macmillan history of europe
TRANSCRIPT
Macmillan History of Europe
Early Medieval Europe 300-1000
MACMILLAN HISTORY OF EUROPE
PUBLISHED
Early Medieval Europe 300-1000 Roger Collins
Sixteenth Century Europe Expansion and Conflict Richard Mackenney
Seventeenth Century Europe 1598-1700 Thomas Munck
Eighteenth Century Europe 1700-1789 Jeremy Black
FORTHCOMING
Medieval Europe 1000-1250 Randall Rogers
Nineteenth Century Europe 1789-1914 Alan Sked
Macmillan History of Europe
Early Medieval Europe 300-1000
Roger Collins
~ MACMILlAN
© Roger Collins 1991
An rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WI P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
First published 1991 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD HoundmiIls, Basingstoke, Hampsl1ire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
13 12 11 03 02 01
IO 9 00 99
8 7 98 97
6 5 96 95
ISBN 978-0-333-36825-1 ISBN 978-1-349-21290-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-21290-3
8 7
Contents
Chronology of main events, 238-1000 xi Preface XXIll
Introduction xxvii
1 Problem-solving emperors I A dynamic age, 235-285 1 The reign of Diocletian, 285-305 8
2 The age of Constantine 16 Imperial rivals, 305-312 16 The emperor and his new religion 17 Constantine's heirs, 324-350 24
3 Frontier wars and civil wars, 350-395 30 Imperial defence, 350-361 30 Reactionary rebel: the emperor Julian, 361-363 35 Internal conflicts, 363-395 40
4 The battle of Adrianople and the sack of Rome 45 The coming of the Huns 45 The Visigoths and the Empire, 376-395 48 Stilicho or Honorius? The conflict of two strategies,
395-410 51
5 A divided city: the Christian Church, 300-460 58 Christianity and the Empire 58 The primacy of Peter 64 The rise of monasticism 70
6 The disappearance of an army 75 Shrinking the western Empire, 410-454 75 An age of military dictators, 455-480 81 The fall of Rome? 90
7 The new kingdoms 94 War lords and kings 94 Theoderic and the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy 99 Oom 104
v
vi Contents
8 The twilight of the West, 518-568 109 Prelude: Constantinople and Rome 109 Justinian I and Mrica, 527-533 113 The Italian wars, 535-553 121
9 Constantinople, Persia and the Arabs 127 The Roman Empire and Iran 127 Islam and the Arab conquests 135
10 Decadent and do-nothing kings 144 Visigothic Spain, c. 589-711 144 Merovingian Gaul, c. 511-687 151
11 The remaking of Britain Entrepreneurial rulers, 410-597 Christian kingdoms, 598-685
162 162
168 The Mercian hegemony, 633-874 174
12 The Lombard achievement, c. 540-712 183 The acquisition of Italy, 540-572 183 Dukes and kings, 572-584 188 The kingdom of the Lombards, 584-712 194
13 The sundering of East and West 204 Survivals of cultural unity 204 Iconoclasm: divisions in the East 208 Rome between Constantinople and Francia 213
14 Monks and missionaries 219 Western monasticism: Augustine to Gregory the Great 220 The making of the Irish Church 224 Spreading the word 233
15 Towards a new western Empire, 714-800 245 Charles 'the Hammer' 245 Pippin 'the Short' 253 Charles 'the Great' 260
16 The new Constantine 272 The meaning of Empire 272 The machinery of government The ideological programme
278 280
17 'The dissension of kings' 287 Chroniclers in an age of war 287
