A New World of Cities and Kingdoms

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Chapter 10 A New World of Cities and Kingdoms
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Medieval Trade Routes 1. As commerce was
revitalized at the turn of the millennium, much
of it depended on Jewish merchants who conducted
both regional and international trade. Through
contacts with Jewish communities, these merchants
linked the West commercially with the wealthier
civilizations of Byzantium and Islam. 2.
Shipping by water was done in galleys that
utilized sails and/or oars. These small ships
usually hugged the coast to avoid the dangers of
the open sea. Navigation was done by both dead
reckoning and the astrolabe, an instrument
perfected by the Arabs that allowed navigation by
the sun and stars by measuring the angle from the
horizon, enabling latitude to be calculated.
3. Leading in the revival of trade in the
eleventh century were the Italian cities.
Ideally located, Venice not only had easy access
to trade by the transalpine land routes but also
the sea lanes of the Adriatic and Mediterranean.
From the north came the raw materials of Austria,
the manufactured goods of the southern German
states, and the woolen goods of Flanders. To the
east, Venice established close commercial
relations with Byzantine and Islamic markets.
The products of trade sent to Constantinople
included wine, grain, and timber in exchange for
silk that could be traded to other communities.
To the west, the Venetians traded with North
Africa and into the Atlantic with France and
Flanders. As Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily were
freed from Muslim control, other Italian cities
such as Genoa, Florence, and Naples followed the
Venetians into the western Mediterranean trade.
4. Venice cultivated trading relations with
both Constantinople and Muslim North Africa
thereby creating a triangular trade. Extensive
trade allowed Venice to become the first European
state to live by trade alone. Exports of salt
from their lagoons and glass from their furnaces
together with the profits generated from trade
made it possible to purchase whatever food the
community required. Since few of the Venetians
were involved in agriculture, this area of trade
was vitally necessary. 5. Flanders was also
strategically located. Across from England where
wool was the primary product, Flanders evolved as
a center of European textile manufacturing. In
addition, Flanders became the logical focus for
traders throughout northern Europe as they
brought a variety of goods to trade for woolen
products. Also prospering from the northern
trade were the Flemish towns as Bruges and
Ghent. 6. To encourage trade in northern France,
the Counts of Champaign devised a series of six
fairs to be held annually. The fairs became the
largest commercial markets in western Europe.
Northern merchants brought furs, woolen cloth,
tin, hemp, and honey to exchange for southern
European goods such as cloth and swords from
northern Italy and silks, sugar, and spices of
the East. 7. In northern Germany, Lübeck and
Hamburg formed a mercantile association that was
the forefather to the Hanseatic League. The
league would come to control central European
trade. It included two hundred cities from
Poland to Holland. By the fourteenth century the
Hanseatic merchants were reaching into southern
Germany and Northern Italy by land and France,
Spain, and Portugal by sea. Questions 1. What
factors drove the expansion of medieval trade? 2.
What advantages did Italy have to become a center
of trade?

• Medieval Trade Routes

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• The New World of Trade and Cities
• The Revival of Trade
• Italian cities
• Venitian ties with the Byzantine Empire
• Genoa and Pisa
• Flanders
• Woolen cloth
• Fairs of the counts of Champagne
• Commercial revolution
• Growth of Cities
• Revival of commerce

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• Artisans and merchants establish settlements
• Along trade routes near castles
• Intersections of two trade routes
• Borough (burgh) and burghers
• Charters
• Communes
• City governments
• Bishops
• Alliance between town residents and rural nobles
• Citizenship
• Regulations and organization

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• Life in the Medieval city
• Space at a premium
• Merchants
• Physical environment and pollution
• Women
• Industry
• Guilds
• Apprenticeship
• Manufacturing

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Intellectual Centers of Medieval Europe 1. As
part of the Carolingian Renaissance, several
cathedral schools and libraries were established
throughout the Carolingian Empire. There were
only twenty such schools in 900 but by 1100 there
were at least two hundred. The primary purpose
of these schools was the education of
priests. 2. The first European university was at
Bologna that became a center for the study of
law. The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa recognized
it with a charter in 1158. The university was
governed by a guild of students. Other law
schools developed at Montpelier and Orleans in
France and Oxford in England. 3. In southern
Italy at Salerno the first school of medicine was
established. The scholars here were able to draw
from the medical heritage of both Islam and
Byzantium. 4. In northern Europe the University
of Paris became the first recognized university.
In 1200 Philip Augustus accorded formal
recognition. The first teachers at the
university received their licenses to teach from
the cathedral school at Notre Dame. By the
thirteenth century there were about 7,000
students at the university. 5. A number of
students and masters left Paris and started their
own university at Oxford, England, in 1208.
Likewise, Cambridge University was formed in 1209
when students and masters left Oxford. 6. The
first university on German soil was established
in 1385 at Heidelberg. 7. Medieval philosophers
drew nourishment from the translations coming
from Spain and Sicily where the Islamic world was
already acquainted with the Greek and Roman
writers. Toledo was a center for the translation
of works from Arabic to Latin. Questions 1.
What role did Charlemagne play in the
preservation and the transmission of
knowledge? 2. How were new universities formed?

