Early Medieval Europe

When Martel died in 741his son Pepin was appointed as Mayor of the Palace, but afterwards
with the support of the Church he forced the king down from power in 751and was crowned as
the next king of the Franks ending the Merovingian dynasty and beginning his own Carolingian
dynasty. Although he was known as Pepin the Short, he was an ambitious king and this led him
to wars against several enemies. He won two important military victories, the first being against
the Lombards, a Germanic group that was threatening the Pope. After defeating the Lombards
and capturing several cities in two campaigns 754 and 756, he gave these cities and the land
around them to the Pope. This generous gift of Papin to the Pope created the foundation of what
would become the Papal States (Papalık). Secondly, Pepin was able to capture Septimania from
the Ummayads in 759. He also subdued the Aquitan-Gascon rule after conquering their two
major cities Toulouse and Bordeaux. When Pepin died in 768 the Frankish kingdom was divided
among his two sons Charles and Carloman.
Carloman, however, died soon after and Charles took over the whole of the Frankish kingdom.
Charles was an ambitious and strong character and his two main ideals was to bring the whole of
western Europe under his control and turn all the Germanic peoples to Christianity. In this way
he hoped to control all Germanic peoples once they were unified under the same religion. He
was referred to as Charlemagne (Charles + magnus, meaning great in Latin) because he was able
to achieve most of his aims.
Charlemane’s first campaign was against the Lombards, who were once again threatening the
Pope, because they wanted their lands back. He defeated the Lombards and saved the lands that
were given to the Pope by his father earlier. Charlemagne then went on to a much more
ambitious adventure turning his attention to the east. He campaigned against the Saxons, who
had been creating trouble for the Frankish kingdom since before his father’s time. Not only did
Charlemagne defeat the Saxons, but forced them to accept Christianity. Charlemagne was thus
able to unite, for the first time in history, the German tribes creating a unified western Europe.
While doing this he conquered lands not even the mighty Roman Empire had been able to
conquer before. In 800 he was announced as the emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III and
later after Christmas prayers in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome he was crowned as the Emperor of
all Romans. According to many historians this event was the beginning of the so-called Holy
Roman Empire. Charlemagne was also able to create fear in the tribes of eastern Europe which
forced them to recognize Charlemagne as a powerful king and reach a peace treaty with him not
to attack territories in the west, by which Charlemagne was able to bring peace to Europe. These
developments were the beginning of what was later to be called the rift between the Eastern and
Western Churches.
It was not only the military victories that made Charlemagne a great ruler. He wanted to dispel
the darkness that had fallen over western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in
476. He chose Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) as the capital of his empire. He invited Bishops and
churchmen from the Vatican to establish an organised religion in his kingdom and worked
closely with the Pope as his protector. The churchmen kept the records in his kingdom and upon
Charlemagne’s wishes opened church schools to educate the children of royalty and the children
of government officials in subjects such as religion, literature, music, arithmetic and Latin.
Charleman’s project of enlightenment and education soon attracted many scholars from around
Europe to come to his kingdom to teach and spread knowledge. Many books were written by
these scholars, who also introduced a new method of writing: lower case letters.
The arrival of scholars also attracted artists and artisans to come to the Frankish kingdom and
soon painters and artisans such as ironsmiths (demir/ferforje işçileri) and stone masons (taş
ustaları) began building ornate palaces and churches in the Roman fashion. Interiors walls were
decorated by painters depicting (betimlemek, resmetmek) scenes from Biblical stories and other
such religious subjects.
Charlemagne wanted his kingdom to be based on the Roman model and so he introduced many
laws and established law courts throughout his empire to protect the rights of the weak and poor
and to settle feuds. Moreover, inspectors appointed by him would regularly report to him about
how things were going in these courts. Charlemagne also organised trade with the Near-East
from where various spices and silk would be imported to western Europe by Jewish tradesmen
who were under his protection.