The reign of Louis the Pious, 814-840 Kings and emperors in the West, 840-911
290 301
18 'The desolation of the pagans' 313 Traders and raiders 313 The Vikings and Francia 319
Contents vii
The Vikings and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms 326 Conversion and expansion 332
19 Towards the millennium 337 Italy and Germany, 875-961 337 Rome and Constantinople, 961-1002 347 Renaissance and nostalgia 352
Abbreviations 356
Notes 357
Bibliography 425
Index 436
For Anna, Eleanor, Gemma, Rachel and Stephanie
Chronology of main events, 238-1000
Bri
tish
Isl
es
Wes
tern
Eu
rop
e E
aste
rn E
urop
e N
ort
h A
fric
a N
earE
ut
238
mur
der
of M
axim
in I
24
1-72
rei
gn o
f Sha
pur
I 24
4 G
ordi
an I
II d
epos
ed b
y 24
8 C
ypri
an b
isho
p o
f Ph
ilip
Car
thag
e 2
53
-60
rei
gn o
f Val
eria
n 26
0 S
hapu
r I
capt
ures
V
aler
ian
25
3-6
8 r
eign
of G
alli
enus
25
8 m
arty
rdom
of C
ypri
an o
f C
arth
age
260-
73 'G
alli
c E
mpi
re'
282-
3 re
ign
of C
arus
28
3 C
arus
' inv
asio
n of
Per
sia
286-
93 r
eign
of
Car
ausi
us
285
Dio
c1et
ian
ruli
ng W
est
284-
305
reig
n of
Dio
clet
ian
293-
6 re
ign
of
Alle
ctus
29
3 ap
poin
tmen
t o
f C
aesa
rs
293-
303
reig
n of
Nar
seh
303
begi
nnin
g of
'Gre
at
29
6-7
war
with
Rom
e Pe
rsec
utio
n'
30
5-6
rei
gn o
f C
onst
anti
us I
30
5-11
rei
gn o
f Gal
eriu
s 31
1 re
ign
of A
lexa
nder
3
09
-79
rei
gn o
f Sha
pur
II
in W
est
306
Con
stan
tine
pro
clai
med
3
06
-37
rule
of C
onst
anti
ne in
31
3 w
ar b
etw
een
Max
imin
31
2 be
ginn
ing
of D
onat
ist
at Y
ork
Wes
t an
d L
iein
ius
schi
sm
312
Bpt
tle o
f Mllv
ian
Bri
dge,
co
nver
sion
of C
onst
anti
ne
314
war
with
Lic
iniu
s (3
08-2
4)
324-
37 C
onst
antin
e ru
ling
Eas
t ~~
4 fo
undi
ng o
f .
Con
stan
tinop
le
325
Cou
ncil
of N
icae
a 33
0 de
dica
tion
of
Con
stan
tinop
le
343
visi
t o
f Con
stan
s 3
37
-50
rei
gn o
f Con
stan
s 33
7-61
rei
gn o
f Con
stan
tius
354
birt
h of
Aug
ustin
e II
35
0-3
Bri
tain
sup
port
s 3
57
-9 Ju
lian
's c
ampa
igns
in
350-
3 G
allu
s C
aesa
r at
36
0 w
ar b
etw
een
Rom
e an
d M
agne
ntiu
s G
aul
Ant
ioch
Pe
rsia
367
raid
s by
Pic
ts,
Iris
h IJ!
.d
360
Julia
n's
revo
lt 36
1-3
reig
n of
Julia
n; 'p
agan
re
viva
l' Sa
xons
; H
adri
an's
Wal
l re
pair
ed
406
reig
ns o
f Mar
cus
and
Gra
tian
407-
11 r
eign
of
Con
stan
tine
III
410
revo
lt of
Brit
ain
Nyn
ia i
n G
allo
way
and
so
uthe
rn P
ict1
and
431
Palla
dius
sen
t to
Ire
land
c. 44
6-53
app
eal
to A
etiu
s Sa
xon
treat
y
364-
75 r
eign
ofV
alen
tinia
n I
383-
8 re
ign
of M
agnu
s M
axim
us
392-
4 re
ign
of E
ugen
ius;
'p
agan
rev
ival
' 39
5-42
3 re
ign
of H
onor
ius
395-
408
asce
ndan
cy o
f St
ilich
o
406
Van
dals
, A
lans
, Sue
ves
cros
s R
hine
40
8 A
laric
's V
isigo
ths
ente
r Ita
ly
410
sack
of R
ome
c. 41
1-21
asc
enda
ncy
of
Con
stan
tius
425-
55 r
eign
of
Val
entin
ian
III
430-
53 a
scen
danc
y of
Aet
ius
364-
78 r
eign
of V
al en
s 37
6 V
isigo
ths
adm
itted
int
o B
alka
ns
378
Bat
tle o
f Adr
iano
ple
379-
95 r
eign
of
The
odos
ius
I 39
1 cl
osin
g of
pag
an te
mpl
es
395-
408
reig
n of
Arc
adiu
s
440-
61 L
eo I
bis
hop
of
440s
Hun
rai
ds o
n B
alka
ns
Rom
e
451
Hun
inva
sion
of G
aul
451
Cou
ncil
of C
halc
edon
45
3' d
eath
of A
ttila
45
4 ba
ttle
on th
e N
edao
395-
430
Aug
ustin
e bi
shop
of
Hip
po
.
