THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
: Divergent - differing or moving or extending in different directions.A.D. 500 - 1500
The Mediterranean World
1. The Byzantine Empire: the surviving Roman Empire centered in Constantinople.
2. Germanic Kingdoms: successors to the Roman Empire in the West.
* Both - 6th Century.
3. Islamic Expansion: southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean and Spain.
* 7th and early 8th Centuries.
THE BYZANTINE WORLD:
1. Three Aspects - continually impacted on and were an integral part of Byzantine society.
a. Christian Culture
b. Commercial Prosperity
c. Imperial Authority
2. Christ was the ruler of the universe - He offered salvation through the sacraments of the Church.
a. The emperor was the representative and image of Christ on earth.
b. Obedience to State and Church was demanded by God.
3. Innovation: area of commercial prosperity, architecture, and art.
* Constantinople - largest, most prosperous city in the world.
Hagia Sophia - Church of the Holy Wisdom.
The citizen accepted the order of the universe and society of Emperor and Church.
THE ARABIC WORLD:
1. Urban centered society: there had been important commercial centers in Arabia prior to Mohammed and Islam.
Mecca: was one of them which became the holiest city of Islam.
2. Cities - centers for commerce, industry, and learning.
* As early as the 10th Century, Christian scholars (French) were studying mathematics and philosophy in Arab schools.
THE GERMANIC WORLD:
1. Almost a completely rural world - towns: administered as ecclesiastical centers.
* Underdeveloped, violent, and disorder characterized Western Europe.
2. Europe was dominated by Warriors.
a. Chieftain - based on his ability in battle.
b. Security - for the individual lay in joining a great lord who could provide victory and protection.
CONCEPT OF THE MIDDLE AGES:
1. Europeans of the 15th Century looked upon the Fifth Century as a turning point in European History.
a. Referred to the eight centuries following as the Middle Ages.
b. Considered it as a "dark age" compared to the Classical World of Greece and Rome that had preceded it.
2. Modern Scholars:
a. Early Medieval Era: it lasted until the mid tenth century.
b. High Middle Ages: 950 - 1270
c. Renaissance: 1270 to ca. 1450
ROMAN HERITAGE:
1. German Victories in the 5th Century had destroyed the power of the Roman Empire, but not the belief in the continuing existence of the Roman Empire.
2. Traditions Remained: All three successors borrowed from it in varying degrees.
a. By 750: These cultures had intermixed Roman heritage with their own.
b. Roman language, literature, philosophy, science, political theory, and law were handed down to the modern world.
3. Germanic Kingdoms:
a. The least developed economically and intellectually.
b. Turned away from the Mediterranean and found its life inland.
c. It was to emerge as the most dynamic civilization in history while Byzantium and Islam declined.
ie. Concentration of populations.
BYZANTIUM - THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE:
1. The Eastern Empire was viewed as a direct continuation of the old Roman Empire.
2. Survival of the East:
a. Constantinople: fortified city was by-passed for the more vulnerable West.
b. Urban culture, large population - allowed the east to survive invasion.
3. Justinian I: A.D. 527 - 565
a. Recaptured much land in the West: Africa, Spain and Italy.
b. Justinian's Law Code:
* Recorded important acts of his predecessors.
* Settled contradictory precedents - collection of Roman Law.
1.) Digest: summary of the writings of the great Roman legal experts organized alphabetically by ideas (topics).
2.) Institutes: a text book on the basic principles of Roman Law.
3.) Novels: publication of Justinian's own laws.
c. Law: was the embodiment of imperial will.
* Emperor viewed as both legislator and judge. ie. the "living law".
4. Position of the Empire was essentially defensive.
a. 7th Century: destroyed the Persian State.
b. This allowed the Arab Conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean (Islamic Expansion).
* late 7th and early 8th Centuries.
c. Pressures on their borders forced them to continually withdraw.
5. Internal Conflict (8th and 9th Centuries): more than 100 years of political and religious conflict between the Asiatic and Greek elements within the Empire.
a. Controversy: over the use of icons or images of Christ and the Saints in worship.
b. Iconoclasts (image breakers): prohibited the use of images in worship (imperial policy) - in Asia Minor.
c. Iconodules (icon servers): maintained that the use of images in worship was not the same as image worship - Greek areas.
1.) Unpopular Policy causing riots in Constantinople.
2.) Weakened the position of the emperor.
3.) 751: Ravenna, the last Byzantine strong hold in Italy was taken by the Lombards.
d. Iconodules finally prevailed, and Byzantium retained its religious images.
