THE EARLY

MIDDLE AGES
A.D. 500-1050
 MIDDLE AGES
• The fall of Rome and the rise of Germanic kingdoms
marked the end of ancient times and the beginning
of the Middle Ages.
• The center of European culture shifted from lands
around the Mediterranean Sea to regions that
barely been touched by Greco-Roman civilization.
 MIDDLE AGES
•Medieval Civilization Develops in
Europe
•A Feudal System Takes Shape
•Life Centers on the Manor
 MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION
DEVELOPS IN EUROPE
The blending of Germanic, Christian, and Roman elements
came to characterize the civilization of the Middle Ages.
 A TIME OF CHANGE:
GERMANIC CUSTOMS REPLACE ROMAN WAYS

ROMANS GERMANIC
• World of cities (URBAN • Countryside (RURAL
PEOPLE). PEOPLE).
• Written laws. • Unwritten laws of each
• Judges had investigated tribe.
evidence and demanded • Judges used trial by
proof. ORDEAL.
• Latin of Rome was no longer the major language.
• RUNES- the Germanic alphabet was used mainly
for inscriptions on monuments.
• THEODORIC- king of Ostrogoth who rule Italy
admired Roman culture and encouraged scholarship
at his court.
• BOETHIUS- he translated some of Aristotle’s
writings from Greek to Latin.
• CASSIODORUS- he collected, copied, and
translated ancient manuscripts.
• BISHOP ISIDORE OF SEVILLE- he wrote an
encyclopedia covering many topics.
• VENERABLE BEDE- an English monk that completed
a history of church in England. His work is generally
regarded as the finest history written in the Middle
Ages.
 THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH
• The Church has a strong influence during this medieval
civilization.
• Germanic, Christian, and Roman traditions were being
woven together into a new civilization.
• CHRISTIANITY was the guiding force in this new
civilization.
• Medieval people believed that the way to heaven was
through the Church.
 THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH

• The church also developed a strong organization.

• The leading church officials were the BISHOPS.
• The bishops supervised the priests and administer church
teachings and practices.
• POPE GREGORY I (Gregory the Great)- under his
administration, the church took over powers and duties that
were usually the responsibilities of the government.
 THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH

• The Monks and Nuns also do church works.

• Monks lived in monasteries.
• Nuns lived in convents.
• St. Benedict- founded a monastery at Monte Cassino in
Italy in 529.
• St. Patrick- converted the Irish to Christianity in the early
4th century.
 FRANKISH KINGDOMS

• Frankish rulers form kingdoms.

• A new medieval style of government appeared in the
Franks kingdom.
• FRANKS- people that migrated westward from their
homeland in the valley of Rhine River.
• CLOVIS- a frank ruler that united the various Frankish
tribes and conquered the Romans and other Germans in
northern Gaul. He married CLOTILDA.
 FRANKISH KINGDOMS

• In each Frankish kingdom real power fell into the hands of

the king’s chief officer, the Mayor of the Palace.
• Pepin II- Mayor of the Palace that triumphed over the
mayors of rival kingdoms and reunited the Frankish lands.
• CHARLES MARTEL (Charles the Hammer)- son of Pepin II
that inherited the title and the lands.
• PEPIN the SHORT- son of Charles Martel was given the
title “king” instead of Mayor of the Palace.
 FRANKISH KINGDOMS

• CHARLEMAGNE (Charles the Great)- Pepin’s son who

became the king of the Franks.
• He had a beautiful church built at AECHEN.
• ALCUIN- an English monk that taught the king.
• BAVARIA- the old name of Germany.
• POPE LEO III- he crowned Charlemagne as the EMPEROR
of the Romans on the Christmas day of year 800.
 A FEUDAL SYSTEM TAKES
SHAPES

FEUDALISM-This is the basic political arrangement and system of

relationships that grew out of granting of fiefs during Middle Ages.
 CHARLEMAGNE’S EMPIRE BREAKS APART
• Louis the Pious- he inherited the throne from his father,
Charlemagne, and tried to preserve the empire.
• His efforts were resisted by the Frankish nobles, who sought to
increase their own power at the expense of the emperor.
• Treaty of Verdun (843)- an agreement to divide the empire by
the three surviving sons of Louis after his death.
• Charles the Bald, in the west, and Louis the German, in the east,
fought over the middle section held by their brother Lothair. But
eventually that section was also divided into different domains.
 VIKING RIDERS TERRORIZE EUROPE

• Vikings- or Northmen were the most fearsome invaders of Europe.

They were the ancestors of Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes.
• During the ninth century Viking bands raided coastal settlements in
Western Europe and pushed inland along the rivers.
• Wherever they landed, they looted settlements, enslaved or killed
the local people, and burned homes and villages.
• As time passed, most of Vikings became Christians and turned
from raiding to trade.
 EUROPE FACES OTHER INVADERS
• Magyars- originally nomads from Central Asia were the superb
horsemen that swept across the broad Danube plain and invaded
northern Italy and southern Germany.
• Muslim pirates attacked coastal regions and captured
Mediterranean islands.
• The invasions went on until early in the tenth century and had
terrible consequences for Western Europe.
• People no longer looked to a central ruler for security.
• Western Europe had entered an age in which lords, not kings, held
political power.
 FEUDALISM DEVELOPS IN WESTERN EUROPE

• Because of the age of warfare and disorder, lords sought allies among
other fellow nobles.
• One lord granted a fief to another noble in exchange for military
assistance.
• FIEFS- granted land by one lord to another noble.
• VASSAL- a noble who was the receiver of the granted land or fiefs.
• FEUDALISM- this is a system of relationships that grew out of granting
of fiefs and became the basic political arrangement in Europe after the
breakup of Charlemagne’s empire.
 FEUDALISM DRAWS ON EARLIER CUSTOMS

• The feudalism also grew out of the traditions of the Germanic

tribes in some ways.
• Feudal law included many elements of Germanic law, and feudal
attitudes reflected the Germanic respect for the warrior.
• Feudalism also drew on the pattern set by the fortified latifundia
of the late Roman Empire.
 AGE OF WARFARE
• The feudal lord had to be primarily a warrior in an age when
warfare is common.
• A young noble was trained to be a knight.
• Knighthood reflects Christian ideals.
• Chivalry- a code of behavior evolved for the feudal nobility
during the twelfth century.
• Castles are fortified by the lords to serve as their fortresses
against attacks.
• Castles became the center of the feudal life.
 NOBLEWOMEN HAVE SOME POLITICAL POWER

• In some parts of Europe, women could inherit lands and the power that
went with them.
• Matilda of England- daughter of King Henry I. She raised an army and
went to war in 1135, trying to establish her claim to the English throne.
• Blanche of Castile- she ruled France in the early 1200’s.
• Eleanor of Aquitaine- inherited her father’s rich lands in southern
France during twelfth century. She married first King Louis VII of France
and, later, Henry II of England. She also played an important role in
politics on both countries.
 LIFE CENTERS ON THE
MANOR
MANORIALISM- this is the basic economic system during
Middle Ages.
MANOR- a small village on the lord’s estate where the
serfs lived.
SERFS- peasants who did not have the freedom to leave the
land where they were born.
 THE MANOR IS A SELF-SUFFICIENT WORLD

• Fifteen to thirty families usually lived in a manor.

• The manor includes: serf’s cottages, lord’s castle, a church,
workshops. And the manor was surrounded of fields,
pasturelands and forests.
• Almost everything needed for daily life was produced on
the manor.
 THE SERFS HAS RIGHTS AS WELL AS DUTIES

• Medieval farmers share land and labour.

• TWO-FIELD SYSTEM- a system they used to keep the soil from
losing its fertility.
• Serfs farmed the land set aside for the lord.
• They paid the lord by giving part of the crops they grew on their
own strips of land.
• The women made clothing for the lord’s family.
 THE SERFS HAS RIGHTS AS WELL AS DUTIES

• Serfs could not leave the manor without the lord’s permission.
• The lord could even decide whom a serf would marry.
• Serfdom is a harsh way of life.
• Men of lowly birth sometimes joined the clergy and a few even
became abbots or bishops.
• Sometimes a lord conferred knighthood upon peasants or serfs
who distinguished himself in battle.
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