397
Aug
ustin
e w
rites
'C
onfe
ssio
ns'
397
revo
lt of
Gild
o
413-
27 A
ugus
tine
writ
ing
'City
of G
od'
418
Cou
ncil
of C
arth
age
429
Van
dal
inva
sion
439
Van
dals
tak
e C
arth
age
442
Van
dal
treat
y
363
Julia
n's
inva
sion
of
Pers
ia
364
Jovi
an's
treat
y
Chr
onol
ogy
of m
ain
even
ts,
238-
100
(con
tinue
d)
Bri
tish
Isl
es
Wes
tern
Eu
rop
e E
aste
rn E
urop
e N
ort
h A
fric
a N
ear
Eas
t
45
5-7
rei
gn o
f A
vitu
s 45
5 V
anda
l sa
ck o
f R
ome
459-
84 r
eign
of P
eroz
46
8 at
tack
by
east
ern
flee
t Pe
rsia
n w
ars
with
the
fa
ils
Hep
htha
lite
s Pa
tric
k in
Ire
land
47
6/48
0 fo
rmal
end
of
474-
91 r
eign
of Z
eno
47
6-8
4 re
ign
of
Hun
eric
; w
este
rn E
mpi
re
'per
secu
tion
' of
Cat
holic
s c.
481-
c. 5
11 r
eign
of
Clo
vis
48
8-9
7,4
99
-53
1 r
eign
of
in G
aul
Kav
ad I
M
azda
kite
mov
emen
t 49
05 B
attle
of
Bad
on
493
Ost
rogo
thic
kin
gdom
es
tabl
ishe
d in
Ita
ly
507
Bat
tle o
f Vou
iIle
c. 51
1 di
visi
on o
f Fr
anki
sh
527-
65 r
eign
of J
ustin
ian
523-
30 r
eign
of
Hild
eric
Co
525
Dhu
Nuw
as i
n th
e ki
ngdo
m
Yem
en
529
Nik
a R
iots
53
3 im
peri
al c
onqu
est
of
531-
79 r
eign
of K
husr
o I
Afr
ica
c. 54
0 G
ilda
s w
ritin
g 53
5-53
war
s in
Ita
ly,
lead
ing
527-
33 'C
orpu
s lu
ris
Civ
ilis'
540
Pers
ian
sack
of A
ntio
ch
'De
Exc
idio
' to
im
peri
al c
onqu
est
536
Cou
ncil
of C
arth
age
543
Ber
ber
revo
lt 54
8 re
volt
supp
ress
ed
558-
61 F
ranc
ia u
nite
d un
der
5505
beg
inni
ng o
f Sla
v C
lota
r I
(c. 5
11-6
1)
pene
trat
ion
of B
alka
ns
c. 56
0-c.
590
car
eer
of
568
Lom
bard
inv
asio
n of
56
3 ne
w B
erbe
r re
volt
Cea
wlin
It
aly
unde
r A
1boi
n 56
3/5
foun
datio
n of
lona
56
9-86
rei
gn o
f Leo
vigi
ld i
n 57
01 b
irth
of M
uham
mad
S
pain
5
74
-84
'int
erre
gnum
' in
579-
90 r
eign
of
Hor
miz
d IV
L
omba
rd k
ingd
om
597
arri
val
of
Aug
ustin
e in
K
ent
and
deat
h o
f C
olum
ba
604
deat
h o
f A
ugus
tine
62
9-3
2 R
oman
mis
sion
in
Nor
thum
bria
632
deat
h o
f E
dwin
63
3-4
2 r
eign
of
Osw
ald
in
Nor
thum
bria
c. 63
2-55
rei
gn o
f P
enda
in
Mer
cia
64
2-7
0 r
eign
of
Osw
y in
N
orth
umbr
ia
65
5-8
Nor
thum
bria
n ru
le
over
Mer
cia
589
Thi
rd C
ounc
il of
Tol
edo
590-
616
reig
n of
Agi
lulf
in
Italy
59
0-60
4 G
rego
ry th
e G
reat
, bi
shop
of
Rom
e
594
deat
h o
f G
rego
ry o
f T
ours
59
0s c
ampa
igns
aga
inst
Sla
vs
602
over
thro
w o
f Mau
rice
613
unif
icat
ion
of F
ranc
ia
610
fall
of
Phoc
as
unde
r C
hlot
ar I
I
620s
Isi
dore
wri
ting
'His
tory
' an
d 'C
hron
icle
'
62
3-3
8 r
ule
of D
agob
en I
in
Fra
ncia
63
6 de
ath
of
Isid
ore
of
Sevi
lle
636-
52 r
eign
of R
otha
ri i
n Ita
ly
639
Thu
ring
ian
revo
lt
626
Ava
r si
ege
of
Con
stan
tinop
le
636
Bat
tle o
f Yar
muk
641
deat
h o
f Her
acli
us I
649-
72 r
