Ch 7+8+10

vassal

A knight who promised to support a lord in exchange for land

manor

A large estate, often including farms and a village, ruled by a lord.

Louis IX (1226-1270)*

After the death of Philip Augustus in 1223, the Capetian heirs to the French throne Pushing out the boundaries of the French state to the east and south. Although Philip had used military force, other kings use both purchase and marriage to achieve the same and.There was considerable resistance though, particularly in the Southwest, lands hat the English had inherited from Eleanor of Aquitaine, and some of the coastal areas in Flanders. The peasants in this area managed to win a battle against the French cavalry with farm equipment. This is still celebrated as a national holiday in Belgium. Much of the 13th century was dominated by Louis IX, one of the mostcelebrated of the medieval French kings. Louis IX (1226-70) was famous for his piety and his conscientious exercise of kingly duties. He went on a crusade. He died during the second crusade. His willingness to risk his life and that of his brothers at the service of the church would give him tremendous influence in papal affairs, a key factor in making his youngest brothers Charles become the king of Naples and Sicily. He was also away from his kingdom for many years so he had to reform key aspects of royal government, which made France the bureaucratic rival of England for the first time. He also was seen as a protector of the church in the model of Charles the Great. He was widely regarded as a saint in his lifetime and was canonized in 1297, by the same Pope Boniface VIII, brought down by Philip IV. One of Louis's. successors, Philip the Fair (1285-1314), was particularly effective in strengthening the French monarchy. The machinery of government became even more specialized. French kings, going back to the early Capetians, had possessed a household staff for running their affairs. Over time however, this staff was enlarged and divided into three groups to form three major branches of royal administration. There was a Council for advice, a chamber of accounts for finances and a parlement or royal court. The French parlement was not the same as the English Parliament.

College of Cardinals

A few years later after Henry IV began to rule in his own right, the new College of Cardinals selected a zealous reformer called Hildebrand, a Cluniac monk of Tuscan origins who had been a protégé of Leo IX. He took the name Gregory VII. Ini-tially the Pope and the Emperor treated one another with re-spect. Henry IV's position in Germany had been weakened bywars with other nobles of Saxony, and he needed the backing of the Pope to restore his authority. In his letter to the new pope he blamed the advisors of his youth for the troubles that had arisen between his own court and Rome, and promised to make amends. Gregory in turn spoke of the Pope and the Em-peror as two eyes of a single Christian body. So it appeared on the surface that that a harmonious relationship might return.

Anglo-Saxon

Alfred also fostered a distinctive Anglo-Saxon literary culture. Anglo-Saxon was a vernacular language, but now it became written down and rivaled Latin. Oral traditions were now preserved as exemplified in the epic Beowulf, the first example of Old-English literature. Until the 11th century, Anglo-Saxon was the only European vernacular used for regular written correspondence.

Astrolabe

Algebra had been pioneered in Persia and became widespread in its application. The Muslims understood very well that the world was round, so they set up observatories in Baghdad to study the stars, many of which they named. They also invented the astrolabe, which sailors used to navigate by the stars. Anastrolabe uses astral bodies like the sun and stars to either locate a position in latitude or reveal the local time. It can also be used to measure celestial events like the wobble of the Earth's axis. By measuring the distance of the sun and stars above the horizon, the astrolabe helped determine latitude, an important tool in navigation. The astrolabe allowed Europeans to sail for the Americas.

Iconoclasm

Opposing or even destroying images, especially those set up for religious veneration in the belief that such images represent idol worship.

First Crusade (1095-1099

Pope Urban II did not share the wishful thinking of the peasant Crusaders but was more inclined to trust Knights, well trained in the art of war. The warriors of Western Europe, particularly France, formed the first official crusading armies. The Knights were motivated by religious fervor, but there were other attractions as well. Some sought adventure and wel-comed a legitimate opportunity to pursue their favorite pas-time, which was fighting. Others saw an opportunity to gain territory, riches, status, possibly a title, and even salvation. From the perspective of the Pope and European monarchs, the Crusades offered a way to free Europe of contentious young nobles who disturbed the peace and wasted their lives and en-ergy fighting each other. The Catholic Church had tried earlier to limit the ongoing bloodletting, but without a great deal of success. And merchants and many Italian cities relish the prospect of new training opportunities in Muslim lands. In the first Crusade, in 1096, three organized bands of no-ble warriors most of them French, made their way to the east. The first proceeding Army probably numbered several thou-sand cavalry and as many as 10,000 foot soldiers. After the capture of Antioch in 1098, they proceeded down the coast of Palestine, evading the Garrison coastal cities, and reaching Jerusalem in June 1099. After a five siege, the Holy City was taken amid a horrible massacre of the inhabitants, men, women and children. After further conquest of Palestinian lands, the Crusaders ignored the wishes of the Byzantine Emperor, who foolishly be-lieve the Crusaders were working on his behalf, and organized 4 Crusader states. These were Odessa, Antioch, Tripoli and Jerusalem. Because the Crusader states were surrounded by Muslim enemies, they grew increasingly dependent on the Ital-ian commercial cities for supplies from Europe. Some Italian cities such as Genoa, Pisa and especially Venice, became rich and powerful in the process. The Crusades ended up contributing to the further decline of Byzantine commerce and decisively altered the balance of power between Byzantium and Western Europe. For Byzan-tium, the consequences of the crusading movement were trag-ic. In the Muslim world, however, the impact was more mod-est. The Crusader kingdoms established by victorious Norman and Frankish warlords were never more than a sparsely set-tled cluster of colonies along the coastlines of Syria and Pa-lestine. Because the Crusaders did not control the Red Sea, the main routes of Islamic commerce with India and the Far East were unaffected by the change in Jerusalem's religious alle-giance. The crusaders who settled in the christianized region did not want to interfere with the overland caravan routes that wound through the new territories. Trade brokered by Arab, Persian and Jewish merchants therefore continued despite pe-riodic interruptions. The greatest economic gains for Western Europeans therefore went to the Italian Maritime republics of Venice and Genoa, and to the Western markets now opened to Muslim merchants for their goods. Both sides also gained in military terms. Western Europeans learn new techniques of fortification, and Muslims learned new methods of siege war-fare and new respect for the use of heavy cavalry. The larger impact of the Crusades of Western Europe is more difficult to assess. From one standpoint, the establish-ment of short-lived Crusader states represented the limits of Europe's expansion during an otherwise extraordinary period of growth. Trade with the Islamic world and beyond with India and the Far East brought enormous prosperity, but these trad-ing links had existed before the Crusades and continued after-wards. The most long-lasting consequence of the First Crusade was to prove the most deadly in the long run. Both Christian and Islamic doctrines of holy war, which had been developed in earlier centuries, continue to be destructive well into the 21st century. Almost immediately crusading rhetoric would dictate the terms of Western Europeans attitudes towards the wider world and towards one another. A new political and religious ethics informed the "reconquest" of the Spanish peninsula by the Christian rulers of Spain and led to the massacre or forced conversion of Muslims and Jews. Crusading rhetoric underlay English wars against the Welsh, and the Scots, and was used to justify the massacre and dispossession of so-called heretics in southern France by northern French imperialists. Many centuries later, it was used to justify the conquest of the Baltic region and later the subsequent conquest of the Americans and the colonization of Asia, Africa and Australia. It continues to exacerbate global animosity to this day. Holy Wars are hard to control, because when soldiers fight for religious beliefs, rather than money, for country or for honor, the results are often dev-astating.

Plotinus

The Hellenistic philosopher and theologian Plotinus (205-270 CE) taught that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.

Alfred the Great

The Vikings also helped unify England, which had never been part of Charlemagne's empire. Under Alfred the Great, who ruled from 871 to 899, the English succeeded in defending their small kingdom from Viking attacks. In the process Alfred was also able to destroy all other competing royal dynasties. His heirs instituted mechanisms of local government, founded new towns had codified English laws. Alfred also fostered a distinctive Anglo-Saxon literary culture. Anglo-Saxon was a vernacular language, but now it became written down and rivaled Latin. Oral traditions were now preserved as exemplified in the epic Beowulf, the first example of Old-English literature. Until the 11th century, Anglo-Saxon was the only European vernacular used for regular written correspondence.

