Germanic Tribes: The Visigoths conquered Spain in 470 and established a kingdom up until the Muslim invasions. Osrogoths dominated Italy from the fifth century up until Justinian’s invasions. When the Byzantines left Italy the Lombards quickly moved into the high power area. They maintained hegemony until the mid eight century. Angles and Saxon people made regional kingdoms in Britain.
Charlemagne: Leader during the high point for the Frankish, known as “Charles the great”. He reigned from 768-814. He temporarily reestablished central imperialized rule. He possessed an enormous amount of energy, he was also extremely intelligent. He maintained diplomatic relations with the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate. He was an organizer between other attempts to gain power by others.
Feudalism: The term historians use to refer to the political and social order of medieval Europe. They spoke often about a “feudal system” based on the strict hierarchy of lords and vassals that took charge of both military and political affairs. It is being abandoned though, because it distorts what a truly complicated society that really exists behind it. It is only more helpful to view early medieval society because the arrangement that’s they adopted had deep implications for the lives of political and military elites and also for the commoners.
Serfs: The development of a decentralized political order accompanied fundamental changes in Europe society, especially for slaves and free peasants. Roman and Germanics both recognized enslaved and free classes, and for many centuries after the Roman fall, most the people that remained were slaved or peasants. As European society stabilized following the collapse of the Roman empire and the Germanic invasions, these slaves and free peasants worked at the same kind of agriculture tasks and frequently intermarried. Free peasant s frequently worshipped a god for protection and good cultivation. Although they were not subject to being sold, they were not completely free. Those known as serfs owed their obligations to their lords.
Pope Gregory I: Provided the Roman church with a sense of direction. (590-604CE). He faced many challenges. During this time the Lombards secured their hold on the Italian peninsula, menacing Rome and the Roman church in the process. He ensured the survival of the city and the church by mobilizing local resources and organizing a defense. Gregory reasserted the papal primacy-the claim that the bishop was the ultimate authority of Rome. He did this in order to show his authority and prevent others from acting out. He was also a theologian and emphasized the sacrament of penance.
Benedictine Monasticism: (480-547CE). Strengthened early monastatic movements by providing discipline and purpose. He set regulations known as Benedict’s rules and the rule did not permit extreme asceticism but required monks to take vows to lead life under the absolute direction of the abbot. Monasteries throughout Europe adopted and required his rule. Monasteries soon became prominent and powerful because of the usage of his rule. Monks came together to meet and pray, when they were finished they often went to study, reflect, or do manual work.
Holy Roman Empire: Was born when Pope John XII declared Otto emperor in 962. The Holy Roman Empire never achieved the political unification that France did; a prolonged attempt at centralizing authority starting with Maximilian I (1493-1519) was wrecked by the Reformation and the ensuing wars, culminating with the Thirty Years War (1618-48) and the Treaty of Westphalia (1648). The latter formalized the relationship between the Emperor and his vassals, who thereby achieved all but complete sovereignty. As a result, the HRE was still composed at the end of the 18th century of around 360 distinct entities, differing widely in size, rank and power. Some were kings and princes, other were counts; some were clerics, other were secular rulers.
Three Estates: “Those who pray, those who fight, those who work.” Those who prayed were the clergy of the Roman Catholic church. The clergy consisted constituted a spiritual estate owing its loyalty to to the church.The fighters came from the ranks of the nobles. They inherited their positions and gained an education in fighting arts. Those who worked were the majority, but they mostly cultivated land, as peasants dependent for protection on their lords, those who fought.
Guilds:Merchants and workers in all the arts, trades, and crafts organized guilds that regulated the production and sales of goods within jurisdiction. By the 13th century guilds had come to control the economy. They established quality for manufactured goods sometimes even requiring members to make or do things a certain way. In an effort to maintain a balance between supply and demand they also regulated the entry of new workers. They also were of social significance they provided focus for friendship and mutual support in addition to work.
St. Thomas Aquinas: (1225-1274) Spent most of his career teaching at University or Paris. While holding fervently to his christian convictions, he believed aristotle understood the best way of the era. St. Thomas helped spread christianity and the thoughts of aristotle throughout europe. He expected to formulate the most truthful and persuasive system of thought possible. He believed it was rational to prove god exists, and His argument was that some supreme being did indeed exist.
Dominicans & Franciscans: Working within the Roman church, some individuals organized movements to champion spiritual over materialistic values. Most prominent were saint dominican and saint franciscan. In the 13th century they founded orders of beggars know as friars, who have no personal possessions and just beg for everything. Mendicants were very active in towns and cities, where they addressed throngs of recently arrived migrants who se numbers were so large that existing urban churches and clergy could not serve them well. They worked zealously to combat heterodox movements and to persuade heretics to return to the Roman catholic.