eign
of R
ecce
ssui
nth
649
Ara
b co
nque
st o
f Cyp
rus
654
issu
e o
f 'F
orum
lud
icum
'
610
revo
lt of
Her
acli
us
646
revo
lt of
exa
rch
Gre
gory
647
firs
t A
rab
raid
-de
ath
of
Gre
gory
591
Mau
rice
ins
talls
Khu
sro
II i
n Ir
an
610
Muh
amm
ad's
rev
elat
ions
be
gin
614
Pers
ian
capt
ure
of
Jeru
sale
m
622
the
Hijr
a 62
8 m
urde
r of
Khu
sro
II
630
Muh
amm
ad c
onqu
ers
Mec
ca
632
succ
essi
on o
f A
bu B
akr
634
succ
essi
on o
f 'U
mar
636
Ara
b co
nque
st o
f Je
rusa
lem
64
0 co
nque
st o
f Egy
pt
642
colla
pse
of P
ersi
a be
fore
A
rabs
65
1 de
ath
of la
st s
hah,
Y
azdg
ard
III
656-
61 c
alip
hate
of
'Ali
661-
80 M
u'aw
iya
firs
t U
may
yad
Cal
iph
Chr
onol
ogy
of m
ain
even
ts, 2
38-1
00 (c
ontin
ued)
Bri
tish
Isl
es
663/
4 Sy
nod
of W
hitb
y
685
Bat
tle o
f Nec
tans
mer
e
705
deat
h of
Ada
mna
n
709
deat
h o
f Ald
helm
716-
57 r
eign
of I
Eth
elba
ld o
f M
erci
a
731/
2 B
ede
finis
hes
his
'His
tory
'
Wes
tem
Eur
ope
657-
664/
5 re
genc
y o
f B
alth
ildis
c.
660-
73,
675-
80,
Ebr
oin
May
or o
f Pal
ace
in
Neu
stri
a
Eas
tem
Eur
ope
668
mur
der
of C
onst
ans
at
Syra
cuse
67
3 w
ar b
etw
een
Wam
ba a
nd
674-
7 A
rab
sieg
e of
Pa
ul
Con
stan
tinop
le
687
Bat
tle o
f Ter
try
711
Ara
b in
vasi
on o
f Spa
in
712-
14 re
ign
of U
utpr
and
in
Italy
71
4-19
Cha
rles
Man
el g
ains
co
ntro
l of A
ustra
sia
and
Neu
stri
a
720.
Cha
rles
res
tore
s co
ntro
l ea
st o
f Rhi
ne
733
Bat
tle o
f Poi
tiers
681
Bul
gars
est
ablis
hed
in
Bal
kans
711
oven
hrow
of J
ustin
ian
II
717
Ara
b si
ege
of
Con
stan
tinop
le a
nd
acce
ssio
n of
Leo
III
726
Leo
Ill
's f
irst
Icon
ocla
st
mea
sure
s
Nor
th A
fric
a
669
Ara
b in
vasi
on u
nder
'U
qba
670
foun
datio
n of
Kai
roua
n
Nea
r E
ast
683
deat
h of
'Uqb
a ib
n N
afqi
68
0-4
civi
l war
s
698
Ara
b ca
ptur
e of
Can
bage
70
0-12
gov
erno
rshi
p of
M
usa
ibn
Nus
ayr
724-
43 c
alip
hate
of H
isha
m
735
deat
h o
f B
ede
754
deat
h o
f B
onif
ace
75
7-9
6 r
eign
of
Off
a of
M
erci
a 76
6 de
ath
of a
rchb
isho
p E
gber
t of
Yor
k -
Alc
uin'
s te
ache
r
793
Vik
ing
raid
on
Lin
disf
arne
8
02
-39
rei
gn o
f E
gber
t of
W
esse
x 80
4 de
ath
of
Alc
uin
735
Cha
rles
occ
upie
s A
quita
ine
737
and
739
cam
paig
ns i
n Pr
oven
ce
74
1-7
joi
nt r
ule
of P
ippi
n II
I an
d C
arlo
man
749-
56 r
eign
of
Ais
tulf
in
Italy
75
1 co
rona
tion
of P
ippi
n II
I
756
Um
ayya
d A
mir
ate
foun
ded
in S
pain
768-
814
reig
n of
C
harl
emag
ne
772-
804
Saxo
n w
ars
774
Fra
nkis
h co
nque
st o
f L
omba
rd k
ingd
om
790s
Fra
nkis
h A
var
war
s
800
impe
rial
cor
onat
ion
of
Cha
rlem
agne
8
08
-10
Fra
nkis
h co
nflic
t w
ith G
odef
red
81
4-4
0 r
eign
of
Lou
is t
he
Piou
s
741-
75 r
eign
of C
onst
anti
ne
V;
mos
t in
tens
e pe
riod
of
Icon
ocla
