Western Europe

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Western Europe
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Problems 550-900 CE

• Romes decline left Italy fragmented but Rome
  still the center of the growing Catholic church
• Spain in the hands of Muslims
• Center of the postclassical west (France, Low
  countries, and southern/western Germany) had new
  civilization
• Frequent invasions by the Vikings
• No intellectual life (only Catholic church
  monasteries kept some scholarship alive)

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Vikings
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The Manorial System Obligations and Allegiances

• Political organization largely local
• Manorialism- system of economic and political
  relations between landlords and their peasant
  laborers where most people were serfs
  (agricultural workers who received some
  protection from landlords)
• Life of serfs not easy
• Serfs were not slaves they could not be bought
  or sold and they retained ownership of their
  lands as long as they kept up with their
  obligations

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Feudal Monarchies

• Feudal relationships linked military elites,
  mostly landlords, who could afford the horses and
  iron weaponry to fight. Greater lords provided
  protection to the lesser lords called vassals
• Early feudalism local, while Charlemagnes
  feudalism more stable- he paid his bureaucrats
  with estates- this inhibited the development of
  strong central states
• France
• England- 1066- William the Conqueror- Duke of
  Normandy- invaded England and extended his tight
  feudal system to England

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Limited Government

• Strong monarchies didnt develop evenly
  throughout Europe- west divided and diverse
• Growth of monarchy cut into aristocratic power
  but this led to new statements on the limits of
  kings
• 1215 Magna Carta- confirmed feudal rights
  against monarchical claims
• Late 13th century- creation of parliaments-
  represented nobles and church

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Charlemagne and His Successors

• Royal house of the Franks grew in 8th century and
  Carolingians took over the monarchy (Charles
  Martel- or Charles the Hammer- defeated the
  Muslims in the battle of Tours in 732 and helped
  confine the Muslims to Spain)
• Around 800 Charles the Great, or Charlemagne,(
  part of the Carolingian line) established strong
  empire in France and Germany
• Helped restore some church-based education in
  western Europe and there was a slow recovery of
  intellectual activity

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• Died in 814 and empire split into three portions
  of inheritance for three grandsons (modern
  France, Germany, and low countries of
  Switzerland, and northern Italy) but these were
  weak rulers and this lead to gradual emergence of
  regional monarchies and absence of strong
  bureaucracy
• Strong cultural unity with Christianity but no
  single language or government
• Royal houses claimed the title of emperor around
  10th century and called themselves Holy Roman
  emperors (merging Christian and classical themes)

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The Wests Expansionist Impulse

• East central Europe-from 11th century- Germanic
  knights in Germany and Poland
• Spain- small Christian states in the north slowly
  attacked Muslim government, which ultimately was
  pushed out by 1492
• Crusades against the Muslim control of the Holy
  Land
• 1095- Pope Urban II called for First Crusade
• 1097- met in Constantinople- then conqueror
  Jerusalem, which they held for a century, until
  Saladin recaptured it in the 12th century
• Showed the aggressive spirit of the western
  middle ages but also exposed the west to new
  cultural and economic influences from the middle
  east and a thirst for trade

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Medieval Europe and the Catholic Church

• Catholic church only example of solid
  organization after Roman collapse
• Authority of the church and cultural dominance of
  Christianity with the intellectual diversity of
  university life

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The Decline of the Medieval Synthesis

• 12-14th Centuries Feudal political structures
  balanced by emerging central monarchies
• Strong monarchies adjust state boundaries,
  Hundred Years War between France and England in
  14th and 15th centuries (kings eventually had to
  reduce dependence on nobility and new military
  methods challenged the monopoly of feudal lords)-
  ended with French victory (Joan of Arc) but
  showed signs of stress in French monarchy
• Disease- Black death 1348
• Destroyed population

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Signs of Strain

• 14th century ruling class showed signs of
  confusion. Claim to power always in control of
  land and military prowess but now open to
  question. Chivalry gained ground. Upper class
  became more cultivated.
• Shift in balance between church and state. French
  kings wielded great influence over papacy in
  early 14th century. Pope moved to Avignon and
  then back to Rome. Religion still popular but the
  church as an institution not popular
• Breakdown in intellectual synthesis church
  officials less tolerant of intellectual daring.

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The Postclassical West and Its Heritage

• After 900 gains in population, trade and cities,
  and intellectual activity created a vigorous
  period in European history
• Lasting impacts- universities, gothic style of
  architecture, new ideas about government
• Change in the relationship between Europe and the
  regions around it as Europe gained strength.
  Advance by imitation.
• Crusades a distinctive expansionist spirit