THE GROWTH OF EUROPEAN KINGDOMS
The domination of society by the nobility reached its high point between 1000
and 1300—the High Middle Ages. At the same time, monarchs began extending their
power. This frequently led to conflict between the two.
England in the High Middle Ages
Angles and Saxons, Germanic peoples from northern Europe, had invaded
England early in the fifth century. King Alfred the Great had united various kingdoms
in the late ninth century, and since then England had been ruled by Anglo-Saxon kings.
The Norman Conquest
On October 14, 1066, an army of heavily armed knights under William of
Normandy landed on the coast of England and soundly defeated King Harold and his
foot soldiers at the Battle of Hastings. William was crowned king of England. Norman
knights received parcels of land, which they held as fiefs, from the king. William made
all nobles swear an oath of loyalty to him as sole ruler of England. The Norman ruling
class spoke French, but the marriage of the Normans with the Anglo-Saxon nobility
gradually merged AngloSaxon and French into a new English language. The Normans
also took over existing Anglo-Saxon institutions, such as the office of sheriff. William
took a census, known as the Domesday Book. It was the first census taken in Europe
since Roman times and included people, manors, and farm animals. William also
developed more fully the system of taxation and royal courts begun by earlier Anglo-
Saxon kings.
Henry II and the Church
The power of the English monarchy was enlarged during the reign of Henry II,
from 1154 to 1189. Henry increased the number of criminal cases tried in the king’s
court and also devised means for taking property cases from local courts to the royal
courts. By expanding the power of the royal courts, Henry expanded the king’s power.
In addition, because the royal courts were now found throughout England, a body of
common law—law that was common to the whole kingdom—began to replace law
codes that varied from place to place. Henry was less successful at imposing royal
control over the Church. He claimed the right to punish clergymen in royal courts.
Thomas à Becket, archbishop of Canterbury and the highest-ranking English cleric,
claimed that only Roman Catholic Church courts could try clerics. An angry king
publicly expressed the desire to be rid of Becket: “Who will free me of this priest?” Four
knights took the challenge, went to Canterbury, and murdered the archbishop in the
cathedral. Faced with public outrage, Henry backed down in his struggle with the
Church.
The Magna Carta
Many English nobles resented the ongoing growth of the king’s power and
rebelled during the reign of King John. At Runnymede in 1215, John was forced by the
nobles to put his seal on a document of rights.
It was called the Magna Carta, or the Great Charter. Feudal custom had
recognized that the relationship between king and vassals was based on mutual rights
and obligations. The Magna Carta gave written recognition to that fact and was used
in later years to strengthen the idea that a monarch’s power was limited, not absolute.
In the thirteenth century, during the reign of Edward I, an important institution in the
development of representative government—the English Parliament— also emerged.
It was composed of two knights from every county, two people from every town, and
all of the nobles and bishops throughout England. Eventually, nobles and church lords
formed the House of Lords; knights and townspeople, the House of Commons. The
Parliaments of Edward I granted taxes, discussed politics, and passed laws.
France in the Middle Ages
divided into three sections. One of them, the west Frankish lands, formed the
core of the kingdom of France. In 987, after the last Carolingian king died, the west
Frankish nobles made Hugh Capet their king, establishing the Capetian
(kuh•PEE•shuhn) dynasty of French kings. Although they were called kings, the
Capetians had little real power. The royal domain, or lands they controlled, included
only the area around Paris, known as the Ile-de-France. Formally, they were above
the great dukes of France, but many of the dukes were actually more powerful. The
reign of Philip II Augustus, who reigned from 1180–1223, was a turning point in the
French monarchy, expanding its income and power. Philip fought wars against the
English to take control of the French territories of Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and
Aquitaine. Philip’s successors continued to add lands to the royal domain.
Much of the thirteenth century was dominated by the reign of Louis IX. Deeply
religious, he was later made a saint by the Catholic Church. Louis was known for trying
to bring justice to his people by hearing their complaints in person. Philip IV, called
Philip the Fair, ruled from 1285 to 1314. He made the monarchy stronger by expanding
the royal bureaucracy. Indeed by 1300, France was the largest and bestgoverned
monarchy in Europe. Philip IV also created a French parliament by meeting with
members of the three estates, or classes—the clergy (first estate), the nobles (second
estate), and the townspeople and peasants (third estate). The meeting, in 1302, began
the Estates-General, the first French parliament.
