After the fall of Rome, several Germanic kingdoms emerged in Europe. Charlemagne took control of much of Western Europe by 800 AD and promoted education, but after his death his empire fragmented. As central authority weakened, the feudal system developed where lords offered protection to vassals who gave military service. The Catholic Church gained significant wealth and political power over this period and tensions grew between it and secular rulers like the Holy Roman Emperor. The period saw conflicts like the Crusades and the Hundred Years' War, as well as devastation from the Black Death plague in the mid-1300s.

2. Europe After Rome
 Several Germanic kingdoms
 What were the Germanic peoples like?
 Less emphasis on learning
 Less trade
 Cities shrink

3. Charlemagne
 768: takes over Frankish kingdom
 800: controls most of Western Europe
 Wrote new laws to keep order
 Promoted education of priests
 Alliances with Popes

5. Why does feudalism take
hold?
 Charlemagne’s sons fight for his empire
 By mid-800s, Europe a place of chaos
 No longer a single strong leader

6. Feudalism
 Lords:
 Vassals:
 Fief:

8. Feudal society was highly
structured.

9. The Age of Chivalry
 What was expected of knights?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO28lnjtsQc

10. Growth of Towns
 By 1000 AD, towns return to Europe
 What were Medieval towns like?
 Role of the Guild?

11. Political Role of the Church
 Personal ties to nobles
 Great wealth
 Pope with more wealth and power than most kings

12. Structure of the Catholic Church

13. Two Powers Collide
Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV Pope Gregory VII

14. Church promotes learning
 Cathedral schools
 Study classical philosophy
 Do the classics conflict with Church teaching?
Christ Church Cathedral School
Oxford , England.
Started in 1546

15. St. Thomas Aquinas
 mid-1200s
 Italian scholar
 Faith and reason come from
God
 Being educated and being
religious are not in conflict
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgDH-0VlXrk

16. The Crusades
 What is the “holy land”?
 Military expeditions from Europe to Palestine
 Why?
Causes of the Crusades
 Desire to pilgrimage to holy lands
 Turks made pilgrimages impossible
 Princes and merchants hoped to gain power and
wealth
 Muslim attack on Byzantine Empire – ask Pope for
help

17. Effects of the Crusades
Positive
Negative

18. The Plague
 Bubonic plague
 Symptoms?
 “Black Death”
 Eurasia, mid-1300s
 1400 AD: 20-30 million people dead
 “Why is this happening to us!?”

19. The Hundred Years’ War
 1337-1456
 England v. France
Background
 1066: William, Duke of Normandy, conquers
England
 Tensions grow about who has right to rule

20. The Hundred Years War:
Highlights
 1337: England attacks
France, claiming land in
Southern France
 1428: Joan of Arc leads
French over English at
Orleans
 1453: English expelled from
France
New Weapons
 Longbow:
 Gunpowder:

21. End of the Middle Ages
 Absolute Monarch:
 Large, powerful nations with a
single, strong, ruler
Early Modern Europe
 Stronger monarchs
 Rising importance of trade
 Common people loyal to the
king

22. English Government
 1100 and 1200s: power starts to shift away from
the monarch
Magna Carta
 Detailed the rights of nobles
 Limits the rights of kings
 King John signs 1215
 Provisions?

23. Representative Government
 Parliament:
2 houses
 Commons
 Lords
 Collects taxes
 Introduce and
pass laws

24. Independent Judiciary
 Why should judges be “independent”?
 Stop gov’t from passing unfair laws
 Right of “habeas corpus”