History and Geography Medieval Europe
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ISBN: 978-1-68380-003-3 Medieval Europe Table of Contents Chapter 1 Changing Times...... 2 Chapter 2 The Not-So-Dark Ages...... 10 Chapter 3 Two Churches...... 16 Chapter 4 Prayer and Work ...... 24 Chapter 5 Charlemagne ...... 34 Chapter 6 A Feudal Society ...... 42 Chapter 7 To the Manor Born...... 48 Chapter 8 Life in a Castle...... 56 Chapter 9 Days of a Knight...... 64 Chapter 10 A Serf and His Turf...... 72 Chapter 11 City Life...... 78 Chapter 12 Women in the Middle Ages...... 86 Chapter 13 William the Conqueror...... 92 Chapter 14 Henry II ...... 102 Chapter 15 Thomas Becket...... 108 Chapter 16 Eleanor of Aquitaine ...... 116 Chapter 17 Magna Carta...... 124 Chapter 18 A New Kind of Government...... 130 Chapter 19 The Hundred Years’ War...... 136 Chapter 20 Joan of Arc ...... 144 Chapter 21 The Black Death...... 154 Glossary ...... 160
Medieval Europe Reader Core Knowledge Sequence History and Geography 4 Chapter 1 Changing Times
Roads Lead to Rome You may have heard the expression, “All roads lead The Big Question to Rome.” During the glory days What changes led to the decline of of the Roman Empire, that saying the Western Roman was true. Rome was the center of Empire? the empire, and roads from all over Europe led there.
These roads allowed the emperor to spread Vocabulary Roman ideas and laws throughout the empire, n. a group of countries controlled vast empire. With the system of roads, the by a single authority emperor could send messengers to carry instructions to the regional governors. Roads also allowed goods and taxes to travel across the empire into Rome. These goods and taxes kept the powerful Roman Empire running. More important, perhaps, was that Roman soldiers used the roads. Their job was to enforce the law and put down any rebellions or attacks on the empire.
2 Roads like this one in Italy were used to carry goods across the Roman Empire.
3 The roads helped hold the Roman Empire together, but they also played a role in its decline. Other armies could use these roads, too. The same roads that carried the Roman army out of Rome made it easy for outside invaders to march into the city. Beginning around 200 CE, some non-Roman groups of people wanted to do just that. Vocabulary At this time, Rome was still a vast and decline, n. gradual powerful empire, but it faced some serious loss of importance and power problems. Powerful Roman generals were fighting each other. Each general wanted invader, n. a person or group that comes to gain enough power to become emperor. into a country by This conflict was harmful for the health force and well-being of the empire. The Roman boundary, n. the government’s main purpose was to provide edge of a country or of an area; its law and order so that people could conduct outside limits business and live in safety. However, the fights among the generals undermined Roman law and order. The warring interrupted business, trade, and government.
In addition, this large empire needed money to build roads, bridges, and buildings, as well as to pay administrators and soldiers. Over time, it became impossible to pay for everything. Managing the Roman Empire well became impossible.
People on the Move
The Roman Empire grew weak enough in the 200s and 300s that it began to attract the attention of various groups that lived on the edges of the empire, or outside its boundaries. Rome had
4 conquered some of these groups of people and had sent armies to guard the borders against others.
The Romans, who mostly spoke Greek and Latin, looked down on these people who spoke different languages and had different cultures. They labeled them “barbarians.” The word barbarian comes from a Greek word meaning foreigner. The Romans dismissed these non-Greek- and non-Latin-speaking barbarians as primitive, uncultured, and inferior. However, many barbarian groups were not uncivilized. For example, many had skilled metal workers who created beautiful art, jewelry and coins.
The Romans referred to a number of groups Vocabulary as barbarians, including the Angles, the uncultured, adj. Saxons, the Huns, the Vandals, and the Goths showing poor (including the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths). manners and bad taste; crude Several of these groups of people were Germanic. They lived in northern Europe. uncivilized, adj. not advanced socially or The Angles and the Saxons lived in what culturally is now Denmark and northern Germany. sack, v. to destroy They eventually drove the Romans out of and steal things in a city or building, England. The Goths and Vandals attacked usually with an army and eventually sacked the city of Rome itself. From the Roman point of view, the Vandals caused so much destruction that, even today, we still use the word vandalism to describe acts of destruction.
However, the barbarians who left the longest memory of fear and destruction were not Germanic people. They were a nomadic people from central Asia called the Huns. The Huns lived on the
5 Barbarian Invasions of the Roman Empire
N ey W Barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire E orth ea Western Roman Empire S altic ea Eastern Roman Empire Capital Huns Visigoths Vandals Franks English hannel Angles, Saxons, utes