The end of The Middle Ages Romulus Augustulus ending the Western Roman Empire The eastern part of the empire called the Byzantine Empire survived for about another thousand years Other historians give the year 410 when Alaric king of the Visigoths sacked Rome Still others say that the ancient world lasted until 750 or even 1000 when the extensive practice of slavery as in the classical world finally came to an end in western Europe It is equally hard to determine exactly when the Mid dle Ages ended for decisive events leading to the modern age took place at different times Historians say variously that the Middle Ages ended with the fall of Constantinople the capital of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 with the Euro pean discovery of America in 1492 with the beginning of the Reformation in 1517 or with the coming of the French Revolution in 1789 The Middle Ages was first defined as a distinct histor ical period in the 15th century by scholars who saw their own time as one of great cultural progress and the revival of the Classical learning of ancient Greece and Rome These scholars thus thought of the time between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and their own time as one of decline and then stagnation The Middle Ages came to be seen as a long period dominated by ignorance and superstition Historians today however mostly do not accept this position They emphasize the many important changes that occurred in society during the Middle Ages New forms of political social cultural and economic organization emerged 10
inTroducTion The monarchies that developed laid the foundations for the nation-states of the modern period People also first began to consider Europe as a distinct cultural unit The Roman Catholic Church became a significant part of medieval life Later in this period the population began to grow greatly agriculture and trade flourished and cities expanded Medie val Europe gave the world the first universities and medieval architects produced magnificent Gothic cathedrals It has been traditionally held that by the 14th century the dynamic force of medieval civilization had been spent and that the late Middle Ages were characterized by decline and decay Europe did indeed suffer disasters of war famine and pestilence in the 14th century but many of the under lying social intellectual and political structures remained intact In the 15th and 16th centuries Europe experienced an intellectual and economic revival conventionally called the Renaissance that laid the foundation for the subsequent expansion of European culture throughout the world 11
The Frankish ascendancy D ominating present-day northern France Belgium and western Germany the Germanic-speaking Franks established the most powerful Christian kingdom of early medieval western Europe The name France Francia is derived from their name The Franks emerged into recorded history in the 3rd century CE as a Germanic tribe living on the east bank of the lower Rhine River In 481 482 Clovis I c 466 511 succeeded his father Childeric as the ruler of the Salian Franks of Tournai In the following years Clovis compelled the other Salian and Ripuarian tribes to submit to his authority He then took advantage of the disintegration of the Roman Empire and led the united Franks in a series of campaigns that brought all of northern Gaul under his rule by 494 He expanded into southern Gaul driving the Visigoths across the Pyrenees and established a strong Frankish presence east of the Rhine His 12 chApTer one
The frAnkish AscendAncy power was recog nized by the eastern emperor Anastasius who made him a Roman consul a high-ranking magis trate In the gener ations following the death of Clovis the Frankish kingdom was often divided into the two king doms of Neustria and Austrasia though it was occasion ally reunited under Clovis’s successors the Merovingian dynasty It was later reunited under the lordship and after 751 monarchy of the eastern Frankish Arnulfing-Pippinid family later known as the Carolin gian dynasty which included Pippin II and his successors Charles Martel Pippin III and Charlemagne reigned 768 814 This dynasty brought much of western Europe under Frankish control and established diplomatic relations with Britain Iberia Rome Constantinople Christians in the Holy Land and even Hārūn al-Rashīd the great caliph in Baghdad King Clovis of the Franks dictates the law in the presence of his court in a facsimile of a miniature painting from a 14th-century manuscript 13
