HST 108 Early Medieval Europe and the
Mediterranean
Key Terms
from Lecture and Textbook
bishop of Rome
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Donation of Pepin
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Vandals
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Macedonian Renaissance
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Petrine Doctrine
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Einhard
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Visigoths
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Charlemagne |
Pope Leo I
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fief
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Ostrogoths
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Louis the Pious |
Pope Gregory I (the great)
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vassal
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Franks
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Danelaw |
Justinian
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homage
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Clovis
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Anglo-Saxons |
Lombards
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feudalism
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Theodoric
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Carolingians |
Byzantine Empire
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allodial land
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Arianism
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Carolingian Renaissance |
iconoclasm
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primogeniture
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Hagia Sophia
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Kievan Rus
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Leo III
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Vikings
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Justinian Code
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Basil I
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Pope Gregory III
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Magyars
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Belisarius
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Cyrillic
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Pope Leo IX
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Otto the Great
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Charles Martel
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geld
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mayor of the palace
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Alfred the Great
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pillage and gift
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Macedonian Dynasty
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Pepin the Short
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Hugh Capet
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Merovingians
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Donation of Constantine
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Chronology
late 5th - early 6th c.
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Germanic kingdoms arise in Europe
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530s
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Byzantine Empire conquers Vandal and
Ostrogoth kingdoms
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late 6th c.
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Lombards invade Italy; papal rower
rising
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7th c.
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Byzantine Empire loses vast
territories to Muslims, Bulgars, Slavs, Avars
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8th c.
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iconoclasm controversy
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8th-9th c.
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Carolingian dominance in France
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9th-10th c.
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Viking invasions
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10th c.
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Unification of England; rise of the
Holy Roman Empire
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mid-11th c.
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Christian Church splits into Catholic
and Orthodox branches
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I. The Rise of the Papacy
A. early church hierarchy
1. faithful masses
2. lower officials, such as priests
3. bishops
a. regarded as the successors of the apostles of Jesus
b. supervised regions called bishoprics (dioceses)
B. bishop of Rome
1. becomes the most powerful bishop in the Christian world (the pope)
2. the Petrine Doctrine
a. belief that St. Peter was Rome's first bishop
b. Matthew 16:18-19
And I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church
and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the
keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever you shall bind on earth,
it shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth,
it shall be loosed in heaven.
c. interpreted as meaning that Jesus chose Peter as his successor
d. and because Peter was believed to be the first bishop of Rome,
subsequent bishops of Rome as seen as the head of the church
3. Leo I (440-461)
a. believed that all bishops are the successors of the apostles
b. also believed that all apostles were subordinated to Peter
c. thus, all bishops are subordinated to Peter's successor,
the bishop of Rome (i.e., the pope)
C. Gregory I, the Great (590-604)
1. began the rise in political power of the papacy
2. the Lombards invaded Italy and threatened Rome (568) [MAP]
3. the political leader of Italy was an absentee ruler
4. thus, Gregory took it upon himself to defend Rome
a. he directed the troops
b. he negotiated a truce with the Lombards in 592
II. The Byzantine Empire [MAP]
A. the eastern Roman Empire
1. created when the emperor Diocletian split the empire in half to make it easier to rule
2. the eastern half survived while the western half fell to the Germanic tribes
3. the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea protected much of the eastern empire
4. also, the east was a lot wealthier than the west (Silk Road)
B. the east tried to retake the west after the fall
1. in the 6th century, the emperor Justinian sent out generals to conquer the west
2. they brought Italy under Byzantine control in the mid 6th c. [MAP]
3. thus, Italy had an absentee ruler during this period
C. the Byzantine Emperor
1. he was a sacred ruler appointed by God
2. he was the de facto head of the Christian Church
a. the Patriarch of Constantinople was the official head of the church in the east
b. but the emperor appointed the patriarch
3. both pope and emperor claimed to be the head of the church
4. led to a lot of tension and disputes
5. icons
a. religious images had become widespread
b. they helped the illiterate masses learn the faith
c. some people seemed to be worshiping the images
d. led emperor Leo III (717-741) to adopt a policy of iconoclasm
e. pope Gregory III (731-741) declared the policy heretical
and threatened excommunication
f. the emperor back down, but the tension escalated
D. the final split (1054)
1. pope Leo IX refused to allow the patriarch to hold the position unless
he recognized the pope as the head of the church
2. the patriarch refused
3. papal representatives excommunicated him
4. he excommunicated them, and theoretically, the pope
5. the two leaders basically kicked each other out of the church
6. thus, they created two separate branches of Christianity
a. the Roman Catholic Church in the west
- catholic means universal
b. the Greek Orthodox Church in the east
- orthodox means correct belief
7. the two branches had developed separately since 1054
III. The Carolingians
A. mayor of the palace
1. the wealthy Carolingian family had secured this position in the 7th century
2. from this position, they were able to take over the kingdom
3. a succession of minor (young) kings allowed this to happen
B. Pepin the Short (741-768)
1. mayor the palace, but lacked the prestige of king
2. Pepin wanted the Frankish crown for himself
3. the pope needed defensive help against the Lombards and the Byzantine Emperor
4. in 751, Pepin wrote to pope Zacharius, asking him:
"Is it right that a powerless ruler should continue to bear the title of king?"
