Early Middle Ages

The Rise Of Europe 500-1300

Focus on Themes • Geography and History: Why did Western Europe develop its own resources during the Middle Ages? • Political and Social Systems: How did feudalism and the manor economy provide a measure of political, economic, and social order? • Religions and Value Systems: How did the Roman Catholic Church spread Christian civilization throughout Western Europe? • Economics and Technology: What new technologies sparked a revolution in agriculture and commerce? • Continuity and Change: How did Western Europeans blend Greco-Roman, Christian, and Germanic traditions to build a new civilization?

The Fall of Rome; 476 CE Political corruption, military decline, social decline,foreign invasions and many other causes lead to the gradual decline of power in the Roman Empire. Over the next few centuries, German customs, culture, ideas, and language combined and replaced Roman culture. As old Roman cities crumbled and roads disappeared the slow transition into Medieval times witnessed the central role of the Christian Church and the struggle for control of the dying Roman empire. Barbarian Migrations Map

What Comes Next? A. The Roman way of life continues to prosper.

B. Empires collapse and Dark Ages begin.

“Where is the Senate? Where are the people? The bones are all dissolved, the flesh is consumed, all the pomp and dignities of this world is gone. The whole mass is boiled away.” Pope Gregory

•How does the quote describe life in the early Middle Ages?

Early Medieval Europe

Celts

F r a n k s

Visigoths

Vandals

Lombards

Burgundy

Ostrogoths

Huns

Europe

Italy

Dense Forests

Mountainous

Rich Black Earth

Dry Soils

Rich Minerals

Peninsula

•How did Geography cause a difference in the economies of Ancient Rome and Europe of the Middle Ages?

Clovis ends Roman Rule in Gaul • • • •

485-511 King of the Franks 486 - Defeats Romans in Gaul 502 - Clovis promises to convert to Christianity if able to defeat the Allemani, his enemies

What Comes Next? A. Clovis is defeated and chaos ensues.

B. Clovis defeats the Allemani.

Charles Martel became Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia when his father, Pepin II, died in 714. That year he was imprisoned by his stepmother Plectudis, but escaped later in the year to lead the Austrasian and Neustrian nobles.

•731, Moslem governor of Spain, Abd ar-Rahman, invades Aquitaine. •732, Moslems take Poitiers and march on Tours.

•Charles Martel leads the armies of Franks against the advancing Moslem forces.

What Comes Next? A. The Franks win the Battle of Tours.

B. The Franks lose the Battle of Tours.

Charles Martel defeats, captures, and kills ar-Rahman and the Moslem army

Why is the Battle of Tours significant?

Point Of View

King Charlemagne

768-814

•Very Tall •War Chief

•Reunited much of old Roman Empire •missi domenici - government officials sent out to keep control of provinces; checked on roads, listened to grievances, apportion justice.

Francia

•770s Charlemagne expanded his emperire into Lombardy, fought the Saxons of Germany, and controlled the Papacy of Rome

On Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne was reluctantly crowned the Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III. (How did this cause conflict?)

What comes next? A. Charlemagne separates himself from the Church.

B. Charlemagne accepts his role as protector of the Church.

• Sees the Church as having been entrusted to him by God to defend and to direct • Spreads Christianity through Europe using Conquest

Charlemagne Promotes Architecture

786 – Charlemagne built the Palace Cathedral at Aachen

•Especially for the Clergy, but did include talented poor

•Curriculum : grammar, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy

Charlemagne replaced by Louis the Pious • 814 – Louis the Pious continues to spread ideas of Carolingian Dynasty • 848 – Three sons make Treaty at Verdun and divide up Frankish empire • (First use of common language – French, German – displayed by competing rulers)

The fourth century started with Barbarian invaders from the East such as the Franks, the Vandals and the Visigoths. People feared for their safety and began allying themselves with local lords in exchange for protection from the barbarians. In this way, the feudal society that would characterize so much of the Medieval Age began to emerge.

Sorry, The Roman Church would continue to prosper

Welcome to the new Islamic Empire, Europe.

The Church gathers support from rival barbarian tribes and defeats the Franks. Sorry, not this time.

The Barbarian Tribes shifted the demographics of Western Europe. Click button to view map of Barbarian Migrations.

Deciphering Point of View Account from Edward Gibbons, great western historian of the Fall of Rome.

A victorious line of march had been prolonged above a thousand miles from the Rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire; the repetition of an equal space would have brought the Saracens (Muslims) to the confines of Poland and the highlands of Scotland; the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or the Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the Revelation of Mahomet. -Edward Gibbons

Account is one of only a few passing mentions of the battle by the great Arab historian.

Ubayda [the governor of North Africa] had given authority over Spain to Abd alRahman. Abd al-Rahman was a worthy man who made expeditions against the Franks. They are the remotest of the enemies of Spain. He gained much booty and overcame them.. . . . Then he went on another excursion and he and all his companions suffered martyrdom for Islam. His death took place in the year 115 [733-4]. - Ibn Abd al-Hakam