Medieval Europe

Origins of the Medieval Period

The Medieval Period, or the Middle Ages, was the period spanning around one thousand years after the fall of Rome in 476 and ending at the start of the Renaissance around the 1300s.

• It was often overlooked by historians as a “Dark Age,” because of a rather high increase in violence during the early Middle Ages.

  • Medieval Europe characterized by a somewhat violent nature.

• Note: Technically, only the western Roman empire fell; Emperor Constantine built up the eastern Roman empire to become the Byzantine empire. More on that below.

The Byzantine Empire

• Rome attacked by Germanic invaders

• Emperor Constantine moves base to eastern Mediterranean

• Rebuilds Byzantium, renames it Constantinople

  • Linked Europe and Asia, became wealthy from trade

  • Became new capital city of Roman empire in 330

  • Sacked in the Fourth Crusade by French Knights

• Eastern Roman empire becomes known as the Byzantine Empire

  • Peaks under Emperor Justinian with aid from wife Theodora

    • Ruled with complete authority (autocracy)

    • Fire in Constantinople, Justinian rebuilds it even grander

      • Rebuilt the church of Hagia Sophia

    • Reconquered North Africa and parts of southern Europe

      • These lands were lost by successors

    • Justinian’s Code

      • An organized collection of the laws of Rome, commissioned by Justinian

      • Helped unify the empire

      • Influenced future monarchs and legal thinkers

Western Europe

• Emperor Constantine relocated to the East after Rome was invaded by Germanic tribes (see above notes)

  • Roman state unable to keep peace

• Western Europe divided by Germanic tribes, such as the Franks

  • Clovis, king of the Franks conquers Gaul

    • Gaul later becomes France

    • Clovis keeps own customs but adopts Roman ones as well

      • Converts to Christianity

• Battle of Tours

  • Muslims grow large empire

    • Advance into France

    • Charles Martel, a Frankish leader, fights them off

    • Muslims do not advance further into Western Europe but continue to rule Spain

Charlemagne

• Grandson of Charles Martel

• “Charles the Great”

• King of the Franks

  • Builds empire covering modern day France, Germany, and part of Italy

  • Crowned as emperor of Rome by pope

  • United his kingdom by…

    • fighting off invaders

    • conquering land

    • spreading Christianity

    • blending Germanic, Roman, and Christian traditions

    • setting up an orderly government

    • revived Latin education and encouraged schools

• After he died, his sons fought for power

  • Grandsons divided his empire

More Invasions

• Nomads called the Magyars

  • Settle in Hungary, invade Eastern Europe, Germany, France, and Italy

  • Eventually were pushed back

• Vikings (Scandinavia)

  • Invade coasts and rivers of Europe

  • Settle and bring culture with them

    • settled in England, Ireland, northern France, and parts of Russia

Characteristics of the Middle Ages

Feudalism and the Manor System

• Developed because of invasions

• Loosely organized system of rule

  • Powerful local lords divide land among lesser lords (vassals)

  • Feudal contract

    • Vassals pledge military service, money and loyalty to the greater lord in exchange for land (fiefs) and protection

  • A greater lord might be the vassal of an even greater lord

• 

• Knight code of conduct was called chivalry

• War (fighting, mock battles, etc.) was life for nobles

• Serfs - peasants who were bound to a manor

  • Had to work the lord’s lands and pay fees in exchange for small plots of land and protection

Causes of the split between Eastern + Western Churches

Background

The Roman Catholic Church controlled both religious aspects of Christian life in Western Europe and secular (nonreligious) aspects as well (though not as many), because church officials were connected with secular rules and were sometimes nobles themselves.

• The eastern church was called the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the western church was called the Roman Catholic Church.

Village Churches

• Village churches were the center of community life for many

• Parish priest celebrated mass and administered sacraments (sacred rites needed to achieve salvation)

  • If literate, the priest would also be the only village teacher

• Tithe - annual tax paid to the church

Papal supremacy - the claim that as popes were God's representatives, they had authority over monarchs.

