Europe Looks Outward 800 - 1300

We see more and farther than they...because we are elevated and supported by their great stature.

- John of Salisbury d. 1180

The Saga of Eric the Red

“Greenland”?

Ca. 985

Leif Ericson “Vinland”

Medieval Climate Optimum

- ca. 850 - 1300

Carolingian Renaissance

Serfdom declines in Western Europe- “yeomen”

I. Emergence of the Nation-State

A. France

1. Fall of Charlemagne’s

2. Capetian Dynasty 987 – 1328

- Hugh Capet

Vikings!

B. England

1. Norman Conquest 1066- Anglo-Saxons- William the Conqueror

2. Medieval cash cow- shire reeves

Magna Carta 1215

II. Medieval life

Rage for order….

Pressure to build stronger states vs. Nobility

Church

The Crusades: Clash of Civilizations

Genghis Khan1162-1227

Marco Polo’s travels1271-1291

A. City life

1. Urban Italy - part of Byzantine Empire

2. Urban social orders- merchants, craftsmen

- “class,” not hereditary obligations

3. Alternative to feudal orders- tweaking of theology

B. Aristotelianism (New Logic)

1. Resurgent dialectic Gerbert of AurillacPope Sylvester II

empiricism and faith

- transubstantiation substance v. attribute

2. Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274

- Summa 1265

- dialectical / rational proof of God

- “universal”

Reason supports universal truth

C. Scholasticism

1. Towns replacing monasteries- universitas

2. Peter Abelard- education, logic key to understanding

- academic star

Peter & Heloise

II. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown

A. The Plantagenets

1. Henry of Anjou (II) r. 1154-1189Angevin Empire

2. Legal reform- Norman Conquest- feudalism weakened- “circuit” courts

3. Eleanor of Aquitaine 1124-1202- dowry and power- Crusader- married 2 kings- mother of 2 kings

Troubadours

“courtly love”

Cult of Chivalry

B. Rambunctious nobility

1. Running out of fiefs- primogeniture

2. Peace of God / Truce of God - Chivalry

“Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?”

Thomas Becket d. 1170

C. Church v. state

1. Otto the Great r. 936-973Holy Roman Empire

2. Problem of inheritance - investiture

3. Cluny & the Cluniacs 910

- Gregory VII 1073-1085“Gregorian Revolution”

4. Investiture Controversy 1075

III. The Crusades1095-1274

A. Christian Jihad

1. Urban II- Speech at Clermont 1095

Deus volt! “God wills it”

Cluny

2. First Crusade 1095-99 - Peter the Hermit “People’s Crusade”

- Crusader Kingdoms

B. Third Crusade 1189-1192

1. Saladin 1138-1193- unified Muslims

1. King’s CrusadeRichard Coeur de LionFrederick BarbarossaPhilip Augustus

C. Consequences

1. Church & state

1. Moral authority- 1212 “Children’s Crusade”

1. Byzantine fall- 1204 sack of Constantinople

1.Things to come- reacquainted Western Europeans with Eastern goods, classical learning

- “stalemate” allows for trade, pilgrimages

- Euro rivalries

V. Medieval Achievementand Failure

The Angevin Empire

C. Medieval politics in flux

1. Loss of Normandy- vassal v. nation-state

1. Magna Carta 1215- John I “Lackland”- Habeas corpus