From unifying the Germanic peoples to education, from education to reforms and new laws, to
the rise of the arts and trade, Charlemagne was a major figure in laying the foundation of modern
Europe and is, for this reason, called by many as the ‘father of Europe’. Charlemagne died in
814 leaving his kingdom to be ruled by his son Louis the Pious (Dindar Louis). Louise the Pious
did not have the vision and strength of character that his father had and therefore, he proved to be
a weak king. The nobles within the kingdom soon took lightly (ciddiye almamak) of Louis and
started to act independently. When it was their interest at stake, they refused to obey Louis and
act according to their will. This meant that the aristocratic level of society within the Frankish
kingdom was more concerned about its interests than the interests and good of the kingdom.
Failing to control the situation, Louis decided to divide the kingdom into regions to be ruled by
his three sons Lothair, Louis and Charles. After the death of Louis, the Pious, his oldest son
Lothair was given the title of emperor. This development angered the other brothers and in order
to prevent an in-fighting (iç çatışma) the three brothers reached an agreement known as the
Treaty of Verdun at the city of Verdun.
The Treaty of Verdun created three kingdoms. Lothair kept his title as emperor and also a
narrow strip of land that stretched from modern day Netherlands (Holland) to almost half way
down ‘the boot’, the Italian Peninsula dividing the kingdom of the two brothers. Louis was
given the eastern Frankish territories, which is modern day Germany and Charles got the western
Frankish territories, which is the modern day France. However, all three brothers were weak
rulers, as a result of which Charlemagne’s powerful empire was broken down.
Beyond Charlemagne’s Empire (West of the West: The British Isles)
One of the territories that lay outside the influence of Charlemagne’s Frankish kingdom was
Britain, Ireland and the smaller islands around the two. Much of the island known commonly as
Britain had been under Roman rule and therefore, Roman influence still continued despite the
fact that the Romans left around 410. Britain was a land containing Roman traces (izleri) with its
settlements, cities, roads, bridges and its famous defensive wall known as Hadrian’s Wall, not to
mention Roman culture which had prevailed (etkisini devam ettirmek, hüküm sürmek) after their
departure. Christianity was another element the Romans had introduced to the peoples of
Britain. Beyond Hadrian’s Wall, which is modern day Scotland lived the Picts and the Scots
who were never dominated by the Romans and who constantly attacked and raided Roman
settlements which was why Hadrian’s Wall was built. Another group of people that the Romans
could never completely dominate and assimilate were the Celts because they lived in separate
clans (Klan, kabile). Celts were interested in farming and raising cattle and lived dispersed away
from the Roman settlements. In this way they did not fall under the influence of the Romans and
were able to keep their original culture. However, as early as the Roman period various Anglo-
Saxon groups arrived and were either used as mercenaries (paralı asker) by the Romans, or taken
to Rome to be sold as slaves. However, after the Romans left larger groups of Angles and
Saxons started arriving to Britain mainly due to climate change and its effects in north-western
Europe. Besides the Anglo-Saxons other people such as the Jutes and the Frisians began coming
to Britain and after they arrived all of these different groups began to settle in various regions
and started to push the people of the regions they settled out. Among some of these people who
were forced out of their lands were groups of Celts. After some time these invaders (istilacılar)
began to establish their own small kingdoms, in Kent, Wessex, Essex, Northumbria, Mercia and
East Anglia.
One of the largest of these kingdoms was Mercia, in central England, established by the Anglo
Saxons and remained a pagan kingdom until 656 when it began to became Christianised.
Another large Anglo-Saxon kingdom was the Kingdom of Northumbria which was north of
Mercia, extending up towards Scotland. To the west of Mercia, along the south-eastern coast of
Britain were from top to bottom, the kingdoms of East Anglia, established by the Angles in the
sixth century. In 794 it was conquered by the Kingdom of Mercia. To the south of the Kingdom
of East Anglia was the kingdom of Essex established by the East Saxons. Under this, south-east
corner of Britain lay the Kingdom of Kent. This kingdom was set up by the Jutes and is known
as the first kingdom to convert to Christianty by St. Augustine who was sent by the Pope in 595
to convert the people of Britain to Chriatianity. Its king, Ethelbert, is known as the first Christian
king and he influenced other kings in the region. Sussex which was to the west of Kent, in the
south of Britain was a kingdom established by the south Saxons. Finall along the southern and
western coasts of Britain was the Kingdom of Wessex. Probably the best known kingdom, the
Kingdom of Wessex, established by the west Saxons had a legendary king who was the first and
only English king to be called ‘great’, Alfred the Great.
