(A.D.

500 - 1475)
The Geography of Europe and
Feudalism and the Rise of Towns
 During the 400s, Germanic groups invaded the Western
Roman Empire. In a.d. 476, these groups overthrew the last
emperor in Rome and brought the Empire to an end.
Europe then entered a new era called the Middle Ages, or
medieval times. This was a 1,000-year period between
ancient and modern times. During the Middle Ages,
Western Europe was divided into many kingdoms, and
Catholic Christianity strongly influenced society.
 Physical geography shaped Europe's development. The
continent of Europe is a huge peninsula, with many smaller
peninsulas branching out from it. As a result, most land in
Europe lies within 300 miles (483 km) of a seacoast. This
encouraged trade and helped the European economy to
grow.
 Major rivers are Rhine, Danube, Seine, and Po, flow from inland
mountains into the oceans and seas surrounding the continent.
 These rivers are navigable, or wide and deep enough for ships to
use.
 Europe's seas and rivers provided protection as well as
possibilities for trade.
 Europe also has many mountain ranges. In the southwest, the
Pyrenees isolated what is now Spain and Portugal from the rest
of Europe. In the middle of the continent, the Alps separated
Italy from central Europe. The Carpathians cut off what is now
Ukraine and Russia from southeast Europe.
 RIVER
RHINE

DANUBE
RIVER
 SEINE
RIVER

PO
RIVER
 After the fall of Charlemagne's empire, strong governments
collapsed in Western Europe. Kings lost much of their
power.
 Local land-owning nobles became increasingly important
in political affairs. They raised armies. They also collected
taxes and imposed laws on the people living on their lands.
 When invaders swept through Europe, people turned to
the nobles for protection. Nobles governed and protected
the people in return for services, such as fighting in a
noble's army or farming the land. This led to a new political
and social order known as feudalism
 Feudalism was based on ties of loyalty and duty
among members of the nobility. Nobles were both
lords and vassals.
 A lord was a high-ranking noble who had power over
others.
 A vassal (VA • suhl) was a lower-ranking noble who
served a lord. In return, the lord protected the vassal.
 Chivalry -These rules stated that a knight was to be
brave and obey his lord. A knight was also required to
respect women of noble birth, honor the Church, and
help people.
 Two groups of peasants—freemen and serfs.
 Freemen paid the noble for the right to farm the land.
They worked only on their own land and had rights
under the law.
 Serfs worked long hours in the fields and did many
services for the nobles. They spent three days of the
week working the noble's land and the rest of the week
farming their own.
 By 1100, feudalism had made Europe safer. Nobles
repaired roads, arrested bandits, and enforced the law.
Meanwhile, new technology enabled people to
produce more food and goods. Europe's population
grew for the first time since the fall of Rome.
 Peasants began to make cloth and metal products.
Nobles also sought luxury items, such as sugar, spices,
silks, and dyes. These goods came from the East.
 Eventually, medieval towns began to set up their own
governments. Only males were considered citizens. In many
cities, the citizens elected the members of a city council.
These elected officials served as lawmakers and judges.