The Church also had its own laws and punishments, including excommunication, which condemned a sinner to hell. The Church used authority to declare peace in times of war. However, corruption in the Church grew along with wealth and power.

Eastern and Western Churches Split

• Christianity practiced differently in east and west

  • Eastern Orthodox Church

    • Byzantine emperor controlled Church affairs and appointed patriarch

    • Rejected papal supremacy

    • Worship of idols

    • Traditional interpretations of theology (which means the study of God and religious belief)

  • Roman Catholic Church

    • Embraced papal supremacy

    • New philosophical influences on theology

  • 

• During the Middle Ages, EOC and RCC grew further and further apart

  • Partly because of dispute over use of idols

  • Other controversies

  • Eventually leads to Great Schism, divide in Christianity

  • Before this, EOC was called the Byzantine Church

    • Afterwards, name was changed to Eastern Orthodox Church (EOC)

Islam

Formation of Islam

Before Islam, people in Arabia worshipped pagan gods (paganism, which was polytheistic). The Ka’bah was a place of worship for them, located in Mecca. It was a square shrine in the center of the grand mosque.

• Prophet Muhammad

  • Born in Mecca (more on him in next section)

  • Only believed in one god, who he called Allah (God in Arabic)

• Every year, there was a large celebration of idol worship

  • Muhammad disliked this, would leave and sleep in a cave

  • One night Gabriel (an angel) comes to him as he is praying to Allah, and brings a message from Allah

  • This means that Muhammad is a prophet; one who brings messages from gods

• Muhammad continues delivering messages from Allah

  • Years later, friends write down and collect them into a book called the Quran (means recitation, because Muhammad recited the messages)

  • However, before this, Muhammad continues spreading the words of Allah

    • The ruling clan (Quraysh) did not like this; did not want anyone worshipping anyone else

    • Islamic teachings threatened traditional polytheistic pagan beliefs

    • Muslims were persecuted

• Other city called Yathrib

  • Heard of Muhammad’s message, invited him and followers to join them

  • Muslims leave Mecca for Yathrib; this migration is called the Hijrah

• Muhammad and some friends stayed behind until everyone else got there, and then planned to go

  • Some complications; ruling family planned to assassinate him but he escaped

• Muhammad makes it to Yathrib, which is renamed Medina (“City of the Prophet”)

  • Capital of Islam before it was changed to Damascus

• Three battles between Muslims and Meccan clans

  • Battle of Badr, Battle of Uhud, Battle of the Trench

  • Muslims win 2-1

• Islam gains popularity, there are many more Muslims now

• Muhammad declares no more fighting; goes to Ka’bah, smashes the idols and rededicated the Ka’bah to Allah

Early Leaders

Muhammad

• The last prophet

• Not allowed to show visual depictions of him (considered idolatry)

• Orphan raised in Meccan tribe, likely a merchant

  • Married Khadija, an entrepreneur who enabled his business

• Became religious thinker at 40

• Concern for Society

  • Lack of social conscience

  • Worship of idols

  • Devotion to worldly matters rather than religion

Caliph - successor to Muhammad as political and religious leader of the Muslims

The Four Caliphs

1. Abu Bakr - 632-634

   • Wealthy merchant elected by Muhammad’s followers

   • Was one of Muhammad’s followers and his friend; hid from Meccan assassins with him

   • Rival was Ali, Muhammad’s cousin

   • Election was not recognized by many

2. Umar - 634-644

   • Leading advisor and effective ruler

   • Nominated Abu Bakr

   • Original follower of Muhammad

   • Murdered by Persian Christian

3. Uthman - 644-656

   • Original follower

   • Member of prominent clan, Umayyads

   • Conquest of Persia

   • Leadership

     • Disliked by many; seen as lazy & corrupt

     • Murdered by Muslims

     • Uthman killers proclaimed Ali as caliph

4. Ali - 656-661

   • Cousin to Muhammad

   • Married to Muhammad’s daughter, Fatima

   • Circumstances of becoming caliph taints position (declared leader by murderers of previous caliph)

   • Opposed by Umayyads

     • Rose against Ali and civil war ensued

     • Muawiya, a Umayyad, rises against him

     • Ali assassinated

     • Civil war ended in 661

Caliphates/Dynasties

• Umayyad Dynasty

  • Umayyad family was a leading Meccan clan

  • Muawiya (first Umayyad caliph) descendants

    • Under Muawiya, capital was changed from Medina to Damascus because it was more central to conquered lands

    • Caliphate transformed from religious leadership to king/ monarch

      • Mu’awiya lives in a palace

  • Damascus (Syrian city) was the capital of the Umayyad caliphate

• Fall of Umayyads → Abbasids take control

  • Abbasid Campaign

    • Discontent under Umayyad rule led to a revolt

      • Abbasids were cousins to Umayyads

    • Abbasids invited Umayyads to banquet and killed them

      • Abd al-Rahman escapes and continues Umayyad dynasty in Spain

    • Umayyad power comes to an end (750)

      • Weakened by decadence and unclear line of succession

    • Abbas founded Abbasid Dynasty (750)

      • Legitimacy based on descent from Abba

        • Muhammad’s youngest uncle

• Abbasid Dynasty

  • 750-945; Line continued to 1258

    • mainly in title only

  • Baghdad became the new capital under the Abbasids

• The Seljuk Turkmen took Baghdad and forced the Abbasids to name their leader sultan. The Abbasid dynasty continued to 1258 but only in name.

Beliefs of Islam

Pillars

1. Shahadah:

• Creed - acknowledge there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Prophet

2. Salah:

• Prayer - 5 times per day facing Mecca

3. Zakat:

• Charity - payment to support poor Muslims

4. Hajj:

• Pilgrimage - to Mecca at least once in lifetime if possible

5. Sawm:

• Fasting - for one month during Ramadan

Beliefs

1. Honesty/modesty

2. Abstinence from alcohol and pork

3. Fair division of inheritance

4. Improved treatment of women

   • Property and marriage rights

5. Regulation of marriage and divorce

6. Ritual ablution

   • Cleanse before prayer

Message of the Quran

Vocabulary and Terms

Quran - collection of Allah’s messages delivered through Muhammad

Hijrah - Muhammad’s pilgrimage to Yathrib from Mecca in order to escape persecution

Islam - obedience to Allah

Muslim - someone who obeys Allah

Ummah - Muslim community

Sunna - Muhammad’s example; model for living

Hadith - Oral (spoken) tradition relating the words or deeds of the Prophet Muhammad; next to the Quran, the most important basis for Islamic law.

Sira - Muhammad’s biography, written years after his death

Sharia - Body of Islamic law that includes interpretation of the Quran and applies Islamic principles to everyday life

Factors contributing to the permanence of Islamic Conquests

• Persia & Byzantine internal weaknesses

• Bold & efficient fighting

  • Mastery of desert warfare

  • Bedouin camel & horse cavalry overwhelmed traditional armies

    • Bedouins were pagan nomadic tribes in Arabia who mainly lived in deserts but moved to oasis and market towns. They built the Ka'bah.

• Arabs welcomed as liberators

  • Byzantine & Persian rule was harsh

  • Discontent of religious minorities

• Common faith under Islamic rule

How did the Arabs rule?

• Arab Wealth

  • Plunder churches, church lands, state treasury

  • However, they don’t kill people

• Non-Muslims

  • Kept property

  • Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians to practice own faith and follow own laws

  • Must pay taxes

    • Poll Tax - flat tax or head tax from every household

    • Land Tax - varied based on what was owned

    • Most taxes were no higher than former government

• Why Arab tolerance?

  • Consequences of conversion - loss of taxes

  • Confidence - all will see success of Islam

    • Over time, many converted

Sunni and Shia (Shiite) division

Divisions were caused by disagreements over who would succeed Muhammad. A great amount of blood was spilled over this, especially between the Sunnis and Shiites (Shia Muslims).

