Chapter 15 Part 1: The Early Middle Ages
I. The Geography of Europe
-Western Europe was divided into many kingdoms after the fall of the Roman Empire.
-Europe is a large peninsula made up of smaller peninsulas. Most of Europe is within
300 miles of a coastline.
-Rivers made it easy for people to travel within Europe to trade.
-The seas and rivers offered protection from enemies.
-Europe contains many mountain ranges that made it difficult for one group to rule all
of Europe.
II. The Germanic Kingdoms
-The Visigoths in Spain and the Ostrogoths in Italy adopted Roman ways.
-In the early A.D. 400s, the Angles and Saxon invaded Britain.
-Clovis was king of the Franks who became a Catholic.
-After Clovis’s death, fights broke out.
-Charles Martel was a Frankish mayor who wanted to control all the nobles.
-Martel and the Franks defeated the Muslims, and Christianity remained the major
religion.
-Pepin became mayor after Martel’s death.
-Pepin’s son, Charles conquered Germany and Spain and earned the name
Charlemagne.
-Aachen was the capital of Charlemagne’s empire.
-After Charlemagne’s death, his son divided the empire into three kingdoms.
-The Vikings raided Europe and conquered part of western France.
-Otto I was a powerful German king who fought the Magyars and protected the
pope. Otto’s territory became known as the Holy Roman Empire.
III. The Rise of the Catholic Church
-A priest named Patrick traveled to Ireland to spread the message of Christianity.
-Gregory the Great was pope from A.D. 590 until A.D. 604.
-Monks and monasteries played an important role in education, health care, and the
preservation of knowledge.
-Gregory VII was elected pope in 1073. He issued a decree forbidding kings from
appointing high ranking Church officials.
-Henry declared that Gregory was no longer Pope. Gregory excommunicates Henry.
-In 1122, a new emperor and a new pope made an agreement called the Concordant
of Worms.
-The Catholic Church became very powerful under Pope Innocent III.
Chapter 15 Part 2: Feudalism
I. What is Feudalism?
-After Charlemagne’s empire fell, landowning nobles became more powerful, and
peasants looked to nobles for protection. This became known as feudalism.
-Nobles were both lords and vassals.
-Knights were vassals who fought in war on horseback.
-The feudal system in Japan was similar to the system in Europe.
-To gain freedom, a serf could run away and remain in a town for a year.
-New technology increased crop productivity in the Middle Ages.
II. Life in Feudal Europe
-Knights followed rules called the code of chilvary.
-Wives and daughters ran manors when the noblemen went to war.
-A castle was the center of a manor.
-Peasants lived in simple cottages with walls of plastered clay and thatched roofs.
-Peasants worked hard in the fields year round.
-Peasant women had to work the fields and raise children.
-Bread was a basic staple of the peasant diet.
III. Trade and Cities
-After the collapse of the Roman Empire, almost all trade ended.
-Feudalism and technology helped promote trade.
-In the early Middle Ages, people bartered, but later, people began using money
again.
-Eventually, towns set up their own governments, with elected members of city
councils.
-Guilds were established by craftspeople.
-A child of 10 could become an apprentice.
-Medieval cities contained crowded, wooden houses on narrow, winding streets.
-Women in cities prepared meals, raised their children, and managed their household’s money.
Chapter 15 Part 3: Kingdoms and Crusades
I. England in the Middle Ages
-Alfred the Great united the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and drove the Viking
invaders out.
-Normandy was ruled by William, a cousin of King Edward of England.
-William ordered a census called the Domesday Book.
-The Normans brought their northern French customs to England.
-Henry II was a powerful ruler of England who created the jury system to address
arguments over land.
-King John, Henry’s son and successor, angered many royals by raising taxes and
punishing people without trials.
-The nobles met with King John and forced him to sign the Magna Carta.
-In the 1200s, King Edward I gathered representatives from across England to
advise him and help him make laws. This was called a Parliament.
II. The Kingdom of France
-After Charlemagne’s empire was divided, the western part became France.
-The Frankish nobles chose Hugh Capet as king in 987.
-Philip II took the French throne and warred with England.
-French society had three classes: clergy, nobles, and townspeople and peasants.
-In 1302, King Philip IV conducted the first meeting of the Estates-General.
III. Eastern Europe and Russia
-The Slavs settled villages in Eastern Europe around A.D. 500.
-The Slavs eventually divided into three major groups: southern, western, and eastern
-In the 700s, Vikings moved into Slav territory and eventually took power.
-Oleg, a Viking ruler, created a Rus state around the city of Kiev.
-The Mongols invaded the Kievan Rus and conquered all but the city of Novgorod.
-Moscow began to grow as the Slavs recovered from the Mongol invasion.
-Ivan III, known as Ivan the Great, was the grand duke of Moscow.
-Ivan IV ended Mongol rule of Moscow and expanded its territory.
IV. The Crusades
-During the Middle Ages, Muslim Turks invaded the Byzantine Empire.
-Thousands of soldiers captured Jerusalem in the First Crusade. Conquered lands
were divided into four states.
-The Muslims fought back, and the Europeans began the Second Crusade.
-Saladin, a Muslim, became ruler of Egypt. His troops captured Jerusalem for the
Muslims.
-France, England, and the Holy Roman Empire banded together to fight the Third
Crusade against Saladin, which ended in truce.
-A Fourth Crusade began around 1200. The Byzantine Empire became weaker.
-Six more crusades were staged, but they achieved little.
-The Crusades helped break down feudalism and increased trade between Europe and
the Middle East.
Chapter 15 Part 4: The Church and Society
I. Religion and Society
-The Cistercian order were monks who farmed, worshiped, and prayed.
-Most famous Cistercian monk was Bernard of Clairvaux.
-Many women, mostly from the nobility, entered convents between A.D.
1000 and 1200.
-Francis of Assisi founded the first order of friars, who became known as
Franciscans. The Dominican order was founded by Dominic de Guzman.
- In medieval Europe, daily life revolved around the Catholic Church.
-Mary, the mother of Jesus, was the most honored saint.
-The Catholic Church tried to end heresy by establishing a court called the
Inquisition.
-Leaders of the Catholic Church persecuted Jews.
II. Medieval Culture
-Architecture of the Middle Ages reflected the importance of religion.
-Oxford University was one of the first universities established in Europe.
- Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican friar and priest. Famous for his
Contribution to scholasticism.
-Latin was the language of educated people in Europe during the Middle
Ages.
-Vernacular literature began in the Middle Ages. Two types-Troubadour
poetry and the heroic epic.
Chapter 15 Part 5: The Late Middle Ages
I. The Black Death
-The Black Death was a plague that spread throughout Europe and Asia.
-Historians believe the Mongols were partly responsible for the rapid
spread because they opened up trade.
-The first outbreak appeared in China, then in India, Muslim countries, and
Europe.
-The European outbreak began in Caffa, a city on the Black Sea.
-About 38 million Europeans died between 1347 and 1351. Damaged the
economy and weakened the feudal system.
II.A Troubled Continent
-The Hundred Years’ War began after Edward III angered the French.
-Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl, fought with the French army.
-The French finally defeated the English in 1453.
-Henry Tudor was crowned Henry VII after the War of the Roses.
-Although Muslims ruled most of Spain and Portugal, the people of the
countries were mostly Christians and some Jews.
-Princess Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand of Aragon and united their
two territories into one country called Spain.
-Ferdinand and Isabella wanted all of Spain to be Catholic.
-In 1492, Jews were given a choice of converting or leaving.