• Intellectual Centers of Medieval Europe

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• The Intellectual and Artistic World of the High
  Middle Ages
• The Rise of Universities
• Monastic schools
• Cathedral schools
• Irnerius (1088-1125), Bologna
• University of Paris
• Oxford
• Cambridge

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• Teaching in the Medieval University
• Liberal arts curriculum
• Trivium and quadrivium
• Lecture
• Exams
• Degrees
• Advanced study in law, medicine, theology
• Students
• Middle groups of medieval society
• Male
• Violence

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• Renaissance of the Twelfth Century
• Greek science and philosophy
• Muslim preservation of Greek science and
  philosophy
• Ibn-Rushd or Averroës (1126-1198)
• Muslim science
• Development of Scholasticism
• Reconcile faith and reason
• Peter Abelard (1079-1142)
• Sic et Non (Yes and No)
• Contradiction of scripture
• Nature of reality
• Plato and Aristotle

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• Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
• Summa Theologica
• Dialectical method
• Revival of Roman Law
• Corpus Iuris Civilis (Body of Civil Law)
• Irnerius of Bologna
• Literature in the High Middle Ages
• Vernacular Literature
• Poetry
• Chanson de geste (heroic epic)
• Chanson de Roland (Song of Roland)
• Courtly romance
• Fabliaux (fables)

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• Romanesque Architecture A White Mantle of
  Churches
• Basilica form
• Barrel vaults
• Heavy walls
• Gothic Cathedral
• Ribbed vaults and pointed arches
• Flying buttresses and stained glass
• Community construction

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England and France in the High Middle Ages 1.
The invasion by William of Normandy was
occasioned by the death of the childless
Anglo-Saxon ruler, Edward the Confessor in 1066.
Since Edward's mother was a Norman princess, he
willed the throne to William. The Witan
(Anglo-Saxon assembly), however, ignored the
wishes of the deceased king and appointed the
Saxon Harold Godwinsson as the new king.
Immediately, Godwinsson had to defend his realm
from Harald Hardrada, king of Norway, who also
claimed the throne. On September 23, 1066,
Godwinsson defeated the Norwegians but then had
to rush 300 miles south to meet William who had
invaded near Hastings. Godwinsson's army was
crushed on October 14, 1066. 2. Henry II
(1154-1189) not only wore the crown of England
and was lord of Ireland, he was also the duke of
Burgundy and count of Anjou (inherited from his
father), the duke of Normandy (inherited from his
mother), and through his wife, Eleanor, the duke
of Aquitaine. Additionally, the king of Scotland
was Henry's vassal. 3. The marriage of Henry to
Eleanor in March 1152 followed the annulment of
her marriage to the king of France, Louis VII
(1137-1180). With the marriage, Henry gained
considerable French soil just as Louis lost it.
The French perceived the English expansion a
threat and began pursuing a policy of
containment that would not know complete success
until the end of the Hundred Years' War
(1337-1453). 4. King John (1199-1216) was
declared an unfaithful vassal by Philip II
Augustus of France (1180-1223) and thus forfeited
his right to the territories in France. In 1204,
the French king seized Normandy and within ten
years the English lost Maine, Anjou, and
Touraine. Only Aquitaine had not fallen to the
French. The English loses were facilitated by
the battle at Bouvines on July 27, 1214, where
the French defeated the allied forces of John and
the Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV (1198-1215). The
victory unified France around the crown and so
weakened Otto that he soon fell from power. 5.
The royal domain of the French king was limited
to the territory of Ile-de-France and the
immediate territory surrounding the city. 6. By
the Treaty of Paris in 1259, Louis IX (1226-1270)
surrendered to Henry III (1216-1272) the disputed
territories on the borders of Gascony and
confirmed Henry's possession of the duchy of
Aquitaine. This will be a cause for The Hundred
Years' War. Questions 1. How did England come
to possess so much territory in France? 2. In
what manner would England lose its French
possessions?