Spread of Islam

Important Places

Mecca - birthplace of Muhammad and Islam, location of the Ka’bah

Medina (capital under Muhammad) - previously Yathrib; where Muhammad and Muslims migrated to during the Hijrah to escape religious persecution

Damascus (new capital under Umayyad dynasty, Muawiya specifically) - Syrian city; the capital was moved here because it was more centralized to conquered territories

Baghdad (new capital under Abbasid dynasty) - located in Iraq; place of cultural blending, advancements in sciences and arts

Dome of the Rock - constructed in Jerusalem by an Umayyad caliph

• Muslim shrine containing the rock from which Muhammad is believed to have risen to heaven in the Night Journey; Jews believe Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac on the rock

The Middle Ages

Towns

Advancements in agriculture, like iron plows, horses instead of oxen, and the three field system/new crop rotations greatly increased production of food. This subsequently tripled Europe’s population between 1000 and 1300. Because of the higher populations, demand for goods increased, which begets increase in trade as well. Trade centers were established, which developed into the first medieval cities.

Charter - a document establishing rights and privileges for the town in exchange for a large sum of money, a yearly fee, or both. Merchants asked for these from local lords or a king.

A typical medieval city/town was a dirty and disease-prone street lined with houses. People were drawn to them because of opportunity.

Trade

• As trade expanded, new business practices arose

• Need for capital increases, which stimulates growth of banks

• Merchants may team up and pool money for large investments/ventures

• Insurance and credit allow merchants to travel without having to carry cash

  • However, overall use of money increases in general

• Town growth and better terms enabled peasants/serfs to improve life

  • Greater social mobility

  • Peasants start selling goods to townspeople

    • By 1300, most are hired laborers or tenant farmers paying rent

    • Serf decline

  • Middle class

    • New class between nobles and peasants

    • Made up of merchants, artisans, and traders

• Guilds

  • Controlled, protected, and promoted economic activities by ensuring stable market (quality and prices); made up of the middle class

  • Guilds controlled membership

    • Established steps: apprenticeship, journeyman, and master

  • People began learning trades young as apprentices to become guild members later

  • Women dominated trades

• Rise of towns brought new needs

  • New unified laws

  • Government was sympathetic to new forms of business

  • Old mentality of lords no longer worked

  • Changes caused ongoing struggle with old nobility

• New Alliances

  • Merchants ally with Kings against nobility

  • Resulted in a shift to central power

    • Ended period of feudal government

  • Merchants at the center of the economy

    • Townspeople identify with merchants more so than lords and clergy

• Shift from feudal system to centralized government in England and France

  • Not in Germany and Italy

The Crusades

The Crusades were a series of military conflicts between Christians and Muslims (led by Saladin). The Christians aimed to push Muslims out of Europe (like in the Reconquista), and the objective of the First Crusade, called by Pope Urban II, was to capture Jerusalem, which was a holy land to both religions. There was no true “winner,” of the Crusades, though they encouraged religious spirit within Christians and exposed to them Islamic literature, science, and technology. The most important result of the Crusades was the exchange of ideas and goods.

Fatimid Caliphate:

• Instigate enmity between Muslims and Christians

• Persecuted non-Muslims

• Did not do much in the actual Crusades; only instigated it

Crusader obstacles:

• No obvious or widely accepted leader

• No consensus about relations with the churchmen who went with them

• No definition of the pope’s role

• No agreement with the Byzantine emperor on whether they were his allies, servants, rivals, or perhaps enemies

• Disagreements divided the Crusaders into factions that did not always get along well with one another.

First Crusade

• In 1093, Byzantine emperor asks for help fighting the Turks

• Pope Urban II issues a call for a Crusade—a “holy war”

• Pope promises Crusaders who die a place in heaven

• Attracted no European kings and few major nobles, drawing mainly lesser barons and their followers; came primarily from the lands of French culture and language

• Three armies congregate at Constantinople, cross Turkey on foot

• Christian warriors go to Palestine to take Jerusalem and other holy places from Muslim domination

• The First Crusade was a grand success for the Christian armies; Jerusalem and other cities fell to the knights