During this period of kingdom building and infighting (kendi aralarında savaşmak) the Vikings
from the north were making raids into Britain. However, by the 9th century the northern parts of
Britain were invaded by the Vikings, who had turned their attention to other parts of Britain. In
878 Alfred the Great defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Edington and forced them to make an
agreement. According to the agreement, known as the Danelaw, the Vikings were to settle in the
north of England and to leave the kingdom of Wessex alone. This victory of the Anglo-Saxons
against the fierce Vikings made Alfred a hugely popular king. This popularity soon made him
not just the king of Wessex, but the king of all England. However, Alfred was not powerful
enough to force all the Vikings out of Danelaw, but through the agreement he made, he was able
to keep them inside of Danelaw.
Beside his military victory Alfred was a reformist. Being an educated man Alfred wanted to
enlighten his people and so he established palace school that was more or less along the school
Charlemagne had established in his kingdom. Alfred’s school aimed at educating and preparing
the sons of nobles for government positions. Alfred also changed the official language from
Latin (which had remained from Roman times) to English and had all the books written in Latin
translated into English to enable church people and others who did not know Latin to read and
understand them. He also made the monks in his kingdom keep a record of English history
beginning from Roman times known as The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Anglo-Saxon Tarihi).
Alfred also prepared Anglo-Saxon laws based on the customs of the people and rebuilt the city of
London which was destroyed by fire during the Viking invasions. Alfred is also known as the
first English king to have started an English navy by having fighting ships built. Alfred died in
899 at the age of 50. By the time Alfred died the Angles, Saxons and Jutes had united and Britain
had come to be known as Angleland (Angleterre/England/İngiltere. The Latin word ‘terra’ means
land, hence Angleterre means Angleland.)
The king held a central position in the Anglo-Saxon political structure and the kings were at first
elected from among the royal family by a council of lords and after 700 the new king was
crowned by the Church. The government under the king was made up of royal servants and
advisers, who took care of the things the king wanted from them.
In order to rule the country efficiently, the king as central governing figure had established local
governments. The kingdom was divided into districts called shires (Hampshire, Lancashire,
Gloucestershire etc.). The responsibility of running the business of each shire was given to an
official known as a sheriff. Sheriffs were chosen from among the nobles of each shire by the
king and they kept the king informed of how things were in each shire. Sheriffs were also
responsible from tax collection and law enforcement. During times of war the sheriffs were also
responsible for gathering men to fight as soldiers for the king’s army.
Church officials had an important part to play in the government. Besides their religious duties
they acted as advisers to the king together with the nobles. They gathered under a court (kurul)
called Witenagemot and had regular meetings with the king. On the other hand, the people of
England were divided into two main classes as the noble class and peasants or common people.
Nobility came from birth or was given to one by the king as a reward. The nobles were expected
to attend the Witenagemot, keep the peace in areas under their responsibility and fight for the
king in times of war. The peasants lived in villages around the estates (the large houses and
land) of nobles and worked the land (did agrıculture). What crops they produced was given to
the nobles after they kept their share. In return for this they were protected by the nobles.
The greatest threat to Britain and western Europe came from the people of northern Europe,
living in Scandinavia, called Vikings. Vikings were brutal people living in a brutal geography
and therefore, they could not depend totally on land, because there was little land suitable for
agriculture. Their geography consisted of rocks and forests, so they depended on their fighting
skills, so that they could raid and invade other lands to get what they needed. For this reason
they had developed their seafaring (denizcilik) skills and techniques to build special fast ships
from the wood obtained from Scandinavian forests. Due to their seafaring skills they were also
excellent traders and in order to trade they had established trade routes for themselves.
Although they spread fear among the peoples of Europe (particularly western Europe and
Britain) they were important in teaching seafaring and ship building skills to people in these
parts. Countries such as Denmark, Sweden and Norway in Scandinavia today are old kingdoms
which the Vikings had established.
