Corfinio is a comune (municipality) and town in the province of L'Aquila , in the Italian region of Abruzzo .
177-463: In the Middle Ages , Roman Corfinium was known as Valva , and was the seat of a bishopric. This name is preserved in the name of the united diocese of Sulmona-Valva . This Abruzzo location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Middle Ages In the history of Europe , the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to
354-531: A Genoese fleet captured Beirut . In the same month, Muhammad I Tapar , sultan of the Seljuk Empire, sent an army to recover Syria, but a Frankish defensive force arrived at Edessa, ending the short siege of the city. On 4 December, Baldwin captured Sidon , aided by a flotilla of Norwegian pilgrims led by Sigurd the Crusader . Next year, Tancred's extortion from Antioch's Muslim neighbours provoked
531-540: A Turkish ambush at the Battle of Civetot . Conflict with Urban II meant that King Philip I of France and Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV declined to participate. Aristocrats from France, western Germany, the Low Countries , Languedoc and Italy led independent contingents in loose, fluid arrangements based on bonds of lordship, family, ethnicity and language. The elder statesman Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse
708-421: A few families and still others lived on isolated farms spread over the countryside. There were also areas where the pattern was a mix of two or more of those systems. Unlike in the late Roman period, there was no sharp break between the legal status of the free peasant and the aristocrat, and it was possible for a free peasant's family to rise into the aristocracy over several generations through military service to
885-562: A hunting accident. On Christmas Day 1143, their son Baldwin III of Jerusalem was crowned co-ruler with his mother. That same year, having prepared his army for a renewed attack on Antioch, John II Komnenos cut himself with a poisoned arrow while hunting wild boar. He died on 8 April 1143 and was succeeded as emperor by his son Manuel I Komnenos . Following John's death, the Byzantine army withdrew, leaving Zengi unopposed. Fulk's death later in
1062-601: A king to rule over them all. By the late sixth century, this arrangement had been replaced by a permanent monarchy, the Kingdom of the Lombards . The invasions brought new ethnic groups to Europe, although some regions received a larger influx of new peoples than others. In Gaul for instance, the invaders settled much more extensively in the north-east than in the south-west. Slavs settled in Central and Eastern Europe and
1239-835: A larger force, led by the Seljuk Ridwan of Aleppo . He was then able to secure Antioch's borders and push back his Greek and Muslim enemies. Under Paschal's sponsorship, Bohemond launched a version of a crusade in 1107 against the Byzantines, crossing the Adriatic and besieging Durrës . The siege failed; Alexius hit his supply lines, forcing his surrender. The terms laid out in the Treaty of Devol were never enacted because Bohemond remained in Apulia and died in 1111, leaving Tancred as notional regent for his son Bohemond II . In 1007,
1416-461: A matter of debate among contemporary historians. At the time of the First Crusade , iter , "journey", and peregrinatio , "pilgrimage" were used for the campaign. Crusader terminology remained largely indistinguishable from that of Christian pilgrimage during the 12th century. A specific term for a crusader in the form of crucesignatus —"one signed by the cross"—emerged in
1593-673: A power struggle. This gave the Crusaders a crucial opportunity to consolidate without any pan-Islamic counter-attack. Urban II died on 29 July 1099, fourteen days after the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, but before news of the event had reached Rome. He was succeeded by Pope Paschal II who continued the policies of his predecessors in regard to the Holy Land. Godfrey died in 1100. Dagobert of Pisa , Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and Tancred looked to Bohemond to come south, but he
1770-567: A powerful lord. Roman city life and culture changed greatly in the early Middle Ages. Although Italian cities remained inhabited, they contracted significantly in size. Rome, for instance, shrank from a population of hundreds of thousands to around 30,000 by the end of the 6th century. Roman temples were converted into Christian churches and city walls remained in use. In Northern Europe, cities also shrank, while civic monuments and other public buildings were raided for building materials. The establishment of new kingdoms often meant some growth for
1947-466: A practical skill rather than a sign of elite status. In the 4th century, Jerome (d. 420) dreamed that God rebuked him for spending more time reading Cicero than the Bible . By the 6th century, Gregory of Tours (d. 594) had a similar dream, but instead of being chastised for reading Cicero, he was chastised for learning shorthand . By the late 6th century, the principal means of religious instruction in
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#17327809247982124-512: A ransom for his and Raymond's freedom. John II Komnenos , emperor since 1118, reasserted Byzantine claims to Cilicia and Antioch , compelling Raymond of Poitiers to give homage. In April 1138, the Byzantines and Franks jointly besieged Aleppo and, with no success, began the Siege of Shaizar , abandoning it a month later. On 13 November 1143, while the royal couple were in Acre, Fulk was killed in
2301-621: A series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Christian Latin Church in the medieval period . The best known of these military expeditions are those to the Holy Land between 1095 and 1291 that had the objective of reconquering Jerusalem and its surrounding area from Muslim rule after the region had been conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate centuries earlier. Beginning with
2478-474: A small foothold in southern Spain. Justinian's reconquests have been criticised by historians for overextending his realm and setting the stage for the early Muslim conquests , but many of the difficulties faced by Justinian's successors were due not just to over-taxation to pay for his wars but to the essentially civilian nature of the empire, which made raising troops difficult. In the Eastern Empire
2655-701: A small number of mercenaries he could direct. Alexios had restored the Empire's finances and authority but still faced numerous foreign enemies. Later that year at the Council of Clermont , Urban raised the issue again and preached a crusade. Almost immediately, the French priest Peter the Hermit gathered thousands of mostly poor in the People's Crusade . Traveling through Germany, German bands massacred Jewish communities in
2832-620: Is no universally agreed upon end date. Depending on the context, events such as the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, Christopher Columbus 's first voyage to the Americas in 1492, or the Protestant Reformation in 1517 are sometimes used. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period. For Spain, dates commonly used are the death of King Ferdinand II in 1516,
3009-706: The Reconquista and Northern Crusades are also sometimes associated with this Crusade. The aftermath of the Crusade saw the Muslim world united around Saladin , leading to the fall of Jerusalem . Eugene III , recently elected pope, issued the bull Quantum praedecessores in December 1145 calling for a new crusade, one that would be more organized and centrally controlled than the First. The armies would be led by
3186-539: The fyrd , which were led by the local elites. In military technology, one of the main changes was the return of the crossbow , which had been known in Roman times and reappeared as a military weapon during the last part of the Early Middle Ages. Another change was the introduction of the stirrup, which increased the effectiveness of cavalry as shock troops. A technological advance that had implications beyond
3363-717: The Alans , Vandals , and Suevi crossed into Gaul ; over the next three years they spread across Gaul and in 409 crossed the Pyrenees Mountains into modern-day Spain. The Migration Period began, when various peoples, initially largely Germanic peoples , moved across Europe. The Franks , Alemanni , and the Burgundians all ended up in northern Gaul while the Angles , Saxons , and Jutes settled in Britain , and
3540-571: The Battle of the Meander . Louis was not as lucky at the Battle of Mount Cadmus on 6 January 1148 when the army of Mesud inflicted heavy losses on the Crusaders. Shortly thereafter, they sailed for Antioch, almost totally destroyed by battle and sickness. The Crusader army arrived at Antioch on 19 March 1148 with the intent on moving to retake Edessa, but Baldwin III of Jerusalem and the Knights Templar had other ideas. The Council of Acre
3717-529: The Benedictine Rule for Western monasticism during the 6th century, detailing the administrative and spiritual responsibilities of a community of monks led by an abbot . Monks and monasteries had a deep effect on the religious and political life of the Early Middle Ages, in various cases acting as land trusts for powerful families, centres of propaganda and royal support in newly conquered regions, and bases for missions and proselytisation. They were
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#17327809247983894-591: The Carolingian Empire during the later 8th and early 9th centuries. It covered much of Western Europe but later succumbed to the pressures of internal civil wars combined with external invasions: Vikings from the north, Magyars from the east, and Saracens from the south. During the High Middle Ages, which began after 1000, the population of Europe increased greatly as technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and