• Captured lands along coast divided into four Crusader states

  • Kingdom of Jerusalem

  • County of Edessa

  • County of Tripoli

  • Principality of Antioch

Second Crusade

• Muslims take back the County of Edessa

• Second Crusade fails to regain it

• In 1187, Saladin—Muslim leader and Kurdish warrior—retakes Jerusalem

Third Crusade

• Three powerful rulers

  • King Richard I the Lionhearted of England

    • Last king left in Crusade after complications (read below)

  • Philip II of France

    • Drops out after argument with Richard

      • Richard broke off engagement with Philip’s sister

  • Frederick I of Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire (Germany)

    • Drowns crossing Saleph river in Turkey

  • Ended in 1192 in a compromise between King Richard the Lionhearted of England and the Muslim leader Saladin, who keeps Jerusalem but grants access to Christian pilgrims

    • Crusaders also received control of some towns along the Palestinian coast

Fourth Crusade

• Pope Innocent III calls for a French crusade to reclaim Jerusalem

  • French knights

• Economic and political crises resulted in the crusaders sacking Constantinople instead

• Byzantine prince Alexios Komnenos offered crusaders financial and military aid to restore his father as emperor

• Alexios was deposed and the crusaders plundered the city, very few continued to the Holy Land

• The crusaders attacked many Christian cities and were later excommunicated

Children’s Crusade

• Dubious, no evidence

• Probably fiction

• Ended with thousands of children being sold into slavery, lost, or killed

Spanish Crusade

• Most of Spain controlled by Moors, a Muslim people

• Christians fight Reconquista—drive Muslims from Spain, 1100-1492

• Spain has Inquisition—court to suppress heresy; expels non-Christians

Results in Europe

• Economic

  • Italian cities prosper from transport of Crusaders and replaced Byzantines and Muslims as merchant-traders in the Mediterranean

  • Trade passed through Italian hands to Western Europe at a handsome profit

  • This commercial power became the economic base of the Italian Renaissance.

  • Provoked Atlantic powers like Spain and Portugal to seek trade routes to India and China

    • Through explorers like Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus, helped to open most of the world to European trade dominance and colonization and to shift the center of commercial activity from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic

• Exchange of ideas and goods

  • Muslim scholars translated works into Arabic, while Western Europeans learned from Muslim ideas and knowledge on math, science, medicine, and astronomy

Causes and Spread of the Bubonic Plague

Causes of the Bubonic Plague

• Carried by fleas on Asian black rats

• Brought to Europe on ships returning from Asia in the 1340s

Spread

• Enabled by overcrowding in cities and homes

• Many aristocratic and prosperous families slept in one room/bed

  • Peasants were worse off

• Poor sanitation

  • Streets were filled with garbage, human waste, and dead animal carcasses

• People were malnourished prior to the plague

  • Poor health = weaker immune system

    • Caused by poor harvests due to heavy rain (lost 25% of crops)

• People feared contaminated water

  • Didn’t bathe

Results of the Bubonic Plague

Social Upheaval/Population Decline

• ⅓ of the European population died

• Most deaths occurred in cities

  • Florence and other major cities lost ½ their populations

Economic Upheaval

• Affected town economy; countryside less affected

• Accelerated economic decline which began in the early 14th century

• Recovery took 100 years

• Higher wages as a result of decrease in supply of workers

Effects on Peasants

• Increased demand for peasant labor

  • Eventual decline of serfdom

First Enclosure in Britain

• Landowners needed better agricultural production w/ fewer farm hands

• Largely sheep herding

Effects on Other Members of Society

• Clergy died from helping the sick

• Jews often blamed for the plague and persecuted

Effects on Art and Literature

• Became more macabre

• Reflected pessimistic outlook of that time

• Dance of Death

  • Danse Macabre - Skeletons danced among the living, reminded viewers of the prevalence of death

Northern Europe

• Developed morbid fascination with death

• Later reflected in Northern Renaissance art

• The population did not reach pre-plague levels until the mid-16th century

Medieval Church

• Problems associated with it that are in need of reform (issues leading to Reformation)

  • See above notes; ctrl+f “papal supremacy” explanation starts there through the Great Schism

The Renaissance

“Renaissance” means “rebirth” in French. It was a revival of the arts which spanned from around 1350 to the 1600s, beginning in Florence, Italy, (the Italian Renaissance) inspired by classical (Greek and Roman) civilization. It was a transition from medieval to modern thinking, and a cultural awakening. Humanism was the core philosophy of the Renaissance, the idea that each individual has great potential/emphasis on the individual (“affirms his ability to improve life through reason rather than submitting blindly to tradition or authority”).