sm
775-
80 r
eign
of
Leo
IV
the
Kha
zar
787
Seco
nd C
ounc
il of
N
icae
a 79
6 bl
indi
ng o
f C
onst
antin
e V
I
802
depo
sitio
n of
em
pres
s Ir
ene
811
defe
at o
f Nic
epho
rus
by
Bul
gars
744-
55 r
ule
of Ib
n H
abib
761
rest
orat
ion
of'
Abb
asid
ru
le
777
Rus
tam
id k
ingd
om i
n W
. A
lger
ia
789
Idri
sid kin~dom i
n M
oroc
co
800
Agh
labi
d ki
ngdo
m i
n T
unis
ia
743-
50 c
onfl
icts
in
Syri
a
749
' Abb
asid
rev
olt
750
Um
ayya
ds r
epla
ced
as
Cal
iphs
by
the
' Abb
asid
s
762
foun
datio
n of
Bag
hdad
786-
809
reig
n of
Har
un a
rR
ashi
d
Chr
onol
ogy
of m
ain
even
ts,
238-
100
(con
tinue
d)
Bri
tish
Isl
es
829
com
pili
ng o
f 'H
isto
ria
Bri
nonu
m'
835
begi
nnin
g o
f Vik
ing
raid
s on
Wes
sex
850/
1 fi
rst
Vik
ing
win
teri
ng
in B
rita
in
867
Dan
ish
conq
uest
of
Yor
k
869/
70 c
onqu
est
of
Eas
t A
nglia
87
1-99
rei
gn o
f A
lfre
d o
f W
esse
x 87
1 B
attl
e o
f A
shdo
wn
874
Dan
es e
xpel
Bur
gred
fr
om M
erci
a
Wes
tern
Eur
ope
817
'Ord
inat
io I
mpe
rii'
822
Lou
is's
pen
ance
at
Atti
gny
83 0
-4 c
ivil
war
s in
Fra
ncia
835
begi
nnin
g o
f D
anis
h ra
ids
on F
ranc
ia
840-
3 ci
vil
war
s in
Fra
ncia
84
3 T
reat
y o
f Ver
dun
858
Lou
is t
he G
erm
an
inva
des
Wes
t F
ranc
ia
866-
910
reig
n of
Alf
onso
the
G
reat
in A
stur
ias
871
Byz
antin
e re
capt
ure
Bar
i 87
2 L
ouis
II
forc
ed t
o le
ave
sout
h It
aly
875
Cha
rles
the
Bal
d cr
owne
d em
pero
r
Eas
tern
Eur
ope
813
Icon
ocla
sm r
eviv
ed b
y L
eo V
(81
3-20
) 81
4 de
ath
of k
han
Kru
m o
f B
ulga
rs
815
Byz
antin
e-B
ulga
r pe
ace
trea
ty
830,
837
Byz
antin
e vi
ctor
ies
over
Ara
bs
847
end
of Ic
onoc
lasm
860
'Rus
' atta
ck
Con
stan
tino
ple
864
conv
ersi
on o
f th
e B
ulga
rs
Nor
th A
fric
a N
ear
Eas
t
827-
78 A
ghla
bid
conq
uest
of
Sici
ly
813-
19 c
ivil
war
in C
alip
hate
836
Sam
arra
bec
omes
, A
bbas
id c
apit
al
861
mur
der
of c
alip
h A
1-M
utaw
akki
l: as
cend
ancy
o
f T
urks
in t
he '
Abb
asid
C
alip
hate
-94
5
867
Mac
edon
ian
dyna
sty
in
868
Agh
labi
ds t
ake
Mal
ta
Byz
antiu
m l
asts
unt
il 10
56
878
Dan
es w
inte
r at
tack
on
Alf
red
Bat
tle
of
Edi
ngto
n
886
Alf
red
capt
ures
Lon
don
892
new
Dan
ish
inva
sion
un
der
Hae
sten
89
4 di
sper
sal
of t
he i
nvad
ers
909
Wes
sex
anni
es h
arry
V
ikin
g ki
ngdo
m o
f Y
ork
918
deat
h o
f LE
thel
flae
d:
Wes
sex
anne
xes
wes
tern
M
erd
a
920
Wes
sex
conq
uest
of
Eas
t M
erci
a 92
4-39
rei
gn o
f A
thel
stan
877
deat
h o
f C
harl
es t
he
Bal
d
879-
92 r
esum
ed V
ikin
g ra
ids
in N
. F
ranc
ia
881
impe
rial
cor
onat
ion
of
Cha
rles
the
Fat
88
2 de
ath
of
Hin
cmar
of
Rhe
ims
885-
6 V
ikin
g si
ege
of
Pari
s
887
depo
siti
on o
f Cha
rles
the
F
at
911
Cha
rles
the
Sim
ple'
s tr
eaty
with
Rol
lo
Car
olin
gian
dyn
asty
in
E.
Fra
ncia
ext
inct
912-
61 r
ule
of
Abd
ar
Rah
man
III
in S
pain
923
depo
siti
on o
f Cha
rles
the
Si
mpl
e
8705
Byz
antin
e ca
mpa
igns
in
Asi
a M
inor
und
er B
asil
I (8
67-8
6)
886-
912
reig
n o
f L
eo t
he
Wis
e 88
9 ab
dica
tion
of
Bor
is
893
Sym
eon
beco
mes
rul
er o
f th
e B
ulga
rs
912-
59 r
eign
of C
onst
anti
ne
VII
Por
phyr
ogen
itos
917-
24 B
ulga
r at
tack
s on
B
yzan
tium
92
0-44
Rom
anos
Lec
apen
os
co-e
mpe
ror
909
Agh
labi
ds o
vert
hrow
n by
Fa
tim
ids
892
Bag
hdad
res
tore
d as
'A
bbas
id c
apita
l
Chr
onol
ogy
of m
ain
even
ts,
238-
100
(con
tinue
d)
Bri
tish
Isl
es
937
Bat
tle o
f B
runa
nbur
b.
944
Edm
und
of W
esse
x co
nque
rs N
orth
umbr
ia
948
Ead
red
of W
esse
x ha
rrie
s N
orth
umbr
ia
94
2-9
/50
Hyw
el O
da 'K
ing
of a
ll W
ales
'
961-
88 D
unst
an a
rchb
isho
p o
f Can
terb
ury
973
coro
nati
on o
f E
dgar
at
Bat
h
97
5-8
rei
gn o
f Edw
ard
the
Mar
tyr
978-
1016
rei
gn o
f .tE
thel
red
the
Unr
eady
980
Vik
ing
raid
s on
sou
ther
n E
ngla
nd
Wes
tern
Eur
ope
936
rest
orat
ion
of
Car
olin
gian
rul
e in
Fra
nce
with
Lou
is I
V (
d.9S
4)
955
Bat
tle o
n th
e L
ech
960
Hug
h C
apet
'Duk
e o
f th
e F
rank
s'
962
impe
rial
cor
onat
ion
of
Ott
o I
972
Ott
o (I
I) m
arri
es
Byz
antin
e pr
ince
ss
973-
83 r
eign
of O
tto
II
982
Ott
o II
def
eate
d in
so
uthe
rn I
taly
987
end
of C
arol
ingi
an
dyna
sty
in F
ranc
e; H
ugh
Cap
et c
row
ned
Eas
tern
Eur
ope
927
deat
h of
tsar
Sym
eon
of
the
Bul
gars
; pe
ace
mad
e w
ith B
yzan
tium
957
visi
t of O
lga
to
Con
stan
tinop
le
c. 96
2-71
rul
e of
Svy
atos
lav
in K
iev
963-
9 re
ign
of N
icep
horu
s Ph
ocas
No
rth
Afr
ica
Byz
antiu
m r
egai
ns C
rete
96
9 Fa
timid
s ta
ke C
airo
an
d A
ntio
ch
969-
76 r
eign
of J
ohn
972
Zir
id k
ingd
om i
n T
unis
ia
Zim
iske
s 97
0 de
feat
of '
Rus
' inv
asio
n of
Thr
ace
976-
1025
rul
e of
Bas
il th
e B
ulga
rsla
yer
978
Vla
dim
ir be
com
es r
uler
of
Kie
v c.
987
conv
ersi
on o
f Vla
dim
ir
Nea
r E
ast
945
Buy
ids
take
Bag
hdad
; , A
bbas
id C
alip
hs u
nder
B
uyid
con
trol
unt
il 10
55
991
Bat
tle
of
Mal
don
996
Ott
o II
I at
tain
s hi
s m
ajor
ity
9905
mou
ntin
g V
ikin
g at
tack
s 10
00 C
onve
rsio
n of
Icel
and
1002
dea
th o
f O
tto
III
995-
1000
Ola
f Try
ggve
son
king
of
Nor
way
Preface
At an early stage in thinking about the question of its contents it became clear that this was doomed to be a book that nobody could like, or at least that if some of its readers were pleased with some of it, none of them would possibly enjoy aU of it. There are too many variables in the topics, themes, events and personalities that have to be considered for inclusion in a work of this (relative!) brevity that has to concern itself with so extended a chronological period. It became increasingly obvious that the real decisions to be made were those concerning what was to be omitted, and for an author temperamentally inclined to squeezing limited and fragmentary evidence as far as it will extend, if not beyond, this has been a particularly hard task.