6. After A.D. 1000: Small farmers, the backbone of the Byzantine Army, began to disappear.
a. Large Estates: an attractive form of capital investment absorbed these small farms.
b. Land Owners (military leaders): placed themselves between the imperial bureaucracy and the common soldier.
c. The new aristocracy of landowners weakened the ability of the empire to defend itself.
7. Crusaders from Europe:
a. Helped to hold back the Moslem Turks.
b. Fourth Crusade - 1204, Constantinople was taken by French Knights.
The Latin Kingdom: under papal and French leadership that lasted until 1261.
c. 1453: Constantinople was taken by the Ottoman Turks.
BYZANTINE CONTRIBUTIONS:
1. Served as a buffer against the spread of Islam.
* From the 7th Century to 1050, a weak and disorganized Europe could not have withstood a concerted Islamic Invasion.
2. Byzantine Culture transmitted much of the philosophy, literature, and art of the Ancient World (both Greek and Roman) to Western Europe.
3. Byzantium considered itself to be the true Roman Empire, preserving the Roman conception of government and law.
4. The Eastern Empire - essentially Greek in language and heritage.
a. Hellenistic Tradition - example - role of the emperor (modified) - ie. Hellenistic divine monarchy.
b. Distinctive Christian Heritage - the Balkans and Russia.
* Cyril - the Cyrillic Alphabet - ie. Russia.
WESTERN EUROPE: GERMANIC KINGDOMS
1. Economic isolation and the disappearance of Roman Culture accompanied the extinction of the state as a form of public authority.
2. The most durable kingdom arose in Gaul at the end of the 5th Century.
3. Clovis and the Merovingian Dynasty:
a. 481: Clovis became King of the Franks subjugating all of France and part of Western Germany to his rule.
b. Most decisive event: Clovis' conversion to Catholic Christianity.
* Importance - made him the only Catholic King in the West.
Christian Conflict - Arianism: Christ the son and God the father were not the same.
4. Clovis' Motives:
* opposition to Arian Visigoths (Western Gaul).
* to form an alliance with Gallo-Roman nobility and clergy.
5. No institutions to preserve central authority.
a. Frankish Custom: lands divided among all male heirs.
b. Rural Society: trade and taxation became impossible.
1.) All ranks of society lived on the land.
2.) Towns were insignificant - only an establishment of the Church.
3.) Economic security could only be found in local self-sufficiency.
c. Mayors of the Palace: chief of the royal household became the real rulers (ie. period of Do-Nothing Kings).
1.) Pepin II made the mayor of the palace a hereditary office (700).
2.) Power of the mayors and kings was limited by the development of an independent nobility.
6. Significance of the Church: preserving unity, Roman political thought and classical culture.
a. Spread of Church authority because of the weakness of secular authority.
b. Acceptance of the Authority of the Bishop of Rome, Pope.
PAPAL CLAIM: Matthew 16: 18-19
And I (Jesus) tell you, you are Peter, on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Referred to as the PETRINE DOCTRINE).
c. Supreme authority in the Christian Church was in the hands of the Pope as the successor of Saint Peter.
* By tradition Saint Peter was the first Bishop of Rome.
* This claim was not recognized by the Patriarch (in Constantinople) and Eastern Bishops (in Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria).
d. End of the 5th Century: secular and Church authority were separate and distinct from one another.
Added: However, Papal Authority was ultimately superior to the power of secular officials.
CHARLES MARTEL (THE HAMMER) AND PEPIN THE SHORT:
1. Charles was the son of Pepin II.
2. 732: Moslems (Moors) invaded France from Spain.
a. Threat to the survival of Christianity.
b. Charles defeated the Moslems at Tours and Poitiers and drove them back toward Spain.
Importance: the Moslem advance into Western Europe had been halted.
3. 741: Pepin III (the Short) became Mayor of the Palace.
a. Desired to become the actual king.
b. The Pope: stated that the man who held the power should have the title.
c. 751: an assembly of Franks elected Pepin King of the Franks.
d. 754: the Pope crowned Pepin King, "By the Grace of God" -- power to install and remove kings.
4. Lombards:
a. The Lombards had conquered and settled in Northern Italy during the 740's - feared as a possible threat to Rome.
b. The Pope asked for help from Pepin.
c. Pepin defeated the Lombards and seized land around Rome.
d. The Donation of Pepin: grant of land to the Pope created the Papal States which was ruled by Popes until the 1860's.
