European Civilization in the Early Middle Ages, 750-1000

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Chapter 8 European Civilization in the Early
Middle Ages, 750-1000
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The Carolingian Empire 1. Extending diagonally
across northern Italy were the Papal States that
were gained by the papacy when a Frankish army of
King Pipin (751-768) defeated the Lombards. The
Franks would provide the Church with a dependable
western ally to replace the Byzantines who had
previously protected Rome from the Lombards. 2.
In 773 the Lombards in northern Italy were again
defeated, this time by the forces of Charlemagne
(768-814). The victory established Charlemagne's
control over the north of Italy. 3. Charlemagne
invaded northern Spain in 778 but was forced to
retreat. Later, south of the Pyrenees, he
established and fortified the Spanish March as a
bulwark against the Muslims in Spain. 4.
Charlemagne's army expanded Frankish control into
Bavaria in 788 and in 804 into Saxony, after
stubborn resistance and several campaigns. In
both instances Christianity was extended as the
German tribal leaders and their followers were
converted, at least nominally. 5. Aachen,
centrally located in the north, was to be
Charlemagne's new capital. The site was selected
for its hot springs. The plan was to make the
new city as glorious as Constantinople and
Ravenna. It never matched the dreams and was
abandoned after Charlemagne's death (814).
Nevertheless, Charlemagne did succeed in
establishing a palace school here. Among the
learned men brought to Aachen was the English
scholar Alcuin from York in Northumbria. Through
the school and Alcuin, classic learning was kept
alive. 6. In part, the empire collapsed after
Charlemagne's death because it had become too
large and unmanageable. 7. The death of
Charlemagne in 814 brought to power his weak son
Louis the Pious (814-840) who could not control
the Frankish aristocrats. Louis's death in 840
resulted in his three sons fighting over their
inheritances. Finally, they agreed to the Treaty
of Verdun (843) which divided the Empire into
three parts Charles the Bald (840-877) received
the west Frankish lands (the core of modern
France) Lothar (840-855) the "Middle Kingdoms"
extending from the North Sea to Italy and Louis
the German (840-876) the eastern lands (the core
of modern Germany). Almost immediately, the
"Middle Kingdom" broke up into petty
principalities over which the other two kings
fought. Questions 1. How was Charlemagne able
to create and maintain such a vast empire? 2. Why
were the successors unable to maintain the empire
Charlemagne had established? 3. What is role of
Charlemagne in the rebirth of intellectual
activity? 4. What were the relationships and the
consequences of Charlemagne's dealings with the
Church?

• The Carolingian Empire

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• People and the Environment
• Underpopulation
• River Transportation
• Weak Agriculture
• The World of the Carolingians
• Pepin, 751-768
• Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire
• Expansion of the Empire
• 8000 men gathered each spring
• Mostly infantry with some cavalry
• Into Spain and Germany

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• Governing the Empire
• Margraves (count of the border district)
• Counts
• Missi dominice (messengers of the lord king)
• Relations with the church
• Charlemagne as Emperor
• Pope Leo III, 795-816
• Christmas Day, 800, crowned emperor
• The Carolingian Intellectual Renewal
• Scritoria
• Carolingian minuscule
• Alcuin

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• Life in the Carolingian World
• Family and Marriage
• Church and marriage
• Monogamy
• Indissolubility of marriage
• Christianity and Sexuality
• Celibacy
• Sexual activity
• Homosexuality
• New Attitudes toward Children
• Condemn infanticide
• Travel and Hospitality

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• Diet and Health
• Pork, dairy products, honey and spices
• Gluttony and drunkenness
• Water and wine
• Physicians
• Disintegration of the Carolingian Empire
• Louis the Pious, 814-840
• Treaty of Verdun, 843
• Charles the Bald, 843-877, western lands
• Louis the German, 843-876, eastern lands
• Lothair, 840-855, Middle Kingdom

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Invasions of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries 1.
The Magyars were nomadic mounted warriors from
western Asia who under pressure had moved west
into eastern and central Europe. At the end of
the ninth century they struck into the Danube
Valley and pressed westward into the plains of
Hungary (some people thought they were the
returning Huns and called them Hungarians). From
here they raided into Germany, eastern France,
and Italy. In 955 the Magyars were defeated at
the Battle of Lechfeld in Germany and fell back
eastward, eventually establishing the Kingdom of
Hungary. By the end of the tenth century they
converted to Christianity. 2. The Viking ships
were long and narrow, carrying about fifty men.
They had two banks of oars and a single great
sail. Because these ships had a very shallow
draft, they could sail up the rivers of Europe
and attack places far inland. 3. Most likely due
to overpopulation and growing political order,
the warlike Vikings (or Norsemen) unexpectedly
poured out of Scandinavia beginning in the eighth
and ninth centuries. Norwegian Vikings pressed
into Ireland and western England. Danes pushed
into eastern England, Frisia, and the Rhineland.
The Varangians (Swedes) turned into the Baltic
region and drove down the Dvina and Dnieper
Rivers to Novogorod and Kiev to the Black Sea and
attacked Constantinople. The Varangians also
pushed west on the Volga where they eventually
contacted Arab traders. In France, Vikings
occupied land at the mouth of the Seine River
that was ultimately given to them in 911 by the
ruler of the western Frankish kingdom. The area
came to be known as "Normanland," Normandy.
Adventurous Vikings also sailed west to Iceland
in 874 and Greenland in 985. Within a few
decades they apparently reached North
America. 4. Most Viking raids were carried out
during the summer months but by the mid-ninth
century they had begun to establish winter
settlement. By 850 Norsemen were settled in
Ireland and Danes were in northeastern England in
878. Agreeing to accept Christianity, the Danes
were assimilated into the Anglo-Saxon kingdom.
5. From their new bases in North Africa, the
Muslims struck at Sicily in 827 and occupied the
island. In 846 they sacked Rome. By 859 they
were attacking the settlements along the southern
coast of France. The Muslim activities were less
devastating than that of the Magyars and Vikings
perhaps because they found Europe to be
primitive, offering little. Nevertheless, Sicily
was a point from which cultural advances of Islam
could be transmitted to the West (see Acetate 36,
Map 10.4). Questions 1. What caused the
various invasions of Europe in the ninth and
tenth centuries? 2. What were the consequences of
the invasions for the Europeans? 3. What was the
legacy of Islam's occupation of Sicily?

• Invasions of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries

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• Invasions of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries
• Muslims and Magyars
• Muslims build sea bases in the Mediterranean
• Magyars from western Asia
• Moved into eastern and central Europe
• Battle of Lechfeld, 955
• Vikings
• Scandinavia
• Warriors, shipbuilders, and sailors
• Russia
• Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland

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• The Emerging World of Lords and Vassals
• The Feudal System
• Lord and vassal
• Comitatus (following a great chief)
• Beneficium fief
• Homage
• Knights
• Mutual obligation
• New Political Configurations in the 10th Century
• Otto I, 936-973 Germany
• Relies on bishops and abbots to govern
• Italian politics
• New Roman Empire