4071-643: The County of Edessa ; the Principality of Antioch ; the Kingdom of Jerusalem ; and the County of Tripoli . A European presence remained in the region in some form until the fall of Acre in 1291. After this, no further large military campaigns were organised. Other church-sanctioned campaigns include crusades against Christians not obeying papal rulings and heretics , those against the Ottoman Empire , and ones for political reasons. The struggle against
4248-610: The Crusade of Varna . Popular crusades , including the Children's Crusade of 1212, were generated by the masses and were unsanctioned by the Church. The term "crusade" first referred to military expeditions undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries to the Holy Land . The conflicts to which the term is applied have been extended to include other campaigns initiated, supported and sometimes directed by
4425-531: The Desert Fathers of Egypt and Syria . Most European monasteries were of the type that focuses on community experience of the spiritual life, called cenobitism , which was pioneered by Pachomius (d. 348) in the 4th century. Monastic ideals spread from Egypt to Western Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries through hagiographical literature such as the Life of Anthony . Benedict of Nursia (d. 547) wrote
4602-661: The Early , High , and Late Middle Ages . Population decline , counterurbanisation , the collapse of centralized authority, invasions, and mass migrations of tribes , which had begun in Late Antiquity , continued into the Early Middle Ages. The large-scale movements of the Migration Period , including various Germanic peoples , formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In
4779-495: The Fatimids who were Shi'ite . The Seljuks were nomadic, Turkic speaking and occasionally shamanistic, very different from their sedentary, Arabic speaking subjects. This difference and the governance of territory based on political preference, and competition between independent princes rather than geography, weakened existing power structures. In 1071, Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes attempted confrontation to suppress
4956-603: The First Crusade , which resulted in the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 , dozens of military campaigns were organised, providing a focal point of European history for centuries. Crusading declined rapidly after the 15th century. In 1095, after a Byzantine request for aid, Pope Urban II proclaimed the first expedition at the Council of Clermont . He encouraged military support for Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos and called for an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Across all social strata in Western Europe, there
5133-468: The Genoese to Jaffa tilted the balance. Two large siege engines were constructed and the one commanded by Godfrey breached the walls on 15 July. For two days the crusaders massacred the inhabitants and pillaged the city. Historians now believe the accounts of the numbers killed have been exaggerated, but this narrative of massacre did much to cement the crusaders' reputation for barbarism. Godfrey secured
5310-584: The Gregorian chant in liturgical music for the churches. An important activity for scholars during this period was the copying, correcting, and dissemination of basic works on religious and secular topics, with the aim of encouraging learning. New works on religious topics and schoolbooks were also produced. Grammarians of the period modified the Latin language, changing it from the Classical Latin of
5487-714: The Macedonian dynasty . Commerce revived and the emperors oversaw the extension of a uniform administration to all the provinces. The military was reorganised, which allowed the emperors John I (r. 969–976) and Basil II (r. 976–1025) to expand the frontiers of the empire on all fronts. The imperial court was the centre of a revival of classical learning, a process known as the Macedonian Renaissance . Writers such as John Geometres ( fl. early 10th century) composed new hymns, poems, and other works. Missionary efforts by both Eastern and Western clergy resulted in
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5664-486: The Medieval Warm Period climate change allowed crop yields to increase. Manorialism , the organisation of peasants into villages that owed rent and labour services to the nobles , and feudalism , the political structure whereby knights and lower-status nobles owed military service to their overlords in return for the right to rent from lands and manors , were two of the ways society was organized in
5841-913: The Moors in the Iberian Peninsula–the Reconquista – ended in 1492 with the Fall of Granada . From 1147, the Northern Crusades were fought against pagan tribes in Northern Europe. Crusades against Christians began with the Albigensian Crusade in the 13th century and continued through the Hussite Wars in the early 15th century. Crusades against the Ottomans began in the late 14th century and include
6018-527: The Peace and Truce of God movements restricted conflict between Christians from the 10th century; the influence is apparent in Urban II's speeches. Other historians assert that the effectiveness was limited and it had died out by the time of the crusades. Pope Alexander II developed a system of recruitment via oaths for military resourcing that his successor Pope Gregory VII extended across Europe. In
6195-563: The Rhineland massacres during wide-ranging anti-Jewish activities. Jews were perceived to be as much an enemy as Muslims. They were held responsible for the Crucifixion , and were more immediately visible. People wondered why they should travel thousands of miles to fight non-believers when there were many closer to home. Quickly after leaving Byzantine-controlled territory on their journey to Nicaea , these crusaders were annihilated in
6372-582: The Seljuks' sporadic raiding , leading to his defeat at the battle of Manzikert . Historians once considered this a pivotal event but now Manzikert is regarded as only one further step in the expansion of the Great Seljuk Empire . The evolution of a Christian theology of war developed from the link of Roman citizenship to Christianity, according to which citizens were required to fight the empire's enemies. This doctrine of holy war dated from
6549-561: The 11th century, Christian conflict with Muslims on the southern peripheries of Christendom was sponsored by the Church, including the siege of Barbastro and the Norman conquest of Sicily . In 1074, Gregory VII planned a display of military power to reinforce the principle of papal sovereignty. His vision of a holy war supporting Byzantium against the Seljuks was the first crusade prototype, but lacked support. The First Crusade
6726-468: The 17th-century German historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods: ancient, medieval, and modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is around 500, with the date of 476 first used by Bruni. Later starting dates are sometimes used in the outer parts of Europe. For Europe as a whole, 1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there
6903-431: The 4th-century theologian Saint Augustine . He maintained that aggressive war was sinful, but acknowledged a " just war " could be rationalised if it was proclaimed by a legitimate authority, was defensive or for the recovery of lands, and without an excessive degree of violence. Violent acts were commonly used for dispute resolution in Western Europe, and the papacy attempted to mitigate this. Historians have thought that
7080-478: The 5th and the 7th centuries, going first to England and Scotland and then on to the continent. Under such monks as Columba (d. 597) and Columbanus (d. 615), they founded monasteries, taught in Latin and Greek, and authored secular and religious works. The Early Middle Ages witnessed the rise of monasticism in the West. The shape of European monasticism was determined by traditions and ideas that originated with
7257-667: The 5th century. The Eastern Empire was marked by closer relations between the political state and Christian Church, with doctrinal matters assuming an importance in Eastern politics that they did not have in Western Europe. Legal developments included the codification of Roman law ; the first effort—the Codex Theodosianus —was completed in 438. Under Emperor Justinian (r. 527–565), another compilation took place—the Corpus Juris Civilis . Justinian also oversaw
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7434-685: The 6th and 7th centuries, all of them ruled by the Merovingian dynasty, who were descended from Clovis. The 7th century was a tumultuous period of wars between Austrasia and Neustria. Such warfare was exploited by Pippin (d. 640), the Mayor of the Palace for Austrasia who became the power behind the Austrasian throne. Later members of his family inherited the office, acting as advisers and regents. One of his descendants, Charles Martel (d. 741), won
7611-598: The 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire —came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate , an Islamic empire, after conquest by Muhammad's successors . Although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire, Rome's direct continuation, survived in
7788-484: The Arabs. The migrations and invasions of the 4th and 5th centuries disrupted trade networks around the Mediterranean. African goods stopped being imported into Europe, first disappearing from the interior and by the 7th century found only in a few cities such as Rome or Naples . By the end of the 7th century, under the impact of the Muslim conquests , African products were no longer found in Western Europe. The replacement of goods from long-range trade with local products
