifteenth century...
- Neo-medievalism
Neo-medievalism is a neologism that was first popularized by Italian medievalist Umberto Eco in his 1973 essay "Dreaming in the Middle Ages"...
- Medieval philosophy
Medieval philosophy is the philosophy of Europe and the Middle East in the era now known as medieval or the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century A.D. to the Renaissance in the sixteenth century...
- Medieval poetry
Because most of what we have was written down by clerics, much of extant medieval poetry is religious. The chief exception is the work of the troubadours and the minnesänger, whose primary innovation was the ideal of courtly love.-Examples of medieval poetry:...
- Medieval reenactment
Medieval reenactment is a form of historical reenactment that focuses on re-enacting European history in the period from the fall of Rome to about the end of the 15th Century. The second half of this period is often called the Middle Ages...
- Medieval science
In the Middle Ages, science progressed dramatically from the time of antiquity in areas as diverse as astronomy, medicine, and mathematics. Whereas the ancient cultures of the world In the Middle Ages, science progressed dramatically from the time of antiquity in areas as diverse as astronomy,...
- Alchemy
Alchemy is both a philosophy and a practice with an aim of achieving ultimate wisdom as well as immortality, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties...
- Medieval ships
Medieval ships were powered by sail or oar, or both. There were a large variety, mostly based in much older conservative design. Although wider and more frequent communications within Europe meant exposure to a variety of improvements, experimental failures were costly and rarely attempted...
- Medieval theatre
Medieval theatre refers to the theatre of Europe between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the beginning of the Renaissance. The term refers to a variety of genres because the time period covers approximately a thousand years of the art form and an entire continent...
- Medieval warfare
Medieval warfare is the warfare of the Middle Ages. In Europe, technological, cultural, and social developments had forced a dramatic transformation in the character of warfare from antiquity, changing military tactics and the role of cavalry and artillery. Similar patterns of warfare existed in...
- Medieval Wars
Medieval wars refer to all wars that took place during the Medieval era, from 400 AD , also known as the Dark Ages to 1500 AD, the start of Renaissance which marks the end of the Medieval Ages. Crusades, the Hundred years war and other Medieval Wars and battles shaped the evolution of medieval...
- Medieval tournament
A Tournament, or tourney is the name popularly given to chivalrous competitions or mock fights of the Middle Ages and Renaissance . It is one of various types of hastiludes....
- Mining and metallurgy in medieval Europe
The Middle Ages in Europe cover the time span from the 5th c. AD, marked by the decay of the Roman Empire, to the 16th c. AD, when social and economic factors shifted Europe towards the Modern Era. During the millennium between classical antiquity and the modern period, a series of technological...
- Popular revolt in late medieval Europe
Popular revolts in late medieval Europe were uprisings and rebellions by peasants in the countryside, or the bourgeois in towns, against nobles, abbots and kings during the upheavals of the 14th through early 16th centuries, part of a larger "Crisis of the Late Middle Ages"...
- Serfdom
Serfdom is the socio-economic status of unfree peasants under feudalism, and specifically relates to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe...
- Slave trade in the Middle Ages
- Tatar invasions
The Mongol invasion of Europe from the east took place over the course of three centuries, from the Middle Ages to the early modern period.The terms Tatars or Tartars are applied to nomadic Turkic peoples who, themselves, were conquered by Mongols and incorporated into their horde...
- The heroic age
The Heroic Age is a semi-annual, peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to Northwestern Europe during the early medieval period...
External links