Europe and Feudalism
After the death of Charlemagne there was no powerful and centralizing king in Europe and as we
have seen previously what remained of Charlemagne’s kingdom had been divided and had lost
its earlier power. Added to this was the Viking attacks which made the people afraid and feel
insecure (güvensiz). This picture shows that in the absence of a powerful leader, Europe under
the control of weak kings could not defend itself from outside enemies. Therefore, the nobles
had to create their own armies to protect their land and their produce, and naturally the peasants
working on their lands to be able to continue agricultural production. Soon this turned into a
system of govering lands as well as a system of hierarchy.
Under the king were the nobles, there was the clergy (church men) and the peasants which made
up the social structure of Europe. The powerful nobles with their own armies would help the
king and in return the king would tolerate the power exercized by the nobility. The peasants
would work for the nobility in return for the food they needed and for protection. The clergy
would teach Christianity and offer charity (yardım) for the poor. This was a hierarchical system
and no one questioned this system because the belief was that it was ordained by God (that this
was the system God wanted). This system of governing by land owning nobles and this chain of
dependence is known as feudalism.
Under feudalism a certain world view developed by which physical strength and the ability to
ride a horse and fight well was enough for one to be considered a natural leader, so he who
showed these characteristics was believed to have the right to rule the weak. This idea led to the
the right to exercise certain powers by the nobility. Not only did they form their own armies, but
also minted (para basmak) their own coins, collected taxes and made their own laws. This
system brought with it another system in which nobles showed loyalty to each other, whereby a
noble would promise to be loyal to another more powerful noble through a ceremony called the
act of homage. The weaker noble who promised loyalty to a more powerful one, would then
become a vassal. So nobles could be both be lords and vassals. In fact, all nobles were
considered vassals of the king.
A vassal had to perform certain duties, one of which was to fight for his lord and make payments
to his lord on special occasions such as war, marriages and payment of ransom if the lord fell
prisoner in a war. In return a vassal was given an estate and this was known as a fief. The whole
system of giving fiefs was called fiefdom.
The estates on which the nobles lived consisted of large wooden houses surrounded by high
walls (pallisades). The peasants working for the lord lived in villages outside the walls, but
allowed to shelter inside during a war. In time (around the 12th century) these large wooden
houses with a pallisade around them evolved into stone buildings with high stone walls around
them, which are the castles as we know them today. An architecture grew around these castles
that gave them all certain common characteristics like a moat, a draw-bridge, a keep and towers.
The moat was a wide ditch that went around the walls and was filled with water. The draw-
bridge was a heavy wooden gate which could be lowered or raised across the moat. A keep was
a large structure built at the center within the walls in which the noble family lived. It contained
a main hall and many rooms as well as a dungeon. In between the outer and inner walls of the
castle were many rooms for the soldiers to live and sleep in. There were also shops, storage
rooms for food and water, a large kitchen and there were also stable to keep the horses. The
towers of these stone castles were at first built with sharp angles, but later a cylindrical shape
was adopted, because it bounced off the canon balls.
Life was rather monotonous (tekdüze) for the nobles, especially for women as they spent their
time embroidering and tending the children. The noblemen would spend their time hunting and
fishing. Playing chess and listening to songs and stories of minstrels was a popular pastime.
During this period women had very few rights, they could not choose their husbands and
marriages were often marriages of convenience. Women could be wedded (evlendirilmek) as
young as the age of 12 and were considered as belonging to their husbands. Upon marrige
women came to their noble husbands’ house with a dowry (çeyiz) and it was the dowry that
interested the husband most of the time.
The lower class of people or peasants were divided into two groups as the freemen and serfs.
The freemen worked on the lord’s land, or a strip of land for which he paid rent (kira). The
freemen worked on their rented land and were free to move to other places as he had rights under
the laws. The serfs, on the other hand, were considered to be owned by the lord, including their
families. They could not do anything without the permission of their lord, including marrige for
which the serf needed the permission of his lord. The lord could sell his serfs with the land if he
wished, but could not throw a serf off the land. In order for a serf to become a freeman the serf
had to run away to a town and if could live in the same town for a year without being caught he
would become a freeman. It was only during the late Medieval period that the serfs were
allowed to buy their freedom.
