The Medieval WorldAn Overview

Dr Alex Russell Alexander.Russell@warwick.ac.ukOffice Hours: Tuesdays 2-5 pm or by appointment

•Europe c. 500-1500, from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance

The ‘Middle Ages’

• 6.5 million km2 at greatest extent (C2nd AD)

• 50-60 million living under pax romana

• Mediterranean = mare nostrum

• Capital at Rome

The Roman Empire

Scale model of ancient Rome in the time of Constantine

Constantine the Great, 272-327 AD (bits of a colossal sculpture in the Capitoline Museum, Rome)

The Decline of Rome

•Decline of Roman Empire from C3rd

•410 Rome sacked by Visigoths

•waves of ‘barbarian’ invasions (or migrations?) - Huns, Lombards, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Franks

•476 last western emperor stands down

•BUT eastern (Byzantine) empire survives

The Carolingians

• C8th Carolingian dynasty established in Frankish realm

• Charlemagne (r. 768-814)

Shrine of Charlemagne (C13th)

Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope,

800

Carolingian Empire

Dark blue = Frankish realm in 714 CELight blue = Extent of empire in 814

CE

Instability of 10th Century

Monarchies in western Europe 1154 to 1314

Italy around 1200

Expansion of Christianity in Eastern Europe

The Christian conquest of Spain

Flux in Byzantine Empire

Brown line = Imperial frontier around 628 CERed line = Imperial frontier around 1025 CE Green line = Imperial frontier around 1143 CE