Back to Index of Lecture Notes Medieval Europe I - 500AD-100AD I. Defining the Middle Ages (500AD-1500AD)

• A. breakdown of Roman power in the West
• B. strengthening of Christianity in Europe
• C. a new form of society based on Roman models, Christianity, + Germanic society

II. Germanic society

• A. Fierce Warriors, but not well-organized
  • 1.therefore Rome had been able to buy off some of them as mercenaries, allies
  • 2.therefore could not overtake Rome right away
  • 3.general unity (all were Germans) plus political independence would be the model for European history for many years
• B. Social Classes
  • 1.Top was nobility
    • a. large landholders
    • b. usually hereditary (but some possibility of change)
    • c. picked a king and a military chief (for each battle campaign) from this group
  • 2.Freemen
    • a. owned their own land
    • b. did not have to work for anyone else
  • 3.non-free, non-slaves
    • a. held to the land
    • b. had to work some allotted time to large landowner
    • c. land could be sold with the people on it
    • d. but people could not be sold without the land
    • e. would therefore be a new kind of group in the west - the serf
• C. Social life
  • 1.women held in higher esteem in Germanic society than in Rome, Middle East
  • 2.great eaters, drinkers, gamblers
  • 3.gained clout via war
    • a. warriors made up of freemen, nobility
    • b. honorable to wear a sword
    • c. outstanding warriors would have a retinue of younger followers
    • d. young followers would be devoted to their leader
• D. Kernels of the medieval society found in Germanic society
  • 1.see this sort of organization as less structured, less organized, more personal, less bureaucratic than Rome or Egypt
  • 2.also therefore did not, to that point, create great cities or towns

III. Christianity and Europe

• A. Previously Christianity was spread within the Roman Empire
  • 1.Constantine and the acceptance of Christianity
  • 2.opportunity for Christianity to use the interconnections of the empire for its growth
  B. Organization of the Church provided means for expanding the Church
  • 1.People - Priest - Bishop
    • a. people as believers
    • b. priests as servers
    • c. bishops as teachers and shepherds (as many as the Church needed)
  • 2.Bishops had one man, one vote tradition in theological matters since Nicea in 325
  • 3.Administrative and organizational primacy (not supremacy) given to Patriarchs
    • a. Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, Rome
    • b. Roman pope was first among equals
    • c. Rome was the place of appeal - will become leader of all Western Christianity
• C. Monastic tradition
  • 1.as opposed to urban tradition in early Christianity
    • a. the appeal of the Desert Fathers - often very charismatic
    • b. the appeal of devoting your life to Christianity
    • c. develop primarily in Egypt
    • d. originally hermits - gather followers, beginnings of monastic tradition
  • 2.gathering groups together as communities
  • 3.provided possible "missionaries" ("We're on a mission from God...")
    • a. had no families to worry about
    • b. had no ties of business, etc., other than the Church
    • c. devoted to God and His work - devoted to obedience
    • d. used to living in difficult circumstances
    • e. able to travel to far-off places
• D. Monasteries crucial to survival of learning and knowledge
  • 1.As Roman empire collapses, become repositories for knowledge
  • 2.Many monasteries collect and copy books; one of few sources of literacy in early period
  • 3.St. Patrick (d. 461) important in this tradition
    • a. Roman-British - kidnapped to Ireland, escapes
    • b. returns as missionary
    • c. Irish take not only to Christianity, but to books
    • d. Irish begin collecting books and founding monasteries across Europe at precisely the moment the Empire is collapsing.
• E. Importance of Christianity to organization of Europe in medieval period
  • 1.unifying "glue" for Europeans
  • 2.linked them to a rich moral and spiritual background in Hebrew, Greek civilization

IV. Other key factors in development of early Medieval Europe

• A. Importance of Rome as background to European politics, society
  • 1.political centralization (gone, but still remembered)
  • 2.possibility of travel, idea of an empire
• B. Importance of Germanic tribes and their successors
  • 1.provided social structure that would become Feudalism
  • 2.provided personnel
• C. mportance of Geography, Climate, Population
  • 1.geography didn't change - lots of small mountains but few large ones
  • 2.rocky, difficult soil for tillage
  • 3.general warming trend in Europe throughout the period
  • 4.population on the rise - 100% increase from 1000-1300 from 37-74 million