* The Pope as both a temporal and spiritual ruler.
CHARLEMAGNE: CHARLES THE GREAT
1. Ruled the Franks from 768 - 814.
2. Military Hero:
a. Lombards in Italy.
b. Saxons in Northern Germany.
c. Avars, a nomadic invader.
d. Drove the Moslems back in Spain.
3. Christmas Day: A.D. 800
a. The Pope crowned him Emperor of the Romans. ie. The Holy Roman Empire
b. People: mixture of Roman, Celtic, and German Cultures.
c. Much of Western Europe had been united for the first time in 400 years.
4. Government under Charlemagne based on royal decisions following consultation with advisors.
a. System of annual royal investigators (missi dominici) to assert central authority and correct abuses. (Opposition of local nobles to royal power.)
b. Stabilization (law, order, coinage, generosity) for prosperity and peace.
c. Progress due to decline in rebellions by nobles and absence of serious Crown-Church Conflicts.
* Due to common interests and Papal weakness.
THE FRANKISH EMPIRE AFTER CHARLEMAGNE:
1. Decline began under Louis the Pious (814-840), the son of Charlemagne.
2. At Louis' death - the kingdom was divided between his three sons.
3. The Treaty of Verdun: 843
a. Charles the Bold: Western France
b. Louis the German: Eastern Germany
c. Lothair: (a strip) from the North Sea to Northern Italy (held the title of Emperor).
4. 870: Lothair's kingdom was divided between his two brothers.
5. 50 Years Later: (893) - lords of the eastern and western Frankish Kingdoms were electing their own kings.
6. Invasions: worse than the 400's.
a. Moslems: Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia.
b. Slavs: from eastern into central Europe.
c. Magyars: like the Huns: called Hungarians -- established a kingdom in what is now Hungary.
THE VIKINGS: Most Feared Group.
1. Germanic invaders from Scandanavia (Norway, Sweden, and Denmark).
2. The English called them Danes.
3. Europeans called them Norsemen or Northmen.
4. Government:
a. All classes worked, honored by the king.
b. Land was widely distributed with few large estates.
c. Assemblies of landowners made the laws.
5. 800's: sailed from their homeland in search of food, treasure, and wives (slaves).
6. Built Settlements: in England, Ireland, Russia, and France.
7. Sailed to Iceland, Greenland, and North America.
8. Northern France: large settlement (Normans) in Normandy.
BRITAIN:
1. Celts conquered by Rome during the A.D. 40's and remained under Roman Rule for nearly 400 years.
2. Roman Legions were recalled ca. A.D. 410.
3. ca. 450: Germanic tribes invaded Britain - Angles, Saxons, and Jutes.
a. Saxons became the dominant group.
b. Angles gave their name to the land (England).
c. Celts: retreated into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
4. Saxon Kingdoms:
a. Northumbria: Southern Scotland and Northern England.
b. Mercia: Central England.
c. Wessex: Southern England.
5. Government:
a. Kingdom divided into districts called shires - governed by shire - reeves (sheriffs).
b. King - advised by a council of nobles called the Witan.
c. The King and Witan made all the laws and levied taxes.
d. Society:
King
Nobility
Freemen - nearly all warriors.
Slaves - large percentage of society.
CHRISTIANITY: IRELAND AND ENGLAND
1. Missionaries sent to Ireland in the 400's.
432 - Saint Patrick began his work in Ireland -- monastic schools.
2. ca. 600: Missionaries were sent to England by Pope Gregory.
a. Saint Augustine was sent by the Pope as a missionary.
b. Saint Augustine became the First Archbishop of Canterbury which became the center of the Church in England.
THE DANES AND ALFRED THE GREAT:
1. By 800: Wessex controlled almost all of England.
2. Invasions: Vikings from Scandanavia known as Danes to the English.
3. Only raiders at first, but then they began to settle in England.
4. Saxon resistance was weak until 871 - when Alfred the Great became King.
a. Failed to drive the Danes out of England.
b. Forced the Danes to remain in an area of Northeast England known as Danelaw - with rights of self government.
5. Alfred: Peaceful Accomplishments
a. Established schools and brought scholars from Ireland and the Continent.
b. Translated books from Latin into Anglo-Saxon.
c. Had scholars begin a History of England, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which lasted 250 years after his death.
6. Weak Rulers followed Alfred: late 900's
a. Through Danelaw: the Danes conquered all of England by 1013.
b. In 1019: Under Canute, England was part of a large empire including most of Scandanavia.
c. Weak rulers after Canute - by 1042 the Danes had been driven out of England.
