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A literal crowning success came in 1066, when the Norman Duke William crossed into England and defeated Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, taking control of the country in the process.

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This relatively small duchy became enormously powerful, helping to install Hugh Capet on the French throne in 950. In the early tenth century, a group of inhabitants known as the Normans settled in a northwestern part of France and established a subsidiary duchy within the kingdom, owing loyalty to the French monarch. In the triple partition of imperial territory to Charlemagne’s grandsons, the westernmost region continued under the sway of the Franks, eventually becoming the monarchy of France. Yet he was also a diligent lawmaker, overseeing codified legislation for the minute particulars of his empire and he ardently promoted education, founding schools and bringing scholars to his seat of government. He had nine wives and in one day had 4,500 Saxons beheaded. In seeking to revive the idea of the Roman Empire through his own conquests, Charlemagne was short of the mark but cultivated many of the negative and positive qualities of some Roman emperors. But Charlemagne’s territory would stretch from northern Spain through France and into Italy, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, and Germany. In the case of Charlemagne, who reigned from 768 to 814, the Franks under his command even conquered an empire of sorts – though a much-truncated version when contrasted with the ancient Roman Empire.

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Practically, the nobles sought to hone the military power of their battalions through chivalry: common emphasized values in the chivalric code were bravery on the field of battle and loyalty.Īmid the feudal warfare, certain nobles with advisors emerged into leading positions, grabbing more territory than others and eventually generating the means to found kingdoms. This restraint on knightly conduct was instituted mainly to prevent nobles from being genuinely threatened any time their lands were invaded by enemy knights. The code of chivalry grew out of feudalism, primarily to curb the massive amounts of violence that were unleashed in a system with a plethora of principalities, many of them roughly equal in strength and deploying armies of knights to invade each other’s territory. Feudalism was in wide usage throughout Western Europe mainly from the 9th to the 15th century, in which heavily-armed castles and manors figured prominently.

The knights in turn owed military service to these lords.

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Often serfs would owe their direct military obligation to lesser nobles including knights, who were professional cavalry soldiers who owned lands under the dominion of a higher-level lord such as a duke. This reciprocal system of obligations was known as feudalism. In return, they were required to serve in the lord’s army in wartime, among other obligations. Peasants, or serfs, gave portions of crops they grew to their lords in exchange for being allowed to reside on small parcels of land and keep portions of their crops for themselves.

Large-scale tyranny was receding, and in its place was an array of independent principalities. With violent decentralization of power came opportunity for individual freedom of maneuver, as many local rulers no longer had the territorial reach nor the wealth to employ armies of mercenaries and enslave the local population. No longer did a universal monarch hold sway over much of the continent, with an army, civil service, and road system powerful enough to impose and collect heavy taxes.

The disintegration of Roman authority in Western Europe, however, was by no means a total loss to citizens. Foreign invasions – from the Goths, Huns, and Franks, among other groups – had resulted in large-scale plunder and ravaging of lands. Though the Roman Senate officially transferred that authority to the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople, which became known as the Byzantine Empire, Europeans in the previous Western Roman Empire no longer had Roman emperors ruling over them. The Middle Ages formally began with the collapse of unified Roman imperial authority in Western Europe in 476. Hi, and welcome to this overview of the Middle Ages!