Dragon Boats

The Vikings were superb shipbuilders and warriors. The Viking "Dragon ships" carried fifty men. The shallow draft allowed them to sail of European rivers and attack houses, fortresses and small towns. The Vikings attacked villages, set the churches on fire and easily defeated small armies sent to meet them.

feudalism

The highly diffuse distribution of power is conventionally called feudalism. The vague term is not quite satisfactory. First of all it did not come into use until the modern period. Second it has been used by different people to mean different things. For example in the 19th century Karl Marx used it to describe an economic system in which wealth is entirely agri-cultural and cities have not yet formed. But this does not actu-ally accord with the reality of Europe in the 11th and 12th cen-turies. Other scholars have seen feudalism as an aristocratic social order in which propertied men are bound together by kinship and shared interests. This does not quite explain the varieties of power that were wielded in this period. Others have spoken of feudalism as a system of landholding in which lesser men hold land from greater men in return for services. But it was not always the greater man who held the most land. The term has also been used to refer to a system whereby great lords and kings grant land in order to raise troops. Because of all these definitions, feudalism is an anachro-nism and most recent historians of the Middle Ages have abandoned the term altogether. If one wants to find a common denominator one could say that feudalism refers to the abuse of official privileges for personal gain, making use of public re-sources or institutions for private purposes. If that is the case then there is general agreement that such practices took shape in Frankish lands after the Carolinian empire had disintegrat-ed and later spread to other areas of Europe. Then it changed as it met different circumstances. In some regions these cus-toms led to an ideology that justified new kinds of domination by which kings were supposed to be able to subordinate other powerful men. In this sense feudalism legitimated real power and helped to lay the groundwork for the emergence of European nation states. Although the people living at the time would never have heard the term feudalism, they would've understand under-stood the root of the word which is usually translated as "fied".A fief is a gift or grant that creates a kind of contract between the giver and receiver. This gift could be land, but could also be revenue from a mill a toll or an annual sum of money. In re-turn the recipient owerd the giver loyalty or services of some kind. In many cases the gift implied that the recipient was subordinate to the giver and had in fact become the givers vas-sal,. The word vassal comes from a Celtic word meaning boy. This relationship was dramatized in an act or ceremony that made the vassal a man (homme). Typically the vessel would kneel in place in a position of prayer. The Lord would cover the clasped hands with his own. He would then raise up the new man and exchange a kiss with him. The symbolic importance of these gestures is clear. The Lord was literally the dominat-ing figure (domus). He could protect and raise up his man, but could also discipline him. The role of the vassal meanwhile was to support the Lord and do nothing to meet his displeasure. In regions where no centralized authority existed, this personal relationship was essential to create and maintain or-der. But these relationships were not understood in the same ways all over Europe. Many knights held their lands freely ow-ing no service whatsoever to to the count or Duke in whose in whose territories their lands lay. Nor were these relationships necessarily hierarchical. Feudalism created no feudal pyramids in which knights held fiefs from counts and and counts held fiefs from Kings, all in an orderly fashion. Sometimes kings would insist that the world should be structured in this way but they were seldom able to enforce that.

The Great Schism

To ensure his position and avoid any future papal threat, Philip IV brought enough pressure on the College of Cardinals to achieve the election of a French man, Clement V (1305-1314), as pope. Using the excuse of turbulence in the city of Rome, the new pope took up residence in Avignon on the east bank of the Rhone River. Although Avignon was located in the Holy Roman Empire and was not a French possession, it lay just across the river from the lands of King Phillip IV and was French in culture. The residency of the popes in Avignon for most of the 14th century led to a decline in papal prestige and growing anti-papal sentiment. The city of Rome was the traditional capital of the universal church. The pope was the Bishop of Rome, and his position was based on being the successor to the apostle Peter, the first Bishop of Rome. It was unseemly that the head of the Catholic Church should reside outside of Rome. In the 1330s, the popes began to construct a stately Palace at Avignon, a clear indication that they intended to stay for some time. Other factors also contributed to the decline and prestige of the papacy during this period. It was widely believed that the popes at Avignon were captives of the French monarchy. Although questionable, since Avignon did not belong to the French monarchy, it was easy to believe that in view of Avignon 's proximity to French lands. Moreover, during the 70 years of the Avignon captivity, of the 134 new cardinals created by the popes, 113 of them were French. At the same time, the popes attempted to find new sources of revenue to compensate for their loss of revenue from the papal states and began to impose new taxes on the clergy,. Furthermore the splendor in which the pope and and cardinals were living in Avignon led to highly vocal criticism of both clergy and papacy in the 14th century. Avignon having become a powerful symbol of abuses within the church, many people began to call for the popes return to Rome. The pressure paid off when in 1377, at long last, Pope Gregory XI, perceiving the disastrous decline in papal prestige, returned to Rome. He died soon afterward however in the spring of 1378. When the College of Cardinals met in conclave to elect a new pope, the citizens of Rome, fearing that the French majority would choose another Frenchman, who would return the papacy to Avignon, threatened that the Cardinals would not leave Rome alive unless they elected a Roman or at least an Italian as Pope. Indeed the guards of the conclave warned the Cardinals that they ran the risk of being torn to pieces if they did not choose an Italian. The terrified Cardinals duly declared the Italian Archbishop of Bari, who was subsequently crowned as Pope Urban VI (1378-1389) on Easter Sunday. Following the election, Urban VI make clear his plans to reform the papal curia and even to swamp the college of cardinals with enough new Italian Cardinals to eliminate the French majority. After many of the cardinals, the French ones, withdrew from Rome in late summer and were finally free of the Roman model, they issued a manifesto, saying that they had been coerced by the mob and that Urban's election was therefore null and void. The dissenting Cardinals thereupon elected one of their number, a Frenchman who took the title of Clement VII and promptly returned to Avignon. Since Urban remained in Rome, there were now two popes, initiating what has been called the Great Schism of the church. Europe's loyalty soon became divided. France, Spain, Scotland and southern Italy supported Clement, while England, Germany, Scandinavia and most of Italy supported Urban. These divisions generally follow political lines. Because the French supported the pope in Avenue, so did their allies. Their enemies, particularly England and its allies supported the Roman pope. inally things came to a head at the Council of Pisa in 1409. The assembly elected a Third pope (!), who took the name Alexander V, but the other two poes refused to resign. At this point the Holy Roman Emperor, Albert II intervened. He supported the election a. New Pope, Martin V, who now had full authority. ven though the Great Schism ended, it had badly damaged the faith of Christian believers. The Pope was widely believed to be the leader of Christendom and, as Boniface VIII had pointed out, held the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Each line of popes denounced the other as the Antichrist. Such a spectacle could not help but undermine the institution that had become the very foundation of the church.

Mongol Empire

We have noted how isolated and inward looking people in the early middle ages lived. But by the 12th century Europeans had made contact with China and India. Particularly important were the Mongols. The Mongols rose to power in Asia with stunning speed. They were loosely organized in clans and tribes that were often warring with each other. These were a pastoral people living in what is today Outer Mongolia. The Chinese living further north and east had built their great wall in fact to guard against these warring tribes. All the squabbling between tribes ended when one leader, who came to be known as Genghis Khan (1162-1227), united them. His title means universal ruler, and he created a powerful military force that united all the tribes and devoted them to fighting external enemies. He remarked "man's highest joy is in victory, to conquer one's enemies, to pursue them, to deprive them of their possessions, to make their loved ones weep, to ride on their horses, and to really embrace their wives daughters." Genghis Khan was succeeded by equally competent equally brutal, and equally vainglorious sons and grandsons.1 In the 13th century, the Mongols exploded across the steps of Asia and advanced eastward, eventually conquering China and Korea. One of Genghis Khan's grandsons, Kublai Khan, completed the conquest of China and established a new Chinese dynasty of rulers known as the Yuan. In 1279, Kublai Khan moved the capital of China northward to the city that would later be known by its Chinese name Beijing. The Mongols also moved westward against the Islamic Empire. Persia fell in 1233, and by 1258 the Mongols conquered Baghdad and destroyed the Abbasid caliphate. In the 1230s, the Mongols also began moving into Europe. They conquered Russia, advanced into Poland and destroyed a force of Poles and Teutonic Knights in Silesia in 1241. At that point the Mongol hordes turned back because of internal fighting. Western and southern Europe therefore escape the wrath of the Mongols. Overall the Mongols had little lasting impact in Europe, although their occupation of Russia that some residual effects. n the 13th century, the Mongols conquered Russia and cut off even more from Western Europe. Not numerous enough to settle the vast Russian lands, they were content to rule directly in area along the lower Volga and north of the Caspian and Black seas to give and rule indirectly elsewhere. In the latter territories, Russian princes were required to pay tribute to the Mongol overlords. One Russian prince soon emerged as more powerful than the others. Alexander Nevsky (1220-1263), prince pf Novgorod, defeated a German invading army in northwestern Russia in 1242. His cooperation with the Mongols won him their favor. The khan leader of the western part of the Mongol Empire rewarded Nevsky with the title of grand prince, enabling his descendants to become the princes of Moscow and eventually leaders of all of Russia.