The Holy Roman Empire
In the tenth century, the powerful dukes of the Saxons became kings of the
eastern Frankish kingdom, which came to be known as Germany. The best-known
Saxon king of Germany was Otto I. Otto was a patron of German culture and brought
the Church under his control. In return for protecting the pope, Otto I was crowned
emperor of the Romans in 962. The title had not been used since the time of
Charlemagne. Otto’s creation of a new Roman Empire in the hands of the Germans
had long-range consequences.
Struggles in Italy
As leaders of a new Roman Empire, the German kings attempted to rule both
German and Italian lands. Many a German king lost armies in Italy in pursuit of the
dream of an empire. The two most famous members of one particular German dynasty
prove this. Frederick I and Frederick II, instead of building a strong German kingdom,
tried to create a new kind of empire. Frederick I planned to get his chief revenues from
Italy. He considered Italy the center of a “holy empire,” as he called it—hence the name
Holy Roman Empire. Frederick’s attempt to conquer northern Italy led to severe
problems. The pope opposed him, fearing that he wanted to include Rome and the
Papal States as part of his empire. The cities of northern Italy, which had become used
to their freedom, were also unwilling to become his subjects. An alliance of these
northern Italian cities and the pope defeated the forces of Frederick I in 1176.
The main goal of Frederick II was to establish a strong, centralized state in Italy.
He too was involved in a struggle with the popes and the northern Italian cities.
Frederick II waged a bitter struggle in northern Italy, winning many battles but
ultimately losing the war.
Effects on the Empire
The struggle between popes and emperors had dire consequences for the Holy
Roman Empire. By spending their time fighting in Italy, the German emperors left
Germany in the hands of powerful German lords. These nobles ignored the emperor
and created their own independent kingdoms. This made the German monarchy weak
and incapable of maintaining a strong monarchical state. In the end, the German Holy
Roman Emperor had no real power over either Germany or Italy. Unlike France and
England, neither Germany nor Italy created a national monarchy in the Middle Ages.
Both Germany and Italy consisted of many small, independent states. Not until the
nineteenth century did these states ultimately become unified.
Central and Eastern
The Slavic peoples were originally a single people in central Europe. Gradually,
they divided into three major groups: the western, southern, and eastern Slavs.
Slavic Europe
The western Slavs eventually formed the Polish and Bohemian kingdoms.
German monks had converted both the Czechs in Bohemia and the Slavs in Poland
to Christianity by the tenth century. The nonSlavic kingdom of Hungary was also
converted. The Poles, Czechs, and Hungarians all accepted Western Christianity and
became part of the Roman Catholic Church and its Latin culture.
The southern and eastern Slavic populations took a different path. The eastern
Slavic peoples of Moravia were converted to Orthodox Christianity by two Byzantine
missionary brothers, Cyril and Methodius, who began their activities in 863. (The
Byzantine Empire and its Eastern Orthodox Church are discussed later in this chapter.)
The southern Slavic peoples included the Croats, the Serbs, and the Bulgarians. Most
of them embraced Eastern Orthodoxy, although the Croats came to accept the Roman
Catholic Church. The acceptance of Eastern Orthodoxy by many southern and eastern
Slavic peoples meant that their cultural life was linked to the Byzantine state.
Kievan Rus
Eastern Slavic peoples had also settled in present-day Ukraine and Russia.
There, beginning in the late eighth century, they began to encounter Swedish Vikings,
who moved into their lands in search of plunder and new trade routes. The Vikings
eventually came to dominate the native peoples. The native peoples called the Viking
rulers the Rus, from which the name Russia is derived. One Viking leader, Oleg, settled
in Kiev (present-day Kyiv) at the beginning of the tenth century and created the Rus
state known as the principality of Kiev. His successors extended their control over the
eastern Slavs and expanded Kiev until it included the territory between the Baltic and
Black Seas and the Danube and Volga Rivers. By marrying Slavic wives, the Viking
ruling class was gradually assimilated into the Slavic population. The growth of the
principality of Kiev attracted missionaries from the Byzantine Empire. One Rus ruler,
Vladimir, married the Byzantine emperor’s sister and officially accepted Eastern
Orthodox Christianity for himself and his people in 988. Orthodox Christianity became
the religion of the state. Kievan Rus prospered and reached its high point in the first
half of the eleventh century. However, civil wars and new invasions brought an end to
the first Russian state in 1169.
Mongol Rule
In the thirteenth century, the Mongols conquered Russia. They occupied Russian
lands and required Russian princes to pay tribute to them. One prince emerged as
more powerful than the others. Alexander Nevsky, prince of Novgorod, defeated a
German invading army in northwestern Russia in 1242. The khan, leader of the
western Mongol Empire, rewarded Nevsky with the title of grandprince. His
descendants became princes of Moscow and eventually leaders of all Russia.