Knighthood (Şövalyelik)
Knighthood depended on certain rules and a certain education the candidate had to follow before
becoming a full knight. The rules according to which a knight had to behave, known as the
chivalric code (or code of chivalry) determined that a knight had to be honest and fight fairly
according to rules. A knight was also expected to obey his lord or king, show bravery, honour
the Church, show respect to women of nobility and be generous, that is help those in need.
Besides these rules of conduct (behaviour), a candidate to become a knight had to go into
training at an early age (below the age of 10). He would first become a page and help the teacher
knight prepare his horse, he would shine his master’s armour and train with a wooden sword.
After developing his muscles he would have, around the age of 15, learned how to fight on
horseback and use various weapons. After this stage the knight candidate would become a squire
and go to war with his master knight to fight with him and to protect his master’s back. If a
squire proved to be a good warrior he would then be made a knight by a special ceremony. Most
nobles were knights, but not all knights were good knights who acted according to the rules with
which they were raised.
In order to keep knights trained and ready for battle, regular tournaments were held. Each
tournament was held by a different lord and these tournaments would be attended by other lords
and sometimes the king and queen. Each tournament would becoma a spectacle with many
people coming to watch the knights fight each other on horseback. The knight would use
wooden lances that were blunted not to kill each other in joust, where two knight riding against
each other would try to knock each other off their horse.
Church in Medieval Europe
Until the early 16th Century the Roman Catholic Church held absolute power in Europe because
it was the center of political and social power. In social life the Church was at the center of
everything and life revolved around it. Almost all holidays were religious in nature, people
obeyed Church rules and stayed away from eating meat on Fridays, everybody went to Church
on Sundays and all social services were done by priests. These social services included
registering births, deaths and marriages. All schools and hospitals were run by priests and the
words of priest were taken seriously.
The Church also played a very important role in the politics of Europe. Religious ceremonies
were part of all ceremonies such as becoming a king, vassal or a knight during which the
blessing (kutsaması) of the Church was required. From this we can understand that Church
officials helped kings and other officials to govern Europe, becoming part of the Feudal system.
Another important function of Church officials was to teach the laws established by the Roman
Catholic Church, known as the canon laws. The canon laws dictated that the people had to
respect and obey their kings, the noblemen and government officials. It was the Church that
taught the people that this was the system of the world in which the king derived absolute power
to rule from God, and the nobles and government officials from the king. People who went
against or questioned these canon laws were excommunicated (afaroz edilmek) by the Church.
This involved being thrown out of Church membership and if this happened the excommunicated
person would lose all their political rights as well as their social rights.
Despite the tight control of the Church over the European political establishments (siyasi
kurumlar) as well as European society in general, the general belief system of the people was a
mixture of Christian and pagan (putperst) elements. Heresy (aykırı düşünce) was a problem for
the Church and in order to root out (kökünden temizlemek) heretics (aykırı düşünce sahipleri) the
Church established special courts to try (yargılamak) people for heresy. In 1123 the Church
Court decided to set up special courts known as the Inquisition. People who were brought with
charges (suçlamalar) before the Inquisition were very often found guilty and burned at the stake
(kazığa bağlanarak yakılmak). The Inquisition soon became a powerful tool for the Church to
spread fear and silence any opposition against the ideas of the Church.
During the early Middle Ages (Medieval Period) the church depended on tithes (ondalık) which
was money given to the church by Church members and the nobility. This money was 10% of
what these people earned, so in time the Church became a wealthy institution. The rich usually
built churches or large monasteries and donated (bağışlamak) lands to monasteries. With this
richness came corruption (yolsuzluk) and soon monks (keşiş, rahip) began to concern themselves
with money and earthly things (dünyevi, materyal şeyler) and forgot helping the poor. Also
when a bishop (piskopos) died the local noblemen would get the office of the bishop as well as
the lands under the bishop’s control. The bishop’s office would then be sold by the local
nobleman or given to a relative. Soon this important position was filled by non-religious
persons. In 1075 the Pope (Holy See: Kutsal Makam) undertook certain reforms. According to
these reforms:
• The Pope was above all kings and noblemen.
