13-1

Key Terms: Middle Ages: The midieval period that lasted from 500-1500. Franks: The Germanic peoples that lived in Gaul. Monastaries: Relgious communities inhabited by monks built by the church. Secular: Worldly Carolignian Dynasty: A family that would rule the Franks from 751-987.

Key People: Charlemange: A ruler of the Franks who extended their rule.

Summary:

Invasions of Western Europe
 * Repeated invasions by the Germanics and constant welfare caused disruption of trade, the downfall of cities, and population shifts.

The Decline of Learning
 * The Germanic invaders couldn't read or write, and most Romans who moved into rural areas were illeterate

Loss of A Common Language
 * As the German speaking people mixed with the Romans French, Spanish, and other romance languages evolved from latin, and latin was no longer understood.

Germanic Kingdoms Emerge
 * Between 400 and 600, small Germanic kingdoms replaced the Roman empire, but the Church held steady and was a place of order and security for people.

The Concept of Government Changes
 * In Rome, loyalty to the public government and writtten law was expected, while in Germanic societies, family ties, personal loyalties, and unwritten rules and traditions held the society together.
 * There were many Germanic chiefs who provided food, weapons, and treasure to a band of warriors who pledged their loyalty to them.

Clovis Rules The Franks
 * In the province of Gaul, now France and Switzerland, the Germanic Franks were in power under Clovis, who brought Christianity to the land.
 * The Church welcomed Colvis and supported his battles angainsts other Germanic forces, and by 511, Clovis had united the franks into one kingdom.

Germans adopt Christianity
 * By 600, the Church, with the help of Frankish rulers and missionaries, had converted many Germans.

Monastaries, Convents, and Manuscripts
 * To adapt to the rural enviornment, monastaries and convents were built. Christian men called monks gave up their possestions and devoted their life to god lived in monastaries, and women who did this, nuns, lived in convents.
 * In 520, an Italian monk, Benedict, wrote a book with a strict but practical set of rules for monastaries, and his sister, Scholastica, followed the same rules in her convent. These rules became used all over Europe.
 * Monastaries became the best educated communities, and monks opened schools, maintained libraries, and wrote books.

Papal Power expands under Gregory I
 * In 590 Gregory I became pope and expanded the power of the pope so that he could be come a worldly power in politics.
 * According to Gregory, the region from Italy to England and from Spain to Germany fell under his responsibility, and it became a spiritual kindom from Rome to the most distant churches.

An Empire Evolves
 * After the Roman empire distetgrated, new kingdoms sprung up all over Europe.

Charles Martel Emerges
 * By 700 an official known as the major dono came to be, who officially hd conrol over the royal households and estates, and unofficially led armies and made policy.
 * In 719, Charles martel extended the Frankish empire to the north, south, and east, and defeated the muslim invaders in Spain, which made him a Christian hero.
 * After Martel's death, his son, Pepin the short, made a deal with the pope that if he fought the Lombards, who had invaded Italy, then he would officialy be made king "by the grace of god". This began the Carolingian Dynasty.

Charlemange Becomes Emperor
 * Pepin the short died in 768 and left control of the empire to his two sons, Carloman and Charles, and when Carloman died, Charles, known as Chalemange, became emperor.

Charlemange extends Frankish Rule
 * Charlemange conquered the Muslims in Spain and other Germainc tribes, and reunited western Europe for the first time since the Roman empire.
 * In 800, when Charlemange defeated a mob that attacked the pope, Pope Leo III crowned him emperor.

Charlemange leads a Revival
 * Charlemange sent out royal agents to make sure the landowners governed the counties justly, and surrounded himself with scholars of all nationalities, and even opened a palace school.

Charlemange's Hiers
 * When Charlemange died in 814, he left the empire to his son Louis the Pious, who was an ineffective ruler. His three sons, Lothair, Charles the Bald, and Louis the German, fought one another for power, but in 843, the signed the Treaty of Verdun, and they divided the empire into three parts.