7965-425: The Bald received the western Frankish lands, comprising most of modern-day France. Charlemagne's grandsons and great-grandsons divided their kingdoms between their descendants, eventually causing all internal cohesion to be lost. In 987 the Carolingian dynasty was replaced in the western lands, with the crowning of Hugh Capet (r. 987–996) as king. In the eastern lands the dynasty had died out earlier, in 911, with
8142-417: The Balkan Peninsula. The settlement of peoples was accompanied by changes in languages. Latin , the literary language of the Western Roman Empire, was gradually replaced by vernacular languages which evolved from Latin, but were distinct from it, collectively known as Romance languages . These changes from Latin to the new languages took many centuries. Greek remained the language of the Byzantine Empire, but
8319-474: The Battle of Poitiers in 732, halting the advance of Muslim armies across the Pyrenees. Great Britain was divided into small states dominated by the kingdoms of Northumbria , Mercia , Wessex , and East Anglia which descended from the Anglo-Saxon invaders. Smaller kingdoms in present-day Wales and Scotland were still under the control of the native Britons and Picts . Ireland was divided into even smaller political units, usually known as tribal kingdoms, under
8496-459: The Byzantine Empire, as the assumption of the imperial title by the Carolingians asserted their equivalence to the Byzantine state. There were several differences between the newly established Carolingian Empire and both the older Western Roman Empire and the concurrent Byzantine Empire. The Frankish lands were rural in character, with only a few small cities. Most of the people were peasants settled on small farms. Little trade existed and much of that
8673-467: The Byzantine Empire, which he sealed with the marriage of his son Otto II (r. 967–983) to Theophanu (d. 991), daughter of an earlier Byzantine Emperor Romanos II (r. 959–963). By the late 10th century Italy had been drawn into the Ottonian sphere after a period of instability; Otto III (r. 996–1002) spent much of his later reign in the kingdom. The western Frankish kingdom was more fragmented, and although kings remained nominally in charge, much of
8850-462: The Christian period as nova (or "new"). Petrarch regarded the post-Roman centuries as " dark " compared to the "light" of classical antiquity . Leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People (1442), with a middle period "between the fall of the Roman Empire and the revival of city life sometime in late eleventh and twelfth centuries". Tripartite periodisation became standard after
9027-422: The Church had widened to the extent that the cultural and religious differences were greater than the similarities. The formal break, known as the East–West Schism , came in 1054, when the papacy and the patriarchy of Constantinople clashed over papal supremacy and excommunicated each other, which led to the division of Christianity into two Churches—the Western branch became the Roman Catholic Church and
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#17327809247989204-499: The Church had become music and art rather than the book. Most intellectual efforts went towards imitating classical scholarship, but some original works were created, along with now-lost oral compositions. The writings of Sidonius Apollinaris (d. 489), Cassiodorus (d. c. 585 ), and Boethius (d. c. 525) were typical of the age. Changes also took place among laymen, as aristocratic culture focused on great feasts held in halls rather than on literary pursuits. Clothing for
9381-412: The Crusader states in the Levant By the end of the 11th century, the period of Islamic Arab territorial expansion had been over for centuries. The Holy Land's remoteness from focus of Islamic power struggles enabled relative peace and prosperity in Syria and Palestine. Muslim-Western European contact was only more than minimal in the conflict in the Iberian Peninsula . The Byzantine Empire and
9558-401: The Crusaders retreated before the arrival of a relief army led by Nūr-ad-Din. Morale fell, hostility to the Byzantines grew and distrust developed between the newly arrived Crusaders and those that had made the region their home after the earlier crusades. The French and German forces felt betrayed by the other, lingering for a generation due to the defeat, to the ruin of the Christian kingdoms in
9735-448: The Dnieper River in modern Ukraine to the Adriatic Sea. By 1018, the last Bulgarian nobles had surrendered to the Byzantine Empire. Few large stone buildings were constructed between the Constantinian basilicas of the 4th century and the 8th century, although many smaller ones were built during the 6th and 7th centuries. By the beginning of the 8th century, the Carolingian Empire revived the basilica form of architecture. One feature of
9912-534: The Early Middle Ages are mostly illuminated manuscripts and carved ivories , originally made for metalwork that has since been melted down. Objects in precious metals were the most prestigious form of art, but almost all are lost except for a few crosses such as the Cross of Lothair , several reliquaries , and finds such as the Anglo-Saxon burial at Sutton Hoo and the hoards of Gourdon from Merovingian France, Guarrazar from Visigothic Spain and Nagyszentmiklós near Byzantine territory. There are survivals from
10089-411: The Eastern Mediterranean and remained a major power. The empire's law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or "Code of Justinian", was rediscovered in Northern Italy in the 11th century. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions. Monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks , under the Carolingian dynasty , briefly established
10266-455: The Eastern branch the Eastern Orthodox Church . The ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Empire survived the movements and invasions in the west mostly intact, but the papacy was little regarded, and few of the Western bishops looked to the bishop of Rome for religious or political leadership. Many of the popes prior to 750 were more concerned with Byzantine affairs and Eastern theological controversies. The register, or archived copies of
10443-427: The Eastern emperors to pay tribute. They remained a strong power until 796. An additional problem to face the empire came as a result of the involvement of Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602) in Persian politics when he intervened in a succession dispute . This led to a period of peace, but when Maurice was overthrown, the Persians invaded and during the reign of Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) controlled large chunks of
10620-436: The European population remained rural peasants. Many were no longer settled in isolated farms but had gathered into small communities, usually known as manors or villages. These peasants were often subject to noble overlords and owed them rents and other services, in a system known as manorialism . There remained a few free peasants throughout this period and beyond, with more of them in the regions of Southern Europe than in
10797-402: The Fatimids had recaptured Jerusalem. The Franks offered to partition conquered territory in return for the city. Refusal of the offer made it imperative that the crusade reach Jerusalem before the Fatimids made it defensible. The first attack on the city, launched on 7 June 1099, failed, and the siege of Jerusalem became a stalemate, before the arrival of craftsmen and supplies transported by
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#173278092479810974-441: The Frankish King Charles the Simple (r. 898–922) to settle in what became Normandy . The eastern parts of the Frankish kingdoms, especially Germany and Italy, were under continual Magyar assault until the invader's defeat at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955. The breakup of the Abbasid dynasty meant that the Islamic world fragmented into smaller political states, some of which began expanding into Italy and Sicily, as well as over
11151-434: The Frankish army was defeated by the Seljuk rulers of Mosul and Mardin at the battle of Harran . Baldwin II and his cousin, Joscelin of Courtenay , were captured. Bohemond and Tancred retreated to Edessa where Tancred assumed command. Bohemond returned to Italy, taking with him much of Antioch's wealth and manpower. Tancred revitalised the beleaguered principality with victory at the battle of Artah on 20 April 1105 over
11328-455: The Frankish position by defeating an Egyptian force at the Battle of Ascalon on 12 August. Most of the crusaders considered their pilgrimage complete and returned to Europe. When it came to the future governance of the city it was Godfrey who took leadership and the title of Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri , Defender of the Holy Sepulchre. The presence of troops from Lorraine ended the possibility that Jerusalem would be an ecclesiastical domain and
11505-466: The Franks and Celtic Britons set up small polities. Francia was centred in northern Gaul, and the first king of whom much is known is Childeric I (d. 481). His grave was discovered in 1653 and is remarkable for its grave goods , which included weapons and a large quantity of gold. Under Childeric's son Clovis I (r. 509–511), the founder of the Merovingian dynasty , the Frankish kingdom expanded and converted to Christianity. The Britons, related to
11682-439: The Franks. The dismal failures of this Crusade then set the stage for the fall of Jerusalem, leading to the Third Crusade. In the first major encounter after the Second Crusade, Nūr-ad-Din's forces then destroyed the Crusader army at the Battle of Inab on 29 June 1149. Raymond of Poitiers , as prince of Antioch, came to the aid of the besieged city. Raymond was killed and his head was presented to Nūr-ad-Din, who forwarded it to