• England and France in the High Middle Ages

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• The Emergence and Growth of European Kingdoms,
  1000-1300
• Kings
• England in the High Middle Ages
• King Canute, 1016-1035
• Edward the Confessor, 1042-1066
• Harold Godwinson meets Duke William, Battle of
  Hastings, October 14, 1066
• William the Conqueror, 1066-1087
• Doomsday Book
• Oath of Salisbury Plain, 1086
• Shires (counties), hundreds, sheriff
• Ties to France

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• Henry II Plantagenet, 1154-1189
• Lord of Ireland
• Count of Anjou, duke of Normandy, duke of
  Aquitaine
• Financial reform
• Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury
• King John, 1199-1216
• Battle of Runnymede, 1215
• Magna Carta
• King Edward, 1272-1307
• Uniting British Isles
• Monarchical rights
• Parliament

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• Growth of the French Kingdom
• Capetian dynasty
• Ile-de-France
• King Philip II Augustus, 1180-1223
• War against the Plantagenets
• Government
• Bailiwicks and bailiffs
• Seneschals
• King Louis IX, 1226-1270
• Justice for the people
• Parlements

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Christian Reconquests in the Western
Mediterranean 1. In 711 a Muslim force crossed
the Strait of Gibraltar and defeated the weak
Visigothic kings (see Acetate 23, Map 7.3). By
718 the Iberian Peninsula belonged to the
Muslims. Seeking to continue their expansion,
Muslim adventurers pushed across the Pyrenees
into the lands of the Franks. In 732 near
Poitiers (see Acetate 26, Map 7.5) the fearful
Franks met the Muslims in an inconclusive battle.
Since the Frankish lands represented only a
periphery, the raiders returned to Spain where
Islamic civilization was being established. 2. A
civil war brought the fall of the caliph of
Cordóba in 1031. As a consequence, Muslim Spain
disintegrated into small principalities (taifas)
based on major towns. Ultimately there were
twenty-three taifas. 3. The height of the first
period of Spanish Christian reconquest came in
1085 when the old Christian city of Toledo was
recaptured. Several Christian kingdoms emerged
at this time tiny Leon in the northeast, the
small northern mountain state of Navarre
Portugal in the west Castile in the center
Aragon in the northeast and Catalonia in the
extreme east. Aragon and Catalonia united in
1140. Taking advantage of Muslim disunity, Leon
and Castile extended their realms south. 4.
Cordóba was chosen in the eighth century to be
the capital of the Umayyad caliphate. 5. Rodrigo
Díaz de Vivar, "El Cid," fought for both the
Christians and Muslims, changing sides as his own
interests required. Ultimately he acquired
Valencia in 1092. 6. Alfonso VIII of Castile
defeated the Almohades at Las Navas de Tolosa in
1212. Muslim towns quickly fell in succession
after this battle. When Sevilla was captured in
1248 only Granada remained in Muslim hands. 7.
Located in Granada was the fortified palace of
the Alhambra that ruled over the region from 1232
to 1492. This was the last bastion of Muslim
rule on the Iberian Peninsula. On January 2,
1492, Granada fell after a siege by the Christian
Spaniards. 8. In 1060 Norman Duke Roger
Guiscard, with papal blessing, invaded Muslim
Sicily. A prosperous island, the invasion was
driven more by Norman greed than Christian zeal.
It would not be until 1091 that the conquest
would be completed. In 1072 the Muslim
metropolis of Palermo was conquered. With its
bustling harbor, Palermo played a key role in
central Mediterranean trade. Equally important,
the Normans adopted many of the Muslim cultural
forms (without the religion). Thus, the island
became one of the important links in the
transmission of Islamic knowledge to the
West. Questions 1. How did the people of Spain
react to the invasion of the Muslims? 2. Why was
the conquest of Sicily desired? 3. What was the
importance of Sicily in the transmission of
Islamic knowledge?

• Christian Reconquests in the Western Mediterranean

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• King Philip IV, the Fair, 1285-1314
• Royal administration
• Council for advice, chamber of accounts, royal
  court (Parlement)
• Estates General
• Christian Reconquest The Spanish Kingdoms
• Leon, Castile, Navarre, Aragon, and Barcelona
  take the offensive against the Muslims
• Fueros