Three sons: Charles the Bold, Louis the German, Lothair of Burgundy

When Charlemagne died in 814, he passed on the empire intact to his only surviving son, Louis the Pious. But under Louis the empire disintegrated. The three sons of Charlemagne fought each other until they signed a Treaty of Verdun in 843. Western Francia, which is the core of modern France, went to Charles the Bald, Eastern Francia, which are the key principalities of Germany, went to Louis the German, and a third kingdom, which stretched from the Rhineland to Rome, went to Lothair, along with the imperial title. When Lothar's line died out in 856, this fragile compromise descended into open warfare. The East and West Franks fought over the territories belonging to Lothair and the imperial power that accompanied it. The heartland of this disputed domain is known to the Germans as Lothringia and to the French as Alsace-Lorraine. It would continue to be a bone of contention all the way down to the Second World War.

Charlemagne (Charles The Great , 742-814)

When Pepin died in 768, it appeared that civil war would again break out between the Western and Eastern portions of the Frankish kingdom, and possibly Aquitaine in the Southwest. But the new ruler, later to be called Charles The Great, who came to power in 768, and was able to unite all the Franks. He did this by uniting the Franks against a common enemy, the Lombards in northern Italy, portions of central Europe and Catalonia in northeastern Spain. These conquests seem to have been ordained by God. He was able to distribute the land he conquered to his followers, who became a loyal and powerful new nobility. Many of the areas he conquered were already Christian, but that was not true of Saxony, where he converted the Germans living there. The Saxons were fierce warriors and they weren't pacified and converted until 804, after eighteen tough campaigns. The Bavarians were also converted. This set an important precedent, since now military conquest was linked to religious conversion. Charles ruled the Empire with the help of a new Frankish warrior class, created by all the lands that he was able to distribute. These "counts" (from Latin comitas, or followers) supervised local governance, raised armies and also acted as judges. Charles was able to collect taxes efficiently from his royal lands. He created a new system of money based on the division of the silver into units of 20 shillings, each worth 12 pennies, the system that would last in parts of Europe until the 1970s, when it was replaced by a decimal based currency. Much of the silver in these coins came from Arab countries, and were payment for furs, cloth and especially slaves captured in Charlemagne's wars. The silver was now transferred to the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad, helping make it one of the most opulent cities in the western world. The silver circulated as far north as Scandinavia, Russia and the Baltic Sea. Charlemagne was a fierce warrior who undertook fifty-four military campaigns. But he led a small army by comparison to the great armies of Rome. In the spring only around 8000 men assembled to go off on another campaign of conquest. A determined and decisive man, Charlemagne was intelligent, inquisitive and imposing, standing almost 7 feet tall. But he wasn't just a warrior king. He also cared about learning and culture. At the height of Charlemagne's empire, his empire covered much of Western and Central Europe. This centralized form of administration and new monetary system required written records, so we know much about Charlemagne's rule. He also sent emissaries all over this large Empire to relay instructions and bring back reports about local conditions. This was the most systematic form of government since the height of the Roman Empire. It set the standards for royal administrations throughout the Middle Ages.

House of Wisdom (Baghdad)

Where scholars studied in 830s, the Abbasids opened this to meet the demand for knowledge

Flanders

While the northern Italian cities were busy trading in the Mediterranean, the towns of Flanders were doing likewise in northern Europe. Flanders, the area along the coast of present-day Belgium and northern France, was known for the produc-tion of a much desired, high quality woolen cloth. The location of Flanders made it a logical entrepôt for the traders of north-ern Europe. Merchants from England, Scandinavia, France and Germany converged there to trade their wares for woolen cloth. Flanders prospered in the 11th and 12th centuries in Flemish towns such as Bruges and Ghent became centers of the trade and manufacturers of woolen cloth.

celibacy

abstinence from sex

Five Pillars of Islam

1. Allah is God. One must pray five times a day: 2. Prayer One must fast during the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic, lunar calendar (354 or 355 days): 3. Fasting One must make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime: 4. Pilgrimage One must give a tithe, or part of one's wealth to charity: 5. Alms

Henry II

12th century English king who made important changes such as the introduction of the jury system

monastery

A community of monks

Concordat of Worms (1122)

A compromise Between Pope Gregory VIII and Henry IV. THe overall effect is that the nobles get more power, the pope gets to install the bishops, and there is a separation between the Church and the State.

Gregory VII (1073-85)*

A few years later after Henry IV began to rule in his own right, the new College of Cardinals selected a zealous reformer called Hildebrand, a Cluniac monk of Tuscan origins who had been a protégé of Leo IX. He took the name Gregory VII. Ini-tially the Pope and the Emperor treated one another with re-spect. Henry IV's position in Germany had been weakened by wars with other nobles of Saxony, and he needed the backing of the Pope to restore his authority. In his letter to the new pope he blamed the advisors of his youth for the troubles that had arisen between his own court and Rome, and promised to make amends. Gregory in turn spoke of the Pope and the Em-peror as two eyes of a single Christian body. So it appeared on the surface that that a harmonious relationship might return.

Genghis Khan

All the squabbling between tribes ended when one leader, who came to be known as Genghis Khan (1162-1227), united them. His title means universal ruler, and he created a powerful military force that united all the tribes and devoted them to fighting external enemies. He remarked "man's highest joy is in victory, to conquer one's enemies, to pursue them, to deprive them of their possessions, to make their loved ones weep, to ride on their horses, and to really embrace their wives daughters." Genghis Khan was succeeded by equally competent equally brutal, and equally vainglorious sons and grandsons.1 In the 13th century, the Mongols exploded across the steps of Asia and advanced eastward, eventually conquering China and Korea. One of Genghis Khan's grandsons, Kublai Khan, completed the conquest of China and established a new Chinese dynasty of rulers known as the Yuan. In 1279, Kublai Khan moved the capital of China northward to the city that would later be known by its Chinese name Beijing.

Marco Polo

Among the first travelers from the West were Franciscan missionaries whose journeys were bankrolled by European rulers. Merchants quickly followed. But of course the most famous were the Italian brothers Nicolo San Mateo Polo, and Nicholas some Marco (1254-1324). Marco Polo's account of his travels began when he was 17 and included a report I have his 20 year service to the Kubla Khan and his journey home through the spice Islands, India and Persia. His books had an enormous impact on the European imagination. Christopher Columbus took a copy when he headed off for the New World.

Silk Road

An ancient trade route between China and the Mediterranean Sea extending some 6,440 km (4,000 mi) and linking China with the Roman Empire. Marco Polo followed the route on his journey to Cathay.

Boniface VIII

pope who was angered by Philip IV's demand that the clergy pay taxes to the national treasury.. he wrote a decree called the "Unam Sanctum" which declared his own supremacy over temporal rulers.. he was called to trial by Philip IV and held prisoner, dying soon after his quick release The struggle between the papacy and the secular monarchies began during the pontificate of Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303). One major issue appeared to be at stake between Boniface and King Philip IV (1285-1314) of France. Looking for a source of new revenue, Philip expressed the right to tax the French clergy. Boniface claimed that the clergy of any state could not pay taxes to their secular ruler without the pope's consent. Underlying this issue, however, was a basic conflict between the claims of the papacy to universal authority over both church and state, which necessitated complete control over the clergy, and the claims of the king that all subjects including the clergy, were under the jurisdiction of the crown and subject to the king's authority on matters of taxation and justice. In short the fundamental issue was the universal sovereignty of the papacy versus the royal sovereignty of the monarch. Boniface asserted his position in a series of papal bulls or letters, the most important of which was the Unam Sanctum + One Holy Church) issued in 1302. It was the strongest statement ever made by on the supremacy of the spiritual authority over the temporal authority. When it became apparent that the Pope had decided to act on his principles by excommunicating Philip IV France, the king sent a small contingent of French forces to capture Boniface and bring him back to France for trial. The pope was captured in Italy but nobles from the surrounding countryside soon rescued him. The shock of this experience, however, soon led to the Pope's death. Phillips strong-arm tactics had produced a clear victory for the national monarchy over the papacy, and no later pope dared re-new the extravagant claims of Boniface VIII.

Haga Sophia

Justinian also built the Hagia Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom in between 532 and 537. This church had a brilliant play of lights using forty-two windows as a basis. It was the largest indoor space at the time. The church changed architectural history because of its innovative design. It had a pendentive device, meaning a circular dome over a rectangular space. (When Constantinople fell in 1453 to a Muslim army, it was converted into a mosque).