11859-425: The German tried to annex all of East Francia. Louis the Pious died in 840, with the empire still in chaos. A three-year civil war followed his death. By the Treaty of Verdun (843), a kingdom between the Rhine and Rhone rivers was created for Lothair to go with his lands in Italy, and his imperial title was recognised. Louis the German was in control of Bavaria and the eastern lands in modern-day Germany. Charles
12036-431: The Great (d. 526) and set up a kingdom marked by its co-operation between the Italians and the Ostrogoths, at least until the last years of Theodoric's reign. The Burgundians settled in Gaul, and after an earlier realm was destroyed by the Huns in 436, formed a new kingdom in the 440s. Between today's Geneva and Lyon , it grew to become the realm of Burgundy in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. Elsewhere in Gaul,
12213-438: The High Middle Ages. This period also saw the collapse of the unified Christian church, with the East-West Schism of 1054 . The Crusades , first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims . Kings became the heads of centralised nation-states , reducing crime and violence but making the ideal of a unified Christendom more distant. Intellectual life
12390-437: The Holy Land while the pagan Wends were a more immediate problem. The resulting Wendish Crusade of 1147 was partially successful but failed to convert the pagans to Christianity. The disastrous performance of this campaign in the Holy Land damaged the standing of the papacy, soured relations between the Christians of the kingdom and the West for many years, and encouraged the Muslims of Syria to even greater efforts to defeat
12567-428: The Holy Land. In the spring of 1147, Eugene III authorised the expansion of his mission into the Iberian Peninsula, equating these campaigns against the Moors with the rest of the Second Crusade. The successful Siege of Lisbon , from 1 July to 25 October 1147, was followed by the six-month siege of Tortosa , ending on 30 December 1148 with a defeat for the Moors. In the north, some Germans were reluctant to fight in
12744-550: The Islamic world were long standing centres of wealth, culture and military power. The Arab-Islamic world tended to view Western Europe as a backwater that presented little organised threat. By 1025, the Byzantine Emperor Basil II had extended territorial recovery to its furthest extent. The frontiers stretched east to Iran. Bulgaria and much of southern Italy were under control, and piracy was suppressed in
12921-583: The Italian peninsula was conquered by the Ostrogoths . The Eastern Roman Empire, often referred to as the Byzantine Empire after the fall of its western counterpart, had little ability to assert control over the lost western territories. The Byzantine emperors maintained a claim over the territory, but while none of the new kings in the west dared to elevate himself to the position of emperor of
13098-748: The Late Middle Ages and beginning the early modern period . The Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history : classical civilisation or Antiquity , the Middle Ages and the Modern Period . The "Middle Ages" first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or "middle season". In early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum , or "middle age", first recorded in 1604, and media saecula , or "middle centuries", first recorded in 1625. The adjective "medieval" (or sometimes "mediaeval" or "mediæval"), meaning pertaining to
13275-468: The Latin Church with varying objectives, mostly religious, sometimes political. These differed from previous Christian religious wars in that they were considered a penitential exercise, and so earned participants remittance from penalties for all confessed sins. What constituted a crusade has been understood in diverse ways, particularly regarding the early Crusades, and the precise definition remains
13452-614: The Lombards, which freed the papacy from the fear of Lombard conquest and marked the beginnings of the Papal States . The coronation of Charlemagne as emperor on Christmas Day 800 is regarded as a turning point in medieval history, marking a return of the Western Roman Empire, since the new emperor ruled over much of the area previously controlled by the Western emperors. It also marks a change in Charlemagne's relationship with
13629-745: The Mediterranean Sea. The empire's relationships with its Islamic neighbours were no more quarrelsome than its relationships with the Slavs or the Western Christians. The Normans in Italy; to the north Pechenegs , Serbs and Cumans ; and Seljuk Turks in the east all competed with the Empire and the emperors recruited mercenaries—even on occasions from their enemies—to meet this challenge. The political situation in Western Asia
13806-468: The Mediterranean, pottery remained prevalent and appears to have been traded over medium-range networks, not just produced locally. The various Germanic states in the west all had coinages that imitated existing Roman and Byzantine forms. Gold continued to be minted until the end of the 7th century in 693-94 when it was replaced by silver in the Merovingian kingdom. The basic Frankish silver coin
13983-411: The Middle Ages, derives from medium aevum . Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the " Six Ages " or the " Four Empires ", and considered their time to be the last before the end of the world. When referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being "modern". In the 1330s, the Italian humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua (or "ancient") and to
14160-840: The Middle East than Europe, losing control of sections of the Muslim lands. Umayyad descendants took over the Iberian Peninsula, the Aghlabids controlled North Africa, and the Tulunids became rulers of Egypt. By the middle of the 8th century, new trading patterns were emerging in the Mediterranean; trade between the Franks and the Arabs replaced the old Roman economy . Franks traded timber, furs, swords and slaves in return for silks and other fabrics, spices, and precious metals from
14337-416: The Middle East. The Seljuk hold on the city was weak and returning pilgrims reported difficulties and the oppression of Christians. Byzantine desire for military aid converged with increasing willingness of the western nobility to accept papal military direction. In 1095, Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested military aid from Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza . He was probably expecting
14514-712: The Muslim world mistook the crusaders for the latest in a long line of Byzantine mercenaries, not religiously motivated warriors intent on conquest and settlement. The Muslim world was divided between the Sunnis of Syria and Iraq and the Shi'ite Fatimids of Egypt. The Turks had found unity unachievable since the death of Sultan Malik-Shah in 1092, with rival rulers in Damascus and Aleppo . In addition, in Baghdad, Seljuk sultan Barkiyaruq and Abbasid caliph al-Mustazhir were engaged in
14691-830: The Pyrenees into the southern parts of the Frankish kingdoms. Efforts by local kings to fight the invaders led to the formation of new political entities. In Anglo-Saxon England , King Alfred the Great (r. 871–899) came to an agreement with the Viking invaders in the late 9th century, resulting in Danish settlements in Northumbria, Mercia, and parts of East Anglia. By the middle of the 10th century, Alfred's successors had conquered Northumbria, and restored English control over most of
14868-676: The Rhine and eastwards, leaving Charles West Francia with the empire to the west of the Rhineland and the Alps. Louis the German (d. 876), the middle child, who had been rebellious to the last, was allowed to keep Bavaria under the suzerainty of his elder brother. The division was disputed. Pepin II of Aquitaine (d. after 864), the emperor's grandson, rebelled in a contest for Aquitaine , while Louis
15045-628: The Roman Empire into a more flexible form to fit the needs of the Church and government. By the reign of Charlemagne, the language had so diverged from the classical Latin that it was later called Medieval Latin . Charlemagne planned to continue the Frankish tradition of dividing his kingdom between all his heirs, but was unable to do so as only one son, Louis the Pious (r. 814–840), was still alive by 813. Just before Charlemagne died in 814, he crowned Louis as his successor. Louis's reign of 26 years
15222-496: The Romans and the invaders are often similar, and tribal items were often modelled on Roman objects. Much of the scholarly and written culture of the new kingdoms was also based on Roman intellectual traditions. An important difference was the gradual loss of tax revenue by the new polities. Many of the new political entities no longer supported their armies through taxes, instead relying on granting them land or rents. This meant there
15399-591: The Seljuk army in 1115 against an alliance of the Franks, Toghtekin, his son-in-law Ilghazi and the Muslims of Aleppo. Bursuq feigned retreat and the coalition disbanded. Only the forces of Roger and Baldwin of Edessa remained, but, heavily outnumbered, they were victorious on 14 September at the first battle of Tell Danith . In April 1118, Baldwin I died of illness while raiding in Egypt. His cousin, Baldwin of Edessa,
15576-636: The Vandals went on to cross the strait of Gibraltar after which they conquered the province of Africa . In the 430s the Huns began invading the empire; their king Attila (r. 434–453) led invasions into the Balkans in 442 and 447, Gaul in 451, and Italy in 452. The Hunnic threat remained until Attila's death in 453, when the Hunnic confederation he led fell apart. These invasions by the tribes completely changed