Wholesale omissions and the reduction of complicated and nuanced arguments to bald assertions are bound to dissatisfY the discerning reader (as much as the author). In consequence what is attempted here has to be a personal approach that may at times seem wrong headed in its concentration on some subjects to the exclusion of others or its occasional descent into detailed argument that seems out of proportion to the scale of the rest of the book. In that sense I can only fall back on the defence of a great, if idiosyncratic, ninth century bishop, that was recently echoed by a much revered Master: Scripsi quod sensi.
It may seem strange to those unfamiliar with these centuries that such an apology is necessary, and that a period of such apparent remoteness and obscurity should not manage to encompass itself totally in a book of even half the length of this one. Only brief acquaintance, however, will reveal how substantial is the corpus of evidence relating to this time, and how numerous and varied the problems involved in interpreting it. Moreover, the proper understanding of this period involves the historian in moving his gaze on occasion from the western fringes of Iran to Iceland and from Ethiopia and the edge of the Sahara to the steppes of Central Asia. Such breadth of geographical and chronological vision seems to be less necessary - or less demanded - in later periods.
In trying to present, even in outline, this series of interrelated developments, it was clearly necessary to push the chronological limits of this book back to an earlier period than those of the beginning of the sixth century, which was where it had first been intended to place them. So much of what was to make up the framework of ideas and
xxiii
xxiv Preface
institutions which shaped subsequent centuries originated in the fourth century that it would have been perverse to start any later than c. 300, and, indeed, a lack of Late Roman background has often led to mistaken and misleading interpretations of Early Medieval History. In tum, the decision to start with the fourth century prompted at least some preliminary investigation of the third.
Doubdess such a process could be indefinitely prolonged, recessing ever further back in time, but there is a certain rightness about commencing such a study as this in the mid-third century, when so many of the principal ideas and institutions of Antiquity were undergoing transformation. This period, however Iitde studied and poorly documented, represents the first formative stage of the major changes that were to follow, and it is here that this enquiry begins.
Where to end was to some extent predetermined by the structure of the series in which this volume is to appear, but the disintegration of the Frankish successor empire in the late ninth and early tenth centuries again makes for something of a natural break, at least in some aspects of the history of medieval Europe. Extending the survey slighdy further than I might have liked, the symbolic date of the year 1000 makes an aesthetically pleasing, if intellectually not entirely satisfying terminal point. To a certain extent, then, this book could have been given such a subtitle as 'From Constantine the Great to Charles the Simple'! In practice, treatment of the tenth century offered here is less full than for some earlier periods, largely because a number of the major themes that have their origin in this, still relatively Iitde studied, time are best considered in the wider context of their development in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Other topics that might have merited inclusion have been omitted partly due to personal style and inclination on the part of the author and pardy due to the fact that the lack of other general surveys of this period necessitated the provision of a substantial narrative oudine of events, taken together with analysis of and comment on the major sources of evidence. In consequence there may be less economic history to be found in this book than some readers might like. This is conditioned on the author's part by a dislike for generalisation based on an insufficiency of evidence, and this is one of several areas for which the Early Middle Ages are poorly equipped in terms of the survival of source material. It is relatively easy to create general models on the basis of limited evidence, but these tend all too often in such circumstances to rest on a priori assumptions as to how societies and their economies should work. Such determinism should be resisted. It is also preferable to ask questions of evidence that its particular nature fits it to answer rather than ones that the historian feels he ought to pose.
The first victims of this book - paradoxically, even before it was ever
Preface xxv
commissioned - were the successive first year history students in the University of Liverpool, to whom between the years 1974 and 1980 elements of it were expounded in the form of lectures on this period. The most recent guinea pigs to have suffered in its genesis are those former students at the Royal School, Bath, to whom it is dedicated. I am very grateful to them for their enthusiasm in the discussion of a range of issues and topics that are considered in the chapters below. My especial thanks must go to Ian Wood, who read all of the first draft of this book, and whose comments and suggestions on it enabled me to avoid many errors. The greatest debt of all, though, is that to my wife Judith McClure, with whom so much of it has been shared in all of the phases just mentioned and whose role in it is truly omnipresent.