Justinian

Justinian was the most ambitious Emperor in the mediterannean world since Constantine. His large empire was mainly Greek-speaking, even though he came from Dardenia, which is in modern Serbia and himself spoke Latin. He saw himself in the tradition of Caesar Augustus, and like Augustus, he had a very ambitious wife named Theodora, who played an influential role in his state. Although his efforts to unify the Mediterranean and reestablish the Roman Empire failed, his efforts had a long-lasting effect on the Mediterranean world. Since the Roman Empire had "fallen" through barbarian invasions, the center of the government had moved east to Constantinople. Justinian felt it a duty to reunite it. In 530 CE, his best general Belisarius was sent to conquer the barbarian Vandal kingdom in North Africa. By 536 Belisarius was poised to occupy Rome's old homeland and he was welcomed as a savior by the former subjects of the dominant Ostrogoths. But Belisarius's troops were vastly overstretched and overextended and Justinian needed to levy oppressive taxes in Egypt and Syria to support his imperial designs. Then he began to tax the Romans as well. This all lead to resentment and resistance. There were also many troubles at home. In Persia a new dynasty, the Sassanids, began to threaten Constantinople and so he eventually had to withdraw troops from Italy and North Africa. Then a pandemic broke out in 541-42 which was devastating. It was probably caused by the same bacteria as the bubonic plague that would haunt Europe in the 14th century. It was a global phenomenon stretching from Scandinavia down to Africa and into the Indian Ocean. It is estimated that this plague killed some 25 million people and would keep recurring in the next 200 years. Ironically it was the Roman roads throughout the empire that helped spread the plague. In Rome the vital supply lines of the aqueducts were cut off and the drainage ditches and reservoirs were destroyed. Parts of the Italian countryside returned to marshland, some of which would not be drained again until the 20th century. In 568 a new people, the Lombards took advantage of the chaos and occupied the northern third of the Peninsula. Thereafter Italy would be divided between the Lombard territories in the north of Italy, the imperial territories in the southeast, and Rome as a region precariously sandwiched between them. This tripartite division remained in effect into the 19th century, and to a certain extent even today politically divides Italy. The area in Northern Africa also fell away from Constantinople's grasp. Invading Muslims conquered it easily in the seventh century along with Egypt and the rest of the Roman Africa. Christianity in North Africa largely disappeared, although one Christian community continued to thrive in Ethiopia. By the end of the eighth century, Christian rulers controlled only the northern parts of the Iberian Peninsula and al-Andalus (or Muslim Spain) became part of a wider Muslim world.

Justinian Code

Justinian's most important contribution was codification of Roman law. This body of civil law remained in force until 1453. Since the Third Century the number of imperial statutes and legal decisions had multiplied into a massive and self-contradictory set of massive texts. The conditions inside the empire had changed and thus, many of the old legal principles no longer applied. Justinian's first initiatives upon coming to power in 527 was to bring existing precedents into harmony with actual historical conditions and so restore the prestige and power of the Imperial office. Justinian hired a team of lawyers, who within two years publishedThe Justinian Code, which was a systematic compilation of imperial statues, later supplemented by another book, new laws or Novels, which contained the legislation of Justinian and his immediate predecessors. By 532, the commission had also completed The Digest, a summary of the writings of Rome's great legal authorities. Its final product was TheInstitute, a textbook of legal principles. Together these four volumes constitute the Body of Civil Law, that have had a lasting impact n European jurisprudence ever since. The Justinian Code is important because it became the foundation for law in many nations of the world. The Napoleonic Code in France for example, which is still the basis for laws in France, Spain, Latin America and the state of Louisiana, is essentially based on the Justinian Code. The code also created the basis for absolutism (rule by kings alone), based on the preposition that "what pleases the prince has the force of law." But the code also supplied the basis for some forms of constitutional government. It maintained that sovereign powers are delegated to a prince or king by the people, but the people can also take it away. Equally important is the principle that the state is a corporate body, (the state is an extended body of people), not the extension of an individual's private property (i.e. the physical or symbolic body of a ruler). So the modern conception of the state as a public entity, based on the will of the population, derives logically from the legal principles in the Justinian Code. (It just took a long time for that principle to be applied in practice).

"Town air makes you free"

Means runaways we're free if they managed to stay there for a year and a day

Prophet Mohammed

Mohammed was orphaned at age five, He grew up as a caravan manager and married a rich widow who was also his employer. In hismiddle years he had visions and thought he was inspired by Allah. He originally thought that that Moses and Jesus had completed God's revelations, but now had the insight he had been chosen to complete God's message to humanity. He wrote down these ideas in the Koran, the guidelines to follow for adherents.

monks

Monk means "someone who lives alone," In other words, someone who departs from ordinary society, lives in seclusion or with other monks, who take vows of silence and poverty.

Otto I (936-973)

Most magnificent victory was the defeat of the Hungarians at Lechfeld, a victory that secured German borders, unified German duchies, and earned Otto the well-deserved titles of "Otto the Great". Otto helped Pope John XII who was being bullied by an Italian army of the German King and in return in 962, he was crowned emperor. John came back against him, and Otto proclaimed that no one would be declared "pope" until they took an oath of allegiance to the emperor; popes should rule at the emperor's pleasure

Abbasid Caliphate

Nevertheless the Fatimid dynasty prospered and eventually surpass the Abbasid caliphate as a dynamic Alexus the first, the Emperor of the new dynasty turned to the Western military assistance.

Alexander Nevsky

One Russian prince soon emerged as more powerful than the others. Alexander Nevsky (1220-1263), prince pf Novgorod, defeated a German invading army in northwestern Russia in 1242. His cooperation with the Mongols won him their favor. The khan leader of the western part of the Mongol Empire rewarded Nevsky with the title of grand prince, enabling his descendants to become the princes of Moscow and eventually leaders of all of Russia.

homage

special honor or respect shown publicly

Battle of Liegnitz (1241)

the Mongols defeat a German coalition

Battle of Hastings

the decisive battle in which William the Conqueror (duke of Normandy) defeated the Saxons under Harold II (1066) and thus left England open for the Norman Conquest

Pope (Latin means "father")

One far-reaching development in the history of the church was the emergence of the Pope as leader of the Western church. According to legend, Jesus had given the key to the kingdom of heaven to Peter, the first Bishop of Rome. Pope is Latin for father, in other words father of the Catholic Church (remember how important the pater had been the in the ancient Roman tradition). Gregory I, who was pope from 590-604, was a model for a Strong Pope, and one who was determined to convert all the heathens (non-believers). Gregory created the Papal States, as an administrative center. He had to defend Rome against the Lombards, establishing a new government and had to feed the people of Rome. He was a very astute political leader. He wanted to assert authority over all the other patriarchs in he Christian world, but in reality he was subservient to the Emperor in Constantinople. However, as the power of those Byzantine emperors declined, he saw an opportunity to expand the powers of the Latin church, and to make it more autonomous in Italy.

Bedouins

One of the major cultures that dominated theArabian Peninsula justbeforethe rise ofIslamwasthat of the nomadic Bedouin people. The polytheistic Bedouin clans placed heavy emphasis on kin-related groups, with each clan clustered under tribes. Even before the prophet Muhammed, the Arabs believed in Allah, a God who ruled over all other gods. He was symbolized by a stone, a sacred stone. Each tribe had its own stone. All tribes worshiped a large black stone which had its place in the central shrine called the Ka'aba. It was located in the city of Mecca.

Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy

Other factors also contributed to the decline and prestige of the papacy during this period. It was widely believed that the popes at Avignon were captives of the French monarchy. Although questionable, since Avignon did not belong to the French monarchy, it was easy to believe that in view of Avignon 's proximity to French lands. Moreover, during the 70 years of the Avignon captivity, of the 134 new cardinals created by the popes, 113 of them were French.

Mongol Peace

Period of stability and law and order across Eurasia under Mongol rule The period from about 1250 to 1350 in which the Mongols ensured the safety of Eurasian trade and travel

Benedictines

Religious men who sought to lead a life of strict observance of the rule of Benedict

Patriarch II

The Byzantine church was headed by a Patriarch. The Western and Eastern churches now started feuding and went in different directions. A doctrinal dispute pitted Patriarch Plotinus against the Western church. The Hellenistic philosopher and theologian Plotinus (205-270 CE) taught that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. The Western pope taught that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the father and the Son. In the late 6th century, some Latin Churches added the words "and from the Son" (filioque) to the description of the procession of the Holy Spirit, in what many Eastern Orthodox Christians argued was a violation of church law, since the words were not included in the text by the First Council of Nicea. This "and the son" was incorporated into the liturgical practice of Rome, but was rejected by Eastern Christianity. Whether the Latin term Filioqueis included, as well as how it is translated and understood, had important implications for how one understood the doctrine of the Trinity which is central to the majority of Christian churches. For some, the term implied a serious underestimation of God the Father'srole in the Trinity, while for others, its denial implied a serious underestimation of the role of God the Son in the Trinity. Such were the doctoral disputes of the day that were taken very seriously and became political battles as well.

