The Middle Ages

What Would Life Be Like?Historical SituationYour Task: Today you will complete four tasks in order to help you create a new kingdom. As you finish each task, bring them to me to get your next taskWhat do you think this activity simulated? Why do you think my grammar became progressively worse?Why do you think the emphasis was continually placed on safety & security?

The Early Middle Ages & The Rise of the Carolingian EmpireThe Middle AgesConstituted by the years between Classical Antiquity and the Modern EraEnd of antiquity = collapse of Roman EmpireThe Renaissance ushered in the Modern Era. Roughly 500 until 1500 ADAlso known as the Medieval Times

Early Middle AgesAlso known as Dark Ages (500-1000AD)Scholars named this as a time when the forces of darkness (barbarians) overwhelmed the forces of light (Romans) After the fall of Rome, Western Europe was left with a power vacuum a condition that exists when someone has lost control of something and no one has replaced itLife After RomeGovernment- No single power of authoritySeveral Germanic tribes formed a patchwork of small kingdoms that are governed by kingsDifficult for the kings to maintain controlRise in power of the Catholic Church

Economy- Breakdown in trade-- Led to bartering-- Cities no longer centers for markets-- Money is scarce

Life After RomeCultural Aspects-Germanic societies dominatedGermanic customs followedIlliterate societyPopulation DeclinesDecline by about 20%Increase in people moving from cities to rural areasReading, writing, and art begin to disappearLatin changesLocal vernaculars with German elements develop

Here Come the Franks The Franks came into Gaul fighting some of the other BarbariansThey pushed the other Barbarians out and divided into many tribes of Franks, each with their own kingMerovich was one of the leaders of the tribes of Franks and began his kingdom

ClovisClovis becomes the most important ruler of the Merovingian Dynasty

Considered to be the founder of the French state

ClovisRuthless rulerMurdered any relative that might have claim to the throneConverts to Christianity to help unify his kingdomClotilda, his wife, was a convert

Life After ClovisClovis died in 511Kingdom was divided among his four sonsCauses weaknessNot able to establish controlClovis sons were mainly ineffectiveAll the kings after them tooThe Merovingian kings became known as the Do- Nothing KingsNew Sheriff In TownAfter a series of ineffective do-nothing kings, a new position takes charge

Mayors of the PalaceBeen the power behind the throne for many yearsJob was to keep the Merovingian king on the throneThis position was passed from father to sonHammer TimeCharles Martel (a.k.a. Charles the Hammer) becomes Mayor of the Palace in 714 C.E. Consolidated military control over regions of the kingdomGave land acquired to the Church and established the close relationship between the church and the state that continued into the 20th century

Defeated the Muslim invasion force in 732 at the Battle of Tours

Battle of ToursBattle of ToursSignificant victory for Christianity because it stopped Islamic invasion from spreading any further than SpainCharles used this victory to help him establish his sons to be the first Carolingian king of the Franks

Pepin the ShortWas the son of Charles Martel

Sought popes approval to take the throne from the incompetent Merovingian kingPope granted thisPepin unites all of Gaul under one

When Pepin died, he divided his kingdom between his two sonsCarolus (Charlemagne) & Carolman

The First King of the Carolingian EmpireCharlemagneIn 768, at age 26, Charlemagne (a.k.a. Charles the Great) and his brother Carloman inherited kingdom of the Franks

In 771 Carloman died, and Charlemagne became sole ruler of the kingdom Franks falling back into barbarian ways, neglecting education & religion North: Saxons were still pagans South: Roman Catholic Church fighting to recover land confiscated by barbarian Lombard kingdom in central Italy

Europe was in turmoil!Order to Europe772 he launched a 30-year military campaign to reunite Europe and bring orderDefeated Lombards (in present-day northern Italy)The Avars (in modern-day Austria and Hungary) Conquered Bavaria and the Slavs (Germany)782 (Massacre of Verden) Charlemagne slaughtered some 4,500 SaxonsForced Saxons to convert to Christianity, declared that anyone who didnt get baptized or follow other Christian traditions be put to deathHARSH!Holy Roman Emperor

For his help defeating the Lombards and driving them out of papal lands, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day in 800 in Rome .Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans on December 25, 800, at St. Peters Basilica in Rome.

800 Charlemagne undisputed ruler of Western EuropeEstablished central government over Western Europe, thereby restoring unity of the old Roman Empire and paving the way for the development of modern EuropeIt was at the time he received the title of emperor and Augustus, to which at first he was so averse that he remarked that had he known the intention of the pope, he would not have entered the church on that day.Einhard

Hes GRRREATT!

Yes, I know I am GRRREAT! Look at this crown on my head!Why the Great?Changed Europe then and for hundreds of years afterConquestsRelationship with the ChurchGovernmentCultural Developments (Carolingian Renaissance)Conquests Controlled more land than other Frankish king.Realm encompassed France, Switzerland, Belgium, & NetherlandsIncluded half of present-day Italy and Germany, & parts of Austria, Spain. The land he acquired affected European politics throughout the medieval years and into modern eraGave him prestige Relationship with the Church When Pope Leo crowned Charlemagne, it sealed the deal that papacy approval was needed for kings for hundreds of yearsMarks the arrival of a new inheritor of Rome and a competitor to the ByzantinesThe inheritor would be the Holy Roman EmpireMarks the emergence of Western Christian societyGovernment Created new offices or adapted old positions to maintain his kingdom.CountsDukesMissi Dominici (servants of the lord) -like government spies Created books of law that were published and enforced

Carolingian RenaissanceRecognized that learning in his day was in disrepair, and he deliberately gathered the leading intellectual lights of his age at his court

Many of the intellectuals came from monasteries

Kept learning alive by copying books

Almost 90% of the works of ancient Rome that we possess exist in their earliest form in a Carolingian manuscript, and almost nothing that survived up to 800 has subsequently been lostThe most long-lasting result was the invention of Carolingian miniscule, developed at abbey of Corbie. This script is characterized by clear, neat letters, with each word clearly separated from one another, rather than all run together as Merovingian script often was. Alcuin formed a scriptorium, a writing office, which produced many books in the new script and influenced writers far and wide. One of Charlemagne's capitularies is entitled "On Scribes - That They Should Not Write Corruptly". Carolingian miniscule was revived during the Renaissance and has survived as our lower case letters (the capital letters come from ancient Rome). Although this "renaissance" was not much, it was never completely extinguished, and without it the thread that leads from Greece and Rome to ourselves would have been completely broken.

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After Charlemagnes DeathThree grandsons proceed to fight and weaken the empireInvading Vikings demolish the efforts of CharlemagneVikings: skilled sailors and tough warriors who came from Scandinavia

More to come on them laterDenise McGillHammertimeDenise McGillDenise McGill's AlbumGarageBand 6.0.5