 Under the feudal system, towns were often part of the

territory belonging to a noble. As a result, nobles tried to
control town affairs. Townspeople, however, disliked owing
taxes and services to nobles. They wanted freedom to make
their own laws. As their wealth increased, townspeople forced
nobles to grant them basic rights. These included the right to
buy and sell property and the freedom from having to serve in
the army.
 Medieval Politics revolved around the affairs of monarchy and
nobility and ties in with the practice of feudalism. Under
feudalism, every member of society knew his or her place and
social upward mobility was either extremely difficult or
impossible depending on your circumstances. The order of
hierarchy came as follows in the feudal state:
1. King
2. Nobility
3. Freemen (Merchants and larger farmers)
4. Peasants
5. Clergy
 Medieval politics placed great emphasis on war,
considering it to be a useful and often necessary tool of
foreign policy.
 Small scale wars between important nobility and larger
conflicts such as the Hundred Years War is testament to
this fact. The large number of castles built in Europe
during the Medieval age is another testament to the
frequency of war, as nearly every nobleman found it
necessary to build a castle for his own defense and
protection.
 Successful diplomatic efforts were often marked by a
marriage between two houses. Medieval Kings placed
great emphasis on the importance of daughters, as
they often were wedded off to troublesome nobles or
to cement foreign alliances.
 The Middle Ages is known to be the historical period
of Europe between the 5th and 15th Century. The
salient political feature of the initiation of this
historical period was the collapse of Western Roman
Empire while the medieval period ended with the
advent of renaissance which is known to be the
beginning of the Modern Era.
 After the collapse of Roman Empire, the society of
The Middle Ages continued to suffer barbarian
invasions as they occupied the remains of Roman
Empire to start their own kingdoms. Other
significant societal changes were the rise of Islamic
Empire and the spread of Christianity. While the
society was facing great religious movements during
The Middle Ages, politically, the society was
gradually converting to feudalism.
 The society was divided basically in two classes, the upper
classes and the peasants or serfs.
 The upper class wanted to secure their privilege of
maintaining control over their spreading kingdoms. Power
was in the hands of barons who owned and controlled large
portions of King’s land. In return, barons used to offer
fealty or homage to the king. They not only paid taxes
whenever the king demanded, but also, they offered full
support to the kings in securing their kingdoms by
providing troops to fight for their kings whenever required.
 The peasants or serfs were those who used to do work or to
produce wealth.
 The members of nobility were those who fight for their
barons and kings. They were responsible for the
security of the serfs and the clergy. Each member of
the nobility was free as a person and he was only
responsible for his military duties. The social function
of members of nobility was to ensure security of the
weak and poor.
 Acrobatic Games - Nobles and knights from nearby
area and abroad were invited to take part in these
competitive tournaments. These tournaments were
held for the purpose of entertainment and
engagement of members of nobility.
 One of the important social activities of the society of The
Middle Ages was the marriage.
 The position of women in medieval society wasn’t any good
as the medieval society was completely dominated by men.
 Women were not allowed to marry without their parent’s
consent and they were not allowed to own any business in
general.
 Women were not allowed to divorce and they could own
property only if they were widows.
 Women were not allowed to inherit property unless they
had no brothers and even in such cases, the inherited
property was transferred to their husbands after their
marriage.
 The period of European history which we call “Medieval” is usually
regarded as consisting of the thousand years or so between the fall of the
Roman empire in the west (in the 5th century), through to the period of the
Renaissance in the 15th century. The term was coined by later historians,
and means “Middle Ages”, which might today be rendered as “in-between
times” that period which came after the high civilizations of the Greeks
and Romans, and before the high civilization of the Renaissance. The
thousand-year long period of western Medieval Europe can be divided into
three main phases, of unequal length. The five-plus centuries after the fall
of Rome (up to c.1000) have been called the Dark Ages, and witnessed a
dramatic decline in the level of material civilization. Long distance trade
shrank, the currency collapsed, the economy mostly reverted to barter, and
the towns diminished in size. Literacy, and with it learning, all but
vanished. Western European society was reshaped with the rise of self-
sufficient estates (or manors), then of horse-soldiers (knights), and finally
of feudalism. The Christian Church, already highly influential by the time
of the western Roman empire’s fall, strengthened its hold on society.
 The economy of Medieval Europe was based primarily
on farming, but as time went by trade and industry
became more important, towns grew in number and
size, and merchants became more important.
 In the centuries after the fall of the Roman empire in
the west, long-distance trade routes shrank to a
shadow of what they had been. The great Roman roads
deteriorated over time, making overland transport
difficult and expensive. Towns shrank, and came to
serve a more local area than in Roman times. Traders
and craftsmen mainly serviced the needs of the local
rural populations (including local lords).
 Trade in luxury goods between different parts of
Europe never completely disappeared, and coinage
survived the fall of the empire, though was much
rarer than before.
 Trade by sea was much cheaper than by land (and
would be until the coming of railways in the 19th
century).
MECHANICAL
CLOCK

