2. KINGDOMS OF WESTERN EUROPE

3. GREGORY OF TOURS (538-594)
Considered himself a Roman
He ruled by right of birth and status
Spoke and wrote Latin
By the 7th century there came a break with the Roman past that was
profound
200 years later—Charlemagne’s court sought to renew the empire of the
Romans even though one could ride for 100 miles in any direction from
Charlemagne’s castle and not find anyone who could read

4. INCREASED REGIONALIZATION

5. INSTABILITY
Temporary disruptions by Muslim raiders
Disruption of Roman systems of law, infrastructure and commerce
Movement away from urban centers to manorial lands in the countryside
Breakdown of coinage system
By 660 gold was too expensive to use as a medium of exchange
Trade, plunder, extortion
Rulers often lacked legitimacy and pattern of violent overthrow of one
leader by the troops of another leader continued

6. VISIGOTH KINGDOM

7. CLOVIS I (481-511)
Converted to Roman Christianity (from Arianism) and obtained alliance with
bishops in Gaul.
Defeated the Visigoths in 507.
Created a network of monasteries linked to the Merovingian Court.
Redistributed wealth from Southern Gaul to the Rhineland and northward to
the North Sea through conquest.

8. CLOVIS FIGHTS THE VISIGOTHS

9. CLOVIS I (481-511)
Converted to Roman Christianity (from Arianism) and obtained alliance with
bishops in Gaul.
Defeated the Visigoths in 507.
Created a network of monasteries linked to the Merovingian Court.
Redistributed wealth from Southern Gaul to the Rhineland and northward to
the North Sea through conquest.

10. MONASTERIES & LOCAL RULERS
Innovation in agriculture –heavy wheeled plow
Prosperity & Christianity made local chieftains legitimate
Chieftains—soon called ―Lords‖ gave monasteries more independence and
privileges
 Siding with monasteries against local Bishops
 Permitting them legal authority over their own lands
Powerful Families
 Law of primogeniture
 Marriage alliances
 Church/ monastic affiliation
Opportunities for women to wield political power
 Freed from the role of sinful temptress
 Control over minds and bodies

11. BEDE (673-735) CHURCH HISTORY IN BRITAIN

12. HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA GENTIS
ANGLORUM
Completed in 731
Scope: 33 B.C.E. campaign of Julius Caesar to 731—includes both primary
and secondary sources, oral and documentary history
Themes:
 How Christianity united diverse peoples in Britain
 National origins myth: English people were dynamically guided by Providence
from heathendom to Christendom

13. BURIAL MOUND AT SUTTON HOO

14. FALL OF MEROVINGIAN KINGS
Pepin (635-714) made himself the King’s right hand man and exercised
royal authority as the Loyal Servant
Charles Martel (688-741) aka Charles the Hammer, illegitimate son of Pepin
 defeats the Moors at the battle of Tours (733 or 734)
 Creates alliance with St. Boniface of the English Benedictines to convert the
Netherlands and central Germany to Christianity
 Loose connection to the Papacy through Boniface
750 Pepin the Short (Charles Martel’s son) seized the throne for himself
 Turned to the Pope for support
 Pope Gregory realized that alliance with powerful Frankish leader could help
him with his own enemies
 751, Boniface (on behalf of Pope Gregory) anoints Pepin as King of the Franks
 Ritual based on Biblical imagery from Old Testament when Samuel anointed
Kings

15. CHARLES MARTEL
Charles de Steuben,
Bataille de Poitiers
En Octobre 782

16. SAINT BONIFACE

17. PEPIN THE SHORT
Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest, "Tomb Of Pepin 'the Short' ", accessed Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest, "PEPIN THE SHORT (714-768).
8 Oct 2012, http://quest.eb.com/images/108_304112 - King Of The Franks, 751-768. Detail From The Liber Aureus Of The Abbey Of Pr•
accessed 8 Oct 2012, http://quest.eb.com/images/140_1660494

18. CHARLEMAGNE (742-814)
R. 12/25/800-1/28/814
Encyclopædia Britannica Image
Quest, "Charlemagne / Bust /
Goldsmithery / C14", accessed 8
Oct 2012,
http://quest.eb.com/images/109_
101717

19. PLUNDER, BOOTY & LAND
Militarized state
Conquests against Lombards
Counts appointed to supervise new lands
Coinage system
Ruler of Christendom
 Kingly government is a sacred office designed by God to
protect the church, defend Christians and promote salvation
 No kingdom can prosper if lives of its subjects are displeasing
to God

20. CAROLINGIAN REFORMS
• Controlled Bishops and Abbots
• Changed liturgy
• Prohibited pagan practices
• Imposed Holy Baptism on subjects
• Crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope on
12/25/800

21. Encyclopædia Britannica Image
Quest, "Coronation Of Charlemagne", accessed
8 Oct
2012, http://quest.eb.com/images/312_1013187

22. CAROLINGIAN RENAISSANCE
• Classical learning is foundation of Christian
wisdom
• Collating, correcting and copying Latin
texts, including the Bible
• New style of handwriting: Carolingian Miniscule

23. CAROLINGIAN MINISCULE
From 10th century manuscript of the Vulgate, Luke 1: 1-5

24. COLLAPSE OF CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE
AFTER 814
Charlemagne succeeded by Louis the Pious
Upon Louis’s death, kingdom divided into 3
 Western France
 Eastern France
 Germany
Civil War between Eastern and Western France 856
 Kingdom at limit of power
 Not enough booty and plunder and land for the counts
 Viking raids

25. EUROPE AT THE DEATH OF
CHARLEMAGNE

26. THE VIKINGS 900-1100
Mid-twelfth century painting
Of Danish Seamen Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest, "Viking Ship In Museum",
accessed 8 Oct 2012, http://quest.eb.com/images/131_1388137

27. VIKING RAIDERS
Vikings means ―robbers‖
Raided Europe and British Isles for Silver from the
middle of the 9th century
 Plunder
 Ransom
 Tribute collection
 slaving

28. VIKING RAIDS 900-1000
• England, Scotland, Ireland and Northern
France
• Normandy ―land of the Northmen‖
• 1066 Battle of Hastings

29. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest, "Viking Chariot",
accessed 8 Oct 2012, http://quest.eb.com/images/115_2844439
Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest, "Viking Sword / Hedeby
(Haithabu)", accessed 8 Oct
2012, http://quest.eb.com/images/109_107901

30. WHICH HEIR WAS ROME’S TRUE
SUCCESSOR?
• Byzantium copied Rome’s fundamental legal
and political institutions
• Muslim Caliphates combined the rich legacy of
the Near East, Egypt and much of the
Hellenistic world
 Promoted commerce and cultural exchange
• Geographic and cultural Rome: most closely
emulated by the Kingdoms of northwestern
Europe

31. INTERCONNECTIONS
Byzantium, Muslim Caliphates and Kingdoms of
northwestern Europe developed their defining
characteristics during the 6th and 7th centuries
Fruitful if uneasy relationships
 Italian traders active in Constantinople
 Muslim traders common in Southern Italy
 Anglo-Saxon merchants traded within the Mediterranean
 Jewish merchants in Rhineland traded with Muslim
communities in Egypt
 Viking traders from Novgorod in Russia to Dublin

32. WESTERN EUROPE
Began to share a new sense of common
identity
Roman Church as spiritual guidance
Look to fellow rulers for aid against
invaders
Mobilized for war against Islamic
Caliphates