Chapter 9
• “Emerging Europe & the
Byzantine Empire 400 - 1300

Section 1: Transforming the
Roman World

Targets
• Characterize the new European civilization formed by the
Germanic peoples, the legacy of the Romans and the Church.
• Discuss how Charlemagne expanded the Frankish kingdom and created the Carolingian
Empire.

I. The New Germanic
Kingdoms
• Visigoths, occupied Spain and
Italy until the Ostrogoths, another Germanic tribe, took control of Italy in the 5 th century.
• By 500 Western Roman Empire was replaced by states ruled by German kings.

I. The New Germanic
Kingdoms
• Angles and Saxons, Germanic tribes from Denmark and northern Germany, moved in and settled in Britain.
• Eventually, these peoples became the Anglo-Saxons

A. The Kingdom of the Franks
• The Frankish kingdom was established by Clovis, a strong military leader around
500 became the first
Germanic ruler to convert to
Christianity.

A. The Kingdom of the Franks
• By 510, Clovis had established a powerful new Frankish kingdom that stretched from the Pyrenees in the southwest to German lands in the east
(modern day France and western Germany)

B. Germanic Society
• Crucial social bond among the
Germanic people was the family, especially the extended family
• The extended family worked the land together and passed it down to future generations
• Also provided protection

B. Germanic Society
• Crime and Punishment
• Wergild - “money for a man”, the value of a person in money, depending on social status; in
Germanic society, a fine paid by a wrongdoer to the family of the person he or she had injured or killed (pg. 287)

B. Germanic Society
• Crime and Punishment
• Ordeal - a means of determining guilt in Germanic law, based on the idea of divine intervention: if the accused person was unharmed after a physical trial, he or she was presumed innocent (pg. 287)

II. The Role of the Church
• As the official Roman state fell apart, the Church played an increasingly important role in the growth of the new European civilization.

A. Organization of the Church
• Bishopric - a group of
Christian communities, or parishes, under the authority of a bishop
• Under the direction of an archbishop

A. Organization of the Church
• Peter, who was considered the chief apostle and the first bishop of
Rome.
• Popes - the bishop of Rome & head of the Roman Catholic Church
(pg. 287)

A. Organization of the Church
• Gregory I, 1) strengthened the power of the papacy (office of the pope), 2) served as leader of the city of Rome and its surrounding territories (Papal states) 3) he increased his spiritual authority over the church in the west, 4) active in converting non-Christian people of Germanic Europe to
Christianity

B. The Monks & Their Missions
• Monk - a man who separates himself from ordinary human society in order to dedicate himself to God; monks live in monasteries headed by abbots

B. The Monks & Their Missions
• Monasticism – the practice of living life of a monk
• Monasticism was based on the model of the hermit who pursues an isolated spiritual life
• Emphasis on prayer and manual labor

The Monks & Their Missions
• Saint Benedict founded a community of monks for which he wrote a set of rules
• “Ate, worked, slept and worshiped”
• Monasteries became center of learning.

The Monks & Their Missions
• Missionaries – people sent out to carry a religious message – who understood the conversion of non-
Christian peoples

The Monks & Their Missions
• Nuns, female monks who began to withdraw from the world
• Nuns lived in convents headed by
abbesses. Many of the abbesses belonged to royal houses.
• Responsible for giving learning an important role in the life of the monastery

III. Charlemagne & the
Carolingians
• During the 600’s and 700’s, the kings of the Frankish kingdom gradually lost their power to the
Mayors of the palace, who were the chief officers of the king’s household

III. Charlemagne & the
Carolingians
• One of these mayors, Pepin, son of Charles Martel, the leader who defeated the Muslims at the Battle of Tours in 732.
• Took the logical step of assuming the kingship of the Frankish state for himself and his family

III. Charlemagne & the
Carolingians
• Charlemagne, or Charles the
Great
• A dynamic and powerful king
• Highly intelligent and curious, fierce warrior, strong statesman and a pious Christian
• Wise patron of learning

A. The Carolingian Empire
• Charlemagne, Frankish
King from 768 to 814
• Established the Carolingian
Empire (Frankish Kingdom)

B. Charlemagne as Roman
Emperor
• In 800, Charlemagne became emperor of the Romans.
• Demonstrated the strength of the idea of an enduring Roman Empire.
• The coronation also symbolized the coming together of Roman,
Christian and Germanic elements.

The Crowning of Charlemagne

C. An Intellectual Renewal
• Carolingian Renaissance, or rebirth
• The revival involved renewed interest in Latin culture, and classical works of the Greeks and
Romans
• Monasteries est. scriptoria, or writing rooms, where monks copied the bible, & Latin classical authors

C. An Intellectual Renewal
• Their work was a crucial factor in the preservation of the ancient legacy

Pepin the Short Charles Martel
Many rulers had the same name, so an adjective such as
“bald,” or “short” could help people identify them; sometimes numbers were used.

Section 2: Feudalism

Objectives
• Discuss the Vikings, Magyar and
Muslim invasions of Europe during the 9 th and 10 th centuries.
• Summarize how the collapse of central authority in the European world led to a new political system known as feudalism.

