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The Dark Ages
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Following the fall of Rome, western Europe entered what has been called the Dark
Ages. This name was applied partially because so much of the Roman civilization
was destroyed and replaced by a more barbaric culture. The name was used also
because so little written history survived from the period that shed light on
the events that took place.
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| Politics |
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The Roman government and courts were swept away with most of the Roman culture.
Tribal war bands were the new government. A strong leader surrounded himself
with loyal warriors that were paid with booty from raiding. Tribal law, based on
trial by combat or by the swearing of oaths, replaced Roman law. Small kingdoms
arose gradually based on tribal loyalties, but governing was difficult because
literate civil servants were scarce, communications were poor, trade was at a
standstill, and there was little or no money in circulation. The people survived
on a subsistence agriculture. Life at this time was described as nasty, brutish,
and short. The average life expectancy was 30 years, skewed by a very low
survival rate for children and a high mortality of women in childbirth.
At the start of the Dark Ages, the list of European powers read as follows:
* Franks: much of modern France and parts of
Germany along the Rhine.
* Ostrogoths: northern Italy, Switzerland, and
the Balkans.
* Visigoths: Spain and Portugal.
* Vandals: Western North Africa, Sicily, and
southern Italy.
* Various Germanic tribes, including Saxons and
Lombards: Germany.
* Anglo-Saxons: England.
* Celts: Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Brittany.
* Magyars: Hungary.
* Slavs: Poland and western Russia.
* Byzantines: Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, and
much of the Balkans, including Greece.
In succeeding centuries, the list saw the following changes:
* Vandals: destroyed and replaced by the
Byzantines.
* Visigoths: destroyed and replaced by Franks
in France and Muslims in Spain and Portugal.
* Ostrogoths: attacked and eventually absorbed by
the Lombards (Italy) and Byzantines
(Balkans).
The Dark Ages are considered to cover the years from 500 to 1000. The three most
important forces that shaped this period and brought the relative darkness to an
end were the spread of new religions, the rise of the Frankish Empire, and the
predations of the Vikings.
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| Dark Age Religion |
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Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth
century and had begun spreading among the Germanic tribes before the fall of
Rome. The split of the Roman Empire into eastern and western halves also
resulted in a split within the Christian Church. The western part, centered in
Rome, became Catholic. The eastern part, centered in Constantinople, became
Orthodox. In the seventh century, one of the last of the world's great
religions, Islam, was founded in Arabia.
Christianity
The spread of Christianity among the barbarians was a powerful civilizing force
and helped to ensure that some vestiges of Roman law and the Latin language
carried on in France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Only in England was Roman
Christianity subsumed by pagan beliefs. The Franks became Catholic under Clovis
and thereafter spread Christianity to the Germans across the Rhine. The
Byzantines spread Orthodox Christianity among the Bulgars and Slavs.
Christianity was brought to Ireland by St. Patrick in the early fifth century
and spread from there into Scotland and back into England from the north. In the
late sixth century, Pope Gregory the Great sent missionaries into England from
the south. Within a century, England was Christian once again.
Monasteries
During the turmoil of the Dark Ages, a few strongly committed Christians
withdrew from society to live as hermits, usually on the wild and forbidding
edge of civilization. Hermits in turn inspired more conventional priests to
pledge vows of poverty and service, harkening back to the teachings of Jesus
Christ.
Many of these priests formed new communities of like believers called
monasteries. Pope Gregory encouraged the building of monasteries throughout
Christian Europe. In parts of Europe they became the only remaining centers of
learning. Irish monks, for example, are credited by some with preserving
civilization in their monasteries. Irish monks went out into other parts of
Europe to teach and revive an interest in learning. Monasteries were the main
source of educated men who could help administer government, and many became
important assistants to kings.
In time monasteries grew wealthy with donations of land, as did the Roman
church. Different monastic orders were founded with different goals. Some kept
entirely to themselves, some trained missionaries to be sent into the wild, some
advised the popes on church doctrine, and others provided important community
service such as care for the elderly, health care, and emergency relief.
Islam
Islam was founded in Arabia in the seventh century by the prophet Mohammed. It
spread rapidly and inspired a great movement of conquest. The political map of
North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia changed almost overnight. All of
North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, the Middle East, Asia Minor, Iraq, Iran,
Afghanistan, parts of India, Pakistan, and part of Russia became Muslim. During
the brief period that the Islamic Empire remained united, it threatened to
accomplish its goal of converting the entire world to its beliefs. The stability
and economic growth within the new Muslim world brought peace and prosperity far
in advance of that in western Europe of the time. The Muslim culture surpassed
even the Byzantines in art, science, medicine, geography, trade, and philosophy.