THE NORMAN CONQUEST:
1. Edward the Confessor became King in 1042.
a. Saxon on his father's side.
b. Brought up in Normandy by his Norman mother.
c. Cousin of William, The Duke of Normandy.
2. 1066: At Edward's death William claimed the throne of England.
a. Saxon nobles refused to recognize William and elected Harold of Wessex as King.
b. William appealed his claim to the Pope who supported him.
c. William decided on Invasion.
3. William landed at Hastings, England in 1066.
a. Defeated the Saxons and killed Harold.
b. Known as William the Conqueror.
c. Crowned as William I of England -- took three years to overcome all Saxon opposition.
d. Oath of Salisbury (1086): just before his death all landowners were forced to make an oath of allegiance to him.
FEUDAL SOCIETY:
King
Vassal
Freeman
Serf
Origin of Feudalism: Late Roman Empire
Patrocinium: a lord took a man under his protection in return for the surrender of client's freedom.
The Colonus system.
Dependent Status:
1. Serfdom: peasants who worked the land.
2. Vassalage: relationship between a warrior or knight and his lord.
Land: primary source of wealth.
Manor:
1. Composed of small land holdings worked by serfs.
2. Serfs: owed a certain amount of service or work to his lord (bound to the land).
3. When one became a serf, he surrendered his freedom and that of his descendants.
4. The Serf - for his service, he was protected by his lord from outside threats and dangers.
5. Tax and work obligations grew with time.
Vassals: Military Class
1. Knight - main function was to train and fight in battle.
a. Page: age 7
b. Squire: age 14
* Learned to handle a sword, lance, bow and arrow.
2. Vassals: life long contract which could be broken only by mutual consent or the death of either party.
a. Promised service (military duty) and loyalty for protection.
b. At first, the feudal lord provided a place in his household for his vassal.
c. Fief (Benefit) - by the 10th Century - granting of land on which a vassal could support himself.
d. A fief - eventually became hereditary - but an inheritance tax had to be paid to the lord.
FEUDAL GOVERNMENT:
1. Decentralized - no strong central government.
* Authority - in private hands, possession of land.
2. King - actual power depended on the size of royal estates.
Ability - of the king to force his vassals to recognize his authority over his supporters.
3. Feudal Army - alliance of the king and his great vassals.
THE CHURCH - MIDDLE AGES:
Organization - Each With Responsibilities
1. Parish Priest: peasant origin with little formal education (services - sacraments and instruction).
2. Bishop (over a Diocese): chosen by the king or great nobles - often feudal lords or vassals and had vassals themselves.
3. Archbishop (over a Province): authority over dioceses and bishops within his province.
Provincial Councils: to decide questions of Church belief and policy.
4. The Pope:
a. Originally a patriarch (bishops of the ancient sees of Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, Jerusalem or Rome having authority over other bishops) in Western Europe.
b. By 400: recognized as the spiritual leader of the Church in Western Europe.
c. 590: Gregory I (the Great) "Real ruler of Rome" -- recognized in Italy, Spain, France, North Africa, and most of England.
5. The Curia - appointed officials to advise the Pope.
Post 1059: The College of Cardinals elected the Pope. This was an attempt to bring an end to lay domination of the papacy (Roman nobles and German Emperors).
Government In Itself:
1. Member of the Church by birth.
2. Courts and Laws: Cannon Law
a. Excommunication: cut off from the Church (sacraments), and thus denied salvation.
b. Interdict: an entire region cut off from the Church (only baptism and extreme unction allowed).
3. Taxation: "The Tithe" 1/10 of their income to the Church.
4. Payment for ceremonies - Baptism and Marriages. Also, income from land.
5. 13th Century: Wealth was greater than all the kings of Europe.
Secular Clergy: (in saeculo) in the world - among the people.
Regular Clergy: monastic - dedicated to a strict rule of life (monks and nuns) ie. Regulum: Latin for rule.
THE CHURCH - POLITICAL ROLE:
1. Papal States: the Pope had a dual role, both political and spiritual leader.
a. Some popes claimed the Church was politically supreme to kings.
b. Position of power as feudal lords and advisors to kings.