Bath ROGER COLLINS
September 1990
Introduction
When Gibbon surveyed the centuries of 'decline' in the history of the Roman empire and its Byzantine successor he allowed himself to start with a little mild Utopianism. Of the Antonine period he commented that 'If a man were called upon to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus' (i.e. AD
96-181). Few might nowadays ask themselves such a question, let alone come up with a response that equates 'the world' exclusively with the Mediterranean and 'the human race' with a small economic and social elite. However, for all of his enthusiasm for second century Rome, some of which was intended as implicit criticism of aspects of his own society of which he disapproved, it was not about this period that Gibbon intended to write.
Periods of tranquillity, social harmony and economic stability do not make very good history - even if we now would detect more conflict and change in the second century than was apparent to Gibbon. The turbulent centuries that were to follow pose more interesting historiographical problems, not least because they encompassed the most important developments in the history of the Near East, the Mediterranean and Western Europe, between the formation of the Roman Empire in the first century Be and the discovery of the New World in the late fifteenth AD. Even then much of the way that the society and economy of the Americas were to be developed and exploited was directly conditioned by a body of ideas and through the means of institutions that had come into being in the period of the Late Roman Empire.
In general the centuries covered by this book constitute a period of the greatest significance for the future development, not only of Europe, but also in the longer term of much else of the world. They saw, not least, the establishment of Christianity as the majority religion of the Roman Empire, and with it an indissoluble fusing of Judaeo-Christian and Romano-Greek thought. Apart from the first brief period of the founding of the religion in the time of the Early Roman Empire, there was to be no time in the whole s'lbsequent history of the Christian Church so fertile in the development of its distinctive ideas and practices as the 'Patristic Age', lasting from roughly the mid-fourth century to the early sixth.
xxvii
xxviii Introduction
The writings of such men as Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine and their immediate successors provided the intellectual framework of Christian thinking not only throughout the rest of the Middle Ages, but also for the Reformation and more recent centuries. The distinctive Christian emphasis on Virginity and the extraordinary ideological and institutional structures of monasticism were likewise the products of these centuries. They also saw the challenge to and modification of the Romano-Christian tradition with the rise to dominance of Islam over the whole of the Near East and the southern Mediterranean. The direct relevance of this formative period of Islamic thought and institutions to the modem society of these regions and to various contemporary political and economic issues hardly needs underlining.
In the West the Roman Empire dissolved itself as a unitary political entity in the fifth century, but its intellectual and material cultural legacy continued to direct the fragmentary successor states that came into being in its ruin. Especially true was this of that extraordinary institution the Papacy, whose own distinctive view of its nature and purpose was formed in this time, together with many of the institutional features that would enable it to play so dominant a role in Western Europe for centuries to come. As a corollary to this, the most substantial, and still unhealed, rift in Christendom, that beween the Latin and Greek Churches, came into being in the latter part of the period.
This itself was not uninfluenced by political changes in the West, with the emergence of the short-lived Frankish empire of the Carolingians, which in its territorial expansion both northwards and eastwards further extended the areas of influence of the intellectual culture and some of the material civilisation of Late Antiquity. This first self-conscious effort to revive a western Empire was itself to set precedents for the future, which even now in a period of renewed aspirations towards European unity can make themselves felt or, it might be fairer to say, are available for contemporary political manipulation.
To return, however, to the perspective of the historian, it was perhaps easier for Gibbon in an age of relative tranquillity to take a broad, if hardly dispassionate, view of this sequence of events. His approach to it, though, was conditioned by a desire to criticise certain elements in the society of his own day that he found reprehensible, notably its penchant for apparently pointless wars of conquest and the continuing strength of elements of unreason, above all in religion. At the same time a much more radical critique, symbolised by the French Revolution, was to lead directly to the subversion of much of the social order of Europe and, perhaps paradoxically, to the proliferation of aggressive warfare on an almost unprecedented scale, together with
Introduction xxix
the emergence of ideologies far more menacing to Liberal individualism and reason than the placid religiosity of the eighteenth century. Flamboyant despots of the succeeding period, from Napoleon to Hitler, also turned to the Roman imperial past and its attempted revival under Charlemagne for some of the imagery and the framework of ideas needed to shape and manifest their regimes.
The revival of scholarly interest in the periods of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages can, as much as the historiography of any period, partake of the quality of mere antiquarianism. However, the nature of its subject matter, the scale and significance of so many of its events, and the intellectual force of the thought of so many of its greatest writers should militate against this. History should not necessarily be expected to teach lessons, and certainly is not cyclical, but the study of these apparently remote centuries is as conducive as any to the questioning of received value systems, the evaluation of dogma and the formulation of principles to guide the conduct of states and individuals in complex times.