1. Europe in the High Middle Ages, 800 - 1300

2. I. The Carolingian Achievement

3. A. Carolingian Kings
1. Charles Martel victorious at Battle of Tours, 732
2. Pope Gregory III seeks to use Frankish Kings as instrument to reunify the West
3. Pippin, “King of the Franks”

4. B. Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire
“The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire…discuss.”

5. 1. Reformed the clergy
2. Forcibly converted pagan “holdouts”
Einhard, “The Life of Charlemagne”

6. 3. Preserved some ancient texts, established universities - “Carolingian Renaissance”
4. Stability led to experimentation in art and architecture

7. 5. Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor,
Christmas Day, 800 AD
Unified West served as a barrier to “new barbarians”

8. Summary…the Early Middle Ages, 500 - 800 AD
Germanization of the West
Frankish kings seek to dominate Western Europe and restore some semblance of the fallen Roman Empire
Europe “recovers” with the Church serving as the dominant Western institution - High Middle Ages

9. II. Emergence of the Nation-State

10. A. Carolingian Empire falls apart in the 900s
1. Competition among Charlemagne’s heirs

11. 2. New invaders
Vikings

12. Magyars

13. Islam

14. B. Emergence of the Nation-State
1. Otto the Great
2. Concordat of Worms,
1122
- secular/spiritual division
- German princes gain near
autonomy

15. C. France 1. Hugh Capet - Capetian Dynasty, 987 - 1328
2. Initiated “modern” governing
methods
baillis, senechals
3. Ascendancy of French Kings
Ancien Regime

16. D. England 1. Anglo-Saxon invasions in the 400s
2. In response to Viking raids ( s), Anglo-Saxon kings unify most of England
Alfred the Great

17. 3. Like Capetians, began process of “unifying” his country
4. Began to rely on local officials
shire reeves
at county level, free commoners could vote
* Kings begin to use commoners as political wedge against nobles

18. E. The Norman Conquest
, William of Normandy claims English throne
2. Norman authority, English
autonomy
- remove local customs as
law; codification
- equal application of law

19. Stability of nation-states in Central Europe, France, and England contribute to urban and intellectual development

20. III. Medieval Towns

21. A. Urban life in Italy continuation of Urban Rome
1. Italian merchants remain part of Byzantine Empire

22. 2. In many (Italian) towns, mercantile leaders begin to replace some hereditary aristocrats
= men of talent v. men of birth

23. B. Life in a Northern Town
Urban social orders
merchants-drapiers, craftsmen, unskilled
2. People band together on basis of “class,” not hereditary obligations
Manufacturing led to identification based on place in production system

24. Urban life created economic alternatives to feudalism
It also led to intellectual “tweaking” of Church dogma
Franciscan, Dominican orders

25. C. Urban intellectual life in the High Middle Ages
Peter Abelard = Scholasticism (1100s)
education, logic key to understanding
Sic et non (yes and no)

26. 2. Rise of Aristotelian thought
a. was world w/o an active God?
b. initially viewed as a threat to Church dogma
3. St. Thomas Aquinas
“universal”

27. IV. Life in the Countryside

28. A. From serfs to “freemen”
1. Serfs tied with feudal obligations, security
s, serfs building “communal” economy
- clearing land, buying freedom
, serfdom virtually gone from France, England
4. Freemen often key to royal support

29. 5. Rural religion Benedictine Order emphasize order, obedience, next life

30. B. Culture of the New Aristocracy
1. Old Aristocracy = dukes, barons
New Aristocracy = knights (900s)

31. 2. Taming the nobility a. knight could obtain a fief through combat, but conditions in the High Middle Ages worked against this b. Cult of Chivalry

32. 3. The Crusades,

33. a. Pope Urban II b. crusaders attacked Moslems, Byzantine Empire

34. c. reacquainted Western Europeans with Eastern goods, classical learning d. “stalemate” allows for trade, pilgrimages

35. Case Study: The Angevin Empire, 1160s - 1200
Henry II
Eleanor of
Aquitaine

37. 1. Process of nation state left France and England bitter rivals
2. System of “vassalage” left monarchs with competing claims