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Medieval Europe introduces today's students to the medieval roots of our own society. In an accessible and engaging narrative, it tells how the peoples of medieval Europe built, understood, and changed their world.
Never losing sight of the neighboring civilizations of Byzantium and Islam, it has its feet firmly planted in the medieval West, from whence it gives ample consideration to such subjects as women's lives, Jewish communities, ordinary people, and the experiences of Europeans in the often-neglected centuries of the L... MORE
| Abbreviations and Conventions | p. xi |
| Biographical Sketches | p. xii |
| Medieval Myths | p. xiii |
| Timelines | p. xiv |
| Maps | p. xv |
| List of Figures | p. xvi |
| Preface | p. xix |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Romans, Christians, and Barbarians | p. 4 |
| The Early Middle Ages | p. 4 |
| The Roman Peace (31 B.C.E-180 C.E.) and After | ... MOREp. 5 |
| Christianity | p. 8 |
| Barbarians and the Western Empire | p. 19 |
| The Decline of the Western Empire | p. 25 |
| Conclusion | p. 27 |
| Early Western Christendom, c. 500-700 | p. 28 |
| Introduction | p. 28 |
| Early Medieval Society | p. 28 |
| Early Medieval Politics | p. 33 |
| The Early Medieval Church | p. 40 |
| Intellectual Life | p. 48 |
| Conclusion | p. 50 |
| Neighbors: Byzantium and Islam, c. 500-1000 | p. 51 |
| Introduction | p. 51 |
| From Eastern to Byzantine Empire | p. 52 |
| The Byzantine Centuries | p. 59 |
| The Ascent of Islam | p. 65 |
| The Islamic Empire | p. 70 |
| Islamic Culture | p. 77 |
| Conclusion | p. 79 |
| Carolingian Europe, c. 700-850 | p. 80 |
| Introduction | p. 80 |
| The Early Carolingians | p. 82 |
| Charlemagne (r. 768-814) | p. 83 |
| Intellectual Revival | p. 95 |
| Conclusion | p. 100 |
| Division, Invasion, and Reorganization, c. 800-1000 | p. 102 |
| Introduction | p. 102 |
| Division: The Later Carolingians | p. 102 |
| Invasion: Muslims, Magyars, and Vikings | p. 104 |
| Reorganization: New Polities | p. 111 |
| Conclusion | p. 130 |
| Economic Takeoff and Social Change, c. 1000-1300 | p. 131 |
| The Central Middle Ages | p. 131 |
| Agricultural Revolution | p. 139 |
| Rural Society | p. 141 |
| The Commercial Revolution | p. 150 |
| Urban Society | p. 156 |
| The Landholding Aristocracy | p. 162 |
| Feudal Society | p. 163 |
| Conclusion | p. 166 |
| Popes and the Papacy, c. 1000-1300 | p. 167 |
| Introduction | p. 167 |
| Papacy, Clergy, and Laity, c. 1000-1122 | p. 168 |
| The Reformed Papacy and Its Church | p. 175 |
| Innocent III and the Papacy Ascendant | p. 184 |
| The Papacy after 1250 | p. 187 |
| Conclusion | p. 189 |
| New Paths to God, c. 1000-1300 | p. 190 |
| Introduction | p. 190 |
| Judaism | p. 190 |
| The Evolution of Christian Piety | p. 191 |
| Orthodoxy and Heresy | p. 197 |
| Changes in Monastic Life | p. 199 |
| The Mendicant Orders | p. 205 |
| Conclusion | p. 210 |
| Conquests, Crusades, and Persecutions, c. 1100-1300 | p. 211 |
| Introduction | p. 211 |
| Conquests and Territorial Expansion | p. 212 |
| Crusades | p. 221 |
| Persecutions | p. 231 |
| Conclusion | p. 235 |
| States Made and Unmade, c. 1000-1300 | p. 236 |
| Introduction | p. 236 |
| The Holy Roman Empire: Disintegration | p. 237 |
| England: King and Parliament | p. 248 |
| France: The Monarchy Triumphant | p. 258 |
| Iberia: Some Consolidation | p. 267 |
| The States of Northern and Eastern Europe | p. 268 |
| Conclusion | p. 268 |
| Literature, Art, and Thought, c. 1000-1300 | p. 269 |
| Introduction | p. 269 |
| Byzantine and Islamic Influences | p. 270 |
| Intellectual Trends | p. 271 |
| Literature | p. 283 |
| Architecture and Sculpture | p. 290 |
| Conclusion | p. 296 |
| Famine, Plague, and Recovery, c. 1300-1500 | p. 297 |
| The Later Middle Ages | p. 297 |
| Economic Woes and Demographic Crisis (1300-1350) | p. 301 |
| Adjustment and Recovery (1350-1500) | p. 306 |
| Late Medieval Christianity | p. 313 |
| Conclusion | p. 321 |
| Toward the Sovereign State, c. 1300-1500 | p. 322 |
| Introduction | p. 322 |
| England, France, and the Hundred Years' War | p. 323 |
| England: Parliament, Civil War, and Tudor Monarchy | p. 327 |
| France: Constitutional Crisis, War, and the Spider King | p. 329 |
| The Iberian Slates: Consolidation through Homogenization | p. 332 |
| New Powers on the European Periphery | p. 335 |
| The Heritage of the Holy Roman Empire | p. 338 |
| Conclusion | p. 341 |
| Diversity and Dynamism in Culture, c. 1300-1500 | p. 344 |
| Introduction | p. 344 |
| Literacy and Vernacular Languages | p. 345 |
| Humanist Education | p. 347 |
| Literature | p. 350 |
| Art and Architecture | p. 352 |
| Philosophy | p. 354 |
| Political Thought | p. 359 |
| Conclusion | p. 360 |
| Glossary | p. G-1 |
| Photo Credits | P-1 |
| Index | p. I-1 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |