Weak Kings, Poor Nobles, Vikings, Moors and Pagans, Plague and Starvation, War
The height of the early middle ages was probably the coronation of Charlemagne on Christmas, 800 AD. As the first man to unite Western Europe in any meaningful way since the Roman Empire, Charlemagne set a record that would not be equalled until World War two.
Few games are set in the early middle ages. Pendragon is arguably the most famous, but Chivalry & Sorcery, Ars Magica and Runequest are all set in the early middle ages.
By the fourth century, Rome was in decline. Historians point to a number of factors, including the use of Foederates (Barbarian tribes used as mercenaries in place of citizen-soldiers), the replacement of the Roman state religion by Christianity (which did not emphasize loyalty to the state), inflation, frequent military coups (forcing emperors to value the loyalty of their troops over the good of the empire) and the end of expansion (caused by reaching its natural borders). Whatever the reason, it caused a migration away from the cities of the empire to the countryside. At the end of the century, barbarian tribes invaded the empire - mostly the Goths, Franks and Vandals (1). The Barbarians were few in number, but they quickly replaced the Roman aristocrats as the ruling class, dividing up the old villas among themselves (2).
The Barbarians were uncivilized - which means they did not live in cities. They raised cows and used butter (for food, to oil things, to style their hair - which made them smell like rancid butter!) and had simple agriculture which forced them to live semi-nomadic lives when an area stopped being fertile. Their invasion was nearly unchecked, supported by many Romans who now paid less taxes to the Barbarians than they had to Rome! The Barbarians valued cattle, not money or goods (they had to be able to carry everything with them), did not maintain standing armies or infrastructure like the Romans did. In time, this caused a problem: the empire could not sustain itself any longer.
Without a single currency and language and a semblance of order, long-distance trade fell apart. With each new conquest, fewer grain reached the huge cities of Italia, causing more and more people to flee to the countryside. With the aqueducts falling into disrepair, farmers abandoned arable land. Over the next three centuries the population of Europe became a fraction of what it used to be, and plague stalked the land. Meanwhile, the Christians who had 'conquered' Rome now turned to the invaders and tried to convert them. Many a martyr was made at this time, but they were ultimately successful (3).
Barbarian chiefs found themselves in control of vast Roman estates with huge populations. They needed protection, but had no money to buy armies. Instead, they gave some of their plentiful land to their followers or their enemies (4) in exchange for military support. The people on the land promised to supply them in exchange for military protection - it all worked out.
These followers then did the same thing, creating a feudal system which broke up most of the huge estates (Latifundia) into small fiefs just big enough to support a knight and one or two retainers in leisure. This was the manorial system, which dominated Europe for the next millenium.
Why knights? Knighthood was becoming important due to the introduction of the stirrup; a single man on horseback could wear heavy armor, making him more dangerous than several ordinary fighting men. Soon, these knights became indispensible, and armies dropped significantly in size.
As kings gave away more and more land, their power - if they had much to begin with - waned, and local lords became more or less autonomous. Some kings tried to reverse this process, notably the Frankish kings (the Merovingians), which often led to war.
The population of Europe slowly stabilized at a low level and stayed there - war and illness cut growth, and since each manor supported only its own population there was little trade, travel or innovation. For this reason, people often call the early middle ages the Dark Ages, but that's a misnomer. There were several important innovations in this time. We've already discussed the stirrup. The three-fold system of farming spread across Europe in this time, dramatically improving the yield per acre by dividing fields into three parts, one fallow, one growing a staple corn, the third growing vegetables whose purpose was partially to restore the minerals of the soil. Another big change was the heavy wheel plow, needed to till the rocky soil of northern Europe (5). When applied to the south, they increased the fertility of the soil even more! Finally, the horse-collar also came into common use, allowing the more productive horses to plow the land without choking. These developments combined to dramatically raise agricultural output, which caused the population to grow slowly.
This picture covers most of Europe, but there are several important exceptions. The Byzantine empire to the east was still rich and powerful, if on the decline. Some Italian cities had managed to keep enough of the imperial fleets to maintain trade links along the Mediterranean, and some of these city-states stayed relatively prosperous and sophisticated. But the vast majority of Europe was splintered into tiny fiefs of a village each.
When the Roman empire fell, it stopped mining precious metals and minting coins. What coinage there was, was either hoarded as treasure, turned into jewelry, or spent to import goods from outside the empire. Coinage became so scarce that it stopped being used beyond the cities - instead, the population turned to barter.
Barter isn't a very efficient way of doing things; you have to find someone who has what you want and wants what you have, which can be time-consuming at best. Most families tended to make as much as they could for themselves. There was a surprising amount of diversity involved - not every peasant was a farmer, but rather worked with whatever land he had. Some farmed, some fished, some raised chickens, pigs or cows, some cut timber, some wove wool or flax - but most did most of these things at different times!
In the early middle ages wealth was measured in land, cattle, and gifts. Generousity was the hallmark of wealth, and lords maintained a complex web of debts and gifts with their vassals - even on a village level.
In the early middle ages the difference between the classes was relatively small - an early medieval king had much land and many followers but little actual wealth.
At the bottom were the Slaves - both Romans and Barbarians kept slaves, and they were used to farm larger estates. They were also used as domestic slaves and were sometimes even owned by free peasants! Slaves were usually grouped in with Peasants, 'those who toiled'. They worked for their owner seven days a week. Slaves had few rights - Christianity improved their lot, but they were still at the bottom. They could not marry. They could not give witness. They could be bought and sold. On the other hand, slaves couldn't be killed arbitarily - the law and the church forbade it.
The number of slaves kept in the middle ages fell steadily, mainly due to Christianity's influence. Christians were forbidden to enslave other Christians, and most of the lands bordering Christendom converted to Christianity. Those that didn't sold their slaves to the wealthier Byzantines (the Eastern Roman Empire, which had not yet fallen) or the Muslims. And with nobles and slaves attending the same church, slaves' rights slowly increased. Finally, there were the occasional saintly rulers, such as Louis IX of France, who freed whole areas of slavery.
Just above slaves were Serfs. Serfs were also Peasants - they were tenant farmers (bondsmen) who had their own plot of land (a manse) with a house on it, which they received from a landlord. In return, they owed produce and service to the lord. A serf usually worked for the lord around three days a week, giving them time to work on their own land the rest of the time (although they had to provide produce as well). These weren't regular days, but rather came when the lord's estates needed workers. Agriculture is a seasonal business, filled with flurries of activity around planting and harvest, and long periods of inactivity the rest of the year. Serfdom was attractive to the lords because it meant they didn't have to feed and clothe workers all year round - instead, they relied on a small, permanent workforce, and a large, temporary, set of workers in need.
Each serf had a contract with the lord, more or less ad hoc. Depending on the land in question, a serf might be required to give bushels of wheat, fish, cords of wood or animals. In addition, each househould would be expected to provide finished goods, like simple tools and clothes. Finally, each serf household also provided communal goods or services, such as providing the oxen or plough for the village, building roads or mending the church.
Above serfs were the free farmers, also called Cottars (they lived on cottages) or Yeomen. They were also peasants, but they did not owe service to the lord and rarely lived in the village. Usually, they paid some of their produce - never a fraction, always a set number (such as 'five bushels of rye') at various holy days during the year. Yeomen had few obligations but also few friends - they lived far away from neighbors who could help them in the event of illness, disease or war.
These three classes together made up roughly 95% of the population. The peasants as a whole were very conservative, even reactionary. They did not have the fighting strength of the nobility or the immunity of the clergy - instead, they had only custom to protect them, so they reacted against any change in custom. There was often friction between a lord who attempted to request some labor from the village that had not been requested in ages, at which point the village would refuse and the manorial court would be summoned to decide. If the peasants proved to be true, the lord might have to bargain with them, exchanging the service for another, or asking for smaller rents.
There was also a noble family that owned each village. Nobles were itinerant, travelling from one manor they owned to the next throughout the year - a necessity as one manor could support only so many unproductive people at a time. A knight had from one to three manors, a bishop or count had around a hundred, and a king could have over a thousand! Of course, a king also had a court, knights and other servants who followed him as he travelled around - they could eat a manor out of house and home in weeks or even days!
When the owner of the manor was not present, he appointed a Reeve to oversee his lands. The Reeve was chosen from one of the village serfs. To oversee the Reeve, the lord chose a Bailiff who would inspect the manor at regular intervals (for villages owned by monastaries, the Cellarer performed the same thing). The Bailiff also collected rents while the Reeve informed serfs of the next day's service, if there was any.
The nobility was poor by our standards. With very little long-distance trade, nobles did not have many luxuries. They did not have finer things than the peasants - just more of it. Each tenant househould provided the lord with clothes, so he had many outfits while a peasant might have one a year. But it was still the same cloth and even the same style as those the peasants themselves wore. Lords ate meat nearly every day - but it was from the same animals the peasants themselves kept. And so on. Many lords wore jewelry, and some had treasures taken as booty by one ancestor or another, but they lived simply.
The last member of a village who did not work the fields was the priest, who married, buried, baptised and confirmed the villagers. The priest was given a tithe, a kind of tax on every peasant, to maintain himself in leisure (1). In the early middle ages there was only one church, and it was Christian. It was one of the few aspects of the middle ages that was international, but it was not the bureaucratic organization it is today. The priest of a village (parish) was chosen from the local area - either the village itself or the one neighboring, and apprenticed himself to the local priest before going to school in a town. Who chose the priest? The owner of the church lands - which caused a problem...
The cities of Rome never really went away, they just declined. With conditions worsening, many people gave up and moved away, and the local farms could only support so many people in town. Townsfolk traded crafts and art to villages for food, but faced resentment from the nobility. Burghers didn't fit into the social system - they didn't own land but were wealthy and weren't priests but were educated (some towns had schools or even seminaries). Towns didn't fit into the feudal system very well, and more often than not the townsfolk found their rights being eaten away by neighboring nobles, being forced to pay tolls and taxes.
The Jews of Europe lived mainly in the cities. These people were forced into a variety of unjust laws (requiring them to live in ghettoes, wear strange hats, be humiliated publicly and were banned from regular jobs). On the other hand, not being Christian they were allowed to be moneylenders (usury, or excessive charging of interest, was banned by the Christian church) and lent money to merchants and nobles. They were also merchants themselves in some places, having the ability to travel to the muslim world freely.
The local lord was also the local judge - it was one of the cornerstones of his rule. There were many checks and balances on this power, however! The lord was responsible only for 'Low Justice' - crimes not involving bloodshed. High Justice was meted out in regular Plaids, meetings of many lords who decided legal cases. Smaller crimes were the lord's domain, of course - but in many cases, he was required to have a jury of villagers present to decide. A peasant who was unsatisfied with a lord's decision could appeal by asking a neighboring lord to try the case instead - an act which opened itself up to repercussions, but also an act which caused the lord great embarassment and loss of prestige. There was also the very real threat of a peasant or slave rebellion, both of which were common in this period (and put down brutally by other lords - but that doesn't help you if you're dead).
There were few actual laws - instead, most cases were dealt with by referring to the written customs of the village, which could vary wildly. Feudalism had never been planned, per se, and each village had different rights and duties from the next! Punishments tended to be harsh, since there were no jails (except in towns, where they were also used as hostels for the poor). One particularly severe punishment was to brand the offender with the symbol of the king before selling him as a galley slave (the Venetians and others were big buyers of slaves, but rarely sold them to the west)!
Justice could be meted out by the lord, but it was also done by mobs of peasants in the heat of passion. In fact, this was enshrined in law in some places!
There was only one church in this era, the Roman church (not yet Catholic). The Bishop of Rome was the highest priest, but only the first among equals. Latin was used by the church, which caused problems with understanding - but it's important to see it from their perspective. Latin had been the vernacular (common tongue) of the Romans, and it made sense for it to be the language of Christianity. As it spread into the barbarians, and as the infrastructure of the empire fell, it was still the most popular language, and the church needed to make sure that the church stayed together. Compared to the Romans, travel in Europe was at a snail's pace, and some areas were almost totally isolated - Latin was needed.
The early Christian church was idealistic and moral. It tried to put a stop to slavery, usury and tyranny and was charitable and kind. The church was one of the few places to get an education, and it served as the charity for any who had too much bad luck. But the church was also decentralized and poor, and unable to do much directly.
The average peasant was probably no more pious then than your average church-goer now. Peasants learned about religion from three sources: the priest (in sermons), paintings and murals (often showing one particular parable) and their mothers. Of the three, the latter is probably the most influential! The priest was highly respected, but religion was still a personal thing. The church itself was the center of the village, but its floors were covered in straw like a peasant's home, and it had no chairs to sit on.
One religious innovation in this time was monkhood. St. Benedictine started a movement of the very pious out of villages into isolation, where they were free from temptation. These communities of Benedictines formed monastaries where they lived together. These educated men were often better farmers than peasants and also produced goods such as beer and wine.
As time went on, wealthy and pious Christians began to will some of their land to the church. This in itself was not the problem - monks were usually fair administrators. But when entire villages were church lands, noble families began to see parishes as opportunities for second sons. They began to fight over bishoprics, archbishoprics and even rich parishes, going so far as to place children as archbishops! These children often wanted to follow their brothers into battle, have mistresses and live richly - not at all the monastic code. These mock priests had little interest in seeing to their flocks, and as time went on, more and more of these 'ecceleistical princes' were princes in fact, causing a rift between the upper ranks of the church and its parish priests.
One of the biggest conflicts of this period was fuelled by the church. With Barbarian invasions of Italy, various popes were subject to barbarian rule (and some were martyred). In a famous event, a French steward saved the pope from the Lombards in exchange for legitimacy as king of france, deposing the Merovingians and becoming the Carolingian dynasty. His grandson was Charlemagne, emperor of the west, who again saved the pope - this time from Romans who trumped up charges. Charlemagne tried the pope and found him innocent. Two pious nuns were worried that this portrayed the emperor as head of moral authority, and they asked the pope to declare his primacy. This started a struggle between Rome and the emperors that lasted for more than three hundred years as each tried to claim control over the other. This 'investiture crisis' would end with the near-destruction of the entire church...but not in the early middle ages.
The Lord, Reeve, Bailiff and Priest were the most important people in the community. The lord often had a large family that could contain cousins and hangers-on, although the poorer knights could not afford even these. In addition to these were the Blacksmith and Miller, who usually lived a better life than the average farmer. The miller owned the mill and ground the grain of the village in exchange for a fraction of the flour, while the blacksmith made nails and ploughs and the occasional sword or suit of armor in exchange for food and clothing.
There was very little social mobility in the early middle ages. If you were born a slave, you would die a slave. If you were born a serf, you could buy your children out of serfdom, but this was difficult to do. Free farmers often found themselves in debt because of weather or war.
There were two very notable exceptions. One was the clergy, who had the example of St. Peter, the founder of the Roman church, to inspire them. He started as a mere fisherman before becoming the first pope (1). The church was a meritocracy where a peasant's son could work his way up to become the pope - and several did! But as time went on, the upper ranks of the church became filled with the aristocracy, and slowly but surely squeezed out the lower classes.
The second exception were the sons of the nobility. A noble with more than one son could divide his estates between them if he were wealthy, but more often than not he had to find a trade for them instead. If the lord owned the church, he would often put a son into the priesthood, but another common trade was the Free Lance (from which we get freelancers today). The head of the family gave his son a horse and a suit of armor and set him free to wander, seeking a lord to feed and clothe him as a retainer. In times of war, these free lances could earn booty that made them rich; at other times, they became bandits or serfs.
There are several sources of conflict throughout the early middle ages.
Next: TheLateMiddleAges?, a much shorter document now that the basics have been established
![[Home]](../WikiWikiWiki/IronFort40.jpg)