V. Charles the Great - Charlamagne (ruled 772-806) - A Frankish Emperor

• A. Inherited a (somewhat) unified kingdom from his father Pepin the Short in 768
  • 1.had taken over, enlarged kingdom from Merovingian rulers
  • 2.had created good relations with Rome
  • 3. First significant unified government in Europe since fall of Roman Empire
• B. Ruled with his brother Carloman until Carloman's death in 761
• C. Created an illustrious career as warrior, politician, patron of religion
• D. Unified (sort of) central Europe from France eastward and southward, under his conntol
  • 1.a highly charismatic leader
  • 2.a great warrior
  • 3.very decentralized empire based on personal relationships rather than on power or bureaucracy
  • 4.would be hard to maintain - depended on personal relationship between king and vassals
  • 5.gained increasing strength in Rome, seen as a defender of Christianity
• E. Therefore, in 800, crowned Holy Roman Emperor
  • 1.a difficult term - Charles didn't even use it some of the time 2.shortly afterward there was a new Byzantine emperor
    • a. herefore Charles was known to the emperor as "Emperor of the Franks"
    • b. continued to rule in the manner of Frankish kings rather than as Roman emperor
    • c. yet probably liked the idea as a unifying title for all of European dominions
    • d. importance of the idea of the Holy Roman Emperor
      • 1)link to Rome
      • 2)link to its imperial glory
      • 3)linked together these various little geographic regions
      • 4)would last until 1685 in reality, in theory longer
• F. Carolingian renaissance
  • 1.tried to reform the Church, whose organization had become riddled with problems
  • 2.tried to institute new control over who became bishop, giving control of that position to the king
  • 3.instituted clerical schools and created centers of learning - would become very important for Europe that church and education were put together
  • 4.backed the creation (reform) of the vulgate Latin Bible, still used and basis for other Bibles
  • 5.instituted the idea of liberal arts to European learning (via monk Alcuin, ca. 735-804)
  • 6. Development of Carolingian miniscule - made writing easier
• G. Started to fall apart when he his kingdom was divided among his three grandsons
  • 1.A Frankish, not Roman, custom
  • 2.without charismatic leadership of Charles things did not fare well; less and less centralized organization
  • 3.beginning of modern European states here
    • a. Northmen invaded from North
    • b. English invaded by Norse
    • c. Franks developed more and more as French
    • d. Germans retained power in central Europe

VI. How was the Carolingian - and later Feudal - Politics and society organized?

• A. defining Feudalism
  • 1.scholars tell us that it meant a slew of different things because it was so diverse
  • 2.term was not used by the people themselves - one that we use
  • 3.three main aspects of feudalism
    • a. relationship of lord to vassal - land in exchange for military service
    • b. fragmentation of public power - vassals have rule of law on their fiefs
    • c. devolution of public authority into private hands
• B. The social bonds of Feudalism - based on Germanic ideas
  • 1.relationship of lord to vassal
  • 2.military basis of this relationship
  • 3.as it grew into a land relationship too, since vassal had to be able to feed himself and buy the armor and horses needed for new cavalry called "knights"
  • 4.land broken down further and further, kings to lords to vassals of various kinds
  • 5.all based on honor and equality
  • 6.importance of a personal bond between people, made by themselves
• C. Breakup of large center of power (Rome, then Carolingian) into ever smaller units
  • 1.therefore power went from one place to many smaller ones
  • 2.fragmentation meant less unity but greater possibility of personal relationship
• D. Thus public control, authority became private, in the hands of the king
  • 1.king himself had little power over his vassals except as military leader and personal loyalty
  • 2.geography of Europe made this devolution easy
  • 3.local vassals therefore became all-powerful in their local sphere
  • 4.vassals then controlled, protected local populace from the manor house (castle)

VII. Economic system--Manorial system

• A. devolution of real empire meant increasing importance of farming versus trade
• B. by High Middle Ages more land under tillage in Europe than any other time in its history
• C. Manor system described
  • 1.peasants worked land owned by manor (given for military service by the king or bigger lord)
  • 2.much (or most) land owned by local lord
  • 3.peasants had to pay taxes in kind and time to lord for use of his land and their own defense
  • 4.peasants often were serfs -- they could not move off land
  • 5.some peasants and artisans free and able to move about Europe
• D. creation of the three field system instead of the two field system
• E. introduction of the iron plow
  • 1.different from the wooden plow used in the south
  • 2.harder, more efficient, but much more expensive and difficult to maintain
  • 3.introduction of oxen, then horses for plowing
  • 4.need for communal plowing with communal hitch and plow
  • 5.introduction of many local blacksmiths and their products across Europe
  • 6.helped to fuel the population explosion, cultural explosion of the middle ages

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