Conflicts between the Muslims and Christians resulted in the Crusades, a series
of attempts by western Christians to regain the Holy Lands in Palestine.
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| Charlemagne |
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The Franks consolidated their kingdom in modern France under a series of strong
kings and warlords during the seventh and eighth centuries. In 732 they defeated
a Muslim army invading France from the Iberian Peninsula. Around 750, the Franks
pushed into Italy to rescue Rome and the pope, who were under attack by the
Lombards. In 768 Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, became king of the Franks
and began his remarkable reign.
Charlemagne returned to Italy across the Alps in 774 and rescued the Pope once
again. He became king of both the Franks and Lombards and effective ruler of
Rome. He continued his conquests, simultaneously converting his enemies to
Christianity. He took southern France and northern parts of Spain. He moved into
western Germany, converting the Saxons and fighting off the Magyars of Hungary.
He established "marches" on his frontier, which were buffer states between the
Frankish Empire and barbarian tribes to the east. On Christmas Day in 800,
Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the pope (the title was a surprise
and one he had not sought).
The importance of Charlemagne transcends the size and creation of the Holy Roman
Empire, which fell apart soon after his death anyway. He was a great supporter
and defender of the Catholic Church and used it to encourage learning and the
arts. He set up schools in association with cathedrals to educate civil servants
and nobles to improve government. He collected and codified the laws, improving
the system of justice. He invented feudalism as a way of providing local order
while retaining central authority.
The great promise of European revival radiating from the Frankish Empire was
stopped short, however. Following the death of Charlemagne's son, the empire was
split three ways among his grandsons. The western part evolved later into modern
France. The eastern part became Germany much later. The central part was
contested by the other two through succeeding generations into the twentieth
century. A more immediate problem was the sudden appearance of Viking raiders
from Scandinavia, who greatly disrupted northern Europe for the next two
centuries.
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| The Vikings |
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The inhabitants of Scandinavia had made their living by herding, farming, and
fishing for centuries. In the sixth and seventh centuries, they began trading
along the Baltic Sea and deep into Russia along its great rivers. For reasons
unknown, they began aggressively raiding the coasts of Europe suddenly in the
late eighth century. Perhaps they were amazed at the relative riches they had
encountered as traders, or they perceived a weakness among the civilizations to
the south, or new sailing and boat technologies gave them the power to travel
farther and more quickly. In 793 the pagan Vikings struck the great monastery at
Lindisfarne, established by the Irish off the northeast coast of England.
Fast, low-draft longboats allowed the Vikings to strike quickly from the sea and
up rivers. Because roads were so poor in the ninth century, the Vikings could
concentrate against a rich village or monastery, land quickly, drive off any
resistance, and carry off slaves and plunder before any organized response could
be mounted. People living along the coasts and rivers of Germany, France, and
Britain lived in fear of the raiders. The central authorities of these lands
fell into disfavor because they could do little to defend against these hit-and-
run attacks. The people turned to local nobles who built castles for defense.
This shift of power strengthened the local nobles and weakened the kings.
The Vikings became bolder as the ninth century progressed. Larger Viking groups
combined to make actual invasions, not just raids. They sacked major cities
including Hamburg, Utrecht, and Rouen. They settled on islands off Britain, in
parts of Ireland (founding Dublin), Iceland, and Greenland. The Danes captured
and ruled the eastern half of England for a century. Another force sailed up the
Seine River and besieged Paris for two years before being bought off with money
and plunder. Another group ruled part of Russia from Kiev and assaulted
Constantinople from the Black Sea. They raided the Muslim Iberian Peninsula and
deep into the Mediterranean.
In the tenth century, the king of France bought peace with the Vikings by ceding
them part of his country (Normandy, "from the northmen," or Normans) and making
their ruler a French duke. As part of this agreement, the Normans converted to
Christianity. The Normans became one of the most remarkable groups in the Middle
Ages. Later they conquered England, establishing the first great European
kingdom. Other Normans conquered Sicily, half of Italy, and established Crusader
kingdoms in Palestine.
Viking raids stopped at the end of the tenth century, partly because they had
become Christians and no longer followed the warrior values of their past pagan
beliefs. Scandinavia divided into kingdoms, and the new rulers concentrated on
ruling what they owned. The Viking settlers in Russia, France, and Britain were
absorbed by the cultures that surrounded them. The warrior cultures in Europe
that had evolved in response to the Viking threat soon had a new outlet for
their aggression, however, in the Holy Land of the Eastern Mediterranean.
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