EYEGLASSES
PRINTING WINDMILL
PRESS
 Charlemagne - He was an Emperor and King who brought most
of Western and Central Europe under his reign by a variety of
means including military conquest. But he is not famous for just
this. He was also a main force in something called the
Carolingian Renaissance which changed much of Europe by
bringing about a new monetary system, educational reform and
a renaissance of the arts including military arts and the art of
siege. He is often considered to be the father of what is now
modern Europe.
 Leif Ericson - He was a Norse adventurer and explorer who is
generally credited as being the first European to discover North
America. And this was a full 500 years before Columbus. He was
the son of another famous Norse. (Eric the Red).
 Johann Gutenberg - He invented the printing press and the
concept of movable type which revolutionized the book making
process. Up until his time books were copied by hand. His
invention is considered to be among the most important of the
modern period. Books became much easier to make and much
more affordable. And most importantly this changed the
availability and flow of information throughout the world. His
inventions quickly spread across the whole known world.
 Leonardo DaVinci - He lived during the overlapping time
between when the Medieval Period ends and the Renaissance
begins. And he is considered to possibly be the archetype of
what a Renaissance man is and possibly the most diversely
skilled human being to have ever lived. He was an architect,
designer, inventor, painter, botanist, writer ... well, you name it
and he excelled at it. He realistically and symbolically represents
humanities transformation from the medieval period into the
rebirth or "renaissance".
 The Art and Architecture of Medieval times
encompasses many movements, or eras, in art history.
 Medieval art illustrates the passionate interest and
idealistic expression of the Christian and Catholic
faith. Architectural designs and their interior décor
showed avid expressions of the deep religious faith of
the people of the Middle Ages.
 Medieval art is generally divided into different types,
each of which was expressed differently in different
regions and at different times. They are:
1. The Byzantine period
2. Early Christian period
3. Romanesque and Norman period
4. Gothic period
 At the end of the Roman Empire Era, most of the
educational institutes of Romans ceased to offer their
services.
 Bishops and monks started to educate pupils of upper
class while education for Peasants used to engage their
little kids in work as soon as possible. At that time, a
child of 10-12 years was already considered an adult.
Serfs and their kids was a rare chance.
 The education system of Middle Ages was highly
influenced by the Church. Basic course of study used to
contain Latin language, grammar, logic, rhetoric,
philosophy, astrology, music and mathematics.
 Under the feudal system of The Middle Ages, women
had little or no chance of attaining education. However,
girls of upper class were given benefits of education in a
few cases. The course of education for women was very
limited and it was controlled by the Church.
 In the Middle ages society was composed by three orders of
people: the nobles, the clergy, the peasants. They also believed
that it was very important to preserve this division and to remain
in the social class where you were born in order to maintain the
general equilibrium.
 The nobles were the higher social class but they included the
people who had a noble title as well as the knights who were the
lowest members of this class.
 Another important social class was that of clergy. At that time
only the first child of a noble family could inherit the estates and
the title, so the younger sons often entered religious life without
having a real devotion, but just to continue to lead a luxurious
life typical of the noble class.
 At a much lower level there were the members of
the third social class: the peasants. They actually
didn’t have freedom.
 It was only in the 14th century that things started to
change. After the terrible plague called Black
Death, there was a transformation: most of the
people of the third social class had died so those
who survived could pretend to be paid for their
work. The urban and merchant life became
fundamental and lots of people of the lower class
became rich and wealthy.
 Around 1000 BC the first base metal coins come and
set the tone for money exchange into the future.
 Any type of money exchange had to have some power
like silver or gold to back it. In some areas, there were
times when salt, jewels, or even spices were considered
very valuable; all of these could have easily backed up
any note. A note being a sort of promise towards the
valuable thing you really wanted.
Judicial Administration in The Middle Ages:
 The law in The Middle Ages was based on old Germanic
ideas and customs but it was also influenced by the ancient
Roman law system.
Types of Courts under law in The Middle Ages
 Church courts - In order to take decision about a case
involving bishops, deacons, priests, clerks, monks, nuns
and other clergy men.
 Manor courts - Cases of ordinary people and serfs.were
often used to solve out cases of assault, petty theft,
drunkenness, and other petty crimes.
 Royal court - Serious cases where the kings used
the common law to offer justice.

