People And Places

Front 1

Europe c. 900

Back 1

• scholars write in Latin
• churches owe allegiance to Rome
• Catholic Church surrounded by the Iberian peninsula,Muslim Spain, Scandinavia, South of Italy, Eastern Europe
• parts of Scotland and Ireland are under the paganrule of Eric Bloodaxe (d. 964)
• Byzantium Empire to the east was Christian but notCatholic; their elite language was Greek and not Latin
• non-literate pagan religions to the East · Latin Christendom expands greatly between 900-1300:
• - Spain now underChristian rule

• - the Baltics,Scandinavia and Cyprus all part of Latin Christendom
• - the LatinCrusader states of Syria and Palestine and areas in the Crimea are all that isleft of the crusader outposts in 1291
• - the Byzantineempire has fallen by 1300

Front 2

Political Europe c. 900

Back 2

• political Europe is very small and surrounded bypreliterate civilisations
  
• political life is very localised
• there is no cohesive Kingdom of England – Wessex isthe most powerful
• Ireland and Wales have many regions andprincipalities
• East and West Frankish Kingdoms and Italy were underthe empire of Charlemagne (d. 814), the “father of Europe” – by 900, the empirehas fallen apart and there are many battles between rival warlords andpower-hungry princes
• many attacks on Latin Europe are conducted byexternal powers: Muslims, Scandinavian Vikings, Magyars from Hungary etc.
  

Front 3

Political Europe c. 1300

Back 3

• political divisions have taken on territorialoutlines: there is now a map of definitive European states
• Magyars have become Kingdom of Hungary ·
• Kingdom of Bohemia has become Austria and modern-dayCzech Republic
• definitive Kingdoms of France and Germany ·
• Spain is still divided into Aragon and Castille, butthere are links in place
• Kingdomof Scotland and Kingdom of England
  

Front 4

Political Europe c. 1300

Back 4

BUT...

• Europe is divided into many more smaller regions,i.e. North and West Italy is divided into 200-300 separate and self-governingcity states – similar situation in the Low Countries and Western and Southern Germany
• enormous amount of local independence still present,i.e. the Durham region in North East England
• the Baltics are under the control of the ‘TeutonicOrder’, a sect of German warrior monks·
• even the Papacy has its own territorial state
  

Front 5

Imperial Age

Back 5

• rise and fall ofcyclical empires
• England joinedwith Denmark and Norway under Cnut
• England joinedwith France after 1066
• England joinedwith the Angerin empire 1154-1204
• Kings of Englandruled over more of France than the French kings
• England hadquasi-imperial rule over Wales and Ireland
• Germany is theseat of the Holy Roman Empire § Venice and Genoaestablish coastal trading empires
• France is amulti-ethnic empire
• the CatholicChurch has far-reaching political control

Front 6

Internal change: population increase

Back 6

• population of France booms from 5m to 15m

Front 7

Internal change: countryside

Back 7

• intensively organised and exploited
• forests cut down
• marshes drained
• agricultural technology allowed grain to be produced in harsh environments
• wind and water harnessed for human needs - first evidence of windmills
• bread becomes staple of most diets - the land can support more people
• heavy plough allows cultivation in new environments

Front 8

Internal change: political control

Back 8

• castles spring up all over the continent
• knights enforced control
• territorial ruling systems

Front 9

Internal change: 'Europe of Towers'

Back 9

• greatest cities in C11th are Muslim
• by 1300, greatest cities now in LC
• population of 100,000 in Italy
• urban life increases
• 6 towns in Westphalia before 1180; by 1300 there were 138

Front 10

Internal change: money

Back 10

• kings began regularly minting coins in mid-12th century
• 12x increase in coinage in circulation in England

Front 11

External change

Back 11

• by 1300, early marauders like Norman and Magyars settle down
• Normans are given land in France in exchange for accepting Christianity
• Latin crusades are on the offensive in Med against Muslims post-1000
• Byzantium and Islamic powers have been critically weakened by power shifts and internal collapse in late-C11th

Front 12

Symptoms: mobility

Back 12

• networks of new roads built
• peasants travelling to markets
• merchant routes opening up
• great age of bridge building

Front 13

Symptoms: pilgrimages

Back 13

• Jerusalem
• Rome
• Shrine of St James at Compostela
• huge numbers of local and regional pilgrimage destinations emerged, e.g. Duzza, Canterbury

Front 14

Symptoms: churches

Back 14

• three stood out for their magnificence:
• Pisa Cathedral - financed by crusades
• Speer Cathedral - burial place of German emperors
• Durham Cathedral - shrine of St Cuthbert