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A Manor 1. In the Early Middle Ages free
peasants were gradually losing their freedom.
Given the precarious conditions of the times,
small farmers found it necessary to find
protection and also food in a time of bad
harvests. Peasants gave up their freedom to the
lords of the large landed estates in return for
protection and sustenance. By the ninth century,
60 percent of the population in western Europe
had been reduced to serfdom. 2. Agriculturists
had long ago learned that if a field was
repeatedly planted productivity would fall as
nutrients were robbed from the soil. Thus,
fields were rotated throughout the planting
seasons to give the soil a chance to recover. At
any one time from a third to half of the fields
lay fallow. Crops such as wheat and rye would be
grown in the autumn field and peas, beans, and
barley in the spring field. What was planted
varied from year to year as crops were
rotated. 3. The size of the manor varied. A
large manor could cover several thousand acres
while a small one would be slightly more than a
hundred acres. A small manor would have no more
than a dozen households while a large one might
have as many as fifty families. The people were
congregated into a village consisting of several
one-room dirt floor huts in which, perhaps, a
family of five would dwell. Around these
dwellings were spaces large enough for vegetable
gardens. 4. The lord's demesne that could
consist of from a third to half of the arable
land on the estate, was worked about three days
of the week in return for lands to the peasant.
The open fields were divided into strips of about
an acre which were separated by narrow paths. The
lack of fences permitted domesticated animals to
roam freely in the winter to forage for food. 5.
The nearby forest was of economic importance. In
addition to providing timber for building and
fuel, bark could be used to make rope, the resin
for lighting, and the ash and lime for
fertilizers. Moreover, the forest environs
contained nuts, berries, and wild game (though
this was usually reserved for the hunting of the
lord). The pond and stream provided a source of
water and food. 6. Peasants could be required to
grind their grain in the lord's mill and cook in
the lord's oven, both for a price. 7.
Technological innovations such as the heavy plow,
the shoulder collar for horses, metal horseshoes,
and more efficient water and windmills
contributed to a significant increase in the food
supply. Between 500 and 1300 the European
population grew from 25 million to more than 70
million. This was reversed in the fourteenth
century when a colder and rainier climate caused
harvests to shrink and prices to rise. Ravaging
armies at this time destroyed crops, barns, and
mills. Famine became a fact of life, complicated
by the Black Death between 1348 and
1354. Questions 1. In what respect was the
manor a self-sustaining enterprise? 2. What was
the relationship between the peasant on the manor
and the lord? 3. What new innovations contributed
to the increase of production? How did they do
this?

• A Manor

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• Hugh Capet, 987-996 France
• Ile-de-France
• Alfred the Great, 871-899 England
• Defeats the Danes, 879
• King Edgar, 959-975
• Shire-reeve
• The Manorial System
• Peasants
• Serfs
• Demesne (lords land)
• Lords rights over the serfs
• Trade

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• The Zenith of Byzantine Civilization
• Michael III, 842-867
• Byzantine revival
• Photian schism
• Macedonian dynasty, 867-1081
• Strengthened army
• Administration
• Trade
• Civil service

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The World of the Slavs 1. The Slavic people were
of Indo-European stock, probably originating in
present-day southeastern Poland and the western
Ukraine. They divided into three groups
Western, Southern, and Eastern Slavs. The
Western Slavs pushed into Poland and Bohemia
where their contact with the Germanic kingdom
resulted in not only the extension of political
authority by the German emperor but also
conversion to western Christianity. By the end
of the ninth century the Czechs had been
converted as had been the Slavs in Poland by the
end of the tenth. Non-Slavic Hungary was
converted by the German missionaries in the early
eleventh century. 2. The Southern Slavs came to
occupy the Balkans where they eventually split
between Roman Christianity (Croats) and eastern
Christianity (Serbs). 3. The Eastern Slavs
occupied present-day Ukraine and European Russia.
The invasion of the Swedish Vikings (see Acetate
28, Map 8.2), called Varangians, resulted in
their eventual domination over the Slavs as they
became involved in the Slavic civil wars. The
Varangian contact with the Byzantine Empire led
to the conversion of the region to eastern
Christianity. 4. Kiev was the center of the
union of east Slavic territories known as the
principality of Kiev. Expansion of Kiev led to
control over the eastern Slavs and ultimately
encompassed the lands between the Baltic and
Black Seas and the Danube and Volga Rivers. 5.
The Bulgars were originally and Asiatic people
who conquered much of the Balkan peninsula.
Eventually the larger native Southern Slavic
population absorbed them. By the ninth century
they formed the largely Slavic Kingdom of
Bulgaria. Question 1. What were the
consequences of the Slavic expansion out of
southeastern Poland and the western Ukraine?

• The World of the Slavs

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• The Slavic Peoples of Central and Eastern Europe
• Conversion to Christianity
• Language groups
• The Rus
• Kiev
• Vladimir, c. 980-1015
• The World of Islam
• Umayyad dynasty
• Abu al-Abbas, 750

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• Abbasid dynasty
• Baghdad, 762
• Harun al-Rashid, 760-809
• al-Mamun, 813-833
• Abd al-Rahman in Spain, 756
• Fatimid family in Egypt, 973
• Civilization
• Urban culture
• Science and philosophy
• Mathematics and astronomy
• Ibn Sina (980-1037), Avicenna
• Medical encyclopedia