the franks merovingian monarchy 482-751 german tribe clovis 482-511 - largest empire - allied to the church of rome, became christian clovis's sons divided his empire thereafter, brothers and sons fought over succession, lands eventually weakened and fell to the stronger carolingians carolingian monarchy 751-911 charles martel "the hammer" died 741 defeated muslims at Tours 732 pepin the short 751-768 (his son) crowned king of franks by pope - annointed drove muslims across pyrenees into spain maintained strong military - continued spreading christianity into germany spreading the gospel by the tip of the sword, no conversion -> usually death charlemagne 768-814, son of pepin devout christian - 54 campaigns defeated lombards conquered central europe aachen emperor of the romans in 12/25/800 carolingian renaissance charlemagne's effort to fuse christian, roman, and german cultures for posterity hired alcuin(735-804), a highly educated anglo-saxon cleric to lead the famed cathedral school at york alcuin changed the emphasis from martial arts to anglo-saxon england invaded 300s-900s - rome gone by 450 jutes, angles, saxons, danes, vikings - pagan king arthur st patrick 5th century 597 - augustine sent by pope to kent, converted king ethelbert most celts forced into whales and ireland people did not pick up the religion, church brought it to them, monks and friars, bible had to be read to all (they couldn't read) read gregory's letter to augustine - encourages him to convert pagan temples to christian churches, convert pagan holidays and symbols to christian holidays (eostre -> easter) bunch of different anglo-saxon kingdoms, heptarchy - northumbria (powerful in 7th century), mercia(powerful in 8th century), kent (powerful in 6th century), east anglia, essex, sussex, wessex venerable bede 673-735 foremost scholar, mon, lived in morthumbria ecclesiastical history of the english nation sophistication lindisfarne torn in NE england, northumbria monastery founded there about 635 - st aidan eadfrith, bishop of lindisfarne wrote lindisfarne gospels, and illustrated latin copy of the gospels sacked by vikings vikings from scandinavia, denmark, baltic area polytheistic, rich mythology began raiding 700-800 865 overthrew morthumbria, mercia, east anglia settled in england, ireland, scotland, france, russia, spain, sicily, even as far as iceland, greenland, and north america alfred the great became king of wessex 871 united england against vikings driven into hiding in wessex in athelney marshes won at battle of eddington - vikings baptized as part of the peace treaty danelaw - formalized by another treaty in 886 created fortifications surrounding wessex constructed a fleet of ships to augment his other defenses father of english navy codifier of law, a promoter of education and a supporter of the arts scholar and translated latin books into the anglo-saxon tongue feudalism german tradition - loyalty to chief comitatus - military service, charles martel, charlemagne roman law - absentee landlord, serfdom relationship between lord/king and lower nobles like barons and knights baron/knight give some land and protection for labor and taxes decentralized formed in frankish kingdoms evolved over 8 centuries liege homage - vassal pledges absolute loyalty to one lord ecclesiastical homage - upper clergy pledging loyalty to the king, gets them land otto the great 912-973 carolingians gone 911 saxon duke - otto visionary crowned aachen 936 theocratic monarch ruled with help and sanction of rome 3 tools to rule lay investiture, lay official appointing to church office, at this point, that includes the pope, often appointed younger male family ecclesiastical homage, advocacy, appointment of secular officals to different parts of the empire, like lower level governors, sometimes over church land knew he had to gain support of entire church, so he defended it seized northern italy 951 defeated magyars 955 crowned emperor 962 by the pope, holy roman emperor 966 - crowned king of italy ottonians till 1024 otto first through 3rd, henry II salians pick up afterward, henry 3rd-5th foundation of german civilization from vikings to dukes in france rollor/rolf 884 captured rouen 911 "northmens land" normandy rollo converted dukes of normandy william the "bastard" born 1027 william duke of normandy 1035 william consolidated rule until 1060 by 1066, normandy independent of king of france gained power by lay investiture, leige homage, cavalry william was very greedy edward the confessor died, leaving no heir, 3 relatives vying for power started getting involved in english affairs king edward liked william of normandy rule of primogeniture - dictates that eldest son inherits everything, sons generally went to war as upper officers or became part of the clergy