15753-455: The West were not uniform; some areas had greatly fragmented landholding patterns, but in other areas large contiguous blocks of land were the norm. These differences allowed for a wide variety of peasant societies, some dominated by aristocratic landholders and others having a great deal of autonomy. Land settlement also varied greatly. Some peasants lived in large settlements that numbered as many as 700 inhabitants. Others lived in small groups of
15930-567: The acceptance of figurative monumental sculpture in Christian art , and by the end of the period near life-sized figures such as the Gero Cross were common in important churches. During the later Roman Empire, the principal military developments were attempts to create an effective cavalry force as well as the continued development of highly specialised types of troops. The creation of heavily armoured cataphract -type soldiers as cavalry
16107-452: The assistance of the crusaders after the deserting Stephen of Blois told them the cause was lost. Alexius retreated from Philomelium , where he received Stephen's report, to Constantinople. The Greeks were never truly forgiven for this perceived betrayal and Stephen was branded a coward. Losing numbers through desertion and starvation in the besieged city, the crusaders attempted to negotiate surrender but were rejected. Bohemond recognised that
16284-417: The basilica is the use of a transept , or the "arms" of a cross-shaped building that are perpendicular to the long nave . Other new features of religious architecture include the crossing tower and a monumental entrance to the church , usually at the west end of the building. Carolingian art was produced for a small group of figures around the court, and the monasteries and churches they supported. It
16461-634: The caliph al-Muqtafi in Baghdad. In 1150, Nūr-ad-Din defeated Joscelin II of Edessa for a final time, resulting in Joscelin being publicly blinded, dying in prison in Aleppo in 1159. Later that year, at the Battle of Aintab , he tried but failed to prevent Baldwin III's evacuation of the residents of Turbessel . The unconquered portions of the County of Edessa would nevertheless fall to the Zengids within
16638-647: The citadel. After a brief counter-siege, Nūr-ad-Din took the city. The men were massacred, with the women and children enslaved, and the walls razed. The fall of Edessa caused great consternation in Jerusalem and Western Europe, tempering the enthusiastic success of the First Crusade. Calls for a new crusade – the Second Crusade – were immediate, and was the first to be led by European kings. Concurrent campaigns as part of
16815-407: The city of Byzantium as the newly renamed eastern capital, Constantinople . Diocletian's reforms strengthened the governmental bureaucracy, reformed taxation, and strengthened the army, which bought the empire time but did not resolve the problems it was facing: excessive taxation, a declining birthrate, and pressures on its frontiers, among others. Civil war between rival emperors became common in
16992-560: The city, killing all those who were unable to flee. All the Frankish prisoners were executed, but the native Christians were allowed to live. The Crusaders were dealt their first major defeat. Zengi was assassinated by a slave on 14 September 1146 and was succeeded in the Zengid dynasty by his son Nūr-ad-Din . The Franks recaptured the city during the Second Siege of Edessa of 1146 by stealth but could not take or even properly besiege
17169-439: The claims of Raymond. Godfrey was left with a mere 300 knights and 2,000 infantry. Tancred also remained with the ambition to gain a princedom of his own. The Islamic world seems to have barely registered the crusade; certainly, there is limited written evidence before 1130. This may be in part due to a reluctance to relate Muslim failure, but it is more likely to be the result of cultural misunderstanding. Al-Afdal Shahanshah and
17346-599: The conquest of North Africa sundered maritime connections between those areas. Increasingly, the Byzantine Church differed in language, practices, and liturgy from the Western Church. The Eastern Church used Greek instead of the Western Latin. Theological and political differences emerged, and by the early and middle 8th century issues such as iconoclasm , clerical marriage , and state control of
17523-684: The construction of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and the reconquest of North Africa from the Vandals and Italy from the Ostrogoths, under Belisarius (d. 565). The conquest of Italy was not complete, as a deadly outbreak of plague in 542 led to the rest of Justinian's reign concentrating on defensive measures rather than further conquests. At the Emperor's death, the Byzantines had control of most of Italy , North Africa, and
17700-502: The control of kings. There were perhaps as many as 150 local kings in Ireland, of varying importance. The Carolingian dynasty , as the successors to Charles Martel are known, officially took control of the kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria in a coup of 753 led by Pippin III (r. 752–768). A contemporary chronicle claims that Pippin sought, and gained, authority for this coup from Pope Stephen II (pope 752–757). Pippin's takeover
17877-638: The conversion of the Moravians , Bulgars , Bohemians , Poles , Magyars, and Slavic inhabitants of the Kievan Rus' . These conversions contributed to the founding of political states in the lands of those peoples—the states of Moravia , Bulgaria , Bohemia , Poland , Hungary, and the Kievan Rus'. Bulgaria, which was founded around 680, at its height reached from Budapest to the Black Sea and from
18054-453: The crusade without a spiritual leader. Raymond failed to capture Arqa and in May led the remaining army south along the coast. Bohemond retained Antioch and remained, despite his pledge to return it to the Byzantines. Local rulers offered little resistance, opting for peace in return for provisions. The Frankish envoys returned accompanied by Fatimid representatives. This brought the information that
18231-485: The crusaders proved to the Muslim world that the crusaders were not invincible, as they appeared to be during the First Crusade. Within months of the defeat, the Franks and Fatimid Egypt began fighting in three battles at Ramla, and one at Jaffa : Baldwin of Edessa , later king of Jerusalem as Baldwin II, and Patriarch Bernard of Valence ransomed Bohemond for 100,000 gold pieces. Baldwin and Bohemond then jointly campaigned to secure Edessa's southern front. On 7 May 1104,
18408-769: The death of Louis the Child , and the selection of the unrelated Conrad I (r. 911–918) as king. The breakup of the Carolingian Empire was accompanied by invasions, migrations, and raids by external foes. The Atlantic and northern shores were harassed by the Vikings , who also raided the British Isles and settled there as well as in Iceland. In 911, the Viking chieftain Rollo (d. c. 931) received permission from
18585-401: The death of Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1504, or the conquest of Granada in 1492. Historians from Romance-speaking countries tend to divide the Middle Ages into two parts: an earlier "High" and later "Low" period. English-speaking historians, following their German counterparts, generally subdivide the Middle Ages into three intervals: "Early", "High", and "Late". In the 19th century,
18762-578: The disorder, was killed fighting the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople on 9 August 378. In addition to the threat from such tribal confederacies in the north, internal divisions within the empire, especially within the Christian Church, caused problems. In 400, the Visigoths invaded the Western Roman Empire and, although briefly forced back from Italy, in 410 sacked the city of Rome . In 406
18939-561: The early 12th century. This led to the French term croisade —the way of the cross. By the mid 13th century the cross became the major descriptor of the crusades with crux transmarina —"the cross overseas"—used for crusades in the eastern Mediterranean, and crux cismarina —"the cross this side of the sea"—for those in Europe. The use of croiserie , "crusade" in Middle English can be dated to c. 1300 , but
19116-502: The early Carolingian period, with a growing dominance of elite heavy cavalry. The use of militia-type levies of the free population declined over the Carolingian period. Although much of the Carolingian armies were mounted, a large proportion during the early period appear to have been mounted infantry , rather than true cavalry. One exception was Anglo-Saxon England, where the armies were still composed of regional levies, known as
19293-531: The elites was richly embellished with jewels and gold. Lords and kings supported entourages of fighters who formed the backbone of the military forces. Family ties within the elites were important, as were the virtues of loyalty, courage, and honour. These ties led to the prevalence of the feud in aristocratic society, examples of which included those related by Gregory of Tours that took place in Merovingian Gaul. Most feuds seem to have ended quickly with
19470-591: The emergence of Islam in Arabia during the lifetime of Muhammad (d. 632). After his death, Islamic forces conquered much of the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia, starting with Syria in 634–635, continuing with Persia between 637 and 642, reaching Egypt in 640–641, North Africa in the later seventh century, and the Iberian Peninsula in 711. By 714, Islamic forces controlled much of