5. because he needs help, he responds with exactly what Pepin wants to hear:
that Pepin, the man with the actual power, should be king
6. so Pepin deposed the king and took the throne
7. then he was anointed into office by a papal representative
8. in 754, the new pope (Stephen II) traveled to France and crowned Pepin himself
9. Stephen also asked Pepin to come to Italy and defend Rome against the Lombards
10. in 755, Pepin defeated the Lombards and began to return home
11. the Lombards ignored the peace treaty and attacked Rome
12. Pepin returned and crushed the Lombards for good
13. Donation of Pepin: Pepin secured the territory in central
Italy for the pope
14. this area came be called the Papal States [Map]
C. Charlemagne (768-814)
1. warrior king [Map: Europe in 814]
a. southeast: Italy (774)
- conquered the Lombards and became their king
b. southwest: Spain (778)
- conquered the Spanish March from the Muslims
c. east: Bavaria (787)
- created a frontier to protect the Frankish kingdom from the Slavs and Avars
d. northeast: Saxony
- established control of the region by 804
2. emperor
a. crowned by the pope in 800
b. revival of the position of the old western Roman emperor
c. signifies the rise of a new, Christian, European empire
d. gives the pope a powerful ally against the Byzantine emperor
e. implications of the crowning
1. Charlemagne had gone to Rome to help the pope who had been attacked
by his political enemies
2. his biographer Einhard describes the scene in his Life of Charlemagne:
The Romans had inflicted many injuries upon the Pontiff Leo [III],
tearing out his eyes and cutting out his tongue [likely a failed attempt],
so that he had been obliged to call upon the King for help. Charles
accordingly went to Rome, to set in order the affairs of the Church,
which were in great confusion, and passed the whole winter there.
It was then that he received the titles of Emperor and Augustus,
to which he at first had such an aversion that he declared that he
would not have set foot in the Church the day that they were conferred,
although it was a great feast-day [Christmas], if he could have foreseen
the design of the Pope.
3. Charlemagne seems to have been upset that the pope crowned him
a. the crowning by the pope signified the pope's superiority
b. the pope basically MADE Charlemagne emperor
c. this will lead to tension between pope and emperor
throughout the medieval period
IV. Feudalism
A. medieval historians no longer use the term because it doesn't accurately describe
how medieval society worked
B. classic feudalism (the traditional view)
1. fief: a piece of land that a lord held from the king or another lord in return
for loyalty and various kinds of service
2. vassal: a lord who held a fief from another lord
3. homage and oath of fealty: ceremony to mark this reciprocal relationship
C. 19th and early 20th-century historians mistakenly assumed that Renaissance
and Enlightenment intellectuals knew what they were talking about
D. recent research has shown that the classic feudal paradigm doesn't fit most of Europe
during most of the Middle Ages
E. the evidence
1. most land was allodial; very little evidence for fiefs before the 13th century
2. Charlemagne
a. his warrior aristocrats were loyal to him ONLY when he continuously
gave them land and treasure
b. when he stopped, they were no longer loyal
c. there was no feudalism holding society together; the last years of his
reign were completely chaotic
3. Louis the Pious (814-840)
a. the chaos continued because he did not continuously give land and treasure
to the warrior aristocrats
b. he tried to hold things together by giving supreme political authority
to his oldest son Lothar [beginnings of primogeniture]
c. his younger sons rebelled
d. when Louis died, the younger sons forced Lothar to divide up the kingdom
e. the Treaty of Verdun (843) [Map]
1. Lothar kept the imperial title and a central strip of land
2. Charles the Bald received the west
3. Louis the German received the east
V. Invasions [MAP]
A. Muslims
1. Muslim pirates raided throughout the Mediterranean
2. they were difficult to defend against because
European kingdoms had no naval defenses
B. Magyars (Hungarians)
1. nomadic horsemen from western Asia
2. they roamed the countryside, attacking defenseless settlements
3. they were defeated by Otto the Great at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955
C. Vikings [MAP]
1. the Danes attacked France, Germany and England
2. the Norwegians attacked Scotland, Ireland and other North Atlantic islands
3. the Swedes attacked Russia and the Byzantine Empire
4. two main reasons that the Vikings left their homelands
a. overpopulation; not enough land
b. ship improvements; very fast ships that could carry large numbers of warriors
D. Europe eventually overcame the invasions
1. they built better defenses around towns (stone walls)
2. they built castles (e.g., Bamburgh)
3. they incorporated the invaders into their kingdoms
4. they benefited from the long distance trade introduced by the Vikings
VI. A New Europe [MAP]
A. England: unification [Anglo-Saxon England]
1. the Viking attacks allowed Alfred to begin the unification process
2. he forced the Vikings back into northeastern England [Danelaw]
3. Alfred's son and grandson proceed to reconquer the Danelaw
B. France: new dynasty [9th-century divisions]
1. instability due to Viking attacks
2. Hugh Capet took the throne in the chaos and became the first Capetian king (987)
3. the Capetian dynasty retains control up to the 14th century
C. Germany: the rise of the Holy Roman Empire [MAP]
1. the last Carolingian king in the east died in 911
2. the German dukes competed for the throne
3. Otto the Great (936-973) halted the devolution of power
a. defeated the Magyars in 955
b. conquered the old Carolingian Middle kingdom
c. defeated the Lombards
d. crowned emperor by Pope John XII in 962
e. now known as the Holy Roman Emperor
The Ancient and Medieval
World 
