Both the Early and High Middle Ages ended with severe crises, such as the very destructive invasions of the Northmen (Vikings) in the 800s and 900s and the Black Death and peasant revolts of the 14th Century. Throughout the Middle Ages, kings and emperors struggled to establish order and stability in the face on constant clashes between various factions of robber barons, bandits, raiders and rival feudal overlords, such as the wars fought by King Louis the Fat for decades in the region around Paris. Feudalism was thus characterized by the lack of a centralized state and the political and economic power of the landed aristocracy, which also controlled the military. It was based on a caste system of nobles, peasants and clergy, an honor culture and oaths of personal loyalty and fidelity. In the Late Middle Ages of the 14th and 15th Centuries, the Little Ice Age, the great famine and Black Death wiped out 40-50% of the population, and perhaps more in some areas. Boccaccio was one of the most memorable chroniclers of the plague and described the destruction of his home city of Florence in 1348 in The Decameron. In Western Europe, the great plague and the labor shortages and peasant revolts that followed led to the collapse of feudalism and serfdom in many parts of Western Europe, and could even be described as the crisis that opened the door to the modern era of capitalism and the nation state.
Although the Italian Renaissance of the 14th and 15th Centuries is the of course the best known one, historians have theorized that a Carolingian Renaissance occurred with the creation of the Holy Roman Empire in the 8th and 9th Centuries. To a limited extent at least, there was a revival of Roman law, Latin writing, architecture and the arts around the court of Charlemagne at Aachen. Although actual literacy was confined mostly to the monks and clergy, the quality and quantity of their work improved substantially, hence the chronicles of the era that have been passed down to the present. As much as possible, Charlemagne sought uniformity in church and secular administration throughout his empire, even though it did not survive as a united entity after his death. This empire faced a major crisis with the Viking onslaught in the 9th and 10th Centuries that brought with it the familiar companions of famine and plague. According to the Annals of St. Bertin, the Northmen destroyed Nantes in 843, where they “killed the bishop and many of the clergy and laymen, both men and women, and pillaged the city.”1
For decades they repeated their depredations throughout Europe, all along the coasts and wherever the rivers could carry their fleets of ships. They invaded Spain in 844 but were pushed back by the Saracens, then landed in Paris with the large fleet the next year, where the Emperor Charles the Bald “made with them a certain agreement and by a gift of 7,000 livres he bought them off from advancing farther.”2 According to the chronicler Abbo, they attacked Paris with 700 large ships the filled the Seine River “so that one might ask in astonishment in what caravan the river had been swallowed up.”3 Although Count Odo defended the city valiantly and held the invaders at bay, he was surrounded and besieged, and a plague broke out in the city that decimated his forces and the civilian population. Just as the Viking leader Siegfried had warned, this was typical of many cities and towns they had destroyed, and there was not enough ground left in Paris to bury the dead. Although the Holy Roman Emperor Charles arrived with a large army, he elected not to fight the Vikings but instead paid them 700 pounds of silver “on condition that by the month of March they leave France for their own kingdom.”4 In 846, the Vikings invaded and plundered Frisia and Brittany, and during the next decade also destroyed Tours, Orleans and many cities in Italy such as Pisa.
Over time, the Vikings did settle down and adopt the Christian religion, including in Sicily, Normandy and the Danelaw region of England. For example, King Rollo of the Northman was granted the depopulated province of Normandy in 912 in return for his ceasing all raids and converting to Christianity. King Charles of France and his nobles and clergy swore a solemn oath to Rollo “that he might hold the land and transmit it to his heirs from generation to generation throughout all time to come.”5 Rollo was a crude man, but once his oath was given he kept it faithfully, and like many converts turned out to be particularly zealous in his new faith. He ordered his people to convert as well, rebuilt the destroyed churches and towns, and became known as a very just and efficient ruler. He also repopulated Normandy with Northmen and migrants brought in from other areas.
Abbot Suger, an adviser to the French kings Louis VI and Louis VII in the 12th Century, dutifully chronicled their attempts to suppress the robber barons around Paris at that time and end their constant raiding and plundering of the countryside. He praised Louis VI (Louis the Fat) for “defending churches, protecting the poor and needy and working for the peace and defense of the realm.”6 At the beginning of his reign, various rebellious nobles led by Guy the Red and Hugh de Crecy plotted to block his coronation and allied with the Normans and English to overthrow him. Hugh even kidnapped his bother Count Odo and held him prisoner in a dungeon for refusing to join the conspiracy against Louis. Louis then besieged his castle “until he compelled them to surrender to his power.”7 King Henry I of England and Normandy was also attempting to expand his territory and influence in France, which led to hatred between him and Louis. Both assembled large armies and Louis also challenged his opponent to a duel or personal combat, which Henry refused. The French king then “ceaselessly attacked Normandy, pillaging and burning it”, while other treasonous nobles took this opportunity to ally with the English and revolt against him. Guy de Roche-Guyon was murdered by his Norman brother-in-law William for remaining loyal to the French king, then set about plundering the area until Louis besieged him in his castle and massacred his followers. As an example, he was disemboweled and his heart placed on a stake in public. This type of chronic warfare, plundering and chaos continued for centuries in the Middle Ages, before centralized states come into being.
In addition to the crisis created by the great plague, the invention of gunpowder and firearms reduced the influence of the knights and the code of chivalry, while social, religious and political crises like the peasant revolts, the Great Schism and Babylonian Captivity challenged the power of the nobility and Catholic Church. Although the bubonic plague destroyed at least half of the population, ironically it improved the wages and landholdings of those peasants and workers who survived, and made them more rebellious and discontented against the monarchs, established church and feudal elites. This was this final crisis that shattered the feudal system in Western Europe and opened the door to the modern age of capitalism, the Protestant Reformation and the nation state, although it by no means abolished the power of kings and nobles. Aristocrats were about 1% of the population in Western Europe, but their wealth and power was far out of proportion to that of the masses of peasants, and so it remained until well into the modern era. Wealthy capitalists and bourgeoisies began to emerge in the Late Middle Ages, while the labor shortage after the Black Death undermined serfdom and created a class of wealthy peasant farmers, gentry and the lower bourgeoisie. In spite of this, and the peasant and artisan rebellions of the 14th and 15th Centuries, the aristocracy remained in political control in most areas until the later revolution in the modern period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Boccaccio. The Decameron, Introduction. Medieval Sourcebook. Paul Halsall. Fordham University, 1998.
The Chronicle of Abbot Suger on the Life of Louis the Fat. Internet History Sourcebook. Paul Halsall. Fordham University, 1998.
Three Sources on the Ravages of the Northmen in Frankland, c. 843-912. Internet History Sourecebook. Fordham University.