19647-590: The emperor's hand convinced the Germans to move quickly to Asia Minor. Without waiting for the French contingent, Conrad III engaged the Seljuks of Rûm under sultan Mesud I , son and successor of Kilij Arslan , the nemesis of the First Crusade. Mesud and his forces almost totally destroyed Conrad's contingent at the Second Battle of Dorylaeum on 25 October 1147. The French contingent departed in June 1147. In
19824-566: The emperor. Alexios persuaded many of the princes to pledge allegiance to him and that their first objective should be Nicaea, the capital of the Sultanate of Rum . Sultan Kilij Arslan left the city to resolve a territorial dispute, enabling its capture after the siege of Nicaea and a Byzantine naval assault in the high point of Latin and Greek co-operation. The first experience of Turkish tactics, using lightly armoured mounted archers, occurred when an advanced party led by Bohemond and Robert
20001-403: The empire than tax-payers. The Emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305) split the empire into separately administered eastern and western halves in 286; the empire was not considered divided by its inhabitants or rulers, as legal and administrative promulgations in one division were considered valid in the other. In 330, after a period of civil war, Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) refounded
20178-573: The empire to Christianity , a gradual process that lasted from the 2nd to the 5th centuries. In 376, the Goths , fleeing from the Huns , received permission from Emperor Valens (r. 364–378) to settle in the Roman province of Thracia in the Balkans . The settlement did not go smoothly, and when Roman officials mishandled the situation, the Goths began to raid and plunder. Valens, attempting to put down
20355-447: The empire, including Egypt, Syria, and Anatolia until Heraclius' successful counterattack. In 628 the empire secured a peace treaty and recovered all of its lost territories. In Western Europe, some of the older Roman elite families died out while others became more involved with ecclesiastical than secular affairs. Values attached to Latin scholarship and education mostly disappeared, and while literacy remained important, it became
20532-486: The empire. Such movements were aided by the refusal of the Western Roman elites to support the army or pay the taxes that would have allowed the military to suppress the migration. The emperors of the 5th century were often controlled by military strongmen such as Stilicho (d. 408), Aetius (d. 454), Aspar (d. 471), Ricimer (d. 472), or Gundobad (d. 516), who were partly or fully of non-Roman background. When
20709-454: The entire Middle Ages were often referred to as the " Dark Ages ", but with the adoption of these subdivisions, use of this term was restricted to the Early Middle Ages, at least among historians. The Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent during the 2nd century AD; the following two centuries witnessed the slow decline of Roman control over its outlying territories. Economic issues, including inflation, and external pressure on
20886-519: The feet of Bernard in order to take the cross. Conrad and his nephew Frederick Barbarossa also received the cross from the hand of Bernard. Conrad III and the German contingent planned to leave for the Holy Land at Easter, but did not depart until May 1147. When the German army began to cross Byzantine territory, emperor Manuel I had his troops posted to ensure against trouble. A brief Battle of Constantinople in September ensued, and their defeat at
21063-459: The field to oppose him, he captured several important Syrian towns. He defeated Fulk at the battle of Ba'rin of 1137, seizing Ba'rin Castle . In 1137, Zengi invaded Tripoli , killing the count Pons of Tripoli . Fulk intervened, but Zengi's troops captured Pons' successor Raymond II of Tripoli , and besieged Fulk in the border castle of Montferrand . Fulk surrendered the castle and paid Zengi
21240-635: The frontiers combined to create the Crisis of the Third Century , with emperors coming to the throne only to be rapidly replaced by new usurpers. Military expenses increased steadily during the 3rd century, mainly in response to the war with the Sasanian Empire , which revived in the middle of the 3rd century. The army doubled in size, and cavalry and smaller units replaced the Roman legion as
21417-399: The imperial officials called missi dominici , who served as roving inspectors and troubleshooters. Charlemagne's court in Aachen was the centre of the cultural revival sometimes referred to as the " Carolingian Renaissance ". Literacy increased, as did development in the arts, architecture and jurisprudence, as well as liturgical and scriptural studies. The English monk Alcuin (d. 804)
21594-431: The inconclusive battle of Shaizar between the Franks and an Abbasid army led by the governor of Mosul, Mawdud . Tancred died in 1112 and power passed to his nephew Roger of Salerno . In May 1113, Mawdud invaded Galilee with Toghtekin , atabeg of Damascus . On 28 June this force surprised Baldwin, chasing the Franks from the field at the battle of al-Sannabra . Mawdud was killed by Assassins . Bursuq ibn Bursuq led
21771-415: The king of the united Austrasia and Neustria. Charles, more often known as Charles the Great or Charlemagne , embarked upon a programme of systematic expansion in 774 that unified a large portion of Europe, eventually controlling modern-day France, northern Italy, and Saxony . In the wars that lasted beyond 800, he rewarded allies with war booty and command over parcels of land. In 774, Charlemagne conquered
21948-500: The large brooches in fibula or penannular form that were a key piece of personal adornment for elites, including the Irish Tara Brooch . Highly decorated books were mostly Gospel Books and these have survived in larger numbers , including the Insular Book of Kells , the Book of Lindisfarne , and the imperial Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram , which is one of the few to retain its " treasure binding " of gold encrusted with jewels. Charlemagne's court seems to have been responsible for
22125-414: The late 15th centuries, similarly to the Post-classical period of global history . It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery . The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity , the medieval period, and the modern period . The medieval period is itself subdivided into
22302-415: The letters, of Pope Gregory the Great (pope 590–604) survived, and of those more than 850 letters, the vast majority were concerned with affairs in Italy or Constantinople. The only part of Western Europe where the papacy had influence was Britain, where Gregory had sent the Gregorian mission in 597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Irish missionaries were most active in Western Europe between
22479-417: The line of Western emperors ceased, many of the kings who replaced them were from the same background. Intermarriage between the new kings and the Roman elites was common. This led to a fusion of Roman culture with the customs of the invading tribes, including the popular assemblies that allowed free male tribal members more say in political matters than was common in the Roman state. Material artefacts left by
22656-517: The main and sometimes only outposts of education and literacy in a region. Many of the surviving manuscripts of the Latin classics were copied in monasteries in the Early Middle Ages. Monks were also the authors of new works, including history, theology, and other subjects, written by authors such as Bede (d. 735), a native of northern England who wrote in the late 7th and early 8th centuries. The Frankish kingdom in northern Gaul split into kingdoms called Austrasia , Neustria , and Burgundy during
22833-410: The main tactical unit. The need for revenue led to increased taxes and a decline in numbers of the curial , or landowning, class, and decreasing numbers of them willing to shoulder the burdens of holding office in their native towns. More bureaucrats were needed in the central administration to deal with the needs of the army, which led to complaints from civilians that there were more tax-collectors in
23010-479: The meantime, Roger II of Sicily , an enemy of Conrad's, had invaded Byzantine territory. Manuel I needed all his army to counter this force, and, unlike the armies of the First Crusade, the Germans and French entered Asia with no Byzantine assistance. The French met the remnants of Conrad's army in northern Turkey, and Conrad joined Louis's force. They fended off a Seljuk attack at the Battle of Ephesus on 24 December 1147. A few days later, they were again victorious at
23187-401: The middle of the 4th century, diverting soldiers from the empire's frontier forces and allowing invaders to encroach. For much of the 4th century, Roman society stabilised in a new form that differed from the earlier classical period , with a widening gulf between the rich and poor, and a decline in the vitality of the smaller towns. Another change was the Christianisation , or conversion of
23364-436: The migrations of the Slavs added Slavic languages to Eastern Europe. As Western Europe witnessed the formation of new kingdoms, the Eastern Roman Empire remained intact and experienced an economic revival that lasted into the early 7th century. There were fewer invasions of the eastern section of the empire; most occurred in the Balkans. Peace with the Sasanian Empire , the traditional enemy of Rome, lasted throughout most of
23541-464: The military was the horseshoe , which allowed horses to be used in rocky terrain. The High Middle Ages was a period of tremendous expansion of population . The estimated population of Europe grew from 35 to 80 million between 1000 and 1347, although the exact causes remain unclear: improved agricultural techniques, the decline of slaveholding, a more clement climate and the lack of invasion have all been suggested. As much as 90 per cent of
