CHAPTER TWO -
THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
Throughout
the 4th and 5th centuries CE, Roman control collapsed in
the West. At the same time, western provinces of Europe
suffered disruptive violence due to the migration of Huns from the East; these
maurading tribes slamming into areas occupied by a number of different tribespeople.
Displaced tribes migrated, moving into the weakly defended Italian peninsula
and setting in motion the waves of violence which finally ended Rome. Repeated
sacking of the city of Rome by Visogoth forces
in the middle of the 5th century was clear indication of the "end" of
the Roman Empire in the West. Political
power in the West was seized by northern tribal leaders in Western/Cen Europe,
shifting away from a Mediterranean-based leadership.
Almost as soon as the dust
settled from the Roman collapse, Clovis,
an ambitious Frankish tribal chief was visibly building up his
power. From his tribal power base, centered in what is today Belgium, Clovis
achieved military dominance over other Germanic tribes. He built a
"kingdom" of annexed/controlled territories made up of loosely united
tribes. This was called the Merovingian
Kingdom (481 -
752). Clovis's descendants continued the
expansion of this kingdom, and by the 8th century the Merovingian
kingdom included much of modern day France
and Germany.
There was a critical difference,
however, between the kingdom built by the Frankish family of Clovis
and the just-collapsed Roman Empire. This
Merovingian kingdom was not ruled with the same degree of central
control that Roman Caesars had possessed. Reflecting Frankish tribal
traditions, Merovingian kings ruled based on the loyalty of local/tribal
leaders who kept their local power, but did carry out (some) of the
king's orders in their territories. These regional leaders included both
tribal leaders/chiefs and descendants of Roman land owners. These local
leaders kept a substantial degree of local, independent control. Merovingian
kings did not establish a formal bureaucratic system; rather,
Merovingian leaders tied regions together based solely on individual oaths of
loyalty and sharing rewards from military victories with local tribal/local
leaders. There was no functional bureaucracy, no centrally controlled legal
system, and no centralized tax system. Laws and economic measures
differed between regions in the kingdom. Bottom line, this was not a
truly centralized kingdom; instead the Merovingian kings ruled over a loosely
united group of tribal/regional leaders who owed only certain duties to the
king. In most areas, local leaders continued to really be the ones in
direct control.
Thus, while it might appear
that a new unity in Europe replaced the collapse of Rome, in reality tribal traditions of
decentralized power dominated. The Merovingian Kingdom
was a weak state; local chieftains held on to most of their local political and
military power. There was not a new Rome.
CHARLEMAGNE
Although they only had
limited power, Merovingian kings retained their title and status for centuries
due to the tribal emphasis on lineage and bloodline. Despite their clear
weaknesses as military leaders, regional leaders did not challenge their royal
claim based on tribal traditions of loyalty to oath and bloodline.
By the middle of the 8th century, however, there was a family
willing to challenge the declining Merovingian claim. A competing
Frankish family line gained prominence; this family had for generations acted
as "mayors" of the palace (right hand men to the kings.) It was in
fact usually leaders from this family line that actually led Merovingian
military forces on the field; this line included famous military leaders such
as Peppin II and Charles Martel (victor over Islamic forces). Peppin III
finally took power from the weak and inept Merovingian king. He declared
the founding of the Carolingian dynasty and the Carolingian Kingdom,
named in honor of his ancestor Charles Martel. The Carolingian family ruled
much of West/Cen Europe from 752 - 843.
When Peppin III died, he
was succeeded by his son Charles the Great - better known as Charlemagne.
Charlemagne was the most famous and influential of all the Frankish leaders; he
expanded the borders of the Carolingian empire to its greatest extent, ruling
over more of Europe than any leader until
Napoleon Bonaparte in the 19th century!. He also came the
closest to recreating the political stability of the Roman
Empire. During his reign, Charlemagne unified most of
Central Europe, and also parts of Italy
and Scandinavia. This was an extremely
violent process - whenever one talks about "unifying" an area, it is
almost always done through warfare.(see
map)
At the peak of his power,
Charlemagne was explicit in what he thought he was doing - recreating the unity
of the Roman Empire. In 800, supported
by the authority of the institution of the Catholic Church, Charlemagne renamed
his territory the Holy Roman Empire,
and he was crowned as Emperor! As part of this "rebuilding of Rome" Charlemagne did try to renew weakened economic
ties to the Mediterranean. He also
encouraged the resurgence of scholarship and literature which had declined
dramatically during the Merovingian period. During the "Carolingian
Renaissance", universities were founded, literacy made a limited comeback
among the elite, and new literary works created. Innovations occurred such as
the use of small case letters (minuscule) rather than the
all-capitals style that was the tradition in Latin. The most famous work to
emerge from this period was the warrior epic - Beowulf
However, despite the title of
Emperor and the use of Latin in reemerging scholarship and writing, the obvious
fact is that Europe under Charlemagne was not a recreation of the Roman Empire. The culture of the Carolingian
Renaissance was NOT a recreation of Greco-Roman culture - it was something very
different. The influence of tribal cultures and traditions already was deeply
influencing European civilization - the culture Charlemagne tried to
encourage was a combination of Greco-Roman legacies and
Germanic/ tribal influences in terms of things like language and
religion. For example, although Latin was the language used to
communicate across regions, local tribal dialects (influenced by Latin)
continued to evolve and were much more commonly used - ultimately producing the
many different languages of Europe such as
French, English, and Spanish. Laws were a blend of Roman law AND
tribal customs and traditions. The work Beowulf,
for example, was clearly more Germanic than it was Mediterranean.