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The Holy Roman Empire 1. The origin of the Holy
Roman Empire was with Charlemagne who was
reviving the old Roman Empire of the west with a
base in Germany. The pope on Christmas day 800
confirmed his status as emperor. 2. The main
body of Germany was the eastern section of
Charlemagne's empire given to Louis the German at
the Treaty of Verdun in 843 (see Acetate 27, Map
8.1). Under the Saxon kings territories were
gained east into the lands of the Slavs (see
Acetate 30, Map 8.4) and claims were made both on
the Middle Kingdom created by the treaty and on
Italy. The Germans, however, could not hold
northern Italy and central Italy remained under
the control of the Papal States. 3. With empires
expanding and nobles often reluctant to
cooperate, it was essential that the kings
exercise some control over the church. This was
especially important since clergymen filled
offices as royal administrators. This ultimately
led to a clash between Henry IV (1056-1106) and
Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) over the practice of
lay investiture that had become essential in
governing Germany. By forbidding investiture,
Gregory had deprived Henry of a key element in
his bureaucracy. With his kingdom threatened,
Henry sought to weaken the pope by getting the
German bishops to declare their independence.
For this, Henry was excommunicated. Now facing a
general revolt of his nobles, Henry had to seek
absolution that was gained at Canossa in January
1077 with a promise of submission. The pope was
ascendant in his power but soon was brought down
when an again excommunicated Henry drove Gregory
into exile in 1084 and installed his own antipope
(who was never recognized within the Church).
Only in 1122 with the Concordat of Worms was the
controversy resolved when Henry V (1106-1125)
renounced his power to invest bishops. 4. By the
thirteenth century Frederick II (1215-1250) had
united northern and southern Italy with Germany
to create the largest empire since Charlemagne.
Actually a Sicilian, Frederick's main interest
was the imperial title of Germany for which he
was willing to concede undisputed authority to
the German princes. Ultimately, this objective
together with struggles with the papacy would
lead to the fragmentation of Germany, not to be
united again until 1870. 5. The Normans invaded
Sicily and southern Italy in the eleventh century
with the blessings of the pope (see Acetate 36,
Map 10.4). After thirty-one years of fighting
(1060-1091), the Muslim and Greek defenders were
subdued. Questions 1. How was the Holy Roman
Empire created out of the demise of Charlemagne's
empire? 2. What was the important relationship
between the Church and the ruler of Germany? 3.
How did Frederick II affect the future of Germany.

• The Holy Roman Empire

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• The Lands of the Holy Roman Empire Germany and
  Italy
• Salian kings in Germany
• Weakened kings rely on churchmen as
  administrators
• Normans conquer southern Italy
• Frederick I, Barbarossa, 1152-1190
• Build German kingdom
• Opposition of the pope in northern Italy
• Henry VI, 1190-1197
• Frederick II, 1212-1250
• Preoccupation in gaining Italy
• Contest with the pope

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Northern and Eastern Europe 1. Denmark, Norway,
and Sweden did not develop a significant
political structure until the second half of the
tenth and first half of the eleventh centuries.
All three converted to Christianity but
continuously fought one another in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries. 2. Novgorod was a
prosperous trading city tied to German merchants
in the West. It was situated so that fur and
amber traders could ship their goods west in
exchange for the products of western Europe. 3.
Under Boleslav the Brave (992-1025), Poland
extended its authority west across the Oder
River, down into Bohemia, and east into the
Kingdom of Rus. Although the kingdom survived
after the death of Boleslav, it was truncated
with no natural frontiers. As a consequence,
German settlers encroached regularly leading to
intermarriage between the Slavs and Germans. The
Oder became a linguistic dividing line west of
the river German predominated while east of it
the Slavic language prevailed. 4. In 1386 the
reigning queen of Poland married the grand duke
of Lithuania thereby doubling the size of
Poland. 5. Near the end of the twelfth century
the Teutonic Knights were established to protect
the Christian Holy Lands. In 1226 East Prussia
was given to the Knights who waged war and
brought both the region and the pagan Slavs under
Christianity. 6. By the 1230s the Mongols, who
previously had conquered China and Persia, were
turning their efforts westward and advancing into
Poland and Hungary. The Mongols eventually
established a capital for this division of the
Mongol Empire at Sarai on the lower Volga River.
The Mongol authority was maintained over the
lands of what are now the Ukraine and Byelorussia
until the middle of the fourteenth century. 7.
The prince of Novgorod, Alexander Nevsky,
cooperated with the Mongols in the middle of the
thirteenth century and thereby won
acknowledgement as the leader of the western part
of the Mongol empire. 8. The southern Slavic
people came to occupy the Balkans where they
ultimately split between Roman Christianity
(Croats) and Eastern Christianity
(Serbs). Questions 1. What was the impact of
the Teutonic Knights on eastern Europe? 2. What
role did the Mongols play in the political
settlement of eastern Europe?

• Northern and Eastern Europe

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• New Kingdoms in Northern and Eastern Europe
• Scandinavia
• Hungary and Poland
• Tuetonic Knights
• Development of Russia
• Kiev
• Orthodox Church
• Mongols
• Alexander Nevsky (c. 1220-1263)