Crusader Kingdoms

The Crusader kingdoms established by victorious Norman and Frankish warlords were never more than a sparsely settled cluster of colonies along the coastlines of Syria and Palestine. Because the Crusaders did not control the Red Sea, the main routes of Islamic commerce with India and the Far East were unaffected by the change in Jerusalem's religious allegiance.

Basil

The Golden Age of the Byzantine Empire is usually dated from the age of Justinian to around 1025, when the powerful emperor Basil II died. Basil II is considered among the most capable Byzantine emperors and his reign as the apex of the empire in the Middle Ages. By 1025, the Byzantine Empire stretched from Armenia in the east toCalabria in Southern Italy in the west. Many successes had been achieved, ranging from the conquest of Bulgaria to the annexation of parts ofGeorgia and Armenia, and the reconquest of Crete, Cyprus, and the important trading city of Antioch, the western hub of the Silk Road. These were not temporary, tactical gains, but rather were long-term reconquests. The Empire would last until 1453, when it fell to conquering Muslim armies.

Koran

The Koran was believed to be the word of God as dictated to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel. The Koran consists of 114 units of varying lengths, known assuras. The first sura is said as part of the ritual prayer. These touch upon all aspects of human existence, including matters of doctrine, social organization, and legislation. The word Koan means "recitation."

Saxons Feudalism

The Saxons were fierce warriors and they weren't pacified and converted until 804, after eighteen tough campaigns. The Bavarians were also converted. This set an important precedent, since now military conquest was linked to religious conversion.

Islam

The civilization that formed around the founding of Islam mirrored the Roman empire in its global reach and longevity. That is why it is called one of Rome's heirs. Islam, which is Arabic for "submission," also resembles the early Republic of Rome in that it demands from its followers not just adherence to common forms of worship, but also to certain extent social and cultural norms. The Roman Empire elevated Christianity to the status of a major faith by legalizing it and making it a state religion. This happened too in Islamic states, but by contrast with Rome, the Islamic faith was itself the engine of imperial expansion. Islam is unique among the major religions in the way that it has created political empires rather than solely depending on them. The word Islam derives from a concept meaning "submission to the will of Allah." Humans must subject themselves to Allah, if they wish for everlasting life. Those who followed were called Muslims. Muslim means a "practitioner of Islam."

Reconquista

The effort by Christian leaders to drive the Muslims out of Spain, lasting from the 1100s until 1492.

Norman aristocracy

The highest class of society, typically of noble birth and holding hereditary titles. In Norman England this would usually emphasise wealth, power and superiority over the normal English people.

Justinianic Plague

There were also many troubles at home. In Persia a new dynasty, the Sassanids, began to threaten Constantinople and so he eventually had to withdraw troops from Italy and North Africa. Then a pandemic broke out in 541-42 which was devastating. It was probably caused by the same bacteria as the bubonic plague that would haunt Europe in the 14th century. It was a global phenomenon stretching from Scandinavia down to Africa and into the Indian Ocean. It is estimated that this plague killed some 25 million people and would keep recurring in the next 200 years. Ironically it was the Roman roads throughout the empire that helped spread the plague.

Phillip IV (The Fair) (1285-1314)* (moved Pope to Avignon)

To ensure his position and avoid any future papal threat, Philip IV brought enough pressure on the College of Cardinals to achieve the election of a French man, Clement V (1305-1314), as pope. Using the excuse of turbulence in the city of Rome, the new pope took up residence in Avignon on the east bank of the Rhone River. Although Avignon was located in the Holy Roman Empire and was not a French possession, it lay just across the river from the lands of King Phillip IV and was French in culture. The residency of the popes in Avignon for most of the 14th century led to a decline in papal prestige and growing anti-papal sentiment. The city of Rome was the traditional capital of the universal church. The pope was the Bishop of Rome, and his position was based on being the successor to the apostle Peter, the first Bishop of Rome. It was unseemly that the head of the Catholic Church should reside outside of Rome. In the 1330s, the popes began to construct a stately Palace at Avignon, a clear indication that they intended to stay for some time.

Carolinian Renaissance

Under Charlemagne there was a revival of classical studies and preservation of classical literature in the monsters. In the writing rooms, Scriptores, monks copied the Bible but also classical Latin authors. Ninety percent of ancient Latin texts survived because of these monks. There were many different versions of the Latin Bible in circulation at the time, and many mistakes had crept in over the years. Under Alcuin, the intellectual leader at Charlemagne's court, the various Bibles were compared and an authoritative text was created.. Charles considered this to be an important part of his legacy, to be a patron of learning and the arts, resting on the foundation that Christian wisdom was essential to the salvation of God's people. So he recruited intellectuals from all over Europe to further the cause of scholarship.

John I (Ruled 1199-1216)

What exactly was France? Was it the tiny islands around Paris called the island of France, which had been his father's domain? Or was it any region whose Lord was willing to pay homage to the French King, like champagne or Normandy? In that case the king would need to enforce his rights of Lordship constantly and if necessary exert his role directly, as Philip did when he took Normandy away from England's King John in 1214. People who spoke French lived in different territories, some ruled by English, some by French or Flemish princes, for example. What then was "France?" What if some of France's neighboring lords ruled in their own right? Such was the case for example in Flanders. Flanders threatened the security of France's borders. In that case the king would either have to forge an alliance with the borderlands or try to negate their independence. He would need to assert his sovereignty by absorbing those regions into an ever-growing kingdom.

Treaty of Verdun 843

When Charlemagne died in 814, he passed on the empire intact to his only surviving son, Louis the Pious. But under Louis the empire disintegrated. The three sons of Charlemagne fought each other until they signed a Treaty of Verdun in 843. Western Francia, which is the core of modern France, went to Charles the Bald, Eastern Francia, which are the key principalities of Germany, went to Louis the German, and a third kingdom, which stretched from the Rhineland to Rome, went to Lothair, along with the imperial title. When Lothar's line died out in 856, this fragile compromise descended into open warfare. The East and West Franks fought over the territories belonging to Lothair and the imperial power that accompanied it. The heartland of this disputed domain is known to the Germans as Lothringia and to the French as Alsace-Lorraine. It would continue to be a bone of contention all the way down to the Second World War.

Priories

a small monastery or nunnery that is governed by a prior or prioress 67 daughter monasteries

The Great Khan

idk

dioceses

local areas of the Church led by bishops

Edward III (1312-1377)*

Edward III' second's early campaign in France was indecisive and achieved little. In 1346 Edward was forced to fight at Crecy, just south of Flanders. The large French army followed no battle plan but simply attacked the English lines in a disorderly fashion. The arrows of the English archers decimated the French cavalry. The fight is not decisive however. The English simply did not possess the resources to subjugate all France, and hostilities continued intermittently for another 50 years until a truce was negotiated in 1396, seemingly bringing an end to this protracted series of struggles between the French and English.

William Ockham

English philosopher and theologian, opposed much of Aquinas and rejected the Pope's power in the secular realm, nominalist, wrote "Summa Logicae" William of Ockham was a theological voluntarist who believed that if God had wanted to, he could have become incarnate as a donkey or an ox, or even as both a donkey and a man at the same time. He was criticized for this belief by his fellow theologians and philosophers.

Rubaiyat

Epic poem of Omar Khayyam; seeks to find meaning in life and a path to union with the divine

Allah

Even before the prophet Muhammed, the Arabs believed in Allah, a God who ruled over all other gods. He was symbolized by a stone, a sacred stone. Each tribe had its own stone. All tribes worshiped a large black stone which had its place in the central shrine called the Ka'aba. It was located in the city of Mecca. The word Islam derives from a concept meaning "submission to the will of Allah." Humans must subject themselves to Allah, if they wish for everlasting life. Those who followed were called Muslims. Muslim means a "practitioner of Islam."

Anglo-Saxons

Gradually fusion between the victorious Normans and the defeated Anglo-Saxons transformed England although the Norman ruling class spoke French, intermarriage of the Nor-man French and the Anglo-Saxon nobility gradually blended the two cultures and vastly enriched the English language. The Normans also took over existing Anglo-Saxon institutions, such as the office of the Sheriff. William took a census to more fully developed the system of taxation that the royal courts had begun under the Saxon kings of the 10th and 11th centuries. All in all, William of Normandy created a strong cen-tralized monarchy.