Goals of Renaissance Thinkers

• Sought to bring Europe out of disorder and disunity

• Placed greater emphasis on individual achievement (Humanism)

• Tried to understand the world with more accuracy (realism)

Important Italian City-States

• Florence

  • Birthplace of the Italian Renaissance

  • “2nd Rome”

  • Medici family rule

• Milan

  • Banking/finance

• Venice

  • Major port city

  • Link between Asia and Western Europe → Trade

• Rome

  • Papacy returned in 1420 after the Great Schism

  • Pope and cardinals the wealthiest class

Medieval vs. Renaissance

Medieval art was much more flat and lacked dimension (only two), while Renaissance used light and perspective to create a realistic, three-dimensional effect. Additionally, Renaissance artists studied anatomy for even more realism. While Medieval art mainly portrayed important figures in society and divine figures, Renaissance artists and writers focused on realistically portrayed humans, flawed, and commoners.

Writers

• Have high ideals but show how humans fall short

• Are realistic and critical of human beings

• Are humorous

Northern Renaissance

• How did the Renaissance spread to Northern Europe?

  • Trade

    • Venice was the “big winner” in trade and shipped goods north over the Alps to the rest of Europe

  • Travel

    • Artists and scholars moved around and spread their techniques/ideas

  • Printed Materials

    • Gutenberg’s printing press made Renaissance works more readily available and widespread

Gutenberg

• Responsible for the evolution of printing, around 1440

  • Expanded on the Chinese idea of movable type, enhanced production via metal casting

  • Printed a complete version of the Christian Bible into German this way

• His developments were revolutionary and transformed Europe

  • Pre-1453 - only a few thousand books

  • By 1500 - 15-20 million books

  • By 1600 - 150-200 million books

  • Increased literacy rates, decreased book prices, opened up new job opportunities for people to operate printing presses

  • Religious turmoil arose because more people became informed

Artists and Writers of the Renaissance

• https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aBVbeYOyobDFO7YK10C_YiQkyrBfxO9VNphPJayiJZc/edit#slide=id.g1029c168103_0_290

  • Overview of the artists and writers on the last several slides

Reformation

in progress

Scientific Revolution

Scientists

1. Classical (not Sci. Rev.) - Aristotle and Ptolemy. Earth-centric system

2. Copernicus - proposes heliocentric system

3. Tycho Brahe - supports Copernicus with research

4. Kepler - finds out that orbits are not perfect circles using Brahe’s data

5. Galileo - uses telescopes to observes Jupiter’s moon orbits, finds that they are the same as those of planets around the sun

6. Bacon - Emphasize experimentation and observation

7. Descartes - same as Bacon

8. Vesalius - anatomy

9. William Harvey - blood is a pump

10. Anton van Leeuwenhoek - perfected the microscope; first to see cells and microorganisms

11. Robert Boyle - particles (atoms)

12. Newton - developed calculus, explains gravity, links science and math

13. Paracelsus - looked at the chemical causes behind sickness to treat patients

Exploration

Three G’s - Gold, Glory, and GOd are the motivations for exploration

Caused by trade increase

Absolutism

Absolutism was the idea that one monarch held complete authority/power.

C = Catholic, P = Protestant

England

1. Henry VII (C)

2. Henry VIII (P)

3. Edward VI (P)

4. Mary I (C, devoutly)

5. Elizabeth I (P)

Spain

1. Charles V (C, devoutly)

   1. HRE and Spain

   2. Spanish claims

      1. Parts of Italy, Spanish American colonies, and lands in Austra/Netherlands

2. Philip II (C, devoutly)

   1. Spain, Spanish Netherlands, Spanish American colonies

3. Philip III