Beowulf is a story of tribal warriors fighting the beast Grendel, much more
reflective of Anglo-Saxon tribal themes than Greco-Roman subject matter.
EARLY PATTERNS OF FEUDALISM
An even
more important difference from the classical Roman empire
was the way in which the Carolingian kingdom was run. Despite his fame and
charisma, Charlemagne did not rule a true state or bureaucracy. Charlemagne,
like his predecessors, controlled much of Europe
through calling on the loyal service of powerful local leaders who pledged
their services to him as king (Emperor). Reciprocal relationships
were the basis of the state. Local leaders served as royal officers, carrying
out the dictates of Charlemagne in return for land, payments or
grants of power. These officials, often called counts, maintained their
local power and influence. They were bound to Charlemagne through oaths rather
than a bureaucratic system. In essence, Charlemagne held this kingdom
together because the powerful warrior elite respected him and remained true to
their oaths of loyalty. He held the empire together through his
personality and abilities - he did not have an independent and reliable
bureaucracy. The danger here is obvious; if the leader of the Carolingian state
lost the loyalty or those oaths were broken, the entire kingdom would fall
apart. This did not happen under Charlemagne; he remained a charismatic and
respected king. However, after his death the state fell apart and local leaders
became increasingly independent.
Charlemagne's son Louis the
Pious succeeded him in 814. Louis was not a military leader and
rapidly lost the respect of the warrior elite; strains in the kingdom became
evident. When Louis died in 840, he had three surviving sons. The
Germanic tradition was to divide up an inheritance between all sons - so who
should succeed was unclear. Although Lothair, the oldest son tried to
take control of the entire kingdom, the other two sons (Charles the Bald and
Louis the German) fought Lothair for what they felt was their rightful claim to
part of the kingdom. The resulting war was settled by the Treaty of Verdun
(843) which divided the kingdom into three parts. Once the kingdom
was divided, ending a unity that had taken centuries to build, fragmentation
continued. Many powerful local leaders used this division as a
justification to break their connection to the Carolingian family; the unity of
Western/Central Europe continued to fray and
unravel. (go to
summary)
As the
Carolingian/Holy Roman Empire fell apart, Europeans faced a dramatic increase
in violence and instability. The collapse of any central leadership, even
loosely based, results in the end of structured law and order. It
means the end of an established state army for protection.
For Europeans heading into the 9th century, there was no reliable protection
from outside invaders, bandits or aggressive neighbors. At the same time
the Carolingian kingdom was dissolving, Europe
was hit by dangerous and deadly invasions from three sides! From the
East, raiding Magyar horsemen moved in from Central Asia.
To the South, Islamic armies threatened Christian control in Italy and Spain. Most infamous,
however, were the invaders from Scandinavia, primarily Denmark, Iceland
and Norway,
known as the Vikings or Norsemen. These invaders, with their impressive
naval abilities and command of the seas, faced no opposition as they sacked the
coastlines of England, Scotland, Ireland,
France and Germany.
Ultimately, Norsemen settled down, became "civilized" (the Normans), and became a
part of blended British, German and French cultures and history. However,
during the 9th and 10th centuries, these groups were marauders,
appearing over the horizon and striking terror in the coastal populations who
knew the tales of murder, rape and pillage associated with the Vikings.
These outside threats were emerging at the worst time - when there was no Roman Empire, nor even the protection of the weaker
Frankish Holy Roman Empire, to provide protection.
By 900 West/Cen Europe was a region with no effective state or central
power. Although there continued to be those who called themselves
"kings", they had no real central power; local leaders carved out and
clung to their own independent regional control. Thus began the period known as
the "Central Middle Ages" which lasted from 900 - 1200. This was the
period during which Europe was truly feudal - the heart of the
"Dark Ages" for Europe. (see description)
Interesting Related Web
Sites
Anglo-Saxon
Chronicles
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