Gregory I

Gregory I, who was pope from 590-604, was a model for a Strong Pope, and one who was determined to convert all the heathens (non-believers). Gregory created the Papal States, as an administrative center. He had to defend Rome against the Lombards, establishing a new government and had to feed the people of Rome. He was a very astute political leader. He wanted to assert authority over all the other patriarchs in the Christian world, but in reality he was subservient to the Emperor in Constantinople. However, as the power of those Byzantine emperors declined, he saw an opportunity to expand the powers of the Latin church, and to make it more autonomous in Italy. He also coordinated and administered the other churches, particularly in Gaul (France) and he sent missionaries out on conversion missions. Missions were particularly important in England and Germany. He also adjudicated conflicts. He used monasteries to spearhead the conversions to Christianity. Gregory was also important in matters of doctrine. He emphasized the necessity of penance for the forgiveness of sins and the concept of purgatory as a place where the soul could be purified before being admitted to heaven. He also emphasized music, which had always been essential to religious rituals in the ancient world. He gave us the "Gregorian chants," used to accompany the text of the mass. It should be pointed out that Gregory was also the first prominent theologian to articulate the church's official policy towards Jews, which became increasingly hostile. Later popes would become increasingly anti-Semitic by blaming the Jews for Christ's crucifixion and their denial of his divinity.

Gregorian Chants

Gregory was also important in matters of doctrine. He emphasized the necessity of penance for the forgiveness of sins and the concept of purgatory as a place where the soul could be purified before being admitted to heaven. He also emphasized music, which had always been essential to religious rituals in the ancient world. He gave us the "Gregorian chants," used to accompany the text of the mass.

Henry IV

Holy Roman Emperor, opposed the pope on the issue of lay investiture, he is excommunicated and ends up begging the pope for forgiveness

William of Normandy

"The Conqueror" who defeated Harold at Hastings and established feudalism in England In 1066, an army of heavily armed knights under William of Normandy, landed on the southeastern coast of England and soundly defeated King Harold and his Anglo-Saxon foot sol-diers at the Battle of Hastings on October 14. William was crowned King of England at Christmas time in London and be-gan the process of combining Anglo-Saxon and Norman insti-tutions. Many of the Norman knights were given parcels of land that they held as fiefs from the new English king. William made all the nobles swear an oath of loyalty to him and insist-ed that all people owe loyalty to the king rather than to their Lord. Gradually fusion between the victorious Normans and the defeated Anglo-Saxons transformed England although the Norman ruling class spoke French, intermarriage of the Nor-man French and the Anglo-Saxon nobility gradually blended the two cultures and vastly enriched the English language. The Normans also took over existing Anglo-Saxon institutions, such as the office of the Sheriff. William took a census to more fully developed the system of taxation that the royal courts had begun under the Saxon kings of the 10th and 11th centuries. All in all, William of Normandy created a strong centralized monarchy.

Thomas Aquinas

(Roman Catholic Church) Italian theologian and Doctor of the Church who is remembered for his attempt to reconcile faith and reason in a comprehensive theology

Alexius I (1081-1118)

Another dynasty, however soon breathed new life into the Byzantine Empire. Alexius I, the head of the new dynasty, turned to the Western military assistance. The positive re-sponse to his request led to the Crusades. And the Byzantine Empire lived to regret it. The the immediate impetus for the Crusades came when the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I asked Pope Urban II for help against the Turks. The Pope saw a golden opportunity to pro-vide papal leadership for a great cause to rally the warriors of Europe for the liberation of Jerusalem and the holy land from he Muslim infidel. In coming to the aid of the Eastern Roman Empire, he would show the rest of princes of Western Europe that the Pope was a force to be reckoned with. At the same time, he would show that Latin military and spiritual might was greater than that of the weakened Greeks, thereby heal-ing the schism between Orthodox and Latin Christians and re-alizing the centuries-old dream of a universal Christian church based in Rome, with the Pope at his head. In addition, Urban would thereby show support for another reforming effort that had gained momentum in 20 years, a peace movement that was attempting to quell the endemic violence unleashed by competitive bands of knights and their rapacious lords. What better way to diffuse the situation than to ship those violent energies overseas, deploying them against the a common ene-my? At the Council of Clermont in southern France near the end of 1095, Urban challenged Christians to take up their weapons against the infidel and enjoin a holy war to recover the holy land. The Pope promised remission of all sins.

Avicenna

Arabian philosopher and physician(Muslim Scholar)

Counts

As we noted, Charlemagne appointed counts in local areas to act as agents of the king, as judges and military leaders. This is where the word county comes from. In order to avoid a count from passing on power to his. children, he made them move from county to county. He also sent emissaries to make sure the counts were executing his orders.

Magyars

At the same time a non-Indo-European people called the Magyars crossed the Carpathian Mountains around 895. They were finally conquered at the battle of Lechfield in Germany in 955. They then converted to Christianity and settled down in the area which is today Hungary. The various inhabitants of the Viking colonies may have been forced to unite against this common enemy and come to share a common identity.

Sharia

Besides these basic rules, a set of guidelines emerged called Sharia, which were written down by Islamic scholars after Mohammed's death until around the tenth century. Sharia is a code of behavior with strict guidelines. The religious law of Islam is seen as the expression of God's command for Muslims and, in application,constitutesa system of duties that are incumbent upon all Muslims by virtue of their religious belief. Known as the Sharīʿah (literally, "the path leading to the watering place"), the law represents a divinely ordained path of conduct that guides Muslims toward a practical expression of religious convictionin this world and the goal of divine favor in the world to come. Examples of Sharia are: one should not gamble, eat pork, drink alcohol, engage in dishonest behavior, and have no extramarital sex etc. (Men could have more than one wife but Mohammed limited the number.)

Fatimids

By the mid-10th century, the Islamic Empire led by the caliphate in Baghdad, was in the process of disintegration. A Shia dynasty known as the Fatimids managed to go conquer Egypt and establish the new city of Cairo as their capital. In establishing the Shiite caliphate, they became rivals to the Sunni caliphate of Baghdad, which exacerbated the division in the Islamic world. Nevertheless the Fatimid dynasty prospered and eventually surpass the Abbasid caliphate as a dynamic Alexus the first, the Emperor of the new dynasty turned to the Western military assistance. The positive response to the Em-peror's request led to the Crusades. But the Byzantine Empire lived to regret it of the Islamic world. The Fatimids created a strong army by using non-native peoples as mercenaries. One of these peoples, the Turks, posed a threat to the Fatimids themselves. The Turks were a nomadic people from Central Asia would been converted to Islam and worked as mercenaries for the caliphate in Baghdad. They move gradually into Persia and Armenia and grew in numbers by the 11th century until they were able to take over the eastern provinces of the Em-pire. In 1055 a Turkish leader captured Baghdad an assumed command of the Empire with the title of Sultan, which means holder of power. By the second half of the 11th century, the Seljuk Turks were exerting military pressure on Egypt and the Byzantine Empire. When the Byzantine Emperor foolishly challenged the Turks, they routed the Byzantine army in 1071. In the same year the Turks captured Jerusalem, which had be-longed to the Sunni caliphate in Egypt, ruled by the Fatimids . In dire straits, the Byzantines turned to the West for help, set-ting in motion the events that that led to the Crusades. To un-derstand the complexities of the situation we need to look first at the Byzantine Empire.

Seljuk Turks

By the second half of the 11th century, the Seljuk Turks were exerting military pressure on Egypt and the Byzantine Empire. When the Byzantine Emperor foolishly challenged the Turks, they routed the Byzantine army in 1071. In the same year the Turks captured Jerusalem, which had be-longed to the Sunni caliphate in Egypt, ruled by the Fatimids . In dire straits, the Byzantines turned to the West for help, set-ting in motion the events that that led to the Crusades. To un-derstand the complexities of the situation we need to look first at the Byzantine Empire.

Emperor of the Romans (800 CE)

Charlemagne

Pope Leo III

Charlemagne realized a chance to extend his power when, in 799, Pope Leo III (795-816) faced a rebellion in Rome and fled to Charlemagne's court. Leo returned the favor when in Aachen, on Christmas day 800, he declared Charlemagne Emperor of the Romans. Charlemagne became the next Roman Emperor, in the line of Augustus Caesar. Pope Leo III placed the imperial crown on his head. This was an extraordinarily significant event. For the next thousand years, there would be a Holy Roman Emperor in Europe. The alliance between church and throne continued to define Western monarchies. Charlemagne also created the basis for and identity with Western Europe. At the time the Byzantine emperors saw themselves as the rightful heirs of the Imperial line going back to Caesar Augustus. By accepting the crown from the Pope, Charlemagne was making a statement that the Western Empire was separate. The Pope now severed ties with the Byzantine Empire and drew closer to the Franks.