The Crusades: The Crusades were a series of military campaigns during the time of Medieval england against the Muslims of the Middle East. In 1076, the Muslims had captured Jerusalem - the most holy of holy places for Christians. There was no more important place on Earth than Jerusalem for a true Christian which is why Christians called Jerusalem the "City of God". However, Jerusalem was also extremely important for the Muslims as Muhammad, the founder of the Muslim faith, had been there and there was great joy in the Muslim world when Jerusalem was captured.Therefore the Christian fought to get Jerusalem back while the Muslims fought to keep Jerusalem. These wars were to last nearly 200 years
Restructuring of Western Europe Political, economic, & social: The restructuring was a series of economic social and political growth. Starting with the expansion of arable land in the late 10th century, which was when people expanded their land to use it as a crop area which increased taxes and their personal wealth. They also improved agricultural ways this was mostly large domestications of animals, the knowledge they had spread to europe, those works helped to publicize innovations, which in turn lead to increased agricultural productivity. Also new tools, technologies, and crops played a part being the horse shoe and horse collars, which lead to more effective use of animals. The new crops helped by expanding the diets and supply and demand of certain crops. Where their is agricultural surplus there is population growth, the population surged in this area. The trade helped to expand and help port cities to establish colonies and prominence, trade also allowed for things to be transported all throughout europe. Many people were prominent politically and led them from a small unorganized government to a centralized monarchy, the conversion of Ilkhan to Islam, Tamerlane, the capture of constantinople, otto’s coronation, norman invasions, the recapture of jerusalem, and aquinas and his monks.
Evolution from feudal governance of early middle ages to centralized monarchies: The feudal system was not the same everywhere in Europe. It varied from country to country and even from lordship to lordship within the same country. Some parts of Europe never had this system, though it was the most prevalent government in medieval Europe. The system broke down gradually. It wasn't totally eliminated from France until the French Revolution and it lasted until 1917 in Russia. In the Middle ages, Europe was divided into many different states. Each state had its own system of government. Some of these, like Denmark, Spain, France or England, were monarchies, and had kings or caliphs to rule them. There were also two empires: the Eastern Roman Empire in Eastern Europe and the Holy Roman Empire that ruled most of Germany and Italy. Some parts of Nothern italy were independent city-states with a republican government like ancient Rome. The main problem with all of these governments was that the kings and emperors of the Middle Ages weren't very powerful. They tried to tell their subjects what to do, but a lot of the time their subjects just said "No" and didn't pay any attention. The western European governments used feudalism to help the king keep control, but often this just caused more problems. In the Italian Republics of Florence and Siena, there were a lot of civil wars, when one side wouldn't accept the decision of the majority vote and they fought each other.
Why Roman Catholic retained significance politically & socially: The catholics had a prominence over europe throughout this whole era, starting with the church was the main power in the middle ages. Everyone was Catholic and it not only told the entire society how to think and behave, but also the kings. Even though christianity was spreading throughout Europe, catholicism kept their peoples loyal. Charlemagne, king of the Franks, was crowned in Rome by Pope Leo III with the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Leo not only crowned Charlemagne, he kneeled before him.
The effect was to replace the Emperor in Constantinople as the temporal protector of the Church in the West and signaled an end to the Eastern Emperor's involvement in Western affairs. It was intended by the addition of the word 'Holy' to forge a definitive link between the papacy and Charlemagne's empire. The Medieval Church played a far greater role in medieval england than the Church does today. In medieval europe, the Church dominated everybody's life. All Medieval people - be they village peasants or towns people - believed that God, Heaven and Hell all existed. From the very earliest of ages, the people were taught that the only way they could get to Heaven was if the Roman Catholic Church let them. Everybody would have been terrified of Hell and the people would have been told of the sheer horrors awaiting for them in Hell in the weekly services they attended. The control the Church had over the people was total. Peasants worked for free on Church land. This proved difficult for peasants as the time they spent working on Church land, could have been better spent working on their own plots of land producing food for their families.
What factors increased the status of women: Women who lived here tended to do the same things as their ancestors previous. Medieval towns and cities offered fresh opportunities for women. Since England was patriarchal few routes to public authority were available to women, but in the larger societies women worked with men to be butchers, brewers, bakers, shoemakers, innkeepers, merchants, and occasionally pharmacists or doctors. Women dominated the occupations having to do with textiles. Most guilds also admitted women into their ranks, some guilds were even exclusive to women. The increasing prominence of women in european society illustrates the significance of towns and cities as agents of social change in medieval europe.