• Only the Pope could choose bishops and other Church leaders.
• The Pope could remove an official who did not obey him from office.
• Church positions or offices could not be bought or sold.
• Bishops and priests were forbidden to marry.
Asia Minor to Anadolu
While the west was refashioning itself and the western Church undertaking reforms, the Eastern
Roman Empire, now referred to as Byzantium was in trouble. The trouble it found itself in came
mainly from the Seljuk Turks who were on the empire’s eastern borders. The decisive
confrontation between the forces of Byzantium and the Seljuks came in 1071. The Battle of
Manzikert was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Empire on 26 August 1071
near Manzikert, modern Malazgirt in Muş Province, Turkey. The decisive defeat of the
Byzantine army and the capture of the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes played an important role
in undermining Byzantine authority in Anatolia and Armenia, and allowed for the gradual
Turkification of Anatolia. Many of the Turks, who had been travelling westward during the 11th
century, saw the victory at Manzikert as an entrance to Asia Minor.
Other than the Byzantine army's professional soldiers there were large numbers of mercenaries
and Anatolian recruits. The defeat at Manzikert was disastrous for the Byzantines because it gave
rise to civil conflicts and an economic crisis, weakening the Byzantine Empire's ability to
adequately defend its borders. Alp Arslan’s victory at Manzikert made it possible for the Turks
to move into central Anatolia.
Constantine had made a truce with the Seljuks that had lasted until 1064. This was after a large
Seljuk army under Alp Arslan had attacked the theme of Iberia (Georgia:Gürcistan) and had
taken Ani; after a siege of 25 days.
In 1068, Romanos IV Diogenes took power, and after some speedy military reforms entrusted
Manuel Komnenos to lead an expedition against the Seljuks. Manuel captured Hierapolis
Bambyce (Menbic) in Syria, next thwarted a Turkish attack against Iconium (Konya), but was
then defeated and captured by the Seljuks under the sultan Alp Arslan. Despite his success
Arslan was quick to seek a peace treaty with the Byzantines, signed in 1069; he saw the Fatimids
in Egypt as his main enemy and had no desire to be diverted by unnecessary hostilities.
In February 1071, Romanos sent envoys to Arslan to renew the 1069 treaty, and keen to secure
his northern flank against attack, Arslan happily agreed. Abandoning the siege of Edessa (Urfa),
he immediately led his army to attack Fatimid-held Aleppo (Halep). However, the peace treaty
had been a deliberate distraction: Romanos now led a large army into Armenia to recover the lost
fortresses before the Seljuks had time to respond.
Thinking that Alp Arslan was either further away or not coming at all, Romanos marched
towards Lake Van, expecting to retake Manzikert rather quickly. Alp Arslan was already in the
area, however, with allies and 30,000 cavalry from Aleppo and Mosul. Alp Arslan's scouts knew
exactly where Romanos was, while Romanos was completely unaware of his opponent's
movements. On 25 August, some of Romanos' Turkic mercenaries came into contact with their
Seljuk kin and deserted. Romanos then rejected a Seljuk peace embassy. He wanted to settle the
eastern question and the persistent Turkic incursions and settlements with a decisive military
victory, and he understood that raising another army would be both difficult and expensive.
(source: Wikipedia)
The Crusades
While the Church was busy establishing its hegemony in Europe and looking at ways of
reforming itself, Jerusalem Fell to the Seljuk Turks in 1070. This led to a wave of hysteria in
Europe and the Pope began to travel around Europe to call on kings and noblemen to unite and
form a Christian army in order to take back Jerusalem from the Turks. As a result, several
Christian armies were formed to make holy wars known as crusades against the Turks and
Muslims of Jerusalem.
The first crusade is known as the Peasants’ Crusade where tens of thousands of peasants from
France, Germany and other parts of Europe gathered and established an army to free what they
saw as their holy land. On their way they looted European villages, killed people, killed animals
and burned fields of crops. They also killed all Jews that they found along the way to Jerusalem.
The peasant army was completely wiped out by the Turks when they reached Asia Minor with
some help from the Byzantine emperor in 1096. A year later nobles with their armies set out on
a second crusade known as the Noble’s Crusade and were able to capture Jerusalem in 1097
killing all, Muslims, Jews and Christians living there.
