THE MIDDLE AGES

THE MIDDLE AGES

• Is the period of European history

extending from about 500 to 1400–
1500 CE

• The term was first used by 15th-

century.

• The period is often considered to

have its own internal divisions: either
early and late or early, central or
high, and late, etc.
EARLY MIDLE AGES

HIGH MIDDLE AGES

LATE MIDDLE AGES

EARLY MIDDLE
AGES
CHARLES MARTELL

• During his reigns, Martel had various

military campaigns.

• He established the unity in Gaul.

• He fought with Muslims who had

invaded Spain in 711 and was moving
into Gaul.

• In 732, at Poitiers Muslim army was

stopped by Martel forces and because
of that, Europe remained Christian.
Muslim Expansion was stopped by Charles Martel at Poitiers in 732
CHARLEMAGNE’S EMPIRE

• He was a strong military leader, son of

Pippin III and grandson of Charles Martel

• After Pepin’s death in 768, the Frankish

kingdom was divided between Charlemagne
and his younger brother Carloman.

• With Carloman’s death in 771, Charlemagne

became the sole ruler of the Franconians.

• When Lombards attacked Papal States

region, Charlemagne helped him.

• He was crowned emperor of Rome by Pope

Leo III in 800. and the Holy Roman Empire
was born that day.
CHARLEMAGNE’S EMPIRE

• He embarked on a mission to unite all

Germanic peoples into one kingdom, and
convert his subjects to Christianity

• He conquered the Lombards, the Avars,

among others.

• He spent a three-decades-long series of

battles against the Saxons, a Germanic tribe
of pagan worshippers.

• In 782 at the Massacre of Verden,

Charlemagne reportedly ordered the
slaughter of some 4,500 Saxons.
AS RULER CHARLESMAGNE:

• Established the Capital of the Empire in Aachen (where he built a huge palace
& capital).

• He improved Education.

• He wanted leaders to be able to read & write.

• Churches start to teach religion, music, grammar.

• He invited scholars from around Europe to teach & copy ancient text.
• Latin became official language of the Empire.

• He was extremely religious.

• He wanted to unify Christian empire by conquering & converting.

• He respected the oral law of the several territories, but they had to write them
down and include Christian values
BUT WHEN CHARLESMAGNE DIED…

• His government was not the strongest any more.

• Regional kings emerged and invaders came.

• His grandson’s fought for power an divided the Empire

• Tha manorial system appeared

INVASIONS TO EUROPE
KNIGHT
THE LAND OF THE LORDS OR KNIGHTS
HIGH MIDDLE
AGES
(1000 – 1300)
 HIGH MIDDLE AGES

• Economic Expansion and the Emergence of Towns

• The restructuring of secular and ecclesiastical institutions
• Investiture Controversy
• The emergence of national identity
• The crusades
• Gothic art and architecture
• The birth of universities
 Economic Expansion and the Emergence of Towns

• The clearing of land and new techniques in agriculture led to higher food
production, a rise in population, and greater economic freedom.

• Territorial expansion, and the development of cities and trade brought rapid
economic change.

• Agricultural tools, such as the heavy plow, along with new methods for
harnessing animal power, such as the horse collar, enabled farmers to work
the rich, dense soil of northern Europe using less labor.

• Energy-producing devices such as the windmill and tidal mill for grinding grain
also increased productivity.

• The three-field system replaced two-field crop rotation, allowing farmers to

cultivate two-thirds, instead of half, of their land at once, while leaving one-third
to rest and build nutrients.
The heavy plow in high middle ages
Windmill in the middle ages
Windmill in the middle ages
Tidal mill
 IN GROUPS WRITE A TEN LINES ESSAY

What is the main factor about the way in which high middle ages invents, such as
the heavy plow, the windmill, and the tide mil obtained energy?. Why do you think
those invents were so important in the high ages?
 HOMEWORK

Research and write a essay about the three-field system that replaced two-field
crop rotation. Explain the main differences between those two systems
 THE INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY

Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII in Canossa 1077, as depicted by Carlo Emanuelle
THE INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY

• It was the most important conflict between secular and religious powers
in medieval Europe.
• It began as a dispute in the 11th century between the Holy Roman
Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII. The question was who would control
appointments of bishops (investiture).
• When Gregory VII, a reformist monk, was elected as pope in 1073, the
controversy between emperor and pope began.
• In the higher ranks of the German clergy, Gregory had many enemies.
Therefore King Henry declared Gregory was no longer pope and the Romans
should choose a new pope.
• When Gregory heard of this he excommunicated Henry IV, declared he was no
longer emperor and absolved his subjects from the oaths they had sworn to him
• The controversy led to nearly fifty years of civil war in Germany. This war ended
with the triumph of the great dukes and abbots, and the falling apart of the
German empire in the end.
• The excommunication of the king made a deep impression both in Germany
and Italy. Thirty years before, Henry III had deposed three popes, but when
Henry IV tried to copy this procedure he did not have the support of the people.
THE INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY

• The Saxons began a second rebellion, and the anti-royalist party grew in
strength from month to month.

• The situation now became extremely critical for Henry. It became clear that at
any price he had to get his absolution from Gregory. At first he tried this by an
embassy, but when Gregory rejected this, he went to Italy in person.
 Classwork

• What was the Investiture Controversy about ?

• Who do you consider was right, pope Gregory VII or king Henry IV? Why?

