The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval EuropeGeorge Holmes This richly illustrated book tells the story of Europe and the Mediterranean over a thousand years which saw the creation of western civilization. Written by expert scholars and based on the latest research, it gives the general reader the most authoritative account of life in medieval Europe between the fall of the Roman Empire and the coming of the Renaissance. The story is one of profound diversity and change: the political empires of Charlemagne or the Byzantines, contrasting with the new nations which fought the Hundred Years War; the expression of religion in the great monasteries and cathedrals, and in the ideals of ecclesiastical poverty and reform; the mixed ambitions of the Crusades; the cultural worlds of chivalric knights and heroic romance, popular festivals, and the realism of the new arts; economic expansion and social catastrophe, such as the Black Death. The authors describe both the strange and the familiar. We have endured nothing comparable to the vast upheavals of migration and new institutions of the Dark Ages between 400 and 900. Consequently the new attitudes and ways of life that grew up from 900 to 1500 around the cathedrals and universities, the royal courts and commercial cities, remain central in modern societies. Our towns and villages, the nation state and democratic forms of government, our commerce and banking, our university courses, our novels and history books, our concern with the relationship between physical and spiritual realms-all had their origins in the medieval world. The six chapters in this book are divided between the Mediterranean world and northern Europe to show the movement of the centre of gravity in European life from the Mediterranean to the north. The authors explore the contrast between Byzantine and Renaissance cultures in the south and the new, complex political and social structures of north-west Europe, which by 1300 had the most advanced civilization the world had ever seen. Over two hundred illustrations, including twenty-four colour plates, amplify the text; and the picture is completed with comprehensive reference material in maps, genealogies, a chronology, lists of further reading, and a full index including personal dates. |
Contents
The Northern World in the Dark Ages 400900 | 63 |
The Society of Northern Europe in the High Middle Ages | 115 |
Northern Europe invades the Mediterranean 9001200 | 175 |
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Abbasid alliance Aquitaine Arab Aragon areas aristocrats army attack Balkans barbarian became bishops Burgundian Burgundy Byzantine Byzantine Empire Byzantium Capetian Carolingian Castile centre Charlemagne Charles Charles the Bold Christian Church cities clergy Constantinople court crown Crusade culture Dagobert death defeated duchy duke duke of Burgundy dynasty early east eastern eleventh century emperor England English fifteenth century Flanders Florence fourteenth century France Frankish Frederick French Gaul German Gregory Henry the Lion historians Holy imperial invasions Islamic Italian Italy king kingdom lands later Latin Lombard London lords Louis marriage medieval Mediterranean Merovingian Middle Ages military monarchy monasteries monastic monks Muslim ninth nobles Norman northern Europe Otto papacy papal period Philip Pippin III political pope princes raids reign religious Rome royal rule rulers Saxony secular Sicily Slavs society southern Italy Spain survived tenth century territory towns trade traditional twelfth century urban Venice Vikings Visigothic western