I. Invaders
• 1. Muslims, attacked the southern coast of Europe and sent raiding parties into southern France
• 2. Magyars, people from western
Asia, moved into central Europe at end of the ninth century, settled on the plains of Hungary, and invaded western Europe.

I. Invaders
• 3. Vikings, Northmen or
Norsemen of Scandinavia
• Germanic people, warriors
• Loved adventure, spoils of war and new avenues of trade
• Sacked villages, and towns, destroyed churches, and easily defeated small local armies.

I. Invaders
• Beginning in 911, the ruler of the west Frankish lands gave one band of Vikings land at the mouth of the
Seine River forming a section of
France that came to be known as
Normandy.

II. The Development of
Feudalism
• Feudalism – political and social system that developed during the
Middle Ages, when royal governments were no longer able to defend their subjects; nobles offered protection and land in return for service.

A. Knights & Vassals
• Warriors swore an oath of loyalty to their leaders and fought for them, the leaders, in turn, took care of the warriors’ needs.
• Vassal – a man who served a lord in a military capacity.

A. Knights & Vassals
• Knights – a member of the heavily armored cavalry.
• They wielded long lances that enabled them to act as battering rams (the stirrups kept them on their horses)

The Castles of the Aristocrats
The growth of the European nobility in the High Middle Ages
(1000 to 1300) was made visible by a growing number of castles scattered across the landscape. Castles varied considerably but possessed two common features: they were permanent residences for the noble family, its retainers, and servants, and they were defensible fortifications.

A. Knights & Vassals
• When the these lords wanted me to fight for them, they granted each vassal a piece of land that supported the vassal and his family.
• Where there was little trade and wealth was based primarily on land, land was the most important gift a lord could give to a vassal.

B. The Feudal Contract
• Fief – a grant of land made to a vassal; the vassal held political authority within his fief.

B. The Feudal Contract
• Feudal contract – the unwritten rules that determined the relationship between a lord and his vassal.
• Military service, give advice to the lord, making financial payments to the lord.

III. The Nobility of the Middle
Ages
• Kings, dukes, counts, barons, even bishops and archbishops formed an aristocracy, or nobility
• Tournaments – contests where knights could show their fighting skills (joust)

III. The Nobility of the Middle
Ages
• chivalry – code of ethics that knights were suppose to uphold.
• Fight only for glory and not for material rewards, an ideal that was not always followed.

IV. Aristocratic Women
• When the lord was away at war or court, the lady of the castle had to manage the estate
• Cared for the financial accounts
• Responsible for overseeing the food supply

IV. Aristocratic Women
• Eleanor of Aquitaine, married
King Louis VII of France
• Marriage was annulled, then married King Henry II of England
• Had eight children, Richard & John became kings of England

Section 3:
The Growth of European
Kingdoms

Objectives
• Describe how European monarchs began to extend their power and build strong states during the High Middle Ages.
• Identify the three distinct groups formed by the Slavic peoples and locate where they settled in eastern Europe.

I. England in the High Middle
Ages

A. The Norman Conquest
*1066, William of Normandy landed on the coast of England and soundly defeated King Harold and his foot soldiers at the Battle of Hastings.
Merged Anglo-Saxon and French into a new English culture.
The Normans also took over existing
Anglo-Saxon institutions, such as the office of sheriff.

B. Henry II
– 1154 to 1189 Henry II, English monarch
– Henry increased the number of criminal cases tried in the king’s court & devised means for taking property cases from local courts
– *Common law- a law that the whole kingdom began to replace law codes that varied from place to place.

B. Henry II
– *Thomas a’ Becket was an archbishop of Canterbury and the highest ranking English cleric, claimed that only Roman Catholic
Church courts could try clerics.
– Henry publicly expressed the desire to be ride of Becket
– Four knights murdered the archbishop in the cathedral

Maps and
Charts 4

C. The Magna Carta & the First
Parliament
– *King John of England was forced to sign the Magna Carta
– the Magna Carta was, above all, a feudal document that
*strengthened the idea that a monarch’s power was limited, not absolute

C. The Magna Carta & the First
Parliament
– In the thirteenth century, during the reign of *Edward I, an important institution in the development of representative government-the
English Parliament-also emerged.
– House of Lords & House of
Commons

II. The French Kingdom
• The Capetian dynasty was made up of French kings
• Philip II Augustus, waged war against the rulers of England
• Expanded the income of the
French monarchy and greatly increased its powers

II. The French Kingdom
• Louis IX, saintly
• Philip IV, expanded the royal bureaucracy
• The three *estates, or classes the clergy, (first estate), the nobles
(second estate), the townspeople, and the peasants (third estate).

