Medieval Europe and the World
Middle Ages: the period in western European history between the fall of the Roman Empire and the 15th century.
Gothic: an architectural style developed during the 13th and 14th centuries in western Europe; featured pointed arches and flying buttresses as external support on main walls.
Vikings: sea-going Scandinavian raiders who disrupted coastal areas of Europe from the 8th to 11th centuries; pushed across the Atlantic to Iceland, Greenland, and North America. Formed permanent territories in Normandy and Sicily.
Manorialism: rural system of reciprocal relations between landlords and their peasant laborers during the Middle Ages; peasants exchanged labor for use of land and protection.
Serfs: peasant agricultural laborers within the manorial system.
Moldboard: adjunct to the plow introduced in northern Europe during the Middle Ages;
permitted deeper cultivation of heavier soils.
Three-field system: practice of dividing land into thirds, rotating between two different crops and pasturage. An improvement making use of manure.
Clovis: King of the Franks; converted to Christianity circa 496.
Carolingians: royal house of Franks from 8th to 10th century.
Charles Martel: First Carolingian king of the Franks; defeated Muslims at Tours in 732.
Charlemagne: Carolingian monarch who established large empire in France and Germany circa
Holy Roman emperors: political heirs to Charlemagne’s empire in northern Italy and Germany; claimed title of emperor but failed to develop centralized monarchy.
Feudalism: personal relationship during the Middle Ages by which greater lords provided land to lesser lords in return for military service.
Vassals: members of the military elite who received land or a benefice from a lord in return for military service and loyalty.
Capetians: French dynasty ruling from the 10th century; developed a strong centralized
monarchy.
William the Conqueror: invaded England from Normandy in 1066; established tight feudal system and centralized monarchy in England.
Magna Carta: Great charter issued by King John of England in 1215; represented principle of mutual limits and obligations between rulers and feudal aristocracy, and the supremacy of law.
Parliaments: bodies representing privileged groups; institutionalized the principle that kings ruled with the advice and consent of their subjects.
Hundred Years War: conflict between England and France (1337-1453).
Pope Urban II: called first Crusade in 1095; appealed to Christians to free the Holy Land from Muslim control.
Investiture: the practice of appointment of bishops; Pope Gregory attempted to stop lay
investiture, leading to a conflict with the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV.
St. Clare of Assisi: 13th-century founder of a woman’s monastic order; represented a new spirit of purity and dedication to the Catholic church.
Gregory VII: 11th-century pope who attempted to free church from secular control; quarreled with Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV over practice of lay investiture of bishops.
Peter Abelard: Author of Yes and No; university scholar who applied logic to problems of
theology; demonstrated logical contradictions within established doctrine.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux: emphasized role of faith in preference to logic; stressed importance of mystical union with god; successfully challenged Abelard and had him driven from the universities.
Thomas Aquinas: creator of one of the great syntheses of medieval learning; taught at
University of Paris; author of Summas; believed that through reason it was possible to know much about natural order, moral law, and nature of god.
Scholasticism: dominant medieval philosophical approach; so-called because of its base in the schools or universities; based on use of logic to resolve theological problems.
Troubadours: poets in 14th-century southern France; gave a new value to the emotion of love in Western tradition.
Hanseatic League: an organization of north German and Scandinavian cities for the purpose of establishing a commercial alliance.
Jacques Coeur: 15th-century French merchant; his career as banker to the French monarchy demonstrates new course of medieval commerce.
Guilds: associations of workers in the same occupation in a single city; stressed security and mutual control; limited membership, regulated apprenticeship, guaranteed good workmanship; held a privileged place in cities.
Black Death: plague that struck Europe in the 14th century; significantly reduced Europe’s population; affected social structure.