• Can you give an example of a similar controversy between two Organizations in

dispute in recent years?
THE CRUSADES
THE CRUSADES
THE CRUSADES
Byzantine Empire:
Also known as the Eastern Roman Empire appeared in 330 A.D., when the Roman
emperor Constantine I dedicated a “new Rome” on the site of the ancient Greek
colony of Byzantium. Though the western half of the Roman Empire crumbled and fell
in 476, the eastern half survived for 1,000 more years, producing a rich tradition of
art, literature and learning. It also served as a military barrier between the states of
Europe and the threat of invasion from Asia.

Nobles:
Barons, Lords, Counts, etc

Aqsa Mosque:
Also known as Al-Aqsa and Bayt al-Muqaddas, is the third holiest site in Islam and is
located in the Old City of Jerusalem

Dome of the Rock:

Is a sanctuary located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was
initially completed in 69. It has great significance for Jews and Muslims because it is
recognized by all three Abrahamic religions as the site of Abraham's sacrifice of
Isaac.
• Emperor Alexius I turned to the West for help, resulting in the declaration of
“holy war” by Pope Urban II at Clermont (France) that began the First Crusade.

• As armies from France, Germany and Italy poured into Byzantium, Alexius tried
to force their leaders to swear an oath of loyalty to him in order to guarantee
that land regained from the Turks would be restored to his empire.

• After Western and Byzantine forces recaptured Nicaea in Asia Minor from the
Turks, Alexius and his army retreated, drawing accusations of betrayal from the
Crusaders.
THE CRUSADES
 How did the Crusades change the western world?

• Ultimately the Crusades failed to create the Holy Land that was part of
Christendom, but in the process they changed the western world forever.

• Rather than defeating the Muslims, the Crusades provoked a Muslim reaction. In
1453, the Turks captured Constantinople and by 1529 had conquered south-
eastern Europe, including Hungary, and were besieging Vienna.

• The Crusaders learned more about warfare – better castle design and gunpowder.

• Muslim scholars taught European scholars many things about science and
medicine.

• The number system they used (1, 2, 3, 4) was more straightforward than Roman
numerals (I, II, III, IV) and made calculations easier to do.

• The use of "0" in Arabic enabled the early scentists of the Renaissance to develop
the ideas of the Arabic and Ancient Greek astronomers. We still use this numeric
system today.
 How did the Crusades change the western world?

• Western Europeans learned that the Muslim world stretched to India and traded
with China.

• Western Europeans had access to food products such as lemons, apricots,

sugar, silk and cotton and spices used in cooking.

• These goods were in great demand and became very expensive, especially as
the Muslims charged merchants high duties to pass through their lands. (One of
the reasons Christopher Columbus discovered America was because he tried to
avoid these duties by sailing west to India).

• Not all the Crusaders went home after fighting the Muslims. Many of them who
went to the Holy Land liked it so much that they stayed and adopted a Middle
Eastern way of life.

• The Crusades tended to have two major consequences effecting the social,
political and economic life of Europe.
 How did the Crusades change the western world?

• The Crusades helped end feudalism in Western Europe and brought about the
conditions that helped create the Renaissance.

• The Crusades began the breakdown of feudal society in Western

Europe. Many feudal lords went off to fight and die in the crusades, leaving
their serfs free to go to towns and start new lives.

• Monarchs gained new strength when knights left to fight in the crusades in the
Middle East. This increase in the power of the monarch also helped to end
feudalism.

• Crusaders brought back goods such as spices and cloths, which increased
demand for these goods. Merchants, particularly in Italy, grew rich from this
new trade with the East.

• Crusaders also brought back Greek and Roman classical works. The wealth
from trade and new knowledge of from classical Greek and Roman works
sparked the Renaissance in Europe.
 How did the Crusades change the western world?

• The Crusades led to the emergence of military and religious orders which were
founded during the First and the Second Crusades.

• Perhaps the most famous one is the Knights Templar, an elite fighting force
created originally from French knights to help in the first Crusade and protect
travelling pilgrims.

• Over time with Papal support the order spread throughout Europe and acquired
great wealth.

• By protecting the wealth of pilgrims at different points on their journey, the

Knights Templar inadvertently helped lay down some of the principles of modern
international banking.
 The Black Death Plague

• Is the name for a terrible disease that spread throughout Europe from 1347 to
1350. There was no cure for the disease and it was highly contagious.

How did start it?

• Historians think that black rats living on European merchant ships caught the
disease, eventually bringing it to Europe.

How bad was it?

• The disease killed at least one third of the people in Europe and probably more. In
Paris, France it's estimated that around 800 people died a day.
• There were so many dead that they couldn't bury them. They had to carry them to
massive pits.
• Unfortunately, the people in the Middle Ages didn't know that the disease was
carried by rats.
• This made larger cities and towns, which were very dirty during the Middle Ages,
especially dangerous as there were lots of rats there.
• Sometimes entire towns or villages were wiped out by the plague.
 What did the people do?

• There was panic. Many people locked

their doors trying to hide in their houses.

• They also burned down houses and

even entire villages to try and stop the
disease.

• Some people blamed Jewish people for

bringing the plague to kill Christians.

• Other people were sure it was the end of

the world and became flagellant
 The Flagellants

• They were religious people of the Middle Ages in Europe who demonstrated their
religious fervor and sought atonement for their sins by vigorously whipping
themselves in public displays of penance.

• This approach to achieving redemption was most popular during times of crisis.

• Prolonged plague, hunger, drought and other natural maladies would motivate
thousands to resort to this extreme method of seeking relief.

• Despite condemnation by the Catholic Church, the movement gained strength and
reached its greatest popularity during the onslaught of the Black Death.
•
• Wearing white robes, large groups of the sect (many numbering in the thousands)
roamed the countryside dragging crosses while whipping themselves into a
religious frenzy.
 The Flagellants

A Contemporary View of the Flagellants, ca 1350