The Birth

of Europe

Merovingians, 457 – 752

• 485 – Clovis (466 – 511) united Frankish Gaul.– First “King of the Franks”– Unity provided by

• conquest (power)• Christianity.

– Clovis converted by 498.– Allied with the Pope and bishops of Gaul.

• Weakness of dynasty was inheritance tradition of leaving property to all heirs.

Power shifts to the Carolingians, 751 – 843

• Charles Martel (688 – 741) – “Charles the Hammer”– “Mayor of the Palace”– Supported monasteries

• missionaries • used them as administrative centers.

• Won the Battle of Tours, c. 732.

• Pepin III, son of Martel, became king of the Franks in 751.– Crowned by the pope, increasing ties between Frankish state and

popes.– By being anointed by the Pope the king was established as

sacred.

The Western Church

• Developed through two main branches: – regular clergy - priests inside monastaries– secular clergy - priests and bishops outside monasteries

• Regular clergy– monastics, who live according to a rule– “Rule” of St. Benedict (d. 543)– particularly important to monastic development in Western Europe.– monasteries opened up more land for agriculture.– Promoted economic self-sufficiency and manual labor as prayer.– preserved classical and early Christian culture.

• Bishop of Rome emerged as head of the Church in the West

• Gregory I “the Great” (c. 540 – March 604)– Elected in 590, made the papacy powerful– The “Father of Christian Worship”– Promoted

• Benedictine monasticism• The ideas of St. Augustine

• Wrote Pastoral Care, a guide to church administration.

• Made alliance with the Frankish kings.

Charlemagne, c. 747 – 814 • Son of Pepin III, became King of the Franks in 768

• Synthesized Roman, German, and Christian traditions.– “Western Culture”

• Created largest empire in the West since the collapse of Roman rule in 476.

• Built a palace at Aachen

• Reformed legal system.

• Carolingian Renaissance – Chief court scholar, Alcuin of York– Schools created– Curriculum standardized

– Northern Europe embraced Greco-Roman artistic ideas

The Seven Liberal Arts

• Trivium– grammar– rhetoric– logic

• Quadrivium– arithmetic– geometry– music– astronomy

Charlemagne granted the title “Emperor of the Romans”

by Pope Leo III

A new Roman emperor in the West separated the West from the Byzantine Empire.

Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire. 962 (?)

Charlemagne 768-814Louis the Pius 814-840

Treaty of Verdun 843

Empire divided betweenLouis’ sons

. . . and then came the Vikings.

Feudalism

• Developed in the West Frankish Kingdom.– Power at the regional level– Vassals rewarded for service with a fief (land)

• In theory all land belonged to the king.• Fief organized around a manor.

King

Vassal Vassal Vassal Vassal

Vassal Vassal Vassal

King

Vassal Vassal Vassal Vassal

Vassal Vassal Vassal(?)

King

Vassal Vassal Vassal Vassal

Vassal Vassal Vassal(?)

Bayeux Tapestry c. 1077