Facts about Middle Ages
Middle Ages Definition, Subdivision and the Dark Ages
The Middle Ages refers to the period in European history between the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century and the revival of the classical culture at the end of the 15th century.
It is traditionally subdivided into the Early Middle Ages (the period from the 5th to the end of the 10th century), the High Middle Ages (from the 11th to the end of the 13th century) and the Late Middle Ages (from the early 14th century to the end of the 15th century).
The Dark Ages is usually used for the period between 5th and late 8th century and refers to the lack of historical sources for the period rather than describing the situation in Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
The Age of the Christian Church
Collaboration of the church with the secular authorities resulted in the formation of Christianity-based culture as well as the rise of power of the church which reached its height during the High Middle Ages.
Christianity pervaded every aspect of life in the Middle Ages including political, social, cultural, intellectual and even economic.
The church’s attempt to establish its temporal rule over the entire Christian world led to a bitter conflict between the church and state.
The church permanently lost its power to the secular rulers by the end of the Middle Ages, while immorality and corruption of the clergy led to loss of its moral authority and revolution within the Roman Catholic Church – the Reformation.
Barbarization of Europe
The Migration Period that marked the Early Middle Ages resulted in barbarization of Europe.
The new settlers were culturally, intellectually and economically backward in compare to the Roman society.
Disintegration of the Western Roman Empire was followed by the rise of numerous smaller barbarian kingdoms which were politically unstable and short-lived.
The Carolingian Empire established itself as the leading power in western Europe during the reign of Charlemagne (ruled 768-814) who extended his rule over most of Western and Central Europe, and northern Italy. He also initiated the cultural and intellectual revival that came to be known as the Carolingian Renaissance.
In the late 9th century, Charlemagne’s vast empire permanently disintegrated into two realms – the Realm of the West Franks (West Francia) and the Realm of the East Franks (East Francia) evolving into the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire, respectively, by the end of the Early Middle Ages.
England was invaded by the Anglo-Saxons after withdrawal of the Romans in the early 5th century.
The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England, known as the Heptarchy were unified under the rule of Wessex by the end of the Early Middle Ages but the House of Wessex was unable to withstand the increased Viking pressure.
The entire England was ruled by the Danes from 1013 to 1042 when the Anglo-Saxon House of Wessex was restored to the throne.
The Anglo-Saxon rule in England finally collapsed in 1066 when the last Anglo-Saxon king, Harold Godwinson was defeated by William the Conqueror who was a descendant of Rollo, the first Viking ruler of Normandy.
Rise of Islam
The Middle Ages saw the rise of another major world religion – Islam which had spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula to the Pyrenees by the mid-8th century.
The Muslim conquests in Western Europe were halted after the Muslim defeat against the Franks led by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732, however, the Muslim pressure on the Byzantine Empire continued and became the immediate cause of the Crusades.
The military expeditions by the Western Christianity to the Holy Land started after the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Comnenos (ruled 1081-1118) appealed to Pope Urban II for military assistance against the Seljuk Turks.
All European territorial gains in the Middle East were lost by 1291 but the Crusades brought Europe in contact to the highly advanced Islamic culture.
The Crusades transferred much knowledge from the Islamic to the Western world including many works of classical authors which have been lost in Europe.
Feudalism and Manorialism
Feudalism and manorialism became the predominant social-political organization by the end of the Early Middle Ages.
Both landholding concepts were closely connected but they are two distinct systems.
Feudalism that resulted in the formation of the so-called feudal society was in the first place political and military system.
The nobles held land as a fief, a landholding system according to which they were obliged to provide military assistance to their lord.
In an ideal feudal society, all land was owned by the king and the nobles held land directly from the king. However, the recipients of fiefs called the vassals could further grant a part of their fief to another noble who then became their vassal.
This led to a complex system of personal alliances within the class of nobility in which everyone was someone’s vassal.
Manorialism had no connection with fiefs in military or political aspect and regulated the relationship between the peasants and their landlords.
According to the manorial system, the peasants held land directly from their landlord in return for dues in kind, labor or money.