Eastern Orthodox Church

Christian followers in the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire); split from Roman Catholic Church and shaped life in eastern Europe and western Asia The fundamental civilizing and unifying force of early Russia was the Christian church. The Russian church imitated the liturgy and organization of the Byzantine Empire, was Eastern Orthodox priests had converted the Kievan Rus to Christianity at the end of the 10th century. The Russian church became known for its rigid religious orthodoxy. Although Christianity provided a common bond between Russian and European civilization, Russia's religious development guaranteed an even closer affinity between the Russian and Byzantine civilization.

Battle of Courtrai

In 1302, the townspeople of Flanders rebelled against the French, laying siege to the castle at Courtrai. The French sent an army of some 10,000 men, commanded by Robert of Artois, to deal with them. Rumours spread that the invading army was committing dreadful atrocities in order to terrorize the Flemings, killing the sick, women, and children. Aware of the coming attack, the Flemings prepared the ground, digging ditches so as to disrupt cavalry charges. The French knew what was happening; a man called Peter the Horrible sold them a map showing where the ditches were. Overconfident, they failed to draw the right conclusion: this would not be a battlefield for cavalry. The Flemings knew better, and drew up their forces on foot; even the knights with them dismounted to fight. Many in the French council of war were worried by the prospect of battle, but Robert of Artois was anxious to attack. The battle began with the crossbowmen on each side exchanging volleys. The Flemings had the worst of it, and were forced to withdraw back to their main line. The French infantry then trudged forward through the ditches and mud, and began to lay into the line of enemy troops. Robert of Artois, however, wanted a glorious victory, won by a triumphant cavalry charge. So he pulled back the infantry. The charge that followed was disorganised. There was a stream to cross, and many horses refused. Men and horses fell into the ditches. Those that managed to reach the tightly-packed Flemish lines were beaten down by men armed with pikes and the fearsome goedendags, long heavy clubs fitted with iron spikes, which crunched into armour and crushed skulls. Further waves of cavalry suffered the same fate. One writer described them as caught in a net, like birds in a trap, another as oxen going to slaughter. Most of the Flemish line held firm; one section was penetrated by the French, but the Flemings had a reserve under Jan de Renesse, which moved in swiftly to drive the enemy back. A final desperate charge by Robert of Artois achieved nothing. His horse was slain, and he pleaded for his life - in vain. In the final stage of the battle, the Flemings advanced, killing any Frenchmen who had managed to survive. This was not a chivalrous battle in which the defeated were allowed to surrender honourably in order to be ransomed. It was a cruel massacre. The bodies of the slain were pillaged. There was no respect for the corpses, which were left to rot where they lay in the ditches. The flower of French chivalry had been plucked.

Cluny

In 810, a Benedictine Abbey called Cluny freed himself from any obligation to local families by placing himself under the direct protection of the Pope. He had a wealthy benefactor, but the man relinquished control over Cluny's property. DukeWilliam of Aquitaine gained the spiritual support and prayers of the monks. He hoped that their intercessions would help save a warlike man like himself from eternal damnation. This arrangement set a new precedent for the relation-ship between monasteries and powerful families for centuries to come. Cluny began to sponsor other monasteries on the same model. This foundation of daughter houses was another innovation. Prior to this, Benedictine monasteries were inde-pendent of one another. Now Cluny established a network of clones all across Europe, which remained subordinate to the motherhouse. In 1049 there were 67 priories, as the daughter monasteries were called, each one performing the same elaborate round of prayer and worship for which Cluny became fa-mous, and each one was entirely free from control of the local lords who hoped to win spiritual rewards from their support of these pious monks. luny's influence was strongest in the former Frankishterritories and in Italy where the virtual absence of effective kings allowed monastic reforms to thrive. In Germany and England by contrast, monastic reform became an essential re-sponsibility of Christian rulers who followed the pious Charlemagne. But they followed Cluny's example by insistingon the strict observance of poverty, chastity and obedience within the monastery and on the performance of prayer. But because they were guaranteeing the monasteries freedom from outside interference, it was they who appointed the Abbotts, just as they also appointed the bishops in their kingdoms. As a result of this trend and as a result of the Norman conquest of England, future kings of England would have more direct con-trol over church lands than other European leaders.

Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain)

In Al-Andalus, today Spain, the Umayyad caliphate also became greatly weakened, as small Christian kingdoms in the north and East began to encroach on Muslim territory and began paying Christian rulers tribute in the north to protect them. As Muslim power began to wane, a new renaissance began in Europe, north of the Alps.

Merovingian Dynasty

In Gaul meanwhile, a new Roman Empire was beginning to emerge. By the eighth century the a new dynasty called the Merovingian, was losing control over Frankish lands. The decline of the Merovingians had to do the power struggle in Neustria, which is today Northwestern France. A considerable portion of their land had been given over to monasteries, which weakened their power. An Austrasian nobleman (Austrasia is in modern northwest Germany) named Charles The Hammer assumed leadership of the Frankish state at the beginning of the seventh century. His title was major domo or "head of the great household", so he wasn't yet actually a King. Charles the Hammer is considered to be the second founder of the Frankish Empire, after Clovis, King of the Franks He won an important victory over a Muslim army in 1733 or 734 at the battle of Tours and Poitiers, 150 miles from the Merovingian stronghold in Paris. It was important for the Charles Martel (Martel means hammer in French), because he gained enormous prestige, even though the raiders were just a small Muslim army, far away from Arabia. The real reason for their pull back from Frank territory was that the Muslim armies at the time had failed to conquer Constantinople. Nevertheless Charles was able to turn the victory into a symbolic defense of Christian Europe, and thus eventually make himself important to the papacy in Rome. Charles had made an alliance with English missionaries who were attempting to convert the Germans to Christianity. The leader of the Benedictines, named Boniface, brought him in contact with the papacy, which Charles recognized now as a good means to expand his power. Officially the Merovingians were still the official dynasty, but when the last Merovingian King died in 737, the Franks did not even bother to elect the new King. In 750, Pepin, Charles son, seized the throne all for himself. But this created resistance among the Franks, who were loyal to the descendants of Clovis. For that reason, Charles turned to the papacy. The Pope realize that this powerful leader of the Franks could be a useful ally in his struggle with the Byzantine emperors over the issue of iconoclasm, which the papacy opposed. Charles could help him in his struggle against the pesky Lombards in northern Italy. So Pope Boniface, acting as a papal emissary, anointed Charles King of the Franks in 751. This ritual goes all the way back to King David in the Old Testament, but now it took on new meaning and would eventually lead to a long term alliance between throne and alter.

Lombards

In Rome the vital supply lines of the aqueducts were cut off and the drainage ditches and reservoirs were destroyed. Parts of the Italian countryside returned to marshland, some of which would not be drained again until the 20th century. In 568 a new people, the Lombards took advantage of the chaos and occupied the northern third of the Peninsula. Thereafter Italy would be divided between the Lombard territories in the north of Italy, the imperial territories in the southeast, and Rome as a region precariously sandwiched between them. This tripartite division remained in effect into the 19th century, and to a certain extent even today politically divides Italy. The area in Northern Africa also fell away from Constantinople's grasp. Invading Muslims conquered it easily in the seventh century along with Egypt and the rest of the Roman Africa. Christianity in North Africa largely disappeared, although one Christian community continued to thrive in Ethiopia. By the end of the eighth century, Christian rulers controlled only the northern parts of the Iberian Peninsula and al-Andalus (or Muslim Spain) became part of a wider Muslim world.

Henry IV (1056-1105)*

In the 11th century, German kings created a strong monarchy and a powerful empire by leading armies into Italy. To strengthen their power they had come to rely on their abili-ty to control the church and select bishops and abbots, whom they could then used as Royal administrators. But the struggle between church and state during the reign of Henry IV (1056-1106) weakened the king's ability to use church officials in this way. No German king could claim to rule more than a single principality and his Imperial authority over a host of other rulers was only maintained through close alliance with the church. For this reason the Emperor relied heavily on church leaders or church administrators who were archbishops or bishops. The Emperor himself relied on Church leaders. He appointed and installed them to their offices, just as Charle-magne had done. Even the Pope was frequently an Imperial appointer. This fact meant that leading churchmen were often members of the Imperial family which helped to counter the power of regional rulers. n the latter half of the 11th century this close cooperation between sacred and secular authority was fractured and so was the ultimate power of the German monarch. In 1056 the six-year-old Henry IV (1050-1106) succeeded his father as king and Emperor and the competition between the advisors of the underage ruler escalated into larger conflicts. The German princes of various regions, led by the disenfranchised Saxon nobility, tried to gain control of the royal government at the expense of Henry's regents. When Henry began to rule in his own right, in 1073, the hostilities escalated into a civil war.