2. Laws of the state should be obeyed unless they were in conflict with the Church.
3. Benefit of Clergy: claimed the right to be tried only in Church Courts.
a. Church Property
b. Marriages
c. Wills
d. Witchcraft
ECONOMIC ROLE - THE CHURCH:
1. Opposed to the accumulation of wealth, one should prepare for salvation -- attempt to maintain the status quo.
2. Contribution to Agriculture:
a. Developed new ways of raising crops.
b. Breeding cattle.
c. Cultivating fruits - ie. grapes.
3. Trade:
a. Owned their own pack animals.
b. Ships
c. Markets (monasteries)
d. Warehouses
SOCIAL WORK:
1. The family viewed as a sacred institution.
2. Divorce was forbidden.
3. Responsibilities: for widows, orphans, and relief for the poor.
4. Established: hospitals, orphanages, and poor houses.
5. Monasteries: special services -- served as inns for travelers.
ABUSES IN THE CHURCH:
1. Lay Investiture: granting of authority to a clergyman by a layman (lord or king).
The Church - maintained only a clergyman could pass spiritual authority on to another clergyman.
2. Worldliness: more concern with wealth and luxury than spiritual matters (morality).
3. Simony: the buying and selling of Church positions.
4. Heresy: denial of doctrines and dogmas of the Church which could deny someone salvation.
Reforms: 1200's
Franciscans: preached among the people.
Dominicans: to seek out heretics. ie. "The Inquisition"
STRUGGLE FOR POWER: Development of National States
FRANCE:
1. 987: the last Carolingian King of France died without an heir.
2. Assembly of Nobles elected Hugh Capet as king.
Capetians: ruled France for over 300 years.
3. Hugh Capet: only ruled a small area around Paris.
* The Rest of France was divided into provinces ruled by powerful feudal lords.
4. Advantages of the Capetians:
a. Only the eldest son could inherit the throne.
b. Always had a son to inherit in their 300 year history.
5. Increased their power by:
a. Adding to royal lands.
b. Developing a strong central government.
c. Increasing revenue from taxes.
6. Growth of Royal Territory:
a. By marriage of daughters - gaining fiefs.
b. The King claimed land when families died out (with no heirs).
c. After 1066: the English King held much land in France (as the Duke of Normandy).
d. Philip Augustus (1180-1223) seized a lot of English land.
Richard - Crusades.
John - weak, indecisive ruler.
e. 1328 - the last Capetian king died; England still controlled parts of Aquitaine and Gascony.
7. Central Government:
a. Philip Augustus:
* Inspectors: carried out investigations and heard complaints, then reported to the King's Council.
b. 13th and early 14th Centuries:
1.) Chamber of Accounts: for the collection of taxes.
2.) Parlement of Paris (supreme court) - heard appeals from all parts of the kingdom.
8. Revenues:
a. Need of money for a strong central government.
b. Feudal Army was unreliable.
c. Increased royal domains (territory) -- more was needed.
* Fees and fines in royal courts.
* Capetians encouraged the growth of towns, trade, and manufacturing (to produce more taxes).
d. Gained the support of townsmen against feudal lords -- (always a possible threat to the power of the king).
ENGLAND:
1. William the Conqueror: 1066-1087
a. Brought feudalism to England - altered the status and form of it.
b. Authority in the king's hands -- most of the land under the king's control.
Fiefs: scattered to prevent unified action against the king.
c. Oath of Salisbury: made all feudal lords his vassals.
d. Domesday Book: commissioners sent to gather information (land ownership) for taxes.
e. Succeeded by William Rufus (II)-short lived-later Henry I.
2. Henry I: 1100-1135
a. Established the Exchequer - to handle finances.
b. The King's Court - sent judges to travel through out the country.
Purpose: to weaken feudal lords and their courts.
3. Henry II: 1154-1189
a. Required all freemen to acquire arms and serve in the army.
Exception: nobles could pay the king instead of serving -a professional army loyal to the king.
b. Legal System: defined Circuit Judges (routes).
1.) Juries in each district.
2.) Grand Jury: 25 men submitted names of suspected criminals.
3.) Later development (1200's) - Petit Jury - 12 men (civil cases and later criminal cases) - the king's law replaced feudal law.
c. Benefit of the Clergy: Henry transferred trials of the clergy to royal courts.
Crisis: "Thomas a' Becket"
d. Political Problems - divided interests.
1.) French Provinces: Normandy, Maine and Anjou -- added Gascony, Aquitaine by marrying Eleanor of Aquitaine (Brittany by the end of his reign).
2.) Divided Interests: Henry's sons; revolt aborted.
3.) Richard I: at the Crusades, a 10 year reign -- only 6 months in England (1189-1199).
