Chapter 10 Flashcards
Who carried out the Crusades?
Western Europe - The Holy Roman Empire**
Why were the Crusades launched?
1) To retake the Holy Land.
2) Secure Trade Routes
3) Drive Back Muslim Encroachments into Europe itself.
What was the result of the Crusades?
Failure if given enough time.
What two social/economic/political concepts emerged during the Middle Ages?
Feudalism and Manorism.
Who were the Franks?
A Germanic people.
When did the Franks come into contact with Rome?
Around 350 AD.
Where did the Franks live?
Germany, Belgium, and Holland.
What group of people were key for the transition from the Roman Empire to a distinctly European-based western civilization?
The Franks.
What was the Franks chief connection with Rome?
Through the military. They provided a large supply of rugged recruits. By the 400s Franks served as high-ranking military commanders.
Who was the Frank military commander that staged a coup against the Roman army?
Clovis.
How did Clovis bring some unity to the fractured Germanic world?
By converting publicly to Christianity in an elaborate ceremony. He made Christianity the glue for his proto-empire.
What were the motives of Clovis for “converting” to Christianity?
Purely political. By converting to Christianity, Clovis hoped to win the support of wealthy Romans for his rule.
What is the technical name for the new joint society that emerged under the reign of Clovis?
The Gallo-Roman or Franco-Roman society.
What held Gallo-Roman/Franco-Roman society together?
Cultural Christianity.
What is Clovis’s Kingdom called?
The Merovingian Kingdom.
Where did Clovis and his Kingdom expand to?
Throughout all present-day Germany and into Northern Italy.
What to nations trace their roots to the Merovingian Kingdom?
France and Germany.
Was the Merovingian Kingdom a state in the modern sense of the term?
No.
How many Kingdoms was the Merovingian Kingdom split into after Clovis’s death?
Four. Each was ruled by one of his four sons.
Who was Theodoric the Great?
An Ostrogoth who ruled Southern Italy.
How did he seek to integrate his people and the former Romans?
He used Roman governmental structures to administer his rule and used Ostrogoth military structures.
Why did the Ostrogoth and Roman people end up feuding?
Over religious differences that sparked a civil war after Theodoric’s death.
Where did the Visigoths rule?
Spain.
Why were they unable to create a lasting unity with the Romans?
Due to religious differences between the two peoples.
What brought about short term unity with the Visigoths and the Romans?
When the Visigoth aristocracy embraced Christianity in 600 AD.
What destroyed the short term unity between the Visigoths and the Romans?
The Muslim invasion of Spain in 717 AD. Leaders of the Visigoths converted to Islam and ruled as Muslims.
Why did an Eastern and Western church start to informally take place in the 500s?
Due to issues with political stability. The West lacked political stability so the Pope (The Bishop of Rome) began to do more and more quasi-political things. The East did not lack such stability. In fact, the Bishop of Constantinople routinely bowed to the authority of the Eastern Roman Emperor.
Which pope clearly defined the role of the papacy?
Pope Gregory the Great.
What are some the things People Gregory the Great did to define the role of the papacy?
1) He made the pope the greatest landowner in Italy.
2) He organized the military defense of Rome and paid for its army.
3) He heard court cases
4) He negotiated treaties.
5) He provided welfare services.
6) He sent missionary expeditions to other parts of Europe.
What did members of the Eastern Romane Empire believe about the authority of the Bishop of Rome?
That the Bishop of Rome was under the authority of the emperor of the Easter Roman Empire since they perceived the Eastern Roman Empire as continuing the old Roman Empire.
When was the last time the Byzantine Emperor set foot in Rome?
663 AD.
When was the last time the pope set foot in Constantinople/Byzantium?
710 AD.
How was the rift between the East and West churches obvious in the 700s?
1) The Eastern Church allowed priests to get married while the Western Church maintained that priests must be celibate.
2) The Eastern Church prohibited fasting on Saturdays during lent while the Western Church required it.
What did Justian II do to show his anger at the pope?
He ordered the pope to be arrested by the Italian armies he claimed control over.
Did the Italian armies actually arrest the pope?
No.
What emperor tried to raise taxes on papal property?
Leo III.
Why did Leo III raise taxes on papal property?
To finance an Eastern Roman Empire war against the Muslims.
What issue permanently divided the two branches of the church?
Icon and Relics.
What approach did the Eastern Church take towards icons?
It allowed no icons at all. This is called Iconoclasm.
What approach did the Western Church take towards icons?
It condoned the acceptable use of icons in worshipped and even considered anti-icon emperors hereitics.
When was the divorce between the two churches made official?
1054 AD.
What was the Western Church called?
The Roman Catholic Church
What was the Eastern Church called?
Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
What did Arianism teach?
The Lord Jesus was not God and not a formal part of the Trinity.
What type of Christianity did Clovis accept?
Roman Catholic Christianity.
Why did the Empire built by Clovis fall into disarray after his death?
He failed to establish a clear line of succession.
Who reconstructed the Frankish Kingdom?
Pepin.
What was the dynasty created by Pepin called?
Carolingian dynasty.
Who succeeded Pepin?
Charles Martel.
What is Martel most famous for?
His defeat of the invading Muslims at the Battle of Tours.
Who succeeded Charles Martel?
Pepin the Short.
Who gave his blessing to Pepin the Short, giving him allies in Northern Italy?
The Pope.
What did Pepin the Short do to strengthen his alliance with the Roman Catholic Church and the Papacy?
Helped the Roman Catholics fight off the Lombards that were threatening Rome.
What was the papal donation or the gift of Pepin?
The giving of the land of the conquered Lombards to the pope that would later become the papal states.
The alliance with the Franks also served what secondary purpose?
It accelerated Western Christianity’s difference from Eastern Christianity.
