Early Middle Ages (to circa 1050)

Overview

• settlement and conversion of warrior tribal groups
• context: 3 heirs
• synthesis: Germanic, Roman, Christian
• time and place: maps; population

European Peoples

• Celtic inhabitants
  • cattle raiding, game playing, and status
  • berserker warriors
  • aggressive women
  • Táin bó Cualgne: Medb; Cuchulain
  • Story of MacDathó's Pig
  • Christianity: heroic monks and crosses
• Germanic migrations/invasions
  • nomadic, tribal warriors and chieftans
  • ring-giving
  • Beowulf; Song of Roland; Nibelungenlied
  • women?
  • Christianity: Ruthwell cross and Dream of the Rood
• Scandinavians and Vikings
  • farmers, seafaring adventurers, explorers and settlers
  • ninth century interactions
  • strong women
  • Volsunga Saga
  • Story of Burnt Njal
  • Christianization: Anskar; monk of St. Gall (chapter 19)

Christianization

• heterodoxy: Arians, Celtic, and Roman Christians
• settlement, conversion, and establishment of stable kingdoms: peace-loving bishops and monastic missionaries negotiate
• acculturation:
  • Christianizing the landscape
  • Germanicizing Christianity: hlaford
  • syncretic mythologies: Franks Casket *

Franks and Carolingians

• Gregory of Tours: Clovis and Clotilde
• Charles Martel, Muslims, and the Battle of Tours, 732
• Franco-Papal alliance: the Pope makes Pepin king
• missionary to Germany: Boniface
• Christian kingship: Einhard's Life of Charlemagne
  • conquering and converting the Saxons
  • Empire?
• Treaty of Verdun, 843: linguistic split
• Capitulary of Mersen, 847

Case Study: The Normans (tenth century)

• civilized Vikings? model for feudalism?
• Viking roots
• Rollo, founder of Normandy
• Christianity: monasteries and ducal policy
• Norman expansion
• Norman Conquest of England, 1066: Bayeux Tapestry

The Question of Feudalism

• economic context
  • fight, work, pray theory from Adalbero of Laon
  • familia: 11th cen charter of immunity for church of Worms and law of the familia
  • rural environment: manor and village
    • Wharram Percy
    • Domesday Book (Hecham)
    • Alwalton, 13th cen.
    • manorial court pleas
  • agricultural improvements: medieval technology
  • urbanizaton: town charters
• social: nobility and the knight (Bouchard, chap 1)
  • mounted warrior elite: "stirrup controversy"
    • stirrups
    • the stirrup controversy
    • Bachrach summary
    • John Sloan view
  • Noble
    • wealth, power, birth
    • count, viscount, duke
  • Knight: miles
    • mounted fighting professionals
    • change over time
  • Castles and castellans
  • Peace of God movement
    • Peace of God, 989
    • Truce of God, 1063
  • Nobilitas: compare to Ikegami's "honor"
• land and fiefs
  • inheritance: division among children vs primogeniture
  • grants: 9th cen England example
  • fiefs: 11th cen. Norway; precaria; 13th cen relief
• lordship and vassalage: oaths and contracts
  • theory: Fidelity Oaths; Fulbert of Chartres, On Feudal Obligations, 1020
  • reality: Agreement between Count William V and Hugh of Lusignan; fief ceremonies
  • homage: by Counts of Champagne: John of Toul to Count of Champagne
  • military obligations: charter of homage and fealty, 12th cen
• Christianized knighthood: Bernard of Clairvaux and the Templars