Christian-Oriented Art, Architecture, Literature and Scholarship
Architecture was the dominant art form throughout the Middle Ages, while all major architectural works with the exception of castles and few civic buildings were commissioned by the church.
Large Romanesque and later Gothic cathedrals represent the height of medieval architecture in Western Europe, while the Orthodox states in southeastern and eastern Europe were influenced by the Byzantine architectural style.
Decorative and fine arts were dominated by religious themes the entire Middle Ages.
Religious works were the dominant form of medieval literature which was written in Latin.
Medieval secular literature reveals a major influence of Christian values but the German and Old Norse epic poems, lyric poetry of the troubadours that primarily dealt with courtly love and chivalry, and the Middle English literature also reflect pre-Christian and/or Arab influence.
Medieval scholarship was completely dominated by the church.
Education and literacy became available to a wider class of people after the emergence of universities in the 11th century but medieval scholars remained primarily interested in theological matters and tried to fuse faith and reason (scholasticism).
Agriculture-Based Economy and Guilds
Medieval economy was based on agriculture and possession of land was the primary source of wealth and power.
Estates were organized into self-sufficient economic units producing food and manufacturing goods.
Non-agricultural activities were considered dishonorable by nobility and thus the trade was taken over by the Jews who were excluded from the feudal society.
The church preached against lending money at interests to the Christians and the Jews took advantage of the lack of competition in the financial and banking sectors after being excluded from trade by the Italian city-states and German merchants during the Crusades.
The rise of medieval cities and population growth during the High Middle Ages was followed by the flow of people into cities.
Craftsmen and merchants in the same business formed guilds, a type of associations which set standards for quality of their products, and worked to maintain the set prices for their products and monopoly (on a local level) within their business branch.
Strict Division into Social Classes
Medieval society was characterized by strict division into social classes: nobility, clergy, serfs and later bourgeoisie.
Nobility held the land in exchange for military service to the king or another noble.
Serfs who formed the majority of the medieval population were on the bottom of the social hierarchy and were tied to the land.
Clergy was virtually equal in social rank to nobility, while the high church officials also acted as feudal lords.
Bourgeoisie consisted of merchants and businessmen some of which gained great wealth but they were excluded from the political life. They were ranked higher than peasants but lower than nobility (therefore they came to be known as the middle class).
None of the medieval social classes was a homogenous group and there was a further hierarchy within every class.
In addition to the four major social classes, there were also people who did not fit into either class of medieval society, most notably unskilled workers living in cities. They were personally free but their living conditions were no better than that of the serfs.
Other social groups that were excluded from medieval social classes include the Jews, foreigners, seriously ill people (serious illness was believed to be God’s punishment for sin), outlaws and rare individuals who held land in allod (a landholding system without any obligations to anyone).
Emergence of Modern Nation-States
The Great Famine of 1315-1317, the Black Death peaking in 1348 and the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) between France and England resulted in the disintegration of the feudal society and emergence of modern nation-states under strong royal authority.
Both the kings of France and kings of England managed to centralize their kingdoms under their authority, while the French and English started to identify themselves on a national level during the war.
Centuries long struggle of the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula against the Muslim Moors, known as Reconquista was the key event in the formation of the Spanish identity.
The formation of modern Spain was more complex than that of France and England as the Spanish had to bring back the entire Iberian Peninsula under the Christian rule and to unify the Christian kingdoms.
This was achieved by Isabella I of Castile and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon (also known as the Catholic Monarchs) who united Castile and Aragon through their marriage in 1469 and conquered the last Muslim state in the peninsula – the Emirate of Granada in 1492.
Beginning of the Age of Discovery
At the same time when the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula were bringing the peninsula back under the Christian rule, a new Muslim power – the Ottoman Turks arouse in the present-day Turkey.
With the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottomans gave the final blow to the Byzantine Empire and extended their rule over most of Southeastern Europe by the end of the Middle Ages.
The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks blocked the traditional trade route between Europe and Asia.
European monarchs focused on finding an alternative route to Asia which resulted in the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