III. The Holy Roman Empire
• The Frankish kingdom which came to be known as Germany
• Otto I best known Saxon king of
Germany
• Crowned emperor of the Romans in 962

Maps and
Charts 4

A. Struggles in Italy
• German kings (Fredrick I & II) attempted to rule both German and
Italian lands
• German kings were opposed by the pope
• Northern Italy, were also unwilling to become his subjects
• Won many battles, but ultimately losing the war

B. Effect on the Empire
• German emperors left Germany in the hands of powerful German lords
• German monarchy is weak and incapable of maintaining a strong monarchial state
• German Holy Roman Emperor had no real power
• Germany and Italy consisted of many small independent states

IV. Central & Eastern Europe
• Three major groups: the western, southern and eastern
Slavs
• Western Slavs – Poles, Czechs and Slovaks
• Southern Slavs – Slovenes,
Croats, and Serbs

IV. Central & Eastern Europe
• Eastern Slavs - Moravia

V. The Development of Russia
• Eastern Slavic peoples had settled in the territory of present-day Ukraine and Russia.
• Vikings moved into their lands and eventually came to dominate the native people
• Vikings called the Rus, from which the name Russia is derived

A. Kievan Rus
• Viking leader, Oleg, settled in
Kiev and created the Rus state
• Viking ruling class was gradually assimilated into the Slavic population
• Eastern Orthodox Christianity became the religion of the state

Examine the map below showing the expansion of
Moscow from 1300 to 1462 and answer the following questions.

B. Mongol Rule
• In the 13 th century, the Mongols conquered Russia
• Forced Russian princes to pay tribute to them
• Alexander Nevsky, prince of
Novgorod became the grand prince
• His successors became the eventual leaders of Russia

Section 4:
The Byzantine Empire & the
Crusades

Objectives
• Examine the unique civilization of the Byzantine Empire in the
Eastern Mediterranean.
• Discuss how the Crusades affected medieval society in both the East and the West.

I. The Reign of Justinian
• Justinian became the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire in 527
• The eastern roman empire had inherited a vast quantity of legal materials, which Justinian wished to simplify.

I. The Reign of Justinian
• Justinian’s most important contribution was his codification of
Roman law
• The Body of Civil Law
• This code of roman laws was the basis of imperial law in the eastern
Roman Empire until it ends in
1453.

II. From Eastern Roman Empire to
Byzantine Empire
• Serious problems:
• To much territory to protect far from Constantinople
• an empty treasury
• a decline in population after plague
• renewed threats to its frontiers
• the most serious challenge came from the rise of Islam

II. From Eastern Roman Empire to
Byzantine Empire
• Greek and Christian state
• Eastern Orthodox Church
• Emperor, considered absolute
• Patriarch –the head of the Eastern
Orthodox Church, originally appointed by the Byzantine emperor.

III. Life in Constantinople
• Constantinople was the largest city in Europe during the Middle
Ages

A. Trade
• Constantinople was the greatest center of commerce
• Chief center for the exchange of products between West and East
• Silk, spices, jewelry, ivory, wheat, furs

B. Building
• Justinian’s program of rebuilding in the 6 th century
• Immense palace complex, hundreds of churches, huge arena (Hippodrome)
• Roads, bridges, walls, public baths, law courts, schools

B. Building
• His greatest achievement was the famous Hagia Sophia – the
Church of Holy Wisdom – completed in 537

• Hagia Sophia http://www.matthoefer.net/fotos/Reisen/Istanbul/slides/Istanbul.20040920.000701.php

IV. New Heights & New Problems
• The Byzantine Emperors known as the Macedonians, emperors expanded the empire and fostered a burst of economic growth

IV. New Heights & New Problems
• Growing split between the Eastern
Orthodox Church and the Catholic
Church
• Schism- or separation, between the two great branches of
Christianity that has not been completely healed to this day.

IV. New Heights & New Problems
• Greatest challenge came from the Seljuk Turks (Muslims) who moved into Asia Minor

V. The Crusades
• Crusades - military expedition carried out by European Christians in the middle ages to regain the holy land from the Muslims
• Infidels - an unbeliever, a term applied to the Muslims during the
Crusades

V. The Crusades
• Knights motivated by 1. religious fervor, some sought 2. adventure and welcomed the chance to pursue their favorite pastime fighting
• Others saw an opportunity to gain 3. territory, riches and a possible 4. title
• Merchants sought new trading opportunities

A. The Early Crusades
• The first crusade captured the holy city of Jerusalem in 1099
• By 1140 the Muslims had struck back
• The second crusade was a total failure
• 1187, the Holy City fell to Muslim forces under Saladin

Maps and
Charts 4b

A. The Early Crusades
• The Third Crusade involved
Emperor Frederick of Germany,
Richard I of England and Philip II
Augustus of France
• The third crusade permitted
Christian pilgrims free access to
Jerusalem

B. The Later Crusades
• The fourth Crusade was initiated by Pope Innocent II
• The fourth crusade didn’t make it to the holy land
• The crusaders sack the city of
Constantinople in 1204
• 1212, Children's Crusade

B. The Later Crusades
• The Byzantine Empire was finally conquered by the Ottoman
Turks (Muslims) in 1453

B. The Later Crusades
• Effect on European Civilization
- Benefited Italian port cities
• Unfortunate side effects widespread attacks on Jews
• Greatest Impact - Helped break down feudalism

Chapter Summary
Europe and the Byzantine Empire changed and developed in many ways during the Middle Ages.

the Bosporus strait the Dardanelles strait spices and jewelry