Ways to prove innocence under law in The Middle

Ages:
 The Oath
 The Ordeal
 Ordeal by Battles
 Ordeal by Bread
 Ordeal by fire
 Ordeal by cold water
 During the centuries in which the Chinese, Indian and
Islamic mathematicians had been in the ascendancy,
Europe had fallen into the Dark Ages, in which
science, mathematics and almost all intellectual
endeavor stagnated.
 From the 4th to 12th Centuries, European knowledge
and study of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and
music was limited mainly to Boethius’ translations
 Europe’s first great medieval mathematician was the
Italian Leonardo of Pisa, better known by his nickname
Fibonacci, although best known for Fibonacci Sequence
of numbers, perhaps his most important contribution to
European mathematics was his role in spreading the use
of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system throughout Europe
early in the 13th Century, which soon made the Roman
numeral system obsolete, and opened the way for great
advances in European mathematics.
 Nicole Oresme - the first to use fractional exponents,
and also worked on infinite series, being the first to
prove that the harmonic series 1⁄1 + 1⁄2 + 1⁄3 + 1⁄4 + 1⁄5... is
a divergent infinite series.
 Regiomontatus - german scholar..,his main
contribution to mathematics is being in the area of
trigonometry. He helped separate trigonometry
from astronomy, and it was largely through his
efforts that trigonometry came to be considered an
independent branch of mathematics.
 Nicholas of Cusa - he present the ideas on the
infinite and the infinitesimal.
 During the Middle Ages, classical civilization was
transformed by contact with three cultures: Germanic
invaders, Christianity, and Islam.
 The Western values of individualism, consensual
government, and a recognition of religious differences
began to emerge during the Middle Ages.
 The Middle Ages is mistakenly thought of as a culturally
homogeneous period, but this period contains many
different kinds of people of many different cultures.
 As the Middle Ages developed, the Catholic Church
gradually extended its spiritual and institutional
authority across most of Europe.
 Although the period is often described as an “age of
faith,” the commitment to Catholic Christianity was
neither uniform nor lacking in an understanding of
its complexities and contradictions.
 The period is also described as an “age of chivalry.”
The code of chivalry stressed gentility, generosity,
concern for the powerless, and a capacity for
experiencing selfless and passionate romantic love.
 In Europe during the Medieval times the only recognized
religion was Christianity, in the form of the Catholic
religion. The lives of the Medieval people of the Middle
Ages was dominated by the church.
 Christians and Muslims interacted to each other’s
mutual benefit. As the medieval period progressed, the
Church exerted more control over people’s thoughts and
practices
 Various religious institutions, such as monasteries and
convents, became both important, rich and powerful.
 The majority of people living during the Middle Ages lived
in the country and worked as farmers. Usually there was a
local lord who lived in a large house called a manor or a
castle. Local peasants would work the land for the lord.
The peasants were called the lord's "villeins", which was
like a servant. The main form of organization of medieval
society was known as "feudalism." Within this system,
people were divided into three "estates", the nobility, the
clergy, and commoners. Society in this period was
extremely hierarchical.
 Back in the Middle Ages, popes were embalmed with
spices and rubbed with a good white wine, wealthy
people were often buried in more than one place, and
cemeteries turned into brothels at night.
 Galen - is a famous Greek physician (129-216
AD).Galen’s views on make up to enhance the
appearance. The object of the cosmetic part of
medicine is to produce an enhancement of beauty,
while the object of the decorative part is to preserve
everything natural in the body that is naturally
accompanied by beauty.
 In the European Middle Ages, a period that spans more than a
thousand years (350 CE-1450 CE), gender and sexuality were, in
some senses, more complicated than they are today because the
epoch lacked modern categories, primarily heterosexuality and
homosexuality, that have been so crucial to modern
configurations of sex and gender.
 John Boswell was the first medieval historian to transform the
study of medieval sexuality and gender by arguing in 1980 that
the Christian Middle Ages were not as hostile to homoeroticism
as had been previously assumed. In Christianity, Social
Tolerance, and Homosexuality, Boswell summoned a wealth of
historical and literary evidence of homosexuality in the Middle
Ages, and in the process, established medieval sexuality as a
legitimate area of scholarly study.
 A household in any time period consists of a person or people
living in one house; but a household is not necessarily the same
as a family. This entry will focus mostly on English households
from about 1300 to 1500 AD, but much of the information would
also apply to continental Europe too.
 It is easy to see that a household does not equate to a family. In
the Middle Ages for instance, a household might be a widow
living alone. In most cases though, the household would consist
of a family. The households of nobles and richer peasant families
might also include servants, seasonal or permanent workers, as
well as other people in the care of the family, such as wards,
orphans or apprentices. Poorer households that were unable to
afford servants would most likely consist of only the family.
 Most households had a married couple at their centre.
Marriage was very common because it was so easy – all that
was needed was a verbal agreement. Men generally married
later than women as they were expected to already be set up in
a trade, such as on a farm, whereas women had their dowries
provided by their father. It might take a few years before a
man could provide for a family and so consider marriage. The
man might be about 30, the woman in her early 20s or late
teens, though ages no doubt varied across Europe. Younger
girls were not considered ready to marry. The centre of the
household was usually a couple and their children - what we
now call 'a nuclear family'. Historians previously suggested
that large extended families would live together but this is
now seen as unlikely. In contrast, some historians prefer the
idea of a so-called 'stem family', which consisted of elderly
parents, a son, who would inherit the land and house when
they died, and his family.
Servants in the Household
 Servants and workers in noble families were part of
the household. Their master was responsible for
their good behavior and they were also involved in
pursuing any feud the master might be involved in.

Children and Families in the Household

 Very rich households often looked after many
children - those of family, servants, wards and so on.
They would employ a tutor who would educate the
children together, so that bonds of fellowship
developed between the children.
 In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages (or medieval period) lasted from
the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman
Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The
Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of
Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern
period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and
Late Middle Ages. During the High Middle Ages, which began after 1000,
the population of Europe increased greatly as technological and
agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and the Medieval Warm
Period climate change allowed crop yields to increase. The Late Middle
Ages was marked by difficulties and calamities including famine, plague,
and war, which significantly diminished the population of Europe;
between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death killed about a third of Europeans.
Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church
paralleled the interstate conflict, civil strife, and peasant revolts that
occurred in the kingdoms. Cultural and technological developments
transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages and
beginning the early modern period.