After the capture of Jerusalem most of the crusaders settled in the region and established
Christian kingdoms known as Outremers. For a long time, these Christian kingdoms or
Outremers survived, but things were to change because in 1174 Saladin (Selahattin Eyyübi)
became the ruler of Egypt and his ideal was to take back Jerusalem and restore Muslim order.
Saladin was able to fulfil his purpose seven years later, when in 1184 he attacked Jerusalem, he
easily defeated the Christian armies and captured the city. The cruelty of the Christian soldiers
that he witnessed during the war made him spare the lives of people of other faiths living in
Jerusalem. For this action he became a greatly respected commander in the eyes of the
Christians.
In 1189 the Pope called for another crusade playing on the religious feelings of the Europeans in
order to free Jerusalem from Saladin’s control. Kings of three of the powerful kingdoms in
Europe responded to the Pope’s call. Although king Henry II of England and king Phillip II of
France were enemies, they made peace to join their forces to save Jerusalem. Immediately after
their agreement king Henry II died to be replace by the new kibg of England, Richard I. The
German king Frederick Barbarosa also joined in with a huge army to create a crusader force of
great strength. This third crusade is, therefore, also known as the Crusade of Kings. This
crusade, however, was only partially successful as the crusader armies were able to get back the
cities of Acra and most of the Mediterranean coastline. King Frederick of Germany died while
in Asia Minor and most of his soldiers returned home. Richard I and Phillip II found themselves
fighting over many decisions as the old enmity surfaced (eski düşmanlık su yüzüne çıkınca) and
this led to Phillip II to return to France. Richard I left alone went on to save Jerusalem by was
not successful. He was, however, a brave and a fighter king and earned the name ‘Richard the
Lionheart’. Unable to free Jerusalem Richard I called for peace and Saladin accepted. The the
two kings signed a peace treaty which allowed both Christians and Muslims as well as Jews to
live within and to visit the holy city of Jerusalem.
The last attempt to free Jerusalem from the Muslims and take it under Christian control came in
1204 after a call from the Pope. The crusaders in order to save time and lives decided to take a
sea route from Venice (Venedik). The money demanded by the Venetians to carry the crusaders
to the Middle East was too much for the crusaders to pay so the Venetians asked the Crusaders to
conquer Constantinople instead. In April of the same year, the crusaders entered Constantinople,
burned and looted the city and killed many of its inhabitants. The nobles among the crusaders
divided up the lands of the empire among themselves and many valuable things and works of art
were also taken, in particular to Venice. After capturing and destroying Constantinople, the
crusaders crowned a Latin as the new Byzantine king. This fourth crusade shocked the Christian
world as they found it unimaginable that a Christian army which set out to fight against the
Muslims should fight against and destroy a Christian empire. This fourth crusade also severed
ties (bağları kopartmak) between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Western Catholic Church
and the enmity between the two churches lasted for centuries. Renewed attempts at crusades
were made in the following centuries up until the fifteenth century, but all these attempts melted
in the hands of the Ottoman Turks.
Although the crusades began as a series of holy wars against what the Christians saw as infidels
who had taken control of the holy lands, by the time the idea of crusades was over cultural and
commercial ties had been established between the Middle East and Europe, between the Islamic
world and the Christian world. Initially, when the first Christians arrived in the Middle East,
they were surprised to find a civilisation that was much more advanced than the European
civilisation in every way (hygiene, dietary habits, housing, knowledge and science). Moreover,
the Muslims of the Middle East were much more tolerant to people of different lands and
religions. This way of life clearly affected the Christians and was important in changing their
perspective.
Another major influence was the capture of Constantinople. There the westerners observed,
once again a far superior culture, particularly regarding learning. Many valuable manuscripts
and books were taken back from both the Middle East and Constantinople to Europe, which
made a great impact (etki) regarding the European world view. As a result, although the aim of
the crusades was never completely fulfilled, Europe gained much more.
The major effect of the crusades was in the area of politics. The European kings who had lost
much of their power to their nobles and were left to depend on them, regained their political
power. During the crusades the knowledge of the wealth of the east attracted many nobles.