Who was Pepin the Short succeeded by?
Charlemagne (Charles the Great)
Under which ruler did the Frankish kingdom reach its height?
Charlemagne
What territory did Charlemagne add to the Frankish Kingdom?
Lombardy, Baravia, Saxony, Portions of North-East Spain.
How many counties did Charlemagne divide his empire into?
250.
Who administered each of the counties?
Counts (nobles) who said an oath of loyalty to Charlemagne.
Where was the seat of Charlemagne located?
Aachen in Northwest Germany near the Dutch and Belgian borders.
In what year did the Pope crown Charlemagne?
800
What title did the Pope give Charlemagne?
The Holy Roman Emperor.
What did Charlemagne do to bring about the Carolingian Renaissance?
Promoted learning among the priestly and civil servant class to aid the spread of Christianity and better administer the empire.
How did Charlemagne promote education among the priestly and civil servant classes?
By founding a palace school that even Charlemagne himself attended.
Who was the headmaster at the palace school?
Alcuin, an English scholar.
What was the primary curriculum of the palace school?
Religious. It was intended to give the priest class a better understanding of the Bible.
Why were the Catholic monks so important?
They preserved older Roman documents by transcribing copies of the documents. 90% of all surviving documents from the Roman Empire come to us by Carolingian scribes.
Who wrote the first medieval biography of a secular leader?
Einhard.
How did the Italian Renaissance differ from the Carolingian Renaissance?
The Italian Renaissance was a cultural revolution that created new ideas and reflected philosophically on their identity. The Carolingian Renaissance simply halted the downward spiral of intellectual inquiry by preserving and rediscovering old documents.
Who succeeded Charlemagne?
His son, Louis the Pious.
Why did Louis the Pious struggle to hold the Empire together?
Because it wasn’t structure that held the Empire together before, it was the personality of Charlemagne who commanded respect and allegiance. Frankish kings became quarreling among each other and pursuing their own interests.
When Louis died, how was his kingdom divided?
Among his three sons.
Who were Louis’s three sons?
Louis the German, Charles the Bald, Lothair.
Which son got which part of the Empire?
Louis the German: Eastern Portion that would become the State of Germany
Charles the Bald: The Western Portion that would become the beginning of modern France.
Lothair: Extended from Italy to the North Sea. This would be bickered about by France and Germany until the 1900s.
Were any of Charlemagne’s sons able to consolidate control of his Empire?
No.
What three forces invaded the three parts of the Empire that caused a trend towards local rule?
The Muslims, The Vikings, and the Magyars.
Where did each force invade?
The Muslims: The Mediterranean Coasts and Southern Italy.
The Vikings: Northern Europe.
The Magyars: Italy, Germany, and France.
What was unique about the Magyars?
In 1000, they stopped their warring, settled in Hungary, and converted to Christianity.
Who did people look towards for safety during the invasions?
The local count and not the distant king.
By what year did the Carolingian Kingdom end?
900 AD.
Is the term Feudalism broad or narrow in defining the practices of the period from 600-1400 AD?
A Broad and Highly Pragmatic way of addressing the political and Economic crisis of the Middle Ages.
When did the Feudal relationship give way to the genesis of the modern nation state?
1300 AD.
What was at the heart of the feudal system?
Military power and vassalage.
What was vassalage?
Pledging loyalty and military support for the lord in exchange for land.
What was the land given to the vassal called?
A fief.
Who worked the land given to the vassal?
A group of peasants called sets.
What did the serfs do?
Engaged in Agriculture and Trades. They returned a percentage of their produce to their lord.
What made the feudal system necessary?
1) Numerous bands of nomadic invaders in Western Europe.
2) The inability of a centralized political authority to provide adequate military protection.
Why did the system become complex?
1) Vassals Had Their Own Vassals.
2) Vassals Swore Loyalty to More Than One lord.
3) Vassals Could Accumulate Enough Land to Become More Powerful than the lord.
4) Vassals Could Owe Loyalty to Feuding lords.
How were fief traditionally handled after the death of a vassal and how were they in theory supposed to be handled?
Traditionally, the fief was hereditary. However, the fief should return to the lord to do with it what he pleases.
What were the feudal obligations vassals owed to their lords?
1) Providing Knights
2) Acting as Judges,
3) Providing Housing and Meals to the lord as he passed through.
4) Provided Marriage partners for the lords children.
5) Would pay the ransom if the lord was kidnapped.
What was the law like in the feudal kingdoms?
Parochial and area-specific.
What was Medieval European society?
The melding of Germanic, Roman, and Christian cultures.
Was the one worthy vocation according to the lords?
War.
What “war-substitutes” were created by the lords?
Jousting tournaments and other war contests.
What was the proper code of knight etiquette that developed called?
Chivalry.
What is a manor?
A large estate owned by the lord.
Why were manors able to function?
Because serfs sacrificed some of their freedom for security.
How many days (on average) a week did the serfs reform labor for the lord?
Three days.
How many families might small manors have?
Ten
How many families might a larger manor have?
Sixty.
Why did trade almost entirely halt?
Because manners were largely self-sufficient and did not need to import much.
How much of the land in western Europe was cleared?
10%.
What happened to the children of the serfs?
They inherited their parents serfdom.
What goods were traded during the period and with whom were they traded?
Luxury goods were traded between the lords and the Byzantine Empire and Islamic merchants.
Who were the slaves traded to the lords?
Captured Eastern European Slavs.
What was the main cause of death among Western European peasants?
Food shortages and the results of poor diets.
Approximately what percentage of Middle Ages society died before reaching adulthood?
50%!
What was the average male life expectancy?
47 Years.
Why was food such a problem?
Because the peasants produced wheat which had 1/4 the calories output of corn or potatoes.
