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The Medieval WorldAn Overview
Dr Alex Russell [email protected] Hours: Tuesdays 2-5 pm or by appointment
•Europe c. 500-1500, from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance
The ‘Middle Ages’
• 6.5 million km2 at greatest extent (C2nd AD)
• 50-60 million living under pax romana
• Mediterranean = mare nostrum
• Capital at Rome
The Roman Empire
Scale model of ancient Rome in the time of Constantine
Constantine the Great, 272-327 AD (bits of a colossal sculpture in the Capitoline Museum, Rome)
The Decline of Rome
•Decline of Roman Empire from C3rd
•410 Rome sacked by Visigoths
•waves of ‘barbarian’ invasions (or migrations?) - Huns, Lombards, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Franks
•476 last western emperor stands down
•BUT eastern (Byzantine) empire survives
The Carolingians
• C8th Carolingian dynasty established in Frankish realm
• Charlemagne (r. 768-814)
Shrine of Charlemagne (C13th)
Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope,
800
Carolingian Empire
Dark blue = Frankish realm in 714 CELight blue = Extent of empire in 814
CE
Instability of 10th Century
Monarchies in western Europe 1154 to 1314
Italy around 1200
Expansion of Christianity in Eastern Europe
The Christian conquest of Spain
Flux in Byzantine Empire
Brown line = Imperial frontier around 628 CERed line = Imperial frontier around 1025 CE Green line = Imperial frontier around 1143 CE