23718-431: The modern English "crusade" dates to the early 1700s. The Crusader states of Syria and Palestine were known as the " Outremer " from the French outre-mer , or "the land beyond the sea". Period post-First Crusade Second Crusade Period post-Second Crusade Third Crusade Period post-Third Crusade Fourth Crusade Fifth Crusade Sixth Crusade and aftermath Seventh Crusade End of
23895-429: The natives of Britannia – modern-day Great Britain – settled in what is now Brittany . Other monarchies were established by the Visigothic Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula , the Suebi in northwestern Iberia, and the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa . In the sixth century, the Lombards settled in Northern Italy , replacing the Ostrogothic kingdom with a grouping of duchies that occasionally selected
24072-413: The north. The practice of assarting , or bringing new lands into production by offering incentives to the peasants who settled them, also contributed to the expansion of population. Crusades In the Holy Land (1095–1291) Later Crusades (1291–1717) Northern (1147–1410) Against Christians (1209–1588) Popular (1096–1320) The Crusades were
24249-400: The only option was open combat and launched a counterattack. Despite superior numbers, Kerbogha's army—which was divided into factions and surprised by the Crusaders' commitment—retreated and abandoned the siege. Raymond besieged Arqa in February 1099 and sent an embassy to al-Afdal Shahanshah , the vizier of Fatimid Egypt , seeking a treaty. The Pope's representative Adhemar died, leaving
24426-478: The payment of some sort of compensation . Women took part in aristocratic society mainly in their roles as wives and mothers of men, with the role of mother of a ruler being especially prominent in Merovingian Gaul. In Anglo-Saxon society the lack of many child rulers meant a lesser role for women as queen mothers, but this was compensated for by the increased role played by abbesses of monasteries. Only in Italy does it appear that women were always considered under
24603-467: The peninsula in a region they called Al-Andalus . The Islamic conquests reached their peak in the mid-eighth century. The defeat of Muslim forces at the Battle of Tours in 732 led to the reconquest of southern France by the Franks, but the main reason for the halt of Islamic growth in Europe was the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate and its replacement by the Abbasid Caliphate . The Abbasids moved their capital to Baghdad and were more concerned with
24780-447: The people of Tell Bashir ransomed Joscelin and he negotiated Baldwin's release from Jawali Saqawa , atabeg of Mosul, in return for money, hostages and military support. Tancred and Baldwin, supported by their respective Muslim allies, entered violent conflict over the return of Edessa leaving 2,000 Franks dead before Bernard of Valence, patriarch of both Antioch and Edessa, adjudicated in Baldwin's favour. On 13 May 1110, Baldwin II and
24957-408: The political and demographic nature of what had been the Western Roman Empire. By the end of the 5th century the western section of the empire was divided into smaller political units, ruled by the tribes that had invaded in the early part of the century. The deposition of the last emperor of the west, Romulus Augustulus , in 476 has traditionally marked the end of the Western Roman Empire. By 493
25134-532: The political power devolved to the local lords. Missionary efforts to Scandinavia during the 9th and 10th centuries helped strengthen the growth of kingdoms such as Sweden , Denmark , and Norway , which gained power and territory. Some kings converted to Christianity, although not all by 1000. Scandinavians also expanded and colonised throughout Europe. Besides the settlements in Ireland, England, and Normandy, further settlement took place in what became Russia and Iceland . Swedish traders and raiders ranged down
25311-419: The protection and control of a male relative. Peasant society is much less documented than the nobility. Most of the surviving information available to historians comes from archaeology ; few detailed written records documenting peasant life remain from before the 9th century. Most of the descriptions of the lower classes come from either law codes or writers from the upper classes. Landholding patterns in
25488-412: The resources to fully invest the city; the residents lacked the means to repel the invaders. Then Bohemond persuaded a guard in the city to open a gate. The crusaders entered, massacring the Muslim inhabitants and many Christians amongst the Greek Orthodox, Syrian and Armenian communities. A force to recapture the city was raised by Kerbogha , the effective ruler of Mosul . The Byzantines did not march to
25665-470: The rivers of the Russian steppe, and even attempted to seize Constantinople in 860 and 907 . Christian Spain, initially driven into a small section of the peninsula in the north, expanded slowly south during the 9th and 10th centuries, establishing the kingdoms of Asturias and León . In Eastern Europe, Byzantium revived its fortunes under Emperor Basil I (r. 867–886) and his successors Leo VI (r. 886–912) and Constantine VII (r. 913–959), members of
25842-418: The same time, the advent of Imad ad-Din Zengi saw the Crusaders threatened by a Muslim ruler who would introduce jihad to the conflict, joining the powerful Syrian emirates in a combined effort against the Franks. He became atabeg of Mosul in September 1127 and used this to expand his control to Aleppo in June 1128. In 1135, Zengi moved against Antioch and, when the Crusaders failed to put an army into
26019-435: The secular and ecclesiastical leaders of the Outremer gathered at the Council of Nablus . The council laid a foundation of a law code for the kingdom of Jerusalem that replaced common law. The council also heard the first direct appeals for support made to the Papacy and Republic of Venice . They responded with the Venetian Crusade , sending a large fleet that supported the capture of Tyre in 1124. In April 1123, Baldwin II
26196-449: The slow infiltration of the Balkans by the Slavs added a further difficulty for Justinian's successors. It began gradually, but by the late 540s Slavic tribes were in Thrace and Illyrium , and had defeated an imperial army near Adrianople in 551. In the 560s the Avars began to expand from their base on the north bank of the Danube ; by the end of the 6th-century, they were the dominant power in Central Europe and routinely able to force
26373-430: The southern part of Great Britain. In northern Britain, Kenneth MacAlpin (d. c. 860) united the Picts and the Scots into the Kingdom of Alba . In the early 10th century, the Ottonian dynasty had established itself in Germany , and was engaged in driving back the Magyars. Its efforts culminated in the coronation in 962 of Otto I (r. 936–973) as Holy Roman Emperor . In 972, he secured recognition of his title by
26550-413: The strongest kings of Europe and a route that would be pre-planned. The pope called on Bernard of Clairvaux to preach the Second Crusade, granting the same indulgences which had accorded to the First Crusaders. Among those answering the call were two European kings, Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany . Louis, his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine , and many princes and lords prostrated themselves at
26727-438: The town of Banias during the Crusade of 1129 . Defeat at Damascus and Marj al-Saffar ended the campaign and Frankish influence on Damascus for years. The Levantine Franks sought alliances with the Latin West through the marriage of heiresses to wealthy martial aristocrats. Constance of Antioch was married to Raymond of Poitiers , son of William IX, Duke of Aquitaine . Baldwin II's eldest daughter Melisende of Jerusalem
26904-447: The towns chosen as capitals. Although there had been Jewish communities in many Roman cities , the Jews suffered periods of persecution after the conversion of the empire to Christianity. Officially they were tolerated, if subject to conversion efforts, and at times were even encouraged to settle in new areas. Religious beliefs in the Eastern Roman Empire and Iran were in flux during the late sixth and early seventh centuries. Judaism
27081-514: The west, Byzantine control of most of the Western Empire could not be sustained; the reconquest of the Mediterranean periphery and the Italian Peninsula ( Gothic War ) in the reign of Justinian (r. 527–565) was the sole, and temporary, exception. The political structure of Western Europe changed with the end of the united Roman Empire. Although the movements of peoples during this period are usually described as "invasions", they were not just military expeditions but migrations of entire peoples into
27258-413: The year left Joscelin II of Edessa with no powerful allies to help defend Edessa. Zengi came north to begin the first siege of Edessa , arriving on 28 November 1144. The city had been warned of his arrival and was prepared for a siege, but there was little they could do. Zengi realised there was no defending force and surrounded the city. The walls collapsed on 24 December 1144. Zengi's troops rushed into
27435-438: Was a trend throughout the old Roman lands that happened in the Early Middle Ages. This was especially marked in the lands that did not lie on the Mediterranean, such as northern Gaul or Britain. Non-local goods appearing in the archaeological record are usually luxury goods. In the northern parts of Europe, not only were the trade networks local, but the goods carried were simple, with little pottery or other complex products. Around