Avignon

In the 1330s, the popes began to construct a stately Palace at Avignon, a clear indication that they intended to stay for some time. Other factors also contributed to the decline and prestige of the papacy during this period. It was widely believed that the popes at Avignon were captives of the French monarchy. Although questionable, since Avignon did not belong to the French monarchy, it was easy to believe that in view of Avignon 's proximity to French lands. Moreover, during the 70 years of the Avignon captivity, of the 134 new cardinals created by the popes, 113 of them were French. At the same time, the popes attempted to find new sources of revenue to compensate for their loss of revenue from the papal states and began to impose new taxes on the clergy,. Furthermore the splendor in which the pope and and cardinals were living in Avignon led to highly vocal criticism of both clergy and papacy in the 14th century. Avignon having become a powerful symbol of abuses within the church, many people began to call for the popes return to Rome.

Kublai Khan

In the 13th century, the Mongols exploded across the steps of Asia and advanced eastward, eventually conquering China and Korea. One of Genghis Khan's grandsons, Kublai Khan, completed the conquest of China and established a new Chinese dynasty of rulers known as the Yuan. In 1279, Kublai Khan moved the capital of China northward to the city that would later be known by its Chinese name Beijing.

Vikings

In the ninth century the vast empire that Charlemagne had built began to break down. To the Southwest he faced the powerful Muslim rulers in Spain, and in the north the pagans of Scandinavia. In the East the Frankish armies were preoccupied with settling the territories they had already occupied so they could not secure Slavic lands beyond that. The need for land and plunder to cement the allegiance of followers became ever more pronounced. The number of counts tripled from around 100 to 300 and they all wanted more wealth and power. Already under Charlemagne, these counts became more powerful and centralized authority began to break down. The majority of the free inhabitants in the Empire became increasingly dominated by local lords who treated them as if they were property, serfs. Troubles in the Abbasid Empire caused the breakdown in the commercial system through which Scandinavian traders brought silver into Frankish lands. Deprived of their livelihood, these traders turned to raiding, which is the Norse word Viking. Under these combined pressures the Carolinian empire fell apart and a new political map of Europe began to emerge. The Scandinavians knew the waterways of Europe well. They used the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea to navigate all the way down to the Byzantine Empire. But with the power of the Abbasids in decline, the Viking raiders turned to plunder, ransom, tribute collection and slavery. These were small-scale operations at first but then the Vikings became more organized and assembled larger armies, some in the thousands. Small kingdoms of Anglo-Saxons and Celts in Britain were easy targets as were the divided kingdoms of the Franks. By the 10th century the Vikings controlled independent areas in eastern England, Ireland and the islands of Scotland, as well as areas in France, that are still called Norseman Land or Normandy. A Viking people called the Rus establish the beginnings of a kingdom that would become Russia. At the end of the 10th century Vikings colonized Iceland, Greenland and the distant territory they called Vinland which is Newfoundland in Canada. In 1016 a Viking Army even placed a Danish king on the English throne.

heavy wheeled plow

Iron was crucial for making a heavy wheeled plow strong enough to turn over the dense clay soil north of the Alps and allow for drainage.

Peter the Hermit

The initial response to Urban's speech reveals how ap-pealing many people found this combined call to military arms and religious fervor. A self-appointed leader, Peter the Hermit, who preached of his visions of the Holy City of Jerusalem, con-vinced a large mob, most of them poor peasants, to undertake a crusade to the east. So Alexius received a favorable reply but he got far more than he had asked for or wanted. He needed a modest contin-gent of a few thousand troops, to help him reconquer Anatolia. What he got was a vast army of 100,000 men, charged by ur-ban II to retake the holy city of Jerusalem for Christendom. Urban decided to interpret the request by Alexius very loosely. Speaking before an assembled crowd at Claremont in 1095, he announced that he fully supported the peace movement. He said that any Knight who wished to fight for Christian cause was justified and wreaking havoc. Where is at home he had called them riffraff who were damned for all eternity. So by taking up the cross a warrior stood to win glory, booty and sal-vation. The so-called Peasants Crusade or Crusade of the Poor comprised a ragtag rabble that moved through the Balkans, terrorizing natives and looting for their food and supplies. Their misplaced religious enthusiasm led toanother tragic byproduct as well, the persecution of the Jews, long depicted by the church as the murderers of Christ. Two bands of peas-ant crusaders, led by Peter the Hermit, managed to reach Con-stantinople. Emperor Alexius wisely shipped them over to Asia Minor, where the Turks massacred the undisciplined and poor-ly armed mob.

Canossa

The italian city where pope Gregory VII stayed. Henry traveled here in the snow to beg for forgiveness after being excommunicated He crossed the snow-covered Alps into Italy in 1077, and in the depths of winter he found Gregory at his winter castle at Canossa, under the protection of one of Europe's most powerfulrulers, Matilda of Tuscany.

Byzantium Constantinople

The name Byzantium derives from the ancient port where Constantinople was situated. When Justinian failed to unify the Roman Empire, he essentially created the Eastern Empire. The citizens of this empire never ceased to consider themselves anything but Romans. They saw themselves as carrying forward Roman traditions values and institutions. This was to be the New Rome. Although the Muslim invaders took large parts of his empire, Justinian rebuilt Constantinople and Asia Minor became the central core of the empire. It remained an opulent Christian city for a thousand years. Constantinople probably had a population of a million people, while Rome had dwindled to perhaps 10,000 inhabitants living in the ruins. Paris was still a village. Constantinople had huge houses and arenas, particularly the Hippodrome ("hippo" is Greek for horse and "drome" means course," so a horse track). The Byzantines loved chariot racing. Justinian built churches and public works as well as baths, hospitals and monasteries. The Hippodrome housed 40,000 to 60,000 spectators and was made of marble over laid on brick. Justinian also built the Hagia Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom in between 532 and 537. This church had a brilliant play of lights using forty-two windows as a basis. It was the largest indoor space at the time. The church changed architectural history because of its innovative design. It had a pendentive device, meaning a circular dome over a rectangular space. (When Constantinople fell in 1453 to a Muslim army, it was converted into a mosque).

Abbasid Caliphate

The silver was now transferred to the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad, helping make it one of the most opulent cities in the western world. troubles in the Abbasid Empire caused the breakdown in the commercial system through which Scandinavian traders brought silver into Frankish lands. As noted above, the decline of the Abbasid dynasty in Persia was one of the forces that contributed to the escalation of the Viking raids. In 909 a local Shia dynasty called Fatimids seized control of the Abbasid province of North Africa.

Aly(Mohammed's son in law )

The succession after Mohammed's death was difficult. Mohammed's father-in-law, a wealthy merchant named Abu Bakr became one line of succession, this established the caliphate or leadership in Damascus. But another line went through the son-in-law Aly. This created a split between the Shiites and the Sunnis that has lasted to this day. The succession to Muhammadis the central issue that split the Muslim community into several divisions in the first century of Islamic history, with the most prominent among these sects being the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam. Shia Islam holds that Aliwas the appointed successor to the Islamic prophetas head of the community. Sunni Islam maintains Abu Bakrto be the first leader after Muhammad on the basis of election.

Sunni-Shia

The succession to Muhammadis the central issue that split the Muslim community into several divisions in the first century of Islamic history, with the most prominent among these sects being the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam. Shia Islam holds that Aliwas the appointed successor to the Islamic prophet as head of the community. Sunni Islam maintains Abu Bakrto be the first leader after Muhammad on the basis of election. The contrasting opinions regarding the succession are primarily based on differing interpretations of events in early Islamic history as well as ofsayings of Muhammad. Sunnis believe that Muhammad had no appointed successor and had instead intended that the Muslim community choose a leader from among themselves. They accept the rule of Abu Bakr, and that of his successors. Conversely, Shi'ites believe that Ali had previously been nominated by Muhammad as heir. They primarily see the rulers who followed Muhammad as illegitimate, with the only rightful Muslim leaders being Ali and his lineal descendants, the Twelve Imams, who are viewed as divinely appointed.

Fatimid

There was also the problem of increasing division between Sunnis and Shia, and among the Shia themselves. In 909 a local Shia dynasty called Fatimids seized control of the Abbasid province of North Africa. In 969 the Fatimid conquered Egypt as well and founded a new capital in Cairo. Then another Shia group, rivals of both the Fatimids and the Abbasids attacked Baghdad. By the 930s the Abbasids had effectively disappeared though they remained nominal rulers until 1258, when destroyed by the Mongols.