Moreover, the fact that there much fertile and rich lands to be conquered also drove the nobles to
join the crusades with their armies to share this wealth. Therefore, since most European nobles
were away fighting to make themselves richer, the kings at home were able to get full control of
their kingdoms. They were able to increase their authority through new laws and measures in the
absence of important nobles.
The experience of a different world also had its effect on the world view that the Church was
trying to establish. Therefore, the effect of the crusades was one of weakening the authority of
the Church. The wealth, knowledge, scientific thought and the level of technology of the east
made many Europeans think in different terms, to desire wealth, knowledge and as a result
power, which made Christian spirituality less desirable and materiality more desirable. Religious
idealism gave way to a desire to live a wealthier material life. Also, an interest in learnimg
outside of the teachings of the Church was kindled (alevlenmek). This led to the development of
scientific thought in Europe.
Crusaders returning home demanded goods that they had experienced in the holy lands and
which were considered luxuries in Europe, such as spices, sugar and sweets, citrus fruits, silks
and textiles, tapestries (duvara asılan işlemeli goblen), carpets and similar stuff. So, because
such things came into demand new trade routes were opened and trade centers developed. Many
European cities became trade centers, they grew and became wealthier. Nobles were less
interested in politica and turned to trade as a result of which European commerce (ticaret) grew
and became an important sector. The development of commerce and the establishment of
business sectors led to the growth and development of another sector: banking. Banks began to
grow and become richer and stronger working with the new class of rich merchants, some of
whom had become so rich that they had more wealth and power than the nobles. Many
merchamts bought the mansions and even castles of nobles who had grown poorer, because
agriculture could not bring in as much money as trade.
These developments also reflected onto the cultural life of Europeans, who desired to dress better
and show their wealth. Fashion came into being and led to creativity in clothing designs and also
to the development of a new industry. Much more people now had money to spend for
themselves, for leisure (boş zamanlarını değerlendirmek), and so reading and buying books
(manuscripts) also became fashionable. Two important poets appeared in the early fifteenth
century and these were the Florentine (Floransalı) Dante Alighieri and the Englishman Geoffrey
Chaucer. Dante’s work The Divine Comedy (İlahi Komedya) became hugely popular, and even
today it is considered to be one of the greatest literary classics. The Divine Comedy is in three
parts ‘Inferno’ (Cehennem), ‘Purgatory’ (Araf) and ‘Paradise’ (Cennet). It is a long narrative
poem written in the first person (birinci tekil şahıs) ‘I’. It is about the narrator’s journey in the
afterlife. On the other hand, Geoffrey Chaucer’s work The Canterbury Tales (Canterbury
Hikayeleri) is a very long worldly narrative made up of 24 stories each told by a pilgrim (hacı)
on the road travelling to Canterbury Cathedral to visit the grave of St. Thomas Beckett. Each
story is from a different walk of life (hayatın farklı kesimlerinden) and, therefore, is a good
chronicle (güncel olayları içeren tarih, tarih) of life in Medieval England. The popularity of these
two works popularized reading and literary production. Moreover, the language used in the
composition of each work became the standard language of each region. Dante’s Divine
Comedy written in Tuscan (Tuscany: Toskana, Italya’da bir bölge) Italian, standarized the Italian
language. Similarly, Chaucers use of Middle English standardized the English language, for
which Geoffrey Chaucer is also known as ‘the father of the English Language’.
Popularity regarding languages increased and English, French and German became widely
spoken popular European languages, which at the same time led to an increase in literacy and
reading books and other printed texts such as Chapbooks which became hugely popular after the
invention of the printing Press by German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg. Chapbooks were
cheap small paper covered booklets about many subjects ranging from children’s stories to
poems, stories, folktales, religious subjects and information.
All these changes brought about a new social class known as the Middle Class or the Bourgeoisie
(Bourgeois: Burjuva, Bourgeoisie: Burjuvazi) changing the social structure and turning it into a
three-class system. All these developments infact spelled the approaching end of feudalism in
Europe (Bütün bu gelişmeler Avrupada Feodalizmin yaklaşan sonu anlamına geliyordu).