27612-415: Was ambushed and captured by Belek Ghazi while campaigning north of Edessa, along with Joscelin I, Count of Edessa . He was released in August 1024 in return for 80,000 gold pieces and the city of Azaz . In 1129, the Council of Troyes approved the rule of the Knights Templar for Hugues de Payens . He returned to the East with a major force including Fulk V of Anjou . This allowed the Franks to capture
27789-494: Was ambushed at the battle of Dorylaeum . The Normans resisted for hours before the arrival of the main army caused a Turkish withdrawal. The army marched for three months to the former Byzantine city Antioch , that had been in Muslim control since 1084. Starvation, thirst and disease reduced numbers, combined with Baldwin's decision to leave with 100 knights and their followers to carve out his own territory in Edessa . The siege of Antioch lasted eight months. The crusaders lacked
27966-402: Was an active proselytising faith, and at least one Arab political leader converted to it. In addition Jewish theologians wrote polemics defending their religion against Christian and Islamic influences. Christianity had active missions competing with the Persians' Zoroastrianism in seeking converts, especially among residents of the Arabian Peninsula . All these strands came together with
28143-418: Was an enthusiastic response. Participants came from all over Europe and had a variety of motivations. These included religious salvation, satisfying feudal obligations, opportunities for renown, and economic or political advantage. Later expeditions were conducted by generally more organised armies, sometimes led by a king. All were granted papal indulgences . Initial successes established four Crusader states :
28320-438: Was an important feature of the 5th-century Roman military. The various invading tribes had differing emphases on types of soldiers—ranging from the primarily infantry Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain to the Vandals and Visigoths who had a high proportion of cavalry in their armies. During the early invasion period, the stirrup had not been introduced into warfare, which limited the usefulness of cavalry as shock troops because it
28497-401: Was an unexpected event for contemporary chroniclers, but historical analysis demonstrates it had its roots in earlier developments with both clerics and laity recognising Jerusalem's role in Christianity as worthy of penitential pilgrimage . In 1071, Jerusalem was captured by the Turkish warlord Atsiz , who seized most of Syria and Palestine as part of the expansion of the Seljuks throughout
28674-421: Was captured by the Danishmends . The Lorrainers foiled the attempt to seize power and enabled Godfrey's brother, Baldwin I , to take the crown. Paschal II promoted the large-scale Crusade of 1101 in support of the remaining Franks. This new crusade was a similar size to the First Crusade and joined in Byzantium by Raymond of Saint-Gilles . Command was fragmented and the force split in three: The defeat of
28851-446: Was changed by later waves of Turkic migration , in particular the arrival of the Seljuk Turks in the 10th century. Previously a minor ruling clan from Transoxania , they had recently converted to Islam and migrated into Iran. In two decades following their arrival they conquered Iran, Iraq and the Near East. The Seljuks and their followers were from the Sunni tradition. This brought them into conflict in Palestine and Syria with
29028-420: Was dominated by efforts to regain the dignity and classicism of imperial Roman and Byzantine art , but was also influenced by the Insular art of the British Isles. Insular art integrated the energy of Irish Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Germanic styles of ornament with Mediterranean forms such as the book, and established many characteristics of art for the rest of the medieval period. Surviving religious works from
29205-598: Was foremost, rivaled by the relatively poor but martial Italo-Norman Bohemond of Taranto and his nephew Tancred . Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin also joined with forces from Lorraine , Lotharingia , and Germany . These five princes were pivotal to the campaign, which was augmented by a northern French army led by Robert Curthose , Count Stephen II of Blois , and Count Robert II of Flanders . The total number may have reached as many as 100,000 people including non-combatants. They traveled eastward by land to Constantinople where they were cautiously welcomed by
29382-442: Was held on 24 June 1148, changing the objective of the Second Crusade to Damascus, a former ally of the kingdom that had shifted its allegiance to that of the Zengids. The Crusaders fought the Battle of Bosra with the Damascenes in the summer of 1147, with no clear winner. Bad luck and poor tactics of the Crusaders led to the disastrous five-day siege of Damascus from 24 to 28 July 1148. The barons of Jerusalem withdrew support and
29559-408: Was invited to Aachen and brought the education available in the monasteries of Northumbria. Charlemagne's chancery —or writing office—made use of a new script today known as Carolingian minuscule , allowing a common writing style that advanced communication across much of Europe. Charlemagne sponsored changes in church liturgy , imposing the Roman form of church service on his domains, as well as
29736-434: Was less need for large tax revenues and so the taxation systems decayed. Warfare was common between and within the kingdoms. Slavery declined as the supply weakened, and society became more rural. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, new peoples and individuals filled the political void left by Roman centralised government. The Ostrogoths , a Gothic tribe, settled in Roman Italy in the late fifth century under Theoderic
29913-436: Was marked by scholasticism , a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities . The theology of Thomas Aquinas , the paintings of Giotto , the poetry of Dante and Chaucer , the travels of Marco Polo , and the Gothic architecture of cathedrals such as Chartres are among the outstanding achievements toward the end of this period and into the Late Middle Ages. The Late Middle Ages
30090-470: Was marked by difficulties and calamities including famine, plague, and war, which significantly diminished the population of Europe; between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death killed about a third of Europeans. Controversy, heresy , and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the interstate conflict, civil strife, and peasant revolts that occurred in the kingdoms. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding
30267-439: Was marked by numerous divisions of the empire among his sons and, after 829, civil wars between various alliances of father and sons over the control of various parts of the empire. Eventually, Louis recognised his eldest son Lothair I (d. 855) as emperor and gave him Italy. Louis divided the rest of the empire between Lothair and Charles the Bald (d. 877), his youngest son. Lothair took East Francia , comprising both banks of
30444-436: Was married to Fulk of Anjou in 1129. When Baldwin II died on 21 August 1131, Fulk and Melisende were consecrated joint rulers of Jerusalem. Despite conflict caused by the new king appointing his own supporters and the Jerusalemite nobles attempting to curb his rule, the couple were reconciled and Melisende exercised significant influence. When Fulk died in 1143, she became joint ruler with their son, Baldwin III of Jerusalem . At
30621-496: Was not possible to put the full force of the horse and rider behind blows struck by the rider. The greatest change in military affairs during the invasion period was the adoption of the Hunnic composite bow in place of the earlier, and weaker, Scythian composite bow. Another development was the increasing use of longswords and the progressive replacement of scale armour by mail armour and lamellar armour . The importance of infantry and light cavalry began to decline during
30798-442: Was reinforced with propaganda that portrayed the Merovingians as inept or cruel rulers, exalted the accomplishments of Charles Martel, and circulated stories of the family's great piety. At the time of his death in 768, Pippin left his kingdom in the hands of his two sons, Charles (r. 768–814) and Carloman (r. 768–771). When Carloman died of natural causes, Charles blocked the succession of Carloman's young son and installed himself as
30975-417: Was the denarius or denier , while the Anglo-Saxon version was called a penny . From these areas, the denier or penny spread throughout Europe from 700 to 1000 AD. Copper or bronze coins were not struck, nor were gold except in Southern Europe. No silver coins denominated in multiple units were minted. Christianity was a major unifying factor between Eastern and Western Europe before the Arab conquests, but
31152-451: Was unanimously elected his successor. In June 1119, Ilghazi, now emir of Aleppo , attacked Antioch with more than 10,000 men. Roger of Salerno 's army of 700 knights, 3,000 foot soldiers and a corps of Turcopoles was defeated at the battle of Ager Sanguinis , or "field of blood". Roger was among the many killed. Baldwin II's counter-attack forced the offensive's end, after an inconclusive second battle of Tell Danith . In January 1120
31329-409: Was with the British Isles and Scandinavia, in contrast to the older Roman Empire with its trading networks centred on the Mediterranean. The empire was administered by an itinerant court that travelled with the emperor, as well as approximately 300 imperial officials called counts , who administered the counties the empire had been divided into. Clergy and local bishops served as officials, as well as
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