4. King John:
a. Defeated by Philip Augustus in France.
* England lost Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, and Maine.
b. Taxes: brought about a revolt of the Nobles.
c. 1215: The Magna Carta
1.) Not to levy or collect taxes without the consent of the Great Council.
2.) Not to take property without paying for it.
3.) Not to refuse and delay justice - not to refuse trial by a jury to a freeman.
PARLIAMENT AND COMMON LAW:
1. Parliament grew out of the Great Council.
2. 1260's: a Noble's revolt against King Henry III.
3. Simon de Montfort: leader of the nobles.
a. Desired to gain broader support for the noble's cause.
b. 1265: He summoned representatives of the middle class to meet with higher nobles and clergy in the Great Council.
c. Middle Class: Two Knights from each shire and two Burgesses from each town.
House of Lords.
House of Commons.
d. Montfort was defeated but Parliament did develop.
4. Power of Parliament grew slowly - consent for taxes became important in the development of Parliamentary Power.
5. Edward I: 1272-1307
a. Court of the Exchequer: tax cases.
b. Court of Common Pleas: between private citizens (civil cases).
c. Court of the King's Bench: concerned the king and government (criminal cases).
6. Law developed from the verdicts and decisions handed down by these courts.
7. Common Law: based on judges' decisions rather than a code of law.
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE:
1. Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire had disappeared.
2. Germany: a group of independent states with an elected king.
3. Italy:
a. Papal States: the Pope
b. Feudal Lords
c. Parts: held by the Byzantine Empire.
d. Sicily: held by the Moslems.
4. 936: Otto the Great was elected King of Germany.
a. More interested in Italy.
b. Helped Pope John XII against Roman nobles.
c. 962: John XII crowned Otto as Emperor of the Romans.
d. Later: Otto made his own secretary Pope -- next 40 years German Kings chose the popes.
5. Empire: Germany and Northern Italy.
a. Continued for more than 800 years (until the Napoleonic Era).
b. Unity and Power depended on who was emperor.
c. High Point: Henry III (1039-1056).
CRISIS OF POWER:
1. Henry IV succeeded his father as a child -- civil war in Germany.
2. Pope Gregory VII: able to restore the power of the Papacy and the Church.
a. Believed the Church was supreme over kings.
b. Used excommunication and interdict to enforce his views.
3. Struggle with Henry IV over Lay Investiture:
a. Henry claimed the right to appoint bishops.
b. The Pope excommunicated Henry and urged his subjects to elect a new king.
c. Henry was forced to travel to Canossa and ask for the Pope's forgiveness.
4. The Struggle Continued: 1122 - The Concordat of Worms
a. A Diet or assembly met at Worms.
b. The Church should elect bishops and grant spiritual authority.
The Emperor should grant only secular authority.
FREDERICK BARBAROSSA (RED BEARD): 1152-1190
1. His interest was in Italy and not in Germany.
2. City States of Lombardy: Milan, Parma, Padua, Verona, and Balongna.
a. Wealthy merchant class and government which was partly democratic.
b. Frederick sent representatives to take over these cities -- Milan refused and resisted Frederick.
c. Frederick captured and partially destroyed Milan.
3. The Lombard League:
a. Other Lombard cities and the Pope allied together.
b. 1176: the League defeated Frederick.
1.) The cities of the League recognized Frederick as their Overlord.
2.) Frederick had to agree that they could govern themselves.
PAPAL POWER - INNOCENT III:
1. Pope: 1198-1216 -- to the heighth of Papal Power in Europe.
2. Claims:
a. Pope was supreme over clergy and temporal rulers.
b. Emperors and Kings were only servants of the Church.
c. Right to solve all problems - both religious and political.
3. Used both excommunication and interdict to enforce his claims.
a. King of John of England ---- the pope placed England under an interdict.
b. John was forced to became a vassal of the Pope and to pay an annual tribute to Rome.
4. Dominated Italy:
a. Protector of the Lombard League.
b. Feudal Overlord of Sicily -- Normans had seized it from the Moslems in the 11th Century.
FREDERICK II (1215-1250):
1. Holy Roman Empire, Germany - heir to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (established by the Normans).
2. More interested in Sicily and unifying Italy -- failed.
3. His son ruled briefly as emperor - long period of civil war in Germany.
4. Later German Rulers kept the title of Emperor, but did not try to impose their authority on Italy.
* Importance - Effect - Italy and Germany were not unified until the 19th Century.
Condition of Europe: by the 13th Century.------------------ Summary.